Chrysler's Railroad: Government Scandal

This could be a scandal of epic proportions and one that makes Nixon's Watergate or Clinton 's Monica Lewinsky affair pale by comparison. Why was there neither rhyme nor reason as to which dealerships of the Chrysler Corporation were to be closed?

Roll the clock back to the weeks just before Chrysler declared bankruptcy. Chrysler, like GM, was in dire financial straits and federal government "graciously" offered to "buy the company" and keep them out of bankruptcy and "save jobs."

Chrysler was, in the words of Obama and his administration, "Too big to fail," same story with GM. The feds organized their "Automotive Task Force" to fix Chrysler and GM. Obama, in an act that is 100% unconstitutional, appointed a guy named Steve Rattner to be the White House's official Car Czar - literally, that's what his title is.

Rattner is the liaison between Obama, Chrysler, and GM.

Initially, the national media reported that Chrysler 'had made this list of dealerships'. Not true!

The Washington Examiner, Newsmax, Fox New and a host of other news agencies discovered that the list of dealerships was put together by the "Automotive Task Force" headed by no one other than Mr. Steve Rattner.

Now the plot thickens!

Remember earlier we said that there was neither rhyme nor reason why certain dealerships were closed?

Actually there's a very interesting pattern as to who was closed down. Again, on May 27, 2009, The Washington Examiner and Newsmax exposed the connection.

Amazingly, of the 789 dealerships closed by the federal government, 788 had donated money, exclusively to Republican political causes, while contributing nothing to Democratic political causes. The only "Democratic" dealership on the list was found to have donated $7,700 to Hillary's campaign, and a bit over $2,000 to John Edwards. This same dealership, reportedly, also gave $200.00 to Obama's campaign.

Does that seem a little odd to you?

Steve Rattner is the guy who put the list together. Well, he happens to be married to a Maureen White. Maureen happens to be the former national finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee. As such, she has access to campaign donation records from everyone in the nation- Republican or Democrat. But of course, this is just a wacky "coincidence," we're certain.

Then comes another really wacky "coincidence."

On that list of dealerships being closed down, a weird thing happened in Arkansas , North Louisiana, and Southern Missouri . It seems that Bill Clinton's former White House Chief of Staff, Mack McClarty, owns a chain of dealership in that region, partnered with a fellow by the name of Robert Johnson. Johnson happens to be founder of Black Entertainment Television and was a huge Obama supporter and financier. These guys own a half dozen Chrysler stores under the company title of RLJ-McClarty-Landers.Interestingly, none of their dealerships were ordered closed - not one!

While all of their competing Chrysler/Dodge and Jeep dealership were!

Eight dealerships located near the dealerships owned by McClarty and Johnson were ordered shut down. Thus by pure luck, these two major Obama supporters now have virtual monopoly on Chrysler sales in their zone.

Isn't that amazing?

Go look in The Washington Examiner, the story's there, and it's in a dozen or so other web-based news organizations; this isn't being made up.


Now if you thought Chrysler was owned by Fiat, you are mistaken. Under the federal court ruling, 65% of Chrysler is now owned by the federal government and the United Auto Workers union! Fiat owns 20%. The other 15% is still privately owned and presumably will be traded on the stock market. Obama smiles and says he doesn't want to run the auto industry.



[edit on 11-5-2010 by NoFilter2323]

As horrifying as this is to comprehend, and being as how this used to be the United States of America , it would appear that the president has the power to destroy private businesses and eliminate upwards of 100,000 jobs just because they don't agree with his political agenda.

This is Nazi Germany stuff, and it's happening right here, right now, in our back yard. There are voices in Washington demanding an explanation, but the "Automotive Task Force" has released no information to the public or to any of the senators demanding answers for what has been done.

Keep your ear to the ground for more on this story. If you've ever wanted to make a difference about anything in your life, get on the phone to your national senator or representative in the House and demand an investigation into this.

Benjamin Franklin had it right when he said, "All that's necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

Car Czar No More:

An amazing thing happened as this story was going to press. Obama's Car Czar, Steve Rattner, resigned on July 13 and was promptly replaced by former steel workers union boss Ron Bloom.

