Quality Weenie

Happy Birfday Lance & Maggie

Lance and Maggie are 4 years old today!

Happy Birfday to my babies!

Like two peas in a pod!

Lily: A Hero For Mill Dogs

Lily was born, raised and perhaps had 13 litters of puppies at the Reedgate Kennels before we were able to buy her at auction. Her time there was spent in a wire cage with a board to sleep on and a rabbit waterer to drink from. While in the mill she received little or no vet care and because of this she lost all her teeth and her lower jaw rotted off, which is not unusual for the smaller breeds in the puppy mills.

To Much Time

I really have to much time on my hands, and when I get bored I start creating things to sew.

The puppers are not amused at all.

My latest creation ...

A hat, scarf and leg warmers. Maggie is not amused at.all.

Just the scarf and leg warmers ...

TOYOTA TO POST LOSS FOR YEAR

So if Toyota supposidly has "great" management and no union I wonder why they are posting a loss for the ENTIRE YEAR?

Toyota's mainstay vehicle operations are likely to post their first ever loss for the fiscal year through March 2009, Japanese media reports said Friday, highlighting the dire conditions faced by global automakers.

Toyota Motor Corp., which makes the popular Camry sedan and Prius gas-electric hybrid, has never reported a full fiscal year loss since it began disclosing operating profit in 1941.

Gee if Toyota is having problems and are reporting a first ever full year loss could it be that the economy is having a bigger effect on automotive sales then people want to believe?

Bet this news is going to piss some people off because it was easier to say the Big 3's problems were all of their own making and this just throws that theory out the window.

North American Car/Truck of the Year

The North American Car and Truck of the Year finalist have been announced.

Winners will be chosen for the Opening of the International Auto Show in Detroit in early January.

A group of 50 automotive journalists picked the Ford Flex…Hyundai Genesis…and Volkswagen Jetta T-D-I as top cars of the year.

In the truck category…the Dodge Ram…Ford F-150…and Mercedes-Benz ML-320 BlueTEC are the finalists

Here is wishing Ford a double win this year!

Happy Holidays!

I Have Had It

I have never seen so many ignorant, sheep in my life.

People are practically dancing in the streets because the senate voted down the auto LOANS.

Before spouting off what lies congress, the media and wall street are spewing please do some research first.

I've tried to educate people but obviously people are believing what they want to make themselves feel better about putting down an entire industry of workers.

And what is even worse is that Ford, who is not asking for a loan, will be dragged down with a failed GM/Chrysler. So all those people who count on Ford will be punished because GM/Chrysler does not know how to run a business.

UPDATE: I will explain nothing more, put yourself in my shoes. How and what would you be feeling right now if it were you? Scared shitless I would image to start with.

Hypocrisy Thy Name Is Southern Senators

Its funny that the senators from Southern States that have foreign auto's are actively campaigning against the domestics getting a LOAN.

Let's take a look at Senator Shelby from Alabama, whos state includes Hyandai, Toyota and Honda plants (gee wonder why he doesn't want domestics around)

"The strength of the American economic system is it allows us to take risks -- to create, to innovate, to grow, to succeed and sometimes to fail," he said last week. "Every time government endeavors to alter any of these dynamics, it undermines and distorts the forces of work in all of them."

So he feels that government shouldn't help businesses AT ALL.

Hmmmmmm

I guess that $160 million dollars he has gotten for Alabamas fishing industry is much different. And that wasn't a LOAN, it was a hand-out, a bailout if you will.

“As a result of the volatile 2005 hurricane season and the drought that continues to plague the southeastern United States, Alabama fisheries have taken a significant economic and ecological hit,” said Shelby. “These recent events, compounded with high fuel prices and increased restrictions on the fisheries, have created a cumulative effect that has shrimpers and fishermen struggling to stay in business. This funding will provided much needed assistance to an industry that is a vital part of the Alabama economy”

Lets see, the senator thinks it is ok to give money to industrys that are hit due to economic reasons.

Annual sales of auto's were steady at around 16.5-17 million vehicles per year but in 2007 & 2008 we are looking at sales of around $11 million vehicles.

Why are vehicles not selling?

The depressed housing market, lack of access to credit and lower consumer confidence are weighing on new-vehicle demand.

So Senator Shelby thinks giving money away to the fishing industry because of economic downturn is no problem, but when it comes to an industry that is in direct competition with a major portion of his own states industry it's not ok to even give a LOAN.

And lets not even get into the BILLIONS of dollars of incentives that foreign automakers have received for building their plants in the south.

I want to go specifically to Alabama if I could for a minute. We have Hyundai Motor Company that got $252 million in incentives. Toyota there got $29 million in incentives. Honda, $158 million and Mercedes $253 million in incentives.

Alabama also offered to offered to train the workers, clear and improve the sites, upgrade the utilities, buy 2,500 vehicles and gave them the land worth $300 million.

