Category Archives: Random Access

Random Access, the op-ed.

When Pigs Fly. Or Something.

Posted on by

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]

General Motors, The Final Rant

Posted on by

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 early to match the 8 a.m. filing deadline.

Why Does Obama Want to Bankrupt Me?

Posted on by

The pundits all expect that General Motors will file for bankruptcy protection on Monday.

Why?

We (used to) assume that people act to preserve their economic interests. Government acts to preserve the governors.

Given the horse puckey that has already gone on in the Wall Street-Pennsylvania Avenue continuum, I think I have it figured out why Barack Obama wants to bankrupt me:

  • 1. The Democrats need to generate demand for universal health care. Imagine that.
  • 2. Big bond holders bought credit swaps, the financial innovations that insure debt. Credit swaps pay off only in a formal default. Imagine that.
  • 3. Congress needs to shore up Social Security; all the calls to strip that pot of gold from their hands scared them silly. Imagine that.
  • 4. The Administration needs to be able to say, “See, this is what happens when you sell gas guzzlers; you go bankrupt.” They are already saying that about the Dodge Hemi. Imagine that.

1. One might think demand for universal health care would be, well, universal. Oddly it isn’t. That said, if half the country suddenly loses its benefits when the bankruptcy domino train rolls through, Democrats hope that changes. A GM bankruptcy almost guarantees that all those workers jump on the Medicare bandwagon.

2. Credit swaps pay off only in a formal default. Look at which Wall Street player whisper in President Obama’s ear to see how financial policy is formulated. A GM bankruptcy could guarantee the credit default.

3. Congress is not afraid that the Social Security will be bankrupt by 2050. Congress is afraid that the Social Security will become irrelevant within their elected terms. Congress absolutely cannot give up that “revenue” stream. A GM bankruptcy guarantees the Social Security revenue stream.

A GM bankruptcy means autoworkers now have 201Ks because the stock in their (former) 401Ks tanked. If GM shares are not wiped out and the company recovers, the autoworkers’ 401K’s will recover eventually. A GM bankruptcy means autoworkers and everyone else with GM stock in a retirement account is more than ever dependent on Social Security. I hope the UAW has finally discovered that a boughten politician doesn’t stay bought. And I hope that you, gentle reader, understand that bankrupting GM decimates my own personal retirement account.

4. Finally, the Administration needs to eliminate the popular gas guzzlers to push forward their Consumer’s Union vision of the perfect car: the 1985 Yugo. After all, it is not right to sell ten million popular cars and trucks. It is only right (should that be left?) to this Administration to sell about half a million Yugos. Or Fiats. A GM bankruptcy guarantees there won’t be anything else sold.

“Those cars are ugly,” Rufus said about the looming Chrysler-Fiat deal. “Americans may not remember all the problem cars Fiat made the last time they were sold here, but Americans don’t buy ugly.”

I dunno. The Democrats sold us first Al Gore and now Barack Obama so perhaps they can sell us Flea Flops, too. But I’ll betcha not one Congress Critter buys one. According to the Intert00b, Far Green darling, multi-millionaire Mr. Gore owns a giant 10 mpg Ford Expedition.

If I Had a Million Dollars

Posted on by

Rufus steps to the mic with a guitar and a Karaoke machine. Is this thing on?If I had a million dollars
(If I had a million dollars)
I’d buy me some stock
(I would buy me some stock)
If I had a million dollars
(If I had a million dollars)
I’d buy me General Motors stock
(Maybe a nice Camaro or a Malibu)
If I had a million dollars
(If I had a million dollars)
I’d not buy a K-car
(A nice reliant automobile)
If I had a million dollars, I’d make a speech.
(Apologies to Barenaked Ladies)

Before we get started. let me thank the GM shareholders who have joined me here on the steps of General Motors World Headquarters. I also need to thank the networks, business, and automotive reporters for covering this event.

[Image]

And now, here’s Dick Harper who did have a million dollars before he traded it for a million shares of General Motors stock…

Thank you Rufus.

If you believe your company has been stolen from you by a conspiracy of politicians, union leaders, and other hoodlums, you’re right.

If you believe 316 people in Washington see the recession as a beneficial event that allows them to institute their grand plan that will sweep into your lives and bankrupt your children and your grandchildren’s grandchildren, you’re right.

