Weekend Open Thread
Welcome to the weekend! It’s a gorgeous weekend. I spent yesterday chilling on the beach and the weather was amazing. I’m recovering at home today from my sunburn. Be sure to reapply sunblock after going in the water.
A U.S. court denied a request for an expedited hearing on Friday and instead set a November date for Arizona’s appeal to a federal court ruling that blocked key parts of a state law cracking down on illegal immigration.
Lawyers for Arizona and Governor Jan Brewer had asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Thursday to lift an injunction blocking the most intrusive parts of the law, known as SB 1070, asking for the appeal to be handled quickly.
But the court denied the state’s request to expedite the appeal and set a hearing for the week of November 1.
Speaking of court decisions, when is the California Prop 8 decision being released?
I think it goes without saying that Obama never gets any credit for the good things he does but apparently the auto bailouts were a huge success.
Yes, there are still partisan critics sniping about bailouts and “Government Motors.” But make no mistake about the Detroit rescue.
The fact that GM and Chrysler are not only alive but modestly profitable in a weak market, after years of losing billions of dollars when car and truck sales were 50% higher, looks like more than just a successful government intervention.
It looks like a flat-out miracle.
…
GM and Chrysler emerged from bankruptcies as leaner companies, repaid loans and stopped losing money. They are moving to shed their government ownership via stock offerings.
Political opponents, though, can’t concede even a small attaboy for Obama on the auto rescue. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, leaps to denounce GM at every opportunity, as he did last week when GM bought AmeriCredit, and when GM repaid $6.7 billion in loans ahead of schedule in April. Even home-state U.S. Rep. Candice Miller has sniped recently at GM and Chrysler for eliminating dealers.
Sorry, but the auto rescue critics are all wet. This was much more than a handout to weather a slump. Obama’s auto task force totally reshaped a bloated and dysfunctional industry, forcing sacrifices from all, into something that now looks sensible and sustainable.
“This was not just a rebound from a brutal recession, but it is a repositioning of an industry after a decade or more of decline,” said Brian Deese, a member of that task force and now an economic policy assistant to Obama.
Please everyone go back to your regularly scheduled sniping.
Tags: Open Thread
Chelsea Clinton is now officially married.
And the world at large responded “Who gives a flying…”
As I posted earlier:
GM never paid back its loan.
You were duped into the Administration/GM fuzzy math.
GM was “given” 50 Billion dollars, they paid back 6.7 Billion, that’s all.
What the Administration did was call the 6.7 Billion the loan and allowed GM to pay it back from the original 50 Billion they were given.
They did this because GM is still broke and they need another 10 Billion dollars to retool their plants to meet the new fuel economy standards.
http://reason.tv/video/show/how-the-hell-did-gm-pay-back-i
Happy 100th Birthday to the Boy Scouts of America!!!!
Lee Williams left CRI. Does that mean Karen Weldin Stewart can do her dirty deeds with impunity now and no one will call her out as Lee did? Or will someone else take up the cause? Looks to me like nothing will happen to her since she has all the right connections, starting with Harris McDowell. She’ll retire rich in 2012 as planned, at age 65.
So where’d the too-cool-for-school-tool go?
BTW, a tip … someone needs to request CRI’s IRS Form 990s. They have to make ’em public. They won’t reveal their funding sources, but they will show just where the money’s going. In light of Fink’s smackdown of some union local over at DP, I think it would be extremely appropriate to counter with how much he’s making.
Monday morning chuckle:http://www.redstate.com/erick/wp-comments-post.php
Go Chrissy go!