Chrysler Dealership Downsizing Creates Many Legal And Human Problems

All of the claimed money saving reasons for Chrysler closing 789 dealers nationwide are not entirely clear. However, many dealers in business for 50 or more years are now finding themselves in difficult straits where Chrysler now seeks to break state franchise laws in federal court through bankruptcy proceedings and leave about 75 employees per dealership without jobs.

Some dealers like Timberline Dodge in Portland, Oregon is a popular dealership with aggressive local TV advertising. Timberline Dodge has been in business over 60 years, yet finds itself on the cut list by Chrysler.

Chrysler's claim that cutting dealerships will save them money is a highly suspect claim to some such as Albany New York attorney for local new car dealers, Jonathan Harvey. Harvey claims that these dealerships don't cost the auto manufacturers any money to operate. All of the operating expenses and the franchise costs are paid for by the dealers themselves. If the auto manufacturers plan to sell more cars in the future, then they'll need the dealerships to sell them. Further, the cost of paying for advertising might be a huge expense for Chrysler, however Chrysler could trim back on this co-op advertising with the dealers to save some money, rather than simply entirely close the dealership itself.

Co-op advertising works like this. The manufacturers give an advertising allowance to dealers based on their sales volume for TV or print ads to help to support more vehicle sales. However, many ads that run nationally by the manufacturers are not aimed in the support of a single dealership, but for the corporate fleet sales as a whole, where the dealers will indirectly benefit.

Part of the problem here as well is that the so-called "wisdom of the marketplace" due to the recession has already forced many less productive car dealerships to close. A form of Darwinism factor always works to close weaker businesses during bad economic times. The dealerships that Chrysler is seeking to close are largely marginally to moderately profitable ones, although not as more productive or profitable as some larger dealerships. Chrysler claims that it wants to concentrate on the more productive dealerships, and that the less productive ones are only hurting sales at the higher sales volume dealerships. However that is a strange argument fails when the fact that Chrysler is not paying for any of the operating expenses for these dealerships. These dealerships pay all their own rent, lights and salaries.

By using federal bankruptcy law, Chrysler might be able to legally get away with their plans to ax so many local car dealerships. However, many of these dealers will not go away with a fight, and since state franchise laws vary from state to state and could offer some extensive legal protections for the dealers, Chrysler could be spending a lot of time in courts at the state or local levels as dealers file lawsuits in hopes of staying in business. The other possibility is that some dealers might be able to survive by switching to upstart Korean brands such as Hyundai and Kia who seek to build a stronger American dealership network. In Vancouver, Washington a major Ford dealer switched to Toyota a few years ago as an example.

Because of all the local impact creating more unemployment and economic damage to the local business communities, the Chrysler decision to close so many dealerships will remain one of the most controversial parts of their corporate reorganization plans. And this will be especially suspect in the light that Chrysler hasn't really presented credible claims why the closing of these dealerships is so essential to their continued survival. Chrysler is only setting themselves up for some legal battles with many outraged dealers over this issue.

Chrysler and many dealers may not have real great business right now due to the recession. But business for lawyers involved in business litigation issues is certainly looking up right now.

Dick Cheney, The Cowardly Lion Of The GOP

Dick Cheney wants to act as though he's still a relevant figure in American politics, despite an approval rating just barely in double digits when he left office as a greatly despised figure. He's gone on the antiObama attack tour recently, and when he couldn't launch some attacks himself, then had his daughter make some attacks for him. That should hardly be any surprise for someone who once sought several college deferments to avoid military duty in Vietnam, to now act as some sort of tough talking military expert guy, even if he needs his daughter to do the talking for him.

Dick Cheney's whole trip is to act as some sort of pseudo-foreign policy and military expert, although one would be hard pressed to find any glowing examples of Bush Administration foreign policy success stories. Iraq looks like a pretty good unresolved mess. There was a real absence of peace between Israel and the Palestinians or even Lebanon as another example. Iran is probably closer than ever to building a nuclear bomb. Afghanistan remains a real problem. North Korea is still building long range missiles. To find any Bush Administration foreign policy success stories would take a microscope. Yet Cheney is quick to voice his opinion, or have his daughter speak for him, condemning any attempt by the Obama Administration to search for something new that might just work in foreign policy.

Cheney also has made himself a poster boy advocate in favor of torture, viewing himself as some sort of latter day Grand Inquisitor figure or something. In his own mind, torture is the right way to get information, despite the fact that such practices only hurt the moral standing of the United States. But Cheney wants to hear nothing of that moral argument at all.

And when Cheney had an attempt to comment on some recent comments by Gen. Colin Powell in favor of the Republican Party turning more mainstream in order to win some elections, Cheney chose instead to cast his lot in with abrasive radio talk host Rush Limbaugh instead. During the Bush Administration years, Cheney reportedly fought battles with other more reasonable mainstream figures like Colin Powell and is now renewing that old feud.

Former President Bush has surprisingly turned out to be the real gentleman here, acting like a statesman like his father and reserving his judgment on the Obama Administration and giving them a fair chance to run the country and tackle the problems unlike Cheney. It is also another good example that Bush is a far more decent man than Cheney by all means.

Cheney probably has no real plans to run for president himself. His only real drive is to help to ruin his own party by denouncing moderates like Colin Powell, and reminding the public how glad they are to be free of Dick Cheney and the old Bush Administration.

If Cheney had some success to talk about it it would be one thing. But the Bush Administration failed on a lot of issues including the economy, Iraq, Afghanistan, to name but a few issues here. So about all that Cheney brings to the stage is his best imitation of the Cowardly Lion.

Cheney had a good chance to prove himself during Vietnam if he really wanted to prove some military toughness, but he avoided that with his several draft deferments. Cheney then had another chance to prove himself as former defense secretary and as vice president. But neither left a great legacy behind. What's left is a grumpy old man, quick to complain, but slow to offer real achievement. And that's not too much at all.

Cheney has nothing good to bring to the GOP. Certainly not success. Certainly not genuine expertise. He's only damaged goods and taking the stage from any rising figure in the party. Cheney is a major reason that the Democrats did so well in the last two elections. Cheney also gives the Democrats good hopes for a third good outcome as well.

College Students Build Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powered Motorcycle

Two students at Swarthmore College, seniors Alex Bell and Andres Pacheco, recently built a wild hydrogen fuel cell powered motorcycle, proving that even college students are able to produce technology that a company like GM has been unable to perfect, even after spending one billion dollars on failed experiments in which cold weather damaged the membranes of the prototypes.

Back in their freshman year, the two students worked on building an electric motorcycle, but finally gave up that idea. This last Summer, the pair began work on the hydrogen fuel cell motorcycle.

The two engineering students did manage to build this working fuel cell motorcycle despite some technical problems. Both are applying to graduate school for engineering, although both are also currently entertaining job offers.

Hey Detroit, I know a couple of guys you should hire.

James Carville's New Book Predicts GOP Will Spend The Next Forty Years As A Minority Party In American Politics

A new book by Democratic strategist James Carville, "40 MORE YEARS: HOW THE DEMOCRATS WILL RULE THE NEXT GENERATION" predicts one of the greatest American political realignments since the Roosevelt era in response to the Great Depression for the Democrats, leaving the Republicans with a minority party status for at least this next 40 years.

Interestingly, some Republican strategists are now privately concurring with the basic thesis of Carville's new book as well.

Carville does believe that a few pretty good GOP candidates might be able to still capture the White House once in a while over the next forty years, or that in 2010, the Republicans could make some minor gains in congress, as Carville believes it might be impossible for the Democrats to have three big elections in a row go in their favor. Yet, he still sees enough of a trend among young voters and minorities such as Hispanic, Asian and African American voters voting Democratic that it spells overall policy problems for the GOP whose values and positions on issues are from the economic or social views of many voters. As a whole, the Republican Party has simply become too conservative, and too much a party of some White voters from conservative regions of the country such as parts of the South or parts of the West to really be a true national party.

