wayweird

May 4 (Bloomberg) — General Motors Corp. may be more likely to end up in bankruptcy based on the Obama administration’s willingness to place Chrysler LLC into court protection to safeguard union health-care benefits.

So Obama has played the role of special pleader for the UAW, and decided to stick it to the investors. And who are the investors? Well, WE are the investors - anyone with a pension plan, anyone with a 401K, anyone in the stock market, anyone who owns bonds. We ARE the investors in these companies. Every public company has little people investing in them.

And yet Obama says to hell with you and me. He’s going to bat for the UAW, and he’s going to stomp on GM as well.

With GM and its biggest bondholders at odds over resolving $27 billion in unsecured claims by a June 1 deadline, the Chrysler model indicates that President Barack Obama may resort to bankruptcy to end any impasse over that debt, said Martin Fridson, chief executive officer of New York-based credit investment firm Fridson Investment Advisors.

Chrysler filed for protection April 30 after the U.S. was unable to persuade secured lenders to swap $6.9 billion in claims for $2.25 billion in cash. A union retiree health-care trust was offered a 55 percent stake in Chrysler.

So the retiree program which is unsecured, (in bankruptcy legalese that means it’s low down on the chain in terms of being a creditor) was likely to get much less than that. However, Obama in his infinite wisdom puts them near the top of the chain and then takes the secure creditor, who is secured as a matter of federal law, and kicks him down the chain.

Why?

Because he’s trying to benefit his favorite constituency while punishing someone he doesn’t give a damn about - which is you and me or anyone else who invests in the stock market or who has a pension plan.

“This confirms the fear, which right along has been that the Obama administration is more sensitive or beholden to the unions than the bondholders,” Fridson said. “It makes it clear that GM bondholders aren’t likely to be able to work out anything outside of bankruptcy.”

GM bondholders proposed April 30 they get a 58 percent ownership stake in the Detroit-based automaker in exchange for their $27 billion in unsecured claims. Bondholders are objecting to GM’s proposal they get a 10 percent share of GM equity while a union health fund would get $10 billion in cash and as much as a 39 percent stake for $20 billion in unsecured claims.

While we are not yet in a dictatorship we a have a man in the White House who is the closest thing this nation has ever had. He bears more resemblance to a mafia don than he does to a U.S. President. We have a man who is advancing the cause of tyranny at break-neck speed. We have a man who is willing to use his muscle to do whatever he wants to do - including undermining and smearing his opponents whilst getting elected to office as a senator or running for president with this felonious group ACORN.

He’ll do whatever he wants to do while he smiles and shakes hands and waves and pretends that he is the coolest dude that ever was or ever will be.

And we’ll all suffer for it.

 When Matt Lauer asked the White House Senior Advisor what she thought of those who say that President Obama’s first 100 days has been filled with way too much spending and big government, Valerie Jarrett responded:

“Well that’s very interesting coming from Newt Gingrich. If you look back over the last eight years President Obama inherited the largest federal deficit in our nation’s history.”

Come on. Give me a break. When her boss was Senator Obama he voted for the largest federal deficit in our nation’s history, and he with his fellow Democrats wanted a bigger federal deficit just like the one they have recently enacted and President Obama has insisted upon.

Jarrett continued:

“So I would say quite the opposite. What he’s trying to do is pump money back in the economy that’s going to jump start our economy.”

Oh! So you’re saying that he has a good excuse for his deficit spending, unlike the Bush administration which did not.

Valerie Jarrett is an idiot. Who else but an idiot would complain about a deficit that her boss had inherited after he had voted for it in the senate? Who else but an idiot would complain about a deficit that her boss wants to enlarge? He has now increased the deficit he inherited by a factor of four.

But according to Jarrett, Obama’s deficit is OK because he’s pumping money into the economy - unlike the Bush deficit spenders who were obviously stuffing it into their mattresses.

Jarrett complains, “If you look at the last eight years with the lack of regulations, basically the private sector ran amok because we didn’t provide the kinds of checks and balances that we needed…”

What lack of regulations? Where was there a lack of regulation? Is she talking about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

That was not a lack of regulation. That was a matter of the goons in her party insisting that bad loans be given to people who couldn’t afford homes.

