You Should Be Buyin' What We're Sellin'...

Bob King, the president of the UAW has said this year the union is going to go hard after the transplants and get then unionized. I just need somebody to let me know what he is going to tell Toyota, Honda, etc., that would entice them them not to fight tooth and nail to keep the UAW out.

Hey Toyota, we (UAW) think you should let us unionize your workforce. Whattya think?

Somebody needs to give me one thing that Bob King can sell these companies to make them more open to unionization in their facilities. Don't give me the "we'll strike" answer or scare tactics like that either. There is not one good reason that these companies would want to let the UAW in. It's not like the plants are not safe, the workers make good money, get good benefits, and are protected under all the same labor laws as every other worker in this country.

So, Bob, I would love to hear your sales pitch to these companies, cause if you can sell this...

Nicer Politics?

It's has been less than two weeks since the senseless shooting in Tucson and the politicians are right back at it. Ol' sheriff Dubnik got everybody talking about "fiery rhetoric" immediately following the shooting, and many politicos seemed to sense that maybe we should tone it down a bit. Just for the record I do not believe that the good sheriff thought that nasty words caused that nut bag to go out and start shooting.

And then we come to last week when the House is voting to repeal Obamacare and the Representative from Tennessee, Steve Cohen takes the floor and likens this debate to the Nazi's and how they duped the German people into hating the Jews. Who the hell does this guy think he is? What kind of leader in this country would compare our government and a debate on health care to what the Nazi's did to not just the Jew's, but many "not German" people during the 30's and 40's?

This guy should stand up, on the record and apologize for his comments. I can't even come up with a word other than "dumb" to describe this idiots' words. This is the kind of crap the wiley old sheriff was talking about when he made his comments. Let's debate the issues, not make moronic, nonsensical comparisons that only further the split between left and right.

Rep. Cohen, you are an idiot for making these types of comments on the floor of the House last week, I hope you do better this week...

Bob Bobb

One quick hitter: Robert Bobb, the Emergency Financial Manager appointed by the State of Michigan to "fix" the Detroit Public Schools got railed in the news today buy a group of teachers. This man has spent the last 18 months doing everything he can to clean up the trash can we call DPS. He has rooted out corruption, tightened up the budget, built new schools, amongst other positive things. I can understand how people might not always agree with everything Bob Bobb has done, but these teachers flat out accused him of purposely trying to run DPS into the ground. For the record, I think DPS has already hit bedrock, but that's for another post.

My initial thought when I heard these asinine comments...Where were these teachers and other employees when people were stealing everything from books to computers to cash from the schools. We are talking about administrative assistants to administrators doing the stealing. This went on for years, and it seems, nobody ever saw anything!

With all the problems that Detroit has, somebody comes in with a real goal of making things better for the children, and all he gets is "BS". Bob Bobb, I admire your courage and staying power, I believe that you really care about the children! Good Luck in your last 6 months.

Time to Post!

It's been some time kiddies since I last smashed these keys. Since I'll be locked down at home for a couple weeks, no time like the present to puts my thoughts out there for all to see...

BUY AMERICAN!?

Buy American! What exactly does that mean in today's "global marketplace"? I have been asking myself this question for some time now and cannot seem to answer it.

First off, let me just say that without a certain American automobile manufacturer, I would be writing this blog on a legal pad and posting it on the telephone pole on the corner, not on my very nice Mac! I am just asking some questions and start some discussion on the issue.

We just recently purchased a new (albeit, gently used) vehicle. For the sake of this post, let's pretend we bought it brand new. The car is a Saab 9.3 SportCombi Aero. Here is the question: Why is it OK to purchase this foreign made (more detail to follow) car just because GM owns a majority of Saab, but not a Honda built in Ohio (insert any transplant here)?

Our Saab has less than 1% of it actually built in the US. When the car is driven off the boat, they add some stuff on the dock and then ship it to the dealer...this would be that <1%.

Now remember, even if GM made "good" money on the sale of a Saab, that still puts very little money back into the US economy, don't forget, all the people who made the car live and spend their money in other countries.

My neighbor just purchased a Honda made in Ohio. I am not exactly sure how much of this vehicle was made from US parts, but I am going to take an educated guess and say it is more than 1%. I am very aware that Honda is a Japanese Corporation and that the profits will go back to Japan. But hear me out... The workers who assemble that Honda live in Ohio. Even though we all hate Ohio, it is in the US. They have homes, pay taxes, and buy groceries in Ohio. The money that my neighbor used to purchase his foreign automobile will have a far greater positive impact on the American economy that our purchase of the Saab will ever have.

