Leave Toyota Alone, Please
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Business, Politics
Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Democratic congressional delegate from the District of Columbia, decided to use the congress’s inquiries into the Toyota recall situation to ask about her own car.
This action should not have been tolerated by any of the other members of the Transportation and Infrastructure committee overseeing these hearings. I’m sure Ms. Norton felt she was making an important point, but it was not only pointless, but it was selfish. “So I ask you, is there any chance that the Camry hybrid will be recalled?” Probably a question that millions of other Toyota owners in this country alone would like to ask the company’s executives but won’t get the chance.
This question was proceeded by a story of Ms. Norton looking for an “American” hybrid, which apparently she defines as a hybrid produced by either Chrysler, Ford or General Motors. By the way, Ford and GM (to my current knowledge) both do make hybrids, but apparently Ms. Norton was unaware of that. She also wasn’t aware that most Toyotas sold in North America are built in the U.S. with parts made in the U.S., as Mr. Yoshimi Inaba told her following the story.
She then said that it was Toyota and suggested that therefore must be a Japanese car, and then accused the executives of disavowing themselves from the car and blaming Americans for the problems that the vehicles are being recalled for. Whether or not it was in jest, that really is an inappropriate comment to make to a company that is providing jobs to Americans even though they don’t really have to.
Do you think that the comments made by Ms. Norton were appropriate? John C. Dvorak on the latest episode of No Agenda (episode 177 from 2/25/10) doesn’t think so. And honestly, I agree with him and I hope the voters of D.C. are paying attention.
Q&A with Senator Orrin Hatch
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Politics
Today, I went to a class where Utah’s Senator, Orrin Hatch was the guest speaker. Senator Hatch allowed us to ask him questions and answered all of them, including one I asked him about torture concerning his comment back in August on ABC’s This Week saying “we don’t want to cripple our ability to be able, in very crucial times, to get the information we’ve got to have to save our country and to protect our people.”
I asked him what his thoughts were on water boarding, torture and other interrogation techniques and he says that water boarding does work and does get people to talk. He also says that military personnel such as the Navy Seals also get water boarded as part of their training so that they no what it feels like. He also said that he is not really for water boarding detainees and that there is a limit to what interrogators should be able to do. Interesting, considering that some leaders in his party continue to claim that they are for water boarding detainees and that it is not torture.
After the class, I was able to speak with him and hear him answer more questions. He recently said that Guantanamo Bay beats Illnois, referring to the weather of course. According to him, Guantanamo has all new facilities and that their is nothing illegal or immoral happening there. And with the recent objections of people like New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg saying he would like the trial Khalid Shaikh Mohammed moved out of Manhattan, the trial may be held in Guantanamo after all.
Another thing that I said that I really agree with is in defense of NASA and the space program which has recently been the subject of proposed budget cuts. This maybe because his constituency will be hit with the budget cuts as it would cut jobs in Utah as Representative Rob Bishop has pointed out, but also as the amount of technology that NASA has been able to develop that has benefited the country. NASA’s budget in 2011, they propose spending $100 billion over the next five years (2011-15), which seems like very little compared to $548.9 billion for the Department of Defense or even $49.7 billion for the Department of Education’s discretionary spending.
Senator Hatch also mentioned in the discussions that he believes Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee in 2012, citing his experience with economic matters and in business as the former CEO of Bain & Company. I also agree with this, however there will be a lot of competition from Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement.
Overall, I enjoyed the Q&A with Senator Hatch, he is an excellent on the spot speaker and is able to eloquently defend his positions on the issues. If the Republican party wants to take back control of Washington, they need more people like Senator Hatch on their side.
My Opinion on Citizens United
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Politics
Recently, the Supreme Court of the United States, this somewhat helpless but wonderful country I happen to reside in decided that corporations had the same rights as a citizen of the country in regards to free speech. Particularly with regards to donating money to political campaigns. The High Court has handed down their opinion on the matter, and now here is mine:
If corporations now have the same rights as regular individual citizens, then I like some extra rights as well. You see, a few days ago, my wireless mouse that I use with my laptop at home broke and now continues to click continuously despite whether or not I am actually pressing the button. Therefore, I would classify it as a troubled asset and I request that the government give me $1 million of TARP funds for it. Hey, I’m going bankrupt every day that I wake up and decide that I am hungry, the least this government could do is buy one lousy million dollar broken mouse to help me through this economic crisis.
Another way I would like to survive the economic crisis is to sell shares of myself on the New York Stock Exchange. I was thinking a modest $50 million IPO just to help fund some upcoming projects I have in mind like dumping toxic waste in the west desert of my home state of Utah or purchase the naming rights to an arena to be used by a WNBA franchise.
You see, I really don’t understand what Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito (do you see a pattern here?) are thinking in their decision to pass this decision down. That’s right folks, politics is going to become more like NASCAR! I can just see Sarah Palin wearing a racing jump suit that says Palin/Beck 2012 on the front and DuPont and Kellogg’s on the back (because you know she would). And get this, apparently Obama’s re-election campaign is brought to you by JP Morgan Chase and AIG, what a surprise!
This is going to be a disaster. We already are fully aware that corporations fund campaigns as much as they want through certain means such as political donations from their major shareholders. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act created by one of the most non-conservative conservatives in the Senate, John McCain from Arizona, and one of the most liberal, Russ Feingold from Wisconsin, came together to cosponsor it. The bill’s main purpose was to stop soft money from freely flowing into campaigns. It also requires the candidates to stand by their advertising.
I’m Andrew Davis, and I approve this blog post.