Monday, June 8, 2009 by Dick.

Three Indiana pension funds got it wrong. The state pension and construction funds sued Chrysler to keep the automaker from completing its acquisition by Fiat.

Regular readers have figured out by now that I am one of the smartest men I know. I am, however, neither the smartest man in the world nor even the only smart man in the world. That means I can’t possibly be the only person to have realized that the automakers are the wrong target for litigation.

The Administration favors the Chrysler-Fiat deal and wants to remove this road block. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court granted a stay that temporarily blocks the Chrysler sale. The court will decide soon whether to schedule a full hearing. Fiat says they will “never” walk away from the deal.

There is still time for bondholders and shareholders to come together. We need a lawyer. Maybe a platoon of them.

Think about it. Every lawyer arguing for tort reform is a Democrat. What better group to file a shareholders suit?

But there’s no money left at Chrysler or GM, you say. The CEO and many execs have changed. Who is there to sue?

How about we sue the people who caused the problem?

I’ll give you a minute.

Yeppers, I mean the President and the U.S. Congress.

A government has only one tool to take private property from its owners: eminent domain. The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment states … nor shall private property be taken … without just compensation.

If all goes according to plan, the U.S. and Canadian governments, a United Auto Workers health care fund, and Fiat will end up owning Cerebus Capital Management’s 80.1% of Chrysler Holding LLC and Daimler AG’s 19.9%. The Fiat presence dilutes the taking, but a governmental taking it is.

The picture is clearer in the General Motors tower where the administration stole 100% of the company from the shareholders. What did they do with it? They parceled it out to cronies. Canada got 12%. The Union bosses got 17%. And Obama got most of the rest, didn’t he?

I will join any class action lawsuit against the United States government for taking our private property without compensation.

Posted in Government Motors, Politics & News, Random Access | 2 Comments »

Monday, June 8, 2009 by Dick.

Missy and Biff brought their friend Marlin along when they visited South Puffin in April. Marlin is still here. Missy wears a lot of makeup and loves her bling. I think Marlin is responsible for her belief that the gold and sparkles she wears attract fish. And, Missy does love to fish.

Marlin, despite his name, does not. He may have spoofed Missy a little with the bling story. See, Marlin is a little … otherworldly. Missy’s shadowy friend won’t tell us exactly what he does besides “fixing things.” He seems to make a living either ferreting out information about people or living with friends. I’m not sure which. He is scarily good at both.

“You saw we just charged Walter and Gwen Myers with spying for Cuba, right?” Marlin asked.

Walter Kendall Myers worked for the State Department where he had access to highly sensitive material. The State Department put him on a “watch list” in 1995, but the watchers “either forgot about them or couldn’t pick up the trail,” Marlin said. “That’s when they brought me in.”

Marlin is about the size of a pro football offensive linesman. He is buff, nearly hairless, has a permanent tan, and takes up a lot of space in my little house. He says he has neither played ball nor danced ballet. I have not figured out how he vanishes for days at a time, then reappears in the guest room without ever disturbing the door locks. Sometimes I know he is here only because the refrigerator is suddenly empty.

“They were true believers which just makes it so hard for ordinary investigators to pick up their trail,” he said. “Walt told me they fed intelligence to Cuba for more than 30 years.

“I’m glad I caught them but, despite all my powers, I can’t do anything about the real rats.”

Walter and Gwendolyn Myers will undoubtedly become the subjects of Congressional hearings. “They’ll be another great diversion while your Barney Rubble robs us blind, the Administration emasculates the American automobile manufacturers, and pulls all the revenues for your medical care into the U.S. treasury,” Marlin said.

Anne reminded him that she took a 40% pay cut last fall when her job shrank to part time.

“Did you know that U..S. Congressional staff received $9.1 million in bonuses?” Marlin said. “That Congressmen awarded themselves $2.5 million in ‘automatic’ pay raises?”

Speaking of the great congressional giveaway, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will pay in retention bonuses over the next 18-months. That’s $45 million or so more than the storied AIG bonuses. I guess we need to keep the people who caused the banking crisis to fix it.

Our political leaders just nationalized the auto industry and gave nearly a trillion dollars to campaign contributors in the big banks and insurance companies but, by golly, Marlin caught ‘em a couple of low level true believers and the politicians are as proud as mutts with a prairie dog.

