Home run. Thanks Jane.

Jane! I’ll let the gang know you’re here.

I would have expected UAW to be a little more competent in the sense of doing something. PR isn’t really there thing. But, hey guys, do something. Your future is seriously at stake, here and people ain’t sympathetic and their congresspeople hear that. saw the mayor of Lansing , MI on FOX (I was a captive audience) and he was great. At the end, the lady who interviewed him said “Wow! they ought to let him go before Congress to make the case.” Forget his name.

But…but…Mitt’s daddy knew all about cars. And he’s got awesome hair…he’d be great on the teevee talking about whatever with that hair, doncha know.

Ahem.

Reading the non-Joe Klein posts at Swampland is like slamming your hand in a car door. The only thing they have going for them currently is the fact that Ana Marie Cox appears to have stopped posting.

Something. Anything.

I’ll pass on that, then. i need all my digits for Xmas shopping.

Thanks for the repeated reminders of what will happen to the UAW when (if) the big 3 go into backruptcy.

On top of the stupidity of an anti-stimulus of snuffing out so many jobs, weakening unions is bad, bad, bad and will be felt hard and long for working people.

we gonna have to loan em somethin to save the jobs at the moment. shelby had a number of pointed questions that the big three couldn’t answer. they don’t have a plan. yet.

The UAW is anything but quiet at election time
Their silence now is a little puzzling

Why isn’t Congress drawing up a plan for them? I mean come on, Nancy and Harry, could you be more lackadaisical about something so important?

Mitt – a massivly rejected candidate from a massivly rejected party should be the leader.

Abdication by Time.

You are right that UAW needs to be organized (pun I guess) and should be doing something or at minimum getting out there message.

I tend to think they might be deer in the headlights right now…they know that last of the unions are now having their bodies mopped off the floor after non-stop loses for workers over the last 30 years.

Best union PR piece in recent memory was that speech by the guy from teh AFL-CIO about racism and voting for Obama. Great message and they got it up on Youtube. UAW has allowed management, Richard Shelby and anyone who walked by the door to define their message, who they are and what they stand for.

day fraid to get out in front of it. no one will like any plan that is finalized, imo.

But UAW used to be ballsy. Where’s the balls? Their members deserve balls.

I agree with all the critics that the auto industry is poorly run, and unresponsive to the world around them. But it is myopic not to see the consequences of letting them fold. Bridge loans with the caveat of instant reforms of board membership and oversight should be the order of the day.

I think Mittens only knows about hair care products and spray on tans.

Thanks Jane.

The thing that I worry about is the rest of U.S manufacturing. If the big 2 1/2 are out of the picture our costs for supplies, (steel, aluminum, wire, plastic, hell floor soap, ya know just about everything) which are based on huge economies of scale because of the auto industry, would sky rocket. It would, I fear, wipe us out across the board.

Surely the big 2 1/2 can come up with something comparable to Paulsons 2 1/2 page “plan”

Perhaps it should be “more Kristol” instead of “more cowbell”?

-G

Well, it was founded by Henry Luce, after all. It was always about presenting a narrative favorable to the establishment, not reporting.

It would appear the UAW is moribund. They say the U.S. government has a union, but I don’t believe them.

Scherer should have worked in something about how some Romney might have met MLK once to pump up his bona fides a bit more.

Conventional wisdom around an auto industry bridge loan seems to be minted by Richard Shelby, and nobody is pointing out that the non-union factories in his right-to-work state would stand to benefit from a Detroit collapse.
Actually, Mitch Albom said this in a Detroit Free Press article:
Sen. Shelby. Yes. You. From Alabama. You’ve been awfully vocal. You called the Detroit Three’s leaders “failures.” You said loans to them would be “wasted money.” You said they should go bankrupt and “let the market work.”

Why weren’t you equally vocal when your state handed out hundreds of millions in tax breaks to Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Honda and others to open plants there? Why not “let the market work”? Or is it better for Alabama if the Detroit Three fold so that the foreign companies — in your state — can produce more?

I posted the link — http://www.freep.com/article/2…..371/?imw=Y – yesterday, but it was one of the short threads, and I don’t know if many here caught it.

Thanks Jane.

digg

There must be something for Romney to do. All that talent going to waste. /s

I prefer to get my news from the Onion as opposed to Time.

Consider the insight displayed in the Onion’s latest issue. When reporting on the extraordinary unemployment rates the Onion asked:”Does that mean the unemployment office is hiring to help process the claims?”

Now this is insight a person can use.

LMAO, at the title.

another way to look at the issue is that al made a brilliant move to get manf in their state.

Demi, that’s a great article. Thanks. Mitch Albom really tells it like it is.

Because – it’s OK if you are in the South and want to cannibalize the north for industrial jobs – then it is OK to offer huge government incentives.

Mikey Scherer use Teh Google? … Hahahahahaha!!!! He can’t even tie his own shoelaces. He goes to the Mark Halperin school of hacktacular journalism.

I think Mitt Romney would be an excellent choice for auto czar. Not only does he own cars but he can see them from his house. And he already has ideas about new car models that will be needed if the industry is to survive, like the one where you can tie a dog to the roof. That’s got to be a winner right there.

Another way of seeing two Americas.
Another reason for the citizens to make sure their representatives know how they feel.
Another reason to go back to bed and pull up the sheet.
(just kidding on the third.)

Heh – another reason for America to make the decision that we’re a country that “makes stuff” again – and that makes “good stuff” and makes it in a smart way. Don’t get me started…

Virg Benero.

hey, just a quick survey here. how many own car? how many? suv?

1 car! Not an SUV!

I would think Mitt might have a better chance heading up an Arizona City bid to be the site for the 2018 winter olympics.

