Day: June 3, 2008

GM Workers Anticipate Layoffs

Workers and Wall Street were anxiously awaiting the news out of General Motors Corp.’s annual meeting this morning, with expectations that the beleaguered automaker will announce more restructuring measures that could further reduce the number of jobs and even idle factories in an attempt to improve its sales and financial results.

For workers at GM’s truck plants, that has meant wondering whether there would still be jobs to report to following the next round of change.

In its announcement today, the automaker is expected to give those plans more clarity by announcing plans to increase the production of small and midsize cars at its assembly plants in Orion Township and Lordstown, Ohio, even as it takes steps to further reduce production at some GM truck plants.

Workers at Orion Township and Lordstown are hoping for increased car production, added shifts and the promise of new models.

Analysts and economists have said they wouldn’t be surprised to see cuts at a Michigan plant — in Flint or Pontiac — or those in Janesville, Wis., or Moraine, Ohio.

GM is not commenting on the planned announcements, though spokesman Tom Wilkinson has said that the company has no big salaried layoffs in the works.

End Of The Season

Clinton won Puerto Rico by 30+ points, but the vote was a lot lower than anticipated. Today is the last of the primaries–the official end of the whining, the pouting, the accusations and the BS–especially the BS of the media and their lame attempts to keep non-issue stories in the news.

I know I am dreaming–it has only begun….LOL

Today is the final two primaries–Montana and South Dakota. Obama is expected to win both of these and win handily.

This is the end of this part of the historical political epoch. (always wanted to say that)

Why Do They Hate?

NO not Clinton or Obama or McCain or Dems or Repubs, what I am talking about is the hatred that “journalist” have for bloggers. Those who consider themselves “journalist” have this burning disdain, yes hatred, for bloggers, especially successful bloggers. IMO, journalist seem to have this idea that the blogger is somehow stealing their thunder. That is a very good possibility! But why is this?

Journalist have this undeniable arrogance that since they went to college that they somehow have this corner on the truth and that few others opinions have little merit, if any at all. But the simple truth is that some bloggers are a bit sharper and more open than some journalists. Especially those peope who have worked at the grassroots level and that these people have a better grasp of the actual reality of a campaign and avoid the entrapments of the corporate media.

There is another problem–the average American reader has an attention span of about 500 words–anything beyond that and their eyes glaze over and they are lost. Most journalist attempt to impress the reader with massive amounts of stats and history and that they, the journalist, have this command of the English language. They use words like misogyny–now you go to a local pub and ask patrons what that word means and they will buy you a drink and change the subject. Absolutely no one will carry about the use of words that have no meaning to them.

Joe Sixpack wants his info condensed down so that the point is easily understood. But no, the journalist will brattle on and on if facts and figures that mean nothing to “real” people. Joe Sixpack does not care what gas cost in 1976–he wants to know what it will cost tomorrow.

Sanctimonious BS is NOT the way to inform the public. To the point and in as few words as possible is the only way the average person will pay attention. The only thing that a 1500 word essay on the economy will collect is bird droppings at the bottom of the cage.

There has always been a simple rule–K.I.S.S.

More Congressmen Hospitalized

Sorry, but this is the result when we allow these guys and gals to spend 50 yrs in the Congress. It is called old age.

Sen. Robert Byrd, the oldest member of the U.S. Senate and a fierce opponent of the Iraq war, was taken to a Washington-area hospital for observation on Monday after a caregiver noticed that he was lethargic, a spokesman for the West Virginia Democrat said.

Byrd, 90, was at work in the Senate earlier in the day and had gone home where his caregiver grew concerned about his condition, spokesman Jesse Jacobs said.

Byrd first won election to the Senate in 1958.

There has been a wealth of these people having to go to the hospital…I realize that I may seem a bit cold, but I do think that there should be a two term limit on all these guys and gals. Ifr they stay longer then they start acting like it is their god given right to rule.

