Ford and UAW Open Union Contract Negotiations in Dearborn

The protectionistic automotive industry and its Big Union hacks, who favor more protections, more subsidies, and more monstruously expensive wages and benefits packages, continues unabated, despite the War Party and its statist hacks claiming that the economy is turning around for the better.

According to today's online edition of the Detroit Free Press, the Ford Motor Company and its union-protected employees, who are represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW), met with each other before 1 p.m. to begin discussing its contract negotiations at Ford's headquarters in Dearborn today. Company chairman Bill Ford and chief Alan Mullaly met with UAW's execs Ron Gettelfinger and Bob King to launch the negotiations followed by a round of handshakes with one another.

Apparently the dying automaker, while trying to implement its unconvincing, unworkable Way Forward game plan, has lost over a record $12.6 billion last year. This recently-enacted plan is supposed to close 16 plants, which would dump 44,000 hourly and salaried jobs, not to mention retooling its line of cars and trucks.

These negotiations are purportedly designed to talk the UAW into accepting hourly wage labor cost cuts as much as by $21 an hour. The paper is saying that it could pare down the company's wage and benefits to about $50 an hour.

Another example of an inefficient automaker that's desperate to save its jobs and union employees at the expense of its customers. Have these employees considered the possibility that Ford CANNOT be saved, simply because the business isn't as profitable as it used to be and has failed to produce for its customers while hiking production, labor, and other costs for its own union-protected employees at the expense of their customers?

They are merely delaying the inevitable. Nothing can save Ford from its fiscal malfeasance. The only sound thing for Ford and its employees to do is to call it quits and file for bankruptcy.

Readers Respond to Editor & Publisher Hit Piece on NY Times' Piece on Ron Paul

Readers rebuke the editorial staff of the Editor & Publisher journal for its hit piece on the Ron Paul for President campaign when it was scribing about the New York Times' piece on Paul.

(Thanks to Lew for his blurb on this on his site's blog today.)

Why Latin America should root for Ron Paul

5.- George W. Bush is the best friend of the socialists in the region: he encourages the worst reactions and political trends because people think he embodies "capitalism" and "freedom"

4.- The U.S. military bases and covert operations protect mercantilistic interests abroad, sending the message that might makes right.

3.- The U.N, the IMF and the World Bank foster paternalistic and collectivistic tendencies in our countries which corrupt our cultures.

2.- A stronger U.S. economy makes a better trade partner for our countries.

1.- The U.S. can become a role model once again for the West, meaning classical liberalism i.e. peace, cultural advancement and civilization.

Editor & Publisher on the New York Times' Piece on Ron Paul

The newspaper industry's top journal Editor & Publisher wrote a lengthy article on the New York Times and Christopher Cadwell's infamous coverage of the Ron Paul for President campaign. The rag takes a swipe at the Ron Paul campaign and takes a shot at the NY Times piece, while portraying Paul supporters as "wackos."

Here's an excerpt of the article from E&P:

NEW YORK A feature piece in this coming Sunday's New York Times Magazine on Republican candidate for president, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, portrays his followers as including a wild mix of "wackos" on both ends of the political spectrum. Paul, a libertarian, has been gaining media and public attention of late.

The cover line reads: "A Genuine Radical for President." The headline inside: "The Antiwar, Anti-Abortion, Anti-Drug-Enforcement-Administration, Anti-medicare Candidacy of Dr. Ron Paul."

The article closes with the author, Christopher Caldwell, attending a Ron Paul Meetup in Pasadena. The co-host, Connie Ruffley of United Republicans of California, admits she once was a member of the radical right John Birch Society and when she asks for a show of hands "quite a few" attendees reveal that they were or are members, too. She refers to Sen. Dianne Feinstein as "Fine-Swine" and attacks Israel, pleasing some while others "walked out."

Caldwell notes that the head of the Pasadena Meetup Group, Bill Dumas, sent a desperate letter to Paul headquarters: "We're in a difficult position of working on a campaign that draws supporters from laterally opposing points of view, and we have the added bonus of attracting every wacko fringe group in the country....We absolutely must focus on Ron's message only and put aside all other agendas, which anyone can save for the next 'Star Trek' convention or whatever."

A Ron Paul Addict Rethinks Her Support for Paul

A Ron Paul addict, who goes by the name of Rachel on YouTube.com, is "rethinking" her support for Ron Paul. Of course, this is the same former addict who goes on about why she believes Ron should not be president, largely because of his infamous "Dr. No" nickname that he's earned during his congressional tenure.

Something tells me that something -- or someone -- got to Rachel shortly after she praised Ron Paul on the site. And my bet is that someone on either of the three major GOP campaigns (Giuliani, Romney, or McCain) scared her off. And I bet it was someone from Giuliani's campaign staff who got in contact with her and convinced her not to support Paul.