If you believe you can’t do anything about it, you’re wrong.

There is a shared cultural belief inside the Beltway that General Motors makes lousy cars and needs to be taken down. That’s just wrong, too.

During his 1955 Senate confirmation hearings to become Secretary of Defense, Charles Erwin Wilson, then Chairman of General Motors, said “for years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa.”

We certainly know now that what is bad for the country is bad for General Motors and vice versa.

I have a four-part plan to fix GM. It’s good for General Motors. It’s good for the country. Here’s what we need to do:

  • The Department of Justice needs to prosecute the UAW under Taft-Hartley as well as under United States antitrust laws. Heck Judge Harold Greene broke up AT&T with less grounds. Frankly, I think the D.O.J. should bring R.I.C.O. indictments but I’m afraid the evidence would get buried in a landfill somewhere.
  • The U. S. Congress needs to prosecute the Administration for Grand Theft (Autos). If lying under oath is grounds for impeachment, isn’t stealing the 600 million shares held by almost every pension fund, mutual fund, and individual investor in this country grounds for conviction?
  • The Department of the Treasury needs to force the banks to start making loans or they need to take the bank bailout money back and make the loans themselves.
  • The Main Stream Media needs to stop scaring people out of GM dealerships.

Unfortunately, none of that will happen unless we take action.

The Administration says it has reached a deal with GM.

The UAW says it has reached a deal with GM and the government.

GM’s bondholders say they got screwed.

Here are the deals:

  • The Administration has “lent” GM $19.4 billion dollars. The Administration will now “forgive” $10 billion of that for half of all GM stock.
  • The UAW will “forego” $10 billion of the $20 billion in cash payments owed to the UAW health-care trust for 39% of all GM stock.
  • The Administration says the bondholders must “abandon” $27 billion for just 10% of all GM stock.
  • The Administration says we existing shareholders can pound sand for just 1% of all GM stock.

If any publicly traded company (like GM, for example) had fragged their shareholders and creditors this way under law that was in place up through a couple of weeks from now, prosecutors wouldn’t have time to indict the directors under R.I.C.O. because said shareholders would have already burned down this glass-towered Detroit headquarters right behind me.

If I really had a million shares of General Motors stock, do you suppose anyone would really listen?

We drove the money changers from the Temples 2,000 years ago.
We drove the Princes from the parishes 400 years ago.
We drove the Kings from the land 200 years ago.

Somehow, they’ve all come back to haunt us.

Memorial Day

Posted on by

Today is Memorial Day in the United States. The holiday once known as Decoration Day commemorates the men and women who perished under the flag of this country, fighting for what sets our America apart: the freedom to live as we please.

“Holiday” is a contraction of holy and day; the word originally referred only to special religious days. Here in the U.S. of A. holiday means any special day off work or school instead of a normal day off work or school.

Lest we forget, the Americans we honor did not “give their lives.” They did not merely perish. They did not just cease living, check out, croak, depart, drop, expire, kick off. kick the bucket, pass away or pass on, pop off, or bite the dust. Their lives were taken from them by force on battlefields around the world. They were killed. Whether you believe they died with honor, whether you believe our cause just, died they did.

Today is not a “free” day off work or school. Today is not the big sale day at the Dollar Store. Today is a day of Honor.

“All persons present in uniform should render the military salute. Members of the Armed Forces and veterans who are present but not in uniform may render the military salute. All other persons present should face the flag and stand at attention with their right hand over the heart, or if applicable, remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Citizens of other countries present should stand at attention. All such conduct toward the flag in a moving column should be rendered at the moment the flag passes.”

The American flag today should first be raised to the top of the flagpole for an moment, then lowered to the half-staff position where it will remain until Noon. The flag should be raised to the peak at Noon for the remainder of Memorial Day.

There are those in this country who would use today to legislate the man out of the fight. They can do that but the men and women we honor today knew you cannot legislate the fight out of the man. They have fought and died to protect us from those who would kill us.

There is no end to the mutts who would kill our men and women and would kill their own. If I had but one wish granted on this day, I wish not another soldier dies. Ever. But die they did and die they will.

Because those men and women died, I get to write these words. And you get to read them.