Doug Ross, who’s been on point with the story from the start:
You know you’ve hit a nerve when Robert Gibbs and Chrysler LLC have consolidated their talking points around the Dealergate scandal.
The latest development: Chrysler’s “Dealer Council” posted a letter at the new Chrysler LLC website. It says that the remaining Chrysler dealers are as pleased as punch with the way the dealership shuffle turned out.
One tiny little problem. Freeper Exit82 noticed some unique characteristics of the “Dealer Council” letter’s signatories.
It turns out seven of the dealers were Democrat contributors while three gave to GOP candidates (one was Ron Paul, so the figure is really two).
Josh Painter then sinks the knife in deep with a spot-on coup de grâce:
“If, as the Obama apologists claim, that most car dealers are Republicans, why does the Chrysler Dealer Council have more than twice as many dealers on it who donated to Democrats than those who gave to GOP candidates? Let them chew on that one for a while. I’m sure they will come up with something.”
Oh, but there’s more! Keep reading.
Bigger question.
“Chrysler Dealer Council.”
Council? Not Association, but “Council?” That just SOUNDS like Bammy’s Admin kinda thing.
Did this “Council” even exist two weeks ago or was it “recently formed?”
Maybe they’ll bring back the ‘K’ car.
I think we’re up to about page 600 in That Book.
In all the attempts to turn it into a movie, I don’t think anyone before thought of trying it as a weekly serial. Or a reality show.
Pretty safe bet they’re not going to be bringing back the 426 Hemi or the 440 Six Pack.
For you old farts (I really liked it too)…
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203771904574173401767415892.html#mod=todays_us_weekend_journal
Have they finished their analysis of the dealers that were not closed? I am still interested in the ones that benefitted by either having their competition closed and/or getting new licenses.
Dan, Zero Hedge has an observation about Clinton donors up:
ZH states no inclination to yet suspect D vs R favoritism, but I found the Clinton angle interesting…
So, the Obama organization and auto task force has been involved in every aspect of this fiasco except the selection of dealers to have their contracts terminated. In this aspect they had no involvement whatsoever. None. Except for the fact that the Chrysler CEO says differently under oath in a deposition. And it is such a transparent process that they will not release the criteria and formulas used to pick the dealers. Nothing to see here.
Conspiracy 101.
Us: “Dealergate.” Lets let the facts continue to trickle in, thank Ross, Zero Hedge, et al for the work the “pros” won’t do and continue to ask questions.
Them: Fire can’t melt steel! Trilateral Commission! Bilderberg! Soylent Green is people!
Sadly, at most universities “they” get an A.
“Nothing to see here.”
Nope.
Them ain’t the droids yer after.
Bammy says you need to shut up & beat feet.
Or else…
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/287939.php
Still more damning evidence of the Chicago way employed to choose which dealers remained open…
There’s smoking guns everywhere; this is just the latest wiff of cordite to disperse about the room-so to speak…
But, by the crack of noon, the usual suspects will be here telling us all that it’s a pack of lies and we are all filthy partisan liars…
Classic psychological projection meets the “shout down” technique…
OT a bit, but delicious.
“If EU politics was normal politics, on the national model, there could be change. Parliamentarians – in theory at least – could demand it and MPs holding themselves up for election with ambitions of forming a government could pledge change in their manifesto. But in the euros, there are no manifestos because the right of initiative is the prerogative of the EU commission. All the MEPs can do is conform with the “working programme” set by the commission, their power confined to making tweaks round the edges.
That is another of the reasons why the euro-elections are unreal. They don’t matter because MEPs don’t matter. They are a supreme irrelevance, serving as the gloss on a fundamentally anti-democratic system, there to give it the appearance of legitimacy.
The trouble is that, as the EU takes over more and more powers, and thus expands its legislative range, it also marginalises our own Westminster MPs. They also become irrelevant, thus ending up filling their idle hours with increasingly inventive schemes for self-enrichment.” – Richard North @ EU Referendum
Whole things here: http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2009/05/invisible-europe.html
Me thinks Bammy is lickin’ his chops.
New (other peoples’) money, new aristocracy. Same thing.
Another update from Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, in the spirit of transparency as always:
The point really isn’t that we know for sure that (at least some of) the Chrysler dealer terminations were political, or even that the contributions of the terminated dealers differ from those of the retained dealers to an statistically-significant extent. It’s that when a government “czar” has this kind of power, even if he’s trying his best not to make his arbitrary and capricious decisions based on political considerations, they’re still arbitrary and capricious.
Or, we could just apply Sotomayor’s reasoning from Ricci.
Oh, but there’s more!
