Posted on 06/20/2008 12:39:31 PM PDT by Deltaforceeoo7
NAFTA's WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS COUNTRY! OIL IS HIGH BECAUSE ITS TRADED ON A GLOBAL BASIS TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER. TODAY ITS OIL, TOMORROW MAYBE IT WILL BE FOOD. THE USA NEEDS TO GET BACK TO TRADE PROTECTING TARRIFFS, LIKE IT USED TO BE. JOBS WONT BE GOING OVERSEAS IF THEY HAD TO PAY A TARRIFF TO GET THEIR PRODUCTS BACK INTO THE USA.
Lee Iacocca, the man who rescued Chrysler Corporation from its death throes? He's now 82 years old and has new book, and here are some excerpts:
'Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car.
But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, 'Stay the course'Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America , not the damned 'Titanic'. I'll give you a sound bite: 'Throw all the bums out!'You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up.
I hardly recognize this country anymore.The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq , the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving 'pom-poms' instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of the ' America ' my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for.I've had enough. How about you?I'll go a step further.
You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have. The Biggest 'C' is Crisis ! (Iacocca elaborates on nine C's of leadership, crisis being the first.)Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history.
We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A Hell of a Mess. So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia , while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.But when you look around, you've got to ask: 'Where have all the leaders gone?'
Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.
Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it.
Make a plan . Figure out what you're going to do the next time.Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when 'The Big Three' referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it?Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem.The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.
I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?Had Enough?
Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope I believe in America . In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America 's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises: the 'Great Depression', 'World War II', the 'Korean War', the 'Kennedy Assassination', the 'Vietnam War', the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11.
If I've learned one thing, it's this: 'You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play..That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to 'Action' for people who, like me, believe in America . It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the crap and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough.
Good ole foul mouth Lee got the govt (taxpayer dollars) to bail out Chrysler.
Take your tax increases to a left-wing forum and leave FR alone.
Rick Perry and Haley Barbour handled the impact to their states with shining performance.
I think Chrysler payed it back too.
Do you hear anything like that from Wall Street's "Socialize the risk, privatize the reward" pukes?
I did not check but if memory serves Chrysler paid the money back.
It’s a shame Iacocca doesn’t see the root of all of our problems. From what I read from him, and have seen him say in the past is that he doesn’t like what the government is doing, but yet still wants the government to fix whatever problem there is. This is the mindset that far too many people have.
The root problem is big government. The solution is to get rid of as much government as possible. Until we do it’s a joke to say we live in a free society.
Lee is a liberal, but makes some good points here.
These are my reasons why we are in this mess:
There are no leaders because when one emerges, we tear them down and relish in the sport.
Nobody steps forward with a plan for anything because they get no support from those who didn’t think of it first and can’t get credit for it.
Party Politics is more important than finding solutions.
There are no “truths” anymore.
You forgot the (Barf Alert!) tag.
What did he get in stock options?
Most people don't realize that a CEO's salary constitutes about 1% of his total compensation.
did not check but if memory serves Chrysler paid the money back.
That's how loans work.
For inflicting America with the curse of those g*d@#ned 4-wheel boxes called ‘mini-vans’, Iacocca should be consigned to one of Dante’s inner (or outer, makes no difference) circles of Hell for all eternity.
Yep.
I work in Mississippi and those folks, every one of them, are proud of their Katrina respnse.
Nobody in NOLA should hold their head high.
Not to mentin that the US Goobermint had to purchase a metric shitload of those POS K-cars.
Anybody in the USAF or US Army couldn’t go ten feet without seeing those lime grees pukemobiles.
Iococca gets far too much credit for getting a gub’mint loand and making shitty cars.
Tariffs are a terrible idea, even when you use all capital letters.
Lee, I don’t know where you got the idea you were some kind of expert on leadership. You had to run to the government to bail you out instead of providing the kind of leadership that would bring your company out of a financial crisis.
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