The Loudest Cricket

Some good unexpected news for a change – Ford reported a $2.6 billion profit for the second quarter.  They’re still carrying a lot of debt, but they have a lot of cash on hand.  Only one bit of somewhat gloomy news, Ford expects industry-wide US sales to be about half a million less than originally anticipated.  It would probably be worse, but at some point the pent up demand burst and people will have to start buying new cars.  Overall, good news for the only Detroit automaker that didn’t take taxpayer bailout money or go bankrupt.

Well, that’s three police chiefs in three years.  Not a good sign for Bing’s leadership ability in picking the right person for the job.  At least he knows enough to get rid of a guy instead of being overly loyal.  Evans seemed to have his priorities mixed up:

During a press conference Wednesday, Bing wouldn’t address questions about whether Evans’ relationship with a subordinate or his efforts to sell a reality show cost him the job that pays about $140,000.

But the move came the same day as WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) aired a six-minute video that Evans used to pitch a show, “The Chief.” The Detroit News first reported about the tape — and Evans’ efforts to be a reality TV star — in May.

The tape featured Evans gripping a semi-automatic rifle, talking tough about crime, smoking a cigar, using mild profanity and patrolling the streets. It also featured footage of a dead man in a field.

Yeah, how about we spend more time on reducing crime, which had been getting better, and less time on pitching a reality show.  I think this guy got his first taste of the limelight and liked it more than doing his job as chief.

The title is intriguingly Orwellian – “Extending unemployment will help create jobs” – and often repeated by the Democrats and their shills in the unions, like this thug, but he doesn’t make the case at all.  It reads like a Nancy Pelosi press conference.  He mentions all the Democratic talking points – green jobs, Bush tax cuts for the rich, Republicans are the party of “no” – but never explains how extending unemployment, paying people not to work, will put people back to work.  He doesn’t explain, because he can’t, because it won’t.

There’s no way to predict whether Obama will heed the advice.

Sure there is.  The advice came from the business sector and would help ease the burden of already over-taxed and over-regulated companies.  It would go a long way in helping the US and global economies to recover.  No way will Obama heed it.

A double-dip recession may be unavoidable at this point and depending on what happens in November, it may be a painful dip.  The liberal agenda has left most companies wary of hiring.  Obama and company have pushed through their anti-business legislation with more on the way.  If cap-and-trade passes, it will be the nail in the coffin of American manufacturing.

Obama was in Michigan yesterday for the groundbreaking of a new plant (why not buy one of the hundreds of empty plants around the state?) that will be making batteries for electric cars.  He spent about $151 million to create about 400 jobs, which works out to be about $377,000 per job.  At that rate, to get back to 2007 level employment, 7.9 million more jobs, he’d have to spend about $3 trillion.  Yikes, no one tell Obama, he might actually try.

Companies are reducing head-count and slashing wages, while Michigan doles out 3% raises to its workers and now the Detroit City Council is handing out raises.  So much for a change in city leadership.  Detroit has 25%+ unemployment and the council is giving raises to staffers who already make $70,000 – $100,000 a year.

The Freep is already laying the groundwork to endorse the Democratic nominee for Michigan’s governor:

But it’s also clear that some of the candidates still cling to unrealistic schemes for navigating Michigan’s way to long-term solvency.  Only state Sen. Tom George, for example, seems to understand that the tax cuts proposed by Attorney General Mike Cox and Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard will bankrupt the state.  That won’t attract jobs any better than the current onerous business tax environment.

Wrong.  Tax cuts will have to be offset by spending cuts, which means fewer government employees, which means smaller unions.  And the Freep is a shill for the unions.  Liberals still think that the government can create jobs.  And they don’t understand that by cutting taxes, especially business taxes, you can actually increase tax revenue – corporate tax cuts allow businesses to hire more people, resulting in more income and taxes.

Cox also continues to indulge overly pollyannaish solutions to the gridlock in Lansing.“People didn’t complain about partisanship in Lansing when (John) Engler was governor,” he said. Really? In, fact, the environment was extremely partisan under Engler, but he enjoyed majorities in both houses for much of his tenure and knew how to massage the legislative process to get results even when people opposed him.

Wrong again.  Engler got things done, love him or hate him.  It’s obvious by this editorial that they love the weaker candidates, Pete Hoesktra and Tom George, and will end up endorsing one of these two in the primaries.  Either way, look for them to ultimately back Lansing mayor Virg Bernero.  Personally, I’m voting for Mike Cox.

The gift that keeps on taking, Kwame Kilpatrick, in jail for parole violations and now arraigned on federal charges, will be defended by a court-appointed lawyer, which means that the taxpayers are once again supporting his dishonor.  But it is good to see someone who thought he was above the law in shackles and an orange jumpsuit.  I’d like to see more of the ruling class in similar garb.

Actually, I think that the Arizona lawsuit will help reform, as it shows how out of touch Obama is with the general population.  If he’s so wrong to oppose this law, how can he be trusted to come up with any real immigration reform that voters can get behind?  He can’t.