Sunday, March 05, 2006

Dana Plunges Into Bankruptcy - The Car Connection

Dana Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Dana Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday. Blogger was down, so I couldn't report it then. Interestingly, out of 46,000 employees, only 7,200 are unionized according to the article linked below from thecarconnection.com.

The recent surge in supplier bankruptcies has caused suprisingly little interruption of component supply to US auto makers. Still, one wonders how many more straws can be piled upon the camel's back.



Dana Bankruptcy

Thursday, March 02, 2006

All America committee Supporters: attending Evan Bayh/All America Committee Meetups, events, clubs and groups

Bayhwatch 2006

Hard to believe, but it's been three months since we checked up on the status of the Evan Bayh/ All America Committee membership on Meetup.com.

Evan's been busy. He's been meeting people. He's been kissing hands and shaking babies (or whatever). He's had to spend time in Iowa & New Hampshire and other places that get lousy television reception.

Now we get to the nitty gritty: How many people are signed up to jump on the Bayh for President bandwagon at meetup.com? The central Indiana chapter now has six members! Wow, six members! With that many members, you can get a good discussion going about the important issues of the day, like whether it's better to be wishy or washy, whether the wind is blowing from the east or the west, and whether it's better to be a Republicrat or a Democrlican.

Not only are there six central Indiana members, there are eleven people that are waiting for a meetup group in their area. Well Evan, that's eleven sofas to crash on when your fundage runs low. Of course, there's not much chance of that as long as you keep stroking the special interests in the consumer finance and health care industries.


All America committee Supporters: attending Evan Bayh/All America Committee Meetups, events, clubs and groups

FOXNews.com - Politics News - Video Footage Shows Bush, Chertoff Were Warned of Katrina's Potential Impact

From the Hard to Believe File:
FOX NEWS HAMMERS BUSH


Even Fox news hammering President Bush over the pre-Katrina "We are fully prepared" teleconference video.

George W. Bush ignored dire warnings of imminent disaster then went about on his regular schedule during the hurricane, twiddled his thumbs, blamed his political crony, then lied, saying nobody could have predicted the disaster. Maybe we should can our current system and adopt a parliamentary process so we could boot the guy on a "no confidence" vote.

FOXNews.com - Politics News - Video Footage Shows Bush, Chertoff Were Warned of Katrina's Potential Impact

Chrysler sales up; Ford and GM slide - 03/02/06 - The Detroit News

February Auto Sales Report

GM Down 2.7%
Ford Down 3.4%
DaimlerChrysler up 2.5%
Toyota up 2.4%
Honda up 8.7%
Nissan up 2.2%

Chrysler sales up; Ford and GM slide - 03/02/06 - The Detroit News

Press releases/English Wikipedia Publishes Millionth Article - Wikimedia Foundation

Wikipedia Publishes Millionth Article

The English language version of the Wikipedia collaborative encyclopedia just announced that it published its one millionth article in its English language version. There are many other versions for other languages. Already the Wikipedia is the most comprehensive encyclopedia in the world, and it's only a few years old.

Press releases/English Wikipedia Publishes Millionth Article - Wikimedia Foundation

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Disturbing Auctions

We Interrupt this Blog for a Picture of a Goat Nursing a Baby

Disturbing Auctions

Buy & Sell New & Used Trailers at TrailerShopper.com -- Browse

Help Britney Pick Out a New Trailer

With all this talk about Britney Federline fixin' to pop a new young'un, it seems to me that she ought to be thinkin' about buyin' a new trailer. Here's a shopping site for ya'll Brit.

Buy & Sell New & Used Trailers at TrailerShopper.com -- Browse

NWA annual loss now biggest in its history

More Bad News for Michigan: Northwest Airlines Loses $2.6 billion, Pilots threaten strike

Northwest is already in bankruptcy. The pilots have already taken pay cuts up to 28% of their pay. Northwest spent about a billion on bankruptcy-related fees. They want more concessions from the pilots, and the pilots have had their fill.

Northwest carries about 60% of the passengers out of Detroit's airport. The times I've flown Northwest, I've hated it, so it's good riddance as far as I'm concerned. I feel sorry for the Detroit-metro economy though.

NWA annual loss now biggest in its history

Americans Are Cautiously Open to Gas Tax Rise, Poll Shows - New York Times

Americans Open to Higher Gas Tax

It has long been assumed that a higher gas tax ranks just behind cutting Social Security as the third rail of American politics. Quite a few politicians have admitted candidly that raising the gas tax would cut consumption, cut emissions, and it would raise revenue that could either be used for cutting the deficit or for lowering other taxes. Few have dared to publicly propose the solution.

A poll discussed in the New York Times article linked below (free registration required) indicates that a slight majority of Americans would be open to the idea of higher gas taxes.

Americans Are Cautiously Open to Gas Tax Rise, Poll Shows - New York Times

"Cadillac converters" - Google Search

The Googleteer: All this talk about 'Cadillac Converters'

"Cadillac converters" - Google Search