Well, if you read my last post (and believe me I understand the odds against that – I “get” that I’m writing to myself, and just so you know, it does make me feel a bit better after I write to myself) you know that I have been discouraged by the lack of “guts” on the part of Democrats as they have caved in over and over to the Bush administration since the election of 2006. I am not a fan of Harry Reid. I realize that he has a difficult challenge due to the lack of a 60 vote majority in the senate, but he acts like there is nothing he can do about this. And in the process we keep getting the Bush administration and/or republican garbage jammed down our throats – right up until January 20th, or so it appears. Considering he still won’t have 60 votes on January 20th, I’m a bit concerned as to whether we will have to continue having the republicans “molding” America’s policy as it comes out of Congress. Despite just about everyone except the Senate republicans understanding the importance of General Motors remaining a viable part of the American landscape, the “bridge loan” which is like a drop in the bucket compared to the so-called TARP bailout of wallstreet is not going to happen.

Here is what bugs me probably more than the republicans who, quite predictably due to their quest to destroy the labor movement which was put into high gear during the first term of Ronald Reagan, got the bill stopped with a threat of a filibuster. WHERE WAS THE FILIBUSTER????? Let these guys talk all they want!!! We’re talking about our national economy here. C’mon Harry, is going home for Christmas more important to you than our national economy. If that is the case then please resign your position so that we can find someone with the courage to face up to the obstructionists on the “other side of the isle.” Let these guys talk until they can’t talk anymore and then have the vote. If they want to talk until it’s time for the new congress, let them do it. Let them make a spectacle of themselves before the American people. YOU KEEP LETTING THEM OFF THE HOOK, HARRY!!! The public will never “get” this unless you will commit the time necessary to actually get their attention. I have educated co-workers who still think the blue-collar auto workers are being paid $70 per hour. In combination with the republican propaganda machine these senate republicans want to destroy every union they can while they still have a semblance of power.

If you think they will stop this obstructionist behavior when they only have 41 or 42 seats in the senate, you’re kidding yourself. They move en mass, according to whoever is giving the instructions. If you don’t force them to actually filibuster, they’ll just keep threatening this and nothing will ever happen. This is how they got the FISA bill through with “retro-active immunity” for the tele-comms who have been in cahoots with our government for years, collecting our emails and phone conversations by the millions without legal warrants. This is how they pushed through legislation that abandoned habeas corpus, a basic right that was afforded Jesus prior to his execution over 2000 years ago. This is how they managed to pass legislation that has attempted to say that torture is legal. This is how they prevented any rational attempt to end our illegal involvement as occupiers of Iraq. And I could go on, the republicans keep manipulating the democrats in Congress because neither Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi are up for the challenge of putting these people where they belong – IN THE HISTORY BOOKS!!!

Today, even Dick Cheney was quoted as saying that without a “bailout,” (remember, the auto industry is asking for a low interest loan to get them through this financial crisis which has been created by republican fiscal irresponsibility) times reminicent of “Hoover” will be upon us. If you’ve been paying any attention at all to national politics at all lately you have to be aware that the Bush administration is fully involved in “rewriting history” in an attempt to “guide” their legacy in a favorable direction as their time in office is set to expire. Well, not to be patting myself on the back (OK, that’s what I’m doing :o) I pointed out in this blog well over a month ago that if the Bush administration lets GM go down they will make Herbert Hoover look like an economic genius, or something close to those words. Normally, I don’t want to be compared to anything that Cheney does or says, but in this case, as they are working on this re-arrangement of history I believe reality is setting in and Cheney is finally getting it (maybe he read my post!). They’ve been trying to blame the economic woes they have inflicted on the rest of us on Obama, Clinton, and even Jimmy Carter. In fact, if you look closely at what GW actually said about a week ago in an interview with Charles Gibson, he’s even blaming it on his Dad! Try as they might, this aint going to work! And they know it – of course they will never stop lying, but this is so bad that even they know they’ve screwed things up royally. Based on Cheney’s own words, they are now trying to minimize the damage, even at the expense of going against the wishes of their own party which wants to destroy probably the most powerful union left in this country.

