George W. Bush finally found the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. No wonder they were so hard to find. Everyone had them on their feet.

Why did the auto bailout get blocked?

"Why was the plan blocked? An e-mail message circulated among Senate Republicans declared that denying the auto industry a loan was an opportunity for Republicans to “take their first shot against organized labor.”"

From the New York Times.

Let me explain capitalism to you. Success is determined by what people want. And people are struck by fads. If you catch a wave, you become wealthy beyond imagination. Sometimes hard work and intelligence play a role in success. Sometimes . . . they don't. Hard work and intelligence alone result in a life lived on the edge. Your job is always insecure, even if you work for the country's or the world's largest company. Downsizing, bubbles, shifts in the fads (goodbye typewriters hello pc) . . . all can sweep away your security. How could bad loans made to people who can't pay their mortgage wipe out ordinary Americans home values and destroy their ability to sell their homes and go to another place. Today the invention of a new software makes another obsolete and 100,000 lose their jobs.

Teddie Joe Neely sings the role of Jesus in Jesus Christ superstar. He has had a successful career in pop music / Broadway singing. He really has no training as a singer. He just sings like he sings. This morning I heard women talking about how his voice is just a beautiful as it was 30 years ago (he's 65 now), the narrator spoke of his high notes being as good as ever, and pregnant women apparently come to him back stage and ask him to bless their babies. The thing is he has a gravelly, underpitch, uninteresting, untrained sound. The people who like him are as nuts as the pregnant ladies wanting blessing. But he's rich and famous.

Capitalism.

How can you give $700 billion to banking and then filibuster to stop the auto industry from getting any. The Repubs learned nothing from the election and are still at war with the American Middle Class.

As for the ruse that UAW wages and benefits are what is dragging the companies down, wages only make up 8% of the cost of a car and many Detroit models are already priced lower than their non-American counterparts.

And as for the economy myth, as in not enough fuel economy in Detroit models, well guess who makes the most 30 mpg cars. Ford. Hmmm.

If the Auto Makers fail, they will suck the American economy into a black hole. And is there any escape from a black hole? The suppliers to the auto makers will fail with out them to sell to and guess who these same suppliers also sell to--Toyoto, Lexus, Honda, Saab, etc. So those guys will go down the same drain at the same time. What maker would survive? I don't know. And the loss of a million high paying middle class jobs would start a new round of foreclosures, a new spiral of home prices falling, and perhaps the end of the American dream for the next 50 years.

Senator Shelby and his ilk must be stopped at all costs. If it takes throwing Alabama out of the union, do it!

Nothing but retribution.

The current wailing in the congress by Republicans against any bailout of the auto industry is just payback to the United Auto Workers Union for supporting Barack Obama. The treasury department just got $700,000,000,000 from the same people with hardly any complaint to help keep bankers and hedgefunds afloat. Senator Shelby from Alabama was not on TV every other day advocating that we just let those banks fail. But now he is on full scale attack. Well he's angry that his party has been reduced so greatly by the recent elections and that the UAW backed the democrats. Now he has the chance to hurt the UAW, perhaps even break their back, by simply stalling what is an inevitable rescue plan for automakers. Truthfully, they were making a profit in the first quarter of 2008 but with the downturn they have dropped 40%. I talked with a Lexus dealer who is a friend last week and asked him how was business. He said "We are down 40%, just like everyone else." Shelby also doesn't point out that he has 4 non-union auto manufacturing plants in his state that will benefit by hard times for Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors.

Retribution and payback is business as usual for Repub politicians. So no lesson was learned by their massive defeats in the last two elections. They are still playing the same games.

As for the lies put forward that the autoworkers are making $77 an hour, see the real scoop here.

I was alive and going about my business. I had heard of the Students for a Democratic Society. I heard of the Weather Underground on TV. I had a draft card and after being 1-A for a time I was reclassified 2-S (student deferment) after it became clear from my lottery number (23) that I would be drafted in January of the next year. I think that was 1970. I walked in candlelight vigils protesting the Vietnam war and was amazed to see hundreds of protesters on North Campus at UGA. We sang songs and heard speakers. As my graduation neared I was called by the army to take my army physical at the induction center in the old Ford Plant building down on Ponce de Leon Avenue in Atlanta. I passed the physical. I was told to be prepared to be drafted as soon as I graduated. But fate intervened and in January of 1973 or thereabouts, they stopped the draft, the war ending at last. I've been to the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington D.C. and found the name of my boy scout and school friend Michael Turner who died in Vietnam on his seventh day of service there as a U.S. Marine. The Vietnam war stirred strong emotions.

I have wondered who Bill Ayers was during that time because of the recent political campaign that called him an "unrepentant domestic terrorist." I wondered why there were no interviews with Professor Ayers. I read nothing from him, saw nothing of him, and I guess I thought he probably was a pretty bad guy who seemed to have changed his ways over the years to become an education professor. Now "education professor" really makes me think he is a very dull guy today. But finally Mr. Ayers has spoken. He waited until after the election. He is eloquent in describing himself and it appears that although he was a radical guy in the Vietnam War period, he was probably never a terrorist as we think of it today. His words however do express regrets, many regrets for his behavior, and he says that he can not imagine acting in such a manner today. So I guess you could say that he condemns his own behavior. I'm glad that he has spoken up about himself. I agree with him on one salient point. I too wish I knew Barack Obama better.

Read his short article in today's New York Times.