Tribute to Micheal Jackson...

Hard to believe that it had been a year since the Most Famous Drug Addict of Our Time and King of Accused Pederast died from drugs he had his personal physician administer...
GOOD BYE.

Best to let Sleeping Dogs lie...

If This Is The HOPE, Say Good-Bye to General Motors…

Will the Volt recharge GM and US auto industry?

SHARON COHEN - AP National Writer (AP)
Sunday, May 23, 2010
WARREN, Mich. (AP) — He stands all day, bent over noisy machines, cutting giant sheets of steel and feeding them into monster-sized presses so powerful the concrete floor rumbles beneath his size-16 feet.
This is how Steve Prucnell builds cars. In 22 years, the parts haven't changed much. A car's a car.
But then another project came along, something totally different.
After decades of building everything from Corvettes to Saturns to Silverados,— Prucnell took a giant leap into the future, working on early models of the Chevy Volt, General Motors' new electric car. It's a high-risk, high-profile venture and Prucnell is understandably nervous.
Maybe it's the 13 foreclosure signs that popped up on his street. Or turning 50 in a struggling industry. Or working for a company that needed a $52-billion loan from the U.S. Treasury to stay alive. Whatever the reason, Prucnell is keeping his fingers crossed, hoping America is ready for a new kind of love affair — battery included.
The Volt could help usher in a new generation of electric cars, but there's more at stake here than a technological breakthrough: The fate of GM and its workers. The future of a beleaguered state. And, maybe, in some larger sense, the image of all U.S. autoworkers, eager to prove they have what it takes to compete on the global stage.
The moment of truth is coming, and Steve Prucnell feels the pressure.
"If this doesn't fly, what's left for GM?" he asks, taking a break from work at the GM Tech Center. "Wall Street is going to say, 'We knew they couldn't dig themselves out of the hole.'"
There was, Prucnell says, a different vibe building the Volt's test models. It wasn't just the intense scrutiny from above. It was the anxiety down below, on the shop floor.
"I don't want to say that we worked harder on this," Prucnell says. "I think we worked a lot smarter. I mean everybody was on their 'A' game. ... It was, 'We want to make sure we're perfect.'"
"We know the Volt is the last hurrah for GM," he adds. "It's either do or die."
___
Roam the state of Michigan, and you will hear the same insistent optimism:
The Volt is crucial. So much depends on this car. It cannot fail.
This is a state that talks about becoming more than an auto capital, but cars have been its identity. It's the place where Henry Ford's name graces a college and hospital; where Pontiac was an Indian warrior and then a town before gaining fame as a car.
So when the car industry tanks, the crisis is financial, personal and even existential.
"Detroit," declares Mike Smith, head of the Reuther Library, "has two choices: Remake itself. Or die on the vine. We HAVE to reinvent ourselves."
So what can a single car — one touted as revolutionary but still untested by the public — mean in a state that has hemorrhaged jobs, leaving some cities with Hoover-like jobless rates edging toward 30 percent?
Maybe a lot, according to Smith.
"If you're going to have an electric car and if the Volt turns out to be the leader of the pack, think what that means in sales, prestige, in reputation," he says. "This one is symbolic in the sense that it's going to speak to the prowess of the American auto industry — and GM itself."
And the spotlight will be white-hot.
"The Volt," he says, "is going to be the most watched production in the history of autos."
Teri Quigley, the 22-year GM veteran who manages the sprawling Detroit-Hamtramck plant where the Volt will roll off the line, can already feel the heat.
"We have to execute flawlessly," she says. "A lot of pressure? Yeah. ... We've got one chance to do this right. My work force has heard me say this more than once: The world is really going to be watching."
GM is spending $336 million to prepare the factory, so it can build Volts on the same line as the Cadillac DTS and Buick Lucerne.
The Volt, she says, could help restore luster to American cars — and the city.
"The whole view of what Detroit is like, what the auto industry is like — we have a unique opportunity to change that tarnished image," she says. "I'd like to change people's minds about what we do here."
Initially, the Volt will be available only in Michigan, California and Washington, D.C. GM won't reveal the price tag, though it's believed to be about $35,000 — not taking into account a $7,500 tax credit.
The car will have a 400-pound T-shaped lithium ion battery that gives it a range of up to 40 miles on one charge. After that, a small gas-powered engine will kick in to generate electricity to power the car about 300 miles. The battery can be recharged by plugging it into an electrical outlet.
GM is pouring $700 million into eight operations that will produce the car. The dollars and work will be spread out: Warren. Hamtramck. Bay City. Grand Blanc. Brownstown Township. And Detroit and Flint, two cities that are the walking wounded of the cataclysm that has engulfed Michigan.
The state has lost 860,000 jobs in a decade, the majority since 2007.
There have been some modest signs of improvement for U.S. automakers; GM recently announced its first quarterly profit in nearly three years.
Even so, the auto industry will never again generate one in six U.S. jobs, says Smith, the historian. Robots, automation and foreign competition have changed that.
And yet ... silver linings can be found in small clouds.
"People in this area are looking for anything to say Michigan and the car industry can make it," he says. "That's the hope factor that drives a lot of us in Detroit. What if there are suddenly orders for 100,000 Volts? Now we're talking."
___
Dayne Walling is accustomed to looking for silver linings; he's mayor of Flint.
These days, he has 230 million reasons to be optimistic — the amount GM is investing in Volt projects in Flint. Most will go to renovate a plant where about 200 workers will build a 1.4-liter engine for the Volt and Chevy Cruze compact.
A few hundred jobs, though, won't reverse the devastation in a city where more than one in four people are unemployed, thousands of homes stand shuttered and once vibrant factories are empty concrete shells.
Still, Walling, is looking for a meaningful way to remain positive.
"You can bemoan the glass that's half-empty or you can embrace the glass that's half-full," says the boyish-looking, 36-year-old mayor. "We're part of next generation of GM — and that demonstrates we're part of its future, not its past."
The past did have moments of glory. In the 1950s and '60s, Flint bustled with 80,000 workers streaming into GM factories, creating traffic jams, backing up expressway exits.
A generation later, there were the massive layoffs depicted in Flint native Michael Moore's scathing documentary "Roger and Me," that took aim at Roger Smith, then GM's CEO.
For the record, Walling admits he liked "Roger and Me" — an attitude he says isn't widely shared in Flint.
"it was really funny and tragic," he says. "I took it as a challenge ... to work against the odds and not just promote a better image but make this a more prosperous community."
Twenty years later, the job is even harder.
But here comes the Volt.
"It's the beginning," Walling says, "of a long transition from a Rust Belt city to one that's more green, has more technology and is more relevant to the 21st century."

