Who Knew?General Motors Vice President Ed Whitacre Jr. claims in the commercial below that GM has repaid its government loan back in full five years ahead of schedule.

Does Whitacre's claim pass your sniff test? Do you believe that the same company that lost $9.6 Billion in the fourth quarter of 2009 has now turned around to the point that they had an extra $6.7 Billion in profit available to pay back their government (taxpayer) loan? Reason.tv explains Whitacre's twisted logic:

This is shameful to say the least. The Obama administration claims to be fighting this type of corporate malfeasance and instead they are empowering large corporations to mislead the public. As a result, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission to have Whitacre's claims investigated. In the complaint they state:

GM’s ads also leave the false impression that it is on the road to profitability, since it is now able to pay off its debts. (In public statements, GM deliberately sought to reinforce that impression by linking the “repayment” to increased sales of two cars produced by GM.

In reality, however, GM used taxpayer money to make the repayment -- government bailout money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program -- and it was still losing money at the time of the advertisement.

This false impression matters to consumers, and affects their purchasing decisions, because a profitable automaker, unlike an automaker that goes out of business, can provide replacement parts for an automobile that a consumer purchased. And unlike a bankrupt automaker, it can be counted on to make good on its warranties.

GM’s ads are widely perceived as misleading, as newspapers, ABC, and Fox News have noted. Commentators have specifically cited the ads as a violation of the FTC Act.

Read full text of the CEI complaint to the FTC.

How is that for a salacious and suggestive title? What images does it conjure in your mind and how does it reflect upon reporters as a whole? Clearly the intent would be to imply that many reporters are in fact pedophiles or murderers even though that assertion is sugarcoated with the word “not” to provide just a smidgen of plausible deniability.

You dare not cry foul because I can substantiate my claims with examples of reporter depravity. The charge of pedophilia can be corroborated by looking at the case of Stephen Hill, a television reporter who molested four teenage boys that he was mentoring. The charge of murder can be ratified by observing the case of James Keown, a radio reporter convicted of killing his 31 year old wife by poisoning her with antifreeze. What a seedy lot these reporters must be.

Do I believe it is really fair to sully the reputation of all reporters because of the acts of these two? Absolutely not. Isn’t it a bit of a stretch to imply guilt across the profession because of a few bad apples? Of course it is. So why do those within the field of reporting itself insist on making this same leap with the Tea Party movement?

Fox Valley Initiative volunteer Don Shaw recently wrote a letter to the editor of the Appleton Post Crescent titled “Tea Party Crashers & the Health Care Bill.” He was horrified when they printed the letter but changed the title to Most Tea Party-goers not radical or racist. The obvious implication is that many in the movement are radical or racist, accusations that are unfounded. Ironically much of Don’s letter speaks to the media’s efforts to fabricate and exaggerate stereotypes about the Tea Party movement.

So in addition to isolated examples of pedophilia and murder we can add systemic bias and bigotry to the list of media malfeasances. Not exactly a new development but just another example of it locally. Pathetic.



April 15th I had the privilege to speak at the Appleton Tax Day Tea Party organized by the Fox Valley Initiative. Below is a transcript of the speech minus ad-libbing of course.

Speech to Appleton Tax Day Tea Party 4/15/10

 

It is great to see so many wonderful patriots here today. You folks don’t look too violent to me. I’m so happy you all were able to make it here to the second annual Appleton Tax Day Tea Party. Can you believe it’s been a year already since we were last here? A lot sure has happened in the last twelve months.

 

We’ve had a great awakening in this country. People are paying close attention to the issues and researching the Founders. We’ve flooded town halls and held our politician’s feet to the fire. We marched on Washington and took our voices directly to those who have failed to represent the interests of the people. We forced a majority congress and president to expend every last bit of political capital they had to pass very unpopular health care legislation they never could convince the public was necessary. We’ve resisted attempts to consolidate and centralize our movement and we have maintained our grassroots organization to empower people locally. Those of us who volunteer for the Fox Valley Initiative understand that we are facilitators. We are not your leaders.

 

More recently some have leveled accusations of racism at this movement. This is being done to demonize and marginalize you. We all know this is nonsense. The smallest minority in America is the individual and we are the ones supporting individual rights. The progressives are the ones who segregate and group people by age, by class, by wealth, by gender, and by the color of their skin.

 

Some have also called us anti-government. We are not anti-government. We support limited government functioning within the boundaries of the Constitution. We reject government that wants to tell us what we can eat, what kind of car we can drive, what temperature we can set our thermostat at in our own homes, what our children will be taught in school, and how we interact with our doctor. We support a bottom up structure as the founders did where decisions and money are kept at the levels that are actually performing the activities.

