Oracle of Delphi

The Brady Bunch Band The Partridge Family Oh yeah and the Osmond Family!

I had one, hated it and the AT&T (Cingular) network. I switched back to Verizon, sold the iPhone on EBay, made out pretty good on EBay too.

Well it is Kin Tuck Key! :rotflmao:

Today on FastLane, we kick off a series of videos entitled, “The Case for GM,” in which General Motors leaders discuss the challenges we’re facing, what we’re doing to address them — and also why we still feel good about our future. This series will work better as a dialogue, so we’d love to hear your responses — and we’ll respond to questions that are offered in the spirit of sincere dialogue. Some of the responses will come from our execs; many will come from GM team members (and yes, we do think of ourselves as a team.) Check back on Monday, when GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner weighs in with his thoughts and stay tuned for more commentary by other GM leaders in the weeks to come. Thanks, and please let us know what you think. - Christopher Barger, Director, Global Communications Technology <------ That's Barger not Borger! Link: http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/archives/categ...the_case_for_gm

I would like to bid a dollar. After all it has been in 2 accidents that I know of, and there are those odd stains on the seats.

By Jim Hopson Manager, Pontiac Communications Although there have been rumors floating around all summer, we can now confirm that the G3 is officially coming to the U.S. If you haven’t heard, the Pontiac G3 is a stylish five-door that features excellent fuel efficiency (27 mpg city, 34 mpg highway) plus a high level of standard content and interior passenger space, all rolled into a vehicle that fills a current void in our product portfolio of the fastest growing segment in the market, small cars. We’re talking five star crash rating, the best shoulder and hip room in its class, comfortable seating for four adults (five, if you’re “friendly”), the best city fuel economy of any vehicle Pontiac offers, and what we expect to be the lowest starting price in the Buick-Pontiac-GMC showroom. You can check out Pontiac.com to learn more. But, as with all rumors, there are those who have already been critical and have raised a number of questions about why we would bring the G3 to the U.S. We could give a whole series of rationale, business-like answers, but we’d rather just shoot from the hip, so here goes… Isn’t the G3 just a re-badged Chevy Aveo? The G3 and Aveo share a lot of components, true. But Toyota and Lexus also share components. Why re-engineer the wheel unnecessarily? Why do you need a G3 and a Vibe? Put the cars side-by-side and you’ll see the difference clearly. The G3 is about 16-inches shorter than the Vibe, so, while they are both five-doors, they are in two different classes. Kinda like saying a Corvette ZR1 and a Yugo are the same thing just because they’ve both got four wheels. How can the G3 possibly be a Pontiac? Because it’s sporty and fun-to-drive when compared to many of the cars in its segment. True, it’s not a RWD V8, but that’s why the G8 is sitting in the same showroom. Different strokes for different folks. The long and short of it is that only a fool buries his head in the sand when times are changing, and, with one hundred years in the business, we’ve never seen the automotive world change as much as it has in the past 18-months. Pontiac customers, both new and old, are changing their priorities, too, and we want to be there for them with a complete line of sporty alternatives. The G3 is a great little car, pure and simple, and we hope you’ll feel the same when you test drive one as it arrives in dealerships in spring 2009. Is it perfect? Heck, no, but that’s why your feedback here and in other forums is so important. Change and growth are never easy, but knowing that we’re all in it together makes its possible. Link: http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/archives/2008/...s.html#comments

Reports are coming in that the General is considering selling its medium truck operations to Isuzu. This news is totally unconfirmed by both parties, though Isuzu says it would be more than willing to listen if GM felt the desire to talk. All of this comes shortly after Navistar chose not to follow through on its non-binding agreement to purchase the commercial truck unit from General Motors after seeing what's been happening with the U.S. economy and gas prices. After that deal went sour, GM said that it would continue looking for options, so this particular piece of the rumormill pie is anything but surprising. We contacted GM to see if the automaker had anything to say regarding the hubbub, and, as expected, it's staying tight-lipped for the time being. An Isuzu tie-up makes some sense, as the two truck makers have had dealings together in the past, most notably in the design of GM's current mid-sized trucks, the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon. Link: http://www.autoblog.com/2008/09/19/gm-cons...tions-to-isuzu/