What does she mean the private sector ran amok?

We’re just out here trying to survive. We’re just trying to earn a living and take care of our families. How are we out of control?

But to Valerie Jarrett the government is hunky-dory. The government is not too big. It’s not too wasteful. It doesn’t tax too much. It doesn’t spend too much. The politicians haven’t run amok. The bureaucracy hasn’t run amok even though it reaches right into our bathrooms and tells us how much water we can flush down the toilet. Hell no, there’s not enough regulation.

We in the private sector are the ones who are out of line. I reckon we had better straighten up and start goose-stepping the right way.

“Captain Silver why don’t you arm your cargo ship and repel those bloody pirates when they try to board and capture your vessel,” I asked as the seagulls circled overhead.

“Yar mate, the owners of the shipping companies would rather pay ransom than risk crew members being killed. It’s all a matter of liability costs don’t ye know…besides we’re sailors, not marines. Not many of our hands are ready to die to protect a rich ship owner’s profit.”

“Well then,” I pressed him, “Why not hire mercenaries or trained security forces and carry them along to do the dirty work?”

“Ar, you’re a sharp one young Jim Hawkins, but did ye ever stop to consider that arming ships will increase insurance costs, since insurance would be forced to cover a wider range of liability and death situations?”

Long John paused and spat a large wad of phlegm over the railing and into quiet sea below.

“Har! Learned to do that from Leonardo DiCaprio hisself, I did!  Like I was saying, insurance costs would go through the overhead…that’s roof to you lubbers. Did I ever tell you about the time crazy, old Ben Gunn blew the brains right out of a poor fisherman’s head just cause he made Ben nervous? Poor bastard was innocently approaching our merchant ship merely wanting to sell his catch.  The shipping company’s insurance rates sky-rocketed - all on account of that small misadventure.”

“But,” I insisted, “Trained security forces would be better disciplined than Ben Gunn.”

“Ye may be right young Jim, but ye may be mistak’n. Bored men on long voyages are strange creatures. Many ship owners are less worried about piracy than they are of armed men killing each other in personal disputes. Besides, the cost of carrying armed private security forces would probably exceed the cost of a potential ransom.”

“But, Captain Silver, wouldn’t your sailors rather take their chances with fellow employees rather than mean and bloodthirsty pirates? And with the increasing number attacks aren’t the owners suffering increasing financial distress?”

“Ar, Jim! Ye might have a point. But, so far the pirates haven’t hurt anyone, and until they do the ship’s crew will be more likely to surrender than fight. And until the cost of accommodating pirates exceeds the cost of fight’n them, owners aren’t likely arm up.”

 On this date in 1931 President Herbert Hoover remedied a nearly 155 year old deficiency when he signed into law a bill that designated the “Star-Spangled Banner” as the official national anthem of the United States. Up until seventy-eight years ago, the United States had no national anthem.

Of course Francis Scott Key had written the “Star Spangled Banner” in 1814, but it was merely one patriotic song amongst many until it began to gain popularity in the late 19^th Century. The Secretary of Navy pushed the song to the fore in 1889 when he signed General Order #374, making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the official tune to be played at the raising of the flag for all naval units.

President Woodrow Wilson gave more impetus to this song’s prospects of becoming the national anthem when in 1916 he ordered that “The Star-Spangled Banner” be played at all military and other appropriate occasions.

Back in those days Congress would often lag considerably behind public sentiment and public practice. We were using “The Star Spangled Banner’ as our national anthem long before it became official, and that’s OK. There is no law that says we have to wait for the government to act before we, the people, tackle a problem.

In fact that’s the way things are supposed to run.

Today is Buffalo Bill Day.

So what? Who’s that?

No, we’re not talking about the serial murderer from Silence of the Lambs.

We’re taking a look at a man of the late 19^th Century. Buffalo Bill (Col. William F. Cody) was the symbol of the American Wild West. Although much of what the public saw was purely showmanship, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show gave the world a thrilling view of the American frontier.

