Just a couple of days ago I was lamenting the fact that we hadn’t heard much out of Helen Thomas.  The 89 year-old reporter has made a name for herself by asking difficult and sometimes off the wall questions of US presidents, but has been awfully quiet lately.   Too quiet for my taste.  Maybe the media gods are listening, because today, Thomas grilled Robert Gibbs over the president’s blatantly pre-packaged press engagements.

Gibbs, as usual, is flustered and utterly unprepared for a difficult question, probably because he receives so few of them.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a less effective press secretary. 

Regardless of his non-answers,  after almost two years of relentless softballs, today was a breath of fresh air.   It was truly wonderful to see the press corps make a  decent stab at asking something worthwhile.

Kudos to Thomas and Co.  Please, do yourselves a favor, and keep it up.

-Robert Laurie

Poor little Lynndie England, seen here in the photo that made her famous, says that life is tough these days.  Boo-Hoo.

According to a frighteningly sympathetic article on the Fox News website, England has had a tough time of it after being released from prison.  She served only half of her measly three-year sentence.

“I don’t have a social life,” England complains, “I sit at home all day.”

The unimaginable hardships don’t stop there.  She claims that she cannot travel because people point and whisper about her, barely leaves the house, and that she can’t get a job because, when managers try to hire her, everyone else threatens to quit.

She’s tried dying her hair and dressing differently, but nothing works.  She says that “it’s my face that’s always recognized.”

Maybe that’s because it became the face of the ugly American when photos showing the Army Private smiling and pointing at inmate’s genitals were published several years ago.  The pictures were seen as proof by those who already hated the United States and as a good reason to change their minds for many who didn’t.  The pictures became the single greatest recruiting tool Al Qaeda has ever had.

England claims that she was a pawn - a scapegoat who followed orders and got burned.  The military tribunals didn’t buy the Nuremberg defense after WWII, and they didn’t buy it in this case either.  England was given a short three years in prison, but was released after serving only half her sentence.

It was a grotesque injustice.  In her actions as an Abu Ghraib guard, and in those photos, Lynndie England strengthened our enemies ways they could never have expected.  As a result, the United States has suffered, at the very least, a global public relations blow from which it will take decades to recover.  Her betrayal of her uniform and the values of this country are as traitorous as her disregard for basic human decency is disgusting.

Lynndie should still be in prison.  If the military justice system had any dignity, she would have been given life without parole.

That she has the unmitigated audacity to complain about the difficulties she has brought upon herself, while ignoring the damage she’s done to her country, is so far beyond dispicable it boggles the mind.

-Robert Laurie

According to the Washington Post, a senior Obama administration official has claimed “I don’t know how much we’re going to get back.” 

The quote was in reference to the federal loans that have, long story short, resulted in government ownership of 60% of the automaker.

In order to cover the so-called loans, GM’s stock would have to be worth at least 68 billion dollars – a number almost twenty percent higher than its 2000 peak of $56 billion.  Given the realities of the United States car market, where more and more companies are carving the overall pie into smaller and smaller pieces, it appears that recouping the investment is all but impossible.

Ron Bloom, an adviser to the Obama’s auto task force, has tried to remain cautiously optimistic, telling a Senate committee “We have certainly looked at scenarios where, over time, a very substantial portion and potentially all of the taxpayer investment in General Motors will be returned.”  However, he then added, “But I certainly by no means would say that I am highly confident that that will occur.”  

The bottom line is this:  If GM’s bankruptcy can shed its debt and position the company so its flagging stock values can start growing again, there is a VERY slim chance that the government can recover its taxpayer-funded investment.  However, they’re going to have to make cars that people actually want to buy, a task they had trouble with before government ownership, and one that looks increasingly difficult now that Congress will have a say in what they produce.

Hmmmmm….not sure that’s gonna cut it.

-Robert Laurie