GM is Alive (?) and Chris Stevens is Dead

Probably too late to reach the skulls full of mush that need this the worst, but I'm tired of hearing this whole "GM is alive" bunk. I call it bunk, because GM would have weathered a restructuring with or without Obama's meddling.

You ever eat a Twinkie®? Hostess Twinkies®...yellow cake outside, creamy filling in the middle. When was the last time you ate one? I saw some last time I was in the grocery store. Did you know that Hostess had declared bankruptcy? At least once, maybe twice? And yet, they are still on the shelves...how can this be?

Well, for starters, there's more than one kind of bankruptcy. Chapter eleven gives a company a chance to restructure and reorganize and ideally, come out whole on the other side. Many people are seemingly only familiar with a chapter thirteen bankruptcy, where the door are shuttered, the remaining assets divided up among their creditors.

And every time Democrat, lying through their teeth, politicians (but I repeat myself), spoke of what Romney wanted to do to (or for) the auto industry, they spoke of bankruptcy in terms of chapter thirteen, as if unemployed auto workers were at the top of Romney's wish list.

Enter Obama. Instead of allowing GM and Chrysler to go through a legal restructuring, he imposed a political restructuring. Only, unlike the bankruptcy at Hostess which allowed them to renegotiate unreasonable or overly expensive union contracts, the political deal locked in lavish union salaries and benefits, at the expense of bond holders and the American taxpayer.

Yes, GM is "alive". But, so is Hostess! Obama didn't save jobs at GM so much as he saved overly generous union benefits. And then, he gave a large controlling interest in GM to the unions. This will make it easier for GM to negotiate reasonable contracts with the unions in the future /sarc.

(BRB - all this talk of Twinkies® is making me hungry!)

Much better! Now, where were we? Ah, yes, political restructuring. Businesses need money to run on, to meet payroll, make expansions, buy new raw materials, etc. People who bought GM bonds, did so at a slightly reduced rate or return (how much money they got paid for their investment, like interest on a savings account), for a guarantee of lesser risk. Risky investments pay higher rates of return, because there's less guarantee you'll even get your money back. As such, GM bondholders were supposed to get "first dibs" in any restructuring process. But since Obama's restructuring was political, he could make up the rules as he went along. (Maybe this is what he meant about "not everyone playing by the same rules"?)

GM bondholders got the shaft, in favor of the unions. Non union subsidiaries of GM, like Delphi, had their pensions decimated to cover the union pensions. Welcome to the crazy world of "fairness" under Barack Obama! I cannot tell you the extent, but if I were an investor in bonds, I would keep my money in a mattress before putting it at risk in any company the president might want to restructure for the purpose of his friends!

And even though "GM is alive and bin Laden is dead" makes a lovely bumper sticker, it is based on two lies. One, is that GM would have collapsed without Obama's political restructuring. That is false. Many companies have gone in and out of chapter eleven bankruptcy and are thriving today. The main difference is, that there are very specific rules and laws governing legal bankruptcy. Obama's was more reminiscent of a banana republic.

Second, for all the chest thumping at the Charlotte convention, and Democrats continually "spiking the ball" about the death of bin Laden, al Qaeda did not curl up and die when bin Laden was shot. For the Obama administration to equate the death of one man to the death of a movement is foolishly naive. When Lincoln or JFK was assassinated, did the country cease to exist because we were momentarily leaderless? Or did we pick up right where we left off, only under different leadership?

Instead of "GM is alive and bin Laden is dead", substitute "Al Qaeda is alive and the economy is dead" and you'll be better at summing up the last four years of this administration. Or you could personalize it: "Al Qaeda is alive and Chris Stevens is dead".

America: we can do better! Tomorrow's the day to find out!

Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.

Explosive New Deals on a Chevy Volt!

Well, something new, anyway! We did a story here last week about electric cars catching fire (Is it Karma if Al Gore's Electric Cars Cause Fires?). And we went out of our way to point out it was NOT the Chevy Volt.

And we're not talking about the car-b-que prone Chevy Volt here.

As Gilda Radner used to say: "Never mind!"