Even back around 1968, a Republican such as Richard Nixon could count on some regional strength from all regions of the country. However, in New England for example, very few Republicans now represent that region and reliable Republican states such as Maine and New Hampshire have now leaned strongly Democratic for years, unlike the past when they would traditionally lean Republican. In the West, Oregon and Washington once both leaned Republican as late as 1972, but then Oregon was nearly evenly split in 1976, when Gerald Ford just barely won the state. But in recent years, Oregon has leaned solidly Democratic. and the in the state, the Governor and both chambers of the legislature are run by the Democrats, and both U.S. senators and all but one member of congress, Greg Walden, are now Democrats as well.

Part of the difficulty for Republicans is that they really lack a charismatic figure like a Reagan right now, who was able to present a strong message as well as to act as a strong messenger. On the other hand, the Democrats have one of their best and most charismatic figures ever in President Obama right now. And Obama seems to make a real connection as appealing to the average person although he is a highly educated intellectual. The Democrats have the perfect message and messenger at this time, while the Republicans really lack both important aspects.

Part of the problem for Republicans as well is the increasing conservative trend of the party, where mainstream Republicans such as retired General Colin Powell were denounced by Dick Cheney and others for merely mentioning that he believed the party should move to a more centrist vision. Even Newt Gingrich. who was the architect of the highly successful "Contract With America" that helped Republicans to take control of both congress and the senate during the Clinton years, seems to have moved past seeking to build an electoral success with voters towards increased conservatism as well.

Many Republican leaders such as Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin also seem to want to champion only a small very conservative faction of voters, and to take their party down to a path of a disastrous 1964 Barry Goldwater type defeat. They seem to wholly reject consensus building politics. By comparison, Democrats may not be without some blame by voters as well, however they manage to make enough of a positive connection on enough issues such as economic ones to satisfy enough voters to probably end up on the top end of most future elections for decades.

The unfortunate fact is that some Republican leaders are acting like some painter who did not plan ahead, and slowly painted himself into a smaller and smaller corner, with no viable way out of a real unfortunate disaster. If anything, that's not very smart politics. That's also nothing like the consensus politics that some Republicans such as a Dwight Eisenhower or Richard Nixon once used to win the White House, and it's even less like the charisma of a Ronald Reagan who promised a return to greatness for America if elected.

For a growing number of apparent political factors, the basic thesis of political consultant James Carville's new book may indeed be correct. Democrats may well be in the very best position of the two political parties to be in the driver of policy as well a most of the electoral successes. The social and political demographics are simply not running in the Republicans favor right now. Unless the Democrats can blow their opportunity to rule big time, then the Republicans really have very little to look forward to in the near future. But for now, their attacks seem largely petty and like mere pinpricks compared to really effect issue building.

Harley Davidson's Rare Topper Scooter

Few people know that Harley Davidson once produced a rare scooter model that sold from 1959 as a 1960 model until 1965. The Topper was the only scooter model ever produced by Harley and is certainly a real classic today. It featured a 9hp two stoke engine that required premixing oil and gas. The Topper's engine measured out at 165cc, and it featured an automatic CVT transmission. The bodywork was part stamped steel, part spray gun painted fiberglass. Only 3,000 total Topper scooters were ever produced before production was suspended. It rates as one of the rarest Harley products ever built.

When Eight Cylinders Isn't Near Enough

Here's a wild 64 cylinder bike from an unknown origin. But it's definitely a cool machine, with what looks like 3 old 30's style 16 cylinder engines mounted in-line somehow. Not much details are known about this wild custom bike such as the total displacement, top speed or horsepower rating. But it looks fast. In fact, real fast.

Hey the weather's getting better. And it's getting time to be thinking about getting back on two wheels again and rolling Old Betsy out of the garage again for the Summer season. What you say about that kids?

Put On Your Own All Biker Puppet Show?

Everyone knows that children love loud big motorcycles and leather clad bike riders more than even Barney the Dinosaur. So it was only natural that some enterprising seller on Ebay would offer these four biker figure puppets so they can put on their own all Harley rider puppet show. Of all the strange items ever to appear on Ebay, these items seem even more without an audience of buyers than most items. What's the market for these?

Also strange from the seller is one collection of all Asian puppets, so someone can put on an all Asian puppet show. The seller even has a William Shakespeare puppet for sale as well and a Civil War General. Kids love the Civil War or Shakespeare you know. Very Strange stuff indeed my friend.

Another Right Wing "Beauty Pageant" Fiasco

As if Miss California USA Pageant winner Carrie Prejean wasn't a ridiculous enough figure, a right wing sham "beauty pageant" staged in Utah called the Mrs. Utah United States Pageant chose Karmel Larsen as their winner this year who is using her position for merely right wing political purposes to promote censorship and to tear down the First Amendment with attacks on freedom of expression. Larsen has been the Utah Valley Chapter President of American Mothers Inc. , a right wing antiGay marriage, antiabortion, pro-censorship group. Larsen was also a member of the right wing Parents Television Council, an organization that was largely responsible for generating most of the complaints about the brief incident involving Janet Jackson at the 2004 Superbowl. Many of the claimed complaints to the FCC were not from the general public, but computer generated from this one single organization, questioning the legitimacy of these complaints as merely generated by just a few persons using a computer.

Unlike some real beauty pageants, this sham beauty pageant has no talent contest, and the pro-censorship groups that Larsen was aligned with paid $1,000 in entry fees to put up their candidate, and to place her in a favorable position to win the competition and use her position as a political platform for their own right wing issues. North Korea couldn't have done a better job to set up a farce event to give power to who they predetermined to win.

What is also so silly about the moral crusading of Mrs. Utah United States Karmel Larsen is that the entire state of Utah has but just adult video store in the state, and it is in a remote part of the state as well. Yet several censorship organizations have organized merely to attack this one small adult video rental business which must comply with strict Utah obscenity standards and avoids stocking much of the more wild stuff to avoid prosecution in the state. Utah censorship groups make regular protest tours of the video store and travel up to several hundred miles by bus or car to picket this single adult entertainment business in the state of Utah. There is no problem with a proliferation of adult businesses in the state. But there's a problem with a proliferation of right wing organizations set up to attack this one single business. If anything this is a fine example of the political extremism of those in the censorship movement.

Ironically, a study by the Harvard business school conducted by Benjamin Edelman found that in Utah there are 5.47 adult website subscriptions per 1,000 broadband users, far and away the highest number in the nation, proving that there is a tremendous thirst for adult entertainment in Utah, however state officials, legislators, censorship organizations and the Mormon Church all work to suppress the constitutional rights of the citizens to spend money as they wish for such entertainment which is extremely rare in the state due to their censorship efforts. Many in Utah would spend money at strip clubs or other adult entertainment businesses if only the cities and the state allowed them to exist. But overly strict laws suppress such entertainment in the state which probably has the least available adult entertainment in the state. Even finding retailers who sell magazines such as Playboy are relatively rare in larger cities like Salt Lake City.

The state is so conservative that a few years a comic film called SALT LAKE CITY PUNK made fun of the very little freedom for punk rockers in the conservative city. With few bars or other entertainment nightlife places, Salt Lake City is a living hell for those musicians or other entertainers who look for outlets to play their music.

You can pretty much expect the 2009 Mrs. Utah USA winner, Karmel Larsen to start a speaking tour attacking Gay marriage, abortion or popular entertainment culture real soon. One such event was a poorly attended event held at local Provo, Utah library in which Larsen soapboxed about her right wing political views. Even in conservative Utah, most persons were intelligent enough to stay away like the plague from this crappy little event.

Just when you think that the right wing can't cheapen beauty pageants quite enough, they manage to find some new way to create a sham event to promote their phony winner to add fake legitimacy to their soapbox for purely political purposes. Maybe those in the women's liberation movement years ago who opposed these beauty pageants were right all along about them. They're just a bunch of crap.