Sharon Cohen is a national writer for The Associated Press, based in Chicago. She can be reached at features(at)ap.org.

Hey, Stranger...

    I haven't put much effort into this Blog., lately.  Been busy with other publications.  I am discontinuing Political Comments in this one, reserving it for my Views on Pop Culture (Duh!).

D45.

Freedon of Choice...

(CLICK HERE for Link)

Media Misses a Real Story...

Friend sent me this via email; she often gives me gems:

TRULY REMARKABLE

I THINK IT IS REMARKABLE THAT WITHIN A WEEK OF TIGER WOODS CRASHING HIS ESCALADE, THE PRESS FOUND EVERY WOMAN WITH WHOM TIGER HAS HAD AN AFFAIR IN THE LAST FEW YEARS, WITH PHOTOS, TEXT MESSAGES, RECORDED PHONE CALLS, ETC.
AND, THEY NOT ONLY KNOW THE CAUSE OF THE FAMILY FIGHT, BUT THEY EVEN KNOW IT WAS A WEDGE FROM HIS GOLF BAG THAT HIS WIFE USED TO BREAK OUT THE WINDOWS IN THE ESCALADE. NOT ONLY THAT, THEY KNOW WHICH WEDGE!
AND EACH AND EVER DAY, THEY GIVE AMERICA MORE UPDATES ON HIS SEX-REHAB STAY, HIS WIFE’S PLANS FOR DIVORCE, AND HIS PLANS TO RETURN TO THE PRO-GOLF CIRCUIT.

OBAMA HAS BEEN IN OFFICE FOR OVER A YEAR NOW, AND THIS SAME PRESS STILL CANNOT LOCATE OBAMA'S OFFICIAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE, OR ANY OF HIS PAPERS WHILE IN COLLEGE, OR HOW HE PAID FOR A HARVARD EDUCATION, OR WHICH COUNTRY
ISSUED HIS VISA TO TRAVEL TO PAKISTAN IN THE 1980'S AS BARRY SORETORO AND EVEN MICHELLE OBAMA’S PRINCETON THESIS ON RACISIM. IT JUST CAN’T BE FOUND.
YET THE PUBLIC STILL TRUSTS THAT SAME PRESS TO GIVE THEM
THE WHOLE TRUTH . . . TRULY REMARKABLE!

