Daily Archives: July 13, 2011

07/13/11

Car Guys vs. Bean Counters – A Book Review

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Purchase Your Copy Here

Ever wondered what really happened with General Motors? Well, Car Guys vs. Bean Counters by Bob Lutz tells the story and it is a fascinating read. Lutz believed in doing business the old fashioned way – by producing high quality cars that people couldn’t wait to drive. Not just large toasters that plug into the wall and that no one, and I mean no one, wants to drive. And they are insanely expensive toasters to boot.

Mr. Lutz brought GM back from the dead. He re-crafted GM’s business model, kicked butt at the executive level and laid down the law at the worker level. In other words, he’s one heck of a businessman. Never enamored with cars much, I will never look at them quite the same way again after reading Lutz’s book. Now I view them more as a product of love and works of art. During his ‘fixing’ of the GM problems, he lays out step by step what he did and how he approached the knotty problems facing him there.

Lutz has a gift for humor and the book is laden throughout with anecdotes. This is a story that will warm your heart and keep your rapt attention on his story. The American auto industry is a love affair with America. It is not just sales. Actually, the story of American autos is a big part of American history. And Americans love their cars like nothing else.

This book is a wonderful read. As an accountant, I can tell you that while we know numbers and business, it is someone like Lutz who knows how to keep the heart of an industry beating. And if the media would stop attacking business and work with business, many of the things wrong today in the business world could be resolved. This book gives me hope that one day the American car and the American dream will be restored. I miss those days. One thing I know though – the quickest way to wreck a business is to turn loose a bunch of MBAs to manage it. They couldn’t find their carburetor with a flashlight and a map.

Car Guys vs. Bean Counters is a terrific book. Want to feel better about America again? Buy it, read it… It is in those such as Bob Lutz that we will find the cure for what ails America and entrepreneurs. It covers in detail “the battle for the soul of American business.”

07/13/11

U.S. Embassy Releases Video Taking Tough Immigration Stance…On Jews!

Read more at The Blaze…

NRO’s Mark Krikorian explains:

One of our embassies has released a well-produced video warning the locals not to try to work illegally in the United States. It includes testimonials from people who got burned by unscrupulous employers and by their own greed and stupidity. It also features an agent from the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security warning, in a friendly but unequivocal way, of the dire consequences facing those who try to game immigration and visa laws, including a lifetime bar from visiting the U.S.

Illegal immigrants from Mexico – not so much. Crickets. More Jew hatred and bashing from the Obama administration. Evil asshats all.

07/13/11

‘Fast and Furious’ Investigator Issa Responds to Team Obama’s New Gun Regulations

Read more at Gateway Pundit…

Senator Charles Grassley released this statement yesterday:

Senator Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, gave the following comment after it was announced by the Justice Department that Federal Firearms Licensees along the Southwest Border would be required to report multiple long gun sales. The Judiciary Committee has primary jurisdiction over policy related to the Justice Department. Grassley is also leading an investigation into the risky strategy employed by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to allow guns to be sold to straw buyers and then watch the guns be transported to third parties without following the guns.

“We’ve learned from our investigation of Fast and Furious that reporting multiple long gun sales would do nothing to stop the flow of firearms to known straw purchasers because many Federal Firearms Dealers are already voluntarily reporting suspicious transactions. In fact, in just the documents we’ve obtained, we are aware of 150 multiple long guns sales associated with the ATF’s Fast and Furious case, and despite the fact that nearly all of these sales were reported in real time by cooperating gun dealers, the ATF watched the guns be transported from known straw purchasers to third parties and then let the guns walk away, often across the border. This makes it pretty clear that the problem isn’t lack of burdensome reporting requirements. The administration’s continued overreach with regulations continues, and is a distraction from its reckless policy to allow guns to walk into Mexico.”