George McGovern makes sense?!

"..lately I have seen developments that have me worried. And I have been reminded of legendary union leader John L. Lewis, who was once asked what his miners were after. His answer? "More."

It was a funny answer, and perhaps it was honest too. But these days, it's not a very effective strategy, and we are seeing some unfortunate and unintended consequences of Lewis' "more" philosophy.

Delphi Corp., the biggest auto parts supplier in the country and the employer of 34,000 hourly workers, is bankrupt. One big reason is that the company's unionized workers earn $64 an hour in wages and benefits — more than twice what some of its competitors pay.

General Motors and Ford — the companies that have epitomized high-paying unionized jobs over the last several decades — have stated that they will lay off 30,000 workers each. The United Auto Workers, General Motors and Delphi recently announced an agreement to offer voluntary buyouts to the UAW-represented employees at the companies. Wall Street thinks these are just the first steps.

Airlines have come under similar pressure. The bankruptcy stories associated with legacy carriers are driven in large part by the compensation packages and work rules that unions have won for their members, which are too expensive compared to more recent entrants such as Southwest. "More" has, unfortunately, become "too much" in a global and far more competitive economy."

Read the whole article here.

Only in ....Chinatown?

New York eatery charges more if you can't read Chinese. No discrimination here, say authorities.

I wonder what the authorities, (Or at least Al Sharpton) would've said if a Korean Grocery was charging people more if they couldn't speak Korean?

NOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

GM in talks with Daimler to purchase Chrysler.

Time to start buying Toyotas....

NASCAR's campaign against the Toyotas

NASCAR confiscated Michael Waltrip's Camry and his intake manifolds after finding a "substance" in the manifold that shouldn't have been there at pre-qualifying inspection. Waltrip's team is claiming that it was motor oil.

NASCAR has shipped the whole kit-n-padoodah (Hi Dy.)to North Carolina for testing and will not say if it will get the car back to Waltrip in time for the qualifying races on Thursday.

NASCAR Online, quoting an "un-named source", says, "Speaking confidentially, another noted Cup engine builder said it "wasn't possible" under normal operation for lubricating oil to leak into an engine's manifold."

Mmmmmmm-Kay.

So one of the "noted" idiots building engines for a NASCAR team is certain that it is impossible to have an intake manifold gasket leak that would allow motor oil to enter the manifold like my Dodge truck had last year?

I wouldn't want to be running anything that guy builds...

UPDATE:

OK, so it looks like Michael was cheating. (And not very well, I might add.) Trying to hide a gooey octane booster of some sort in the intake. Not good at all. Oh well. He got lucky. NASCAR is still going to let him race in the qualifier on Thursday.

This looks a little like the Dodge-Boys/Nitrous debacle in the NHRA back in the '90s.

Hopefully Toyota keeps their engine shop locked up so nobody breaks in and ruins all their underpowered engines...

Well, at least

The commercials are just as obnoxious as last year.

Not to mention longer lasting...

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Six laps in and they're still lines up like a restart.

Booooorrrrrring.

Crash already.

Brian Vickers...

The first Toyota to lead a lap in a NASCAR race.

Jarrett had one on the pole, but didn't lead the first lap.

Is that a Camry Pacecar?

I wonder if Toyota will sell a Pacecar option like Chevy used to with the Corvettes?


Naaaaaah...


Update:

Whoops. That's actually IS a 'Vette. Boy that new nose is kinda jappy looking.

Gentlemen, Start your Engines...

NASCAR is back for the 2007 season.

Budweiser shootout tonight. 21 cars. The second part of the event is a 50 lap run. Supposedly that is just outside of the fuel window of these cars. Anybody wanna bet that the Toyotas can go all the way?

Oh....My......God.....

There are three men vying for paternity of Anna Nicole Smith's daughter. (Born 3 or 4 months ago.) ONE OF THEM IS ZSA ZSA GABOR'S CURRENT HUSBAND!!!!