So adding all the incentives that Alabama gave to just Mercedes to build their plant there you are looking at around $175,000 per employee.

So Southern Senators are spouting that the domestics are asking for "special" favors from the government but forget to mention about all the "favors" companies in their own states have gotten.

As I have said, the southern senators have a huge interest in seeing the domestic auto makers fail.

I Can Hold It In No Longer - Unfair Trade

A huge problem contributing to the domestics issues is Unfair Trade.

This VAT (value added Taxes)disparity is reliably estimated to place an extra $290-billion burden on American manufactured goods and $85 billion on U.S. services -- or roughly half our yearly trade deficit.

So America pays an extra $290 BILLION each year to export its goods to other countries. A major portion of that $290 BILLION is for autos exported.

If VAT countries trade with each other, it is a wash. Each country rebates the VAT for its exported products and imposes the VAT on imported products. There is rough parity. But in the United States, there is a free ride for foreign products produced under a VAT system -- because we do not levy a VAT at the border that compensates for the export rebate the product received at home.

But how does that really work against auto's?

Compare a German and American car, each offered to the consumer in its home market for $20,000. When the German car is exported to the United States, the VAT taxes are rebated, and it costs $17,885 here -- a price advantage of roughly 10% due only to the difference in tax systems, not corporate competitiveness.

The $20,000 American car exported to Germany is saddled with the VAT at the border -- which is imposed not just on the base price of the car, but the shipping and insurance costs as well -- and winds up costing $25,792 in Germany.

I Can Hold It In No Longer - Bankruptcy Not Cheaper Then Loan

People keeping spouting off to just let the Domestics fail, that it would be cheaper then giving them a bailout Loan.

Lets look at that myth shall we?

Loans - $34 Billion

And lets define loans shall we, it's lending money to someone and they pay back it back. Unlike the bailout that was thrown at the banks that will never get paid back because they don't have to.

But I digress ...

“The report shows the immediate impact of the collapse of even two automotive manufacturers … would only further exacerbate our current economic crisis and likely would precipitate a complete shutdown of nearly all auto production in the U.S. for some time,”

The groups said 1.8 million jobs would be lost if two of Detroit’s three automakers fail under bankruptcy.

That is just if two fail.

Now your saying how could the entire automotive (domestic and foreign) shut down.

Suppliers

Supplier of the two failed companies would shut down, those same suppliers supply Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, etc.

If Suppliers are not shipping parts to the ones still around they would not beable to produce cars.

Not to mention the side effects of putting 1.8 million people out of work. Those 1.8 million unemployed workers would be pulling unemployment insurance, they would also cut spending immediately.

So they would stop going to dentists, hair salons, chiropractors, stop buying appliances, new cars, doctors, etc.

So then your putting out of work a lot of those people mentioned above.

Trickle up effect, hence throwing the US and eventually the world into a depression similar to the 1930's.

Are you ready for that?

I Can Hold It In No Longer - The $70/hour Myth

I swore to myself I would not post about this, but the ignorance being displayed by everyone (Congress mostly) has pushed me over the edge.

I watched both congressional hearings with the automotive CEO's last week. It was truely disgusting what some of the congress people were saying. One would think that if they were deciding on weither an industry lives or sending the US into a catastrophic depression they would do some homework first.

But nope, they just relied on lies and myths instead. And the worst of the congress people were the ones with foreign automakers in their state, gee wasn't hard to figure out why they want the domestics to fail.

Lets start with the $70/hour that the domestic workers make.

NOT

Domestic hourly wages are on the same level with Japanese plants.
Their hourly wages are within a couple dollars of each other, Big 3 are around $28 and the Big Foreign are $25.

The rest of the made up figure includes benefits, health insurance and pensions.

But then what's the source of that $70 hourly figure? It didn't come out of thin air. Analysts came up with it by including the cost of all employer-provided benefits--namely, health insurance and pensions--and then dividing by the number of workers. The result, they found, was that benefits for Big Three cost about $42 per hour, per employee. Add that to the wages--again, $28 per hour--and you get the $70 figure. Voila.

So we are suppose to believe that each worker on the line is getting double in benefits what they make per hour? If you take the actual benefits that the line worker is getting themself in health and pension you are really looking at around $10/hour extra.

Oh you can get to that $70 myth that everyone spreads if you add in the pension benefits that retirees are getting. Yes, those spreading the myth are adding in retiree benefits to current workers benefits and I am not talking about benefits those workers will get when they retire, that is already included in the $10 extra per hour.

So lets re-cap, the $70/hour myth is gotten to by adding what the line worker makes per hour plus health insurance plus what retires are making divided by only current hourly workers. So you all can get over yourselves that the Domestic workers are living high on the hog, they are making within a couple dollars per hour exactly what the foreigns are making.