The Baddest Isetta Of Them All

Most Isetta automobiles struggled along with anemic one cylinder engines putting out a pathetic 13 horsepower. Well, one enterprising fellow decided that wasn't quite enough horses for him and put this mountain 502 C.I. Chevy V8 in a little 1957 Isetta with a whopping 730 horsepower and created a really fast little minicar. The nice foil on the back helps to keep this wild ride earth-bound as well.

Strangely, Mattel's Hot Wheels brand die cast cars have featured this hot rod Isetta before. And FAMILY MATTERS, the show with Steve Urkel featured a dragster Isetta before as well. So there's an audience to put monster engines in tiny cars out there.

Reportedly, this little car only weighs in at just 1502 pounds, making it grossly overpowered to say the least.

And, oh yeah, there's a trick little switch inside that allows this dandy little ride to spit flames out about four feet as well, just to impress the folks. Way cool!

Morality In Media President Links Gay Marriage And Mass Murders

In one of the most stupid comments ever offered up by a religious right screwball, Robert Peters, who is the President of the right wing organization, Morality In Media, recently attempted to draw some absurd link between Gay Marriage and mass murders. Then, when this idiot sought to clarify his stupid comments, he made some wacky reference to Nazi Germany as well.

The fact of the matter is that Peters has made a real career out of pandering his own screwball brand of pseudo-science and his own crazed variety of cause-effect stories that seldom have much actual basis in facts or true scientific studies.

Like some perverted ambulance-chaser, Peters exploits nearly every opportunity of a mass murder story so that he can blame the media, entertainment, pornography or even Gay marriage, all just to beg his followers for cash donations. Peters himself is the real sick puppy here, seeing only opportunity in every sad story about a mentally ill person with a gun who freaked-out and killed innocent persons in some public place such as a school to create some phony cause-effect claim to shake down other idiots for donations to Morality In Media who have more dollars than sense.

Society is hardly responsible for some mentally ill person who acted on their own due to paranoid schizophrenia or some other mental illness who illegally acquired weapons to commit public acts of mayhem. Further, how Gay marriage is somehow responsible for such isolated acts of violence by the mentally ill is a disturbed logic of it's own, and certainly begs questions about the mental health of Peters. Where's the connection, Peters? There is none is the answer.

Leave it up to some wacko like Peters to claim that because two persons love one another and want to legally commit to each other, that somehow that has some connection to mass murders. Any intelligent person cannot even start to connect those crazy dots. Robert Peters might just be the dumbest leader of the radical right ever. And some religious leaders really stink up their reputations whenever they praise such a crazy guy or his screwball organization.

Some Foreign Policy Problems Are Hard To Bomb Your Way Out Of

The recent collateral damage and refugee problems from the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan are more proof that some foreign policy situations are very difficult to simply bomb your way out of. One commenter yesterday even suggested that the American news media was somehow responsible for the American loss in the Vietnam Civil war. However, the fact is that the U.S. was battling an intense will of nationalism on the part of the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong. Further, despite military action since the early 60's in Vietnam all the way until 1973, the U.S, made little headway against North Vietnam and Viet Cong forces operating in the South no matter how much bombs were dropped. The Public simply lost their support for a war that could not be won how it was being fought.

The cold hard fact is that the U.S. dropped 7.8 million tons of bombs during the Indochina War, which was far more than the 2.7 million tons of bombs dropped by the combined Allied forces during the entirety of World War II, and yet this 7.8 million tons went nowhere towards resolving the war in Indochina. The fact of the matter was that the U.S. was killing thousands in Indochina each and every month, and 1.9 million total persons during the war, yet those death figures were nowhere near enough to win that war.

In the fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is somehow hoped that dropping a bunch of bombs on religious radicals who believe they are called by God to establish his rule over the nations and challenge nations nations like the U.S. because they believe differently, will somehow win out. But dropping a lot of bombs didn't work in Vietnam.

Certainly the Taliban and Al Qaeda cannot be allowed to win out, or to threaten the U.S. or other nations with their exported brand of terrorism. However, history is not on the side of the U.S. winning wars against motivated low tech opponents. Some foreign policy problems are just too difficult to bomb your way out of.

The strength of the Taliban may now be at their peak in both Afghanistan and Pakistan despite military efforts to stomp them out. So far the current military strategy hasn't really worked to stop the Taliban. And Pakistan has the seventh largest military in the world combating these Taliban forces.

Winning wars against such low tech motivated foes are very difficult for the U.S. despite new advances in technology or new generals with new war strategy plans. Will the Taliban and Al Qaeda ever be defeated. They need to be. But can they be defeated?

Honda's Most Bizarre Design Ever!

In 1990 Honda built a very strange little automobile-type vehicle that was actually a 50cc moped with a sidecar that had a larger bodywork surround the two parts. The vehicle only had a top speed of just 35 mph. And the vehicle only seats one. The transmission is a form of automatic, but with no reverse gear. This little car was imported into Miami back in 1990, and likely is the only example of this strange Honda in the United States.

Of all the modern vehicles ever built by Honda, this 1990 Honda Caren rates as one of their most bizarre designs ever, strangely bringing together aspects of a moped together with an automobile type design.

The World's Smallest Car?

In 1956, Egon Brutsch of Stuttgart, Germany attempted to build what he believed to be would be the world's smallest automobile. The result was this tiny automobile called the Mopetta. By 1958, just 14 examples of this tiny 49cc automobile with an engine the size of a moped were built.

The car only had a top speed of about 30mph. The automobile was also a two stroke engine design as well, which meant that it burned more oil in normal operation unlike more civilized four stroke engine designs. However, even with the advantage of more power from the two stroke engine design, the car only produced but just 2.3 horsepower.

The body was made from fibreglass. And it was hoped that the body could also be used as a boat design. Opel had some interest in the car, but since so few were built, this strange little car just never caught on and only a few exist such as this fine example at the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum in small Madison, Georgia, a town of only 5,000 persons. This unique museum has 35,000 visitors each year and is one of the town's biggest tourist draws by far.

Collateral Damage

After a successful summit with the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan at the White House this week to rid both nations of the Taliban as well as Al Qaeda serious "collateral damage" incidents in both nations have created some some new difficulties on both war fronts. In Afghanistan, an incident blamed on U.S. bombing in which 120 civilians were killed has resulted in an angry pledge from that nation for the u.s. to halt all bombing missions on suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda forces. And in Pakistan, the ongoing and renewed war on the Taliban has now resulted in up to 500,000 refugees and a huge humanitarian crisis. Within days, it is likely that the number of refugees could top 800,000.

This is a serious problem that threatens the success of the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in both nations. During the Vietnam Civil War, when Viet Cong fighters began to use bases in Cambodia, American efforts to combat these forces only helped to hurt the population of that country and destabilize that country and ensure that it fell to Communist forces.

As hard as the Obama Administration is attempting to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda in both nations, the huge problem with collateral damage as well as refugees only serves to defeat the overall purpose, and endanger the ultimate success of the mission.

The real problem for war is that it is always the civilian population that pays one of the highest prices of warfare. These recent problems in both Pakistan and Afghanistan both well illustrate this. And the populations left homeless or those whose friends or family members die at the hands of American bombs only will grow to resent the U.S.

Some problems it seems are far more difficult than just bombing away. And the continued war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan will only leave more civilians dead or homeless.

War is indeed a messy business.

Funny Political Moment

Here's a funny political parody ad of a popular film, running in this month's HUSTLER. Right on, Larry!

AntiGay Miss California: The Trashy Saga Continues

Today's latest chapter in the trashy saga of Miss California, Carrie Prejean, the antiGay beauty queen who hates Gays almost as much as she loves to take off her clothes for the camera, finds a brand spanking new offer of $1 million to Prejean from the California adult film company, Vivid, for Prejean to do an adult film.