“What do you call those who steal, then give away the entire country?” Marlin asked. I don’t think he was talking about Walt and Gwen.

Answer next week.

Posted in Throw Da Bums Out, Politics & News, Random Access | 1 Comment »

Friday, June 5, 2009 by Dick.

NEW YORK — CNNMoney reports that General Motors Corp. will sell its Saturn unit to Penske Automotive Group, owned by racing and business legend Roger Penske. The deal gives Penske the rights to the brand, but GM will continue production of the Saturn Aura, Vue and Outlook.

If anyone can make it work, Mr. Penske can.

I hope he still has his unfair advantage.

Too bad Pontiac isn’t part of the deal. The excitement of the Pontiac line comes from Australia’s Holden right now: the G8, the GTO, and the El Camino-style Holden Ute which the motoring press called the G8TR (”Gator”) but Pontiac expected to sell as the G8 ST. Since Mr. Penske will “import” his Saturns from the GM plants, he could do the same with the best of the Pontiac line and sell them all under the “no haggle” Saturn roof.

Wow.

Shares of Penske (PAG) rose 3% in morning trading.

Meanwhile, GM announced on Tuesday it would sell its Hummer line to China’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd. thus moving the U.S. Army’s primary ground vehicle production into the hands of a foreign nation.

Posted in Government Motors, Cars, Business, Random Access | 2 Comments »

Wednesday, June 3, 2009 by Dick.

SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court overturned gay marriage in the Land of Fruits and Nuts last week. Meanwhile the, um, corn-fed Iowans upheld gay marriage last month.

That seems more than odd.

Five states (Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont) have legalized gay marriage. More than 40 states explicitly ban it.

California has an unusually strong direct democracy. Voters can decide almost any question via propositions and state constitutional amendments. Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban, passed in November.

The California Supremes upheld that Prop 8 was a permissible amendment to the constitution. “The measure carves out a narrow and limited exception to these state constitutional rights, reserving the official designation of the term marriage for the union of opposite-sex couples as a matter of state constitutional law…”

California is not alone in changing its constitution on a whim. Florida had six constitutional amendments on the November ballot.

I generally favor direct action by an electorate. Every citizen votes directly in the classic New England Town Meeting. That works well but it is worth remembering that when the majority tries to teach a pig to sing, that majority ought not also be able to legislate the pig’s pleasure.

It is time states like California and Florida learn that a state Constitution may be a living document but it ought not be one that sways in every breeze. Oh yeah, and that pigs don’t like to sing.

[apologies to Robert A. Heinlein]

Posted in Society, Politics & News, PC, Big Thoughts, Random Access | 1 Comment »

Monday, June 1, 2009 by Dick.

Auto czar and Commander-in-Thief Barack Obama has raced General Motors through a complex series of last-minute deals to speed the automaker way into the fast-track, presidentially engineered, bankruptcy they filed this morning. The company will emerge in 60 to 90 days as the nationalized U.S. Government Motors.

Oh, yeah?

What else would you call a car business that is

• Beaten down by political maneuvering
• Stolen from its owners
• Handed not just in majority but almost in entirety to “your” government.

History has textbooks full of taking industries or assets into public ownership under a national government or a state. Wikipedia reports that “The motives for nationalization are political as well as economic. It is a central theme of certain brands of ’state socialist’ policy that the means of production, distribution and exchange, should be owned by the state on behalf of the people.”

Charged with operating “in the public interest,” nationalized industries are under strong political pressure to make social goals instead of decent products (or profits).

Here are some examples of historic nationalizations:

• The Castro government “expropriated” all private companies after the Cuban Revolution of 1959.
• The Yeltsin government seized Gazprom assets in 1998, claiming the company “owed back taxes.”
• In the past two years alone, Hugo Chavez stripped control of the Orinoco oil belt, nationalized the cement industry, steel mill Sidor, and much more.
• The Obama government will nationalize General Motors today by seizing its assets. They will claim the company might default on its loans.

“We won’t keep it any longer than necessary,” President Obama said.

Have you noticed? Every thief has an excuse.

Thomas Jefferson wrote, The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

Was King George III really any worse? That poor monarch just wanted the profits on our tea.

Posted in Government Motors, Business, Politics & News, Random Access | 9 Comments »