When will the media expose Richard Shelby's ties to foreign car manufacturers in Alabama?
By John Amato Friday Dec 05, 2008 11:00amThe Republican Senator from Alabama has been getting a lot of airtime lately because of the problems in the auto world, but here's a letter from Peter Karmanos, Jr., chairman and CEO of Compuware Corporation, to U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., a critic of bridge loans for American automakers, that gives us a little history on his political motives for why he'd like to see them all go under.
I trust it is safe to say that when you refer to "government subsidies," you are referring to subsidies provided by both federal and state governments. And if this is in fact true, then I am sure you were adamantly against the State of Alabama offering lucrative incentives (in essence, subsidies) to Mercedes Benz in the early 1990s to lure the German automobile manufacturer to the State. As it turned out, Alabama offered a stunning $253 million incentive package to Mercedes. Additionally, the state also offered to train the workers, clear and improve the site, upgrade utilities, and buy 2,500 Mercedes Benz vehicles.
All told, it is estimated that the incentive package totaled anywhere from $153,000 to $220,000 per created job. On top of all this, the state gave the foreign automaker a large parcel of land worth between $250 and $300 million, which was coincidentally how much the company expected to invest in building the plant...read on
it's like he is fighting the civil war again or something.
You'd figure by now my brain would have run out of shocked-at-the-hypocrisy neurotransmitter juice.
Needless to say, Shelby gets to spew this stuff without a check from our bulwark of freedom, the MSM.
"shocked-at-the-hypocrisy neurotransmitter juice"
LOL!!!
Has anyone publicly confronted him on this. We should stay after him. The repubs are on the run and defensive. Don't stop now. They are no longer in control.
Doesn't he have Japanese presence there too? Can it be shown that he profited personally?
American jobs and the economy is at stake here!
You know, these Repubican crimes quickly approach treason, don't they? These scumbad politicians are such criminals, what they do against us is nothing short of treason.
Experts need to be taking the reigns so that there aren't mistakes made with the money spent. Look at the financial bailout, it there was ever a better time to let Soros speculate that was the time. They chose surgery without using a doctor.
Randi Rhodes talked about this on her radio show last week.
Hyundai has received $252.8 million, Toyota $29 million, and Honda $158 million.
This was mentioned on NPR Dec 4.
When pigs fly
Coming soon courtesy of genetic research.
It also needs to be hammered home to the mouth breathers out there that because the banks haven't been doing what they said they were going to do with our money, ALL the automakers are having trouble. I would also like to know what other "subsidies" the south gives to these foreign auto makers:
:Do they have job banks like the big 3, or do they pawn off their unemployed workers to the state?
:Do the southern states have to pay out any type of childcare, rent assistance, health assistance, etc. to the employees of these foreign companies?
I'd like to see all these numbers built into the cost of workers. Like the union bashers who build in the cost of retiree benefits to lie about their wages ($70.00 an hour) that we've all heard ad nauseum.
I'm fed up with the fucking retards in this country constantly bashing union labor. If you know any labor bashers out there in your personal life, baffle them with facts then tell them to shut the fuck up if they don't know what they are talking about.
on the Big 3 bail-out in which Shelby was featured prominently.
In not a single one of them--ranging from top-of-the-hour headlines down to a full 6-minuted egment on Morning Edition this very day--did anyone think it necessary or important to mention Shelby's--and Alabama's--links to 'foreign' manufacturers--Hunday, Hond and Toyota, along with Mercedes--doing heavily subsidized "bidness" in Alabama and (I am absolutely, utterly CERTAIN) making campaign gifts to Alabama's elected hierarchy...
Don't forget: You cannot spell R E P U B L I C A N without NPR...
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LOL! Mainstream media barely even MENTIONS Shelby's name unless it's to defer to his "wise council" on the financial crisis.
It would be a SHOCK to most Americans to learn that there were a couple of Republicans by the name of Oxly and Shelby who were, respectively, the House Finance Committee and Senate Banking Commitee Chairmen in the majority party of Congress when virtually ALL of the damaging housing and banking decisions and lack of oversight duties were made over the last eight years.
But they SURE know the names of two Democrats, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, who took over their jobs as Commitee Chairmen at the end of January 2007 and were the ones who FOUND OUT what screw ups their Republican prdecessors had been, don't they?