Well, ya know, since the GOP is against it………….
http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/1…../index.htm
I guess we’ll have to wait for the new Congress. I hope it’s not too late by then. things sure seem to be moving fast these days.
I loathe the thought of China owning our auto industry, sorta like I loathed the House of Saud owning Citigroup; but there it is.

Damn! you’d think this would be a no-brainer; but then, someone would have to have BRAINS, I guess……….

one truck here.

Jane,

IMHO, Time magazine does covers and coverups really well, and that’s about it. love the tin cans & string meme. When are we going to be asked to bail out Time Magazine?

If people are going to juggle with economic knives here using Time Magazine as a stage, is it too much to ask that they be able to use the Google?

Yes. These are, after all, the people who employ Mark Halperin.

After Mitt, a member of the cult of Mormon, said GM should go into bankruptcy I doubt he’ll be welcomed back to Michigan. He pandered during the primaries to get votes but now he’s willing to see 3-5 million workers lose their jobs. If they only could all be bankers.

Two hybrids, one 2002 being driven by my son at school. No SUVs, ever.

May be as good a spot to ask this as any — Somewhere saw that tax breaks are given to companies if they can move their manufacturing activities offshore. Does anyone have more info on what this might be about? And why such a policy has been allowed? And why there isn’t pressure to make it the other way around: tax breaks if you make stuff here?

As a UAW member I can only say that the misinformation concerning the concessions made in last two contracts have gone unnoticed by the general public. Sure the auto pundits were quick to give us credit for our “forward thinking” in trying to save the industry. But please think about it… no one will believe anything announced or reported that gives a positive spin on being a UAW union member. I happen to work for a supplier that had production wages cut in half, vacation time taken away, more out of pocket costs for health care, new hires with NO pension. Thats right no pension.

I find it amusing that we (UAW) are being accused of not being willing to change. Work rules, trade classifications have all been adjusted to try and compete. The health care nut is killing the companies. The general public and unfortunatly some “progressive bloggers” keep hammering the $70 an hour meme. After a while you just get numb to it all. These past couple of weeks have really been an eye opener for me. I have worked for Democratic candidates my entire life. Phone banking, door to door canvassing, GOTV and I got to tell you I am sick at what I see from Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. No leadership on an issue that involves millions of jobs??? They want to protect the 25 billion for fuel efficiency??? If there are no auto companies you can send that money to Alabama, Detroit wont need it. I don’t have a crystal ball but let me just say that the Republicans have outflanked the Democratic leadership on this issue. If the companies fail it will be on them. With overwhelming majorities in both houses it IS on them. If they walk away from this and let these companies fail say goodbye to Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana and maybe Pennselvania the people will not forget who abandoned them in their time of need and will turn from Blue to Red. If the UAW seems silent it is because no one believes or wants to believe that we have changed. Just a greedy bunch that wants to have a pension and health care. Just who the hell do we think we are anyway.

Diary-worthy, Demi….

Don’t look for the corporatist media to get this “out there.” Then it might become Cokie fact, and we can’t have that.

One Honda, and unfortunately have to say it insists on getting 22 mpg, vs 24+ for my old Taurus wagon.

Rather than a bailout they’d do a public service by just torching the place and try to collect the insurance. They should be coming to the realization no one wants to read the drivel of a Halperin or a Scherer et al.

Ian’s got a new post up: “Congress to Pass Bailout Sized Stimulus”

Romney could build a car – make it his own brand. It would be an American version of a Bentley. Long in the nose, small inside, big on horsepower with lousy mileage, but man are they cool and expensive. All the big bankers could buy them with their bailout money. Romney could then donate the profits to bankers.

No help for William Clay Ford until he sells the Detroit Lions to someone who knows how to run a football team.

Great catch!

I’ll got post over at Oxdown so that more people can read Albom’s article.
:)

You know the old one about why the brits didn’t make tvs – they couldn’t figure out how to make them leak oil.

Yeah!! I knew it was Italian – or Italian sounding. he was very good. Had to agree with the FOX lady.

“Two Tin Cans and a piece of string” … and not one McCain joke … I guess the election really is over … *g*

jeffery sachs testifying before congress last week (and here i thought sachs was only a slightly less crazy version of neoliberal):

if gm goes down, and it is busted apart, the cascade affects as mr. mcelya said are absolutely absolutely real. cascading failures will run through thousands of enterprises because this is a big business. many percent of gnp and what’s interesing about it also because of the machining in this industry you lose the supplier, you could actually interrupt production not even of the failing companies but of all the companies. there are real risks of casacading bankruptcy and then supply side seizures. if on says, well, that’s a worse case scenario. you’re just frightening us, that’s what they said on lehman brothers on september 15. we’ll show how markets work. let’s close them down. and then you had cascading failures that have shocked the world the like we’ve not seen for 75 years. now, with our economy absolutely on it’s back, if we tried that, that’s one of those things that i would not try at home. i’ve spend a career watching financial crisises. we do not want to let a major company go bankrupt right now like this. this would be a disaster. just a disaster. so we’d end up with certainly double-digit unemployment rates in the is country. we’d endd up with 15 to 20% unemployment rates throughout the midwest. i never thought i would live to see us approaching a depresssion. i was trained for and i’ve taught for 30 years at harvard and columbia that we’ve learned all the tricks. that doesn’t have to happen. we’re flirting with that right now.

my typos – sorry.

Michael Scherer over at Swampland writes about what a swell idea it would be to have Mitt Romney, who has been demagoguing the auto industry crisis, as “auto czar.” (Mitt’s dad was head of an auto maker that is no longer in business, I guess this somehow qualifies him as an expert in the field.)

He actually drove a car, so that makes him the expert, doncha know?

Definition of Expert- Ex is a has-been, and a spert is a drip under pressure