In the words of Vivid's Co-Chairman, Steven Hirsch, "We watched Carrie Prejean in the Miss USA Pageant and we were impressed with her talent and beauty". However, Hirsch also cautions that, "We're also aware of the controversy caused by her statement about same sex marriages and the topless photos of her that have appeared online". But God knows that shouldn't be enough to stop her from a career acting like a lonely housewife when the handsome pizza man shows up at the front door if Prejean wants to earn a cool million bucks.

Actually it's a pretty standard practice these days for some companies to step forward with some outrageous offers to fresh celebrities with 15 minutes of fame or shame. Welfare "Octomom" Nadya Suleman recently turned Vivid down on a $1 million offer to do an adult film. Now a new adult film with an "Octomom" lookalike has surfaced on the market. And even more shocking, there was even a $1 million dollar offer to 47 year old virgin UK singing sensation Susan Boyle to lose her virginity on camera from another California adult film company which even registered a website using her name. The ability of some to produce works that turn the stomach knows no bounds it seems. Along with the celebrity of 15 minutes of fame goes plenty of trash news these days as some hope to market some product and hitch a ride with these instant stars.

Prejean also managed to become a spokesperson for a right wing antiGay marriage organization after her bigoted statements against Gay marriage at the Miss USA Pageant, then a cascade of crummy news about Prejean began to tumble out including a breast implant story, and the those racy photos shot when she was just 17, along with this new offer to Prejean of $1 million dollars to do an adult film. Now, it seems like her title as Miss California might be in question as officials are going to meet and to discuss stripping her of her title because of all the negative publicity that she is generating.

Keith Lewis, Co-Director for the Miss California USA Pageant is reportedly "absolutely stunned" that now four racy photos of Prejean are circulating on the Intenet. Prejean misrepresented to Miss California USA Pageant officials that only one photo existed. Lewis cited that "Yesterday, we thought she explained things accurately" and "This completely changes things for us".

Donald Trump, who is the owner of the Miss USA Pageant, promised to review circumstances and to decide by as early as Wednesday whether to take away the title from Prejean and award it to her runner-up instead.

Once again the political right has embraced an absurd personality, and proclaimed them as some sort of hero. Then when the skeletons begin to fall out of the closet and that figure is disgraced, the right points blame fingers at the left, instead of realizing that too many of their own heroes are simply complete fakes and frauds. You just have to wonder what Sarah Palin thinks when someone is hogging-up all of her White trash news time. It must make her pretty mad.

President Obama Determined To Make Success Against Al Qaeda And Taliban A Major Foreign Policy Goal

Yesterday, in a summit arranged at the White House, President Obama met with the rival leaders of both Pakistan and Afghanistan who have been blaming each other for problems with Al Qaeda and the Taliban and allowing terrorism. President Obama achieved peace between the rival leaders and got assurances from both to cooperate against the common enemies of the Taliban, Al Qaeda and terrorism. Also, from Pakistan, there were promises to use military force with the Taliban and to stop making any peace deals with them.

In one White House summit, President Obama was able to achieve a great deal, and was able to advance his policy to defeat both the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Some Republicans had hoped to raise foreign policy doubts about President Obama, however he has proven himself to be tough just like other Democrats who have been forced to respond with military force when American felt compelled to act. Democratic President Woodrow Wilson sent American troops into combat during WWI. Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt sent American troops into combat after the United States was attacked by the Japanese Navy at Pearl Harbor. Democratic President Harry Truman sent American forces to blunt Chinese Communist aggression in Korea. Democratic Presidents Kennedy and Johnson first sent military advisors, and then combat troops in an effort to stop aggression and to achieve peace in the Vietnamese Civil War. Democratic President Bill Clinton sent American forces to combat aggression and ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia. In far more instances, Democratic presidents have deployed military force from the United States to attempt to restore peace and order in serious incidents than have Republican presidents, yet some Republicans continue to misrepresent that Democrats are either weak on defense or will fail to protect the nation's interests, of which history clearly proves are false assertions.

President Obama is very serious about achieving a military victory over the Taliban and Al Qaeda. And breaking the back of this terrorist network is a major foreign policy goal of his administration.

AntiGay Miss California Could Lose Title Over Scandal

Prejudiced antiGay Christian beauty queen, Miss California, Carrie Prejean, might be forced to give up her title to a runner-up as more racy photos are surfacing over the last two days. Prejean lied and claimed that she only posed for one racy photo, as new ones continue to surface to question her honesty.

After her very judgemental views regarding Gay Americans, Carrie Prejean has now been caught in a serious scandal that makes her appear as just another Christian hypocrite who is real judgemental of others, while she has her own skeletons falling out of her own closet.

The young model was only 17 at the time, which also begs the question why her mother even allowed a child that young to pose for such photos in the first place, as well as other legal issues. It was outrageous lack of judgment on the part of Prejean, her mother and the photographer.

The Christian right, many Republicans and those in the antiGay rights community have embraced Prejean's antiGay sentiments. Even over at at our sister website, Wizbang, there was glowing praise of Prejean only days ago. But since this scandal has developed, so far over at Wizbang nothing has has been printed. When one of the heroes of the far right is caught in some scandal, then silence and denial among the right seems to be pretty common place.

After this scandal. it will be pretty difficult for Prejean to be making the tour of Christian right programs or churches and denouncing Gay Americans since she is now damaged goods much like some like Jimmy Swaggart have been badly damaged by scandal of their own making.

Another fraudulent icon of the far right has fallen here. Miss California, Carrie Prejean, was always a phony hypocrite, and now the truth is known.

Cds You Should Own: The Move ANTHOLOGY 1966-1972

The Move had to be one of the very best UK pop bands of the 60's that had absolutely no success whatsoever in the United States despite a string of successful singles in the UK. The membership of the band that included members like Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood in the late days of The Move became far better known as The Electric Light Orchestra. The Move ANTHOLOGY 1966-1972 is an excellent collection of the early nucleus of what would become ELO during the years when The Beatles, The Hollies, The Rolling Stones and other pop groups were kings of the UK charts.

The Move Anthology includes not only hit singles such as an alternate version of "Night Of Fear" which hit #2 on the UK charts, but three versions of "Fire Brigade" which was a #3 UK chart hit as well as all 12 of their career singles. Even included is The Move's version of "Do Ya" which also became an ELO hit as well.

It is interesting to hear the later material begin to evolve into the Electric Light Orchestra's roots. The band goes from a Beatleslike act around 1966 to 1968 into the unique sound that became ELO. It's quite a ride as this band finally found their ultimate identity.

This awesome four disc box set includes 62 songs, including many rare unreleased tracks and live tracks. It's certainly a great package by a terribly under-rated UK act that was virtually unknown to many in the U.S. and certainly worth owning. This 2008 UK release package is an opportunity to hear the early roots of ELO as well as one of the greatest UK pop acts of all time.

With 31 previously unreleased tracks, comprising half of the length of this entire box set package, this 40th Anniversary item includes one of the best box set books ever. The exhaustive details about each track and about their albums as well as singles is sure to please any fan of this band as well as even the curious listener who just wants to purchase a great Cd box set of a significant UK 60's pop band. The $36.97 list price for this box set also seems rather reasonable for the large amount of great packaging and music and the nice booklet included. Only the Cd mounting system for the four discs seems rather cumbersome to remove the discs as the only real negative item here. Otherwise this is sure one great Cd package.

The New Look In Union Busting, And Tax-Free Too!

Frito-Lay, a major Northwest snack manufacturer of potato nand corn chips had a large baking facility in Vancouver, Washington, that was unionized paying workers $16.96 an hour plus health, vacation and retirement benefit. Then suddenly in April 2008, the union jobs were suddenly terminated as jobs were then outsourced to a nonunion mystery source paying just $8 a hour with no benefits.

