GM $ Billions down the drain by obama

Just another obama brag about his saving the American Auto giant - Duh!

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IS GM REALLY GOING TO GO BANKRUPT AGAIN?

• Posted on August 16, 2012 at 9:32pm by  Becket Adams
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Louis Woodhill at Forbes seems to think so:

President Obama is proud of his bailout of General Motors. That’s good, because, if he wins a second term, he is probably going to have to bail GM out again. The company is once again losing market share, and it seems unable to develop products that are truly competitive in the U.S. market.

He’s right about the president being awfully proud of “rescuing” GM. Remember this from last week?

And on Monday when GM’s stock fell 0.3 percent to $20.47 a share, TheBlaze noted the following:

Considering that the feds still hold 500 million shares of GM stock, they’d have to find a way to offload them for about $53 apiece to recover the $49.5 billion spent in bailing out the troubled automaker. But if the stock continues to stay where it is, this means that the feds will end up posting a loss of more than $16 billion on bailing out GM.

Because of this dive in stock price, the Treasury Department was forced to revise its projected bailout losses upwards to $25.1 billion from $21.7 billion — an increase of 15 percent.

“It’s doubtful that the Obama administration would attempt to sell off the government’s massive position in GM while the stock price is falling.  It would be too embarrassing politically. Accordingly, if GM shares continue to decline, it is likely that Obama would ride the stock down to zero,” Woodhill writes.

“GM is unlikely to hit the wall before the election, but, given current trends, the company could easily do so again before the end of a second Obama term,” he adds.

He provides some additional perspective:

In the 1960s, GM averaged a 48.3% share of the U.S. car and truck market. For the first 7 months of 2012, their market share was 18.0%, down from 20.0% for the same period in 2011. With a loss of market share comes a loss of relative cost-competitiveness.  There is only so much market share that GM can lose before it would no longer have the resources to attempt to recover.

So, is this what being “rescued” looks like?

Final Thought: Hot Air’s Erica Johnson reminds us of the following quote:

If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for on Tuesday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

[…]

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakerswill stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check. …

The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs.

You know who said that? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that. If Woodill is proven correct and GM continues its steady decline in value, how much do you think this will affect the Romney and Obama campaigns?

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

Click here to read the full Forbes article.

Front page photo source: The Associated Press

Retired Green Beret shoots intruder ... Thanks Ramey H.!

Retired Green Beret Shoots Intruder, Gets Court Martial Retired Green Beret shoots intruder, gets court martial. BREVARD, Jan. 19, 2008 – Retired Army Green Beret Smokey Taylor got his court martial this weekend and came away feeling good about it. Taylor, at age 80 the oldest member of Chapter XXXIII of the Special Forces Association, was on trial by his peers under the charge of “failing to use a weapon of sufficient caliber” in the shooting of an intruder at his home in Knoxville, TN, in December. The entire affair, of course, was very much tongue in cheek. Taylor had been awakened in the early morning hours of Dec. 17, 2007, when an intruder broke into his home. He investigated the noises with one of his many weapons in hand. When the intruder threatened him with a knife, Taylor warned him, then brought his .22 caliber pistol to bear and shot him right between the eyes. “That boy had the hardest head I’ve ever seen,” Taylor said after his trial. “The bullet bounced right off.”The impact knocked the would-be thief down momentarily. He crawled out of the room then got up and ran out the door and down the street. Knoxville police apprehended him a few blocks away and he now awaits trial in the Knox County jail. The charges against Taylor were considered to be serious. He is a retired Special Forces Weapons Sergeant with extensive combat experience during the wars in Korea and Vietnam. Charges were brought against him under the premise that he should have saved the county and taxpayers the expense of a trial,” said Chapter XXXIII President Bill Long of Asheville. “He could have used a .45 or .38. The .22 just wasn’t big enough to get the job done.” Taylor defense attorney, another retired Weapons Sergeant, disagreed. He said Taylor had done the right thing in choosing to arm himself with a .22. "If he’d used a .45 or something like that the round would have gone right through the perp, the wall, the neighbor’s wall and possibly injured some innocent child asleep in its bed,” he said. “I believe the evidence shows that Smokey Taylor exercised excellent judgment in his choice of weapons. He did nothing wrong, and clearly remains to this day an excellent weapons man.” Counsel for the defense then floated a theory as to why the bullet bounced off the perp’s forehead. "He was victimized by old ammunition,” he said, “just as he was in Korea and again in Vietnam, when his units were issued ammo left over from World War II.” Taylor said nothing in his own defense, choosing instead to allow his peers to debate the matter. After the trial he said the ammunition was indeed old and added the new information that the perp had soiled his pants as he crawled out of the house. "I would have had an even worse mess to clean up if it had gone through his forehead,” Taylor said. “It was good for both of us that it didn’t.” Following testimony from both sides, Taylor was acquitted of the charges and was given a round of applause. Meanwhile, back in Knox County, the word is out: Don’t go messing with Smokey Taylor. He just bought a whole bunch of fresh ammo. ## Tribune Editor Bill Fishburne is a member of the Larry Thorne Chapter XXXIII of the Special Forces Association.

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sixty years marriage ... Thanks Marge R.!

---Original Message----- Tony and Yvonne were 85 years old and had been married for sixty years. Though they were far from rich, they managed to get by because they carefully watched their pennies. Though not young, they were both in very good health, largely due to Yvonne's insistence on healthy foods and exercise for the last decade. One day, their good health didn't help when they went on yet another holiday vacation and their plane crashed, sending them off to Heaven. They reached the pearly gates, and St. Peter escorted them inside. He took them to a beautiful mansion, furnished in gold and fine silks, with a fully stocked kitchen and a waterfall in the master bath. A maid could be seen hanging their favorite clothes in the closet. They gasped in astonishment when he said, 'Welcome to Heaven. This will be your home now.' Tony asked Peter how much all this was going to cost. 'Why, nothing,' Peter replied, 'remember, this is your reward in Heaven.' Tony looked out the window and right there he saw a championship golf course, finer and more beautiful than any ever built on Earth.. 'What are the greens fees?,' grumbled Tony.. 'This is heaven,' St. Peter replied. 'You can play for free, every day.' Next they went to the clubhouse and saw the lavish buffet lunch. 'Don't even ask,' said St. Peter to Tony. This is Heaven, it is all free for you to enjoy.' Tony looked around and nervously asked Yvonne 'Well, where are the low fat and low cholesterol foods and the decaffeinated tea?' 'That's the best part,' St. Peter replied. 'You can eat and drink as much as you like and you will never get fat or sick. This is Heaven!' 'No gym to work out at?' said Tony 'Not unless you want to,' was the answer. 'No testing my sugar or blood pressure or...' 'Never again' Tony glared at Yvonne and said, 'You and your Bran Flakes. We could have been here ten years ago!' Have A Happy Life And Give someone A Smile.

Flying over America ... Thanks Pat A. & Lyle S.!

Flying over America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=KcuDdPo0WZk skegley.blogspot.com

This is neat.  Pilot friends will love it!  I do too!