Cody was born on this day in 1846.

With the help of a good press agent, Buffalo Bill parlayed his experiences as a Pony Express rider and a frontier scout into a lucrative show business career that romanticized the Wild West. He introduced thousands throughout the eastern United States and Europe to a gussied up, fantastic picture of the old frontier.

In these politically correct times many have demonized Cody as a heartless Indian killer and an environmental terrorist who wiped out the North American buffalo herds single handedly. They condemn the man because they have bought into the legendary image he manufactured for the stage.

The real Buffalo Bill respected the aboriginal inhabitants of the plains. He may have killed upwards of 4200 bison in his lifetime, but he didn’t massacre them wholesale and leave them to rot. Like the Native Americans whom he often accompanied on their hunts, he killed only enough to provide the food that was required.

Cody was fair in his business dealings with Native Americans. When he launched his show he hired Chief Sitting Bull and a band twenty braves to add even more dash to the already colorful performances. He paid them pretty well too. Sitting Bull earned about $50 a week for riding once around the arena, where he was a popular attraction. On top of that he earned a small fortune by charging for his autograph and picture, although he often gave away his money to the homeless and beggars he met while the show toured the country.

The reality of Col. William F. Cody differed from the legend of Buffalo Bill.

A good lesson to take away from today’s story might be:

Look Beyond the Stage Image

Check out at the actions of the real man or woman and base your judgments on fact rather than fancy.

What the hell is a cult of personality? Is it something like that group of nut jobs that followed Thulsa Doom in the movie Conan?

Don’t worry about answering. I’ll just Google it.

Mmm…says here that a cult of personality occurs when a nation’s leader uses mass media to create a heroic public image through unquestioning flattery and praise. A cult of personality is similar to general hero worship, except that it is created specifically for political leaders. However, the term may be applied by analogy to refer to veneration of religious or non-political leaders.

Ok. It looks like I came pretty close with that Thulsa Doom analogy. I was just curious because I saw that on this day in 1956 Nikita Khrushchev surprised the delegates at the 20^th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union with a speech that denounced the cult of personality surrounding Joseph Stalin.

Yeah, looks like Stalin had his very own cult of personality going there, and that makes sense because Wikipedia says that cults of personality are often found in dictatorships. Stalin was one of the top three dictators back in the day, right? He certainly deserved a cult of personality as good as or better than Hitler’s or Mussolini’s. What’s the point of being a dictator if no one glorifies you?

At the very least a cult of personality provides a leader with a god-like and infallible image. His portraits are hung in homes and public buildings - and they had better not be hung crooked. Some real special dictators who owned deluxe cults of personality even had giant images of themselves painted on the walls of buildings along with their own special slogans. Hitler’s slogan was “One People, One Reich, One Leader.” Another dictator back in the ‘80’s  loved “Lead, Coach, Teach, Learn”.

The best part about having a cult of personality is that artists and poets are legally required to produce only works that flatter the leader, which means no political cartoons that lampoon or misrepresent are allowed.

Dictators need to come across as Messiahs because their regimes usually seek to radically transform society according to (supposedly) revolutionary new ideas, and that’s a tough job. It makes change a hell of a lot easier if the leader comes to be treated as a benevolent super-hero “guide” for the nation.

Come to think of it…didn’t Obama say he wanted his rule to be transformative? Hmmm. And you never hear the mass media saying anything bad about him, in fact they love him. And that slogan - what was it? “Change we can believe in!” and “Yes, we can!” Wow - that last one’s almost as good as “Seig Heil!”

 Kind of looks like we have a cult of personality building around Obama. But don’t worry. We’re safe. We don’t have to hang his picture at home yet, and there are no big posters with his mug on any walls - yet.

But hang on. Lookie here:

Hundreds of Chicagoans who visited the auto show at McCormick Place snapped up special commemorative Obama license plates at 50 dollars a pair. The plates feature a large picture of Obama and read Illinois salutes President Barack Obama.
David Drucker with the Illinois Secretary of State’s office says a thousand drivers bought the temporary plates during the ten days of the auto show.

