That ambiance has left and the people in Michigan are losing hard! Not only are over 12% of us unemployed, but the crime rate is staggering and house values….yeah right. Even if they wanted to, the middle class couldn’t move out of this state right now without taking a huge loss.

It’s not just the closing of iconic plants like Flint Powertrain North, but it’s also the closing of numerous dealerships and parts suppliers around the state. Unless you live here, you could not image the chaos of losing so many jobs so quickly.

This loss has helped Michiganders band together and help others, as we are all the same boat. Community support for our local Garber Buick Dealership is a great example of this. Garber Buick has been serving the people of Saginaw for 102 years starting in 1907 and received the dreaded letter from GM that in October of 2010 they will have to close the doors. The dealership has set up a website (Garber Buick) as a message to their customers and to rally support appealing to GM about the closing.

Dick Garber states: “Garber Buick is one of the top performing dealerships in America. We’re off the charts in sales, service and facilities.”

Michigan has lost its identity, stability and jobs, but we’re sticking it out, making the best of it. Many of us have planted gardens for the first time this year…helping with the money at the end of the summer when the cost of the kids going back to school always hits. There are garage sales on almost every corner, every weekend…people just trying to make an extra buck to get by.

I read an article this morning in which some morons (President Obama’s Advisers) said:

“The economy is gaining momentum and the Democrat-passed stimulus package is only just beginning to pay dividends to the American workforce”

Just beginning to pay…HMMM

• National Unemployment rate is 9.4% – Michigan 12.7%
• Obama’s advisers say it’s the smallest job loss since September of last year – Did they think maybe most of the people have already lost their jobs or their unemployment has already run out which means they are not counted?
• Joe Biden says the stimulus is funding 3,600 projects and that $11 billion has been spent to date on highway construction. – What jobs did that created? It just brought back the laid off highway workers which is good for them.

What about the people that have 20 to 30 years into these plants across America that are closing down? The Federal Government has “plans” in place to retrain these workers. Well, if I worked at a plant for even 15 years, I would not want to retrain into a new job I knew nothing about for lower wages and shitty benefits.

• The three car companies that employed a half-million Michigan residents three decades ago employs just 112,000 in 2009. In 2010 when more plants, suppliers and dealerships close due to the bankruptcy this number will drop significantly. 
• Michigan in 2000 had 105% of the national average per capita income, it’s now at 89 percent.
• Michigan also trails its neighbors, Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin in personal income growth this decade.         Michigan – 14.7 percent, Neighbor’s average – 25 percent.

Although Michigan is losing a sense of history, we still have the Red Wings and the appreciation of a sunny 80 degree summer day.

One more thing:

President Obama told America that taking over GM was the only way to save what’s left of the economy and that we, the taxpayers, will own 60% stock in the automaker.

Well, Mr. Obama I don’t feel comfortable owning 60% stock in a failing company…so can I cash out now? Just send it direct deposit…we don’t accept checks.

This brings me to the reason why I am so pissed off.  I believe that everyone has the right to work, and everyone has the right to have a piece of the “American Dream”, I commend people who have struggled to come to this country and work and learn a new language while they continue to better themselves.  I DO NOT however, like that fact that when you call for customer service in the United States you are patched through to some other country and talking to people who do not speak English, but seem to be getting all of the jobs that people actually living in America should get.  So why is our country going to shit?  It’s because everyone but Americans are living the American Dream.  Right now we are all worried about the economy and where we are going to get jobs.  We can all read from a manual that tells us what to do.  Why are we shipping all of our call center jobs out of the country, because it’s cheaper?  This is the problem.  We are not going to be able to afford to live in this country anymore because there are no jobs here to help us live.  We need to keep jobs in America and stop sending them overseas to pay those people 2 dollars a day to do what we should be getting more for.  Funny how it’s cheaper for the companies to send all the jobs overseas and yet our rates continue to rise.  Who’s getting hosed here except us all the way around.

This just reminded me of a commercial that I saw the other day; it was a jimmy john’s sub commercial.  Mind you, I love jimmy johns subs, and that’s why I paid attention to the commercial.  But this commercial may sum it all up in a nutshell for the American people.  In this commercial, which was all in a foreign language, which I think was Japanese, there were Japanese men sitting in a board room discussing a “plan” that one of the workers were proposing.  Not one word in the commercial was in English, but you got the just of the commercial just by the way things were going.  In this commercial the “head” of the board was not a happy camper and not really liking the ideas being proposed.  So the man that was proposing the new plan orders subs for everyone from Jimmy John’s which were the only words in English.  The subs came and all the men were happy.  This part wasn’t the saddest part of the commercial.  In the end the commercial actually said “Jimmy Johns’” and something to the affect of them being America’s best subs, or something along those lines.  So, we have America’s best subs in commercials about another country and two words in the whole commercial were in English, huh, what does that say about our businesses in America?  This is not the way to make sure America survives, and I am sick and tired of it.  There are things that can be done, the question is are any of the companies gonna have the balls to do the right thing??? How about hire American, we could start there.

