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Republican Ownerships as Potential Scandal Emerges



            Yes, Virginia, Santa Obama does know who’s “naughty and nice” and does pick the winners and losers! Naughty Republicans get coal in their stockings and Nice Progressive Democrats (forget those “Blue Dog moderate Dems, young lady) get to hold onto their part of the American Dream, ho, ho, ho!



            As most Americans are aware, “GM” now might as well stand for “Government Motors.” Both General Motors and Chrysler as official corporate “wards of the state” are government-controlled entities run by the Obama administration . . . run, it seems with quite a bit of partisanship and crony-capitalism in mind.     



            Let’s put this apparent partisan scandal in personal terms, imagine yourself a businessman or businesswomen whose family has owned a car dealerships for the last 80-90 years. Imagine yourself being told that your well-respected and highly profitable GM dealership is ordered closed while nearby dealerships less profitable or even ones actually losing money are allowed to stay open. Would you be shocked? Would you be outraged?   Imagine further that GM comes to you and orders you to turn over your list of car customers and service-department customers (presumably to help your less-profitable competitors) . . . would you like the idea that your $15 million business was made worthless overnight so that an Obama campaign contributor competing with you might now find the playing field “more level?”



            Well you don’t have to imagine any of this after all:   after the auto bailouts were first announced, a second announcement was almost immediately made stating the intention of Chrysler and General Motors to close roughly 2,100 dealerships across the nation.   Later it became known that some of the proposed closures involved highly profitable dealerships in the same vicinity as less profitable or even UNprofitable ones which were to remain open . . . why the citizen-voter asked himself would you close any profitable dealerships, much less the MOST profitable ones?   If you’re closing dealerships why would you leave any UNprofitable opens at all? Apparently politics may have played a big part since the numbers of McCain campaign contributors dramatically outnumbered the numbers of Obama donors among those to be closed down. No wonder surveys show 42% of Americans say they won’t buy Chrysler or GM cars because of the bailouts . . . .



            To top matters off, an additional 2,800 dealerships have recently been notified that they’ll be closed down this year.   Yes, including some profitable and highly-profitable ones located near other UNprofitable or barely profitable ones allowed to stay open once again. These issues are now being contested bitterly by about 22% of the notified dealerships, but rest easy there’s hope;  it seems after all, if Barney Frank or other Democratic representatives or senators like your politics, dealers protesting the closures are far more likely to win the right to stay open after all.



            Given the scenario shown above, how much confidence would you place in a “Car Czar” named by President Obama whose integrity, qualifications and past history had never been investigated by Congress or the FBI (as customarily occurs with real presidential appointees)? Would you be surprised to find that said Czar (one of 40+ Czar appointments made by Obama to run the country like a personal empire without Congressional oversight), a fellow named Steve Rattner, was a very close personal friend of Barack Obama and one of the most successful Democratic political-fund raisers in history. Besides Czar Steve Rattner being himself a powerful Democratic fund-raiser; his wife Maureen White was formerly the finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Rattner was himself also formerly a reporter for the New York Times, among the most progressive newspapers in the country.   One might expect the tendency toward favoring Democratic contributors over conservative businessmen must have been difficult for Rattner to overcome . . . .



            But, but, but, would you be surprised to then find Mr. Rattner only a few months later quietly giving up his Car Czar position and, to avoid criminal punishment, paying out $10 million in settlement fees to the State of New York for his part in a kickback and influence-peddling scandal pulled off four years earlier. Would it surprise you that such a crucial player in the Obama administration was now hawking a book on his extensive experience in the auto industry despite having virtually none?   The extensive Imperial Obama czardoms are full of such stories and it’s not likely we’ll find fairness and free-market values well-protected by their ilk.



