The axe swings politically at Obama Motors – the Washington Examiner has picked up on questions raised in the American rightosphere over past days;
Evidence appears to be mounting that the Obama administration has systematically targeted for closing Chrysler dealers who contributed to Repubicans. What started earlier this week as mainly a rumbling on the Right side of the Blogosphere has gathered some steam today with revelations that among the dealers being shut down are a GOP congressman and closing of competitors to a dealership chain partly owned by former Clinton White House chief of staff Mack McLarty.
[…]
Also fueling the controversy is the fact the RLJ-McCarty-Landers chain of Arkansas and Missouri dealerships aren’t being closed, but many of their local competitors are being eliminated. Go here for a detailed look at this situation. McClarty is the former Clinton senior aide. The “J” is Robert Johnson, founder of the Black Entertainment Television, a heavy Democratic contributor.
A lawyer representing a group of Chrysler dealers who are on the hit list deposed senior Chrysler executives and later told Reuters that he believes the closings have been forced on the company by the White House.
“It became clear to us that Chrysler does not see the wisdom of terminating 25 percent of its dealers. It really wasn’t Chrysler’s decision. They are under enormous pressure from the President’s automotive task force,” said attorney Leonard Bellavia.
Glenn Reynolds – “A reader notes something about “car czar” Steven Rattner: “Rattner is married to Maureen White, the former National Finance Chair for the Democratic Party.”
Rick Moran has much more, at American Thinker.
Previous.
it would seem that 90% of the 789 franchises that are being closed or given to others gave money to the gop. the big o got about 450 dollars. i would like to know if anyone has the numbers for the remaining 2300 plus dealers. what was the percentage given to the dems or the gop.
either way the sleaze that is the obama administration continues.
I suspect that there’s not so much an effort to target GOP supporting dealers as there is to avoid taking out “friendlies”. It’s still has the makings of something monstrous, if it gets off the ground.
How many of the closed dealerships are truck sell mainly trucks? If Obama is helping out his political friends through the closures, I imagine he doesn’t mind a little social engineering as well… Does anyone know of any profitable Dodge truck dealers that have been shut down?
Michelle Malkin and Ace are both following this story. It is apparently Chicago style politics to link your friends and cast off anyone who is not your chattel.
There’s more updating about Obama’s stimulus package which has, so far, been a monumental failure, in that it hasn’t created the 3-4 million jobs this year that he promised it would but only 150,000 jobs, while more are being lost (see Jennifer Rubin at Pajamas Media).
I strongly suspect that Obama doesn’t care. He is so far removed from reality, he lives so entirely in that fictional world that he alone authors, that there is, for him, no link possible between what he says and the results in the ‘outside world’.
His verbiage has only one agenda – to make you like him, to make you vote for him, to make you a mindless follower of him. If he is unable to control you this way then you cease to exist.
And if events that are tied to his rhetoric, such as the results of his stimulus package, don’t mimic that rhetoric then like someone who rejects him…those new unpleasant results simply, for him, don’t exist. Therefore the fact that jobs weren’t created, that the unemployment rate hasn’t dropped but increased – these facts don’t exist for Obama.
They weren’t ‘authored’ by him within his rhetoric; he ‘wrote’ the opposite. And if the real world won’t do as he ‘authors’ then it has no reality for him.
Same with N. Korea; if he can’t control the world by his rhetoric, by making people adulating followers of him, then that world has no reality for him.
Chicago politics is a gangland version of Obama’s rhetorical pathology. He lives within a world where you exist only within his rhetoric; if you move out of its images and decide things and act on your own, you literally cease to exist. Same thing in Chicago politics; you either do what The Boss wants or..
Car dealerships are a major source of political contributions. They are part of the local political scene in most towns and cities, because of the fleet sales to be had to the police and the town, state and etc.
Obama is attempting to cripple the Republicans by destroying the wealth of its members. This is a slow-mo Kristallnacht against the political enemies of the DemocRat party.
Note also that “red” states are not getting much stimulus money from the gigantic Porkulus bill just passed, and Obama is packing the Supreme Court with this racist La Raza freakazoid Sotomayor.
