Just wondering if you've followed the news in the past few years or so? How bout the PCA ordeal and a community in Blakely that is now reeling because 1/2 the towns population is out of work because the plant apparently wasnt inspected enough or even properly? I mean how can you miss a big rat laying on the floor next to a vat of food? And how bout all those monstrous pot holes all over the interstate that are tearing up people's cars: the cars they bought with their hard earned money? And how about Clayton County schools losing accreditation because no government official stepped in to calm the chaos? No we'll just let these kids figure out on their own what to do when they want to get in to good colleges. How about the DOT reports that came out after the bridge collapse that killed several people showing that most bridges in the US are not inspected enough and are in serious need of repair???

I suppose if you wanted to protest about something that was important and meaninful to you, maybe you wouldn't be so hard pressed to point fingers. Since when is it an abomination to stand up and speak out for something this country has needed for many decades; less government control and more input from taxpayers. Immaturity is when you cower and don't take control of your own destiny but instead leave it in the hands of those who don't care. Every American has a right to speak up and apparently writing letters to congressmen and senators and flooding their offices with phone calls doesn't work when it comes to the lil ole low class, middle class, taxpayer.

Hey, how about we cut out the pork barrel project about educating prostitutes? Or how about the program that funds a site tours of a historic Cemetery. It's in the list....

I think some people just like living in a dark room.

leadership at Delta played a large part in bringing it to it's knees. Years of egotistical VIPs with lavish spending habits ruined a good company. Just when no one thought it could get worse, enter the 'dream team'. A group hired off the street to save us. One of the ring leaders of this "team" sold Delta's fuel hedges. She also changed our insurance to prove a personal point. The one thing that will forever be carved in my memory is that this person found that the rank and file's pension were tamper proof, the pension plan for the 'widows and orphans' was not. This dream team took over 40 mil out of that fund and built themselves a bankruptcy proof pension fund for themselves. Within a year or 2, they were all gone, leaving the company ruined.

The point I'm trying to make is most of the problems stem from bad management. Unfortunately they are constantly rewarded for bad behavior at the expense of the taxpayer and workers.

Till the excess waste and stealing is stopped by the government, we will continue down this road. It has been proven that unregulated business is out for the CEOs and their cronies at the expense of the workers and taxpayers.

Having lived through government regulation of companies and now this deregulation. I say government should regulate corporate America! We have laws to punish the thieves and killers in society, why not in corporate America?

The trouble started when Delta stopped promoting from within and started hiring management off of the street. This started in the late 80's. The people that were promoted from within loved and cherished "Their" company and were good stewards, the people off of the street could care less. Look what it got them!

Obama's weapon of Choice!

Is it worth destroying a company to remain faithful to free-market tenets when abberations in the free market caused the majority of their problems?

The President has said the "Guv" is not in the car manufacturing business and has put both Chrysler and GM on notice. We'll see what happens next.

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Caution - The Surgeon General has determined that constant blogging is an addiction that can cause a sedentary life style.

I think a managed bankruptcy with some spinning-off of assets/divisions is the only way for GM to be viable in the future. Besides the issues you cited, their benefit obligations to past employees are killing their cost structure and that is going to get shaved down pretty substantially just like it did with Delta.

I'm not a believer in the "too big to fail" concept, but politicians who want to extend their careers feel like they have to "do something" in the short-term and not ride out the very painful aftershocks of a too-big-to-fail company going bust. Or several too-big-to-fail banks going under at the same time since the underlying banking system is technically insolvent right now. That's some serious pain and I'm not so sure all the advocates of "let them fail" have really thought through the issue in detail.

A lot of Americans are hopelessly ignorant about economic issues and demand quite vocally and at the ballot box that "somebody do something NOW!" Then it comes down to simply HOW MUCH all the something is going to cost, with the Dems saying "more" and the Repubs saying "maybe a little less since than what the Dems say since we're not in office at this time"

That was a lucid and well thought out post. Maybe the answer is to split GM into several smaller companies for it to survive, but the free market should decide that not the Government.

Obama's weapon of Choice!

Angela Bean stopped working at The Citizen several years ago. So you can stop worrying about journalistic standards and disclosure in her case.

Thank you, mcg I'll sleep better at night now knowing that.

Isn't it amazing how these extremists seem to travel in such small circles!

I agree 100%!! Isn't it amazing how ACORN extremists seem to travel in small circles!

Fair Tax Now!!
Herman Cain's Intelligent Thinkers are wide awake!!

Shouldn't you be living in China??? Seems to me from the thousands of pics and videos online (lemme guess you think they're fake) that the over 50 white males were outnumbered by Gen Xers, children, Asian Americans, African Americans and women of all generations. Pitiful how ultraliberals just can't admit that a conglomeration of Americans are sick and tired of the government doing what they want when they want with OUR money? Bound to happen sometime. Just happened to be during our lifetime.

Don't you know that name calling is to be launched by republicans/conservatives/independents who are embarrassed republicans?

Don't you realize these names are to be received by democrats/liberals/bed-wetters/liberal weenies, who, in true weenie-like fashion, will simply bow their heads and make no retorts? ("Well, allow me to retort!" Samuel Jackson in "Pulp Fiction")

Doesn't it seem like same stuff different day? Heck! It's same people , different day.... and different names

Have a good one!

Heh heh, the principle of IOKIYAR ("It's Okay If You Are Republican")!