http://teapartyorg.ning.com/video/is-anyone-minding-the-store-at



            Supposedly the American Arbitration Association is now handling the 600+ claims from among the 2,800 revoked dealerships, but in actual fact numerous documented instances show that dealers who visited Democratic representatives and senators found themselves immediately granted face-to-face interviews and eventual successful retention of dealerships while dealers who’ve relied on merely filling out the required arbitration paperwork get no such preferential treatment . . . one can only imagine the huge amount of Democratic-butts that are kissed and the eventual campaign donations involved in this fair and unbiased process.   Of course  Republican congressman Buchanan who found his Chrysler dealership slated for closure (while a competing dealership chain in Missouri and Arkansas partly owned by former Clinton White House chief of staff Mack McLarty and partly owned by a huge Democratic fund-raiser who have magically seen numerous nasty conservative competitors eliminated) has not had much luck appealing his case to the powers that be . . . it’s probably just a coincidence that while hundreds of G.O.P. contributors are being closed down, so far just one Obama 2008 contributor among all the hundreds of closures so far has surfaced.



            The Republican representative in question, (who has a Nissan dealership as well in Venice, Florida), called the proposed closures an outrage, “It’s no problem for me, it’s not about me, I’m going to be fine; but we’re talking about 100,000 jobs around the country . . . we’re supposed to be creating jobs.” Were these Chrysler and GM ownerships closed down for voting or donating to Republican candidates?



http://www.businessinsider.com/internet-trying-to-figure-out-if-chrysler-dealerships-were-politically-motivated-2009-5



            A  lawyer representing a group of  Chrysler dealers who are on the “hit list” deposed senior Chrysler executives and later told Reuters News Agency that the closings have been forced on the company by the White House. "It became clear to us that Chrysler does not see the wisdom of terminating 25 percent of its dealers. It really wasn't Chrysler's decision. They are under enormous pressure from the President's automotive task force," according to attorney Leonard Bellavia.



            Government making economic decisions is bad, bad news . . . but government intervening in the free market (car dealerships are just small businesses after all) can be ultra-political at worst and just plain stupid at best. Since a significant amount of the closures were of profitable dealerships and since the Obama administration’s auto task force is doing the deciding on whose business lives or dies, on the face of it this looks very ugly. The “criteria” for these decisions MUST BE RELEASED to the public. 



            In fairness, we must say that since car dealerships are small businesses and often family-owned small businesses . . . any educated guess would have to put the political propensities of dealership owners at anywhere from 75% to 90% conservative. Since conservatives overwhelming favor low taxes, low government spending and operating government in a businesslike fashion without deficits and debt . . . one would expect donations from dealership owners to be overwhelmingly Republican. However, contrast the treatment of teachers (union members 90%; Democrats 86% and well-documented Obama supporters) with that of their handling of small businessmen in general, not to mention this potentially scandalous treatment of GM and Chrysler dealership owners . . . would we expect to see Mr. Obama’s people closing down school teacher positions in the rather brusque and unintelligent, indeed counter-intelligent fashion they’ve used on car dealers? Even IF no actual scandal emerges . . . surely all of  this points out the evil inherent in letting government pick and choose winners and losers in the free market?



            Let us be even more pointed in criticizing the egregious corruption we see here . . . Even the New York Times as well as hundreds of other liberal newspapers recently criticized Mr. Obama’s lackluster budget attempt. Your blogger Rajjpuut would say that in this "Obama-Motors Scandal" Mr. Obama willfully used a frayed toothpick when it came to cutting out parts of the bloated federal budget but chose a bulldozer when dealing with the GM and Chrysler dealerships.

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

Twenty Key Issues for America

Item: The Phoenix Suns now sport an ultra-ugly jersey with “Los Suns” on it, to join in the protest against the Arizona immigration law . . . low class, stupid and a PR disaster for them. May they be eliminated from the playoffs A.S.A.P.; why do celebrities think their voice means any more than a trash-collector’?

