Here is an open letter from 'Michael Moore' this morning!!

[KansasVoter]

Friends,

Nothing like it has ever happened. The President of the United States, the elected representative of the people, has just told the head of General Motors -- a company that's spent more years at #1 on the Fortune 500 list than anyone else -- "You're fired!"

I simply can't believe it. This stunning, unprecedented action has left me speechless for the past two days. I keep saying, "Did Obama really fire the chairman of General Motors? The wealthiest and most powerful corporation of the 20th century? Can he do that? Really? Well, damn! What else can he do?!"

This bold move has sent the heads of corporate America spinning and spewing pea soup. Obama has issued this edict: The government of, by, and for the people is in charge here, not big business. John McCain got it. On the floor of the Senate he asked, "What does this signal send to other corporations and financial institutions about whether the federal government will fire them as well?" Senator Bob Corker said it "should send a chill through all Americans who believe in free enterprise." The stock market plunged as the masters of the universe asked themselves, "Am I next?" And they whispered to each other, "What are we going to do about this Obama?"

Not much, fellows. He has the massive will of the American people behind him -- and he has been granted permission by us to do what he sees fit. If you liked this week's all-net 3-pointer, stay tuned.

I write this letter to you in memory of the hundreds of thousands of workers over the past 25+ years who have been tossed into the trash heap by General Motors. Many saw their lives ruined for good. They turned to alcohol or drugs, their marriages fell apart, some took their own lives. Most moved on, moved out, moved over, moved away. They ended up working two jobs for half the pay they were getting at GM. And they cursed the CEO of GM for bringing ruin to their lives.

Not one of them ever thought that one day they would witness the CEO receive the same treatment. Of course Chairman Wagoner will not have to sign up for food stamps or be evicted from his home or tell his kids they'll be going to the community college, not the university. Instead, he will get a $23 million golden parachute. But the slip in his hands is still pink, just like the hundreds of thousands that others received -- except his was issued by us, via the Obama-man. Here's the door, buster. See ya. Don't wanna be ya.

I began my day today in Washington, D.C. I went to the U.S. Senate and got into their Finance Committee's hearing on the Wall Street bailout. The overseers wanted to know how the banks spent the money. And many of these banks won't tell them. They've taken trillions and nobody knows where the money went. It certainly didn't go to create jobs, relieve mortgage holders, or free up loans that people need. It was so shocking to listen to this, I had to leave before it was over. But it gave me an idea for the movie I was shooting.

Later, I stopped by the National Archives to stand in line to see the original copy of our Constitution. I thought about how twenty years ago this month I was just down the street finishing my first film, a personal plea to warn the nation about GM and the deadly economy it ruled. On that March day in 1989 I was broke, having collected the last of my unemployment checks, relying on help from my friends (Bob and Siri would take me out to dinner and always pick up the check, the assistant manager at the movie theater would sneak me in so I could watch an occasional movie, Laurie and Jack bought an old Steenbeck (editing) machine for me, John Richard would slip me an unused plane ticket so I could go home for Christmas, Rod would do anything for me and drive to Flint whenever I needed something for the film). My late mother (she would've turned 88 tomorrow if she were still with us) and my GM autoworker dad told me in the kitchen they wanted to help and handed me a check for an astounding thousand dollars. I didn't know they even had a thousand dollars. I refused it, they insisted I take it -- "No!" -- and then, in that parental voice, told me I was to cash it so I could finish my movie. I did. And I did.

So on that March day in 1989, as I was driving down Pennsylvania Avenue, my 9-year-old car just died. I coasted over to the curb, put my head down on the steering wheel and started to cry. I had no money to take it in to be repaired, and I certainly had nothing to pay the tow truck driver. So I got out, screwed the license plates off so I wouldn't be fined, turned my back and just left it there for good. I looked over at the building next to me. It said "National Archives." What better place to donate my dead car, I thought, as I walked the rest of the way home.

Though it wasn't easy for me, I still never had to suffer what so many of my friends and neighbors went through, thanks to General Motors and an economic system rigged against them. I wonder what they must have all thought when they woke up this Monday morning to read in the Detroit News or the Detroit Free Press the headlines that Obama had fired the CEO of GM. Oh -- wait a minute. They couldn't read that. There was no Free Press or News. Monday was the day that both papers ended home delivery. It was cancelled (as it will be for four days every week) because the daily newspapers, like General Motors, like Detroit, are broke.