How many of us could use a “Bailout” right now? Maybe we should all get together, form a large corporation, say we are in trouble and line our pockets with HUGE bonuses. Then we can start spending as the government has requested to boost the economy…

Take this one personal financial example, from us:

We have an auto loan through Capital One and according to these figures it’s hard to see why they needed a $35 million dollar bailout in November.

• Original Loan Amount: $16,648
• Payment totals for 2.5 years: $10,778
• Loan Account Balance: $13,740

Can you see what is wrong with that picture…..A mere $2,098 went towards the actual principal on the auto loan. That means Capital One put $8,680 of our payments in their pocket.

We are one loan…imagine 10,000 (very low number) loans like ours….That would be $86,800,000 in their pockets! I say in their pockets because it is the interest on the loan, which is a fancy way of saying that’s what you pay to us for screwing you over.

So if companies like these are “getting one over” on the American people WHY should we “The Taxpayers” bail them out? I think we already paid our portion of Capital One’s Bailout money, so why more? OH yeah, it’s so they can employ rude people that don’t speak English to harass you when your a day late with the payment….

NY Times Article from October confirming Capital One Bailout Money – 16 Banks Plan to Seek U.S. Aid

Click Here to Track your financial institutions bailout money provided by the NY Times.

By the way, since our great government says the only way to get out of this economic crisis is to spend money …why not let the millionaires handle that. Us poor folk have already given way more than we have and they keep taking more!

According to the Center for Automotive Research if the Big 3 go under the country will lose another 3 million jobs. Image the economic impact on our financial system if that happens. In a direct quote:

“Our model estimates that a complete shutdown of Detroit Three U.S. production would
have a major impact on the U.S. economy in terms of lost wages, reductions in social security receipts, personal income taxes paid, and an increase in transfer payments,” said Sean McAlinden, CAR chief economist and the study’s leader. “The government stands to lose on the level of $60 billion in the first year alone, and the three year total is well over $156 billion.”

After reading that it seems $25 million is just a drop in the hat.

The crisis that the auto industry faces is in part their own, but it also has to do with the economic recession that the country is facing. Standard math car sales are down over 40% – that’s a lot of revenue to lose. I do agree with many of the critics, the Big 3 MUST cut unneeded expenses. That does not mean employee wages, they have already been cut by 50% for new employees. That means sell the luxury jets and stop giving bonuses, especially to top execs who already make much more than the middle class American. Eliminate concept automobiles until the economy picks up and profits are there again.

The people of Michigan are glued to the news wondering if they will still have a job at the end of the year. GM alone will be out of money come the end of December and they have already extended the normal holiday shut down for many. With an unemployment rate of 9.3%, we are already struggling to survive in this state residents just can’t afford the collapse of the auto industry.

In favor of the Big 3 – they already have a new labor contract with the UAW that will come into effect in 2010, eliminating legacy benefits that are not needed. They also have new more fuel efficient or hybrid cars that will be hitting the market in 2010, in hopes to increase automobile sales.

In favor of Congress – The Big 3 MUST stop the ridiculous spending. They have to cut unnecessary expenses in order to stay on budget – just like the American families have had too.

Download the Report from The Center for Automotive Research

Basically YOUR car insurance covers YOUR vehicle and persons in YOUR vehicle regardless of fault.

Here is where it kicks you in the ass……

Let’s say you do not have collision insurance on your vehicle, someone HITS YOU and its THEIR FAULT. If your vehicle sustains over $500 in damages you are entitled to what they call a mini-tort claim. The mini- tort is paid by the insurance company of the person at fault (providing they have this coverage, if not you have to sue them for it).

Someone hits you, it’s their fault …you get a SMASHED UP CAR and a measly $500!

Doesn’t seem very fair, does it? This has happened to me TWICE! It’s ridiculous!

Last Thursday afternoon coming from the HIGH SCHOOL I was hit by another driver. I had the green light and she BLEW through the red light into me at 45 MPH! Luckily I was turning and did not have my son with me. As I pulled into the nearest drive to get out of traffic she comes rushing up to me saying, “It was my fault, I did not realize the light was red”. She stated that she was worried about getting into the share a ride with the construction ahead and was not even looking at the light. Then she proceeds to tell me that she does not even live in the area, but wanted KFC so she got off on the previous exit and drove through Bridgeport.

