Manufacturing Lies but Not Jobs

While the Republican machine is manufacturing a crescendo of lies and innuendos about Obama and the Democrats, a number of depressing reports came out today.

AP reported that "Manufacturers, already hit by mounting job losses, saw business plummet to the lowest level in 26 years in October. Sharply lower auto sales and shrinking construction spending, meanwhile, provided more evidence the U.S. has entered a recession that may be deep and prolonged.
The Institute for Supply Management said Monday its manufacturing index fell to 38.9, the lowest reading since September 1982, when the country was near the end of a 16-month recession. Any reading below 50 signals contraction."

Tribune reports that "General Motors' October U.S. sales plunged 45 percent, and Ford's and Chrysler's weren't far behind, as low consumer confidence and tight credit combined to bring the industry's sales to an "unsustainably weak level" that is the worst in 25 years.
Automakers sold 838,156 vehicles in October, 32 percent fewer than the same month last year and the worst performance since January 1991, according to Autodata Corp. and Ward's AutoInfoBank.
Chrysler's sales tumbled 35 percent and Ford's dropped 30 percent. Toyota's sales fell 23 percent despite its zero-percent financing offer, and Nissan and Honda posted 33 percent and 25 percent declines, respectively. Overall, General Motors Corp. sold 168,719 vehicles in October, while Ford Motor Co., including its Volvo brand, sold 132,278 light vehicles and Chrysler LLC's sales totaled 94,530 units. If GM's sales were adjusted for population growth, October would be the worst month of the post-World War II era. GM said its light truck sales tumbled 51 percent compared with the same month last year, while demand for passenger cars fell 34 percent. Despite the steep drop, GM's total was enough to keep it ahead of Toyota Motor Corp. for the No. 1 U.S. sales spot. Toyota, which rolled out an offer of zero-percent financing during the month, sold 152,101 vehicles. The Japanese company's light truck sales fell 34 percent, while car sales dropped 15 percent. Honda Motor Co.'s sales fell to 85,864 vehicles as truck sales fell 29 percent. But sales of cars from its Acura luxury division rose 6 percent. Nissan Motor Co. sold 56,945 vehicles, and its truck sales dropped 52 percent."

Innovations in Packaging.....But Politicians Need Truth-In-Labeling

Today, Amazon's home page featured an interesting announcement from Jeff Bezos.


According to AP, "Amazon.com working to make packages easier to open, more environmentally friendly -- One of the worst things about getting a new gadget or toy is trying to free it from the hard plastic casing that houses many products. To reduce those battles, Amazon.com Inc. said Monday it is working with manufacturers to make the products it sells easier to open and more environmentally friendly.

Initially, the online retailer is altering the packaging in the U.S. on 19 top-selling products from a variety of manufacturers -- among them toy maker Mattel Inc., software maker Microsoft Corp. and flash memory card maker Transcend Information Inc. Starting in 2009, Amazon's effort will include its international sites as well.

The online retailer said that it is looking at eliminating plastic "clamshell" cases and plastic-covered wire ties that hold items such as toys in place. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said his goal is to get all things sold through the site into "frustration-free packaging."

Amazon also said it would work to use less packaging material."

If only the politicians used less packaging of themselves and put more truth in their labeling.

Two days to go....to either stay afloat or to sink like a McBrick

This evening I watched (on MSNBC) Obama with Bruce Springsteen at a rally in Ohio. Obama was in fine form, and gave what I consider to be his best speech in this election cycle. He referred to McCain running Bush's economic policies and Cheney's military policies, as a two-fer.

Dick Morris and his buddies are running a TV commercial that shows clips of Jeremiah Wright and associates Obama with him.

It is clear that the country is in such a bad shape that even if Obama wins, the best he can hope to achieve is to keep things stable or perhaps get some minor improvements. If McPalin win, the middle class will continue to be trampled by the ELEPHANTS. McCain plans to cut taxes and cut spending- the perfect recipe for the aging infrastructure, the neglected education, and a health care system on life support.

If Obama wins, I hope the first thing he does is to improve the political system and its transparency. The corruption in these elections is simply gross. People need to be held accountable.

Nightmares about 4 more years of McBush...

Heard on NPR today that over the past few months, GWB had added a trillion dollars to our national debt. Yet, as he once said, he likes to go to bed early, before 9 PM, no matter what the circumstances.

The economy has serious structural problems, created over many years of crooked administrations rigging the system to overwhelmingly and unethically favor the investor class. If Obama is elected President, the best case scenario would be a status-quo or mild improvement in the economic situation over the next four years. Debt will go up, but we might likely see some infrastructure improvements. If McBush is elected, the situation would deteriorate much further, with much higher debt levels, and perhaps another war to jump start the domestic economy.

On another note, the "moralistic" crooks who support the right to bear arms, and the right to kill, but then strangely oppose a woman's right to choose, have some more deaths to answer to. Recently an 8-year-old boy who accidentally shot himself to death Sunday had his father's permission to participate in a machine gun shoot at the Westfield Sportsman's Club. Christopher Bizilj, of Ashford, Conn., was firing a 9 mm Micro UZI machine gun at a pumpkin around 2 p.m. when he lost control of the automatic combat-type weapon and shot himself once in the head. He died at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. (from

Yesterday, during Halloween, a child was killed in South Carolina while he was out trick-or-treating.