““Mr. No.†The career D.C. lawyer who went to Harvard Law School with Barack Obama is now the president’s ethics guru,”…
“He worked there [Zuckerman Spaeder] for the next 17 years, handling white-collar and Congressional investigations for the firm and eventually becoming a partner.”
Am I the only one who got bored and watched Michael Clayton? Eisen is a dirty fucking “fixer.”
Where’s gus?
gus, that guy you can shoot.
Eisen, not Clooney.
Ok…shoot Clooney in the foot.
Kidding gus.
Seriously. Don’t shoot anybody.
“It’s one emergency after the next.â€
Fire in the hO!e !!!
“If, as the Obama apologists claim, that most car dealers are Republicans, why does the Chrysler Dealer Council have more than twice as many dealers on it who donated to Democrats than those who gave to GOP candidates? Let them chew on that one for a while. I’m sure they will come up with something.â€
That’s what’s so irritating about the “most dealers are Republican” defense. Of course. It’s all the more improbable that Democrats would be preferentially spared by chance. Hasn’t that been the complain all along? It’s just not unreasonable to question why that has/is happened/ing.
I hope he’s keeping an eye on the silverware over by Number One Observatory Circle.
I’m not sure this is as cut and dried as some on the right are claiming but its certainly much more worthy of greater scrutiny and coverage than everyone on the left is claiming.
I’m confused why Chrysler would release a statement that people who didn’t have their dealerships closed down were happy with the decision. That’s news to anyone?
This is not the same as things what happen in America.
Didn’t used to be anyway.
Water is wet.
People are having their livelihoods taken from them by government decree, following government interference in what is usually a clear, transparent process. It doesn’t matter how the numbers shape up, that’s the essence.
It’s quite possible that all these dealerships would have been closed if the Obama administration hadn’t fucked up the auto company bankruptcies. In that case, however, there would never have been the possibility of political hacks deciding who stays in business and who doesn’t.
How many “news” organizations are going to run stories about “association of dealers not troubled by pattern of closings”?
It’s propaganda.
So last night Bammy and his “Maxim Hottie” She Hulk went to a Broadway Show in New York courtesy of me, you, a Gulfstream, and a few hundred thousand of our tax dollars.
Financial crisis anyone? The epitome of FDR (fireside chat from the lobby during intermission)? If Bush had have done this? Oy vay! [And, btw, thanks for that term, my about to be fucked over & cut loose Israeli friends]
And what did our union humping socialist messiah take his Klingon Mary Magdalene to see on Broadway at our expense?
Nothing.
Or, as the brilliant happyfeet put it over @ Tom Maguire’s joint, “Don’t nobody tell M’chelle but he took her to an off Broadway show not a Broadway show. It says so right there in the Politico article. Idiot.”
Maybe I misjudge and he took M’chelle to see this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4USFBn0UmLg
Nah. More likely this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkCXtMHCUTc
Bet he thought the “player” was awesome. Screw that Shakespeare dude, Comrade Stalin is the bomb.
Maybe they’ll bring back the ‘K’ car.
More likely the Kei car.
I wonder how long before the obligatory blame the jews starts? Who are they going to get to burn the congress to the ground?
This is playing out like something from Bertold Brecht.
Hey, Joe, where you goin’ with that Bell System table knives (2) in your hand?
It’s odd, the trip to NY, since there are plenty of solid reputable theaters in Washington. They could have gone to this one, for instance, to see a production of The Civil War and avoided the inevitable questions like, “Other than the destruction of your nation, how did you like the play?”
“They could have gone to this one, for instance, to see a production of The Civil War and avoided the inevitable questions like, “Other than the destruction of your nation, how did you like the play?”
That’s so friggin’ good. Lincoln is laughing in Heaven.
Hat tips:
14. That is the point, and the problem, in a nutshell.
20. My sentiments exactly
I remember in America how you used to sort of know in the back of your mind that even when corrupt presidents and their corrupt media tried to cover corrupt stuff up that one day there would be historians that told the true story, and the story would be heard.
“This is devastating to me,” said Fitzgerald, 49, from a colleague’s office. He brought his hands to his lips and took a deep breath. “But I have to continue on. All these people are looking to me for leadership. I’ll turn into a puddle when I go home tonight when no one can see.”
Team Obama is working on it! A green version. Think Fred Flintone’s car.
[…] H/T Protein Wisdom […]
That is the prize for each $100,000 of Chrysler bonds you turn in. The UAW thanks you.
The blog community is a doing outstanding research and analysis on this story. Keep up the good work, y’all. Perhaps these efforts will uncover a fact or set of facts that simply cannot be ignored. Even if it turns out that there was little or no corruption regarding the dealership closures, billions of taxpayer dollars demand transperancy.