My guess is the names "Mike Oxley" and "Richard Shelby" have never passed Bill O'Reilly's lips during one of his weekly rants against Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and how "they caused" this financial mess. He might not even KNOW their names or that they ever existed.
LOL!
I work for Peter Karmanos Jr and I have to say he really has the city of detroit in his best interests. I've flown in to HQ in detroit to see a city that is in pretty bad shape. Almost standing alone as a nice landmark downtown is the Compuware HQ. There are entire office buildings abandoned as a result of the mismanagement of the big 3.
On top of it, his company does quite a bit of work for the big 3 so the jobs of his own people are at stake and it shows that he cares about his people. He's not perfect, but I hold a lot of respect for the man.
John, before the hit job on Shelby, you might want to dig a bit more.
Shelby's atcually been one of the few Republicans the last 8 years who's been a strong supporter of transit and worked with his Democratic counterparts to obtain funding for it.
I'm not saying all is good here, just that we're not dealing with an Inhofe or a Leibermann in my opinion.
Besides, aside from the shady land deal, what if he had been supporting Toyota, and promised to get a Prius plant up and running? I don't like the loss of jobs the auto-industry is facing, but I don't much care for the crap the big 3 have been putting out for decades--I'd like to see our auto-workers putting out vehicles they can feel proud of and part of the future. Instead they work under ownership that stresses mediocraty hidden by cosmetics that will only continue if we coddle them.
This is a more complex issue than is being posted as a story here.
There are far worse politicians we could go after.
Not to mention the fact that there are probably more "foreign" cars produced in the US than "domestic" cars, which are mostly produced in Canada, Mexico, and soon to be Brazil.
Actually, what are the numbers on that?
In doing google searches:
http://www.autoweb.com/content/shared/article...
He helped provide jobs for AMERICANS while the US automakers go to Mexico, Canada and other countries to make their products. Alabama needs jobs very much. Many mills and factories have closed there in the last 20 years. Like it or not those "rednecks" are Americans too and they want to work. Shelby seems like a hero to me no matter what party he affiliates with. We should have more representatives such as this in all parties. Guy deserves a medal.
Please tell me how American these Alabamans are when they fly a treasonous rag over their capital building. I know where their loyalties are.
Fuck the south.
What "treasonous rag" is that? The American flag or the Alabama state flag? Alabama is a far from perfect state, but get a better (ie real) reason to practically label us all un-American. Prick.
Shelby has also secured funding for research and building at both University of Alabama and UAB. So, he's not my most hated senator from the state.
alicey.
It's not that Shelby brought in jobs for Americans. It's that he did so at such great expense to taxpayers. The land, the infrastructure, the worker training, etc. were all FREE to Mer-Benz, Toyota, et al. at taxpayer's expense. Now he won't lift a finger to help Detroit, no matter what the terms are. It's pure, blatant, and hostile hypocrisy.
He had to have gotten something out of the deal.
That's a good point Proud American. But giving a lopsided deal to corporate interests on land is a very bipartisan type of thing. I'm not saying it's right (it isn't), just that singling out Shelby on this sort of thing because he's in the GOP allows others to avoid having the light on them.
As for worker training...I don't see how training our own workforce necessarily hurts the taxpayer. Yes, it's a subsidy, but one that will at least have some dividends in the community.
The big 3's plan of cutting jobs in return for a huge loan from us is just plain stupid. That's where our attention needs to be. We should call the shots, and force their hand into making GOOD and CLEAN cars that will provide sustained work for OUR auto-workers just like Toyota is doing for Americans. Toyota is no angel, but they're on the right path. GM, Ford, and Chrysler will drag us down unless we explain to them that billions of dollars from us means a complete re-think of their business model that is based on sustainability rather than sustained BS.
34 Billion is peanuts compared to the crooked banks that got bailed out. This is sheer ideology, nothing more.
Shelby is another party jumper. He started out as a democrat. No, he's a Repug. How much will lobbyists pay for his "empty soul"? If there is no bailout, we will see a house of cards collapse with no end in sight. I am glad that my parents are both dead. One depression and no food to eat or shoes to wear was enough for the to endure. The Wall Street bankers will still have some food to eat. They are after all scavengers and pond scum. They can feed on the poor in the streets.