I guess, now that there can't be any alimony, and the keeper of the rat will probably inherit whatever is finally decided in Anna's favor from her death benefits from the decrepit octogenarian she married, it might be worth investing in a childs future.

Have you ever seen such a thing? MEN pushing each other out of the way to prove that they ARE the father of an abandoned child?

What a country.

A Salute To Silicone

Anna Nicole Smith, it seems, has slurred her last word, as it were. She dropped dead of as yet unknown causes at a Hard Rock Cafe somewhere in Florida.

This was a helluva coupla months for the self-made booby-queen/billionairess from Mexia, Texas. (That's pronounced Muh-hia, by the way.)

She had just been named in a lawsuit that claimed that a woman had taken the Trim-Spa pills Anna had recommended and, by God, she was still Freakin' FAT. Not to mention her oldest son kicking it in with the assistance of his step-father a few months ago.

I guess the amphetamines finally caught up with her.

The moral of this story is: If you don't have that many brain cells to begin with, you REALLY shouldn't be killing the ones you do have with dope.

The Sweet Revenge Effects of Market Tampering by the Feds

I've always known that the ethanol subsidy introduced last year to help reduce emissions was stupid on its face. The whole thing just smacked of a giv-away to corn farmers during an election cycle. Anyway, here's a neat synopsis of everything that is wrong with the legislation.

Money quote: "Cultivating that much corn will require even more farmland. Securing it likely will require chopping down the same trees that inhale the carbon dioxide that humans and cars exhale. If Al Gore is telling the truth, this will increase global warming. So one of the environmentalists’ favorite tools for fighting global warming could actually exacerbate it."

Read the whole article here.

Ahhhhh. Not Bach.

Nope. Not Bach, as Radar said, but Marketing. The art of convincing suckers that they smell bad or will die if they don't buy your latest re-badged yesterday's product at a ludicrous maarkup.

I've seen several ads lately for Ensure, the dietary supplement drink. Now it's being positioned as a meal replacement, almost diet-type drink for average people who are concerned about their eating habits when they're on the run.

I remember 20 years ago when Ensure was a meal replacement marketed for the elderly because it was easy to remember and digest.

Maybe I need to suggest that toilet paper should be marketed heavily at Halloween as a biodegradable and non-paint damaging alternative to throwing eggs?

The old canard...

About wife beating going through the roof during the Super Bowl....

I wonder how many drunk guys are pissed off since they bought a gi-normous new TV and High-Definition service for this one game and CBS's H-D feed turned out to be water soluble...

Tee-Hee...!

HDTV

I hafta say, A smudgy-smeary camera lens sure does look better in 1080i.

And...

Office VietNam/Lemmings. Yuck.

Doritos check out. Already seen it earlier today.

Any of the Chevy Ads. Why God, Why?

Uhhmmmm.

The Budweiser dalmation commercial. Yuck.

The Garmin GPS retro-robot battle. Mondo-yuck.

The Grand Theft Auto Coke Ad

was sorta cute. Total reversal of the game play.

Although, I'm not sure you could sell the game in that form....

Is it just me or are there a LOT of CBS filler ads this early in the game?

They mustn't have sold any real ads.

There's a football game on?

What the hell is this. So far, the only decent commercial has been the absolute first Bud Light set with the dude beaning the other dude with a rock. The rest have just plain sucked. (Thanks Janet...)

I will say that it's nice to see the dorks playing in the rain. The game is certainly a bit more interesting now that there seem to be fumbles every 45 seconds.

Hopefully Prince is electrocuted during the halftime show. Now that'd be entertainment.

Drum Roll Please......

New List!


*=UOM

*10) Britney Spears (She found her panties and seems to be converting to Judaism.)

9) Bob Barker

8) Garth Brooks

7) Gilbert Godfried

6) Rosie O'Donnell

5) Barry Bonds

4) Fidel Castro

3) Mike Tyson

2) O.J. Simpson

1) Michael Jackson