Bush Announces Auto Bailout

[alsaqr]

I'll bet that those union hating Republicans in the senate are bent out of shape over this one. 
 
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Stocks-advance-after-apf-13878373.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street advanced moderately Friday, as investors cheered the government's pledge to lend as much as $17.4 billion to U.S. automakers, but remained wary about whether the money will make a lasting difference for the beleaguered industry.

[Questor]

I find some wisdom in offering the bridge loans, and probably would think it to be a good idea if I could believe that this is the end of it. In reality, Obama will probably authorize more money, and the eventual failure of GM and Chrysler will follow. It will just be slower and more painful.

I am fuming mad that TARP money is to be used for this. That is not what this money was for. This sets the precedent for Obama to use the money for general fund purposes.

[ms]

I find some wisdom in offering the bridge loans, and probably would think it to be a good idea if I could believe that this is the end of it. In reality, Obama will probably authorize more money, and the eventual failure of GM and Chrysler will follow. It will just be slower and more painful.

I am fuming mad that TARP money is to be used for this. That is not what this money was for. This sets the precedent for Obama to use the money for general fund purposes.

If we can send money to all these countries then our government can help the American people.  Don't let this get you upset.

[Questor]

These shenanigans just cost you and me both at least $5,000 and we haven't even seen the inflationary side of this yet. If you think your investments are worth less now than they were in September, get ready for the big drop when inflation because of this spending kicks in. I have every right to be fuming mad about this, and I absolutely cannot see why any tax paying American might not be mad too.

[Questor]

Funny commentary on this: "We have a date with destiny, and she just ordered the lobster".

[ms]

Funny commentary on this: "We have a date with destiny, and she just ordered the lobster".

I agree don't get mad just keep your powder dry.

[Questor]

What does "keep your powder dry" mean?  It's not a joke. I really don't know. I don't know a lot of slang (or the meanings of acronyms).

Funny to note that I recently tried reading a book by one of the top hunting writers of the 1960s and 1970s, Warren Page, and it was clear to me that he had interesting stories, but he used so much slang that has fallen out of common use that his book was almost unintelligible.

[rex6666]

Coming from a person that just a few days ago didn't know any thing about country music, i find it kinda funny you don't know what "keep your powder dry" means
and can not understand a book about hunting because of the "SLANG"
which
is probably hunting slang.
makes me for one, wonder WHO or WHAT you are and what planet you are from.
 

[Questor]

If you check out the book by Warren Page that includes several chapters on his African hunts you too will see the heavy use of slang expressions that one simply does not see in print or hear any more. They really had nothing to do with hunting per se. What, for example, does "slipping a rozzer the dropsy" mean? Two or three of these in each paragraph really does obscure the meaning of what he writes.

I've heard the "keep your powder dry", but have no idea what it means. I'm all for keeping keeping gunpowder dry, literally. But figuratively, I at least need a hint.

As for country music, I had heard of it, but always considered it goat ropin' music and ignored it.

If you want to further classify me as alien, you could put the ten top Hollywood stars today in front of me and I wouldn't recognize any of them, or at least not more than one or two. And you could name the most popular sports teams in the pro football and pro baseball and I wouldn't be able to tell you which team was football and which was baseball. Additionally, I didn't realize until this year that rock music was essentially dead, and has been replaced by genres with different names.

(But whatever you do, don't ask me about hunting, fishing, or shooting because it will be difficult to shut me up.)

[zombiewolf]

I think the original phrase was "Trust in God, but keep your powder dry" or something like that.

[Graybeard]

Wal Rudy the phrase is from the olden days of flint lock muzzle loaders. As you likely know black powder is rather hydroscopic and attracts moisture like the dumocrap party draws bottom feeding maggots wanting handouts. Iffen ya didn't keep the powder in both the pan and the barrel dry it didn't go bang and if it didn't go bang the bad guy got ya.

Guys I have it on good authority that Rudy (aka Questor to those of you who don't know him well) is really from Mars and his wife is from Venus. The kids tho were born here on earth in the good old US of A and are therefore anchor babies and so Rudy and the misses get to claim earth citizenship in spite of being born off planet. 

