Lincolns 200th Birthday February 12 2009

And so we mark the passing of President Lincolns 200th birthday.



It wasn't a happy day of celebration for many in the United States.


Toyota America announced that they will begin to shave expenses. Some of the ways they intend to trim expenses are by reducing some of the 25,000 hourly workers weekly hours. They will cut some of the production days in the month of April. They will eliminate bonuses for the executive staff and the 3,000 salaried employees they have in the United States. They will also offer voluntary exits to those whom wish to follow other opportunities. They have also stated that there will be no wage increases for the foreseeable future.


This begs the question; has anyone seen "Gung Ho" recently?



Peoria Illinois


President Obama said today during remarks at a Caterpillar plant in Peoria, Ill., that his proposed economic stimulus would allow the company's CEO to rehire recently laid-off employees. But that apparently depends on some other things happening first. Like laying off more employees. That's one of those details that just didn't cross the finish line.


When asked today if the stimulus would allow Caterpillar to rehire some of the 20,000 recently laid-off employees, James Owens CEO of Caterpillar said, "I think, realistically, no. The honest reality is we're probably going to have more layoffs before we start hiring again."


But earlier today President Obama is quoted as having said: "Yesterday, Jim, the head of Caterpillar, said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off,"


So who's attempting to blow smoke up Americas butt?



Gregg Bails on Bid that he didn't want in the first place??


Ok, I for one am confused on this one. I have heard and seen everyone on all sides of this one talking. I even listened to Senator Gregg himself explain that he was turning down the nomination. But what is the real reason?


Senator Gregg said that he had given prior information to the White house, several days back that he was no longer interested in the position. If that is the case, why would he wait to today to make a public announcement?

Why Thursday?

Something just isn't sitting well with this one.
Allot of the issue I have with this is the timing of the announcement.


When asked if his taxes were in order, Senator Greg stated that his taxes were not the issue.
Ok, at least we know that's not the reason.

But what is the real reason?

House and Senate to vote on ratified H R 1

The United States House and Senate are expected to start voting on the ratified American Recovery and Reinvestment Act legislation Friday. The House is expected to quickly pass the legislation even with out any Republican support. The Senate is expected to work through the weekend on the package and possibly have a final product by Monday. Details of what has been added and subtracted have yet to be released.

There was an amendment that calls for full public view, in electronic format and a download-able PDF to be made available to the US citizens for 48 hours prior to any final vote being allowed on this package. I have not seen any such links as yet. Once one becomes available I will post it here. I would expect this package will be close to one thousand pages and may cause a network slowdown if it does in fact become available, as citizens scramble to download or read the document.