My question: What else can we do make sure that these questions are answered and not just maliciously swept aside? Tomorrow, the bankruptcy court is expected to rule in favor of Chrysler’s proposal. With Democrats in charge, we all know we can’t expect much traction from the feds unless there is a public outcry. But how can there be an outcry when the mainstream media will do everything it can to smother the oxygen of anyone who opens his mouth?
I guess we can get on the phone tomorrow to our Republican (or “Blue Dog” ha!) Reps and Sens – not sure what even they can do in Bama-Pelosi-Reid world, though. Any other ideas? How do you force a prostrate media to get out from under and wipe itself off?
“I guess we can get on the phone tomorrow to our Republican (or “Blue Dog†ha!) Reps and Sens”…
Uh…no you can’t. Not in Obama’s America anyway.
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/287939.php
Fascism. It’s what’s for dinner.
Jonah Goldberg, call you office.
I remember in America
Johnny remembers, too.
And sets the record straight about the CRI&P.
You did not get those, poon. That is a lie, and you are a fucking liar. Who did you copy and paste that from, without attribution?
“I got different numbers”
We already got your number doughnut.
Zero.
Didn’t Dan tell you to take a hike, “poon”?
Also, “poon”, does your “disability” counselor know that you’re capable of typing at a keyboard for 8 hours a day?
You know, there are paying jobs doing that.
Different numbers than what, poon? What’s teh suset you are working with? Why do your numbers, different or not, matter or mean anything?
No, “poon”, the source of all this nonsense is you.
Johnny remembers [America]
Ditto.
…”see where banning or swearing at anyone who questions them has gotten the “Conservative†movement.”
There’s a good bumper sticker in there somewhere.
Anyway, you’re banned poon.
Now fuck off.
Banning and swearing. See what I did there?
Someone draw thor a map.
It has no clue, SBP. It copied and pasted something from somewhere and proclaimed itself the winner.
Hmm… “poon” seems to have discovered pressing business elsewhere.
The four letter word “job” (tm, Joe Biden) appears to work like showing a cross to a vampire.
I hope that poon is compensated for his fucktardery by some Soros-y entity. I’d hate to think anyone’s life is so empty that they do this for free.
That’s it, thor.
Now “insult” me by calling me a professor again. Maybe accuse me of riding a bike.
Them’s some industrial-grade insults, Jethro.
Abe, “poon”‘s life is every bit that empty.
So is thor’s.
Don’t you just love when thor postures like a grown-up as though the reams of archival evidence of how psychologically disturbed he is should be paid no mind?
You have mentioned you ride a bike, no?
No.
You have mentioned you teach math, no?
No.
Batting 1.000, thor.
Of course, even if either of those were true they’d be some mighty lame-assed insults.
If the writing you post here is a fair sample of what you learned in your MFA program, I’d say you got ripped off, hoss. Bad.
Please do thor. I’m dying to see what insults a wanna be writer with no talent will contrive when knowing nothing about my life or the people (or animals) in it.
There is disgusting ugly news of murder in Kansas, George Tiller shot to death on his way into church.
“If the writing you post here is a fair sample of what you learned in your MFA program”…
Wait…MFA? There’s a Mother Fucking Asshole program?
Must be an Ivy League or trust fund thing.
In any case, I think thor must have aced it.
Well done assclown.
I thought SBP was sPies, Pirates and Brigands.
That would be me, failboi.
But I don’t ride a bike, and I do not “teach math” (hint: there are a fair number of subjects that use math that aren’t “math” — we generally call those “science”, “engineering”, “economics”, “finance”…. oh, there’s dozens of ’em!)
But do continue making a fool of yourself.
Go on, thor. Post a link to where I said I ride a bike, or where I said I “teach math”.
When you’re done with that, you can explain to us why those two things, even if true, would constitute some kind of devastating insult.
“There is disgusting ugly news of murder in Kansas, George Tiller shot to death on his way into church.”
….
A prayer for his family, but that’s it.
You, Sir, have led me to believe you<
I’ve “led you to believe” nothing of the sort.
That is a lie, and you are a liar.
Other than that, great point.
You, Sir, have led me to believe you peddle your bicycle and shout at passing cars.
Kind of hard to sell the thing if you don’t let the cars know it’s for sale.
ok good cause I was really confused there for a second
Yeah, Abe. You’d think that an MFA-havin’ lit’rary-type d00d would know the difference between “peddle” and “pedal”, wouldn’t you?