[rex6666]

Thank you GB, i was becoming a little concerned. Being in Texas i can
understand the anchor baby deal.
Guess being in TX also made me wonder about the country music and keeping
the powder dry.
Praise the Lord, and pass the ammonition.

[ms]

What does "keep your powder dry" mean?  It's not a joke. I really don't know. I don't know a lot of slang (or the meanings of acronyms).

Funny to note that I recently tried reading a book by one of the top hunting writers of the 1960s and 1970s, Warren Page, and it was clear to me that he had interesting stories, but he used so much slang that has fallen out of common use that his book was almost unintelligible.

Just for get it.

[1marty]

I just put in an application for a bailout. To get the money all you have to do is go to Washington look like a jackass like the auto executives did and you get your money.
Keep in mind that Chysler is a privately held company and doesn't publish financial information. So we need to trust them that they need the monsey. see below:

Chrysler would like several billion dollars as a part of the initial car company bailout and says that it is close to bankruptcy. In an essay in Bloomberg, Jonathan Weil points out that the firm refuses to give Congress its financial statements because the company is "private".

The plan the troubled car company gave the Senate banking committee was 14 pages.

"A Chrysler spokeswoman, Shawn Morgan, confirmed that the secret package didn’t include the company’s financial statements, audited or otherwise. She said the reason Chrysler doesn’t divulge such information, or the names of its board members, is “because we’re a private company.”

[nw_hunter]

As for country music, I had heard of it, but always considered it goat ropin' music and ignored it.





[/quote]

Now there's some slang fer ya......Goat ropin' music! Don't tell that to Garth Brooks! He is the #1 solo vocalist of all times. "Imagine that" and just a singer of goat ropin' moosic!
That jest (Blows me away), but I won't (blow a fuze over it) Not this old (couch potato) and that's no (snow job)

[Questor]

This thread was totally off the hinges, but it's harshing my mellow now. I'm getting old enough that I figure  I learned English so I may as well use it. Sure one runs the risk of developing an anaclitic proclivity for sesquipedalianisms and euphuistic lexical arcana, but dig a hairdab of props for the lingo. Then there are the many dangers of speaking in prose: vomitrocious! Isn't a word or phrase that can't be understood, slang or not, the righteous object of floccinaucinihilipilification?

The mars connection? Hmm. That explains a lot.

[magooch]

Hey Bill, can he get away with using language like that?   

[nw_hunter]

This thread was totally off the hinges, but it's harshing my mellow now. I'm getting old enough that I figure  I learned English so I may as well use it. Sure one runs the risk of developing an anaclitic proclivity for sesquipedalianisms and euphuistic lexical arcana, but dig a hairdab of props for the lingo. Then there are the many dangers of speaking in prose: vomitrocious! Isn't a word or phrase that can't be understood, slang or not, the righteous object of floccinaucinihilipilification?

The mars connection? Hmm. That explains a lot.

floccinaucinihilipilification........That one beats antidisestablishmentarianism!

[Graybeard]

Hey Bill, can he get away with using language like that?

   

Since I ain't got a clue what he said I dunno.  I reckon he did. 

ya gotta remember he's frum Mars (yeah the planet) so maybe he's speaking his native tongue. 

[CannonKrazy]

I have a hard time putting that many syllable in one sentence much less in one word.

[Rustyinfla]

 Well down here in Florida we have a place on Hwy 27 south of Lake Placid called Venus. They have a post office with their own zip code and everything. The only person I've ever known that claimed to be from there was Tom Gaskins, Jr. He makes some of the finest cedar turkey calls you'll ever see or use.

  On the bail out, I'm a little dense, but how can a company call themselves private when you can buy stock on the stock exchange. when Iacoca or however you spell it was in charge they got a bailout/loan from the Gov't way back when. they're here with their hands out again and we still can't know anything about 'em... HOGWASH.

  We ain't bailin out the car companies we're bailin out the unions. Those that keep the lowest common denominator employed at the maximum wage.

  As far as I'm concerned they all deserve to go broke.

