Tag: Government Motors

Former General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz on Friday sharply criticized Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, defending the rescue of GM and Chrysler as a "necessary government intervention."

Rest here

OK, suck the morning coffee back through your nose. Its not real. But why should I even have to note THAT fact?  Its absurd, right?

Truth of the matter, is that nearly nothing can be ruled out as absurd any longer.  From this current administration to the entities that have somehow become the responsibility of the nation's taxpayers, the separation of government and business has collapsed to the point that it is LOGICAL to expect such ridiculous arrangements as the opening paragraph presented.  

Especially when seeing this:

"The CCP's state-run China Film Group produced a big-budget propaganda film called "The Birth of a Party," or depending on how the title is translated, "The Great Achievement of Founding the Party."  The latter sounds more like what they were shooting for.  The "chief business partner" in this venture was General Motors brand Cadillac ..."

William C Durant has now rolled fully over in his grave.  The high school drop out turned manufacturer, would surely be SICK to see what has happened to the company he once used to bring together a great number of models and makes.

Levin, who purchased his electric car with gas backup in April at a Michigan dealership, lives in a historic Washington rowhouse with no garage or dedicated parking spot. No luck there. Ditto for the garage of the U.S. Capitol.

So Levin and some other senators have sponsored a bill to get plugs in the garage.

"We're pushing this infrastructure on other people these days, the least we can do is have it for our own employees, provided there's no cost to the government," Levin said.

Carl, there hasn't been one damn thing in your 32 years in DC that your fellow Marxist Party has done to cost "government" a penny.  It's fleecing 'We the People' plenty though.

In the as yet unfinished fight to produce vehicles that are 'green' and have little carbon footprint, our automakers have been encouraged by the administration to produce a slew of not-ready-for-prime-time electric cars that not only cost too much, but go about 40 miles tops, with engines that might be better suited towards kitchen blenders or hand held power tools.  Michigan automakers have really gone to he!! in a hand basket.

I hold nothing against the volt, really.  It serves the purpose of salving eco guilt for some, and might even have a future, but the failed efforts of the government to convince enough buyers through rebates and credits of $7,000.00 are a perfect example of why we do not let government types choose which products are best for us.  The credits failed so miserably, that makers of the Chevy Volt are worried about the expiration of those credits after today.

Not that anybody should expect an industry that still has a shock collar of union interest around its neck to do very well anyway.  General Motors is selling some of its action to lucky buyers.  In the filing of the IPO today, GM lowers your expectations:

"The ability of our new executive management team to quickly learn the automotive industry and lead our company will be critical to our ability to succeed.

Within the past year we have substantially changed our executive management team. We have elected a new Chief Executive Officer who will start on September 1, 2010 and a new Chief Financial Officer who started on January 1, 2010, both of whom have no outside automotive industry experience."

Per der kommisar's wishes, NO-ONE qualified to run the company need apply.  In fact, even if they did, and got jobs, the discovery of whats under the hood might scare the lug nuts off em.  Continuing:

"We have determined that our disclosure controls and procedures and our internal control over financial reporting are currently not effective. The lack of effective internal controls could materially adversely affect our financial condition and ability to carry out our business plan."

So the filing for the IPO for the NEW Government Motors includes a disclosure that: A.  They have potentially incompetent leadership, and B. No idea where the money gets spent and a lack of oversight for such things.?

Let's start with the "municipality" and work out way up, shall we?

We learn today that the Detroit Public Schools, long a paragon of Lefty administrative virtue, have 257 "ghosts" on the payroll.  According to the Ivory Tower these are folks who are pulling down major bank but aren't even supposed to be on the payroll.  The local public school bureaucracy is so wasteful of taxpayer dollars they don't even demand a lick of work to get them.  

There were 37 unclaimed paychecks and 220 unclaimed direct-deposit slips totaling about $208,000, said Odell Bailey, DPS' auditor general. He added that the recipients are not on approved leave.

Robert Bobb, DPS' state-appointed emergency financial manager, also said an audit has begun to determine if employees have unapproved health care  dependents that are running up costs.

Probably important, too, that we don't blame this entirely on the bureaucracy. That means there are 257 individuals who at one time or another were entrusted with the education of Detroit kids whose integrity was so poor they continued cashing the checks they knew they hadn't earned.  

DPS might want to audit their character assessment and their hiring practices next.  And they're not the only ones.  As frustrating as a chronically bungled payroll can be it isn't nearly as dangerous as the mistake the Granholm-Cherry administration made this week when they took a convicted murderer who'd wracked up 124 "major misconducts" since entering prison, took him out of jail and dropped him off at his grandfather's house without medication.  

Because that sounds like a safe thing to do.

Read on...