Drivers for the the Teamsters Union found out that this mystery nonunion outsourcing operation turned out to be DePaul Industries in North Portland, Oregon , a claimed nonprofit labor outsourcing business that earns $20 million dollars a year tax free. DePaul Industries was founded by a grant from from the Catholic charity, the St. Vincent DePaul Society which closed thrift stores and other fund raising projects to help the poor, with the mission of DePaul Industries to supposedly give employment to persons with disabilities. Instead, this nontaxable business instead scavenges higher paying union jobs and hires workers at less than half the wages and without benefits.

And even worse for this business founded by Catholic charity funds, strong arm tactics including firing employees who simply signed union cards with the intention of wanting to become union members for better working condition or wages has been common place at DePaul Industries.

In one case, an African American employee who attempted to unionize DePaul Industries was angrily fired by two managers, one shouting out racist statements. Hardly the sort of conduct one would expect from an organization founded with Catholic charity funds to supposedly help persons who are down and out due to disabilities.

The fact of the matter is that some big business lobby organizations such as the one run by the U.S. Chamber Of Commerce have spent millions of dollars to air ads and a misinformation campaign to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act which would have allowed exploited handicapped employees such as those at Depaul Industries to become union members simply by signing cards stating that they wish for a union to represent them. At DePaul Industries, a number of employees who simply signed these union intention cards have been fired by the company.

The racist abuse of the fired employee at Depaul Industries as well as the firings of other Depaul employees for merely signing union intention cards is typical of the abuses of employees who labor in the absence of job protections that the Employee Free Choice Act would offer.

Employees at Depaul Industries are supposed to be handicapped, yet have in the past become major sources of labor for potentially hazardous work duty such as some truck assembly for truck builder Freightliner or soldering work for electronics companies, which involves work around lead and lead fumes or machinery. Yet this claimed nonprofit organization can continue to pay no taxes, and uses outrageous firings of any who advocate for union representation and improvement of working conditions or wages.

DePaul Industries is a pretty good case example of why the Employee Free Choice Act needs to become law. Only if this current Congress finally passes this bill, would some of the worst of employee and manager abuses against workers who seek to improve their workplaces improve.

To say that handicapped workers are exploited at DePaul Industries, which also takes away good paying union jobs from other employers as they outsource to this enterprise is to say the very least here. High paying factory jobs disappear to a professional outsourcing company like DePaul Industries, ruining the American middle class which was created through high paying union jobs, and instead creating a lower class of underpaid workers living near the poverty level. That's hardly a godly mission for an organization supposedly founded by a church run charity to help the handicapped. That's mere labor exploitation.

Fiat Offers High Risk Moves During Global Recession

If anything, you have to give the management of Fiat some real respect for being so gutsy during this global recession. Other Italian brands such as Italjet have gone out of business and sold their assets to an Indian company. And Italian motorcycle maker Benelli allowed a Chinese brand to buy in on their company. By contrast Fiat not only will buy in on Chrysler, but is looking to buy GM's European operations which include the UK's Vauxhall brand, Germany's Opel, and the Swedish Saab brand. While other Italian auto or motorcycle brands are retreating economically, Fiat is bidding on a major gamble to boost it's annual vehicle sales to over $100 billion a year. That's pretty brave during a major world recession.

If Fiat's big economic gamble succeeds, they will exit this recession as one of the largest automobile manufacturing groups in the world, while other brands such as GM, Ford and Chrysler lost a great deal of market share and ground economically. India's TaTa Motors is another international automaker on the move with new models and having acquired both the Land Rover and Jaguar car line from Ford.

During a major recession, a few companies with real guts can emerge as major players, while others will suffer and could even go out of business. Will Fiat's huge gamble succeed? Only time will tell.

Speaking of real guts, dig this way cool concept ride from Fiat. Nothing very conservative there.

Representative Barney Frank Will Introduce Legislation To Overturn Three Year Old Republican Internet Gambling Ban

Representative Bary Frank(D-MA) who is the Chairman of the Financial Service Committee in the House will introduce legislation to overturn the Internet gambling ban put in place by the Bush Administration and the Republican majority in Congress at the time. Republicans who have a poor record on individual rights and civil liberties inserted language into a port security bill three years ago, making credit card transactions by consenting adults who wish to play in international gambling illegal. This led to several arrests of American executives of companies involved in Internet gambling.

My own personal opinion is that gambling is not really a good thing. However, in a free society, Republican legislators, often acting on behalf of religious right interests who are opposed to gambling, put such language into law as an expression of writing their own religious beliefs into law. Like many Republican oriented religious beliefs, opposing Internet gambling for all persons is a violation of the individual freedom of adults to choose how to spend their own money. even if gambling itself is not really a real positive influence. However, most adults who choose to gamble do so as only a fun outlet. Only a few persons have problems with gambling. And credit card companies put limits on the amount that one can spend.

Since this Republican legislation has been in effect, it has also greatly impacted the ability of friends of neighbors to use money transfer services to help out friends of neighbors using cash transfer services such as Moneygram or Western Union who have overreacted out of fear to this Republican trampling on individual rights.

The problem is that the Republican philosophy wants to control what Americans are allowed to do or how they can spend their money from cradle to grave. This party of big and intrusive government seems to know no bounds in controlling the personal behavior of Americans. Barney Frank is taking a big step in favor of civil liberties to attempt to roll back at least part of this big intrusion of government in the private lives of Americans by supporting this legislation, and deserves to be applauded for his actions.

One major difference between the two political parties is if Democrats would continue to take a strong stand for individual rights, while the Republicans continue to take strong stands against civil liberties. Nothing could better illustrate which is the true party of big government than this.

Internet poker games or fun games are popular throughout much of the world. However, in the U.S. a few religious right legislators have imposed their will to stop these fun games by citizens. Doesn't this party know no bounds in unreasonable meddling into private lives of the citizens?

The Unfulfilled Promise Of Jack Kemp

Sadly this weekend, Jack Kemp, the former football player, turned congressman, turned 1996 GOP vice presidential running mate sadly lost his brave battle with cancer. Kemp was always an honorable and decent man of high integrity. He was also part of a vanishing breed of mainstream conservatives which are disappearing faster from the Republican Party faster than the dinosaurs.

Kemp's low tax, supply side economics became a hallmark of the Reagan presidency. If anything, this proved that government can provide a temporary stimulus to the economy by several different means, either boosting spending on projects or by a temporary cut in taxes. However, the history of this tax cut only provided a few boom years and weren't enough to maintain a strong economy during the George H.W. Bush Administration. Bush became a one-term president when the economy hit the skids during his administration, The fact of the matter is that Kemp's short-sighted approach to economics would only provide a temporary economic boost to the country. There was no real plan to provide for a long range economic growth or expansion of the economy in the plan. Yet, even today many in the Republican Party still cling to this short-sighted economic view.

Just like his own brand of short-sighted economics of which the truth was that really was very little substance actually there, Kemp was always something of a disappointment as well. At one time some fans of Kemp even attempted to brand him as some sort of a GOP version of "John Kennedy". Unfortunately Kemp was nowhere near as substantial as these beliefs of some of his fans. In his ill-fated run for vice president with Robert Dole in 1996, Kemp turned out to be a real political lightweight compared to even Al Gore in the debates as well as on the campaign trail. And Kemp wasn't above saying more than few goofy things once in a while, which made you wonder if he simply lacked good judgement, or whether he was something of a kook. The unfortunate truth might well be that Kemp was actually a little of both things.

Kemp did have a real and genuine sense of compassion towards both minorities and immigrants that you don't always see as a major trait in many GOP candidates. And as HUD Secretary, Kemp did offer up a few positive changes as well as commitment to keep the programs basically intact and certainly did not attempt to completely dismantle the agency or ax many programs as some Republican HUD officials might be inclined to do. Quite the opposite, Kemp's plans to increase home ownership by low income persons were perhaps his finest of moments, although both the White House Budget Director Richard Darman as well Congress both either opposed these proposals, and only allowed Kemp a fraction of the $4 billion he sought to fund these proposals. In the end, Kemp only was awarded $361 million for the HOPE project(Home-ownership And Opportunity For People Everywhere). Kemp's further plans to improve inner city economic conditions with some sort of economic empowerment zones also suffered in budget battles with Richard Darman as well with the competing costs of the Gulf War. Like all classic "guns vs. butter" fights, guns usually win out at the expense of more butter.