By TAMMY JOYNER The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sunday, September 21, 2008 Later this week, the final vehicle will roll off the line at the last American auto assembly plant in Georgia. Once that happens on Friday, production at the General Motors plant in Doraville will be over. So, too, will be Eddie Bailey Sr.’s automaking days, just 430 hours shy of 30 years — automatic retirement at GM. As GM factory in Doraville closes, an era rolls away “I can’t complain. It’s been a good living, even after always being on the edge,” said Bailey, who started as a line operator. “They raised my family and helped plan my future and retirement and paid for some of my education. I even got a granddaughter in college, and, through GM, I’m able to put money aside to help her.” GM, which turned 100 last week, helped generations of autoworkers such as Bailey settle comfortably into a middle-class life. Come Friday, Bailey will have mostly memories, a decent retirement package and a black leather jacket to mark three decades of punching a time clock at the 61-year-old Doraville plant. Until then, he and the other 1,000 or so workers — down from 3,100 a few years ago — have about 3,000 vehicles to complete by the time the plant closes. “Looking at the schedule, that’s about 360 vans a day,” said Bailey, an ordained minister. While the vans are headed to Canada, the future of many of the plant’s workers isn’t as clear. The closing couldn’t come at a worse time for many. Life in the auto industry is punctuated by ups and downs, but officials at the Detroit-based automaker concede this is the worst in GM’s century-old existence. The economy is fragile. Wall Street is in chaos. Big lenders and investment houses are collapsing under a load of bad debt. Gas hovers at $4. (When the Doraville plant opened in 1947, gas cost about 15 cents.) The plant’s demise “is the biggest thing that ever happened in our city,” Mayor Ray Jenkins said. “I just hope we’re prepared for it.” Doraville officials are optimistic about the second life of the 165-acre property near Spaghetti Junction and a MARTA rail station. “The town is ripe for redevelopment opportunities,” said Luke Howe, the mayor’s assistant. “We’re trying to create more revenue through development.” City officials aren’t wasting time. They’re assembling a team of experts to help make the most of the redevelopment, which some envision will be a mixed-use destination like Atlantic Station. A city planner who will work with the redeveloper was hired last week. And the city’s attorney was also the city attorney in Hapeville, home of the former Ford Motor plant that closed in 2006 and is being redeveloped. He was familiar with the things that are going to be coming up within the next few months, Jenkins said. Four companies — News Broad Street Cos. of Orlando, Jacoby Development of Atlanta, the Sembler Co. of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Hines of Houston — are vying for the opportunity to remake the Doraville site, a former dairy farm and residential area. The companies signed confidentiality agreements with GM and are prohibited from discussing their visions for the site. GM said it will pick a developer before the end of the year. But for the current employees, there are two paths out of the plant. Regular GM workers, who now make up about a third of the plant’s 1,000 workers, have the option of moving to another GM plant, taking a buyout or waiting for a job in the company’s job bank. Bailey has opted to spend his 430 hours in GM’s job bank, which he sees as the bridge to full retirement. Temporary workers, some of whom joined the plant to replace workers who left in a big wave a few years ago, aren’t so lucky. “A lot of the temporary workers are — I don’t want to say upset — but they’re done with it,” said Sam Alston, a temporary worker who installs second- and third-row