 How do you spell suceed?  As in I quit!

[torpedoman]

well i rather give the money to a blue collar worker than see it wasted in bonuses for people that should be fired. Think about it ,if you did'nt do your job you would be fired, these execs drove the company bankrupt and get millions in bonuses.

[powderman]

BILL. If what ya say is true about Questor and his missus I reckon that tm must be his SUN. POWDERMAN. 

[30-30man]

All the money is going to do is fund more outsourcing for GM and Dodge.  More plants will be built in Mexico and Asia.  The blue collar workers will still get the shaft and the unions will not have enough members to carry on their corruption. 

[Hairtrigger]

  unions will not have enough members to carry on their corruption. 

Money well spent!

[powderman]

It would be devastating for the big 3 to go belly up, the industry of all of the places these people do business would be affected. I do have a big problem with my tax $ being used to support a bunch of folks who make 4-5 X what I do and not work nearly as hard. I don't like the idea of supporting their cushy lifestyles without them giving anything up or making any concessions. That goes from the top brass to the newest union hire. Unions used to be good, now a lot are corrupt and will back members they know are wrong. A buddy of mine used to work for General Electric in Lou. He and a bunch of others would clock in, then go home. They all took turns clocking the rest out. Even when caught the union backed him and the other goldbricks. That was wrong. I belonged to the Carpenters union over 20 years. I got out, if you were in the clique you worked year round. Certain ones got cushy little jobs where little work was done, I'm sure money changed hands often. POWDERMAN. 

[rex6666]

I thinks Questor might be in the wrong part of town so-to-say.
or maybe he just thinks he is slumming.

[Davemuzz]

Interesting article in the December '08 Newsweek magazine about the "politics" of the auto industry bailout. It's always "about me, me, me" but I found this interesting to read how our foreign "investors" have such a big influence in our American political system...and our political spending.

This snippet from the Newsweek article:

"A second auto industry has emerged: nonunion, Southern-based and foreign-owned. Large plants, with names of Asian and European carmakers emblazoned upon them, now dot the Southern landscape alongside civil War memorials. By moving aggressively into Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia and Texas, foreign manufacturers--call the the "Little-Eight"--have transformed the economic geography of the nation's auto industry and the political debate surrounding its future."

"To hear the rhetoric wafting down from Capitol Hill of late, you'd think that Toyota, Hyundai, BMW, and the rest are as all-American as Mom and apple pie. And, in many ways, they now are. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky made an impassioned plea on the Senate floor for his colleagues to oppose the $15 billion aid package the house of Representatives had approved for General motors, Ford and Chrysler. "Labor costs need to be brought on par with companies like Nissan, Toyota and Honda--not tomorrow, but immediately," he said. By the weekend, McConnell and fellow antibailout Republicans like Richard Shelby of Alabama and Bob Corker of Tennessee had stopped the bailout bill in the Senate. The southerners seem to have chosen an especially precipitous time to pick their fight with the Detroit Yankees....."

End of quote from Newsweek

So, it would appear that those predictions from decades past that we beat the Japs on the war front, but they would come back and beat us on the economic side are slowly coming to be true. It's like a sad case of cancer. But the American public seems to sit back and continue to smoke the cigarettes (buying foreign autos) and tell everyone how wonderful it is.

Bankruptcy is always an option for the Big 3. But I don't really know if the average guy on the street understands the ripple effect of a major U.S. automaker bankruptcy. All of the "little suppliers" that the automaker owes....those guys....they are the ones who don't get paid. And those little guys employ lots of people too. And when they don't get paid, their employees don't get paid. And it goes on, and on.

Well, I'll keep buying my Chevy's and Fords. No one can convince me that the Nippon cars are of better quality. I've owned American for the last 25 years and have been very satisfied. A minimum of 100K per vehicle before I either sell them to a relative (one now has 260K on it) or give it away. (Yeah...My last kid is thru college....you know how these kids treat a car when they are in college? They can't seem to read a sign that says "Car Wash" on it. Even if I'm payin for it!!!).

MHO

Dave