mrballsonya

Pass that pipe you're smoking brother, I could use a little dose of healing. There is absolutely no way a Republican will win the next election. Eight years of the George W. Bush administration, has almost guaranteed a victory for the Democrats. What exactly did the Moron say..... " fool me once...... er ...eh... you can't fool me again". The Majority of the American people won't be fooled again.

$4 a gallon gas will happen, and the rich will get richer. Fairly soon after that, the huddled masses will get organized, and take our country back, Back from the iron grips of faceless corporations and crooked politicians. Why? Because the majority can only be oppressed for so long. History has proved this. Don't worry... They can't constantly rape you. Eventually you'll deliver them that collective "shank" in the eye.

I agree 100%. I thought last years welfare checks were ridiculous, but to do it 2 years in a row is just insane. If we as a Company are not making any money, then why should anyone get a performance bonus? Performance bonuses should reward GOOD PERFORMANCE. Losing 10% market share in 7 years and not making any profit since 2004 don't indicate that we as a company have PERFORMED WELL. This is obviously a thinly veiled bribe to the average UAW worker. A simple pittance to pacify the angst of the average grunt as the Board gives the top 200 officers unjustified bonuses. Let us all celebrate, once we start making products that are irresistible to the average consumer. When Ford becomes a contender again, let us all enjoy the spoils of victory. But for now, rewarding incompetence does nothing, other than to create a weak facade that we're better than we actually are. I think Mullaly has done a much better job than Jr. , but I don't agree with this portion of "Team Building".

This is typical of the Japanese Nationalistic attitude. For as long as time, the Japanese have always been a proud, Nationalistic Country. This is the main reason why we had to use the A-Bomb on them, back in world war 2. Harry Truman had to make this unenviable decision based on intelligence that stated the Japs were "DUG IN". Tens of thousands of American lives would be lost in a traditional military assault. He and his advisor's were right, The Japanese are a very proud people that would fight to the death before surrendering. They've adopted this same mentality in regards to the auto industry. Unfortunately Ford and GM can't end the battle as easily as Harry Truman did. To the Japanese, the average U.S. citizen is just a potential customer. As a potential customer, the Japanese know that we need to be coddled into a false sense of security and a false sense of value. They've done a great job on that front, the constant maladies and quality problems of the average 80's domestic vehicle have contributed greatly to the common misnomer that current Japanese Vehicles are far superior to the current domestics. The Japanese have are backs against the wall, and can't wait to drop the financial A-Bomb on us. We are consuming Japanese and Chinese products, Far quicker than they are consuming our products. So where does this leave us? As a nation we've become alarmingly subservient to the Middle East, China and Japan. What happens when you keep making financial promises that you can't keep (A.K.A. National Debt)? Apparently most sane people start devaluing your ability to pay back that debt (Lower Dollar). Our country is in rough shape, the Midwest is just the beginning. When you no longer produce products, you become reliant on other Countries for said products. All of a sudden you become dependent upon someone else for your survival. So when other Countries decide to raise prices, increase their profits and also their standard of living, can you blame them? I don't. I just blame our inept leadership, whether it be Corporate or National.

I apologize for the pseudo insult, I really meant nothing by it. I'm sorry if I haven't read most of your thousands of posts since you started here, I was hearkening back to our early exchanges, back when you seemed to be very supportive of the Bush administration. Men change, opinions change, everyone changes, I'm sorry if I didn't catch your revelation long ago. I'm glad you've become such a dedicated supporter and poster on this site, and I'm glad that we finally agree that Bush doesn't have our best interests in mind.

