IZI has the complete collection. These five were my favorites.




Click any picture to see the whole collection.



Click any picture to see the whole collection.
They have forced taxpayers like you and I to spend $60 billion to keep the UAW whole, without a vote and without a voice.
They have arbitrarily fired seasoned executives and created management teams consisting wholly of inexperienced bureaucrats who have only a minute chance of success.
They have intervened in the auto markets using tax laws, favoring GM over Ford through mechanisms like $7,500 tax credits for consumers who purchase Chevy Volts.
They have avoided a serious reorganization provided for under existing bankruptcy law by kowtowing to the unions whose greedy and ham-handed bosses were largely responsible for the manufacturers' inability to compete with foreign competitors.
They have arbitrarily closed dealerships without transparency, without explanation, and -- seemingly -- by favoring certain political allies and some minorities over others.
In many cases, these dealerships were lynch-pins of their communities; by dint of what seem to be arbitrary closings, they have transformed hundreds of thousands of loyal customers and employees into a cadre of mortal enemies.
They have robbed millions of direct and indirect senior creditors -- from senior citizen bondholders to mutual funds and everything in between -- by contravening bankruptcy law in favor of paying off union bosses.
Would you buy a GM or Chrysler product having just taken a pennies-on-the-dollar haircut forced upon you by an out-of-control federal government?
Would you buy a GM or Chrysler product knowing that the U.S. government favors those companies -- unfairly, using tax breaks and other means -- over Ford?
Would you buy a GM or Chrysler product knowing that some faceless bureaucrat devastated your community without a hearing, without even a sentence of explanation?
They have disenfranchised millions upon millions of prospective customers, breaking bonds that lasted generations and whom, I believe, will avoid the federal GM and Chrysler entities even if they were the last brands on Earth. I've heard people tell me so. And I suspect you have as well.
There's a name for the new GM and Chrysler. Doomed.
And there's always Volga, which seems more fitting these days.
Lost in the Labyrinth of Race: Hanson...I have obtained the lists -- not only of Obama donors but also lists of Democratic National Committee, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry contributors. The records include small donors to the Obama campaign, who are not disclosed in public campaign finance databases. It's information only a campaign could supply.
[ACORN whistleblower] MonCrief testified under oath last fall that her then-boss, Karyn Gillette, gave her the Obama donor list and told her the campaign had furnished it. Moreover, e-mail messages between ACORN, Project Vote and other affiliates, including ACORN subsidiary Citizens Services Inc. (CSI), make explicit references to working on "Obama campaign related projects."
Why does this matter? Transparency, tax dollars and electoral integrity. ACORN's own lawyer Elizabeth Kingsley acknowledged last year that a vast web of tax-exempt ACORN affiliates were shuffling money around -- making it almost impossible to track whether campaign rules and tax regulations were being followed.
ACORN receives 40 percent of its revenues from taxpayers. Americans deserve to know whether and how much commingling of public money with political projects has occurred over the last four decades -- and what role the Obama campaign played in this enterprise...
Few doubt that Zero Hedge is among the finest quant blogs on the planet. Its amazing work in analyzing the relationships between campaign contributions and Chrysler dealership closings resulted in a stunning conclusion: "a noticeable and highly positive correlation between dealer survival and Clinton donors" (87% confidence interval).Since 1990, Johnson has donated $2 million to congressional and presidential candidates, and 99 percent of that has gone to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He has given $14,800 to Hillary Clinton since she first ran for the Senate in 2000. He gave $4,500 total to Obama during the 2004 and 2006 cycles...
