The TARP

I don't know about where your from, but around these parts we know about the use of a TARP. It is used to cover up JUNK. We use tarps to cover up all our stuff that really isn't worth putting in a building or worrying to much about. We also use them to cover up the stuff that is just so junky that we don't want our neighbors to see. We cover up rusted out trucks, tires, old furniture with peeling veneer, tractor parts, and just about anything else that ain't good enough to put in a proper shed.

Well I think that the folks in Washington finally got an acronym about right. The Trouble Asset Relief Fund (TARP) is just about the same as what we cover our junk with. It is being used to cover up all the Wall Street crap that they don't won't us, their redneck neighbors, to see. And just like a regular tarp this TARP will finally start fraying and getting holes in it so we can see what is hidden underneath. I am afraid that it will be about the same as what is hidden under most tarps. But I guarantee that this junk will be a whole lot uglier and more expensive. My two cents, probably all any of us will have left when this is over.

WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Last month it was 25 BILLION now it is 34 BILLION. The car folks are like teenagers asking for more cash and not telling us that the extra 9 BILLION is to buy extra beer with. WHAT ARE THEY THINKING. If we give them that much money the auto companies should give each taxpaying American a damn free car and then they would be bankrupt anyway. I should at least get another truck out of the deal before I have to buy a Japanese psuedotruck. Congress is just pandering to the unions, management is trying to figure out how to put up enough money to retire to the Caribbean, Gettlefinger is just trying to figure out what happened, and they all are trying to hurry up and get done before the taxpayer figures out that someone forgot the Vaseline. I am glad to own horses. At least I will be able to get from one place to the other when our country is bankrupt. I also know how to grow my own food, kill my own meat, fix a 40 year old tractor, build my own buildings, and I have a nice 78 El Camino that will work just fine to get me from one place to another without computer to breakdown. We will soon be back to where we belong. As Bocepheus says A Country Boy Can Survive. I am going for a great big tumbler of the cure so I can forget this nonsense for at least an hour or two.

The Cure for the Auto Industry

NO IT IS NOT BOURBON. But you could use a sure nuff good dose for pain relief if they use my proposal.

Here it is. LET EM FAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Use a preplanned bankruptcy like the airlines used. Here is what you get reorganized streamlined automotive manufacturers more focused on what we want and better able to compete with the "foreign" automakers that make cars in such foreign places like Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama; debt restructured such that they can pay for it, pension plan benefits that are more on a normal level, and a new contract for the UAW that is overseen by the court such that the benefits are more in-line with the level of profit each employee provides to the company. Detroit's cost are 2.5 to 3x the "foreign" automakers, and everyone wonders why Detroit cars are lower quality for the same price. If they could put the labor cost into quality improvements, we could get the same car for 10 to 15% less and have the Big 2.5 make a profit.

I do not want to see the U.S. automakers fail, but sometimes it takes a Phoenix type revival to start again. I agree that the U.S. auto industry has suffered mismanagement in the past, but the UAW is over 50% of the problem. It is now a time to give the UAW a choice. Good paying jobs for the next 100 years or a great paying job for the next six months. Gettlefinger has a tough choice take a hard line and become irrelevant, or swallow his pride and do what is best for his union members, the auto industry, and the country. We shall see what choice he makes.

Free Choice?

What do you call a choice between signing a union card and taking a bullet (just figuratively, natch)? FREE CHOICE. At least that is what the liberals, UAW, and Nancy P. call it. How can you call being FORCED to sign a Union Card free choice. This country was built on one person one vote, by secret ballot. This act will just force the rest of industry to follow in the footsteps of the Big Three (now Big None) and go right down the tubes. The UAW has taken a turnip and squeezed all of the blood out and now keeps squeezing with the help of Nancy P. and Harry R.

How can you be competitive if you have a cost structure about 2.5x that of your competitors? Well you legislate your competitors into submission. Then your cars will cost $40K for a Corolla and you will have to finance that for at least 10 years.

Please will someone get us back on track. We cannot keep up the madness. Please visit Grassfire.org for some saneness. I am going to take a sip of Basil to calm the nerves and hope to have a revelation about how we can get ourselves out of this quandry. I pledge to blog more often. Been depressed about this whole stockmarket, political, president thing. My bright spot has been kids, horses, and church. At least these are as constant as 12 year olds and mares can be.

Our Government is on Drugs

Our government must be on crack, or meth, or coke. I think it must definitely be meth. These folks can't sit still long enough to let any of their other drug induced plans take effect before they want to try something else. I believe they are addicted. The problem is that the liberals have hooked the conservatives and now everyone in Washington seems to need a fix, and on a more regular basis.

Does this country really need another "stimulus" package (i.e. hit)? What we really need is an intervention and rehab. Maybe then our country could get back to being clean and sober in a fiscal sense.

On second though, the drug that Washington is on is called "Money" with a little extra toke of "Power". The only problem is that Washington gets to manufacuture both, so it is will be a long time before they get straight.

Economy, What Economy

With all the recent talk of the economic downturn, falling stock market, tight credit, and general malaise, I just have one question. How can you borrow your way out of debt? I cant' borrow my way out of debt, so how can the US or the rest of the world. Our great and wonderful leaders decided to give away money to banks, companies, homeless polar bears, but where did they get the money. I guess the same place that they have propose to get another 150 BILLION to give to the general populace to kick start the economy. Unfortunately, this is the same thing that got us into this problem we know have. Borrow now for x, y or z ($500,000 house on $25K salary) and worry about it latter. Well Washington Weasels LATTER HAS COME, and will keep coming until we can live within our means, everyone fends for themselves, and you quite lining your pockets with our money. I think a dose of Caveman reality needs to be put back into our society. If you want to eat you have to go out, kill something and drag it home.

Folks in Mississippi will be fine for right now because most of us are still gun toting, Bible believing, hardworking folks that can go out and literally kill something and bring it home for supper. Lets hope it does not come to that and that our "friends" in Washington won't take our rights away to have guns or the Bible. It looks like were heading down the road to socialism (gov't owned businesses) which eventually leads to communism. Especially if the election goes the way it looks right now (Marxism here we come). If times get bad enough the sad fact is many people will look to the government to rescue them individually (just like it is now resuceing the banking system) and there we go a little further down the socialist path.