Its good to be the king, eh Barry?
My take at http://phantomsoapbox.blogspot.com
Is it just me or is Obama starting to remind anyone else of Hugo Chavez? Basically he is taking over the American car industry dictating who can run it and what kind of cars they can produce. Except, for the time being at least, Ford.
I wonder how long it will take him to get Fox News and other outlets that don’t think you can pick up a turd by the shiny end, shut down?
When government runs the economy or a country, that is called fascism.
When all opposition is repressed and put out of business that is fascism.
When at least half the people of that country still kneel at the sight of the Dear Leader that is a country in rapid decline.
Obama may yet call for martial law in the USA especially once the hyper inflations occurs and the dollar collapses.
Then the USA will have a fascist, communist combo dictator to deal with whilst half of the population continue to protect him. That will start something called a CIVIL WAR.
It is coming and it will be televised.
Either way, the Dems will make quite a racket over this issue.
one Obama contributor was shut down.
obviously that was a mistake and must be rectified.
never let a crisis go to waste.
Politics, Chicago style.
The Obama thugocracy continues at full speed.
If this situation grows feet it could in theory get Obama impeached. Plus criminal charges could follow if one could directly link Obama to this. Many lives were ruined because of this leftist punk.
Oops .. Should have read….
When government runs the economy of a country, that is called fascism.
Dammit, off to another gun show this weekend.
Man, I may be just a hick from N. Louisi-Yana, but JHC, people down heya are getting freaked out by Obama and his Obabots.
One or two large flash mobs will be enough to frighten people into silence. Obama still has decades of ruling to do, he is not going to let this kind of fluff get in his way.
At what point does the Obama corruption get so bad that even the media start to notice?
It appears to me that events are spiralling out of control for TOTUS, ET’s analysis becomes more true everyday. Reality may catch-up to TOTUS this year as the camels back continues to be weighed down. I believe the final straw may be the eminent bailout of California. Obama’s “full court press” may be his biggest tactical error, as it seems he’s miscalculated how much time is left on the proverbial clock. He just might run out of gas before the buzzer; or should I say, he may run out of support before his socialist plan is fully implemented.
A paragraph from this article in The Times last fall, on Argentia seizing control of pension funds, is appropriate.
“My fear is that governments in the US, Britain, and Europe will display similar reflexes. Indeed, they have already done so. The forced-feeding of banks with fresh capital – whether they want it or not – and the seizure of the Fannie/Freddie mortgage giants before they were in fact in trouble (in order to prevent a Chinese buying strike of US bonds and prevent a spike in US mortgage rates), shows that private property can be co-opted – or eliminated – with little due process if that is required to serve the collective welfare. This is a slippery slope. I hope Paulson, Darling, and Lagarde tread with great care. I do not expect Steinbruck to tread with any care.”
Losing all your property is a small price to pay if it’s for the good of the people (real world translation – friends and supporters of the ruler), no?
Aren’t Republicans the ones with all the guns?
Maybe it’s time to dust them off and get some practice, boys (and girls, too!)
Tea anyone?
The faster Obama goes about it, the better.
The old story about boiling a frog slowly is apt.
And the more the media cover for him the bigger the backlash will be against them.
Don’t get too excited yet. Let’s wait and see what the statistical analysis tells us.
korea will be the crisis made for Obamessiah.
the right answer may keep the MSM off him for another year. the wrong answer may keep them off him for the rest of his term.
Was there any economic reason to shut down these dealers?
Does it help Chrysler in any way?
“Community (Re)Organization For The Big Leagues” by B.H. Obama is due out next month and is already on the NYT Best Sellers List.
I hope all you pickup drivers are looking at the Ford F150’s.
I always wanted a jeep as a second vehicle. Not any more. I’ll never, ever, buy a car from Comrade motors. Chrysler and GM are now Ladas and Yugos (and about as well built anyway.)
its when they ship the chrysler dealers to the re-education camps that that even the MSM will take notice.
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/con_camps.htm
Sure this won’t make it into the MSM.
The plebs are much better educated to see Queen Latifah in her $500 pair of sneakers at the White house garden.