It's either that or this gal is simply making a huge mistake to not support Paul. Either way, something is fishy here.

Update:
Apparently, I was completely off, considering I didn't watch all of the entire video. (I only watched maybe 30 seconds of it.) Rachel was actually joking at the end of it, saying that she was only kidding and that she still supports Paul. I'm glad to know that she was joking about it. It teaches me to view something completely before I opine about it.

New York City Firefighters Against Giuliani

A group of New York City firefighters who were heavily involved in finding the bodies of the victims on Ground Zero on 9/11 are speaking out against Benito Giuliani in this 13-minute mini-documentary they created.

This is an incredible account of the arrogance, bureaucratic, and incompetent actions of the Giuliani administration during his tenure as mayor of New York City.

The New York Times Praises Ron Paul

The leftist New York Times praises Ron Paul on his anti-war, anti-Drug War, anti-Medicare candidacy so much that it's devoted an entire piece on him. The paper, thanks to leftist journalist Christopher Cadwell who agrees with him mainly on the Iraq War debacle and not so much on Ron's other anti-state positions, is giving Paul glowing remarks on his stands against the Bush administration and the Neo-Cons' pro-war activities in Iraq so much that it's finally saying what we ideologically pure libertarians have been saying all along: Ron is the only pro-freedom candidate who will stand up to the pro-war, pro-state special interests and the Neo-Cons who crave absolute power over us.

Here's an excerpt of what the NY Times said yesterday:

Alone among Republican candidates for the presidency, Paul has always opposed the Iraq war. He blames “a dozen or two neocons who got control of our foreign policy,” chief among them Vice President Dick Cheney and the former Bush advisers Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, for the debacle. On the assumption that a bad situation could get worse if the war spreads into Iran, he has a simple plan. It is: “Just leave.” During a May debate in South Carolina, he suggested the 9/11 attacks could be attributed to United States policy. “Have you ever read about the reasons they attacked us?” he asked, referring to one of Osama bin Laden’s communiqués. “They attack us because we’ve been over there. We’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years.” Rudolph Giuliani reacted by demanding a retraction, drawing gales of applause from the audience. But the incident helped Paul too. Overnight, he became the country’s most conspicuous antiwar Republican.

Paul’s opposition to the war in Iraq did not come out of nowhere. He was against the first gulf war, the war in Kosovo and the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, which he called a “declaration of virtual war.” Although he voted after Sept. 11 to approve the use of force in Afghanistan and spend $40 billion in emergency appropriations, he has sounded less thrilled with those votes as time has passed. “I voted for the authority and the money,” he now says. “I thought it was misused.”

There is something homespun about Paul, reminiscent of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” He communicates with his constituents through birthday cards, August barbecues and the cookbooks his wife puts together every election season, which mix photos of grandchildren, Gospel passages and neighbors’ recipes for Velveeta cheese fudge and Cherry Coke salad. He is listed in the phone book, and his constituents call him at home. But there is also something cosmopolitan and radical about him; his speeches can bring to mind the World Social Forum or the French international-affairs periodical Le Monde Diplomatique. Paul is surely the only congressman who would cite the assertion of the left-leaning Chennai-based daily The Hindu that “the world is being asked today, in reality, to side with the U.S. as it seeks to strengthen its economic hegemony.” The word “empire” crops up a lot in his speeches.

This side of Paul has made him the candidate of many people, on both the right and the left, who hope that something more consequential than a mere change of party will come out of the 2008 elections. He is particularly popular among the young and the wired. Except for Barack Obama, he is the most-viewed candidate on YouTube. He is the most “friended” Republican on MySpace.com. Paul understands that his chances of winning the presidency are infinitesimally slim. He is simultaneously planning his next Congressional race. But in Paul’s idea of politics, spreading a message has always been just as important as seizing office. “Politicians don’t amount to much,” he says, “but ideas do.” Although he is still in the low single digits in polls, he says he has raised $2.4 million in the second quarter, enough to broaden the four-state campaign he originally planned into a national one.

Welcome to Let Liberty Ring

Welcome to the first post of Let Liberty Ring. I am toying with the design of the blog, but hopefully we can get this underway.

I will be posting daily on this blog as well as my other one. In fact, I'll be cross-posting on this blog quite a bit, but also post original commentaries and ideas on this blog.

The reason for this blog is to unite libertarian bloggers -- from all sides of the philosophical spectrum -- who can post on more than one blog. Those who are new to Blogger can enjoy this blog, as they are being exposed to pro-freedom perspectives.

Anything else? Then let the posting begin....