We could even look at the Crown Victoria that my Grandparents drive. Made in Canada. Those workers live in Canada, go to restaurants in Canada, spend their money in Canada. Yea, the profits from the purchase of the car come back to Dearborn, but what has the greater impact on the country's economy?

I am by no means an economist, but I would have to say that the people who produce goods (in industrialized countries like the US, Canada, Germany, etc) have a far greater impact on that country's economy that the people who own the company producing the goods. What I am trying to say is that is seems that buying the Honda produced in Ohio would have a greater positive impact to the US economy than buying the Saab.

Of course if people who advocate buying American did the research to make sure that the American product they are buying has a majority of American produced parts and was assembled in America, this would truly be "Buying American". But the person who actually does that is very rare. I know people who will not buy compact fluorescent light bulbs because they are all made in China, but they drive a Ford not assembled in the US! I think that is crazy.

In today's marketplace it is impossible to strictly buy American and we should try do so whenever possible. To go even farther, do not just buy American, but buy locally produced and grown products. But, buying a foreign owned product produced in the US might not always be the bad choice...

This IS the Problem...

Not too much to say about this clip from a local news show...Let It Rip...with veteran Detroit Newsman Huel Perkins.

The leaders of, dare I say, our City, are the single largest reason why nothing gets done in Detroit.  They continue to divide Detroit from the surrounding communities.  The "it's them and us" philosophy does not work and will not ever work.  

Watch this clip and you will not believe what you are seeing.  This is what the City of Detroit is all about.  Not necessarily the people who live and work there, but the people who "lead" the city have what seems to be nothing but hatred for the rest of us and an attitude of "it's all about me".  Monica Conyers said many times during this show that "they did not need anybody's help".  What a joke.  The metro Detroit area used to depend on the city for it's survival.  If Detroit died, so did southeast Michigan.  It is now completely opposite...without the suburbs, Detroit is gone.  Monica and friends, you cannot survive without us, black, white, purple, whatever...without working with us, your city has nothing.  I love your city, I spend money in your city, I support your city...why do you continue to sprew this hatred towards people who live north of 8 mile or west of Telegraph?

THINK PEOPLE...THINK!

Words are not enough for me to express how angry I am at what I witnessed this morning.  It could very possibly be the stupidest, dumbest, asinine thing I have ever seen in my life.  I still cannot believe it.

My son and I were stopping at a pharmacy in town to get a get well card and small gift for one of his friends who just had surgery a few days ago.  We parked and proceeded to walk inside, when, while in the entrance I noticed that the car (which was a Toyota by the way) parked right in front of the store was running and, get this, had two kids in the back seat!  Nobody else was in the vehicle.  One was in a booster and the other was younger and in a regular child seat.  Being just a little concerned, I looked around the parking lot, looked in the front of the store, but found nobody around at all.  

At this point I could not believe that somebody actually would leave their children in a running car and go inside a store, no matter how long the kids would be by themselves.  What the hell are people thinking?! 

I stayed with my son right at the entrance keeping an eye on the car and watching the front of the store for, I don't know, a parent or something.  I told my son, who is almost four, why we were standing there, he not only understood, but was quite excited that we were helping somebody (he loves to help people like he is Spiderman).  I wish I would have gotten somebody's attention to call the police, but I was more concerned that somebody might really try to take the car, and I was pretty pissed off.  A good three or four minutes went by before a woman in her early 30's walked up the aisle to pay for whatever she picked up.

She paid and started to walk out.  She kind of gave me a look like, why are you just standing there, but I waited to see if she walked over to the Toyota.  When she did, I said to her "you know if somebody stole your car, they would get your kids too".  She replied, "I was only in the store for a minute...".  I cut her off and said "whatever", gave her my famous wave off and walked inside.

The store manager heard the exchange and asked what was going on and I told her.  She was as amazed as I was.   

Now, unless you literally live under a rock and have been there for 50 years, you have all heard about these idiots who leave their kids in the car and the car gets stolen, no need to re-tell those stories.  The question is, are we really so lazy, that we cannot just take our kids into a store for a quick stop?  We are actually willing to put their safety and security on the line just for convenience?  WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG PEOPLE???!!!

We may all have different political ideologies, beliefs, and on and on and on.  But, when it comes to the safety of our kids, we must all be on the  same page, period!