Kemp wasn't a huge success as HUD head partially due to economic constraints put on his spending plans both inside the Bush White House as well as by Congress. Further, his economic empowerment ideas never seemed to really work as well as Kemp had envisioned either, but the lower level of funding could have been part of the problem as well. But Kemp did stand out as a mainstream conservative who did at least offer some fresh new GOP answers to some of old War On Poverty programs of the Lyndon Johnson era.

The ill-fated Dole/Kemp 1996 ticket was a strange marriage of two GOP politicians who did not entirely see eye-to-eye on many things, especially many economic issues. Dole was never a fan of many of Kemp's HUD spending proposals or projects, and the two formed a far less than ideal or perfect ticket where both awkwardly attempted to seem in sync with other, but not really. The Dole-Kemp ticket fared poorly against the stronger economy with Bill Clinton, that seemed to give Clinton enough cover with most voters to overlook his character shortcomings. Kemp just wasn't as impressive of a GOP candidate on a national ticket as many had hoped.

Despite plenty of shortcomings, Kemp at least offered some fresh approaches to poverty issues not normally seen in many Republican candidates, and if only his HUD proposals had more funding, then perhaps they might have worked out better than they actually did.

Kemp was a little bit of unfulfilled potential. He was a pretty good advocate of a few new ideas, although many even in his own party did not always support them. He probably wasn't exactly as good as presidential material as many of Republicans might have thought Kemp to be either. His voice seemed to wilt during the 1996 campaign, where he was really little real help to Robert Dole, who only seemed too much like some cranky old man compared to the much younger President Clinton. It was hardly a fair race at all.

Kemp shouldn't be remembered so well for his shortcomings, as much as he was a voice for a Republican alternative version to some traditional Democratic compassion issues. And Kemp seemed to be a strong advocate for fairness and economic equality for those in poverty stricken minority communities.

Kemp's desire to put many low income people in homes, or to improve the economic climate of many ghetto inner city areas by putting people into business might have been very noble goals. But the reality was really very success stories.

It was actually far more difficult to make poverty stricken members of an inner city community into business operators than Kemp had ever dreamed. Providing jobs and business opportunities to an inner city population seemed far less successful than many minority persons simply leaving that community and living in other parts of the city where safer housing and better jobs existed. More integration of minorities seemed to do far more than some of Kemp's proposals by far. Kemp was largely idealistic, and not really always entirely realistic in some of his views.

But Kemp should be best remembered as the sort of Republican that brought respect to his party, and stands as a sharp contrast to some like Rush Limbaugh or Sarah Palin of today, both of which are sharp-tongued as well as short on fresh ideas. Kemp was never without new ideas, or a reasonable tone when he spoke. Compared to the shrillness of some today, that was pretty responsible. Jack Kemp also never really turned out to be the Republican "John Kennedy" other than some hair resemblance. But he was a still a far more decent GOP leader than some today. And that's certainly saying a great deal in favor of Jack Kemp. God bless him and give comfort to his family in their hour of sorrow.

Union Workers Spend Big Money At Retailers Who Hire Nonunion Workers

One unfortunate fact is that union members often spend large amounts of cash at retailers who hire few union workers. Fred Meyer stores, which originate in the Pacific Northwest, for years had a stellar reputation as one of the best unionized retailers around. However, in recent years since the company was acquired by Kroger, the retailer has been slow to provide new union jobs even after workers vote to unionize. Kroger is also now known for hiring cheaper construction workers from free Craigslist ads who would work for just $12 an hour doing remodeling in their stores.

In The Dalles, Oregon, non-food Fred Meyer workers voted to unionize way back in November of 2007, however Kroger management has found ways to slow down progress for workers attaining their first contract. Voting to unionize seems to mean little these days when companies can hire professional labor law firms with experience in preventing workers from unionizing, even after they freely voted to unionize. Some law firms specialize in using Bush Administration era loopholes to delay or prevent onioning by workers who have already voted to unionize. During the Bush Administration, Robert Batista, a lawyer with extensive work with anti-union law firms was appointed by Bush to head the National Labor Relations Board. Batista helped to really weaken the rights of workers to unionize.

Sadly, while union workers will spend large amounts of money at retailers like Fred Meyer, the cae of hiring the $12 an hour nonunion workers from Craigslist to do construction work is way too common of a story. More professional union workers who earn $30 an hour plus $13 am hour in total benefits could probably complete construction on stores at a much faster pace with far more professional results, however Kroger is willing to bet that cheaper less professional nonunion workers can probably produce acceptable results even if the job takes longer, the work less professional or some workers even get injured on the job thanks to unprofessional safety standards compared to better unionized workers. The members of the Harrison Health and Welfare Trust, just one large union that provides medical benefits spend $800,000 a year in prescriptions at Fred Meyer pharmacies for example. And with other union members buying prescriptions at Fred Meyer pharmacies, this figure of total spending far exceeds $1 million a year that union members spend at Fred Meyer pharmacies. When the added value of all union members spending on groceries, nonfood items such as electronics, etc. is added in, union members steer millions of dollars a year in added cash flow to Fred Meyer, yet the parent company,Kroger chooses to use free ads in Craigslist to hire the cheapest possible labor to do work on their stores, and delays union membership to workers who have voted to unionize.

This is part of the problem for American labor, the higher wage jobs allow the workers to spend more on goods, and to reinvest their wages in the companies they work for, even while some companies such as Kroger seek to weaken union workforces and lower wages. at Kroger, their own brand of economic stimulus to improve their company works in reverse. They want to spend less in wages, and seem content to accept lower cash flow back in return. It all makes no sense.

New Fiat Designed Chrysler Products May Be Available In About 18 Months

With the Chrysler bankruptcy and reorganization taking place at break-neck pace in a federal courtroom, new Fiat designed Chrysler products might be available to public in as little as 18 months. Under the terms being worked out, the UAW workers union will get a 55% share in ownership of the company, the federal government 8%, and governments in Canada and Ontario both will get 2% ownership shares. Fiat will get a 20% share in the company, but that might eventually rise to a total 41% share if the government get paid back for their bailout funds.

Fiat has always had very serious marketing difficulties in North America, so this new bid to become part owner of Chrysler and revamp their car line with more fuel efficient models, will also give Fiat an opportunity to market their imported cars that do very well in Europe in sales. It will give both Chrysler a second chance to succeed as well as Fiat a second chance to improve their U.S. marketing.

Just like the mid70's when Chrysler marketed too many larger cars that got poor fuel mileage and their sales suffered and the company nearly went under for the first time requiring a government bailout, this latest crisis for Chrysler came from marketing too many larger cars, SUVs and trucks with poor mileage just when gas prices spiked a few months ago as well as the recession taking a huge bite out of Chrysler sales. During both of these crisis moments for Chrysler, the company was totally unprepared for the current market conditions, and had the wrong sorts of vehicles to market in a market hostile to larger vehicles with poor mileage.

The tiny Fiat 500 could be one of the first Fiat models to be sold in the U.S. once problems with safety and air pollution emissions are solved for the American market. The model is even smaller than the very popular BMW designed Mini Cooper cars sold here. And America seems to have a love affair for retro-styled cars, of which this latest 500 model is a new version of a longtime classic model once sold by Fiat.