Item: The spill/leak at the British Petroleum oil derrick in the Gulf of Mexico was abetted because A) The U.S. government ignored its legal responsibility to have eight fire booms on the BP site . . . and had none -- and you thought the Titanic life boat problem was gross B) Both the Bush administration and the Obama administration signed off on safety violations at the BP site . . . why in hell would anyone with half a brain ever do such a thing? C) BP made a huge campaign contribution to Barack Obama and was purportedly “happy in bed with” the extreme left wingers of the administration D) The explosion was immediately pooh-poohed by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and despite their revisionism, the Obama folks were not “on the case from Day One” E) Obama said he didn’t want to go to New Orleans early because he might get in the way . . . exactly what Bush said after Katrina for which he was excoriated, but the liberal media is understanding and supportive of the Anointed One, of course. There’s no “getting in the way,” Mr. President, the problem is in the Gulf, your motorcade doesn’t float.

Item: C-SPAN cameras are not allowed in the room where the Obama Debt Commission meets.

Item: The new Arizona Immigration Law has been deliberately misrepresented as racial profile by 78% of news coverage even as 61% of Americans and 70% of Americans think the law is a good idea. And the big cheerleading, Barack Obama is inciting UNinformed Hispanics to RIOT. The bill specifically forbids racial profiling . . . specifically . . . Obama is inflaming the situation by distorting the truth. The Arizona law is written to respect entirely the federal law which Obama is not enforcing. By the way, Mr. Obama why are you repaying the everyday cop for their crucial work with accusations of unmitigated racial bigotry . . . just like you did last year at your "beer summit." For a supposedly intelligent man you don't learn very quickly. Cops are not boogy men, Sir!

Item: The major plunge on Wall Street was aggravated by “automatic trading programs” kicking in. The problem is always stated when such events occur that the “little guys got scared” and caused a panic. Bull feces, October of 1987, and every panic since then has been triggered and abetted by the big guys and their automatic sell programs. This was a luck example of a potentially devastating juxtaposition of problems: A) the so-called fat finger response? So If I want to make a quick killing, I get my brother to sell short a given stock and then I fat-finger it and the markets be damned we make a small fortune . . . there’s some actual financial reform that needs to be done B) automatic sell programs creating a potentially out-of-control situation that the floor specialists can abuse to skin everybody selling stock. And the result, sooner or later? During a real panicked sell off someone with several real large short position will just get a “fat finger” and trigger a financial Armageddon. That’s financial reform that’s actually needed.

Item: Greece, the perfect nanny state is going down the tubes. Unions riled up by the Greek Communists are getting violently ugly. The cost to American taxpayers of our involvement in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is somewhere between $7-8 Billion and there’s no guarantee that the problem is so-easily solved. Take notice: trying to live with unsustainable debt, doesn’t work. Now we’re bailing out Greece.

Item: The NYC would-be car bomb disappointed a gal reporter on MSNBC who admitted she wasn’t happy that a Muslim was associated with this because stupid prejudiced people would use it for bigotry. Well EXCUSE me, some Muslim extremist tries to kill Americans in Time Square and she’s pointing the finger at Americans who want to call a Muslim Extremist a Muslim extremist instead of being politically correct. Where are your priorities? Where is your integrity? Where is your patriotism, Lady?

Item: The NYC car-bomber wanna be, actually got on an airplane attempting escape . . . without luggage . . . paying in cash . . . though he was on a no-fly listing . . . and headed for Dubai . . . and yes, he certainly looked middle-eastern.

Item: Al Gore’s purchase of another palace, this time a $9 million mansion along side the supposedly rising ocean near Montecito, California went unreported in the mainstream media. They first ignore the November 17^th Climate Gate revelations that even the ultra-liberal London Times researches the story and buries global-warming alarmism . . . they’ve ignored the biggest financial and scientific fraud in history (Cap and trade admitted by a member of CCX to be a “Ten TRillion industry) now for almost six months . . . this is journalism? Now the ultimate hypocrite, Gore, who tends to make a huge part of that $10 TRillion from the hoax of global warming buys yet another mansion (he’s not selling any, folks) with a carbon footprint probably fifty thousand times as great as old Rajjpuut’s and the media won’t cover this scandal.