The republican party just can’t help itself. They’ve given their “true supporters” about half of the $700 billion and they’ve gotten away with doing so in a manner in which the CEO’s are still able to skim multi-million dollar bonuses right off the top of the money. In fact, I listened in horror the other day to the person in charge of “overseeing” the handing out of this money answer a direct question in congressional testimony by saying “I can’t answer that” to “Is it reasonable for an executive of one of the companies receiving this TARP bailout money to give himself a $30 million bonus?” I couldn’t believe it! And, of course, it then came out that the democrats put the stingingly stringent language in the bailout bill that executive compensation MUST BE REASONABLE! Obviously they haven’t picked up on what reasonable is to these republicans. In spite of all this, now with the opportunity to destroy the United Auto Workers, the republicans are “fired up.” They could care less about what happens to the people of this great nation. WE HAVE GIVEN THEM CONTROL AND THEY’RE GOING TO GET AS MUCH OUT OF THIS CONTROL AS THEY CAN,WHILE THEY CAN!!

I’m not sure if this vendetta is payback because they know that the organized labor movement has seen past their lies for years or if there is even a bigger reason. Keep in mind that the leader of the “pack” is Richard Shelby of Alabama. Alabama, with Shelby’s blessing, has spent upwards of $175,000 per job in tax incentives to lure foreign auto makers like Toyota and Mercedes to build plants in their state. Worker for worker, these “gifts” dwarf what GM, Chrysler, and Ford are asking for (in fact Ford may not need any help, although if GM goes down, Ford will be dragged down as well). If Shelby gets his way, not only will the United Auto Workers be potentially destroyed, but these foreign auto makers are the likely entities to come in and pick up the pieces in any bankruptcy proceeding. I don’t know about you, but I will never forgive our national leaders if we end up with no “domestic” auto industry. I, for one, don’t want Toyota and Mercedes to own GM and Ford. Our auto industry is among the remnants of what used to be an industrial society that actually produced things. Beginning with Reagan and now with Bush II and including all presidents in between (yes, including Clinton – maybe even more so) we have seen a push for a “service economy.” I have never been comfortable with this. We need to be producing things here!!!

The result of this is we are over $10 trillion in debt (doesn’t even include the trillion or so already borrowed for the occupation of Iraq or the trillion + in bailouts since last summer), we are importing most of the goods sold in this nation, we are exporting raw materials and then importing the resulting finished products which are produced under inhumane labor practices, and our trade deficit is horrifically negative and getting worse every month. Essentially, the United States of America is bankrupt. I look at it as if we are in Chapter 11. If the republicans have their way and GM goes down, with Chrysler and Ford close behind, we will be in Chapter 7 and it will be foreigners buying up what assets remain – they are the ones with all of our money due to these insane economic policies that began almost 30 years ago with Ronald Reagan. Republicans do not care if we have a domestic auto industry – what they care about is power, and I can guarantee you that the foreign car companies that have built plants in Alabama and elsewhere in the American South will be a huge source of income for the republicans as we go forward. There won’t be union workers in these plants, and unfortunately, any profits from these plants will go to the corporations based in other countries. In fact, the republicans will probably continue to give them favorable tax treatment to keep them in the US. This whole topic is making me sick as I write about it.

This nation was built into the greatest nation on earth on the backs of the blue collar workers who had the courage to risk their lives to form unions and collectively put workers in a position where companies fairly shared the successes they enjoyed with the workers who made it all possible. We have a nation which has eliminated cruel child labor, untennable labor practices for workers – in fact even many non-union workers today have benefits that would have been unimagineable without the sacrifices of the union movement of the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s. Things like the 40 hour work week, overtime pay, vacation pay, sick leave, and I could go on and on, were all the result of collective bargaining. It was this movement and these workers that made this nation what it was before Reagan started dismantling it and what it can still be if the republicans don’t totally destroy it before President elect Obama gets into office. I find it interesting that Dick Cheney finally “gets it.” Bush, who’s really focused in on his legacy gets it – but essentially, the republicans in the senate have become the rogues that are aiming to sink the whole ship. Obviously, they have separated themselves completely from Bush – it would be a laughable site if this one issue wasn’t so important (the rest of the damage is with us already and there’s not much we can do except hope that Obama makes wise decisions once in office). Obama’s task is almost beyond “daunting” even with a viable domestic auto industry, but I believe he has the right philosophy, a bottom up approach to solving the problems. However, the US car industry in bankruptcy will increase the challenge of recovery exponentially. So I say to Harry Reid, don’t let the threat of a filibuster cause you to retreat and “tank” the legislation. Harry, let the republicans talk until they can’t talk anymore!