WOW, I can't believe it took you that long to figure out that the Bush administration is not conducive to the average working middle class American. In a way... I feel sorry for you, but at the same time, I'm glad you've finally had your epiphany. I'd like anyone to refute the fact, that the oil companies have never made more money, than under the Bush regime.... Exxon $120 billion profit over the last 3 years. Bush has been a proponent of Big business since day one. I guess the silver spoon moron, bought hook line and sinker into the trickle down economics philosophy. This is a great philosophy, as long as the wealth and subsequent job creation trickles down to U.S. citizens, unfortunately for the rust belt, the Corporations are no longer investing in the (HIGH LABOR COST U.S.), they are sending their money to other countries. This a complex economy we currently reside in, I don't pretend to understand all the facets, all I know is that the Rust belt is in a sustained DEPRESSION... DEF. (a long-term economic state characterized by unemployment and low prices and low levels of trade and investment), I don't know what else we can call it. Bush has done nothing for the middle class, other than to tell us to go shopping after 9/11, and give all his rich buddies and corporate cronies huge tax cuts. Oh I forgot, I did get a $1200 tax cut a couple of years ago, but I've gave that all back to the BUSH LOVING oil companies 3 years ago, when gas went from $1.30 to $3.00 a gallon. Bush is the WORST president we've ever had, and we've had some bad ones in the past.

Welcome to the year 2008, ladies and gentleman. After seven years of leadership from our "Corporation loving" president, we all should feel "lucky" to still have a decent paying job. The global economy, in which we compete, against $2 an hour Chinese workers and $5 an hour Mexican workers, is not conducive to paying U.S. workers $30 an hour. This sucks, I know.... It's not 1950 anymore. The UAW did the best they possibly could given the current economic climate. The Union is only as powerful as its membership, and the membership is dwindling like ice in a fire. This is a hard reality for most of us, as the UAW has always stood up for the working middle class. As UAW membership dwindles, so does the middle class. Get ready to start using your foodstamps at Walmart 8 years of Bush, is going to be awfully hard to undo.

My dad was one of the many IT's that took a buyout package, with 25 years of service, he really didn't want to "retire", but he felt he HAD to. To this day, he's still looking for another Job. It seems Job hunting has become a very tough road to travel, here in Michigan. He claims that there are plenty of good job opportunities, just not in Michigan. Not wanting to relocate, it appears he's headed for a very rocky semi retirement.

I hate Minivans, but having 4 small kids, my wife supposedly can't live without one. I sure wish Ford still made one, I hate giving my money to Chrysler every two years (but at least the Caravan is made by my UAW or CAW counterparts). It really is ashame that I get the A-plan from Ford, yet I have to beg a Chrysler employee for a crappy friends and family #.

:beerchug: I agree. Ford knew the writing was on the wall at some of the U.S. plants due to stale outdated products, yet they still decided to invest a Billion dollars, and give a hot new product to Mexico (Fusion). Ford management made these decisions knowing full well, that contractually they would still have to pay all the displaced US plant workers Full Pay, to produce nothing (G.E.N). I realize that our Mexican counterparts make about a 1/5th of what we do, but I also believe it takes aprox. double the amount of Mexican workers to equal the productivity of an equivalent U.S. plant. So if we couple the productivity issue along with fact that Ford still has to pay all its displaced U.S. workers Full Pay, the decision to produce the Fusion in Mexico just seems totally moronic. I'm glad for Fords sake that the Fusion Triplets have been such a success, but I will never consider buying one given the reasons above. I don't fault anyone for buying one though, after all.... every sale helps out Ford, and eventually I like to think that a healthier Ford might one day provide me with a job again.

It's funny, I heard the same mantra about Wixom. "I've been here for X years.... and nothings happened". A word of advice, start preparing. Don't get caught with your pants down. If it happens you'll be prepared, if it doesn't you'll be ahead. It may not be true, but the underlying conditions support the statement. Get your finances in order, and start coming up with backup plans.

