The Auto Bailout is Strike Against Liberty

A Car Czar? Are you kidding me? Our government is actually holding the auto industry for ransom. They are telling them that if they want bailout money, they will have to let the government run them basically. Talk about nationalizing an entire industry.

This car czar as they call it, would get to approve or deny anything over $25 million in spending. That's right. The CEO's and Board of Directors would have to ask a government appointed official for permission before they spent a dime more than $25 million on anything.

Now understand this, it can cost a few billion dollars to develop a brand new vehcle. Yes you read that right. Billion. Developing cars to the specs and regulations that the government has mandated to begin with is not cheap. So if the car company wants to develop a new car, they will have to get the permission of the government first.

Now lets break this down. Car companies usually do extensive research in to what they think the public wants and is willing to buy. Obviously the big 3 US auto makers have been getting poor research of late for some kinds of cars and trucks but they still do their own research and in effect, the market pretty much dictates what Detroit makes.

This car czar will not have that information nor will he have to nor will he care. He can basically tell a car company you will have to develop and make this kind of car even if the public doesn't want to buy it. Now isn't that the reason Detroit is in trouble now? They are making too many cars that the buying public does not want to buy?

How about the fact that if the car czar doesn't like the restructuring of the car company, he can revoke their loans and funding and force the company into bankruptcy. How much power are we willing to give one person? Do you understand how many jobs are on the line? We are talking a few million between all three manufacturers. The auto industry employs millions of people and when a major car company has a sniffle, then the rest of the industry could catch a cold. Now you let these companies catch a cold and you got the makings of a flew epidemic in our nation. And Congress wants one man to see to the health of all of this? An unelected man at that.

Plus the fact that Nancy and the gang wanted to make all these loans conditional. The big three would have to drop their court battles over CA and other states emissions standards and such. So you see, the very people who brought us this financial debacle now wish to hold the country and its many private businesses hostage for their own gain.

Oh, don't worry, Nancy and the gang have their eye on the foreign car companies in our country too. They can't figure it out yet but they want to force those companies to somehow increase their labor cost to equal that of the Detroit three. Instead of looking for ways to help Detroit lower their cost, they want to raise the cost for others. There goes the incentive for innovation.

Congress is reaching far outside the limits of the Constitution and it affects me and you directly. You thought that the government would never be able to tell you what to drive didn't you? Well don't look now but our government is poised to be able to do just that. The main point is, will you want to pay for and drive what some in Congress want you to? I know I sure as hell don't and no I don't own an SUV.

But damn it all, this is the USA! If I want one and can afford one, I should be able to get one. Period.

Will a Prius Free Us, or Doom Us

Here we are. The 5^th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Iraq. And we still have lots of liberals saying that the battle, indeed the entire war on terror is nothing more than a war to control oil. It's all about the oil they tell us over and over.

They keep telling us we need to cut our dependency on oil that comes form the Middle East and elsewhere. They won't let us explore our own country for our own oil reserves even in areas in which countries like Mexico and Brazil are exploring. Yes I am talking about the Gulf of Mexico among other places.

They have convinced many people to downsize their cars and SUV's and they have even convinced many people to buy and drive the Toyota Prius. In fact they have screamed the praises of the Prius so much that they are now calling for the government to mandate that the rest of us begin to drive these “earth saving” cars.

They, the environmentalist, tell us that the Prius is a revolution in the storied history of the automobile. They praised this car. Told us how little fuel it used and that a person could get up to 60 mpg. People began buying these cars. So many bought them that there was a back order on them for the first 2 years of their production.

This changed the course of the mighty Toyota Corporation. They changed their goals for the Prius. Toyota has said they planned to have 1 million of these hybrid cars on the worlds road within the next few years.

Now I say hold a minute. What do we really know about this car? We know it doesn't get 60 mpg. In fact what is really happening on the road to the dismay of many is the Prius is getting about 40 mpg. Not a huge difference from some larger and better gas cars. In the Toyota line up, one can spend about half the price of a Prius and get a Corolla and get a consumer reported 35 mpg.

I know that one of my cars, the Scion tC gets me an average of 32 mpg and it has a 160 horse power engine. And it cost less than 18 thousand dollars. Not bad at all. But what is the total cost of this Prius that these loud wackos want the government to force us to drive. Well according to a number of reports (and growing) this thing is far from being environmentally friendly.

Environment NC is reporting that a Prius produces 44% MORE global warming green house gases over its life than a Toyota Avalon. And if you don't know what a Toyota Avalon is, it's the biggest car from Toyota without going SUV.

The Belmont Club reported just how bad the Prius is for the environment. And they have plenty of reports and listed documents to back up their article. In fact here is an excerpt from this article:

As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.

Now what do you Prius owners think? You have help create an area on our own planet that NASA uses to train for roving on the Moon and Mars. That sounds like its a huge environmental friend, doesn't it.