Drucker says, “This is what is called a special event plate which means that it’s not a permanent license plate. Rather it’s good for a 60-day period which will expire on April 17th.”

Phew! He had me worried there for a minute. Wouldn’t it be horrible if these things were mandatory and you had to stare at them everywhere you drove in Illinois? That would be even worse than having Obama’s face plastered on the walls of every government building in the state.

So I reckon we’re safe from any Obama cult of personality. Besides, a cult of personality doesn’t have to be associated with a dictatorship. Democracies can have them as well. Former Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos led a large personality cult, and many of his supporters still revere him in a manner that is nearly on a religious level. And Argentina’s Juan and Eva Peron were cult figures too.
See. We’ll be fine.

“Remember the Maine!” Anyone who got caught up in the emotion of these words when they first rang out is long gone. Given the state of the Democrat run government schools it’s a wonder even a handful of us has an inkling that this battle cry refers to the bombing of the U.S. battleship Maine in Cuba’s Havana harbor.

When it happened on this date, in 1899, I wonder how many Americans were convinced that the Spanish were the perpetrators. Newspaper mogul, William Randolph Hearst, had long been agitating for a confrontation, but it was the destruction of the Maine that finally triggered the Spanish-American War.

It seems we always need one dramatic (traumatic?) incident to bring everything to a head and push us into reckless action - even though there are other better reasons to take more effective remedies earlier. A gruesome, heart rending murder can spur paranoia and tighter, new legislation when all that was really needed beforehand were simple crime prevention measures. A financial crisis can be engineered over the years to stampede the public into electing a leader who makes use of false claims and the people’s fear to gain power.

Do any of you see any other problems out there waiting for a decisive incident to ignite impetuous action?

Geheimstaatpolizei?

What the hell is that? Looks German to me. Hang on, I’ll Google it.

Here it is. Yep, it’s German alright.

Geheimstaatpolizei is one of those ten mile long German words that translate into three or four English words.  In this case the English words are “Secret State Police”. The Germans must have thought Geheimstaatpolizei was a pretty big mouthful too, so they usually referred to it as the Gestapo. (Geheime Staats Polizei - get it?).

Oh! Oh!  The Gestapo! Anyone who has ever watched one of those old black and white World War II movies (or even Indiana Jones) knows about Hitler’s dreaded secret police.

I was curious because I just learned that on this date in 1936 the Gestapo became a law unto itself. On February 10, 1936, the Nazi Reichstag passed the ‘Gestapo Law’ which included the following paragraph: “Neither the instructions nor the affairs of the Gestapo will be open to review by the administrative courts.”

This meant the Gestapo was now above the law and there could be no legal appeal regarding anything it did. From this point forward it was totally possible for anyone to be arrested, interrogated and sent to a concentration camp for incarceration or summary execution, without any outside legal procedure.

Surprisingly, the Gestapo was a fairly small organization when you consider the impact it had on German society. At its zenith it retained only about 40,000 employees, including office personnel and the plain-clothes agents. What made the Gestapo so effective was its use of regular citizens as spies and informants who reported to a relatively small band of Gestapo agents. Those Nazis agents really knew how to network.

The problem for the average citizen was that no one ever knew for sure just who those informants were. Was the grocery clerk reporting to the secret police? Or was it the old lady across the street? Maybe a quiet co-worker at the next desk was an informant. Maybe it was even your child’s playmate.

The result was paranoia - fear ruled the day. Most people realized the requirement for self-censorship and usually refused to talk politics, unless they had something positive to say about the administration.

Anyone foolish enough to say something risky or tell an anti-Nazi joke (you know the type - people like Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity and Mark Levine) in mixed company might get a knock on the door in the middle of the night or a tap on the shoulder while walking along the street. Then they disappeared.

Letters were also sent out demanding an appearance at No. 8 Prinz Albrecht Strasse, the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin, to answer a few questions. (You know - something like an IRS audit.)  You had to go and…you usually had to stay.

Pedestrians strolling outside the Gestapo prison center in Berlin (the Columbia-Haus) reported that they could hear screaming coming from inside.