FLDS Children Go Home

A spokeswoman for the Department of Family and Protective Services, Marleigh Meisner, said the investigation into possible sexual abuse would continue. The judge in the case also imposed a lengthy list of caveats pending the conclusion of the investigation, including surprise home visits by caseworkers, possible psychiatric evaluations of the children and a ban on travel outside Texas.

Confusion has been a constant in the case, ever since state officials took action on April 3 — prompted, they said, by a call to an abuse hotline from a girl who said that she was 16 and that her 49-year-old husband was abusing her. The girl was never found or identified.

Two court rulings last month — including one from the state’s highest judicial panel — criticized the Department of Family and Protective Services, concluding that the seizure order had been too broad, and that a threat to the safety of all the children in the group’s compound, called the Yearning for Zion ranch, in Eldorado, could not be proved.

This is still, in my opinion, a civil rights issue and those rights were violated. This will most likely go down as the biggest faux pas, for lack of a better word, in civil rights history. But unfortunbately, it will probably NEVER be written in the history books in Texas. Why? IT IS TEXAS!

Shame On Rachel Ray

Americans received a good dose of conservative idiocy over the weekend.

The dose, which almost defies belief, involves noted conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, who got upset with a television advertisement by Dunkin Donuts that featured 30-minute chef Rachel Ray.

The reason for Malkin’s distress over the commercial? The war on terrorism, a war that excites conservatives even more than the war on drugs, the war on communism, or the war on immigrants.

Malkin went ballistic because in the commercial Rachel is wearing a scarf that bears a resemblance to a kaffiyeh, a traditional scarf worn by Arab men, which apparently some people in the Middle East view as a symbol for Palestinian independence and Islamic radicalism.

I have watched Rachel on the tube and I can say that she is too worried about making lots of money, to be making any type of political statement.

Rachel should be ashamed of herself (sarcasm intended) , she should have known better, but beyond that the fact that Dunkin Donut caved to a pack of whackos does say much for Dunkin. These types of people have nothing better to do than waste time and money sowing the seeds of fear and loathing.

Would Someone Please Explain It To Me!

NOTE: Before everyone tries to pile on to me—I am NOT an Obama supporter. I would like to hear the reasons behind the anger.

The whole anger thing with Clinton, that is. I understand that the candidate that one supports and they do not get the nomination. I can understand that completely. My problem is I cannot understand the “if not Clinton, even it will be McCain” mindset. Do not understand why a Dem would vote Repub just to get even. I thought this was about what would be best for the country, not the gender or the race of the candidate.

So the people that will vote for McCain because of the Clinton loss, would rather see the country suffer through 4 more years of a Bush-esque administration, than to actually help the country. Is that about it? Obama and Clinton are so similar in the positions on issues that it would be hard to determine which one is which without a cheat sheet. But yet, voters will throw all that away just because they are pouting?

Where is that an educated electorate? Does that mean that these voters will sell out their political principles on some half baked idea that there is a conspiracy to keep a woman out of the White House? I was laboring under the misconception that issues were the driving force behind the election decisions and apparently I was misinformed.

Ok now I ask, why are those people supporting Clinton so rabidly? Because she is a woman? Because she is a white? Or maybe because she is a white woman? How about that she feels your pain? Just what makes Clinton the best person for the nomination? If she was leading in the delegate count would that then make her the most acceptable candidate?

I apologize if this offends anyone, but I cannot understand this massive amount of people that are willing to defect to the Repubs on a whim. I do not understand ANY Dem injecting race or gender or etc into a political contest. Dems have always stood in support of woman, people of color and so forth. Would this be the same problem if Obama was an African-American woman?

So I am asking is this election about the issues that concern the American people or is it about the gender of the candidates. Like I have said, I can understand the disappointment of the fact that one’s candidate will not get the nomination, but for Dems to spew such vile about each other is just them acting like the Repubs, who are experts at spreading the vile.

Maybe the GOP is the best place for such hatred.