Obama Administration Gains Foreign Policy Success In Pakistan Government Push Against Taliban

The Obama Administration gained a huge foreign policy success by urging the government of Pakistan to take a strong military stand against a Taliban offensive that threatened the capital city of Islamabad. The Obama Administration finally succeeded in making the official government of Pakistan realize that the moderate democracy was being threatened by the recent Taliban offensive. And when Taliban forces didn't really withdrawal their forces as promised in yet another broken promise, the government of Pakistan was forced to send in troops and warplanes to scatter the Taliban forces.

As many as 64 or more Taliban militants might have been killed in fighting over the last two days. And evidence of Taliban forces building car-bombs to use against the government have surfaced as well. These Taliban forces and their Al Qaeda allies wanted to seize control of the capital, which could nuclear weapons in their hands as well giving them an official state to wage an ongoing terrorist war in Afghanistan and well beyond.

Since the government of Pakistan has responded with force to challenge the Taliban offensive, and not let Washington down, the Obama Administration is now seeking some emergency military funds to keep the Islamabad government in power and the country in the hands of moderate democratic forces.

The Obama Administration has well proven that they're willing to act tough and draw the line in Pakistan. And Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton has acted very tough as well, making it very clear to the Islamabad government what Washington expected of this government.

Mutual respect of both governments in Islamabad and Washington have been renewed as both of these governments now appear to be on the same page, both working towards the same goals of stopping the Taliban and Al Qaeda from a land grab in Pakistan and establishing a major terrorist base threat.

Another Good Reason The U.S. Needs The American Civil Liberties Union

A recent case in Portland, Oregon where a Portland Community College instructor was falsely arrested on prostitution charges for merely waiting for a bus for a ride home is a another pretty good example why the United States needs civil liberties watchdogs like the American Civil Liberties Union.

On 82nd Avenue, there is a SouthEast Center Campus of Portland Community College, and a young female instructor was merely waiting for a bus to arrive, before Portland vice cops swooped down on her and held her for two hours on false prostitution arrest charges. The city eventually paid her $5,000 in damages for the false arrest, but it doesn't take away from the fact of a cavalier legal system way too fast to put citizens in jail on false charges even if no evidence of a crime even exists.

The city and the police both attempted to defend this arrest claiming that her behavior was suspicious merely because some buses passed her by and she did not get on. However, often many bus stops are used for as many as five different bus lines going to different locations and some buses are "limited" ones that do not make stops. Waiting for more than one bus is certainly not uncommon for anyone who rides a bus. Another claim was that she talked to someone in a car. However, the city failed to prove that wasn't one of her students who might have seen her at the bus stop and attempted to offer her ride that she might have declined because they weren't traveling in her direction.

The fact of the matter is society cannot be so concerned with stomping out victimless crimes such as actual prostitution that innocent citizens are swooped-up in government dragnets and arrested on false charges. Civil liberties organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union have to wage an ongoing fight with local, state and federal governments who go too far in laying out government dragnets. Capturing college instructors who merely wait for a bus ride home from work is a poor law enforcement practice. Just because a college instructor is young or even attractive is not a very good a reason to put her in jail on false prostitution charges with no evidence of her ever having committed any crime. The $5,000 in damages paid to this innocent victim hardly go far enough to repay her for this human rights outrage against the right of a young woman to wait for a bus ride home from work without the fear of false arrest.

Alaska Gov. Palin Will Now Sign Legislation Accepting Nearly All Stimulus Funds

After joining the ranks of some other Republican critics of the federal stimulus legislation as well as the Obama Administration, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin now intends to sign legislation and accept all but one $29 million dollar energy program funds out of the total $930 million dollars in funds earmarked for Alaska. Interestingly, Palin attempted to join Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal recently by complaining that many programs had "strings attached" that forced ongoing state funding once the federal funding ran out. However, after state legislators conducted more than 20 hearings on various portions of the stimulus legislation, no evidence turned up to support the claims by Sarah Palin, and Alaska's legislature passed legislation to enact the stimulus funds to help the state of Alaska.

As part of damage control, since Palin's claims of federal strings attached to the stimulus funds were untrue and unfounded, Palin's spokesperson, Sharon Leighow, now claims that Palin "never said she's rejecting anything. She's been consistent that we need to hear from the public, thus the legislative hearings".

Palin's turnabout is typical of a few Republicans position who are seeking higher office soapboxing on the federal stimulus funds issue. While some governors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger of California are pragmatic and appreciate the role of the federal government working to lessen the problems of the states, some like Jindal and Palin with presidential ambitions want to attack Washington for political points, while at the same time accepting nearly all of the stimulus funds for their states.

Unfortunately truth and honesty often, appears to be the first casualty of a few who seek higher office, while other governors simply seek to do the best for their citizens, regardless of their own political party.

In other publicity seeking news, Palin plans to be a guest on AMERICAN CHOPPER of all shows. Maybe the name confused her. The program is called AMERICAN CHOPPER, not AMERICAN SHOPPER. One is all about bikes, while the other is all about buying lots of clothes. Maybe WHAT NOT TO WEAR might be a choice for her to appear on.

More Thoughts On Arlen Specter's Marriage Of Convenience

Arlen Specter may be a moderate as far as Republican Party standards go, but he has seldom seemed as any Democrat by any means with his voting record. His switch to the Democratic Party isn't likely to produce and real major changes to that long-time voting record either. While Specter's move helps the Democrats, at least on paper, move towards that magic 60 vote majority, the move by Specter must still be viewed as more of a marriage of convenience than anything. It is probably unlikely that waves of other Republican moderates will suddenly be switching parties and joining Specter.

Specter was running about 20 points behind a potential conservative GOP primary challenger in current Pennsylvania polls, and was concerned about losing his senate seat in 2010. A switch to the Democratic Party may give Specter a better shot at keeping his senate seat provided a strong Democratic challenger doesn't emerge either.

Vice President Joe Biden personally takes a great deal of credit for urging Specter to switch parties. And this also helps the Democrats to secure a 60 vote majority once All Franken is confirmed as the winner of the Minnesota senate election battle. As far as advancing the Democratic agenda of President Obama, the Democrats are now solidly in position to enact any legislation that they wish. However, the double edged sword here is that this legislation must work and be popular enough with the public. A new Rasmussen Poll out today, shockingly gives Republicans a slight edge on a generic congressional election ballot, so the Democrats with control of the White House, congress and the senate might only have until just the 2010 election to prove that they can advance the country and move the economy ahead before that majority at least in the congress might be threatened by a voter backlash should this agenda fail.

With the added vote of Arlen Specter on some Democratic legislation, there is a window until the 2010 election for the White House and the Democrats to succeed or fail. Mr. Obama has moved very quickly a great deal of legislation, and whether this revives the economy or solves other problems will take some time to consider.

However, in most polls, President Obama draws high approval numbers. And the stock market is up again sharply today. And both GM and Chrysler seem to have at least some good news that both are making some changes that might be the cornerstones of the survival of both companies.

With the Democrats so heavily in control of the federal government, they will certainly be tagged by the voters as throughly "owning" any problems the nation is facing. This brings with it a great deal of responsibility to suceed. And it gives some hope to Republicans to gain some voter support as a protest party should Democrats fail, even if Republicans have so far failed to really advance any real platform or agenda to address the nation's problems.

Swine Flu Outbreak Creates Flood Of Rumor News Stories

The outbreak of the swine flu, a disease spread from animals to humans is creating a flurry of rumor news stories and unconfirmed news features among the news underground. Among some of the most interesting are these three stories that are currently circulating in underground news circles:

1. NYC Jet Flyover Story: Officially the flyover by a presidential jet over NYC that panicked many in NYC has been dismissed as some sort of "photo-opt" staged by the Pentagon. However it seems unlikely that such an event would be staged by the Pentagon, adding fuel to some underground news stories that President Obama made a sudden visit to the UN yesterday to meet with Russian and Chinese officials to discuss plans to contain this serious flu outbreak, which kills about 10% of persons who get this illness.

