Think for a minute what your town will resemble once Congress leaves the American Auto Industry to twist in the wind.  What kind of spirit will people have when they drive down the miracle mile of the local dealershis and see that all the dealerships have only foreign cars.  We are already close, but you have to board up the windows of the American dealerships to really get the picture.  You also have to question how the rest of the automakers will make it as overnight the economy goes Supernova and more then a million jobs turn to dust.

Having the Connecticut dealerships represented in Washington DC today provided a better look at the gravity of the present situation.  Connecticut lost 25 dealerships this year alone.  The 29th most populous state might offer a pretty good representative of average America on the one hand, but due to it's population density, it is actually a poor example.  Less densely populated states with more isolated communites are going to suffer much worse then this.  It seems probable that the "death toll" will continue to rise in 2009 as well.

If one listens objectively, one has to admit that Detroit has already been tranforming itself.  They began long before Paulson cried, "Uncle!!!"  The recently released fact that we have been in a recession for more then a year is NOT news to Detroit.  In fact, one could argue it is not news to any other automaker in the world.  Those foreighn auto makers are also begging their government for assistance as well.  Detroit is assking for loans in a credit crisis.  If Wall Street has $700 billion, why aren;t they lending Detroit the money?  Detroit is asking for a small fraction of the funds being given to Wall Street.

What the US automakers have not yet been able to achieve is a perceptive change in the American people.  Has anyone ever truly let it sink into their heads that Chevrolet has more vehicles doing better then 30 mpg then any other manufacturer.  I assumed that honor would go to Japan, or Korea!  Didn't you?  Did anyone know Chrysler is actually the leader in electric cars at this time?  The Chevy Volt is soon to arrive.  It's far past being a concept car.  They're simply fine tuning the final poroduct at this point.  But I thought the leaders were Honda and Toyota in the race to power vehicles with alternative energy?  In fact, it is not so.

It seems this whole attack on the US auto industry is nothing more then union busting.  There is a great deal of resentment that autoworkers have managed to retain their pensions and their healthcare.  It's not fair!!!  What? It is not fait that autoworkers have managed to retain their benefits, or that others have lost their's in industries that lack organized labor?  People should realize that maybe, if they had stuck together, they would not have lost been subject to the broken promises.  They could have had someone at the table who truly represented them.  Bash the unions, but it's better to have soe evoice at the table then none at all.  It's better to have another set of eyes on the books then just the owners/managers.

Michael Jordan's late father used to ask, when someone would question him whether the glass was half full or half empty, "Who's pouring?"  Congress is pouring and they have filled the glasses of Wall Street and the are neglecting not merely Main Street, but the Miracle Mile.  This will be the end of the American dream if we let the domestic auto industries fail.  But it will be the beginning of a new world order, one where workers have less say in how they are compensated.  In twenty years, when people ask an old, frail Dubya how did his Presidency go he will say only two words, "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!"  

Privitize is the rallying cry of Republicans.  Government cannot do anything right.  Give it to the private sector and they will do it better.  As we let go of the fantasy about the free market, we should let go of this delusion too, especially when it comes to our military.  This country has abandoned their soldiers in so many ways to the private sector. 

The solitary goal of the private sector is profit.  Service is a necessary evil because service is an expense.  But by its very definition it is detrimental to the goal of profit.  So the gane is to provide as little service as possible with the most profit.  Service is best developed in the public sector by public servants, where everything is transparent, or at least there is the tool of the Freedom of Information Act.  Question the private sector and they move to an undisclosed location covering their flight with a phalanx of attorneys.  Question the government and eventually things do become known.  We did learn how Pat Tillman died.

The military does not perform more efficiently with employees from the private sector, not at all.  We need to have soldiers in all positions of support and especially in any positions requiring firearms.  Our soldiers went to war without body armor.  They showered in filth thanks to the profit motive.  They fought an insurgency because of undisciplined contractors.   They died when employees entered the mess hall.  Their security is at risk because of privitization and that means that ours is as well.

Every aspect of the military, IMHO, ought to be as self-supporting as possible.  Because profit produces wealth and power for entities, not countries.  Blackwater now holds incredible power that is not subject to the treasury but to a private bank account.  There is not a police station in the country that could defend itself against them.  Their soldiers are not all Americans either.  What we have done is weakened our own defense with every task we designate to the private sector.  We no longer have a real military, we have soldiers subject to a private sector now stationed in Dubai.  Lets get back to a United States military and not lose sight of the fact that a military needs to be self-relaint where people are directly accoutnable to the leadership of teh nation, not a private company.