"Detroit"/"GM" bailout Open Thread

Weaver's Way Co-op - Beyond Green Blog
h/t ezra klein

(Anybody expecting me to lay down an un-measured "not crap" or "crap" on this topic overestimates me. But let's read this article above - which looks it emanates from just the vantage point I needed to hear from - and hold forth, spew links, etc., in the comments thread. Or we can just pretend this post never happened.)

Sequoia On My Mind

I was driving behind an SUV (Toyota Sequoia to be exact) full of kids on my way home from the store. It was sporting a bumper sticker that looked like this:




My response?

Fuck. You.

How many thousands of children had to die in Iraq so you could keep driving your death machine? Many thousands of children have had to die to get you to the top of the economic pyramid so you can have your eight kids, your 6000 sq ft. house, your air conditioning, your vacations? How many thousands of children are exploited each day so you can wear your designer fashions, your shoes, your everything that exists in your world? I can't imagine you shed too many fucking tears for them now do you. So Fuck. Fucking. You.

And on my way to the store I was behind an SUV (Jeep) sporting McCain and Smith bumper stickers. I came up with this:

Postive Union News!

Some might assume that with all my Negative Nellieism that I couldn't recognize when the unions did something good (as defined by me). You would be wrong. And, quite frankly, shame on you for thinking such a thing.

I like this. I think it's good. Hopefully it will do some good. Although I do believe a prominent labor scholar has questioned the value of job training.

Sorry Environment, There's Votes to Win!

I got this in an e-mail from the AFL-CIO's "Working Families" campaign.

Out-of-control gas prices are choking off the American dream for working families.

The e-mail is about how John McCain and George Bush are killing working families by giving giant tax breaks to Big Oil. A perfectly legitimate point to attack, but does the attack have to come in language that actually helps the GOP?

Isn't this what McCain was arguing when he proposed the gas-tax holiday? Isn't stabilizing the supply of oil a reason (unstated) for going to war in Iraq? Isn't this the reason we need to drill in Alaska (and California, New Mexico, Louisiana and everywhere else)? Could this line of reasoning be why the blue wing and the green wing of the Democratic party mix as well as the evangelicals and the Wall Streeters do in the Republican party?

The blue/green divide in the Democratic party is going to be a major problem in the coming years and I greatly fear that the GOP's tax-cutting, drilling, and anti-cap and trade arguments will become Labor's arguments. I fear that Labor did not learn a lesson from the Pacific Northwest timer unions...even if you buy into the bosses' anti-environmental bullshit, they are still going to shut you down the moment it becomes more profitable to use their money somewhere else.

The UAW Gets It Wrong (Again)

Apparently, tough environmental standards "discriminate" against the Big Three automakers.

From Salon:

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the UAW is opposing a bill introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D.-Calif., which would overturn the EPA's decision in December to deny California a waiver allowing the state to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

Next thing you know, the UAW will be using jingoistic sloganeering to decry Japanese automakers "dumping" their small fuel-efficient cars on the American market...oh wait, the '80s, that's right.