Tiger's Baaack...

The Masters is upon us...

...must be Tiger Time!

I like the guy.  After his first Win, who'll remember

past indiscretions?  Well, maybe Elin...she need to get over it or take the money and GET LOST!

      Most golfers use the Off Season to relax and re-engergize; not or man, Tiger.  He gets caught cheating on this wife and spends time in "sex rehab".  Hey Ti, if you're not going to use a throwaway phone for your illicit trysts, at least CLEAR YOUR  HISTORY!  That redial button can be a bitch.

Hopfully, he'll have a passable+ Season.  We'll get a good gauge of how he's been affected by the affaires in his first couple outings.

Go Tiger !

Gloria Allred's reputation as the "ambulance chaser of Trampdom" is still intact.  One does wonder what % she charges for interviews and books (that's gotta be indepth reading!). 

For a bit more, read my previous Post on this matter: [BackLINK]

The Commander and Thief

can always be a pitchman after 2012.

Wahington Dems (has that Party gone crazy?!!)...

If it moves, they'll tax it.

If it moves too fast, they'll regulate it.

If it stops, they'll subsidize it.

Word Of the Week...

jack·al   /ˈdʒækəl, -ɔl/ –noun

1.any of several nocturnal wild dogs of the genus Canis, esp. C. aureus, of Asia and Africa, that scavenge or hunt in packs.

2.a person who performs dishonest or base deeds as the follower or accomplice of another.

3.a person who performs menial or degrading tasks for another.

So Many Subjects for this Post: Vocabulary, Language Use, Branding Whores, Pop T.V., et.al.

People who know me, know that I an not a snob (??).  I do, however, dislike despise the misuse of the English Language.

    
    

     Last night, as I was doing some channel surfing, I stopped on QVC (one of my favorite channels for laughs).  Couldn't have been a better time.  Isaac Mizrahi was on there pushing yet another product.  Isaac Mizrahi may have once been a good designer, but he has allowed his Brand to fall to the level of the Masses.  Although they roll out the red carpet for him at Target; at Dillards or Niemans, not so much.  He is now the king of "cheapening the Brand" and would probably put his name on a KKK Robe if the price was right. But that's a discussion for another day.
     This was just too much... He was standing over a Juniors Cheesecake on QVC. The two female pitchwomen were swooning over the product as he tells the story of the Madras Pattern (made on the icing) which he now says is sort of his "Trademark Design".
     Finnally, to push the product, one of the women grabbed a dish with a slice of cheesecake saying she couldn't wait any longer, took a bit, and declared it to be "nouveau ritch" (her pronunciation) refering to the taste/texture.  In an obvious bid to be sofisticated, she created a gaff.  Please allow me to use "noveau riche" (correct pronunciation) properly in two sentences: You are probably nouveau riche if you buy an Isaac Miizrahi Madris Plaid Cheesecake or You are probably not even nouveau riche if you do much shopping at QVC.
     But she is right about one thing; and Isaac Mizrahi Cheesecake is nouveau riche.

The Obama Administration and His Congress as Revolutionaries...

     Back on Jan. 21 I wrote about the Obama Administration's railing against Wall Street, yet again.  In that entry, I made a reference to "Baader-Meinhof" as a homework topic. 
     Tonight, Showtime scheduled "The Baader Meinhof Komplex".  This is an exellent dramatization for an overview of the group's activities.  The group used violence in hopes of producing a Communist Utopia in Germany during the 70's.  They hoped to foment revolution throught their violent havoc.

     So what is my correllation between BM and the current Administration?  It's in a word:  EXPROPRIATION.  The Group's goal was to redistribute wealth in Germany from the Capitalists, so that everyone had the same Utopia (or shared misery, depending on how one perceives it).   Baader-Mienhof perpetrated acts of violence against the government to achieve their goals. The Obama Administration and His Congress IS the government. 
    
     There are contemporary correlations to be had for what the White House and Pelosy are trying to do.  The best may be that Hugo Chavez and  Barack Hussein Obama  have the same agenda.  Steal via taxation Take from successful corporations and the "rich", then give to the poor.  Makes me wonder what they consider the Income Taxes I already pay?    
In this country, if people are living in poverty, it's because they're too damn lazy to go down to their local DDS Office and stand in line for their tax-payer funded Entitlement Packages. 
Pell Grants are insuring everyone has access to a college education.  It's unfortunate that not everyone going to college to learn how to be a Hip-Hop record producer will succeed.  Conversely, those taking computer courses so they can sit on their asses and input data, like mindless zombies, into the government's database will have better luck in finding jobs.

