In the tradition of blaming liberals and Democrats for the failures of the auto industry, wingnut central, better known as the Detroit News editorial pages blames Obama for leading the charge against the D3 bailout for attaching "string after strangling string" to the bailout bill.
It is worth noting this is the same paper who endorsed John McCain, who once said during the GOP primary that Michiganders must realize that their jobs will never come back to this state, surrogates to his campaign calling Americans "A Nation of Whiners" and voted against the D3 bailout plan. With news publications like this, who needs the Free Republic?
If you can stomach this garbage here is the link to the article.
To be fair to Detroit News GOP Chief Editorial Page Editor Nolan Finley who wrote this garbage, the summarization of what happened in Congress this week was somewhat accurate. One word that was noticeably missing from this editorial is the word "GOP" who were the sole reason why the loan went down in flames.
In the sprit of fairness, I will help out Mr Finley on how this article should have read with my edits in parentheses:
You can't scream (expletive deleted) in the newspaper, but you can in the chambers of the U.S. Capitol.
For most of the past two years, as the presidential campaign raged around us but rarely crossed our borders, we begged for national attention.
We actually believed that if the politicians and policy makers would just come here, see the struggles of our sustenance industry, talk to our laid-off workers and drowning business owners, walk over our devastated landscape,(just to show how Reagan trickle-down ecomomics and Bush adminstration's free trade agreements at all costs has destroyed this state and the industrial Midwest)and the scales would fall from their eyes and they'd rush to our rescue.
(snip)
When the spotlight finally turned on Michigan, it burned like a laser. Instead of sympathy, we got kicked in the kidneys (by the southern GOP who has a vested interest in seeing the D3 fail).
When Congress made its cursory exam of our condition, the diagnosis was that it's our own fault.
Detroit, the politicians and commentators declared, had forgotten how to play in the industry it founded.(Sen. Shelby (R-Benz, Hyundai, Toyota, Honda) declared our automakers failures and dinosaurs and not worth rescuing. President Bush would not meet with the execs from the D3 for the first six years of his term and declared two years ago that Detroit needs to make a product that is relevant even though Ford offers more hybrids than Honda and Nissan combined). They ruled we haven't a clue about making cars for modern consumers who don't really want those big trucks and sport utility vehicles they keep on buying (The boneheaded leadership of the D3 proved President Bush right in a sense with its short-sightedness, lack of vision of a day just maybe the useless 3 tons of grocery carrying, short-man syndrome gas guzzling monsters may fall out of favor with the American consumer)
Our executives, they decided, are boneheads; our workers are coddled and overpaid, unwilling to give up outdated comforts to save their jobs (Sen Corker (R-VW and Nissan, damn GM)and fourteen of his cohorts decided the geniuses on Wall Street and their exhuberant pay were just fine and worth saving, but were vested in union-busting, wage slashing, and political payback of the UAW)
(snip)
Instead of asking us what we needed, they (the Southern GOP) told us what we deserved -- nothing.
Our corporate gods were dragged before the snarling mob and lectured on how to pinch pennies and run a complex organization -- by members of Congress, no less (southern GOP members who have foreign automakers blasted D3 for being boneheads, having no vision and was worth going bankrupt.) And at every chance, the Detroiters had their noses rubbed in the success of Toyota and Honda (Sen Corker and Shelby beemed with glee that their workers make less in wages and benefits, while offering billions in tax dollars to lure those companies to their states. Whatever happen to free-markets systems GOP?? One word: hypocrites)They were forced to silently suffer their humiliation when you knew what they really wanted to do was stand up and shout, "Stick it where the sun don't shine," and march out of the room. But they couldn't, the jobs of a half-million workers were resting on their shoulders (had the blood on the GOP's cold callous hands). So they answered every lash with, "Thank you, sir, may I have another?"
Back home, we were shocked by the ferocity of the attacks (by the confederate GOP). Even those who voted for the automakers prefaced their support with diatribes describing an industry that disappeared a decade ago and yet is very much still alive in the minds of Detroit's critics (If the D3 would have listened to the American consumer and stopped fight enivronmental laws and CAFE standards on the costal areas for the past several decades,we would not be in this predictament today) .
This was not what we counted on when we invited Washington to focus on Michigan issues.
But we've learned something useful. We're alone in this miserable, rotting boat. Washington won't be our savior (The people whom we boot licked for decades at this news rag turn out to be our biggest nemesis and those whom we thought to be our enemies turned out to be our biggest supporters).
Remember, it was President elect Barack Obama who declared Detroit has its "head in the sand" and led the call for tying string after strangling string to the loan package .(If we would have listened to liberals and progressives such as Obama decades ago, we would have been way ahead of Toyota and Honda in fuel efficient techonology, safety standards and overall quality instead of focusing on short-term profits on SUVs. The Democrats in Congress put their wishes and demands on the back burner in this loan package from recoiling on the lawsuits on state controlled emission standards, not using TARP funds, and the retooling loans for the bailout at the presidents wishes. Instead the union busters in the southern GOP manufactured a deal breaker for political payback of the UAW. They knew very well labor costs are only 10% of the total cost of a vehicle, a $2-3 hr per hour would lower the cost to make a vehicle by no more than 2%. Sen Corker knew this would have had no effect on making the D3 more competitve).
If Michigan, Detroit and the Big Three automakers survive, it won't be because Washington threw us a lifeline. It'll be because we finally realized we've got to save ourselves.
I think I am going to send this to Mr. Finley and ask for a retraction the original article and post the truth about the situation.
P.S: As a member of this community I am thrilled and absolutely greatful for the outpouring of support from this community over the past month on this critical issue of saving our domestic auto industry that is the bedrock of manufacturing in this country. Admittedly, I felt labor issues and unions were secondary and was neglected for many years wrapped up in issues such as Iraq and social issues and all the crimes committed by King George in the past eight years.
The labor is the bedrock of the progressive and has been for more than a century in this country. From the unlikely heroes like Teddy Roosevelt to pioneers such as John R Commons, Kate Mullaney ,to present day leaders such as James Hoffa II and Gettlefinger, the labor movement and equality in the workplace is once again under siege by the GOP and its base, Wall Street.
With a new beginning in this country starting in 35 days, I have a feeling the labor movement will once again rise and fight for the not only blue-collar workers, but the middle class once again. We have seen the first steps in the revolution already in Chicago with Republic windows and the UAW not flinching against the onslaught of the GOP.
Solidarity forever!!