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These Republicans just have it in for the small business entrepreneur: Homeless Man Accused in Parking Scam.

Okay, so he didn’t actually own the parking lot, and parking was supposed to be free, but the guy saw an opportunity and took it. If you had any idea how bad the traffic and parking situation was in the city of Destin, this would make a lot more sense.

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According to Rick Wagoner, the CEO of GM, the company is losing money because health care is too expensive, there are too many plants, and too many employees, so he’s going to close plants and fire 25,000 people, on top of the three plants and 5,000 people he’s already laid off. He says this will save $2.5 billion/year.

Ah, Rick the problem is you are not selling vehicles. With the price of gas rising people don’t want the gas guzzling SUVs you decided to make. If you had shifted to quality fuel-efficient cars, instead of large trucks, people would buy them. If you had started making a hybrid, they would be on waiting lists, like the months people wait to take delivery of a Toyota Prius.

As for the cost of building cars in the US, Toyota and Honda seem to make money building cars here, and even exporting them. They are building new plants in the US to increase their production.

You claim that existing plants are not efficient, so why didn’t you modernize them? Isn’t that your job, to maintain efficiency and save money?

As I see it, Rick, you are an overpaid fool, who can’t read the car market, and missed the shift to more efficient vehicles when the price of oil took off. You think you should keep your job while the people who built the cars you ordered, should lose theirs. If you spent as much time watching the car market as you apparently spend watching the stock market, the problem wouldn’t have gotten this bad.

Where’s the “got to have” GM vehicle that has been introduced on your watch?

Your proposal is to reduce capacity and hope to increase profits on lower sales. Why don’t you just sell everything and become a Toyota dealership, that with increase your profit margin?

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Senators Slam Boeing Deal
Involved:

Among them were former Undersecretary of Defense Edward “Pete” Aldridge, who oversaw Pentagon purchasing and approved the tanker deal in May 2003; former Air Force Secretary James Roche, who resigned under fire for his role in the Boeing deal; and Gen. John Jumper, the current Air Force chief of staff.
[snip]
The 256-page report also connected Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to the proposed arrangement, recounting a statement by Roche that Rumsfeld had called him in July 2003 to say “he did not want me to budge” on the tanker deal, despite criticism.
[snip]
The report is the most sweeping in a series on the failed tanker deal, which military and Boeing officials have long sought to blame on Darleen Druyun, a former Air Force acquisitions official now serving a nine-month federal prison term.

There were references in the report to White House officials but their names were blacked out.

Ms. Druyun and a Boeing official took the heat for this, but anyone familiar with the military contracting process knew that two people couldn’t pull it off. It’s the same “rotten apple” excuse this administration continues to use.

Does the Air Force need to begin replacing its KC-135 fleet? Yes, there are a lot of old airframes with a lot of hours on them that should be replaced, but they weren’t all bought at once and they don’t all need to be replaced at once. They have seen a lot of use recently, but their replacement needs to be a competitive process to get the best new airframe to fulfill this vital role. The specifications on the 767 say it had major deficiencies that weren’t being addressed and there is no reason to lease in any case.

This was a rip-off, start to finish. If Boeing can’t make a go of it, Boeing should fail. The concept is called capitalism. They aren’t going to bail out the dry cleaners located near the bases they’re closing, so why are they bailing out Boeing?

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Do You Feel Safer Now?

I guess the problem was he was white.

[I noticed that Maru also saw it.]

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