    I have faith that Americans will have their own Electoral Revolution before this President meets his goals.  It's for history to analyze the "perfect storm" which brought us this close to Socio-Communism in Our Country.

Goldiggers Beware...

Tiger Woods fucked up.  Whether one believes his mistake was in behavior or getting caught (which is inevitable, one way or another, for someone of his stature), what does it matter?  Today, he gave a mea culpa about the situation.
Bravo!, let's move on...
This is not the reason for this entry.

     Gloria Allred, the feminist harpy, was on Tiger's heels.  One of the two tramps she represents in regard to the scandal was upset because Tiger did not publically apologize to her!!!  What the Hell?!

     Here's my advice to all tramps who latch on to married men:  have fun and enjoy the perks while you can.  Your Trashy Prostitute/Porn Star* Ass is not going to be in the Winner's Circle.

*And now for my apology.  I am sorry for the reference to all the decent, hard working Prostitutes and Porn Stars for using your professoin to make my point in this entry.  You girls know the deal going in...
And please, Goria; you can do so much more good for Women's Issues if you'd take a shower and get the stench of low-life situations like this off you.

On My Mind This Week...

     So many things on my mind.

Haiti.  I can't wait until they've bled all the good will ($$$$$) they can from the American People.  I'm no fan of CNN, but Anderson Cooper is a good guy.  He needs to get home and into the sauna to sweat out the stench of death or maybe a stopover in the Bahamas for a few day's relaxation.  He will, already, need to burn all the clothing he took with him for his stay.  He's from CNN, so the clothes will most likely be donated to the Hatians.  He'll be home, soon, because I just happened to catch his poignant musings on what he has witnessed in that Ghetto Nation.

     And I'll just be damned if I don't see Hollywood Stars on the tele, even now, telling us about how MUCH MORE is needed to fight hunger in that nation.  Hell, never have their bellies been so full.  Maybe Julia should write a bigger check. Although, Brad can be forgiven.  He has spent his money snatching up distressed properties in post-Katrina New Orleans in the name of the "Good Samaritanism".    

     Thank the Lord that those "Missionaries" were stopped before they could abscond with those poor innocents.  Justice will be done to those transgressors as they may have an extended stay in a Hatian Prison.  And you can just imagine what a prison is like, there.  Of course, WE'LL be building them new gov't buildings (after we set up Building Codes), so maybe the digs will be decent.

  

 What a waste of thier effort, since I hear Haiti is going to set up kiosks at the airport so you can pick a souvenier "orphan" to bring home.  That's convenient if you miss picking up one from the queue of parents outside trying to give thier children away (savages).  And wouldn't your kids really rather have one of them than that Voodoo Doll available in the next stall? 

Need I tell you, I am an Isolationist?...

 

Take time to remember a Great American...

Ronald Reagan would have been 99 years old, today.  He was the Greatest President of the 20th Century for the Hope and Prosperity he brought to the American People...

We Miss you, Ron.

 

What a mess. Why are WE responsible?...

Ever since God did Haiti a favor by thinning out the population (His Will), levelling unsafe buidings and bringing in more money and food from the Usual Suckers (American Taxpayers and Dogooders) than any of them have ever seen; it's just be a squalid mess for those trying to wade though it.

Not to mention the "adoption" issue.  And as if our Gene Pool isn't polluted enough, WE'RE  taking on more non-contributing members to Our Society. 
Let's send them to Sweden---sorry, despite Oprah's gush over how good life is there, they won't take them (and even the Queen of Mindless T.V. needn't tarry there). 

NOW, he want's a partnership...

Well, Mr. Obama met with the Republicans and wanted a "kumbaya" moment.  He. appropriatly, got the same reception he got in China, last year; "(Thanks), but No Thanks".

Never has it been more true that "the sight of the Gallows quickens a man's mind".

     When will that bastard in the White House admit the fact that his panderring to  "Main Street" will not solve our fiscal problems.  If he'd do half as much to support Free Enterprise and Business than he's proposing to do in Entitlements, the Recession would correct much sooner.  I have faith, surely, that even the Masses are choking from swallowing his jive.  Well, there's always "HOPE" (another phrase now being used against him).

