Idkal

For the record, I think a GM-Ford, or a GM-Chrysler merger, or any combination thereof is a bad idea for the American auto industry. Instead of looking for scale, the big auto companies should sell off their constituent parts, or rather shed the unprofitable ones and focus on the future. Getting bigger isn’t going to help, it is only going to stave off the inevitable. The inevitable is the future. That future is efficient, quality built cars with slimmer profit margins than the landlubbing, gas-hoggers they’ve been selling for years. Retool the plants and sell cars like they do in Europe and in parts of Asia, cars that are smaller and more efficient. It’s utter rubbish to claim they don’t have the wherewithal to do this. They’ve been doing it for years in Europe. Get leaner, more agile, not bigger. (The problem is, the bigger they are, the more likely the government is to step in when they fail–as they are ‘too big to fail.)

It’s time to rethink the whole American auto-industry instead of looking for scale. But the search for scale (and market share) is just more proof that the auto execs have learned nothing. Given ten years I could turn Ford around into a powerhouse–even knowing what little I do of the industry. But that’s what the industry needs: new thinking and new blood. Until then? “Same-same,” as they say here in Thailand.

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My Dad has been a bit worried about my moods lately. I have been stressed, what with some technology issues we have here at the site, trying to email via an iPhone most of the time, and the intensity of the CELTA course in my emails I come across as rather laconic and detached. So, I dropped my old man a line this morning, here it is:

Dad,

I like Thailand. And I am glad I am here. Had I chosen to do the CELTA anywhere else I think I might be going a little nuts at this point. It really is INTENSE. It’s not that it is difficult, it’s just a boatload of info being crammed down our throats every day and then tested on it regularly and a weekly assignment that’s pretty tough. So, if I sound unhappy, I am not. Just stressed. I really like the Thai people. Kind, generous of spirit and calm for the most part. The country, or at least Chiang Mai is reasonably clean and there aren’t too many hawkers or touts to bother me. So, in that sense I am in good spirits. Plus, the hotel I am staying in is wonderful and cheap. I wake up every morning and see that huge mountain that Doi Suthep is on out my window. It’s a damned pleasant thing to wake up to. Sometimes shrouded in mist and clouds, others in rain, and on many days just crystal clear blue skies. Can’t really ask for more when you are studying a lot and stressed.

Love,

Sean-Paul

Like I said, I’m trying my best just to live in the moment and get through the course. I’m 25% done. And I can handle whatever today brings. It’s all about living in the now.

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RA206-Life After War: Colby Buzzell, Killing Time in Iraq

Survival. It’s a natural instinct and sometimes it’s not always about life or death situations.

There are as many ways to survive as there are ways to live — but it takes a special kind of person to show a whole nation how to survive. On today’s episode of Radio Allegro we meet Colby Buzzell, blogger, soldier, and American Hero. He plays his favourite music and discusse blogging in a war zone and coming home to a America. His new book is My War: Killing Time in Iraq and it’s available on Amazon and at bookstores everywhere.

Produced, hosted, written, and edited by Ashley Foot
original music by Geoff Smith

go to:

http://www.radio-allegro.com/Radio-Allegro/Home/E4DE678A-A423-476B-9FB0-18EDE912E81C.html

*Please note there is profanity on this episode so parental discretion is advised

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Some might find that headline debatable. In fact, that’s what it is - a topic for an actual debate. For the motion: Frederick Kagan, General Jack Keane (ret.) Against the motion: Charles Ferguson, Sir Malcolm Rifkind. Keane and Kagan are generally credited as “architects of the surge”. Ferguson is a millionaire who made a propaganda film about Iraq:When a guy hits it big in software and then he sells his company to Microsoft for more than $100 million and then…

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Bush to blame… details at 11…. ABC News: Exclusive: Inside Account of U.S. Eavesdropping on Americans. (Americans in Iraq, by the way - not your grandmother in Boise.) The story is told by two “whistleblowers” - former enlisted troops who were stationed at the National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia. You’re not likely to hear any detailed response from the ‘accused’, whatever service they perform is the sort generally explained by the official answer “no comment.” But…

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Maybe, maybe not…Franklin Raines, the former top man at Fannie Mae, bought a three-bedroom, seven-bath penthouse condominium in the West End’s Ritz-Carlton Residences for $4.9 million. The condo has a rooftop terrace with a hot tub, a butler’s pantry, and three parking spaces. Raines, director of the US Office of Management and Budget under President Clinton, was CEO of Fannie Mae from 1999 to 2004.From what I hear it’s a real buyer’s market out there these days. Likewise from what…

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Hmmmm… Unbidden, Petraeus discussed whether his strategy in Iraq — protecting the population while cleaving apart the insurgency through reconciliation efforts to crush the remaining hard-core enemies — could also work in Afghanistan. The question has particular salience as Petraeus takes over U.S. Central Command, which will put him at the helm of all U.S. troops in the Middle East and South Asia, thereby giving him a large role in the Afghanistan war. “Some of the concepts used in Iraq…

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I’m so proud. Time to bring back this item from ‘04: But please, one each….

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The non partisan veterans group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) has ranked members of the House and Senate based on their votes on troop support issues. Like several other milbloggers, I was notified of this via email from Phil Carter, a founding member of the non partisan group who is now serving as the Obama campaign’s Veterans Director. Additional discussion, along with tabulated scores for the Senate from the 2006 and 2008 score cards can be found here….

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From yours truly and fellow milbloggers over at Chuck’s. I expect the unexpected….

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