Yearly Archives: 2008

Pensacola, Politics, Uncategorized

It's The Free-Market Stupid, Not The GOP

Most pundits on the far left, like self-described journalist Mike Papantonio, are really stretching the facts (like a slip and fall lawyer would) when he tries to whitewash the UAW’s role and its impact on the Big 3 automakers by saying that the GOP has always hated unions and that’s why, he asserts, they don’t want to bail out the Big 3. And he does this by saying that AIG, Freddy Mac, Fannie Mae are not unionized and they’re getting bailed out. Actually, none of them should be bailed out with taxpayer money. It was government intervention that put them in that position. The best thing the government can do now is to quit meddling with the free-market economy and let the market determine who wins and who loses.

So here’s my response to Mike Papantonio. AIG and the rest of Wall Street, they’re not unionized and they are failing. You say the Big 3 are failing too, but it’s not because of unions because Wall Street isn’t unionized? Nice try Mike.

I’ll tell you, Mike the journalist, what ALL of these failures have in common, in just two words. Government intervention. Intervention in a free-market economy. And there is one more commonality among all of them Mike, they are joined at the hip with Democrat lawmakers from the CRA to the UAW. That’s what they all have in common. That’s why all of them are in trouble. The Big 3 are unique however because they are unionized. For them, their problem is compounded because of the UAW and the agreements that the incompetent CEO’s signed on to. Granted it isn’t the only reason, the Big 3 have other problems as well, but it is the difference from operating in the red, or the black.

Their incompetence is echoed in their ‘plan’ before congress right now. Their plan includes the same cash-draining contracts that keep them from being competitive with the non-union automakers in the South. Because of that, they deserve and have earned the right to go bankrupt.

Reorganize, unload the union weight, be competitive, and prosper. And if it means going from Big 3 to Big 2, so be it. In a free market environment, the fittest will survive without putting taxpayers trillions and trillions of dollars into debt.

Bio: Mike Papantonio hosts a nationally syndicated radio show, the Ring of Fire, on Air America Radio and is the founder of GoLeft.tv. He is a partner in the Levin Papantonio law firm in Pensacola.

related links: GOP Blames Unions for Detroit’s Ills | What Caused The Economic Crisis?

Economy, Organized Labor, Politics

Plan B For Automakers, Do Nothing

Executives from the Big 3 automakers are in Washington making their case for $34 billion dollars (up from $25 billion a week ago) to ‘bail’ them out.

Their plan amounts to things they should have done years ago, but still amount to nothing more than duct tape over a gaping hole in the hull of their ship. Not one of them mentioned bankruptcy or getting out from under their current union contracts. That’s where the hole is and that’s why any amount of money now is just duct tape. It will also be nationalizing an industry doomed to failure if it doesn’t cleanse itself of the unnecessary union overhead that a bankruptcy affords them. All for the express purpose of propping up a labor union. I’m sorry, I believe our economy comes before a labor union.

GM’s COO Fritz Henderson is only fooling himself when he says that there is no Plan B. Of course there is. In this case, when you have an operation that ‘can’t fund’ itself, bankruptcy is always an option.

“There isn’t a Plan B,” said GM Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson. “Absent support, frankly, the company just can’t fund its operations.”

These auto execs seem unwilling to cut the umbilical cord to the UAW. That leaves the only other option, doing nothing. Why? Because Nancy Pelosi will get them the money they want one way or the other, making the automakers’ appearance this week before congress the obligatory dog and pony show. Pelosi is out to protect and preserve the UAW, not the company that employs them, and these execs know it.

“I believe that an intervention will happen,” Pelosi said at a briefing in Washington. “Everybody is disadvantaged by bankruptcy, including our economy, so that’s not an option.”

Pelosi said Congress will either approve new loans for the auto industry or the Bush administration will provide funding through the $700 billion financial-markets rescue plan approved by Congress last month.

Unfortunately for us taxpayers, and fortunately for the UAW, they will get their (your) money. Don’t you just love it when free enterprise capitalism is interfered with by the government? What makes it worse in this case is that the motivation is only to help big labor, Democrats’ special interest group.

related links: Big Three survival bailout requests rise to $34B | Pelosi Says Bankruptcy by Automakers ‘Not an Option’

Uncategorized

aSide Order

Man Faces Battery Charges for Hitting Girlfriend With Sandwich

Police said the 19-year-old man became angry and hit the woman in the arm and face with a sandwich, knocking her glasses off, as she was driving along Interstate 95 on Friday.

One can only hope that a cheesesteak was not involved.

NBC’s Rosie O’Donnell variety show disappoints

Rosie O’Donnell tied for last place. Surely she could do better than that and capture last place on her own. Good for (9/11 was an inside job) her.

