GM IPO crushes Republican predictions

Image via Wikipedia

By Clare Baldwin and Soyoung Kim

NEW YORK | Wed Nov 17, 2010 6:38pm EST

(Reuters) - General Motors Co GM.UL pulled off the biggest initial public offering in U.S. history on Wednesday, raising $20.1 billion after pricing shares at the top of the proposed range in response to huge investor demand.

GM sold 478 million common shares at $33 each, raising $15.77 billion, as well as $4.35 billion in preferred shares, more than the initially planned $4 billion. More of the article here.

And click here for quotes from Republicans tearing down the deal that kept GM going. Note they are all silent today. Unlike Bush's TARP, management was thrown out as GM re-tooled.

Republicans Warned That GM Rescue Was ‘Road Toward Socialism,’ ‘Predictable’ Disaster'

By Pat Garofalo at 12:50 pm   http://thinkprogress.org/
Rep. John Boehner (R-OH): “Does anyone really believe that politicians and bureaucrats in Washington can successfully steer a multi-national corporation to economic viability?” [6/1/09]
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL): “It’s basically going to be a government-owned, government-run company. …It’s the road toward socialism.” [5/29/09]
Image via WikipediaRNC Chairman Michael Steele: “No matter how much the President spins GM’s bankruptcy as good for the economy, it is nothing more than another government grab of a private company and another handout to the union cronies who helped bankroll his presidential campaign.” [6/1/2009]
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC): “Now the government has forced taxpayers to buy these failing companies without any plausible plan for profitability. Does anyone think the same government that plans to double the national debt in five years will turn GM around in the same time?” [6/2/09]
Rep. Tom Price (R-GA): “Unfortunately, this is just another sad chapter in President Obama’s eager campaign to interject his administration in the private sector’s business dealings.” [6/2/09]
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX): The auto company rescues “have been the leading edge of the Obama administration’s war on capitalism.” [7/22/09]
Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ): When government gets involved in a company, “the disaster that follows is predictable.” [7/22/09]
Read the entire article here.

Election Ends

And the election ended as Americans had been prepared for government split. We heard reports of various scenarios from complete Republican control of Congress, to Democrats hoping to hold on and win, and to what we eventually obtained - a split where Republicans have the House and Democrats the Senate. What does it all mean?

1) The country is still a strong democracy - what isn’t working can be voted out with a chance to change course. It is also a last gasp for the old guard to get their programs in before things change. Notice how all the House Republican leaders are older white with business ties? Well, one thing about the Obama win was the understanding that America will no longer be majority white going forward, so in many ways Boehner’s team looks like a flash of the past. And, that last chance is good for America because the debate doesn’t stop just because of an election - give these guys a chance to show what they have.

2) Voters are interested in the economy and jobs - no matter about the Tea Party rhetoric - incumbents and professional politicians won for both parties. Voters in the mid-west returned several Republicans to congress that had been voted out two years earlier. Alaska retained their sitting Senator and long-term congressman despite calls for changing Washington. It seems as if the problems that started this economic mess aren’t over and won’t be for some time.

3) What is going to happen within the Republican Party over the next two years? Whatever it is will be historic, whatever it is. We see Rand Paul wanting to bring in the Tea Party for Washington meetings just as Boehner names his country club leadership. Will Sarah Palin take the party and run for President giving Americans a chance to vote for someone where more than 60% of Americans say is unqualified? Fascinating what happens when uneducated people are fed short half truths and outright lies.

4) Jon Stewart/Keith Olbermann - liberal ignorance? Chamberlain? Maybe not that bad, but let’s remember that if Republicans and Tea Baggers are the enemy and have another agenda, and have shown they will do almost anything, then appeasement just might not work. And maybe I’m getting the wrong thing out of the message here, please enlighten me, but more civility to a bully didn’t work in elementary school and probably won’t work here. What we need to do here is respond here in kind, and then cooperate when the bullies do. It’s all in Robert Axelrod’s, The Evolution of Cooperation, where game players studied what the best strategy would be with someone that doesn’t share your goals. And, to briefly sum it up, the winning strategy is to respond in kind, and then cooperate as long as the other side does it. So, don’t put down those guns yet - we’ve seen the warnings, but hopefully it won’t get that far if we start now with the program.

Spam health care ads

Amazing how many spam health care ads popes into this Google Adsense account in the first week of the account. We're all in for a debate but certainly don't want to let all the conservative and Republican slogans and lies slip in unsupported. Hats off to the marketing gurus who are talking uneducated people into supporting their cause of making the very wealthy even richer at the expense of the less well off.

Who would have the balls to call for a tax cut for the richest IN A TIME of WAR. How may family members of U. S. billionaires served in the military? So they (billionaires) don't serve, take the fruit our service men's lives and want a tax cut too? And to kill health care reforms for poor Americans?

Shame, shame, Tea Partiers, conservatives and Republicans.

Anyway, we had to block eight anti-health care ads, and one promoting a conservative U. S. based religion. I'll keep the fight on these pages and if we can get someone to put in a respectful rebuttal we'll have discussion.

You’re not going to get to push your message through this website without facts and justification.

Sent from my iPod