Free Republic

This is an amazing video of where technology is taking us with music and the Internet. I’m sure you will all like it.

…General Motors admits that the company is repaying the loan with other government money, but says a year ago “nobody thought we’d be able to pay this back.” And of course, that’s the problem, isn’t it? It’s almost as if General Motors honchos don’t want to admit that paying one loan back with another loan (from the same source) isn’t paying the loan back at all. It’s just transferring the liablity from one bucket to another within the same well. How many more politicians will call Whitacre out for his lies? How much more can the unions gouge out of...

...[GM] CEO Ed Whitacre is telling us the truth, but not the whole truth. What about the other $45 billion that American (and Canadian) taxpayers gave General Motors last year, which was originally part of that loan? Why doesn’t he mention that still-outstanding amount as he so proudly touts the payback of less than 14% of GM’s unsettled debt? When do we get that money back? [crickets]...

General Motors Co. Chief Executive Ed Whitacre will receive a pay package valued at $9 million to help turn around the government-owned auto maker, according to a regulatory filing. Mr. Whitacre, according to the filing, will receive a $1.7 million base salary this year. The rest of his compensation is comprised of $5.3 million in stock available to him beginning in 2012 and restricted stock units valued currently at $2 million. The auto maker will pay former-CEO Frederick "Fritz" Henderson $59,090 a month beginning this week for consulting on international operations. The consulting deal surprised some GM executives. Mr. Henderson...

General Motors Boss Whitacre To Receive $9M Pay Package Mr Whitacre will receive considerably more than his predecessor General Motors (GM) has said chief executive Ed Whitacre will get an annual salary of $1.7m (£1.1m), plus $7.3m in shares at a later date. The pay package was approved by the US Treasury, which spent billions of dollars bailing out the carmaker last year and now owns a large stake in it. GM also said Mr Whitacre's predecessor, Fritz Henderson, is being paid $59,090 a month as an adviser. Mr Whitacre took over as interim chief executive in December last year....

General Motors Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre promised Monday that taxpayers will make a profit on the $50 billion that Treasury has sunk into the company over the past 13 months. "I think the government's investment is well placed and I think they'll make a lot of money," Whitacre told reporters after an event at the annual auto show here Monday morning. "It won't be too long." The promise of profits on the investment, which was echoed by GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz in an interview with CNNMoney.com Monday, is quite a bit more bullish than any previous forecast made...

The CEO of General Motors, is set to resign. Chairman Ed Whitacre will serve as interim CEO. Update: According to Whitacre, the GM board has accepted Henderson's resignation.

General Motors Co. Chairman Edward Whitacre Jr. will be the pitchman who starts the automaker's new advertising campaign this weekend with television spots urging people to try GM's new vehicles, a person briefed on the campaign said Wednesday.

DON'T BE HARD ON GM'S NEW CHAIRMAN EDWARD WHITACRE for confessing during an interview last week that he knows nothing about cars. He simply suffered a Joe Biden moment. Texans often tumble over their tongues when taking a stab at humility. In fact, few car companies, let alone their CEOs, know how to build cars, which is why so many of them are conking out. The Obama administration, in my view, picked Whitacre to run General Motors (ticker: GM) because he has a more important talent: He knows how to play Chicago-style politics.

"I don’t know anything about cars," Whitacre, 67, said yesterday in an interview after his appointment. "A business is a business, and I think I can learn about cars. I’m not that old, and I think the business principles are the same."

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Let's go back to me, myself, on this show March 30th, I said this. RUSH ARCHIVE: He doesn't know anything about the automobile business. He doesn't know how to change a tire. The automobile business needs car guys, people that love grease, get in there, manufacture these engines and cars, great designs, lines, make people want to go out and buy these cars. Car companies have to be run by financial people today because they're basically health care and retirement funds.

From Financial Times - SBC stock falls over DirecTV negotiations By Robert Clow and Peter Thal Larsen in New York Shares of SBC Communications fell 3 per cent during Monday afternoon trade in New York in the wake of news of its possible bid for DirecTV. SBC's stock, which closed at $25.18 last week before the mooted transaction involving General Motors' satellite business became public, was down 89 cents at $24.29. If a bid is made, which is still not certain, it would be designed to create a company with a bundle of local, long-distance, wireless, broadband and entertainment services....