Chris Doane you better get Night Vision goggles

[Oracle of Delphi]

YUMA AZ -- In the latest US government handout to big corporations, the US Army is giving a lot of free Sonoran Desert land on the Yuma Proving Ground to General Motors for private development.

GM and the Army recently signed a deal to create a joint-use facility on 2,400 acres north of Yuma next to US 95. GM also will get an unspecified amount of land adjacent to this site for its own exclusive use.

The facilities will be developed for testing GM's mostly gas-guzzling global warming vehicles. Because it will be on military protected land and under restricted air space, GM is assured of privacy as it develops new Hummers.

The Army recently claimed it needed to expand the Yuma Proving Ground, but apparently the Army still has plenty of land to give to big corporations for development and profit.

GM sold its longtime Desert Proving Ground in Mesa in December, netting $265 million for 3,200 desert acres, which will now likely be fully paved and developed.

So if GM spends about $100 million to build a new test track facility on YPG's free land, it will keep about $165 million in it's pocket. Sweet deal for GM.

Mesa gets more sprawl, GM profits and gets free land, and military training lands in the sensitive Sonoran Desert will be paved for corporate use.

I was born and raised in a GM town (Lansing MI), and I sympathize with the US auto industry, but this bad Bush/Cheney corporate welfare deal is a rip-off for the public-interest.

Link: http://dpatterson.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html

Edited January 3, 2008 by Pontiac Custom-S

[Camino LS6]

What an asshole that writer is.

[Guest YellowJacket894]

Hey, FOG, where can I get that certain kit you describe in your sig? I don't mind any kind of assembly one bit ...

[Chris_Doane]

Toooo slow Mr. PCS.

Brenda and I knew about the Yuma deal months ago.

[Oracle of Delphi]

I had to wait until it was safe to say anything! :AH-HA_wink: So how are you going to get past the military? You can tell me, we are dear and close friends, are we not?

Edited January 3, 2008 by Pontiac Custom-S

[daves87rs]

Very interesting....

[Chris_Doane]

I had to wait until it was safe to say anything! :AH-HA_wink: So how are you going to get past the military? You can tell me, we are dear and close friends, are we not?

Dress like a M1A1?

[thegriffon]

Get a job as a civilian contractor. Just your luck the Hummers they test will be classified as national security matter by the army and you'll end up in G't'mo if you try and photograph them.

[loki]

Dress like a M1A1?

NICE haha

[Chris_Doane]

Get a job as a civilian contractor. Just your luck the Hummers they test will be classified as national security matter by the army and you'll end up in G't'mo if you try and photograph them.

*shrug* I already shot a HUMVEE prototype this summer and I'm still free

[vonVeezelsnider]

*shrug* I already shot a HUMVEE prototype this summer and I'm still free

That's what YOU think

*cues spooky music*

[FAPTurbo]

That writer is a dumb$h!. Seriously.

[jcgable]

I'm from Tucson, and let me assure you of one thing-the area around Yuma is far from precious. It is the barren part of the Sonoran Desert. The rest is much more beautiful. I doubt GM is destroying more than a few dead bushes...

[makfu]

That writer is a dumb$h!. Seriously.

The writer isn’t a “dumb$h!”. Far from it, he is a very good propagandist who is producing content designed for consumption by those who already share the writer’s views. The content is designed to reinforce already held opinions and not to actually change anyone else’s. Let’s look at how this “report” is structured to appeal to the ideological left:

1. The entire conversation is framed as a discussion about corporate “welfare” and how the current administration is “propping up” GM with this deal.

2. Specifically attempts to equate US Military land with “public land”, as in they are giving away and asset that should be returned to the people.

3. The writer then proceeds to state his left-wing assumptions (that are plausible) about how GM and the military will use the land for testing “global warming vehicles”.

4. He then breaks out how much money GM is saving from this deal though he has no real figures carefully using the word “suppose” in perfect weasel word fashion.

5. But just to soften the tone at the end, and show that the writer is in good keeping with his worker brethren in the American auto industry, he throws in that he is from Lansing Michigan.

This is pretty much a picture perfect example of left-wing propaganda intended to reinforce the indoctrination of those who are already sitting in left field. This is no different than the right-wing opinion blurbs you will see from similarly far-right sources.

Now, the following is what I believe to be the likely truth about the events described in this article, though obviously, I am just applying my own logical and reasonable assumptions:

1. GM’s existing proving ground was likely not extensive enough to create all the conditions needed for testing vehicles per the specifications the DOD gave them.

2. The military likely didn’t want testing of their future vehicle platforms performed at a location they can’t directly supervise (and secure).

3. GM worked out a deal whereby they got use of the land for commercial vehicle testing in exchange for outfitting the proving ground.

4. GM decided it wasn’t prudent to pay the operating costs for two proving grounds, so they closed mesa.

Pretty simple and when interpreted in this fashion and it certainly doesn’t appear to be “Corporate Welfare” in the real EU+Airbus sense of the phrase, now does it?

Again, not dumb, just twisted.

[tmp]

The writer is pushing an agenda.

As a left-wing democrat I am appalled at how little this government cares about one of our largest and last home-grown industries.

If there is government "welfare" being handed it's being given to foreign car manufacturers, who are allowed to buy land here and build cars out of foreign-made parts, paying less in taxes and employee costs than the American companies that have been here for generations, while keeping their home turf off limits to fair competition and keeping their currency artificially low to keep their products salable here.

Oh, the government let GM have a few acres of scrub; boo freaking hoo.

[Drew Dowdell]

The writer is pushing an agenda.

As a left-wing democrat I am appalled at how little this government cares about one of our largest and last home-grown industries.

If there is government "welfare" being handed it's being given to foreign car manufacturers, who are allowed to buy land here and build cars out of foreign-made parts, paying less in taxes and employee costs than the American companies that have been here for generations, while keeping their home turf off limits to fair competition and keeping their currency artificially low to keep their products salable here.

Oh, the government let GM have a few acres of scrub; boo freaking hoo.

aaaaaand .....end of thread