For those of you who know our background you can imagine my anger. She ran a red light at 45 MPH at the High School intersection, minutes after school let out! Our son was killed just 100 feet down the same road two years ago! What if one of those students from the High School was crossing at the one and only crosswalk in town, the same crosswalk she just BLEW through to hit me! They would have had no chance against her SUV!

I was proud that I was able to keep my composure and not wrap my hands around her neck and squeeze tightly. I was so angry and distraught, so many bad memories of Dustin’s accident running through my mind. I just grinded my teeth, clenched my fist and tried to be patient as we waited for the police.

She was sited for failure to yield a red light. If the school signs we requested two years ago would have been put in place her citation would have been much worse or maybe just, maybe she would have seen the school signs and been more careful. (We were told by the Saginaw County Road commission that the signs were misleading to motorists)….what a crock of bull!

So this is the second time that I have a smashed car with no means to fix it. I will hopefully get the $500 mini-tort, but that won’t cover the $1500 in damage she caused because she was an idiot! The first time this happened I was hit from the rear at a red light, pushed through the intersection by a driver that had a suspended license!

The no-fault law also kicked us in the ass when Dustin was killed. At that time we did not have a running vehicle, (my husbands transmission went out) so we had no insurance. Since it is a no-fault state we received a mere $1400 to cover his funeral expenses that way exceeded $10,000 and our son was dead.

The state of Michigan says that no-fault insurance helps keep costs down, yet we have some of the highest rates in the country. We as citizens give up our right to sue when involved in an accident (unwillingly). Many of the people that live here don’t even realize what no-fault means. It only helps the person that is AT FAULT! How callous can you be?

The damn insurance companies have you again….all that money you pay them and you can’t even get your car repair when someone else is careless!

Its all talk, the normal American family is struggling more this week than last and I am sure it will continue to get worse. The news of the stimulus arriving early has Americans anxious to get some extra money in their pockets probably to just pay their bills. On Monday Boiled Over had a large amount of traffic from people searching when they would get their check.

Gas is now at $3.75 a gallon and groceries went up again this week. We feel like we are working only to eat and put gas in the car to get to work. “Working for Nothing”

I found this from an article on Ajc.com

McCain and Democratic hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton have said they favor suspending the federal excise tax on gasoline through the summer driving season.

Clinton’s Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, has said suspending the tax – 18.4 cents per gallon – would save consumers barely enough to buy half a tank of gas, belittling the idea as a band-aid approach to the larger issue of energy security.

This may only be a band-aid approach, but every little bit counts at this point. We all know that something must be done about our dependence on oil, but realistically it will take many years to enact any energy plan. We need help NOW, TODAY! If all you have is a band-aid, as long as its free I’ll take it!

As the American people take two steps back a day, the politicians are playing the blame game and getting nothing done.

A headline this week that about made me fall out of my chair:

Bush Calls on Congress to Help the American People

Yeah ok weren’t you the jerk that got us in this mess in the first place? Eight years of his administration running this country and people are loosing their homes, can’t pay for a tank of gas and now there’s talk of a possible food crisis……oh boy we’re in for the long haul.

So for a little humor and to put a smile on everyone’s face I am posting an email I received from a friend. I wish I knew who wrote it so I could give them the proper credit…Enjoy!

Dear Internal Revenue Service:

Enclosed you will find my 2008 tax return showing that I owe $3,407.00 in taxes.

Please note the attached article from the USA Today newspaper; dated 12 November, wherein you will see the Pentagon (Department of Defense) is paying $171.50 per hammer and NASA has paid $600.00 per toilet seat.

I am enclosing four (4) toilet seats (valued @ $2,400) and six (6) hammers valued @ $1,029), which I secured at Home Depot, bringing my total remittance to $3,429.00.

Please apply the overpayment of $22.00 to the “Presidential Election Fund,” as noted on my return.

You can do this inexpensively by sending them one 1.5″ Phillips Head screw (see aforementioned article from USA Today newspaper detailing how H.U.D. pays $22.00 each for 1.5″ Phillips Head Screws).

One screw is enclosed for your convenience.

It has been a pleasure to pay my tax bill this year, and I look forward to paying it again next year.

Sincerely,

A Satisfied Taxpayer

So I wanted to vent about what everyone is venting about the damn price of gas. Yeah it’s the same gas the stations had in the tanks yesterday, but today we are just lining the pockets of the oil companies. Even my daughter called complaining saying it isn’t even worth driving 15 miles to her job to work 3 hours for minimum wage…..I have to say for once I see her point.