Item: Joe Biden called General Motor’s so-called payoff of their bailout loan “a wondrous achievement. No, Joe, it’s no achievement at all. GM’s Obama-appointed CEO Whiteacre merely took money from a bailout slush fund to “pay off the loan” and Rajjpuut is wondering, how can the Federal Trade Commision allow this kind of fraudulent advertising without stepping in? By the way talking of bailouts, Chrysler and Freddie Mac both need another sip of the bailout brew.

Item: Besides their deliberate refusal to run the Climate-Gate Scandal about the falsified global warming records at East Anglia University’s Climate Research Unit (CRU); the media has now ignored for two weeks the story of President Obama and ex Vice-President Gore’s conflict of interest as part of the Chicago Climate eXchange. The story is not complicated. Look it up for yourself and connect the dots: The Tides Foundation receives funding from the Joyce Foundation and several other Progressive Foundations (very much like money-laundering). If Cap and Trade is passed the next hundred millionaires will include Gore, Obama, Sandor, Joel Rogers (the man behind the curtain); the AFLCIO, SEIU, Bill Ayers’ brother John Ayers, four or five Goldman Sachs bigwigs; Goldman Sachs the company itself and about twenty other semi-prominent individuals. Even Fannie Mae, holding a patent for the program that would sell the blue sky that Cap and Trade is based upon stands to benefit. Why no story?

Item: The flooding in Tennessee and the Cumberland region is a real disaster. No it’s not as environmentally interesting to the BP spill in the gulf, but this is a genuine crisis about the scale of forty tornadoes hitting one region in one day and the president of the United States and his administration have totally ignored it. Sorry, Barack, floods may not be “sexy” but they are an emergency.

Item: One of Rajjpuut’s favorite reader-blog commenters Phil DiJoseph, said this about a recent blog “Greecey Debt Sends Europe Sliding a Super Slippery Slope” as the situation in Greece worsens and the U.S. financial scenario comes more and more to resemble Greece’s: “I think you will see a lot of what is happening in Greece courtesy of the labor unions here in the U.S. Keep your eye on New Jersey where the governor just cut a billion dollars in education aid. The teachers unions are pulling out all the stops to convince tax payers to keep funding their salaries, pensions and benefits at current levels (actually, they are making their pitch that the Governor is hurting education and the children) but that is just not going to happen. Voters chose to force school boards to make deep cuts rather than agreeing to have their property taxes raised to make up for the shortfall. This is perhaps the first time in American history that voters have effectively put the breaks on out of control government spending. The crapola would have certainly hit the United Auto Workers fan much sooner had Obama not bailed out the automakers and enriched the unions. Expect to see all hell break loose, as it has in Greece, when the pink slips start arriving to union members and other give-backs are mandated to balance state budgets.”

Rajjpuut comments . . . Thanks Phil, remember this, for the first time in history a U.S. President got involved in a public corporation’s bankruptcy . . . indeed he outright orchestrated every step of the Chrysler and GM bankruptcies and took the money owed by law to the Chrysler creditors and handed it to unions that supported his presidency. And who is ultimately responsible? The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the Chrysler creditors’ case.

Item: We’re finally seeing a resurgence of the importance of the 10^th Amendment of the Bill of Rights, the most little known and appreciated of our Bill of Rights’ Amendments. It is the 10^th Amendment which makes our particular experiment in Republican government with Democratic powers allotted to the individual such a marvelous success. Even more states are filing suit against Obamacare based upon the 10^th Amendment. About six states recently have also said they’re in the process of re-creating their version of the Arizona immigration law. And several states are seeking to oppose the federal government’s forcibly making them pay for various other federally mandated programs that are bankrupting those states.

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut