GM Tanking, Spends $600-million on British Sports Team

When history looks back at the (hopefully) only term of Barack Obama, I imagine the three biggest blunders will be Obamacare, his failure to support Israel while sitting idly by while the Arab-Muslim world was thrown into chaos and his insane, union-biased buying of General Motors with our tax dollars.

The first two I've discussed often but the last one is one that Romney can pounce on during the debates and probably the one the average American knows least about.

Mickey Kaus notes that there is severe havoc over at old Government Motors while the stock price for that company is trading near it's 52-week low, investors are seeing nearly a 30% loss on their investment in the last 12 months. Add to that the abject failure of the Chevy Volt, which we keep throwing good money after bad supporting, and the lame line of vehicles along all lines and we as taxpayers are saddled with a huge loss. And no, whatever anyone says, 17,700 vehicles sold is nowhere near a sustainable number considering we as taxpayers are subsidizing $7,500 of each sale.

But it gets worse. This week, GM decided to really ram it up our asses and signed a deal with Manchester United to have their name emblazoned on the jersey of the British soccer club. The cost? $600-million smackers. The alleged perpetrator was canned but the deal lives and we are on the hook for it:

On Sunday, GM ousted its global marketing chief, Joel Ewanick, and told him it was for failing to properly vet financial details of a roughly $600 million Chevrolet-Manchester United agreement, according to people familiar with the matter.

So to sum it all up, Obama OK'd a deal to prop up a company that should have gone into bankruptcy giving a sweetheart deal to unions like the UAW while giving investors and non-union suppliers the finger, the company has tanked leaving us holding a bag full of shit and then the company throws a half-billion away on a gimmick to lure European buyers in a market that is minuscule when compared to others and a greater continental economy that is in shambles. I guess when offshoring jobs is a normal thing, sending our money to Britain is easy.

Make sense? Not to me either.

Volt Lacks Spark, Chevy Scales Back Production

Americans have always loved our cars. During the 50's and 60's, boys dreamed of owning a Bel Air or T-Bird and roaring down the highway. Then came the 70's and 80's where the big three turned out horrible cars like the Vega, the Chevette and the Buick revamped Mustangs. I won't even mention the GMC Gremlin and Pacer. The unions gained enormous clout, the designers had a tin ear when it came to creating what people wanted and gas prices became a factor.

From the 80's until the 00's we saw some innovative designs released. Ford and the Japanese companies designed stylish cars that were built to last with Hyundai offering 100,000 mile warranties.

Now here we are in the 21st century and we may as well be back in the bad years again. Now, unions own two of the big three (gifted to them by Obama) and they've politicized the business to the point that they are back resisting what we actually want to buy and trying to force us into cars we have no desire to be seen in.

At the top of that list is the Chevy Volt:

General Motors has told 1,300 employees at its Detroit Hamtramck that they will be temporarily laid off for five weeks as the company halts production of the Chevrolet Volt and its European counterpart, the Opel Ampera.

“Even with sales up in February over January, we are still seeking to align our production with demand,” said GM spokesman Chris Lee.

Lee said employees were told Thursday that production would put on hold from March 19 to April 23.

The Chevrolet Volt, an extended-range electric car, is both a political lightning rod and a symbol of the company’s technological capability.

Chevrolet sold 1,023 Volts in the U.S. in February and has sold 1,626 so far this year.

In 2011, Chevrolet sold 7,671 Volts, but fell short of its initial goal of 10,000.

GM had planned to expand production of its Volt plug-in hybrid to 60,000 this year, with 45,000 earmarked for the U.S.

Will Americans buy an alternative fuel vehicle? Yes they will. But one that is priced right from the outset and doesn't require government subsidies to afford. 80 miles just isn't cutting it and the public isn't buying it because of that. Add to the cost the fact that GM and Chrysler accepted government funding that they will never pay back and you have the exact reasons why the Volt is not selling.

Democrats demagogue the oil companies while the majority of the public blame Obama's policies for skyrocketing prices. Green jobs and green tech have failed to materialize and be self-sufficient in the way Obama planned and the Volt is just the latest case on top of Solyndra and the myriad other "green" companies propped up by our dollars.

Americans want style, comfort and quality above all else and the Volt is none of those.

Picture borrowed from a guy in my profession.

Race Plays Into Every Obama Administration Decision

Remember when we elected Obama and we were told that we have now entered a post-racial America? Instead, we now have an America divided by race but it's not white people who are the oppressors but the exact opposite:

[D]ealerships were retained because they were recently appointed, were key wholesale parts dealers, or were minority- or woman-owned dealerships. [Emphasis added.]

Not unexpected as Obama has zero business experience and grew to maturity under the tutelage of Reverend Jeremiah Wright who speaks nothing but racial disharmony. Instead of making the smart business decision to shutter dealerships that were making little profit, he opted to choose who stays open and who closes based on the type of chromosome or the color of the owners skin. The exact opposite of what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached.

As William Tate notes:

Thus, to meet numbers forced on them by the Obama administration, General Motors and Chrysler were forced to shutter other, potentially more viable, dealerships. The livelihood of potentially tens of thousands of families was thus eliminated simply because their dealerships were not minority- or woman-owned.

