okay there is this guy I been listining to in the boston area for a little while now. Michael Graham on 96.9 WTKK. one of the more popular talk stations in the area. Good rating and numbers. on the home sites page you can listen live if you click on the tab.
he is usually on from 9AM-12 every day. But he fills in from 3PM till 7PM some nights like right now.

here is his bio page.
http://wtkk.com/Hosts/MichaelGraham/...6/Default.aspx

basically he tells the "natural truth" and if you get to listen to what he was saying for the last week as a domestic guy it boils my blood. Now he has been unsupportive of the bailout of the big three. and he has a right to that opinion. What is getting me is the thoughts he is putting in millions of peoples heads about how bad we STILL make cars.
He just said and this is his latest rant and attack on GM the Volt is a worthless POC that only gets 40 MPG on batteries that should of been out 5 years ago. The gas backup will be bad since the gas will go unused and no good. How the Prius is a better choice.
And onto that he also said the Prius was a car Americas want and people should buy cus it helps our economy??? He has no clue its made in japan!

he says that GM Ford and Chrysler have not made any good cars since the 70's and any new car is not worth its asian competitor. He says the new Malibu is not worth the time. That all we know how to make is low MPG V8's and SUV's. That GM has no hybrid program. That Fords in the same boat.

I mean dont take my word for it. Listen to him if you can for a day and his rant about this. He gets into the "crappy cars" a lot when defenders try to call in. All i am saying is this narrow minded guy is filling people up with lies and guess what local people are buying into it. They think the Prius is a good american made car!!! HE SAID THAT!!

He speaks the "natural truth"?? Take a listen about it and see what he says.
and he has a comment area on the bottom of his page. Would love to have some people here just send him the TRUTH about the Volt, Prius and the cars that are being built by GM and Ford. he does not bash Chrysler to much, he ownes 2 Jeeps.

just frustrating. Had to post something. And hope some here would fire back at him.

 

Well, I heard on Bubba the Love Sponge this morning when he played a clip off the O'Reilly show where O'Reilly discussed his dislike of the Big 3 execs and their lavish habits and that we shouldn't bail them out, but he did back up GM at least, saying he drives a GM car and that their products are "top notch".

Last night they were also discussing the bailout on Donny Deutch's "Big Idea" show on CNBC. He was for the bailout and vouched for GM's Saturn products as well.

Then here in Tampa, we get a free paper, The Tampa Bay Times. Every Thurday is their "Rides" issue and they had an article from Mark Phelan from the Detroit Free Press, "For the Detroit 3, it's myth vs. reality". He basically debunks all these myths circulating about domestic manufacturers: 1)nobody buys their vehicles; 2) they build unreliable junk; 3) they build gas guzzlers; 4) they already got a $25-billion bailout; 5) GM, Ford and Chrysler are idiots for investing in pickups and SUV's; and 6) they don't build hybrids.

In the same issue they have a quote in there from Peter M. De Lorenzo at autoextremist.com.... "It's a sad irony that senators like Dick Shelby are decrying any kind of help for the Big 3 as 'nationalization'... when Mississippi, Alabama, and Tenessee have been subsidizing the foreign makers via abatements and giveaways for years."

 

It's amazing how the automakers are getting so much negative press and the bank bailout got relatively little... and very unemotional comment, too! The relative funds are also overlooked and we're talking huge disparities in relative terms.

It's amazing how the media can use it's coverage and slant to manipulate people's minds... all in the interest of the influential few who happen to own the media entities.

 

OMG what you just said that I put in bold. In a nutshell he has said all this over and over.
and oh he has said now..just this afternoon..yes Ford has a Mercury Mariner hybrid..and no one bought it..

Seriously I sent a comment to him about the auto industry and dont think anything will come of it. But maybe more people like the ones who know and know the real "natural truth" they will be here and can shoot him a comment or two for his eyes to open up.

 

here is his proof that his BS is getting through to people..anyone want to spend 5 min to set the record right???

his blog..

http://www.michaelgraham.com/post/20...I.aspx#comment

I love how there is an american flag next to every blogger..

 

I keep hearing this same line of BS repeated - that the bank bailout got little attention. Maybe that's the case in your neck of the woods, but 'round these parts, it dominated the news cycle for a good six weeks or so. Hell, even our prez poked his head up from the gopher hole and gave a rare prime-time address to the nation.

Also, the auto bailout won't be $25B - it'll go deep into the $100B range if there's an honest attempt to make the situation right. Hell, GM and Ford combined have burned through something like $450B in the past decade alone, with little to show for it.

 

So how was the $700B bailout figure arrived at? And was the finance industry required to provide a detailed report regarding sustainability? 6 weeks of coverage does not necessarily answer these basic questions.... unless of course I've missed something.