I await the President's next superhero move.

Yours,
Michael Moore
[e-mail]
MichaelMoore.com
(Go State!)

P.S. Please know that it has not been lost on any of us from the Rust Belt how our corporate bigwigs were treated (remember, the auto companies wanted a loan, not a handout) compared to how the titans of Wall Street got trillions of free cash, lunch at the White House and a photo op with the Prez. Trust me, we get it. And, if there is a God in heaven, the thieves of Wall Street will soon pay. Also... the sight of our president having to promise that he would back every GM warranty and give consumers a bonus if they trade in their old Grand Am for a hybrid, was alternately sad, hilarious, and just plain weird. This is what it's come to: the Commander in Chief of the Free World is now Mr. Goodwrench. Jeesh.

[kid a]

1. k&r

[firedupdem]

2. K&R! He gets it!

I couldn't believe how some suddenly loved CEO's around here. He needed to go. I had to go, and many of my friends had to go, and we weren't making the bad decisions that sunk the company. Mr. Moore hit the nail on the head!

[StreetKnowledge]

4. Wagoner made enough bad decisions.

The American auto industry's good bigshot is the guy running Ford, Alan Mulally. After saving Boeing, Mulally goes to Ford. Ford, instead of managing the fall as GM has, came out of the box with guns blazing, and now they are able to get by without begging to Congress. The next head of GM ought to get that memo and do the same - and in the process, start hitting back at the imports.

It's time the management there got the point. Forget fighting with Congress and the UAW. Once you can compete with the Japanese, that won't matter any more. Get that message, guys.

[StreetKnowledge]

3. Nice work, Michael

But GM is not the big corporate problem in America today. It's those bastards on Wall Street. We should focus on getting those bastards.

[stillcool]

6. I've read that GM in India..

is doing very well...building new plants, and running at a profit. I wonder how GM in the rest of the countries around the globe are doing? I don't know how you can say any multi-national corporation, financial or otherwise is not the problem.

[StreetKnowledge]

10. I don't have a fundamental problem with multinational corporations

And if GM's success in India and China (and Australia and Europe) can help save the floundering American division from failure, then it should be a good thing, don't you think?

I think that part of what will save GM is finally getting the message (which they have studiously dodged for 25 years) that their European, Asian and Australian offerings can save their American divisions. Think about it:

This:



Or THIS:



IMO, GM needs to cut down its divisions. Buick is not working in North America, even if it is in Asia. Hummer is obviously not working now. Saturn is overkill and most of its cars would work at Chevrolet.

Chevrolet builds everyday cars and a couple of fun cars (Camaro), Pontiac becomes the performance divisions, trucks and SUVs go to GMC, Cadillac is the luxury car brand.

Scrap the Chevrolet Aveo, it's not good enough, when the Chevrolet Beat comes in 2010. (Make sure its made in America, too.) Scrap the Cobalt sedan and replace with the Cruze sedan, keep the Astra as a hatchback and five-door. Leave the Cobalt SS as a small sports coupe. (The Cobalt SS is a great piece.) The Volt is next, which works great. The Malibu and Impala stay as is. The Camaro gets a convertible version. Toss the trucks and SUVs - GMC has identical models. The only truck Chevrolet should keep is the SSR. It should also get a minivan. The Corvette becomes its own brand.

Pontiac stays to fun and performance cars. To that end, ditch both the G5 and G6 - they suck. Replace with a smallish rear wheel drive sports sedan. Keep the big G8 sedan. Bring back the Vauxhall VX220 as the Pontiac Fiero, keep the Solstice as well. (The Fiero would cost more.) The GTO is a maybe.

GMC gets all the trucks - Canyon, Sierra, Yukon, Acadia, Terrain and Savana. Ditch the Suburban, except for special order.

Cadillac gets the smallest Buick (the Allure/LaCrosse), and then goes up the ranks - CTS, STS, DTS. They keep the Escalade, but the rest of the trucks get canned.

The result would be a much higher CAFE number, and a lot more competitive lineup. All of these could (and should) be made in the United States or Canada.