(And I hope my Russian friends forgive me for using

this photo for emphasis.)

Another Birthday Gift for Martin's Birthday: Brakes on the Economy...

     I'm getting r-e-a-l-l-y tired of this Socialist Administration coming up with various pograms to punish success.  This week, the banks.  Obama hasn't been so overt as to use the phrase "Fat-Cat Bankers", this time, but his spiel is the same.  The movement behind him doesn't think a person who uses knowledge instead of sweat (or welfare checks) to make financial gains deserves to keep what they've worked for.  And really, besides Social Parasites receiving welfare and Unions, who cares what a banker or broker in NYC makes in bonus?  Try and run a country without finacial services and the intelligence involved with it.
There's a history for the philosophy the Administration is trying to propagate, and I want you to do some homework: 

Baader Meinhof

     If we could only go through the trailer parks and ghettos, round up the "leftists", and ship them to Haiti to live.  That is the life they deserve.

Ultimately, No Worry For Republicans...

     The Dems are fretting the election in Massachusetts, and well they should.  They're worried that nieher support from the "White" House nor from the Carpetbagging Kennedy's will be enough to carry the day.  Whether Dems or Reps wins, NET LOSS goes to Dems and thier free-spending ways in Congress.

Keep Our Money to Help Americans...

     If an earthquake was going to occur in Haiti, I couldn't happen during a better Administration.  What's going to be the cost to us for this?  Please, Mr. Obama, keep in mind Haiti is not New Orleans.
     Send them a check for 20 Grand to allow them to rebuild the entire Country.  How much does it cost to rebuild a shanty?

Use Elective Caution in 2012...

     Before "Tea Party" Members rally 'round their own candidate for president, look back at what Ralph Nader did to Al Gore in 2000...

     We could be in a situation where the Current Administration could win another term by default.  We need to work for a Voter Coalition between the "Tea" and Republican Parties. 

     I am a Libertatian and WE need to consider this propostion as a Path to our achieving Governmental Reform.  Our dilemma is that of Party Loyalty, which may need to be "modified" on the national scale.  We'd need assurances that selected legistlation would be proffered on our behalf.

     The idea of a Political Coalition could be an Effective Force.  Our British friend have done it for ions; perhaps, that is one thing they could teach us.  Our version, of course, would be the All-American to insure the viablity of our Democracy.

     With the "lagacy of slavery" in this country, the dismal history of Entitlement Programs and the malleable Will of the Undereducated Masses, the Democratic Party has a "leg over the fence".  A Political Coalition would be useful in countering this advantage, thereby assuring the "jackass would be confined to the corral".

What the Hell???

I see that the groundwork is being laid...
     I think the Nobama Admisinstration and those Damn Democrats are acutually going to try to make the General Populace think THEY are the reason for the economy turning around; not the Forces of the Free Enterprise System.  Maybe the Masses will still fall for the Jive, but I am hoping the GP will not be fooled.  Be aware of the phrase, which is starting to pop up, on how much better things have gotten "Since the Administration has taken Office".
     I will give them credit for trying to produce a Socialist State and trying to "put the brakes" on Free Enterprise through Taxation.

(More comments on this, later.)

There is a book which will give you the Democrat's Ploy on Health Care Legistlation:

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie

by

Laura Numeroff

Now what ?, is the Question...

     Remember when Card Check passed Congress to insure a Communistic Unionize Vote?  Well, that is going to be instigated in the Unionization of the TSA this year.  Of course Government Employees would vote pro-Union, anyway; but it is going to take away any seblance of the Democratic Proccess.  Another tiumph for the Pelosi/Reid Socialistic Politburo Congress.  Unionization is a Destroyer of Capitalism to begin with, and now the intimidation factor for preccess is set.
    
     I've an ulterior motive for this preamble.  Watch well the decisions which the current Congress are making.  "A bit" of Socialized Healthcare will led to MASSIVE SOCIALIZATION of the System.  Am I the only one wondering why they didn't focus efforts on getting rid of the WASTE before "throwing the baby out with the bathwater"?  But when, and you may tell me, has the Central Government EVER kept programs and spending at a minimum?  First a "toe in the pool to check the temperature of the water" (the general public's acceptance) followed by a "belly flop" getting everyone wet!

     Surely Real Americans have seen the err of their ways for allowing this to transpire.  And the 2010 Ellections will bellwether as to the direction Our Nation will take in the future.  Let us just hope enough Contributing Americans wake up.

Ron, we are missing you.