2000: Bush MOCKED Gore's call for hybrids . .2005: GM to lay off 30,000

[Bluebear]

"'How many of you own hybrid electric gasoline engine vehicles? If you look under there, you'll see that's one of the criteria necessary to receive tax relief. So when he (Gore) talks about targeted tax relief that's pretty darn targeted,' Bush told the Arlington Heights rally, drawing laughs."

http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/rust/Government/Flip%20Flops.htm
=====
DETROIT - General Motors Corp. will eliminate 30,000 jobs and close nine North American assembly, stamping and powertrain plants by 2008 as part of an effort to get production in line with demand and position the world's biggest automaker to start making money again after absorbing nearly $4 billion in losses so far this year. The announcement Monday by Rick Wagoner, GM's chairman and CEO, represents 5,000 more job cuts than the 25,000 that the automaker had previously indicated it planned to cut. United Auto Workers union leaders called the cuts "extremely disappointing, unfair and unfortunate."

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/business/automobiles_and_driving

[Burried News]

1. The Japanese kicked our ass in the 1970's after the Oil Shortage

and they have done it once again. But when GM screws up the workers and pensioners pay the price.

[Democrats_win]

2. Ain´t that the truth! We´re reliving the 70s. American idiots caused it.

[EVDebs]

25. As GM goes, so goes the US, Hope not-- Toledo Blade article.....

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051118/COLUMNIST17/511180341

At least Reagan put up quotas back then; nowadays, Bush supports outsourcing both jobs and capital offshore so there goes the consumer's ability to even purchase a GM automobile.

A teensy bit of common sense would have the US protecting these jobs and at least setting up a single-payer healthcare system before we "win" the race to the bottom.

[TahitiNut]

3. Toyota employs 190,000 workers in the U.S.

Soon to be even more, probably. :shrug:

[LisaM]

9. Non-union employees, too

that's what kills me. The Japanese car companies have an unfair labor advantage, even in this country.

[TahitiNut]

18. Toyota isn't unique.

Red states. 'Nuf said.

[LisaM]

20. I know.

It sucks.

[catmother]

26. if they pay them well and give them good benefits they don't

need a union.

[TheModernTerrorist]

33. unless...

unless they want to KEEP those wages and benefits. That's always been my thing: The unions aren't JUST about fighting to better the lives of the workers, it's also about "protection". Sadly, now, with NAFTA slowly dragging us down to a lower point of equilibrium (while bringing countries like Mexico UP) Unions are almost ineffective.

[stevedeshazer]

4. And back in 2003: "GM pulling plug on electric cars"

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/04/09/electric.cars.ap/

SACRAMENTO, California (AP) -- The celebrated ride of the car that spawned the nation's toughest emissions regulation ends at a parking lot in Southern California, where a growing fleet of General Motors electric cars awaits an uncertain fate.

Dozens of the green, metallic blue and bright red futuristic autos are lined up behind a chain-link fence at the edge of a freight rail line in Van Nuys, a sure sign the world's largest automaker has pulled the plug on a vehicle it heralded as recently as two years ago as "the car of the future."

As California retreats from its strict pollution regulation, GM is taking the cars off the road when leases expire because it can no longer supply parts to repair them, said GM spokesman Dave Barthmuss.

The automaker is shipping the cars to museums and universities for preservation, sending them to a research lab in New York, "cannibalizing" them for parts for the few still on the road, or scrapping them.

[stevedeshazer]

8. And fast-forwarding to 2005's Hummer overstock:

Hummer Overfloweth
The word around town was that the Hummers weren't moving. It looked like high gas prices and a White House reversal on fuel conservation meant that fewer "W" bumper stickers would find their exposed sticky sides mating gloriously with the smooth rear bumper of an H2, somewhere between the tow loop and the access hole for a Class 3 hitch.

We were skeptical at first. Sources can be unreliable, but the scuttlebutt was that inventory had been building for months now and the local Hummer dealer had panicked. He had begun storing his Hummer inventory at an undisclosed location, far from the dealer showroom so as not to spook jittery, prospective buyers with the mounting number of unsold H2s and H3s.

When an anonymous caller phoned in with the location, we were off. "The rear parking lot of the Hyatt Westlake Plaza Hotel", he said, just before the line went dead.

link: http://themessthatgreenspanmade.blogspot.com/2005/11/hummer-overfloweth.html

[FSogol]

10. When the gas prices hit $3 a gallon here in Northern Virginia,

one Hummer dealer ran a radio ad stating, "that there was never a better time to buy a Hummer since the dealership was awarded with 100 new Hummers to sell."

Awarded! The dealer probably had other thoughts when GMC palmed off their unsaleable surplus on that poor schlub.

[Uncle Joe]

5. Just another example of Al Gore's Crystal Ball at work.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x174055

Kicked and nominated

:kick:

[mzmolly]

11. Yep, amazing what a little "pro-active" thinking will garner.

:(

I feel so badly for these workers. It's not going to be easy to replace those jobs.

