Why is it that Government will pledge $200 billion to help Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae and another $700 billion to bail out financial institutions but they won't give $25 billion of that $700 billion to the Big Three? Also, why the hell does the government allow $700 billion to be used to help the economy and there is no clear picture of what they will be doing with it.  Everyday they are changing their strategy.  In fact, yesterday Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that he believes our major financial institutions have been stabalized so the money won't be going to them.  If they are stabilized then I think we should get our $700 Billion back!

Back to the Big Three bailout: the Democrats are pushing for the bailout while the Republicans are trying to stop it.  I think the reason can be summed up in one word: Union.  Democrats are very union friendly and Republicans see them as a hindrance on business.  The Republicans are saying they won't bailout an industry that isn't making any moves to help themselves.  How about giving them the money they want under the condition that the unions disappear?  Lower the salaries and the costs to build the vehicles will go down which you can pass on to the customers so your sales go up.  There was a time and place for unions but now there are Federal employeement laws that make a union unnecessary.  I bet if you added that stipulation in to the bailout the aisles would flip; Democrats would be calling foul (after all, who pays for their elections) and the Republicas would be in support.  This country isn't ready to get rid of unions so on a more realistic idea, force high MPG regulations on them.  I want to see 40 MPG gas burning cars (not unproven hybrids) by 2015.  If you can't have 50% of your cars meet that by 2015, the government loans come due in full and you will have to sell off your assets to pay it off.  No more long term loans, give them goals to meet.  If they meet the goals then everyone wins.  If they miss the goals then we aren't out of money for too long.

Frankly, I don't think we should be bailing anyone out.  We got to this place because of greed and businesses not being regulated enough.  Elected officials will never make the hard choices and never be firm enough to make this work.  Taking more of my tax dollars and giving to a car company for a car I won't buy (give me 40 MPG and we'll talk) will only delay our problems and will vaporize more money to get there.

My inner narcissist has won out.  For the last few years I've googled my name, "Brett Jones," just to see what comes up.  There are currently 57,100 hits for my name and I have yet to find one about me.  There are football players, Dr's and even a memorial for a very young Brett Jones (sad) but, nothing about this geek.

I've been very surprised about how many of my articles on this blog get ranked so high on google rankings.  I don't do any SEO and I really don't try to do anything to drive traffic.  So, I will remain doing nothing (I'm lazy) and will start the Brett Jones Experiment.  I want to see if one day I can actually find something about me on google. 

To my loyal readers (both of you): Please don't take this as a challenge to post something mean or damaging.  This is all in good fun.

Here we go:
To read about Brett Jones, please check out his blog.

**Update 12/4/2008: Progress update is here.

In Sarah Palin's interview on Fox News (11/10/2008) she made mention about the bloggers in their parent's basement wearing pajamas.  Off topic: I guess it's only mamma's boys that can't get dressed or elite media in this world?  Back on topic: She said the book ban was a lie.  That "Harry Potter wasn't even published when [she] was the Mayor of Wasilla".  Unfortunately, that's not true.  She served two three year terms from 1996-2002.  The first Harry Potter book was released in the UK on 6/30/1997 and later in the US on 9/1/1998.  Clearly she was serving as Mayor during that time.

Maybe it was an oversight or maybe it's just another "fact" that she is trying to slip through us mamma's boys.  Either way, we need to keep her honest so we don't have to see her again in 2012.