From the first day Hitler took power, the constant fear of arrest and indefinite confinement in the camps stripped the German people of their personal freedom and left them as subdued and reliably obedient subjects.

But even that was not enough. The Nazis wanted total control. They wanted the people to get their minds right. And so, in the same manner as they had eradicated their hated political enemies, they began a campaign to purge hated “unGerman” ideas. That effort started in May 1933 with book burnings.

So that’s your history lesson for the day.

Now you can just shake your heads and go about your business thinking, “Silly Germans. How did they end up like that? We’d never have secret police or burn books here. We’re safe in the USA!”

Well, if you don’t count pressure to conform to politically correct behavior on college campuses you might be right. If you don’t count laws against “hate” speech you might be right. If the push to eliminate conservative talk radio through the Fairness Doctrine comes to naught you may be right.

And if you forget the fact that the Internal Revenue’s Special Services Staff  has been known to target individuals with no known tax problems for audit simply because of their political activities you can rest easy.

I’m sure there were a lot of Germans who comforted themselves that way as well.

 Today marks the birthday of the undisputed record holder for the shortest U.S. Presidential term ever served. In 1773 William Henry Harrison was born. On March 4, 1841 Harrison was inaugurated. Within days he caught a cold, and exactly one month later, President Harrison was dead.

On top of setting the record for the shortest time in office, Harrison’s death set up a few other firsts in American history.  He was the first president to die in office and his death caused three presidents to serve in a single calendar year (Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler), a situation which has occurred only twice. The second time was in 1881, when Rutherford B. Hayes was succeeded by James A. Garfield, who was assassinated later in that year. With the death of Garfield, Chester A. Arthur became President.

Harrison’s death exposed some shortcomings in the constitution’s clauses on presidential succession. Although the constitution said the vice president would take charge after the death of the president, it did not stipulate whether the vice president would become president, or merely acting president. Another hitch was that the constitution was not clear on whether the vice president could serve the remainder of the president’s term, until the next election, or if emergency elections should be held.

Harrison’s cabinet maintained that John Tyler was “vice president acting as president”. Only after consulting with the Chief Justice Roger Taney did they decide that if Tyler took the presidential Oath of Office he could become president in fact. Tyler obliged and was sworn in on the sixth of April.

 In May, Congress convened, and after some debate in both houses a resolution was passed that confirmed Tyler in the Presidency for the remainder of Harrison’s term. Once established, this precedent of presidential succession remained in effect until the twenty-fifth amendment was ratified in 1967.

The twenty-fifth amendment dealt with the finer points of succession by clearly defining in what situations the vice president was acting president and in what situation they could become president.

Because of his very short term President Harrison also holds the record as the only President not to appoint a single federal judge, at any level.

On this day in 1789, the U.S. Electoral College unanimously elected George Washington the first President of the United States. Washington remains the only president to ever receive 100% of the electoral votes and the only one who had not wanted or sought the office.

Washington was sworn in as the first President under the Constitution for the United States of America on April 30, 1789 at Federal Hall (on Wall Street of all places) in New York City.

The 1^st United States Congress voted to pay Washington a salary of $25,000 a year-a large sum at that time. Washington, already wealthy, declined payment, since he valued his image as a selfless public servant. He eventually accepted compensation, at the urging of Congress, to avoid setting a precedent that would leave the impression that the presidency would be limited only to independently wealthy individuals who could serve without any salary.

As president, Washington lived up to his already solid reputation as an able administrator and an excellent judge of talent and character. He surrounded himself with a sophisticated team of advisors and successfully delegated most of the responsibility for the conduct of their offices to those trusted colleagues.

When confronted with the difficult task of putting together a cabinet from scratch - with no model to guide him - he got it right the first time. He never had to hold a press conference to say “I screwed up.”  He never complained about being frustrated. He forged ahead and set precedents for his successors to follow.

Washington only reluctantly agreed to serve a second term of office as president and refused to run for a third, establishing the precedent of a maximum of two terms for a president. More than 40 years of hard public service had drained him physically, mentally, and financially. He was more than happy to hand over the reigns of office to his successor, John Adams, and then return to Mount Vernon to resume farming.