“Comment by thor on 5/31 @ 12:24 pm #
Sarah Palin pals around with terrorists.”
Which is not true, but even if it were, it’d be better than your paling around with little boys.
Prof. Hand Brake
I’m wounded to the quick.
I wonder if thor has any tats.
Then maybe you can do us the favor of getting to the end point already.
“As well as with the math teaching.”
SBP yells math at passing cars?
“Hey! You in the Escalade. 2 + 2 = 4!”
“You Pythagorean bastard! I’m in the bike lane!”
“A x B x cosign = getthefuckonyoursideoftheroadjerkoff!”
thor is pure magic.
Why would your dullwitted fantasies be of any concern to me, thor?
I still have a job which makes a real difference in the world, and you still don’t.
Must suck, huh?
“Comment by Dash Rendar on 5/31 @ 12:42 pm #
I wonder if thor has any tats.”
One on his bony ass the says “Enter Here”
Line up a hunderd people. Go down the line and execute every 4th one. The rest will also be “pleased as punch” with they way it turned out. Not only that but they will now do everything in their power and more to please you, forever, you now own them, body and soul.
“I wonder if thor has any tats.”
If so, it’s one a these…
http://www.holytaco.com/30-awesomely-bad-unicorn-tattoos-gallery
This is too boring.
Translation: “I’ve shit myself in public again, so I will now run away.”
When thor’s brain chemistry enables him to feign being a grown-up his insult gear suffers. He needs the dark, uninhibited crazy to really get his insult game on, but, alas, then he can’t argue coherently. Poor guy is lost in his own crazy head.
I don’t remember that, but I’ve read old stories about it.
Look at Darleen’s Korea post above, and, best you can, put yourself in the environment it describes, not in the “I wouldn’t stand for it!” kind of way that believing things like you said about America might incline you to do, but like: “What kind of person would I be — how would my mind work? what would I allow myself to know? how would I go on — if that’s my world?”
Because they do exactly that. There’s no Enlightenment-style yearning-to-be-free shit there. Every Korean could bludgeon the cunt who comes to tell him what color to paint the house, just up and go “I’m done. This isn’t life. Fuckers gotta die, right the fuck now, starting with this asshole,” and end it. They could all do it.
And they all don’t do it. The ones who would have done it are dead, in prison, or stewing in madness, and the ones left operate — they live and know — in the space allowed.
And that is life. It’s to go on. Humanity adapts — and the “human spirit” last seen circa 1800-something was an adaptation to the frontier, to HERE BE DRAGONS. Truth, justice, and the American Way are for a world that gets bigger. Korea doesn’t.
And we, too, are here now, stuck, becoming who we’ll have to be.
We’re them, with cars. For now.
Poon, Dan’s link has no numbers and doesn’t mention those individuals.
Psycho is on to something there.
Poon can come back when he provides a verifiable name.
Holy shit, my bad. I thought SBP was sPies, Pirates and Brigands. Hmm, I think I owe you a pronounced apology.
I think University owes you money back.
with cars.
And a bunch of other stuff what means just a few inclined to bludgeony types can have a disparate impact what will very likely be worth the price of admission I think.
“a few inclined to bludgeony types”
Read as: Greasy Union Thugs I think.
The greasy union thugs are getting fatter and fatter and happier and happier every day. Soon they’ll forget what it was like before our dirty socialist government was their bitch or was it the other way around who cares hey you want some Fritos?
So poon is gone, but thor’s still here?
Boggling.
“Free Poon”
It takes a job and some charisma I think to get that.
“Free Poon Soon”
Its close to puberty I guess.
I wonder if thor has any tats.
Wonder no more.
I’m not banning poon because I disagree with him. I’m banning him because he thinks it’s all right to declare everyone here dishonest, yet thinks that it still makes sense to post if that’s the case. I don’t like people who hide behind the anonymity blanket while they make baseless accusations about others.
Yeah, I was really hoping that thor had realized that his continuing to post here was accomplishing nothing besides motivating someone to track him down. Oh well. “Experience keeps a dear school but thor will learn at no other.”
Comment by thor on 5/31 @ 12:52 pm #
Truth hurts, eh cocksucker?
I questioned the narrative, RTO
An unforgivable sin.
Dan wants me to use my real name on a site where I regularly get death threats.
I questioned the narrative, RTO
You are a liar, PudgeO.
The victim complex.
Heh. He questions teh narrative.
poignant
“I don’t like people who hide behind the anonymity blanket while they make baseless accusations about others.”
So when you gonna ban whore?
You are a drone in support of the narrative, if that wasn’t clear.
where I regularly get death threats.
This is also a lie.