:hysterical: I hate to rub salt in the wounds of a fallen man, but the Freestar was an abortion. It was one of Fords biggest missteps of the last 10 years. It's a rare occasion when people laud the traits of a previous product (windstar), and PAN the traits of its successor(freestar). The Freestar/Monterey sucked, and the marketplace proved that. Unfortunately the designers and engineers of the Freestar took the Mini-Van market for granted. They felt that due to past sales, they could obviously introduce an inferior product to the marketplace..... and it would still sell because it was a FORD. What a mistake! Ford gave up 200,000 vehicle sales a year, and almost shut down an assembly plant because the Freestar/Monterey SUCKED so bad. It wasn't the hourly peoples fault, that the Ford Design and Engineering team had their head up their asses. It was inept leadership, and poor decision making in upper management that contributed to the demise of the Ford Mini-Van. The American consumers spoke with their pocket books and due to natural selection..... the inferior product (Freestar), was stricken from the marketplace. If it was great, it would've sold. But instead it sucked. And now the only option Americans have to buy an American Mini-van, is the Dodge Caravan/Chrysler T&C.

Methos and Pump, as a supporter of many of your posts and as an observer and contributer to this thread.... I have to say, both of you are now just feeding the beast. Why even respond anymore? What are you gaining? Are you guys just bored? Is it just pride? Countless Facts and Figures are refuted with countless Facts and Figures. It really has become comical. NAP has created a philosophical, nihilistic thread. A thread that only serves to empower himself and a few other minions. Let the aforementioned "tools", extol the virtues of this "great Iraq war" amongst themselves. Let them "Proclaim Victory" and discuss exactly what "mission accomplished" meant. It can be their penultimate "Sausage Fest". Why interfere anymore? The Iraq war is great, I can't believe you guys don't understand this ...FACT. There are times to fight, and there are times to be ambivalent, this is a classic case of wasted time and wasted effort. Nap obviously has more time on his hands than sense in his brain. This NAP FACT can never be substantiated.. because Nap will either call you an *expletive* or back up his intelligence with quoted propaganda. Nap cannot be defeated, you cannot win a battle with an idiot. You can physically beat him senseless, and the idiot will still think he won... because he didn't die. You can relay every fact in the world, but the idiot will still rely on his limited knowledge to refute you. In an Idiot's mind, they cannot be defeated. Nap and Bush were obviously separated at birth, as they both posses the same mentality. I beg of you, wave the white flag. Let the Idiots WIN.

WOW!!! Somehow you're all knowing. What a powerful trait to posses, I'm jealous. I have to ask though, How do you do it? How can you possibly know what everyone, everywhere is doing? Do you have security cameras and microphones placed in every conceivable location? If so, how did you set up such an elaborate surveillance network? Where did you get the funding for your "Big Brother" network? How do you find the time to monitor and review all the recorded material from you're clandestine network? Of course, all of the aforementioned questions are assuming you're a mortal man and not some type of GOD. If you are a GOD, by all means disregard all the questions and please, please, don't reign lightning bolts down upon my house for questioning your omnipotence. Fortunately for me, I tend to believe that a GOD would know the correct spelling of the popular slang term asswipe. Well... since seemingly I don't have to worry about any freakish lightning strike repercussions, I guess I can call you out for the fraud you are. Since you're not a God, you must be the most egotistic, portentous person to ever post here on BON. Make sure you give yourself a pat on the back, after all you deserve it. Not many people can lay claim to the fact of being the BEST at something. All hail CAPTAIN723, The biggest Know-It-All on the Blue Oval Network.

THEIR Skilled Trades. The Trades are a "people" not a place. Regardless...... This Blows.

Truer words, haven't been spoken. Religion is a great divider, and should be dealt with very carefully.

WHAT!!! Japanese vehicles are subject to recalls too? That's very hard to believe. Everyone knows that Japanese vehicles run for 2,000,000 miles without any maintenance. BUY AMERICAN. We make better cars, and hopefully the American public will start to realize that soon. If they wait too long, the only choice they'll have... will be Japanese, Korean, or Chinese.

Is this a joke? Am I getting this right? The Norfed people thought that as long as they had silver to back up the coins, they could integrate their coin into the U.S. Currency system? That is totally ridiculous. I see no problem in minting "commemorative" non negotiable, Ron Paul dollars.... but to think they could be integrated into the U.S. currency system is just utter lunacy. As much as I hate the fact that the U.S. dollar is so weak and the reasons why its become so weak, I just can't justify every tom, dick and Harry coming up with their own currency and expecting to integrate into our system.