![]() The two Springdale dealerships gave no money to any political candidates since 2004. The two dealerships will close in June while the RLJ-owned dealership in Bentonville will remain open. The Landers-McLarty dealership will have no other Chrysler dealers within a 20-mile radius of the dealership. | ![]() The dealerships in Athens and Decatur gave no money to any political candidates since 2004. Landers-McCarty and the Athens dealership will remain open while the Decatur dealership will close in June. |
![]() The RLJ-owned dealership in Branson will remain open while the other three dealerships will be forced to close in June. Tri-Lakes Motors in Branson (RLJ owned) will have no other Chrysler dealers within a 30-mile radius of its dealership. | ![]() The RLJ-owened dealership will remain open while the other four in Raytown and Harrisonville will close. The RLJ dealership will have no other Chrysler dealerships located within at least a 20-mile radius. All of the local competition will be wiped out due to the Chrysler closings. |
![]() The Bossier City dealership owned by RLJ-McCarty-Landers and the Shreveport dealership owned by Marshall Hebert will stay open. The Shreveport dealership owned by Stinson (a major GOP donor) will be forced to close. | ![]() Olathe DCJ (RLJ-owned dealership) will remain open. Bud Brown Chrysler and Keystone Chrysler will both close their doors. It looks like Olathe DCJ will not have any competition from other Chrysler dealers within at least 15 miles of their dealership. |
Here's the dialogue in the eight-panel strip:Reverend: "The wrath of God is being revealed in heaven!"
Girl: (thinking) "Again?"
Girl: Reverend Sloan, I've been noticing something about the readings in church...
Reverend: What's that, Sam?
Girl: Whenever you read from the Old Testament, God is always crabby and snarky to everyone...
Girl: But the New Testament isn't about anger at all -- it's about love.
Girl: God's only son is this total pacifist -- he wouldn't harm a flea. He's jus this humble dude who's mellow to everyone -- even the Romans.
Girl: He only really snaps once, right?
Mom: With who, honey?
Girl: The money-lenders, Mom!
Mom: Oh, right. What is it about moneylenders?
Reverend: They do seem to set people off, don't they?
And we know who they are, don't we?...it seems clear that something is going on here. Specifically, the somewhat low probability that the Clinton data showing higher survivability of Clinton donors could result just from pure chance.
But why not better significance with any of the other variables? Why [would] this stand out?
A reader notes something about "car czar" Steven Rattner: “Rattner is married to Maureen White, the former National Finance Chair for the Democratic Party.” The comment: “So one of the guys advising SecTreas on this thing is married to someone who used to be one of the people in charge of fundraising for the Democratic Party. This explains so much it’s scary." Well, it bears a close look.
Then we got to thinking. Steven Rattner, the Car Czar, is married to Maureen White, one-time national finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee. What does Maureen do now? From her website: "Maureen White is currently Chairman of the Board of Overseers of The International Rescue Committee (IRC), a member of the North American Advisory Board for the London School of Economics, and a National Finance Chair of the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign. (emphasis ours).
Originally, it was thought that 140 minority owned Chrysler dealers out of the 170 minority owned Chrysler dealers were going to be closed.
But the facts on the closing of the Chrysler dealerships are; out of some 170 minority owned Chrysler dealers, only about 32-38 minority owned Chrysler dealers were closed.
The original reason for the high number was; the minority dealers were smaller in size and offered only one brand. So given that thought process, why did so many stay open? My guess is Obama, Maxine Waters and politics.
...because most minority owned dealerships were single brand, Chrysler had plans to close more than 100 minority owned dealerships, but Chrysler backed off on that.
The reason why? That is the $65,000 question
...[of 19 Hispanic-owned dealerships, 8 were closed or 42%, so if] the trend continues on the closures of African American dealerships versus Hispanic ones, then you are looking at a civil rights lawsuit.
Affirmative action for African American owned dealerships and not for Hispanic owned dealerships does not work out too well.
Scholar Warns Of "Stealth Nominee": LegalInsComment o' the day (Comment by kelly on 5/29 @ 3:36 pm):
...If only we had a…I don’t know, say a nationwide organization of…inquisitive people who really like to dig below the…uh…headlines and attempt to find the truth with a skeptical zeal in learning more about issues and fervently holding the government to a genuinely high and noble standard.
Maybe we could carve out room in higher ed for the express purpose of tutoring these naturally curious types and put them to work in…say, a medium that sets itself apart from government propaganda and works as…say, arbiters of truth and judicious concern for the greater public’s need to know the whole story. Y’know to provide a check against goverment over-reach and provide a much needed backstop for citizens to monitor there governments. An unelected–what to call it?–some kind of estate, if you will.
Nah, too far-fetched.
