If I Had a Million Dollars

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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.

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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

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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.

Hubris

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The U.S. Senate voted today, by an unbelievable 90-6 margin, to strip the money needed to close the Guantanamo Bay prison from the supplemental war bill.

The question: “To prohibit funding to transfer, release, or incarcerate detainees detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to or within the United States.”

It turns out that no other countries will accept the Gitmo detainees. It also turns out that all but six Democrats got religion when they suddenly discovered that, if the prison closes, those terrorists would suddenly get all the free lawyers and the constitutional rights and the three hots and a cot that those Democratic Senators all vigorously campaigned for just a few short months ago.

My goodness. Some terrorists might even be freed by the courts and allowed to settle in the United States.

Imagine that.

Those voting to provide the money to close Gitmo: Dick Durbin (D-IL), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Pat Leahy (D-VT), Carl Levin (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) came out in favor of moving Guantanamo Bay prisoners to the United States because, she said, “the legal rights of these detainees are the same under the Constitution.”

Sen. Feinstein said “American justice has to be applied to everyone, because if it isn’t, we then become hypocrites in the eyes of the world.” Then she voted to deny the funds needed to close the Guantanamo Bay prison.

Indeed.

Errors in Fact, Part III

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Last week, my friend “Rufus” announced that he wants to create a new media source dedicated to “balanced” reporting. He believes that the principal reason the Democrats won in 2008 is not that the Democrats had a better story to tell. He believes the Democrats had a better media to tell their story.

I have observed that few Main Stream Media outlets misreport the news; they simply under report the news. The less we know, the more mistakes we make.

  • Did you know that the taxpayer-funded subsidy for ethanol amounted to $1.45 per gallon of ethanol sold in 2006? That’s front page news that never appeared on any front page. We paid that out of our already taxed paychecks in addition to the price at the pump. Mistake #1.
  • Did you know that the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailout now amounts to $400 billion? That’s front page news that never appeared on any front page. We will pay that out of our already taxed paychecks in addition to the price “at the pump.” Mistake #2.
  • Did you know that the United States cancer survival rates are significantly better than those in countries with national health care? That’s front page news that never appeared on any front page. About 62.9% of U.S. men and 66.3% of U.S. women survive for at least five years. In Great Britain, on National Health Care, just 44.8% of men and only 52.7% of women live for five years after diagnosis. Other deadly diseases have similar numbers. Mistake #3.

Does the Main Stream Media really twist the news by not publishing it? Do they do it on purpose?

I had hoped someone could tell me who decides what stories to report.

That decision is more than half the battle.

There are eight million stories in the naked city and at least 100 of them happen before deadline, day in and day out. You have 24 total pages for editorial, in between the ads and the funnies and no more because you can’t afford to buy any more pulped trees. You have 21 minutes of total air time less the 2-1/2 or 3 minutes of promos for the upcoming stories, the 4 minutes of weather, and the 3 minutes of sports because God ain’t making any extra minutes in your half hour. You can do up to 12 40-second shorts and one “in depth” 3 minute piece.

Tell me again what 87 stories NOT TO report?

The reason most of the Main Stream Media appears unbalanced has less to do with what they report and more to do with what they don’t.

Many of today’s 87 stories start with the dog biting the postal carrier. That’s news to the Post Office but the two cent stamp hike has far more effect on us. Of the rest, the reason no main stream journal reports that GM sold more cars last month than Toyota is that that fact does not fit the news myth that “no one buys General Motors cars.”

For the record, I have two GM vehicles. I like them.

Also for the record, ethanol in gasoline, bank bailouts, and healthcare are the biggest stories of the last couple of years. I do not like how hard it was to find real information about them.

The news does get managed.

I was asked to take down photos of the construction work in progress on the former Switlik estate. I did. The request was made “to protect the new owner’s privacy.”

  • Privacy? Other sites have similar images (for other examples, check the Realtor’s “we sold this” site or Google maps). No worries there.
  • Space? I have, essentially, unlimited space to publish. No worries there.
  • Copyright? I shot a roll of film legitimately and without challenge. No worries there.

In the end those nice images did little to advance the story and, worse, brought a “paparazzi” feel to the reporting. I really had no need for them and no reason not to say yes to the request.

The news got managed.

I made an editorial decision for the best of reasons but even in this case, there is a little bit less news in the world.

Bottom line: Fewer stories of substance. Less information in the stories. Less news. The less we know, the more mistakes our “free press” assures that we make.

Dear Mr. President:

This is my application for the White House Fiction Corps, um, er … Press Corps. If you have any influence with the Main Stream Media, I would appreciate a little boost.

I’m really good at this stuff, you know.