[Broken_Hero]

31. Yeah...it isn't going to be easy...

[Eagle_Eye]

12. Don't expect the main stream media to point out what bush did.

Al Gore nails it, bush screws it up and the MSM just keeps on pulling the right wing party line.

[Uncle Joe]

19. I gave up on them a long time ago.

Have a good night.

[jane_pippin]

6. Nice that they announce it Thanksgiving week, eh?

That ought to make for a nice, pleasant holiday for 30,000 people.

[Uncle Joe]

7. I just can't wait til Christmas to see what they have in store.

:sarcasm:

[Chicago Democrat]

13. Bush is an idiot

booo

[ComerPerro]

14. Almost everything Bush said in the 2000 debates and campaign

made him look like an ignorant jackass at the time, and a shameless hypocrite as history revealed all of his contradictions.

[triguy46]

15. Just as they ridiculed "being the worlds policeman" n/t

[Bluebear]

16. And "nation building" nt

[Roland99]

17. Earnings losers: Ford, GM, Chrysler; Winners: Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mits

[catmother]

21. i wonder why. sorry these companies make better cars. my

husband strayed twice -- once was a dodge stealth -- a lemon. then he got his dream car -- a corvette -- that piece of shit was in the shop more than he drove it. twice he had to be towed off our state highway. after that he went back to toyota.

on edit: i feel very sorry for those GM workers. maybe if GM would have made a hybrid this wouldn't be happening.

[jmowreader]

24. Maybe if GM would have made a car people liked, this wouldn't happen

I don't think hybrid, right now, is the only way GM could go.

Certainly they need hybrids in their line. But that's something for the future.

What GM needs, they can produce right now if they have the courage to do it. GM needs a car that is:

attractive
fun to drive
capable of comfortably seating four adults or two adults and three children
easy on gas
relatively inexpensive
American-made

Of course, GM will translate that to mean "let's build an SUV that gets 18mpg instead of 15, and price it at $32,000 instead of $35.000." When what it really means is "send someone down to buy an Accord, make a photocopy of the sticker, build a car that's like the Accord, assemble it in a plant in the United States, and sell it for about the same price."

[catmother]

27. why have cars gotten so expensive? it seemed to have started

in the late 80s.

[Roland99]

28. Safety features (ABS, air bags, ATC, crumple zones, cross-members)

All of that adds to the cost but makes the cars safer for their occupants in the case of a crash.

Plus labor costs.

[catmother]

29. the first car i got with dual air bags was a 1994 toyota celica --

i really liked the 93 better but it only had driver's side air bags. and you know what -- i had a accident and that air bag saved me. the car was totalled. i wasn't wearing a seat belt which i do now. i would love side air bags too, but unfortunately i bought a mazda miata and it doesn't have them. the RX8 does, but i didn't like it.

[Cha]

22. Can Anything be Uglier than

that little shit?..just look at him.

That bush head needs to make the rounds.. with lots of captiions.

"Heh Heh, I just screwed the American economy when unca clarence, unca anton, unca billy, unca tony, and auntie sandy voted for me, me, me!

How do you feel about your country now, unsurpremes? Still glad you betrayed it?

[VOX]

23. This from the guy who tries to "escape" through locked doors.

Anyone, and I mean **anyone** who is not ashamed and embarrassed to have this bozo-puppet as his/her pResident, well, there is something terribly, horribly wrong with them. :grr:

[Pryderi]

30. 2003 SUV TAX DEDUCTIONS! Was that part of Cheney's Energy Plan?

Under the Jobs and Growth Act of 2003, Congress raised the deduction ceiling for these heavy-class vehicles from $25,000 to $100,000, bumped the "bonus deduction" from 30 percent to 50 percent, and left in place the accelerated five-year depreciation schedule. This, in effect, made virtually all three-ton, business-use SUVs fully deductible in the first year. More than 50 vehicles qualified for the tax break.

Sure enough, tax-savvy self-employed professionals such as doctors, dentists and yes, accountants, connected the weight of today's luxury SUVs with the obscure tax loophole and started sporting heavy iron in order to deduct the entire purchase price in the first year. Which might explain why traffic lanes have seemed a little narrower lately.


http://www.bankrate.com/brm/itax/biz_tips/20030403b1.asp

NOTHING LIKE A TAX BREAK FOR BUYING GAS HOGS WHEN YOU'RE AT WAR IN AN OIL PRODUCING REGION!

[FreedomAngel82]

32. Gore is always a head of his time

He believed in the internet, global warming, hybrid cars. I wish he was my president as he should be. :cry:

[NMMNG]

34. Oh, and having to be among the richest 5% of Americans isn't

"pretty darn targeted" tax relief? Screw you Chimpy.

[The Backlash Cometh]

35. No Vision, No Exit strategy, No alibi.

You Ugly, you ugly. U-G-L-Y you ain't got no alibi,


YOU UGLY!