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- General Motors is recalling the Chevrolet Volt to make changes that it says will help prevent fires from coolant leaks which may follow a severe side impact.

"Coolant leak that could cause a fire"...where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah. The Karma.

The recall applies to all of the approximately 8,000 Volts on the road today. Dealers will also make changes on cars on their lots...

Eight thousand cars sold in two years? And every single one of them is being recalled. Only, GM isn't calling it a "recall". That has negative connotations to it, don'tcha know? But then, so does having your car catch fire!

GM will call it a "customer satisfaction campaign." Because most customers are more satisfied when their cars don't burst into flames! And since Government Motors is run in part by the Obama administration, expect a new marketing campaign:

Chevy Volt - Fourth Best Car Ever!

Cross posted at Say Anything

Limo-gate? Obama's Federal "Green Cars": Look Across 3,500 Miles of Atlantic Waters for News on Obama's Ruling Class Hypocrisy

by the Left Coast Rebel

How long has The Chosen One been in office? A bit over 2 years, now, and it still surprises me that some of the most honest, stinging commentary on the man and his administration heralds from international sources.

UK's Daily Mail offers this scathing report on Obama's federal green car fleet by 2015 program, titled, "Obama: All federal vehicles MUST be environmentally friendly by 2015 - except my limo"

Barack Obama's presidential limousine will be exempt from his drive to make all government vehicles environmentally friendly, the Secret Service has revealed.

The president last week insisted that he would use the government's purchasing power to promote fuel efficient cars - insisting 100 per cent of new government vehicles would be 'green' by 2015.

But the Secret Service said that the directive would not apply to some vehicles used for law enforcement and security including the president's Cadillac limousine, according to the Detroit News.

Obama last week announced the plan to make all government vehicles fuel efficient by 2015. (READ MORE).

So, a greenie-weenie Prezie-limo wouldn't be able to deflect bullets, bombs, missiles and other assorted dangers? Perhaps so but it sure seems to me that the Presidential limousine could be outfitted with some sort of ethanol-chugging engine, or "carbon offsets" could be purchased to pay homage to the Left-God Gaia. It doesn't matter if the green engine retrofitting job for the limo would be predictably contracted to the UAW and cost billions of dollars...Obama and America have BIG ideas!

We shouldn't be in the least surprised by any of this: Obama's presidency is ruled by the defiance of basic economic law as evidenced by this Washington Times article, "Barack Obama: Losing $84 billion big success":

Investor's Business Daily reported that even the White House’s Director of the National Economic Council remarked that the Treasury Department Department had a good chance in "recovering most, if not all, of its investment in" GM.

However, a March 16 Congressional Oversight report, tells a different story. It estimates taxpayers will be out of $25 billion. Additionally, the report points out that “full repayment will not be possible unless the government is able to sell its remaining shares at a far higher price.”

That's only the beginning. Both the White House and the Congressional Oversight report omit the fact that during its bankruptcy, GM got a $45 billion tax break, courtesy of the American people. (READ MORE)

Government Motors is the ultimate Obama "green" program, bondholders were given the boot, leftists and Obama were put in charge, taxpayers were shafted to the tune of tens of trillions (oops, Freudian slip here, billions) and the politically-connected UAW won all of the "green" but not in a carbon-free sense.

Don't forget too that King Obama's winning prize was the Chevy Volt and a quick search brought me to a story highlighting that Der Volt's sales were down in February of this year a surprising 40 units. Not percentage points, mind you; units, bringing the total sales of this gem of central planning government mismanagement to...well, you don't even want to know.

I guess almost any sales figure is not bad for a car that costs over $40,000 net of a fat taxpayer-subsidization.

Here's a shot of Spooky Dude looking particularly spooky in a Volt, as Government Motors celebrated the car's introduction way-back-when:

AP/ Politico photo

Only in America and under the Presidency of this man could such malfeasance and stupidity be possible.

Bonus: On a palette-cleansing, non-political note, via. the Discovery Channel: "Secrets of the Secret Service - The Presidential Limousine"

Discussion via. Memeorandum, here. Cross-posted to Left Coast Rebel