Official Endorsement

Be sure to watch the "new plan to revive Chrysler" video here.

Bumper Sticker

From the comments at AoSHQ, in this post: Obama Just Plain Makes up "150,000 Jobs" He's "Saved or Created" So Far; No One in Press Seems Curious of Provenance of This Fictional Figure

Commenter David in PHX for now: O < W

Yeah, no kiddin'. I wish he'd gotten around to saving my job. However, as of last Wednesday, I and 4 others (from an 8-person department) have been terminated. Not to mention the scores of others, from other departments and buildings, that were still being "escorted" to the parking lot as I was leaving and after I was long gone. 28 years, will get less than half of what I would have gotten for retirement if I'd stuck it out for 5 more years, well too young for Social Security. Have done nothing for a week but desperately look for some -- any -- job to tide me over for a bit, and ... nothing. The first place I looked was Kelly Services, searched all 4 major metro areas around where I'm at (Detroit, Ann Arbor, Flint, Lansing): Put every category in the search that might have something I could/would qualify for, came up with ...

Zero. Not just nothing interesting. Not just nothing decently-compensated. Not just nothing poorly-compensated.

Just. Nothing. And that's what I've gotten from every inquiry after that, as well.

Want

2010 Chevrolet Camaro

Video, filmed at my place of work - Yay! (Not me driving, unfortunately)







Oh yeah, and Iowahawk! for Car Czar.



LATER: Zo on bootstraps, with a shout at the end to the Camaro. :-)

*Sigh* Again With The Cars

I heard Robert Lutz (Vice Chairman of Global Product Development at GM) interviewed on the radio this morning, and was reminded what endeared him to me when he first assumed his post in 2001 -- This is the guy who said GM had too many vehicles that looked "like a whole family of angry kitchen appliances: demented toasters, furious bread machines and vengeful trash compactors.'' And sho' nuff, since his arrival the vehicles that exhibited that dubious style are either gone or nicely refined. Another fave is when he famously spoke of the idea of man-made global warming as "a crock of shit."

One of the vehicles that incurred his wrath was the (now kaput) Pontiac Aztek.



Yeah, I know. Our garage technicians lovingly referred to it as the Ass-Crack when it was still in production. It was actually a nice ride -- handled well; roomy, for a small vehicle; ran/accelerated nicely -- but what good is that when you had to sneak up on it in the driveway and drive with a bag over your head? Lutz once said, "We’d fire the guy who greenlighted the Aztek if we could find anyone willing to admit it.”

Anyway, Bob doesn't mince words. He's a former Marine Corps fighter pilot, and loves to fly his personal jets over the GM Proving Ground (and he flies like a crazy person). I guess I love me some cranky bastards.

"Vrroooom At The Top" -- 2002 Time mag article on Lutz.

Saving The General

2008 Buick Enclave

From an email I just received (in-house at GM):

CNBC will air an updated version of their special -- Saving GM: Inside the Crisis -- Monday evening, December 8, at 10 pm eastern time. The special includes video and interviews shot over the past week pertaining to the current situation, the GM plan put forth to Congress and an extensive interview with Fritz Henderson regarding the development of the plan and its implications for GM and the industry. The program will also include a segment shot out at the Fairfax plant and a look at what the plant is doing to save cost and improve quality. The hour long program will also include video of Rick Wagoner and Bob Lutz from the earlier special which ran during the summer. I expect the program will be a fair and positive look at what's going on now and what GM is doing to conserve cash and gain support in Washington for a bridge loan. The program will also air several other times in the upcoming weeks, but a full schedule is not available at this time.

2008 Chevrolet Malibu

I Love Tim Blair

Found this here:

More Blair goodness. We're still having some global warmening snow here in MI.

UPDATE: Meant to mention this, didn't want to make a whole new post: Gabe Malor prompts morons to post Thanksgiving recipes ??? at AoSHQ, and they sound excellent! (well, except the hobo stuff).

And one other highly important thing: The Weasel has landed! (See comments) The USA is down one weasel ... and one kitteh, who almost loused up the whole transfer. Best wishes for both of them (and Uncle B) in this new adventure.

AND ONE MORE THING: Heard on WJR this morning: A "virtual caravan" to support the actual caravan to Washington of the Big 3 movers and shakers. This website is to be up and running on Monday, 1 December, for interested parties.

The General

Chevy HHR

From GM: "In addition to "letters to the editor" and TV interviews, GM is placing ads in major markets to tell our story."

