I didn't actually read his whole tirade, but actor Alec Baldwin thinks we should "pull the plug" on the Detroit 3 automakers. Alec, buddy, I admit that the Detroit 3 aren't what they could be, aren't what they once were, but if deterioration is grounds for euthenasia, then you and I would both be soylent green by now.
GM Bankruptcy Plans Take Shape GM Reaches Pre-Bankruptcy Deal with the UAW
All signs point to a GM Chapter 11 filing by the end of next week. Is the GM bankruptcy good news, bad news or no news? I'll let you know next week. One of the big impediments is now out of the way. GM came to general terms with the UAW on a restructuring of the 2007 contract. The new deal would be implemented in the course of the bankruptcy. Terms are still secret until the UAW members vote on the contract, but like the Ford contract, job classifications would be strictly narrowed, and there would be some benefit cuts. Up to 1/3 of the UAW jobs could be eliminated, but there would be some type of buyout plan.
Other housekeeping measures went forward. GMAC received over $7 billion in new money from the government in the form of preferred stock. It is expected that the government will inject around $30 billion in the new GM post-bankruptcy. Surprisingly, with a GM bankruptcy expected around May 27 or May 28, Delphi, long a thorn in GM's side has until June 2nd to reach a deal with its creditors, GM and the government. You'd think that Delphi's deadline would be before the GM bankruptcy so whatever the Delphi outcome , that outcome gets incorporated into the GM plan.
There are some signs that GM has learned from Chrysler's experience. Chrysler's abrupt cutting of dealers, effective June 9 was a public relations disaster and promises to result in a fire sale of excess vehicles that will last all summer. On the other hand, GM is stretching its dealer reduction out for more than a year, is allowing appeals and the return of inventory. In other words, GM is taking a kinder, gentler approach.
The GMAC capital infusion is as much to allow financing of Chrysler buyers and Chrysler dealers as to buoy General Motors. Under the Treasury Department Stress test, GMAC was determined to be undercapitalized by $11 Billion, and it's not clear to me whether Chrysler obligations were considered in that evaluation. The bottom line is the taxpayer infusion of $7 billion appears to be just the beginning, with more government money coming down the road.
(Multiple sources)
Thursday, May 21, 2009
I think I just got a bad Flash
I got my main current computer, an Apple iMac G5 in 2005, and it has been steller. But lately, my browsers keep crashing on me. Safari 3.2.3 crash. Firefox 3.0.10 crash. Both seem to crash mostly with pages with Adobe Flash. I tried a less popular browser, Omniweb, and it appears to be more stable, but still crashes some. Come on Adobe, the ball's in your court.
Two TV Hosts - Two Electric Cars Showcasing the Volt and the Aptera
As it so happens, I saw two comedian/television hosts checking out the latest electric cars. Both Jay Leno and David Lettermen are bona-fide "car guys" Jay Leno is famous for collecting every bizarre and interesting car under the sun (sometimes literally, as we'll see). David Letterman is also interested in the technical bits, but he's a sucker for fast. In the first video below, on Jay's Garage, Jay Leno checks out the Aptera, a three-wheeled electric vehicle. (None dare call it a car, because it's licensed as a motorcycle in most states.)
Jay goes on and on about the aerodynamics. With a drag coefficient of .15 it has half the drag coefficient of a good conventional car, but it's really not quite that good. The total drag is the drag coefficient multiplied by the frontal area. Since a certain portion of the frontal area of the Aptera breaks the wind just for the podded wheels, there is more frontal area than there would be on a conventional vehicle of the same size. Still, it's a damn efficient car. I can imagine commuting in one of these. (By the way, Jay parenthetically mentions his 1908 Baker Electric car. Here's a link to his video on this fascinating 100 year old electric car.)
The second video is GM's Bob Lutz showing off the preproduction Chevrolet Volt on Late Night with David Letterman. David had criticized the Volt earlier this year when he had Elon Musk and the Tesla Model S on his show. (Apparently Letterman bought a Tesla Roadster.) In the spirit of equal time, Letterman invited maximum Bob and the Volt on the show, and David was surprisingly accommodating and civil. Nice tan, Bob. I really hope the Volt makes it to market. I'd like to drive one.
An Unexpected Bonus in the Credit Card Bill = We can Pack Heat While We Pack Our Tents
Congress sent the long-awaited credit card fairness (or whatever they're calling it now) bill to President Obama with an unexpected bonus. If the bill passes, we'll once again have the right to carry concealed weapons in national parks. It looks like Yogi is going to be in for a little surprise if he touches MY pic-a-nic basket.
For a marginally relevant video - I'm taking you in the way back machine to the very first episode of NBC's Saturday Night from 1975. The show didn't even become Saturday Night Live until Saturday Night Live with Hoard Cosell show bit the dust sometime later. The biggest legacy of SNL with Howard Cosell, the Bay City Rollers, a Scottish band named after a city in Michigan.
PTFOA, Where are you? President's Auto Task Force is Incommunicado, and Ralph Nader is Right - To a Point
Where is, repeat, where is, the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry? The World Wonders. At the risk of sounding too much like Admiral Chester Nimitz, and making Admiral Halsey roll over in his grave, this is a question that I've been asking lately. This all started when I though I'd like to write a letter to Steven Rattner, the chairman of the commission. So I googled the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry. Result: nothing, no official contact information at all. I tried the White House website. I tried the Department of the Treasury website. I tried looking at Thomas.gov. I searched the Federal Register. All searches resulted in 0 results.
I dare you to find an official contact person, address or phone number for the President's Task Force on the Auto Industry. I tried, friends, I tried.