I get the biggest kick out of the situational outrage of the likes of Wedge....the silly 'tard thinks it's still 1994, when Republicans ran roughshod over anyone who disagreed with them, and liberals were expected to turn the other cheek.

They can dish it out but boy oh boy they can't seem to take it.

one of the most Conservative voting Reps in Washington. I'm not sure why you would try to lay the blame at his feet. You may not like his voting, but you can't say it's been liberal, or even a big spender.

Here's a list of the 2007 Reps and rankings...I didn't see 2008 from my quick search.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/voteratings/house/cons.htm?o1=con_composite&o2=desc#vr

Why Mr. Harbin stole the show---Mr. Harbin was the star because he is not a hack politician like Ramsey, Chance and Westmoreland. Harbin is successful in business and doesn't need the job. Westmoreland, Ramsey and Chance see public service as a means of enhancing themselves.

Harbin may be like Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma--- a person who doesn't need it and would speak freely.

Westmoreland, Chance and Ramsey are go along get alongs. I have to disagree Spyglass. When the news reports came out with the pork totals for each of the Georgia REPUBLICANS and their districts, the Republicans themselves should have called each other out. They didn't. In fact Savannah "Republican" Jack Kingston was proud of the pork he got. The problem is that there are 535 members of Congress doing the exact same thing. And the quiet complicity is due to the fact that guys like Westmoreland, Ramsey and Chance are in it for their own good. It is disheartening that we taxpayers will be paying Westmoreland $150,000 a year for life, in a retirment earned for doing what?

Maybe Harbin will call out the GOP on all this pork.

Hell, lets get rid of the illegals and save our Country!

Obama's weapon of Choice!

First of all, I couldn't go to the event because I was WORKING.

Yep, that's right. I have a family to support and at noon today I was at WORK. I wondered why the protest wasn't scheduled for 5pm or later, but realized: It's the unemployed who showed up.

Secondly, where were these bums when Dubya was prezdint for eight years? They didn't mind spending then, did they? Nope. They tagged right along. They were obedient little Dittoheads and did what they were told: support the prezdint. We were at war, afterall, and had to spend all that money.

Thirdly, how many of these unemployed bum teabaggers at City Hall today are in debt? Yeah, you heard me. How many of YOU bums owe money on your house, car, and the bummest of all: credit cards...?

I bet less than five percent of the bum teabaggers are debt-free. They spent more than they earn, just like the govmint they complain about (for only the last four months, since the one before that was perfect).

Maybe the lot of you bums should start voting and preaching based on the needs of your family, instead of your team (the Republicans).

And on a similar note: Guess who destroyed the South and burned Atlanta to the ground? Yep, the REPUBLICANS.

Real Southerners vote Democrat. They always have and they always will.

No disrespect.

"And on a similar note: Guess who destroyed the South and burned Atlanta to the ground? Yep, the REPUBLICANS."

Hmmm. Slavery was instituted in the South.. The South went to war to keep slaves.. the South wanted to suscede from the Union.. over slavery..
Abraham Lincoln fought to free the slaves.. A REPUBLICAN by the way.. (part of that crowd that burned Atlanta)
George Wallace stood in the door of a school to block blacks from entering.. A DEMOCRAT by the way..
Robert Byrd a Senator was a member of the KKK.. A DEMOCRAT by the way..

So MOGL are you saying you support slavery because you are a Southerner or just a Democrat??

Just wondering.. and oh yes DIVA.. The Tea Party was AWESOME..
How was that shot Diva?

I will not lower my standards.. So UP YOURS..

GUN CONTROL Link

The first states to legalize slavery were in the north.

In 1641 Masssachusette became the first colony to leagalize slave trade followed by Connecticut in 1650.

Virginia legalized slavery in 1661.

Slavery started in the northern colonies and some 500,000 slaves were transported to the south on ships flying the state flags of New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Hampshire.

I love history books. Here is one I would recomend: Myne Wone Ground: Race and Freedom on Virginia's Eastern Shore 1640-1676 by T.H. Breen and Stephen Innes.

Another eye opening book: Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery by Anne Farrow, Joel Lang, and Jessica Frank

Here is another one: New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan by Jill Lepore

Have a good everyone.

I was making a point with MOGL.. I am Southern Born and Bred.. and agree slavery was started in the Northern States.. The shipping points were in Virginia and Boston.. It just became a "Southern" thang as a spin up to the war..

I will not lower my standards.. So UP YOURS..

GUN CONTROL Link

I knew you were making a point. There are some liberals that still actually believe slavery started in the south. I'm from the north and even I know better.

Anyway, have a good day.

Gotta Go and pay for some more illegals "free" healthcare..
See ya...

I will not lower my standards.. So UP YOURS..

GUN CONTROL Link

Lincoln's plan was to allow the south to keep their slave system. What sent them into a frenzy to secede was the Fugitive Slave Law. They would not be able to recover their 'property' - their run-away slaves from other states. . .and could not expand their system of slavery into the newly acquired American territories. There were southern economists who wrote interesting essays imploring the leaders of the south to industrialize – and not depend on an economy that depended on human slave labor. . .but at that time, slaves were not considered human. Sad. The south was a solid democrat section of the country until Lyndon Johnson signed the voting rights bill – and the south has been Republican ever since.

so prepare to be assaulted just as soon as happy hour is over and these "producers" get back to their puters. Duck and cover!