The Phantom @11:09 – “Car dealerships are a major source of political contributions”.
See, this is why I like gearheads. They know things like thiat
Mr. Phantom, you’re a man whose attention is hard to engage, but could you please explain what a “fleet sale” is? Google’s not helping me. If not Phantom, then anyone?
And does anyone think it’s weird that the Obama is concerning himself with car-dealerships? Now that he’s president, doesn’t he want to be anything bigger than a corrupt Chicago pol? They might as well have elected Blago.
No surprise that the Democrats would punish people for being Republican. These days lynching is politically incorrect, so they can’t wear their ghost costumes and hang ’em high anymore, so they take their livelihoods away.
Just one of the many ways they’re brownshirting their political opponents.
Liberal fascism continues its frantic goosestepping…
I have a feeling that this comment won’t pass the filter… sometimes I think the filter programming was written by “one of ’em”…
fleet sales are for companies that buy 20 or 50 vehicles a year or up in the thousands of vehicles ( say encana). usually somewhat standardized , company colour etc. they come in at cost plus a fixed markup amount over invoice. plus a few delivery charges.
Thanks cal2; I think I see how that’s a set-up for bribes and kickbacks.
Does BigZero do anything that is not aimed at either eliminating his political opposition or maintaining his grasp on power by taking power over all other gov’t institutions?
et. this is not all about obama.
If true, this should be remembered:
the Korean word for vengeance and plural is “boksu”. Getting revenge for voting one way is quite the act. But the Sanskrit word for “what comes around goes around”- karma- is not far behind.
Live a good life.
You know what’s truly sad? Stories like this don’t even make me blink anymore. I’m desensitized to Obama’s partisanship machinations and we’re only 130-odd days in.
Was there any economic reason to shut down these dealers?
Does it help Chrysler in any way?
None that’s obvious to a good number of industry insiders. A lot of the larger spurned dealers have gone shopping for new franchises. (eg. Toyota, Kia, Nissan etc). Bright move.
Somebody like the FBI should be investigating this.
You can’t count on the MSM unless its a Republican. This is racketering at its finest. Obama has an apyitude in using the legal system against anyone he disagree’s with or is in his way. Now its going to be used to plunder.
By the time Obama is finished the only rich left in the Us will be Democrate. Of course thats been known for a while except the Democratic Party itself or the MSM. Which likes to potray the slave Party as pennyless. Much better to pick others pockets.
have a listen to this radio ad…
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/TOMJONESJEEP052709.mp3
where is “Joe the Plumber”?
Black Mamba, Cal2 has it right on.
Thing to understand is the scope of this. Large companies with lots of vehicles are usually found in big cities, and they bargain pretty sharply. But every podunk town in the USA has a cop shop, a county functionary or two, some road maintenance guys and maybe a fire department.
They all need vehicles, and they don’t really care how much it costs within reasonably sloppy limits because it ain’t their money. Fleet sales form the backbone of your local dealer’s profitability.
So how does one chose between Bob’s Ford/Lincoln/Mercury dealership and Bill’s Chevy/Buick/Pontiac/Cadillac dealership if not on price? Buddy system, obviously. A little perk here, a donation there, everything legal and above board of course, so with a wink and a nod the choice gets made.
Multiply that by 50 states and how many towns etc. that’s a buttload of little perks and donations. Mr. Obama is -gutting- the Republican fund raising machine. Tearing its innards right out.
Nice, eh?
It has been proven that Obama was listed as a foreign student at Occidental College under the name Barry Sortoro. He received foreign aid from Indonesia. Michelle never had marks good enough to get into an Ivy League college but rode the coattails of her brother who was on a full athletic scholorship. Nothing about this pair is real except the Chicago way of doing business. I have read of rumours he received aid from Saudia Arabia in Yale but that has yet to be proven. That would explain the bow though.
It’s just the new union head adding ‘job security’ to the union contract.
First on the list: elected representatives of the Democratic Party.
Second: soon-to-be elected members of the Democratic Party.
Third: government employees (especially those who recently made contributions to the Democrats)
Fourth: Everyone else