After trying to find a public contact, I decided to go through official channels. I figured, as a public agency, they would have to post instructions on procedures for Freedom of Information Act requests. (Hence the check of the Federal Register. Nothing was there, so I emailed the good folks at the open government program of Public Citizen. They emailed me back and confirmed my suspicion, President Barack Obama's Auto Industry Task Force exists in the same shadowy underworld that Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force made famous. It was June 2004 that the Supreme Court punted the issue of accountability in the case of Cheney v. United States District Court. (In case you forgot, that's when Cheney and Scalia went hunting, a lawyer ended up in the hospital, and Scalia got all friendly-like.)
Until the Cheney decision, if a President convened a panel that included anyone but current executiveProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0
ppointees, under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), the Committee was expected to meet certain minimum standards of open meetings, access to information and screening for bias. Cheney and Bush flouted the law. The Supreme Court looked the other way, and now it appears the Obama Administration isn't even paying lip service to FACA.
In other words, ladies and gentlemen, here we have a group of government officials with the power to spend tens of billions of our dollars with very little oversight, accountability or even accessability to public input. I started paying significant attention to the problem about three weeks ago. Other folks were way ahead of me including, wait for it, Ralph Nader. Ralph used to be really high on my list of admired folks until he, uh, exercised poor judgment relating to the 2000 election. That being said, even though he doesn't know when to stay out of a presidential race, Ralph Nader has probably forgotten more law and policy regarding open records and public access than I'll ever know.
Citizen Ralph (with Robert Weissman) on Monday made public an open letter to Congress in which he takes the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry (PTFOA) to task on numerous issues. In addition, he points out that the PTFOA has made and end run around all of the procedural safeguards of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. At this point, the Task Force isn't just advising the President, it's spending tens of billions of dollars and directly affecting the workings of one of the country's largest industries. The position it is taking as a lender and bankruptcy super creditor has the potential for upsetting bond markets in unrelated industries. In his letter, Nader asks Senator Chris Dodd and Barney Frank to exercise greater supervision over the PTFOA. I don't really agree with the recitation of the Task Force's sins which, in Nader's letter read like Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses, but I do agree with Nader's main theme, that if Obama's task force is going to act like Cheney's task force, then Congress has to get serious and exercise supervision.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
George W. Bush in Retirement "Can Timmy come over to play?" and more
Judging from this Newsweek.com article, George W. Bush appears to be settling into private life in Midland, Texas, and he's more than a little board. He's even inviting neighborhood kids to come over and hang out with him. (Here's a tip from Michael: it helps if you have a chimp and an amusement park.) I wonder if his experience in reverting to private life is anything like his father's was way back in 1993?
Maybe he'll invite his buddies Harold & Kumar to hang out with him.
Ironically, Kumar (to be specific, actor Kal Penn) is back at the White House. He's Undersecretary for Public Affairs for President Obama. If there's a wet towel under the door, don't come knocking. Harold is now getting really high. Actor John Cho is Sulu in J.J. Abram's Star Trek. Penn and Cho are set to reunite for a second sequel, A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas, to be shot next summer for a Christmas 2010 release.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Congratulations AIG, You are the Worst, You Are the Worst
It's Finally Here ! CHARLIE THE UNICORN, Episode 3
Sunday, May 17, 2009
The Doctor will Gag You Now
The May 2009 issue of Angie's List Magazine (online here) has an interesting article about a new phenomenon in the New Patient Agreements that you have to sign when you see a doctor. "Gag" provisions in these contracts can prohibit patients from commenting publicly on the treatment they receive, with liquidated damages and attorney fees payable if the patient gets uppity.
Angie's List is a fast growing firm that lets members rate service providers and obtain rating reports submitted by other members. Informally, the company mediates disputes between consumers and service providers in some situations. I've been an Angie's List member for years, and I think they provide a very useful service. In recent months, Angie's List has started publishing ratings on medical professionals, so if these gag provisions catch on, the nacient medical rating service may never really meet its potential.
The author of the Angie's List article, Daniel Simmons, traced the medical gag provisions to a company in Greensboro, North Carolina called Medical Justice Corp. Medical Justice Corp. is run by a neurosurgeon named Dr. Jeffrey Segal. According to the article, medical offices that affilliate with Dr. Segal's firm pay between $350 and $1990 per year, and besides the gagging contracts Medical Justice's affilliates get up to $100,000 in "assistance" in countersuing medical experts who testify against the member. Gee, it sounds a lot like INSURANCE to me. I wonder if the INSURANCE COMMISSIONER knows about this assistance.
Hey, I'm all for free speech, and I think the doctors are wrong for putting in these gag provisions. I think the gag clauses will eventually be found to violate public policy and be therefore void. That being said, I can understand why the doctors are upset that patients can criticize them anonymously, but they can't comment back due to both traditional patient privacy rules and HIPPA. I think this is an area where the legal profession is ahead of the medical profession. The ABA Model Rules of Professional Responsibility, specifically Rule 1.6(b)(5) specifically allows a lawyer to disclose client confidences when the lawyer believes it is reasonably necessary to
(5) to establish a claim or defense on behalf of the lawyer in a controversy between the lawyer and the client, to establish a defense to a criminal charge or civil claim against the lawyer based upon conduct in which the client was involved, or to respond to allegations in any proceeding concerning the lawyer's representation of the client;
So the lawyer can disclose information when needed to defend himself/herself from false client allegations. But wait, this allows the lawyer to "respond to allegation in any proceeding concerning the lawyer's representation. . ." What is a proceding? Does this rule out the court of public opinion, specifically ripoffreport.com? Maybe Rule 1.6 could stand to be touched up a bit.
Afscme's Webrider's Blog regarding the law, the auto industry, and popular culture, for Local 3357's members. The Webrider is Steve Hofer, staff attorney in the Indianapolis West Office.