As has been widely reported, the Inspector General's study skewered the Obama Gang for strong-arming the companies into closing 2,000 dealerships, costing an estimated 100,000 people their jobs during a recession.

Note that it's you and I who own Chrysler and General Motors and we are forced to just accept the fact that Barack Obama made what should have been a purely business choice based solely on race and gender, thus putting our investment in a deeper hole.

That's the entire philosophy of Team Obama: when in doubt, choose the option that's not best for America but best for minority Americans.

Saturday Morning News & Notes

Off to Pace, Florida for the USSSA Baseball World Series with my boy. Exciting times for a 13-year old.

Here's what's new.

-Comparing the cowboy code to the left code. I'll take the cowboy code every single time.

-The Russians aren't too happy about the South Park portrayal of Vlad Putin. Lighten up, Vladimir.

-NY Times writer David Brooks says a GOP senator had "his hand on my inner thigh" during a "whole" dinner party. Er, David, why would you let him leave it there unless of course you liked it, which would make the question moot.

-We are if desperate of another Reagan while the Brits could surely use another Thatcher. Unfortunately, on the US side of the pond we are in short supply of Conservatives save Rick Perry and Sarah Palin.

-DHS sneaking toward open borders. Amnesty and decreased regulatory authority are on the way.

-Obama set to give the "rich" a good soaking. Socialism lives in the US.

-Government Motors making life miserable for private, non-government-owned entities. The administration is seeking to destroy all industry in one way or another.

-Update: It seems as though I'm sensing more buyers remorse than previously. Kilroy seems to be experiencing it but more importantly, he joins the numerous Obama supporters who are realizing the stimulus was a bad idea the way it was constructed.

Monday Evening News and Notes

Posting light over the weekend as I was in Virginia with my son in a baseball tournament. Nothing more American than that. His team didn't do so well but I assistant-coached a 14U team that took the championship over a team from Harrisburg. I was proud of kids who I just met this weekend and bonded with pretty quick.

Anyway, here's the news:

--A good piece on global warming alarmism from AJ Fluerh. This from DC Writeup where you can read opinion on just about anything.

--On a similar note, the green police are coming after you if you reside in merrie olde England.

--Bush library to display the pistol Saddam Hussein's was carrying when we smoked him out of the spider hole. He won't be needing it anymore so I see no problems with it.

--About what I expected; the American public is steering a wide path away from GM and Chrysler--both now essentially owned and operated by the government and unions--and heading to non-government owned Ford.

--Why do I have a sinking feeling that Obama's going to get hoodwinked by Medvedev? Our guy was schooled in the fine art of diplomacy and leadership by the likes of ACORN while theirs was schooled by the former head of the KGB.

--Obama runs for office on the governments dime and no one says anything. Sarah Palin decides to do the right thing and not make the state pay for her political ambition and it's the top story for days. The left hates Palin even more than Bush at this point and sure as hell don't say that lightly.

--Reuters is up to their old tricks again. Why do these MSM idiots still believe they can get away with this kind of bullshit?

Public Won't Buy From Government Motors

A large majority of GM owners say that no, they would not be interested in buying a GM vehicle in the future:

Only 42% of those who currently own a General Motors car are even somewhat likely to buy a GM product for their next car. That figure includes just 30% who are Very Likely to do so.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 43% of current GM owners are not likely to buy another GM car, while 16% are not sure.

Democrats who own GM cars are somewhat more likely than others to buy their next car from GM.

i was discussing this with someone the other day and said the exact same. I would buy a Ford since they've not gone into bankruptcy but never a GM. I'm not sure if it's the fact that the union that sank them was handed a gift of ownership or the fact that those who invested were given the finger that bothers me so bad but both do.

No thanks, if the quality was suspect before, it's going to be atrocious now and the unions will get a good idea of just how bad things are for those of us who don't have the government to bail us out. They took our money and acted smug about it so now they'll understand that socialism is a cancer and they were the reason it was foisted on us.

I'm kind of mixed on this as GM is the test case for Obamanomics and he won't let it fail. He'll pour more money into the black hole and we'll be paying for it for decades. Even so, I'm not buying from Obama Motors.

Hat tip: Hot Air who also brings us the stunning news that more people trust the GOP with the economy than BHO.

Update: SCOTUS stays sale of Chrysler.

Whither America? GM Now Government Motors

It is incomprehensible but yet it is true. Here we sit on June 1, 2009 and GM-- a company that is synonymous with America--is now owned by America and the unions who were instrumental in the downfall of the once-proud manufacturing behemoth.

We now own stakes in banking firms, insurance firms and now two automobile manufacturing firms. in short, we've become a socialist nation that nationalizes industries under the guise of saving them.

There once was a time that a company that couldn't survive was allowed to claim bankruptcy, work deals out with their creditors and then re-emerge slimmer and more productive. Not so anymore; Obama saw his opportunity and he took it. He gave the unions a gift and men and women who invested their hard-earned money the finger. It's a sad day to be an American in what is now fully Obamanation.

Michael Moore--as usual--gets it as wrong as anyone could. Other thoughts here.