That's Funny, I wasn't aware of all the controversy between O'reilly and Cuban. It's all about Money baby.....just ask one of our Illustrious elected officials.

Well said!

Good post! Although I never stated that Newspapers aren't biased. You're right, the ultimate content of a newspaper is controlled by the editor. The editor controls which stories are printed from the AP, and where they are placed in the newspaper. If you feel the Newspaper is leaning to one side or another then you should take issue with that. But as I said before, the beauty of a Newspaper is the fact that you have control over the stories you read, and when you read them..... there is no waiting for that "interesting story" later in the newscast. When you read a piece in a newspaper written by an AP journalist you can rest assured that there will be no bias, only facts. I'm just glad that real Journalists still do exist, and that almost all of them take the Journalistic oath very seriously. These words could've come from straight from my own mouth, until you got to the Fox News part.

:hysterical: This post was so terrific, that I had to respond to it twice. I'm still laughing, I just can't help myself. Another angle to this argument can be answered simply by typing the following three words into a Google search illiteracy in America. Or maybe another explanation can be had by visiting this site http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/13/...ain838207.shtml . The U.S. is No longer the Best, Smartest, innovative country in the world. Our Education system is dumb when compared to most other developed countries. This is very unfortunate because like crackhead Whitney Houston said... "the children are our future". But obviously spending money on a foreign country (IRAQ) is much more important than preparing our children to compete in a world Market. Remember this, the next time you see a young doctor with the last name RAJALAMBAH, while your grown kids are working at Wal Mart. Why spend tax money on making our kids smarter, when we could spend everything to rebuild Iraq. It just makes so much sense. :shades:

:hysterical: Fox news is #1, because it's not really NEWS Its Entertainment Tv. The average American just can't resist a salacious story or a belligerent argument. We love to hear about what OJ just did or listen to Bill O'reilly lambaste some helpless "Lefty". This "news" is way more entertaining than reading a boring, unbiased article in a Newspaper. The problem I have with Tv news channels in general (Fox News isn't the only one, but probably the worst), is that they are totally driven by ratings. High ratings = High ad revenue, unfortunately in order to achieve those ratings they are required to start veering away from REAL News, compiled by REAL journalists. They have to start coming up with different ways to entertain the viewer, under the guise of providing News, If they don't viewership will fall. In order to obtain these lofty goals, countless writers, producers, and content editors take the Real News and relay it in the most entertaining manner. Sometimes the Real News is so entertaining that it requires no spin, but unfortunately in order to appeal to the average American the Real News usually needs to be "spiced up". I don't want my REAL News to be "spiced up" by writers and producers, I just want the facts and then I'll form my own opinions. Surprisingly enough, Real Journalists follow a code of conduct ( http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp ) much the same as Doctors. Real Journalists show no bias, they relay all information that was available to them at the time of the article and in my opinion offer the next best thing to being there. Since most of us can't be everywhere, we have to rely on the professionalism of Real Journalists to bring us up to speed. In most cases, in order to get the unfiltered REAL News we have to READ, whether it be on a reputable web site or in a newspaper. If you're relying solely on a Tv news channel for your info, then you're hearing the news in a very filtered, biased fashion. Do yourself a favor, pick up a paper, read an article from a Real Journalist, and form your own opinion.

I hope that's his excuse for the last couple of years against OSU and in Bowl games. The way Michigan played today, even someone like Appalachian state could've beat them . Don't get too high on yourselves OSU fans, You'll soon be humbled in the Bowl Game. The Big Ten sucks, I'll be surprised if more than two big ten teams win their bowl games. With the exception of Illinois, we are an archaic dinosaur of a conference. Michigan and OSU will both lose their bowl games, but the fact remains the same .....Tressel owns Carr liked Carr owned Cooper.

Have I Mentioned....... F*ck Toyota