Garbanzo Toons

When Critical Thinking Skills are Allowed to Evaporate

The Detroit Free Press no longer questions the government. Now that The Obama is firmly ensconced in the White House with family and dog, any pronouncements that come from Washington D.C. contain nothing but the truth, even when he tries to rule by royal fiat. Regarding the new auto emissions mandate from the Obama administration for example,

But the sweeping deal announced Tuesday on auto emission and mileage standards does indeed appear to be good for just about everybody -- assuming the vehicles it spawns are appealing to consumers.

OK, so there is one caveat. However,

The requirements will add an estimated $1,300 to the cost of vehicles, but the government says that will be offset by savings in gasoline.

The government says? Wasn't it the job of newspapers, once long ago in the fading mists of time, to question what the government says? Especially now that they are telling the auto companies how to make cars and will soon be telling the consumer what to buy? Can I see the congressional engineering degrees? Can I see the grease under Obama's fingernails from endless hours working on the engine of his SUV? Or was it removed during his last manicure?

The upside for the nation is cleaner air, which could lead to lower health care costs, and less dependence on oil. At a time when this country is using 20 million barrels of oil a day, Obama said that the plan will yield a savings of 1.8 billion barrels by 2016, or about what America imported last year from Saudi Arabia, Libya, Venezuela and Nigeria combined.

Get that? Obama said. Yes, that Obama. And he says . . . so it must be true! It's Obama. If Obama mandates that all cars and trucks in the U.S. run on unicorn farts by 2017, the Free Press would fawn over that too. And this is a Detroit paper. Detroit and automobiles used to go together like lox and bagels. Now the auto industry has been replaced in the hearts of Free Press editors, by their one true love, Obama.

Meanwhile, there are places where clear and critical thinking is still the order of the day, where the official word of the government, even if it is the Obama government, is questioned. The editors at National Review Online understand what is passing over the heads of the sycophantic idiots at the Free Press.

Obama’s hard sell — “This is a winning proposition for folks looking to buy a car” — is premised on some sketchy math. For one thing, experts outside the administration say the added per-vehicle cost could go as high as $8,000. You can’t save money getting more miles to the gallon if you can’t afford the car in the first place. For another, those estimated savings are based on the administration’s ability to predict gas prices seven to ten years into the future. If gas is still as cheap as it is now, savings on better mileage could be minimal.

Even if gas prices go up, the savings Obama predicts might not materialize. Cars that are more fuel efficient are cheaper to drive, increasing the likelihood that people will drive more. That wouldn’t just offset the savings — it would also offset promised reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions and oil imports, to say nothing of adding to congestion.

There's more of course, but it's based on facts that the Free Press is willing to ignore in deference to the one they will not question.

And if Obama and his environmentalist pals had their way, this is what we'd all be driving.

Labels: auto industry, Detroit, Detroit Free Press, environment, National Review, Obama

posted by Harry @ 8:30 PM 4 comments

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

The headline in the Detroit Free Press read, New team will steer a new auto industry. Next to it was a photo of The Obama. But it gets worse. I had to read the article.

President Barack Obama will name a task force today to oversee the remaking of the U.S. auto industry, as General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC press for late concessions to work into turnaround plans that are due to the government on Tuesday.

Isn't the American auto industry in enough trouble already? And further down, there was more cause for worry.

The team will be headed by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers. It will include staffers from several agencies, including the departments of Transportation, Energy, Labor, Commerce and Treasury, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The only outside expert hired by the administration so far is Ron Bloom, an adviser to the U.S. Steelworkers who had worked with unions in several industries on corporate restructuring and employee ownership plans.

Maybe I'm naive on these matters, but shouldn't there be somebody on the team who knows something about cars and car production? And why include the EPA? Isn't that part of the reason American car companies are suffering? They keep getting stabbed in the back by environmentalists. How much longer will we allow these idiots to control our lives? The auto industry has been a favorite scapegoat of environmentalists and politicians. Rather than making cars that people want, various regulations on gas mileage (CAFE standards) and the artificially high price of gasoline have wreaked havoc on a once profitable industry. Instead of people buying cars, trucks, and SUVs that they really wanted, they were bullied or shamed into buying something that the neighbors wouldn't scorn. At least that's what it looks like to me.

And then there are the unions. Will they make the needed concessions to help out a little, or do union leaders figure that The Obama owes them so much that they don't have to concede a thing? As a Detroit area, Michigan resident, I would like the Big 3 to be healthy. I seriously doubt that more government interference is going to do it, even if The Obama says otherwise. But that's not what this is about, is it?

Labels: auto industry, Obama

posted by Harry @ 5:26 PM 8 comments