The closing of Chrysler and GM dealerships is going to be an expensive process for Americans. The taxpayers have already been fleeced of billions of dollars to put Chrysler and GM under the thumb of the federal government, but it will be difficult to estimate the additional costs of closing 789 Chrysler and 1200 GM dealers.
Dealergate 9: Questioning the ‘auto task force tyrants’
Nothing but the sound of crickets from Obama's out-of-control task force.
As we reported yesterday, even some Democrats are beginning to question President Obama and auto his task force. They can’t understand why profitable, top-performing Chrysler dealers are being forced to close their doors. We’ve been asking this and other questions about the Dealergate scandal for weeks, and we’re encouraged to see some House Democrats finally getting curious about how the decisions were made regarding which dealerships would stay and which would go.
Any number of factors could have contributed to open these Democrat’s eyes. For one, this dealer closing business doesn’t pass the smell test, no matter on which side of the aisle a Congressman may be seated. Perhaps the three listened to their Republican colleague Ted Poe, who represents the Second District of Texas. In a recent speech from the floor of the House, Rep. Poe delivered remarks which contained enough red meat to open more than a few pairs of eyes.
HuffPo’s Geoffrey Comes Undunn over Palin
The governor did not plagiarize, but the vice president is famous for it.
Geoffrey Dunn, in an unhinged huff piece at HuffPo, has charged Gov. Palin with plagiarism. In a dubious diary titled “Palin Plagiarizes Gingrich in Anchorage Speech,” Dunn declares, “It’s a pure case of unadulterated plagiarism”:
Palin acknowledged that “Recently, Newt Gingrich, he had written a good article about Reagan….” (Recently? It was four years ago; and she said “good,” with an obvious disdain, since Gingrich has been rather dismissive of her recently.)
2. Palin: He said, regarding your dad Michael, he said that we need to learn from his example that courage and persistence are keys to historic achievement.
Gingrich/Shirley: Courage and persistence are the keys to historic achievement.
Dealergate 8: Look who’s concerned now
House Dems follow RedState in asking why top dealers were closed.
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer and Reps. Chris Van Hollen and Daniel Maffei, in a letter today to President Barack Obama, expressed their “growing concern” over the closings of GM and Chrysler dealerships. Moreover, the three congressional Democrats say they want to hear a “compelling justification” how closing healthy dealerships will improve the ailing automakers’ fiscal situation. The three were asking their Capitol Hill colleagues to sign their letter today.
No surprise: Anti-Palin AP snubs Alaska’s Governor
She has been most outspoken on issue of NoKor missiles and nukes.
In a story headlined “Alaskans concerned about North Korea’s missiles” the Associated Press continues in its Anti-Palin tradition. Mary Pemberton, who wrote the story, quoted several of Alaska’s citizens as well as “the state’s political leaders.”
Among the latter, Pemberton included statements from Rep. Don Young and Sen. Mark Begich. Conspicuously absent from the article was any mention of Gov. Sarah Palin, who has been the most vocal of Alaskans about the potential threat her state faces from North Korea.
Dealergate 7: Why were top-performing dealers closed?
Chrysler and the auto task force don't have an answer.
Since we last checked in on the Dealergate fiasco, the new media has been busy doing the work old media reporters should have been doing all along. Obama sycophants on the Left end of the blogosphere continued with their “nothing to see here, folks” defense of their beloved savior-president. And Chrysler dealers on the closed list offered evidence in court that most had sales figures and customer satisfaction ratings above the norm for all MOPAR dealers. But could all this just be trees, and could they be obscuring our view of the forest?
The Truth About Cars?
Not a bad day for Toyota, but a good one for Ford
At The Truth About Cars, Ken Elias posits that though Monday’s announcement of the GM bankruptcy was a bad day for the once dominant U.S. automaker, it was an even worse day for Toyota. His theory is that GM, bolstered with taxpayer dollars and free from creditors’ demands, will come roaring back with bold new products and lower fixed costs, more competitive than ever:
Toyota (or Honda) products have been the default choice. That “Easy Button” is starting to get harder to press for buyers. Yep, Americans will begin to come back to consider Detroit products (at least GM and Ford), and that’s not good for Toyota. And we’ve really never left Detroit for our big pickups and SUVs, while the Japanese are still mostly playing catch up.
Yep, it’s a bad day for Toyota and a great day for America. You can look forward to a new Detroit that will be competitive, if not lead, in cars and trucks for mass market Americans. Count on it
This is pure fantasy. Elias’ equation is missing two critical variables.
Sarah Palin: Big Government wants to control everything
'It had better still be our mission that we win, they lose.'
In a speech introducing Ronald Reagan’s elder son Michael last night in Anchorage, Gov. Sarah Palin warned about big government exerting control over the private sector. the states and the people.
“We need to be aware of the creation of a fearful population, and fearful lawmakers, being led to believe that big government is the answer, to bail out the private sector, because then government gets to get in there and control it,” she said. “And mark my words, this is going to be next, I fear, bail out next debt-ridden states. Then government gets to get in there and control the people.”
Little Rock terrorist wanted revenge for Muslims
Says he would have killed more soldiers if they had been outside with victims
Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 23, aka Carlos Bledsoe, told police that he shot two U.S. Army privates with the intent to kill them Monday because he was a practicing Muslim, and he was angered by what the American military had done to Muslims in the past. He also told officers that if more soldiers been on the parking lot with the victims, he would have shot them too.
Private William Long, 23, died from his injuries on arrival at a Little Rock hospital. Private Second Class Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, was taken directly to surgery after arriving at the hospital. Officials say he is expected to recover from his gunshot wounds.
Dealergate 6: The Clinton Factor
And we've only scratched the surface of this scandal.
Since our last update of the blogger investigation into the Chrysler dealer closing fiasco now known as Dealergate, another significant benchmark has been met. All of the information from the .pdf list of Chrysler dealers remaining open has been put into spreadsheet format. With both lists now in this form, researchers are finally able to analyze the MOPAR dealer data and find significant patterns buried deep within it.
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
Dan Spencer
Jeff Emanuel
Neil Stevens
