This is of course just more proof that this meltdown is far more of a problem for all automakers than those who want to bust the UAW are willing to admit.

If Alambama ($1.63 for every $1 paid) , Kentucky ($1.51 per $1 paid) and Tennessee (a mere $1.21 per $1 paid) want to continue to thrive, let them do it on their own money. Why are we giving them money, they should either “evolve or die.” Sure, you can blame it on the fact that I am from New Jersey (which takes in $0.65 for every dollar, the lowest in the Nation), a State where we lost our last GM plant in 2005. But it is more than that.

These Senators want to play political games with people’s jobs, their lives, our economy with little more than a thinly veiled attack on the union workers, the union itself for daring to stand up for workers, and the Big 3 which don’t have factories in their States (well, except I believe Kentucky). They forget what it was like when they tried to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at Toyota in 2005, only to have Toyota opt instead to put the factory in Canada because, 1. Canada effectively subsidizes the workers with free healthcare, and the abysmal expense of having to train illiterate workers in Alabama.

Fine, if they want to play these games, then it is time to stop subsidizing their efforts. Let them find the money within their own budgets to try and lure jobs to their State rather than having them cripple American companies with my tax dollars.

“Her view is, it’s just not appropriate to accept a pay raise in the middle of the term.”

Oh, so she will accept it in 2010 (if she is re-elected) then? Of course when you consider the hockey mom Governor, charged the State $16,951 to work from home, and another $43,490 on travel for her children and husband that $25,000 raise would probably seem like a pay cut if she lost that in the process.

Of course, when you consider that Alaska takes $1.83 return for every federal tax dollar they put in to the system you could say it is time for us to stop subsidizing Alaska and make them “evolve or die” as the GOP says all non-profitable businesses must do. (Why no, I am not picking on the GOP Senators that are trying their best to force the U.S. Automakers into bankruptcy to benefit the foreign automakers in their States, why do you ask? Actually more on that in a separate post).

But when confronted with the fact of how is is (to be polite) ’stretching’ the truth, his reply is to say “So what?” Are you kidding me? Who the hell are these people (22% or so) that still believe this junk he is spewing?

BUSH: One of the major theaters against al Qaeda turns out to have been Iraq. This is where al Qaeda said they were going to take their stand. This is where al Qaeda was hoping to take–

RADDATZ: But not until after the U.S. invaded.

BUSH: Yeah, that’s right. So what? The point is that al Qaeda said they’re going to take a stand. Well, first of all in the post-9/11 environment Saddam Hussein posed a threat. And then upon removal, al Qaeda decides to take a stand.

Now most won’t dwell on the fact that he continues to lie about what a threat Saddam Hussein was, but that is overlooked this time because of the more idiotic remark of “so what if al Qaeda wasn’t in Iraq” before we blew it up, they came there to take a stand, so it turned out to be the “right” move? Even his spin is getting more sorry and obvious. Yet people continue to believe this? Simply astounding.

The EPA document says that mandating a clean-up level for perchlorate would not result in a “meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public-water systems.”

The conclusion, which caps years of dispute over the issue, was denounced by Democrats and environmentalists who accused the EPA of caving to pressure from the Pentagon.

The really sad part about this is when officials don’t even realize how transparent they are when they try to spin things like this. Take EPA official Benjamin Grumbles the EPA’s assistant administrator for water:

“We know perchlorate in drinking water presents some degree of risk, and we’re committed to working with states and scientists to ensure public health is protected and meaningful opportunities for reducing risk are fully considered,” Grumbles said.

Reducing risk going to be considered? Isn’t that their tantamount job, to ensure Environmental Protection? They acknowledge their is a risk, but they have to weight whether the risk is “serious enough” to clean it up? What do we have to do, wait for some elected official or celebrity to suffer a fatal or at least very tragic circumstances, then we can have a rally and Congressional hearings, and THEN move to protect us against something we already know is a problem?

How many days do we have left of this clown in the White House? Can’t we find a way to gag him until January 20th?

A 76-page FBI affidavit said the 51-year-old Democrat was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps over the last month conspiring to sell or trade the vacant Senate seat for personal benefits for himself and his wife, Patti.

Well, look at that. It looks like U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, can actually stay within the confines of the Constitution, use our legal system properly to acquire a lawful court order and still get the (alleged) bad guy. So maybe that Bush Executive Order “allowing” illegal wiretapping wasn’t so critical after all?

Oh, I understand their anger. Nobody likes losing their job, and it seems that perhaps the principals of Republic have been lying to workers for quite some time as to the ongoing viability of the company. They certainly have just cause in that respect. However, listening to their argument that since Bank of America received money from the bailout that they are thus obligated to step up and pay money to workers for their outstanding benefits, severance, vacation time is just plain wrong. Bank of America should on some level be hurt by this closure (they bet wrong lending money to the company) as much as the employees, however that does not obligate them to pay money to workers that feel slighted, because as it has been (unjustly in my opinion) reported that the company closed simply because Bank of America chose not to extend them the loan they needed to continue. Banks, including Bank of America have (and justly in my opinion) been hammered for taking on too much risky debt, and while it is true that the money infused into the system was done to open up money for lending, that doesn’t require they loan it to an entity they do not consider credit worthy.

Yes, I feel bad for those people that lost their jobs. But I don’t feel any worse for them than I do the thousands of workers that have lost jobs at Lehman Brothers because of bad management, than those that are losing their jobs at Wamu or Wachovia, workers that lost their jobs not through any fault of their own. If Lehman workers decided to lay siege on the building in midtown Manhattan, do you think they would have been cheered on by the media and the general public? I highly doubt it. Despite the fact that many were just workers, the average man working for a financial giant, they would have been viewed much differently because the machine they operate is a computer and phone rather than “machinery.” Much is often made about how the little guy is treated differently. But in this case they are allowed to seize property that does not belong to them.

Before a meeting with company officials, even union representative Melvin Maclin, expressed his surprise at their popularity as a symbol of the troubled economy.

“We never expected this,” said factory employee Melvin Maclin, vice president of the union local that represents the workers. “We expected to go to jail.”

And in reality, they probably should and in better economic times would. I am not saying Bank of America is necessary faultless in all of this, but I don’t understand how they could be expected to “step up” where it is not their place to do so. Nor is it the right of the former workers to hold hostage property that does not belong to them. More than a million people in this country lost their jobs this year. Yes, some of them (but certainly not all) received severance packages and the like, but many others were shown the door or watched their businesses fold without additional compensation. If they have a beef, they need to take it up with the principals of the company, or even perhaps look to the courts under fraud, but they are not heroes for holding hostage, that which is not theirs.

Update: In this video, while they say that they have “issues” with the company, they clearly think it is Bank of America that should “pay them with bailout funds.”

But it is even more than that. This I suspect is the start of what we will see the GOP attempt a lot of over the next couple of years, filibustering their way through so that in 2010, they can cry how the Democrats “aren’t doing anything.”