seats in the vans. “They’re not giving us severance packages or a chance to transfer. It was rough being a contract worker. We didn’t get any benefits. No vacation and our pay was less than the actual GM workers.” Alston came in two years ago making $18 an hour and now makes $25 an hour. A full-time GM worker doing the same work earns about $30 an hour, Alston said. Many workers are just counting down the hours. “It’s like a ‘fine-get-it-over-with mood,’ ” Alston said. Difficult decision Abandonment was inevitable. Even in the heyday of minivans, GM was overshadowed by Honda, Toyota and Chrysler. “They just have no volume of sales,” said David Healy, auto analyst at Burnham Securities in Sierra Vista, Ariz. “They don’t have enough volume in that segment to be profitable. So they’re abandoning the plant basically.” Now Americans’ taste for supersize SUVs and minivans is waning. The gas crisis has sharply changed the industry’s already gloomy outlook. GM doesn’t sugarcoat its problems. “As we transform the company, we’ve had to make difficult decisions regarding plants, including Doraville,” spokesman Chris Lee said. “A lot of it’s product-driven. It has nothing to do with the work force or the community. It’s the product they built. Demand isn’t there, so we had to make tough decisions.” This isn’t the first time GM had to make a tough decision affecting the metro area. In 1990, the company closed its Lakewood assembly plant. When Doraville is shuttered, Georgia will have to wait for the Kia plant in West Point, scheduled to open about a year from now, before getting back into the auto assembly business. Final goodbyes As workers poured out of the plant’s north entrance one afternoon last week, some seemed resigned to Friday’s closing. “I don’t know about the last van rolling off the line. I don’t want to see it. I’m ready to get it over with,” said Reshonda Johnson, who does contract work as a logistics coordinator for Ryder, the trucking company. Johnson works at the auto plant ordering car parts and will get a severance package from Ryder. Once she clocks out Friday, Johnson and her family will go to Gatlinburg, Tenn., for a vacation. “I need to ease my mind,” said Johnson, who has been at the plant nine years. “I enjoyed working there, until I heard they were throwing us away like we were nothing.” Like Ryder, tire companies, truck and office equipment dealers, gas firms and other suppliers that have relied heavily on the automaker will be hit by the closing. So will the restaurants and convenience stores the GM employees frequented. “It’s going to be slow,” said Gary Singh, who works at the Shell station down the street from the plant. “We got a lot of business from there.” Retiree Ernest Jett was there when the first car rolled off the assembly line in 1947. Jett, then 23, started out stripping floors and cleaning the plant for $1.09 an hour. He finally got a job on the line in the paint shop. “I was colorblind. But I never made a mistake painting,” Jett said proudly. “I followed the code: A was black. C was white.” Friday, Jett will be on hand to see the last vehicle roll off the line. Last week, the World War II veteran – who landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, on D-Day – sat in his living room showing visitors pictures of his days at the plant. “In a way, it’s sad,” said Jett, who retired in 1990. “Why did they have to move out of Georgia?” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MADE IN DORAVILLE Most popular Doraville-produced cars 1947 Buick Super Woody 1951 Oldsmobile 88 1951 Buick Super 8 Special 1953 Buick Skylark 1955-57 Buick Century 1956 Olds Super 88 Convertible Coupe 1957 Pontiac Star Chief 1958 Pontiac Bonneville 1960 Oldsmobile Super 88 1965 Chevy Impala 1976 Chevy Monte Carlo Source: General Motors Link: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dek...e_gm_plant.html