Then my sister sent me a ton of hilarious pictures in an email entitled gas humor. I am posting them just to give everyone a smile. Although every time you fill up remember that the oil companies made record breaking profits last quarter and we just keep getting more broke.

“We have the flexibility to source all of our business to other locations around the world, and we have the right to do so.”

How can a company called “American” Axle threaten to take all of their business outside America? That is just wrong! Mr. Dauch whines about not being able to compete in a market where companies like Delphi have been able to cut wages in half. For one, Delphi was in bankruptcy trying to hang onto their company, and for two Delphi has had to hire back some of their “old” workforce at the “old” wage because they are having issues with their new lower wage “unskilled” workforce.

American Axle had a gross profit of $278 Million in 2007 according to the annual report for investors on their website. Ok, $278 Million sounds a far cry from bankruptcy and if Mr. Dauch is so concerned why not give up some of his $1.47 Million salary or his $7.7 Million in stock options? On top of all that American Axle has illegally terminated disability payments and health care for injured workers, as well as compensation, including health care for laid off workers.

The UAW workers face much criticism when it comes to their salaries for manufacturing jobs. For a better understanding, in an excellent article on Dollars & Sense Sue Helper, who is an economist and was an expert witness in the Dana and Delphi bankruptcy proceedings this summer, has this to say:

“People who don’t work in manufacturing may think of manufacturing work as pushing a button every 20 seconds on some machine. You push the same button every 20 seconds for 20 years and it never changes, so there is not much discretion or skill required. A number of things follow from that picture of manufacturing work. One, maybe people who do it should not get paid very much. And two, why should we try to keep these jobs—who cares if China does them instead?
I think that picture does not have to be true, and in fact is not true in much of U.S. manufacturing today, especially in the auto industry. And there are a number of policies that could incorporate workers’ knowledge and skill into the production process further. All of the automakers have adopted in some form or another the Toyota “just-in-time” production system: assembly plants keep little or no inventory of parts on hand, and the lead time to make parts is very small. That means that if a line gets shut down, say, at a supplier, then that’s going to shut down the line at an assembly plant, and can cost that assembly plant up to thousands of dollars in lost profits for every minute the line is not working. That’s a lot of pressure on a worker. On top of that, the quality requirements are quite high. In part because of this problem with the line possibly being shut down, just-in-time increases the stress and the skill requirements for workers.”

Sue sums it up perfectly and we definatley agree with her. Ask your self this….Would you want an unskilled worker making the parts for your car? Would you take more pride in your work if you made $28 or $14 an hour?

The latest blow from American Axle was over the weekend when they placed employment ads to replace the striking workers. The ad said

“Employment offered to applicants responding to this advertisement will be to fill anticipated attrition replacement openings after negotiations or in place of employees involved in this strike.”

I’d have to say this company is pretty cocky to think that someone in Michigan would cross a picket line and take a striking workers job. IT WON’T HAPPEN!

The UAW Local 235 retaliated on Monday morning when regular laid off workers were to report back to work. They walked 60 of those workers to the entrance of the plant, the workers checked in for work and then…declared that they were on strike! GOOD FOR THEM, United We Stand!

Those 60 workers traded a $360 unemployment check for a $200 strike pay check. Would you do that for your fellow co-workers?

A Texas woman faced extreme humiliation when trying to board a plane. As she went through the metal detectors the alarm sounded due to her nipple piercing and she was asked to step aside for further review with a wand. Mandi Hamlin explained that she was wearing nipple rings that were making the alarm sound. The TSA officers informed her that she would have to remove the piercing, which can be very painful, in order to board the plane. She says that she could hear the snickering from the male agents as she was removing the piercing one of which she need to use pliers for.

I just don’t understand why The TSA would disgrace this woman like that. A simple solution would have been for her to expose the rings to a female officer, use the wand, pat her down and allow her to board the plane. What is wrong with these people, did they think she was going to hurt someone with a nipple ring?

Urinal Bags Don’t Sit Well With Union

Communications Workers of America Union Officials in Colorado say that the telecommunications company Qwest, tried to get their male technicians to use disposable urinal bags to cut down on bathroom time. A manager at Quest actually handed out 25 bags to some male technician and they were told not to spend time looking for a bathroom when in the field. The union has stepped in, but has not filed a grievance yet.

A local union administrative director said that while the union deals with a

“a lot of silliness in corporate America, this one takes the cake.”

Completely inhumane and ridiculous!