Also it is known that the use of decoy jets are sometimes used for security reasons to better protect the president, and to divert attention away from the real landing of the presidential jet. In Baghdad, President Bush made some surprise visits there, and at least twice, decoy jets were used to divert attention away from the actual landing site of the presidential plane.

Does this explain the strange events yesterday? Not exactly. Yet the events were strange enough yesterday and the official explanation not very good that perhaps some serious security concerns helped to create this strange event as a cover for some more important event. This is a real mystery here where the official explanation does not suffice, fueling some news rumors of a larger story here. Likely this small story will generate more news in the coming days.

2. Swine Flu Epidemic linked To Mexican Drug Cartels: No good evidence really exists to support this growing underground news story other than this animal illness originally came from Mexico and might originate in some rural areas where drug cartels may be active. It is also not clear how some drug cartel could spread this illness to humans. So far this underground news story does not have good explanations to pin it together in any credible way. Yet no doubt, this story may have a little more life in it until an official explanation of the real source of this flu is given by WHO(World Health Organization).

3. Al Qaeda Using This Flu To Cause Economic Destruction And Death In North America: Like the above story, this underground news story has little supporting evidence as well. It is unclear how exactly Al Qaeda could transmit an animal disease to humans to cause illness, death and economic destruction, but you know that they might do it if only they could. However, Al Qaeda has never been a very sophisticated organization, and research labs dealing with biological illness seem far from their technology means. Al Qaeda's means always appear to be very crude and simple. And it is not clear that this organization has much of any presence in South America either. This rumor story has some interesting elements. However, too few facts pin this story together with any credible reality here.

Underground news provides some interesting stories. However with thin facts or sometimes facts that don't line up, such rumors usually aren't usually that good of news. But mystery events such as that NYC flyover as well as the source of this swine flu, all serve to fuel rumor news stories.

Another Inept Republican Takes Aim At The Obama Foreign Policy

Fred Thompson, the former senator and LAW & ORDER actor who couldn't even successfully raise campaign contributions or manage his campaign for president in 2008, has become the latest of a crowded field of inept Republican "leaders" to become a critic of the Obama foreign policy and the release of CIA documents related to torture. Strangely, Thompson referred to Obama as "inept, naive and arrogant", when it is probably Thompson that has failed to see the irony of his comments being a pretty good self-description.

Thompson proved in his failed 2008 bid for the Republican nomination that he really has no real base of support among many Republicans other than as a fringe candidate. He attracted very few votes and quickly dropped out of the race. And reputation of Thompson as an effective manager were quickly dashed by his woefully inept campaign and lazy approach to running for office. This failed to impress many donors to give funds to some candidate who didn't seem to show any real ambition or drive to really seek the office.

Another problem is that the most vocal critics of the Obama foreign policy so far have been figures such as Thompson, Cheney and Gingrich who have little real public support outside of inner Republican Party circles. The public doesn't really care what these largely irrelevant figures think.

Another problem is that it is a difficult sell for a few Republicans like Cheney or Thompson to generate a great deal of public sympathy for torture or abuse of prisoners. This is a downright crazy issue to champion that is highly unlikely to become a Republican path back to power at any point in the near future. These guys just don't seem to be intelligent enough to understand that torture and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib wasn't one of America's finest moments. The public is hardly going to return Republican back to power on such an absurd issue.

These Republican voices could be tuned in to the real world here, and understand that the economy is the overwhelming issue of public interest right now. And as long as the Obama Administration and the Democrats don't have a complete foreign mess develop somewhere or allow a new major terrorist attack in the U.S. to succeed, then foreign policy will remain a minor issue compared to the economy. A minor issue like foreign policy is where minor votes are right now. This isn't a major issue for Republicans to soap box on.

Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton did manage to urge Pakistan to take some stronger action against the Taliban over the weekend, where the government in Pakistan appears to want to use military means to have a show of force against the Taliban after Clinton put pressure on them. This about all that can be hoped for. Pakistan is sending troops into areas where the Taliban is strong to send them a message that a military showdown could result if the Taliban attempts to further break peace agreements or make efforts to seize more territory.

Foreign policy may not be the strongest suit of the Obama Administration. But this administration is only about 100 days old, and will certainly improve in this area. All the Obama Administration needs to do is to improve relations in some areas such as with Cuba and Russia, while not allowing Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Korea or Venezuela to become a complete mess, and this administration will be judged pretty well as long as the main action is in the area of strengthening the economy. In the area of terrorism, as long as there are no new attacks in the U.S., most voters will judge that the Obama Administration is keeping America safe enough by most voters.

The fresh Bush Administration in September 2001 was challenged by the surprise 9/11 attacks and part of the aftermath of that was inept actions that allowed this event to happen in the first place and an over-reaction that allowed torture and prisoner abuses to take place. The current debate over torture is whether this over-reaction to 9/11 allowed abuses that were criminal in nature to take place. This discussion is best to conducted by impartial judges of some sort as any debate by Congress would be too highly partisan in nature and may not really get to the truth of the matter.

As long as the Obama Administration faces no similar major foreign policy mess, and can keep most of the public discussion on the economy as the major problem facing the U.S., the Republican voices from figures such as Cheney, Gingrich or Thompson aren't likely to generate much wind for the sails of Republicans. This is another example of the wrong message by the wrong messengers.

Pontiac's Problems Were More Complicated Than Sales

The problems that killed off the Pontiac brand were far more complicated than mere sales. Pontiac was actually the third best selling brand for GM behind the Chevrolet and GMC brands. In 2008, for example sales were 1,801,131 for Chevrolet, 376,996 for GMC, 267,348 for Pontiac, 188,004 for Saturn, 161,159 for Cadillac, 137,197 for Buick, 27,485 for Hummer and 21,368 for Saab, for a total of 2,980,688 vehicles. Certainly these figures were way down from sales figures of the past, however the problems for the Pontiac Division were many-fold.

One of the biggest problems for all GM brands is that younger buyers are no longer as loyal to particular brands as they once were. Few buyers now characterize themselves as lifelong Chevrolet or Ford owners these days as in the 50's through 70's.

Another big problem is that $4 gas could someday return, and the Pontiac brand was built on high performance type models and now suffers from many buyers wary to buy fuel hungry cars. Further Congress continues to demand better fuel economy from automobiles and lower pollution, pressuring GM to cut back on models that produce less mileage in order to allow for more trucks from the GMC Division or the more profitable Cadillac or Buick Divisions to sell vehicles.

So the bottom line troubles for the Pontiac Division boil down to a profitability issue. GM can make bigger profits selling higher priced vehicles such as GMC trucks, Cadillacs or Buicks, but the Pontiac Division works on a much tighter profit range as well ass facing modern problems with Congress over fuel mileage and the possibility of expensive gas in the future returning.

While Pontiac will merely die as a brand, GM still hopes to eventually sell off the Saturn, Hummer and Saab brands. Ford was able to sell of Jaguar to a company in India that also owns Land Rover as well. And hopes are that a foreign buyer may be attracted to the Hummer and Saab brands. The Saturn brand will be a much harder sell for GM. The brand hardly looks that attractive to many buyers, unless some upstart into the American market Chinese or South Korean brand has some interests in breaking into the U.S. market by buying the brand so that it can use the existing dealerships to jump start it's American entry. India's Tata which is the world's eighth largest automaker and current owner of Land Rover and Jaguar might be tempted to make a bid for a brand like Hummer as well.

As GM looks to slim down in hopes of survival from this bleak economy, the Pontiac Division's future became doomed. It lost too much money, although it still sold a reasonable number of cars. And a return to high performance cars seemed unlikely as new environmental and mileage rules continue to pressure modern automakers to build cars much different than the past.

Sadly, Pontiac quickly became the odd man out at GM. The division quickly looked like a good bet to save lots of money by giving the brand the ax, as well as satisfying the demands of Congress and environmentalists to kill off. Today, the only "excitement" the Pontiac brand is making is by the news that the brand will soon shut down.