*click to embiggen*

As one of those salaried employees who got no raise in pay (but some hefty raises in benefit costs), I say "Word."

Rick Wagoner, from the WSJ - Online:

On the cost-cutting side, we have been streamlining our U.S. operations while simultaneously improving quality and productivity. Since 2000, we have reduced our U.S. hourly workforce by 52%, from 133,000 to 64,000, through buyouts and other programs. During the same period, we have cut our U.S. salaried employment from 44,000 to fewer than 30,000, and reduced our U.S. executive ranks by 45%.


However, we know we cannot just slash our way to prosperity. We have closed the quality and productivity gaps with the imports, as confirmed by J.D. Power and Associates (the consumer ratings firm) and the Harbour Report (which benchmarks North American plant-floor performance). New GM product programs launched earlier this decade have produced award-winning cars and crossovers like the Saturn Aura, Cadillac CTS and Buick Enclave. And that is just the beginning.

Some things I learned on teh innernets this week:

1. All GM employees are either clueless, private-jet-flyin', overcompensated executives or clueless, job-bank-idlin', overcompensated UAW workers. (No and No -- there's a whole flock of overworked and frequently undercompensated salaried and contract stiffs who are coming in every day and working hard to make stuff better, and who will have no job-bank to enter if they get axed). (And even a majority in those first 2 categories mentioned are not nearly as bad as portrayed).

2. Some people bought GM (or Ford or Chrysler) vehicles in the past and they were ... baaaad. Ergo, all vehicles made by those companies are -- forever and always -- baaaad. (No -- see J.D. Power).

3. All GM vehicles are monstrous-huge gas-guzzlers (No -- see Malibu info in the Wagoner article and elsewhere on the web -- and that's not the only one).

4. Frankly, all Big Three employees should be just taken out behind the plant and shot. (Nooooooooooooooooo).

Ethanol

Cartoon by Michael Ramirez

I heard David Ridenour interviewed on "On The Edge" (local radio show) on the 24th, and waited to post until the audio clips of the show went up on the website. Ridenour gave a very focused & articulate discussion of why ethanol cannot be the solution to our energy woes. He's from the National Center for Public Policy Research, and you can read a couple of his pieces here ("Ethanol: A Burden on the Poor") and here ("Ethanol: The Fuel to Nowhere").

Also, from the National Center blog, "America: Only Oil-Producing Nation That Severely Limits Its Production."

RELATED: Tim Blair on the profits of GW hysteria.

NOT RELATED: But I'm too time-challenged to make another post: LemurKing's Folly on "Guns and Selected Communist Humor."

GW RELATED: AoSHQ -- "Arctic Ice Receeding Because of Massive Lava-Flow From Undersea Volanoes? "

RELATED: More Tim Blair -- "Vegetation on the March."

RELATED: And excellent -- Jonah Goldberg, "Livin' in a Frosty Paradise?"

A few years back, Jimmy Carter wrote of proposed drilling in ANWR in the New York Times: “The roar alone — of road-building, trucks, drilling and generators — would pollute the wild music of the Arctic and be as out of place there as it would be in the heart of Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon.”

*snip*

Even in summer, people who actually live on the north coast of Alaska, like the residents of Kaktovik (just three miles north of the coastal plain where drilling might take place) overwhelmingly think good jobs in their backyard is music to their ears.

Meanwhile, is the “music” of the Grand Canyon really so pristine? Babies crying, kids chasing lizards, campers laughing, donkeys braying, cars honking: Why does this not trouble the consciences of Carter and McCain?

Perhaps it’s because the analogy between ANWR and the Grand Canyon is spurious on its face. “Pristine,” after all, is not synonymous with beautiful (there are ugly virgins), and “well-trafficked” is not the same as ugly (millions of people have seen the Sistine Chapel).

w00t!

Motor Trend "first look".

Tim Blair on "inconvenient exports". :-)

WTF?????? Or, Felix Learns A New Word

Mechaphilia. I heard about this on the radio this weekend. Ugh.

Now, I've always said that I love cars, but this? Let me rephrase that ....

The above pic? Way handsome, but ... um ... No.

My Second Car ...

... was one of these (click to embiggen):

I don't have a pic of my own; I swiped this pic from the innernets. But mine was black, although not that shiny. *sigh* I loved that car.

Buy One!

Keep American test drivers (like me) working -- 2009 Camaro.

Of course, the ones we've been driving at work look more like this (super-secret test camouflage).

UPDATE: Yay! The NYT says nice things about the 2008 Malibu.