Keep outsourcing America, soon no one in the US will be able to afford anything, if it's not already to late.

Speaking of registering to vote. Indiana had 500K new voters register to vote so far for the November election.

Caddy and Holden don't play nice. So I wouldn't hold my breath.

Look, all of us Verizon users can now talk to each other and never use our minutes! :AH-HA_wink:

It was a very nice day, around 60 degrees with 20 mph gust on occasion. As for my kilt, I got many compliments from both women and men, and also an occasional grandmother.

Don't worry Dave, the insane just don't get humor. More B pillars for everyone!

Speaking of Gramps and the Auto Industry, I just saw a video of him being booed, and UAW workers shouting "Obama 08, Obama 08, when Gramps and his Stepford wife came to visit. It looked like the inside of the Orion plant. That put a smile on my face.

One answer that should be correct is marked wrong.

Click the link, then select GM Centennial Quiz. Link: http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?A...CIAL01/71228001

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 Daniel Howes Commentary: Questions override future If you want to understand General Motors Corp. today, as it marks its 100th anniversary, consider two data points: The automaker will open three plants this year -- in China, India and Russia -- a testament to a nearly 20-year global expansion that has made GM a formidable and generally profitable player in virtually any market of consequence outside the United States and Canada. And, second, GM is spearheading an industry push to secure at least $25 billion in taxpayer-backed loans from Congress, the culmination of a harrowing three-year race to radically remake an iconic business that -- like it or not -- joins the United Auto Workers in being poster children for American industrial decline. It wasn't supposed to be this way. By now, more than 15 years after a boardroom coup swept retired Chairman John F. Smith Jr. into the top executive spot and he authored an ambitious strategic realignment, GM was supposed to be a global powerhouse at home and abroad. Its captive finance arm, GMAC, would be pumping billions in profits to the parent company, not controlled by a private equity shop. GM's labor costs would be competitive. Its parts unit, now Delphi Corp., would be a successful, independent supplier, not mired in bankruptcy and asking GM for yet more cash. On the factory floor, its production system, borrowed from Toyota Motor Corp., would be among the industry's most efficient. (It is.) In showrooms, GM's new cars and trucks would be more competitive and of higher quality. (They are.) And all of this, driven by smart technology and astute investments in next-generation alternative powertrains, would reverse a decades-long market share slide and make GM profitable again. But it hasn't, at least not here at home -- the largest and richest automotive market in the world. Rough patch? Or too late? Questions about GM's future loom larger on the passing of its 100-year anniversary than perhaps any time in a storied history: the birth of the UAW, the Arsenal of Democracy during World War II, the golden age of the 1960s, the oil shocks of the '70s, the recession of the early '80s, the first Gulf War and the "Keep America Rolling" campaign in the somber days following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks seven years ago. That was then. Now? Will GM be able to muster the financial wherewithal to weather dramatic structural change in the U.S. auto business, powered mostly by energy concerns? Did it get started soon enough, back in 2005, on the latest iteration of its extreme makeover? Can its much-improved products and the push into alternative technologies, exemplified by the Volt hybrid to be unveiled on its 100th birthday, repair decades of damage to GM brands? Does it have vigilant board oversight and the right management with enough credibility on Wall Street to complete the turn? The question is essentially answered by GM's billion-dollar monthly cash burn, awful credit ratings and a dismal market cap of $7.7 billion -- that for a company with $181 billion in annual revenue. Good ol' days set the tone GM today is more than a tale of two companies separated by oceans and markedly divergent financial results. The automaker has struggled to meld a single culture as attuned to the outside world as it is to its Midwestern roots. Why? Partly because GM's core DNA is interwoven with an American exceptionalism, born of the pre-Japanese years when Detroit booked profits at will, that simply does not exist in the cutthroat global auto industry. "GM was making so much money that it was hard for management to tear up the game plan, and it was hard for the union to resist asking for more," says John Casesa, a longtime industry analyst and now managing partner of the Casesa Shapiro Group in New York. "In the 1960s, GM was making 20 cents on the dollar. GM was really a U.S. company. We made all our money here and we didn't think globally until we had to." Unlike, it should be said, such rivals as Toyota and Honda in Japan and Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz in Germany. All of them, despite (or perhaps because of) their countries' mid-20th century detours into warmongering, developed into export-driven companies that needed to understand foreign markets and their consumers if they hoped to grow sales. GM did, but not at home. Nor did its Detroit rivals, which helps explain why the first years of GM's second century promise to be some of the most sobering yet. Link: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...160318/0/AUTO01

Loop

And people in Hell want ice water.

Poop

How is that highbrow? Charm is my middle name!

A call for Mr. Richard Cranium!

For your next German language assignment, should you so accept it, you must learn to say. I am out of toilet paper.

Who?