 

Only Paulson and his underlings knows "how" the $700B figure was arrived at...it's the amount he said was needed to stabilize the financial industry (of course, he's already changed the rules about what the money will be used for so I'm not sure I'd trust his figures very much since he obviously used a forecasting model that didn't work).

 

Exactly my point. A "pie in the sky" figure was arrived at. Funny given the $700B is only paper value and nothing more. So it intrigues me that the automakers need to sweat it out in order to be issued a loan, given the relatively paltry sum being asked for by comparison.

Having said that, as a GM fan, I want assurances that the company can resurrect itself going forward. I'm fast losing hope and patience with the conflicting messages we're hearing wrt GM's short term future prospects.

 

Spotlight on you now, Eric... what do you say to the Euro carmakers asking for a total of $56B in loans? That's more than the Big 3 are asking for. Would you also put that down to bad management and bad decisions... using your line of 'reasoning'?

Btw, you seem to look at the negative issues wrt loans/bailouts of the automakers, particularly GM. You are critical of taxes being used to keep GM, Ford etc... above water but have you considered that the automakers contribute a minimum of $100B in taxes each year? I'd say the automakers give more than they receive using those figures.

 

Show me a link to the $56B number. I've only seen news concerning the request from Opel.

And, yes, I'd also chalk this up to bad management. The Europeans have, if anything, been worse than the Americans when it comes to dealing with wages and entitlement costs.

You're digging in an attempt to find some evidence of hypocricy. Stop - it's a waste of electrons.

The automakers don't pay anything in federal taxes - they'd have to make a profit for that to occur! The only way that auto industry contributes anything close to $100B in taxes would be to consider the consider the income tax paid by individuals, property taxes paid by companies to local municipalities, and so on.

Also, since you don't pay attention to everything I write, I don't outright object to saving Detroit. I happen to feel that manufacturing is the heart of this country, and I can't imagine working in any other industry. I'm a car guy to the end, and that shows up in every damn thing I do every damn day of the week!!!

But, I believe that we need some transparency. I believe that we need honesty. And I don't think that we've seen either with the Larry, Moe, and Curly show this week in Washington. $25B isn't enough to actually fix any problems; it just puts off the day of reckoning for maybe another six months. We still haven't seen the Big 2.8 hit rock bottom, where they actually admit they have structural problems that were not brought about by high fuel prices and sharply-curtailed lending practices.

 

Hell yes it was in the news, no question about that.

But it seemed to pass pretty damn quickly under the guise of "the sky is falling." It was kinda rammed at everyone, really before the key problems were understood (hell, they still aren't...at least not by me ).

Oddly enough, however, this super-important "bailout" wasn't important enough to have its own bill. It was added as a rider to an open ERISA bill from March of 2007 (at least in its initial form). So in this age of cutting "earmarks" and riders, the $700B bailout was an earmark on a bill that pushed lots of other crap through (which of course got no attention b/c everyone was focused on the sky falling).

Like you, I'd like to see the automakers survive, and I think they need to make some changes to do that. But I also believe that there is a strange double standard going on here, much of it tied which politicians are on the hook for which interest groups and such (along with a perverse, disgusting trend in this country general population and media elite that America does everything wrong and we need to learn from the enlightened Euros and Japanese). The automakers, who are a bedrock of our economy and our industrial base (absolutely vital for the national security of the country, IMHO), are having to beg for a small cut of the $700B (1/28th of it so far). Whereas the financial companies, who along with poor government policies and drunk-on-credit consumers were actually instrumental in creating the financial tornado we are in right now, seemingly had that $700B thrown right in their lap. "Wow, for me?! Thanks!!" Some of them (along with not a few politicians, and media big shots while I'm at it) probably should be in prison...

I know it hasn't happened quite that simply, but that's my perception through my own biased lenses as an angry, conservative auto engineer and enthusiast (for cars and for our nation).

 

All quotes from the transcript on CSPAN...

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/librar...art=&clipStop=

 

Hmmmm... we must go to the same optometrist, thats pretty much how I see things as well currently.

 

Hold on a second there partner; that paper money is money. For the moment at least, the Feds aren't just printing money; they issue bonds bought, in large measure by China...if they ever do just start printing with nothing to back it up then hold on to you had (and vital appendages) because the result will make the great depression look like a kindergarten field trip.

Yes, in the current climate in DC, $25B is a "paltry sum"; but that's just a down payment compared to what the even GM is going to need; let alone the three combined.


Agreed but don't count on it. At this point, I see no hope for GM's survival long term even with massive infusions of cash - I think their only hope is a court-ordered restructuring that allows them to shed their current UAW contracts, pension/health care obligations for retirees and closure of plants and dealerships and nameplates they no longer need and no longer can support at their present market share.