DEALERGATE DAILY DIGEST Dealergate: 40 Democrat-friendly Dealerships Become 42; Their Competition Gutted As Well
Joey Smith's Blog: Analyzing Various Aspects of the Chrysler Dealer Shutdowns
Shock: Democrat Dealers Support Chrysler Closing Plans: Gateway Pundit
Olbermann, 538.com accidentally confirm bias in dealership closings
Dealergate 5: Chrysler’s Dealer Council Speaks: Red State
Gibbs Denies Politics In Chrysler Dealership Closings; Unofficial Figures Tell a Different Story: Gateway PunditRESEARCH Scrubbed Spreadsheet of Dealerships Remaining Open: Source G
Donation History for Closed Dealers: Joey Smith
Maps: Chrysler Dealerships Slated for Closing: NYT (caution: I've found inaccuracies in this data)
The latest development: Chrysler's "Dealer Council" posted a letter at the new Chrysler LLC website. It says that the remaining Chrysler dealers are as pleased as punch with the way the dealership shuffle turned out.
It turns out seven of the dealers were Democrat contributors while three gave to GOP candidates (one was Ron Paul, so the figure is really two).All other factors being equal, given NADAM’s [National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers] expressed fears and the general comparative dealer profile it provided the Journal, the minority-owned dealer termination rate should have been higher — probably much higher than the 25% overall average. In fact, it’s clear that NADAM expected that outcome, even if you heavily discount their worry that over 80% of minority-owned Chrysler dealers would be told to go away as overblown hyperbole.But it would appear that all other factors were far from equal, and that influences other than bottom-line business considerations were prominent.
The last thing a bankrupt, taxpayer-underwritten Chrysler needs as it struggles to emerge from bankruptcy and regain viability is a less than optimal dealer network. Yet it seems that the company deliberately chose exactly that — or had it chosen for them.
As Sweetness & Light observes, "just in case there was ever any doubt as to who is calling the tune here, these groups are [all] using the exact language that was dictated to them by the Obama administration."
Guess what? Attorney General Eric Holder's Department of Justice (i.e., the Obama administration) is attempting to kill a civil complaint related to the incident. A prominent 1960s civil rights activitist called the case "the most blatant form of voter intimidation" he'd ever seen, including the Mississippi voting rights crisis. A former commissioner at the Federal Election Commission stated, "In my experience, I have never heard of the department refusing to take a default judgment."
Despite all of the legal issues swirling around the organization, ACORN affiliates in just 11 states are reported to have received more than $31 million in taxpayer funding. And ACORN has plenty of affiliates. Hundreds, in fact. ACORN founder Wade Rathke also founded the huge public sector union, the SEIU (Service Employees International Union), which also happens to funnel funds to ACORN. Other ACORN affiliates, like the American Institute for Social Justice, also send millions directly to its parent. Worse, ACORN is competing for $8 billion in Stimulus funding and is likely to get a good percentage of it, given the predilections of the Obama administration.
A new White House policy, which dictates permissible lobbying on the Stimulus package, directly attacks the First Amendment by shielding the spending plan from criticism. The Washington Examiner reports on language proferred by the White House itself: ...we will expand the restriction on oral communications to cover all persons, not just federally registered lobbyists. For the first time, we will reach contacts not only by registered lobbyists but also by unregistered ones, as well as anyone else exerting influence on the process. We concluded this was necessary under the unique circumstances of the stimulus program.
Furthermore, it guarantees that Chrysler and GM, because they've been spared from a true bankruptcy reorganization, will remain ineffective and uncompetitive for they will not have instituted the deep reforms required in the current situation.
EXCLUSIVE: Career lawyers overruled on voting case: Times
Using a series of HuffPo keyword searches (eh, just ignore the half-assed methodology for the moment), Saliver computed the odds that your random Chrysler dealer would have donated to the Republican Party.
Ned started with those who listed their professions as "auto dealer". The ratio in donations was 8.6 to 1 (GOP to Democrats).
Then Fred tried "Car Dealer". That ratio was 3 to 1.
Then Frank tried "Automobile Dealer" and that ratio was 10 to 1.
Finally, Frodo used the profession "Automotive Dealer" (like I said, ignore the idiotic methodology). The ratio was 16 to 1.
The ratio of donations for dealers that were shuttered was 42 to 1, GOP to Democrat.