“There’s a notion that the climate is right for the genre to make a comeback,” emailed one executive at a rival network. “I guess we now know what not to do, thanks to Rosie.”

The climate may be right for that genre of TV. As long as it doesn’t include Rosie.

Christian ‘the lion’ Reunion, London Lion reunited in Africa

This video has been seen by millions and millions of people already, but I just saw it a few days ago on Yahoo. It’s a touching story that takes about two minutes.

It’s about a couple that raised a lion cub for about a year. They introduced it into the wild after he got too big. They went back a year later to see if they could find him. And they did.

Try it, you’ll like it.

Here’s a longer version, with more video and pictures. Same wonderful story.

War On Terror

Inside Mumbai, Was Early Warning Wasted?

Sunil, a resident of Mumbai, has agreed to become a free foreign correspondent for The Lunch Counter. I will be posting whatever updates he may send regarding the current terrorist and security situation in Mumbai. In the interest of full disclosure, Sunil is not a journalist. Neither am I for that matter. I worked with Sunil for seven years in New Jersey in the 90’s. He is a professional person who works in the financial and international shipping industries. His report follows.

Mumbai, Nov. 30, 2008

Well its over in one sense, but the fear in the common man remains. The roads are still comparatively empty as are theaters and cinema halls. Most movies released on Friday had dismal openings. People just don’t seem to be in the mood to indulge in anything entertaining and understandably so.

Also most people we meet seem to think that the actual body count is much more, probably closer to 2000 people, but official figures being quoted are much lower, because of the fear that higher figures would in fact provide motivation to the very wrong people.

There is a combined sense of anger even in the most timmidest common man and the hope that something will be done to stop the training camps and the flow of funds. There is an absolute disbelief as to how they could just walk/sail in to the city carrying so many arms and ammunition and it wasn’t noticed. Well in a sense it was, but heed wasn’t paid.

Listen to this. We have a friend staying around the area where the terrorists had put up and apparently they used to buy chicken from the same source. The terrorists used to ask for LIVE chicken EVERY DAY saying they would kill the chicken themselves. The vendor obviously found something fishy about it so informed a local corporator who informed the local police station, but the question asked by the police officer was what complaint do I write? That there are some people who want to kill chicken?

Not to deride or ridicule anybody in my country right now but just a statement to the effect that change has to come from the top. Apparently the boats were spotted by local fishermen and a letter was sent by their organisation but again no heed was paid.

Writing this mail to you on Sunday evening, when i would normally be out for a movie and dinner.
your foreign correspondent

It seems that Mumbai, India has just had a ‘9/11’ experience of their own. The main difference being, on 9/12 we knew who the perpetrators were and what their motives were. In Mumbai, all that is still unfolding. Even though the casualty count is not as high, the mood of the public is pretty much the same as it was here after 9/11. And no one thinks it is over. As as result of these attacks, India’s equivalent of our Homeland Security cabinet member has resigned.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who has become highly unpopular during a long series of terror attacks across India, submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who accepted it, according to the president’s office.

Let’s hope that authorities will pay closer attention to citizens that report unusual behavior like Sunil mentioned. Like Americans have been told over and over, and for good reason, I’m sure the people of India will be similarly advised to keep your eyes open for suspicious behavior. What you see could be instrumental in foiling another attack. In this case, the citizens seem to have done their part, but someone higher up dropped the ball.

President Bush has offered help from the United States. Hopefully that will include cooperation in helping India develop security measures similar to what the Patriot Act has given us, if they’re not there already. The people of India need to also have the confidence that their leadership will leave no stone unturned in getting those responsible and in preventing future attacks. That is one part of Bush’s legacy that, for political reasons he gets no credit for, yet is so well deserved. The terrorists have been on defense ever since he took the fight to them.

It all remains to be seen, by Americans and Indians, just what kind of coordination and cooperation the new Obama administration will provide in that respect. Especially since Obama had run on discontinuing the Patriot Act. All that will depend on whether his skin is tough enough to withstand the heat that will come from his far-left supporters that expect him to abolish the Patriot Act and cancel the War On Terror.

related links: India security chief resigns after Mumbai attacks| Bush, Obama condemn Mumbai attacks, U.S. offers help | Specific intel warnings were ignored

Fairness Doctrine, Media

Singapore, Making Fairness Doctrine Proponents Jealous

Oh if they could just have their way, which is to silence ‘free’ speech that they don’t like, Democrats in Washington could always try what the city-state of Singapore is doing. In Singapore, if the shoe fits, and you report that the shoe fits, that is tantamount to defamation. And because the WSJ had reported on cases in Singapore’s legal system before, and been sued for doing so, they are now being charged with contempt.