 

By the way, do the census ads bother anyone else? Fill out your census form so you and your community can get your fair share. How else will we know how many busses you should get? I tell you what Washington, why don’t you keep your hands out of our pockets and we’ll decide right here to buy as many buses as we determine that we need. I can’t stand the phrase “our fair share.” It’s our money to begin with. Why do we have to beg and justify for the return of our own money?

 

We’ve had our share of successes but we can take a few pointers from our progressive counterparts. They started out as outspoken groups protesting loudly and trying to effect change with their demonstrative actions. Somewhere along the line they figured out that in order to change how “the man” was treating them, they needed to become “the man.” I’ll give you some examples.

 

Look at former Green Jobs Czar Van Jones. He is a self-avowed communist. Not exactly someone that would have been taken seriously in America until recently. What changed? He got a law degree, dressed himself in a nice suit, and ultimately got himself a job advising a sitting U.S. president. He even told us all the secret of his success. He said and I quote, “I’m willing to forgo the cheap satisfaction of the radical pose for the deep satisfaction of radical ends.” That is profound. Others like him have also figured out how best to further their agenda.

 

Look at Bill Ayers. He was formerly a domestic terrorist with the Weather Underground, which, by the way, was a self-described communist revolutionary group. Ayers was responsible for bombing NYPD headquarters, the US Capital building, and the Pentagon. Now what does he do? He’s a college professor! He teaches our kids! Look at the influence he has.

 

Finally, let’s look at Barack Obama himself, a man who doesn’t even really have a before story. His whole life has been community organizing, influencing, and working with unions and special interests. He went straight from organizing to US senator and ultimately president.

 

These people have gotten involved and gotten themselves entrenched in areas where they can push their agendas. Agendas that run contrary to the ideals that this country was founded on and contrary to the ideals if its citizenry.

 

We need to reboot the Tea Party movement, or, as Sarah Palin says, we need to reload. (I can’t wait to see on the news later just how many metaphors that I use in this speech are taken literally.) We need to move beyond rallies and the ballot box. It isn’t enough. We can’t wait for trickle down liberty. It ain’t coming. Just look at how determined our opposition is and they’ve been at this for a hundred years. This isn’t going to be a sprint. It’s going to be a marathon and we need to find more ways to get involved.

 

So what can you do?

 

• Feed your mind. You are who you are, what you are, and where you are because of what goes into your mind.
• Write letters to the editor of the local newspapers.
• Call in to local radio programs.
• Select candidates that you believe in and help them by volunteering, promoting them wherever possible, and funding them.
• Join you local political party, whichever one you choose, and change it from inside. You may have sworn off any affiliation at this point but you must get inside for real progress to be made. Standing outside around the periphery is not going to be effective.
• Create and host neighborhood groups to discuss the issues of the day. Don Shaw of the Fox Valley Initiative has put together a wonderful Tea Party Training pamphlet that can be found on the Fox Valley Initiative website. www.foxvalleyinitiative.com
• Find out how to run for office. Look around you. What if these people were your aldermen, mayor, county supervisors, school board members, judges, state assemblymen, senators, representatives, or even your president? That’s powerful. If you aren’t willing to step up and represent the people then you have no right as a people to complain about your representation.
• Join and support local groups such as the Fox Valley Initiative. We need your help to organize and fund events like this, candidate forums, and constitutional seminars.
• Stop identifying yourself as a “Tea Party” person. These are American values and should be identified as such. Don’t give them a label to attack.

 

I can’t emphasize enough that most of these actions are local. The federal government is not going to give power back to the states. We need to reassert, legally and constitutionally, our sovereignty as a state. The states created the federal government, not the other way around.  We need strong leadership here to push back against a bloated, encroaching federal government.

 

I know you are tired, you work, you have kids and grandkids, cars to keep running and homes to keep repaired. Edmund Burke is often quoted as having said: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." We didn’t pick this fight but we have an obligation to those kids and grandkids to leave them a vibrant country they can be proud of rather than just a big fat IOU.

 

Ultimately, I am certain that we will prevail. Our job is much easier than our opposition. We surround them. The majority of America believes what we do. Taxes are too high. Government is too big. Government run health care will fail as it always does. We are the mainstream, they are the fringe. We don’t need to indoctrinate and control, we only need to educate and represent. They are the codependents getting together to lose and we are the rugged individuals uniting to win.

 

Thank you and God Bless America.

Saw this video on National Review Online and had to share. A simple explanation as to why the Broken Window theory, still touted by many such as Paul Krugman, is simply wrong. The speaker is Dr. Tom G. Palmer, Vice President of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation.

By the way, please don't comment if you're going to try and make a case that only measures economic activity. Yes I understand that disasters sometimes spur economic activity, but assets have still been destroyed. The net is a loss.