[StreetKnowledge]

12. The fiero owuld be THIS

[stillcool]

13. Their success in other countries..

has nothing to do with their bankrupting their U.S. division. Same goes for all the other multi-nationals that are taking their jobs and moving on.
I read this a while back, and like to refer to it every now and then...

http://www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/ecology/threat.htm
In the 1970s and 1980s, many of the industrial giants in the United States, Europe, and Japan became global companies; they no longer wanted to claim allegiance to any country in the world. By becoming global companies they could force nations to compete with each other to attract their companies to build factories in their countries. By the 1980s, these global companies, now often called Transnational corporations (TNCs) were aggressively using this strategy of globalization to blackmail countries into reducing their costs and increasing their profits.

Demands Made by Transnational Corporations to do Business in a
Country under the Global Economy

1. Greatly reduce Corporate taxes and taxes on the rich.

2. Greatly reduce government spending in order to cut taxes.

3. Increase taxes on the middle-class and poor to pay for the necessary government services, such as support for TNCs.

4. Reduce environmental, work-safety, and product-safety regulations.

5. Provide millions and millions of dollars in tax incentives and subsidies to TNCs in order to convince them to locate in your country.

6. Build and support modern industrial factories for TNCs to use rent-free.

7. Create tax-free export processing zones so that TNCs can produce products without paying any taxes at all.

8. Reduce and lower worker's wages by keeping the minimum wage low or eliminating the minimum wage altogether.

9. Reduce the costs of hiring workers by reducing or eliminating workers' compensation taxes, social security taxes,and health insurance taxes.

10. Allow child-labor at almost any age and under any conditions.

11. Do not enforce maximum work-day hours, such as the eight hour day or the 40 hour week.

12. Use government power to crush and weaken labor unions. Allow companies to hire security firms to harass and intimidate workers and unions.

13. Allow TNCs to freely take their money and profits out of your country.

14. Reduce government support for health-care, education, and anti-poverty and anti-hunger programs, forcing workers to work for any wage just to take care of and feed their families.

15. Support global free trade and work to prevent countries from denying companies the right to sell their products despite the brutal conditions, environmental destruction, and exploitation of their workers.

16. Don't restrict or limit immigration and encourage high levels of unemployment in order to force workers to compete by working for lower and lower wages.

17. Limit and restrict local and national government control over their economies. Encourage global bodies to set economic standards that will benefit TNCs.

18. Limit the ability of workers and citizens to challenge the TNCs and their own government's economic programs which help the TNCs at their expense.

19. Create massive national debts in order to bankrupt governments and force them to be even more at the mercy of the TNCs. Governments can thus say they have no choice but to accept these conditions.

20. Force your citizens to accept lower standards of living and quality of life in order to guarantee higher profits for TNCs.

[Thrill]

9. GM is just as bad. They were in on the crooked sub prime nonsense

[Clio the Leo]

5. Wasn't that something! At the risk of sounding crude...

..... the firing makes you realize that the walnuts on our President are huge to quite huge.

Mind-blowing.

[Blue_Tires]

7. wow...hard to believe it's been 20 years since Roger and Me

[Teaser]

8. No, this can't be true because Obama is a plutocrat who hates autoworkers

and wants to steal their children, in order to process them into fertilizer for his White House garden.

[nichomachus]

15. Stuff it n/t

[Teaser]

17. be more explicit please

those directions are just too vague.

[MadBadger]

19. Stuff what?

[Cha]

20. You stuff it.

[tibbiit]

11. I think whats missing in all these accounts of the CEO

Is good ole GWB. Didnt he shepard thru congress massive tax cuts for people who would buy the Hummers as a way to win the war on terra? It is great Obama fired the CEO. It needs to be mentioned that he (CEO) was in cahoots with Bush's edicts.

GM made buckets of money off of selling the expensive Escalades etc. This guy deserved to be fired for going down that road and the Bush admin needs to be revealed some more to the public for their part in this.
tib

[redqueen]

14. I like his perspective on this.

Thanks for posting it.

[FrenchieCat]

16. That's because Michael Moore sees with a clear eye......

and doesn't allow the media to tell him what's up.

Now, we should shut up and watch the newly found media fascination with
all things "protestor". It's all the new rage, since Bush is now gone,
and OBama is President.

[KansasVoter]

22. I will hate the news tonight!!!

[npk]

18. I love Michael Moore

Thank you Michael.

[Cha]

21. Thanks, Michael Moore..Wow,

from reading DU the last few days one would have thought Prez Obama sold out the auto workers!

It's a good thing for me I don't pay any attention to mass hysterical whiners.

[DianeK]

23. kick