From Singapore’s Law Ministry, Justice Tay Young Kwang interprets it this way . . .

“Words sometimes mean more than what they appear to say on the surface,” he writes, going on to interpret the words as contemptuous because they had an “inherent tendency” to “scandalise the court.” The fine he levied, S$25,000 ($16,500), is the largest ever meted out for such an offense. Justice Tay expressed the hope that it will deter “future transgressions.”

To Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, are you taking notes on this? As for the Journal . . .

Let us begin with an apology to our readers in Asia. Unless they are online, they will not see this editorial. For legal reasons, we are refraining from publishing it in The Wall Street Journal Asia, which circulates in Singapore.
We’ll pay the fine. We’ll also continue to express our views about politics, the courts and other subjects that we think our readers should know about. And we’ll let readers decide what to make of the judiciary in Singapore.

link: Singapore Strikes Again

War On Terror

A Glimpse From Inside Mumbai

Was checking up on some friends that live in Mumbai yesterday. Thankfully, they are safe. At least for now. The fact that the situation is still not over is unsettling. But not near as unsettling here as it is to my friends who are there. Sunil (and wife Sheila) writes . . .

Hii Ross!! So good to hear from you. My family and me are all safe, thank god as all this was more localised in South Mumbai and we stay in Central Mumbai. Good thing it wasnt on saturday as Sheila and me were wining and dining there on last saturday. i write this on Friday afternoon my time and its still not over. i feel that for once the people of Mumbai who are normally very resilient are very very shaken.

Praying for your safety and that of your countrymen. That and that the Islamofascist bastards get the justice they deserve.

Uncategorized

2009 Mummers Parade On TV

3 Comments

Chicago’s superstation WGN will be airing the last two hours of the Mummers Parade in Philadelphia. In a brief statement from the station, a nice fellow named George said . . .

We’ll air the last two hours of WPHL’s coverage on Saturday, January 3 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.

This will be good. It will solve the problems they encountered last year when they had a four-hour block of time set for the parade. It was WPHL’s camera coverage last year as well. But the problem was caused by a two hour rain delay of the parade, consequently, the two hours they showed ended before the best part of the parade, the string bands, came by. It was a bad case of paradeus-interruptus!

So on New Years day, for those of us out of the Philadelphia television market area, we can watch the games and other parades, and can catch the best of the Mummers Parade on Saturday. I’m down with that.

link: WPHL TV 17

Media, Politics

Presidential Leadership, A Quiz

Here are two visions of presidential leadership. One is a top-down approach. The other is more of a collaborative approach. Let’s play pin the leadership on the candidate.

  1. But I understand where the — the vision for change comes from first and foremost. It comes from ME. That’s my job, is to provide a vision in terms of where we are going and to make sure then that my team is implementing it.
  2. I am going to surround myself with the brightest and the best advisers from all over the country. With competing ideas on how to solve our nations problems. And together we will come up with solutions to our nations problems.
Enter Number 1 2
Barack Obama
John McCain

It would seem that a number 1 man would not need advisers, but yes-men and/or pit bulls around him. A man that knows where he’s going and how to get there. Quite a contrast with a number 2 man, who would more or less govern by committee. That’s why you might be surprised to learn that one of these two men are actually both. Hint: If you are not surprised then you probably voted for President-elect Barack Obama.

Type 1 Obama was borne out of criticism that he has surrounded himself with Clinton administration operatives and what we have is a Clinton third term, only without the sex. Apparently not worried that he totally dissed democrats outside of the Clinton administration by wrongly assuming that there isn’t any talent out there. Just one way that inexperience on the national stage manifests itself. And type 2 Obama was borne out of what he ran his campaign on, CHANGE. He was the one that would bring in disparate groups of advisers and wise men, to get all sides of an issue, then give an informed decision.

If we’ve learned nothing else about Barack Obama, it is that he is an expert at being able to be on all sides of every issue and get away with it.

related link: Obama’s Rich Revelation

Economy, Fair Tax, Pensacola

Mike Huckabee Comes To Pensacola Friday Nov 28

Former Arkansas Gov. and Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee will be coming to Pensacola Friday night. Huckabee is a supporter, a passionate supporter, of the Fair Tax. It will be for a book signing of his new book ‘Do the right thing.’

Even if you’re not interested in his book, but you support the Fair Tax, how about showing up (you know the media will be there) to thank Gov. Huckabee for making the Fair Tax part of his campaign platform as well as his continued support of it.

He will be at the Barnes & Noble on Airport Boulevard between 8-9pm. If you can’t make it, you can get the book here.

This will be his last stop of a five city trip on Friday.

link: fairtax.org