December 2008 archive

1. The LA Times reports Bush considering use of Wall Street bailout funds to aid auto industry. George W. “Bush was considering using money from the Wall Street bailout fund to help prevent the collapse of U.S. automakers after White House-backed legislation to provide $14 billion in emergency loans died in the Senate, administration officials said today.”

   McClatchy Newspapers add “The White House reluctantly said Friday morning that it would consider using money from the controversial financial-rescue fund to help ailing automakers, just hours after late-night talks to rescue U.S. automakers from potential bankruptcy collapsed on Capitol Hill.”

   For weeks, lawmakers and the White House have battled over the use of money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. That $700 billion Wall Street rescue fund, which Congress approved in October, was designed to help stabilize the banking sector, but congressional Democrats have wanted to tap it for a $14 billion bridge loan to Detroit’s Big Three automakers.

   The administration has insisted instead on using an energy-efficiency loan approved for carmakers, but the failure of Senate negotiations over a bailout for the automakers late Thursday night left the administration in a bind.

   Although it’s opposed using TARP funds, it now must choose between the lesser of two evils. Does it use money designated for the banking system to save automakers, setting a precedent for other industries to seek these funds? Or does it risk allowing carmakers to go bankrupt amid a deepening recession?

   And the NY Times reports Senate Republican blame the U.A.W. over bailout failure. “Senator Bob Corker, a Republican of Tennessee, suggested the fault lay with the U.A.W.’s president, Ron Gettelfinger, whose union declined to agree to allow wage concessions in 2009 as part of a deal.”

2. The NY Times reports North Korea nuclear talks collapse.

   A final push by President Bush to complete an agreement to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear weapons program collapsed Thursday, leaving the confrontation with one of the world’s most isolated and intractable nations to the administration of President-elect Barack Obama.

   Four days of negotiations in Beijing ended in an impasse after North Korea refused to agree to a system of verifying that it had ended all nuclear activity, which it had pledged to do. Among other things, the North Koreans have objected to allowing soil and air samples to be taken near nuclear facilities and sent overseas for testing.

   Another failure of the Bush administration. As I wrote back in September in North Korea restarts nuclear program — so much for Bush’s one foreign policy “triumph”.

Four at Four continues with the gutting of the Endangered Species Act, Bettie Page, and bonus video of a working model of the Antikythera machine.

What happened at that Chicago manufacturing plant brought back alot of memories of how extremely talented workers fought for what they knew were their rights, decent wages for their labor, on the job safety, trading wages for benefits like health and welfare directly and much much more. Fights that shouldn’t have really happened in a real model of capitalism where all should share directly in the quality and growth of their work and the companies they work for.

We need to return to that pride in company and product, quality products and customer service, correcting the defaults, and growth for all, owners, workers, and investors.

Thanks for giving me this opportunity to speak directly to America. I have a question that has burned my very soul in its need to be asked.

“Are you FREAKING STUPID or WHAT?”

I don’t mean to be insulting. Really I don’t. I’ve met many of you in my 45 and 10/12ths years functioning as an American Citizen. Individually, I have yet to meet one person in my years on this planet that doesn’t at least have a functioning clue what is in THEIR OWN INTERESTS yet, collectively you don’t seem to have a clue.

This is just utter confusion at how COLLECTIVELY you do everything in your power to act directly against your own interests.

I’m sorry. I asked it badly before. What I really should have said is this:

Maybe I can help you out a little here. Let me help you do some very simplistic MATH!

Killing The UAW

By Killing The Auto Bailout  

Senate Abandons Automaker Bailout Bid



By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Published: December 11, 2008

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Thursday night abandoned efforts to fashion a government rescue of the American automobile industry, as Senate Republicans refused to support a bill endorsed by the White House and Congressional Democrats.

The failure to reach agreement on Capitol Hill raised a specter of financial collapse for General Motors and Chrysler, which say they may not be able to survive through this month.

After Senate Republicans balked at supporting a $14 billion auto rescue plan approved by the House on Wednesday, negotiators worked late into Thursday evening to broker a deal, but deadlocked over Republican demands for steep cuts in pay and benefits by the United Automobile Workers union in 2009.

World markets slump as US car industry bail-out fails



Julia Kollewe

guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 December 2008 08.28 GMT

Stockmarkets tumbled around the world after a $14bn (£10bn) bail-out package for the struggling US automotive industry collapsed last night.

The London market followed Asian shares into the red. The FTSE 100 index fell 176 points to 4212 in early trading, a drop of nearly 4%.

A partisan dispute over union wage cuts in the US Senate derailed a last-ditch effort to revive the emergency aid for US carmakers before the end of the year. The breakdown left the car industry – which employs 3 million people – in limbo. General Motors and Chrysler have warned that they will go bankrupt this month if they do not receive $14bn in taxpayer funds.

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, called the breakdown a “a loss for the country”. “I dread looking at Wall Street tomorrow. It’s not going to be a pleasant sight,” he said.

USA

U.S. keeps silent as Afghan ally removes war crime evidence



By Tom Lasseter | McClatchy Newspapers

DASHT-E LEILI, Afghanistan – Seven years ago, a convoy of container trucks rumbled across northern Afghanistan loaded with a human cargo of suspected Taliban and al Qaida members who’d surrendered to Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Afghan warlord and a key U.S. ally in ousting the Taliban regime.

When the trucks arrived at a prison in the town of Sheberghan, near Dostum’s headquarters, they were filled with corpses. Most of the prisoners had suffocated, and others had been killed by bullets that Dostum’s militiamen had fired into the metal containers.

Talk Isn’t Cheap

EVERYDAY PEOPLE/SLY & FAMLY STONE