“Dan wants me to use my real name on a site where I regularly get death threats.”
You post at kos?
Okay, poon. Let’s see some of your regular death threats, please.
Here’s one from yesterday, Dan.
#
Comment by gus on 5/30 @ 12:28 pm #
He’s a pussy. Poontang is what he is. He thinks this is all a joke. He won’t when somebody blows his head off in the coming years.
https://proteinwisdom.com/?p=14984#comment-726391
I was really hoping everyone else had realized that responding to whor just wastes your time.
Honestly, folks, we’re not dealing with people interested in hashing through the various claims to come to a consensus. We’re dealing with people for whom the political value of a claim is the sole measure of the claim’s worth. They’re here to take up your time, to get you pissed off so they can get a juicy quote, to get you so pissed off you just disengage.
I can’t remember who made the parallel first, but they’re the online equivalent of the brownshirts who would go to opposition party meetings to start a fight. They’re more interested in keeping us from talking to each other than in paying attention to anything we say.
Fuck ’em. Ignore ’em.
One from yesterday poon? There were others you mean?
Riiiight. Paranoid/delusional much?
I don’t care if you go or stay. I just question the failure to apply the same standard to anotehr troll.
Yes. That question remains in my mind also.
Comment by thor on 5/31 @ 2:27 pm #
So when does whore get banned.
He’s still posting.
And still chasing young boys.
Actually, whor’s been banned multiple times. He just refuses to abide by it, and (arguably) so commits a federal crime everytime he comments here since he was told not to.
So ignore him.
meya, Marla, unlike you, appears to be fully aware of the limitations of the dataset. She is also, unlike you, applying valid statistical models to correct for the known problems.
Another moronic trivergence – meya, thor, and poon. Liars, all.
You know, no statistical wankery would be necessary if they’d simply publish the criteria they used.
I find the argument that this data is “proprietary” unpersuasive. If you want to be a government monopoly, you need to be prepared to give up secrecy (obviously there is an exception for national security, but that does not apply here).
[…] Dan Collins, who points out that the Chrysler spokeswusses are doubling down . . […]
poon: try to get a job.
I’m intrigued by you, asshole, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Lemme know how Dealergate works out for you. Also, that Obama birth certificate thing. Kerners, go!
Nouaint.
Well, thor, give me an address and we’ll find out.
So Clinton donors are said to have lost their dealerships? Wait, so a bunch of people who didn’t donate to Obama had their dealerships closed too? This reduces the initial concern in what way, again?
This is like fighting the Black Knight
What? When did we switch to right-wing Sotomayor slamming? I thought we were still on dealergate.
Rob, that’s the smartest thing that’s been said on this entire topic.
Oh jeez. Where do I deposit the vitriol that’s been sent my way?
What if I called you a coward, Dan? Would that be me banned? Maybe so, but it’s far from a baseless accusation.
I suppose if I do manage to get banned, I can start a blog devoted to the statistical analysis of Dan’s “Enemies List”. I wonder if there’s any correlation to party affiliation.
Dollar General Motors. Merge the companies, close all the dealers. Get Rahm and Timmy on the horn, I think this will work.
Obama just wants to eat his waffle, party on Wednesday, play golf and grab a burger then have date night on Friday! And smoke he wants his smokes! Why do we care about his political payoffs? Just like we aren’t supposed to care about his illegal donations!
Let the man have his fucking fun, wingnuts!
“Poon can come back when he provides a verifiable name.”
Like ‘astrobeefcake’?
[…] THE HUMBERS: Dealergate & cronyism continued; and “You know you’ve hit a nerve when Robert Gibbs and Chrysler LLC have consolidated their talking points around the Dealergate scandal” …. (malkin, […]
I now understand the power of a martyr.
It might be a better idea to see dollar sales or unit volume of the dealerships that had been closed down.
From the other posts, it looks like the stat guys are saying that of the 75/25 rep/dem dealership split, the chances of a 26%/16% mix of rep/dem closings are less than 3 thousandths of a percent – is that enough to reject the null and is that the right way to read the statistics?
Would be interested to see how the dollar sales breakdown and/or unit volume breakdown went. If more even, maybe no bias. But if really skewed the other way, well…
Thanks for that, Todd, the Sofa King. We need to have better numbers, don’t we? Still, there seems to be a prima facie case that we’re looking at something non-random.
Right. Seems like more of the ‘nothing to see here, let’s move on’ line. Of course, if the situation were reversed…
Sure, all we have right now is an overwhelmingly compelling case that this needs to be investigated more closely. The left’s response is “shut up” and “look, a bird!” That just tells me that the need to examine it is even stronger.