According to CBS News, Rattner left "to return to private life and spend time with his family."

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said, "I hope that he takes another opportunity to bring his unique skills to government service in the future."

By the way, Rattner is under investigation for a multi-million dollar pay-to-play investment bank scandal in New York .

Uh-oh!

But, we're certain that had nothing to do with his resignation.

And, according to several news sources out there, there are rumors he's being investigated for what could be pay-to-play scandal involving the closing of Chrysler and GM dealerships. Really? Again, that couldn't have anything to with his resignation-that's ridiculous! Like CBS said, this guy just wants to "spend more quality time with his family."

Obama has 32 personally appointed "czars" who answer to no one but him, all of whom are acting without any Constitutional authority.

But hey, we're sure they all have "unique skills,"......as Tim Geithner likes to say!

SOOOOO….HOW’S THE CHANGE WORKING FOR YOU?…..

Check it out at the following websites:

gatewaypundit.blogspot..com...

www.washingtonexaminer.com...

This goes beyond corruption in high places - to gross criminal actions on the part of our government! I hope you will spread this far and wide, and hopefully the taxpaying public will demand some of that transparency we were promised......followed by criminal prosecution of the perpetrators!

reply to post by NoFilter2323


Do republicans actually believe this tripe? Why post chain emails w/o any attempt at verification? Do you enjoy spreading disinformation and propaganda?

Pathetic.

This, as 99.99999999999% of republican right-wing chain email claims, is patently false.

Just like the birth certificate issue, obama banning gardening and sharing food, requiring a license to sell your home due to the climate bill, the IRS taxing your guns, the census being used for FEMA camps and on and on and on, it is FALSE and STUPID to believe.

Please move to hoax.

www.snopes.com...

mediamattersaction.org...

In a June 2, 2009 Townhall blogpost, Phyllis Schlafly perpetuated a myth that is gaining traction in the conservative noise machine: that the Obama administration took a direct hand in GM and Chrysler car dealership closings and deliberately targeted dealerships that contributed to Republican candidates.

This accusation is baseless. The Obama administration had no hand in deciding what dealerships would close, as GM and Chrysler CEOs have made clear. In addition, statistical analysis shows that car dealerships are overwhelmingly owned by Republicans, and more car dealerships that remained open are owned by Republicans than Democrats.

Crazy Right-Wing Myths About Obama 2.0

However, now, like all good conspiracy theories, the proponents of this one have refused to let it die. One mathematical analysis showed no favoritism toward Democrats, and no targeting of Republicans -- but it did seem to indicate (if you're a little rusty on your statistics) a trend toward favoring Clinton donors.

So now the hypothesis has shifted, and to back it up, the people advancing the theory are pointing to one dealer group in particular. Owned by people like Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson, a major backer of Hillary Clinton in 2008, and Mack McLarty, who served as White House press secretary in Bill Clinton's administration, it didn't lose a single dealership.

Sure, that might seem at first like an indication of something nefarious. But if you seriously think the Obama team is risking everything to protect a guy who brought up their candidate's drug use on the trail during the Democratic primary, well, we have an American car company we'd like to sell you.

www.sodahead.com...

Best,
SN



[edit on 5/11/2010 by skunknuts]

The more information brought forward on issues like these, whether it backs up the claims or not, is positive none the less.

So thanks for the post, I really haven't checked all the info and yes, there is not much evidence that backs up this claim but, I thought I would throw it out there and let ATS show what evidence that we can at it.

So don't go flamming... I'm not on one side or the other, really, I just thought the email I recieved was interesting, so I posted a thread up on ATS. So debunk it with any info you have..

This is the point of having a forum like ATS. People can chime in and give their thoughts and evidence.... So take a chill pill and relax.

I must say that it is rather coincidental about all the dealerships closing down around certain areas and which ones were kept. But, there might not be any relevance to it...

Skunknuts......

Also, don't go throwing your disrespectful words out there without consideringn how you come off! I may not of verified the thread but, that's exactly why I posted it.... And look it is nearing verification already.. So before you open your big mouth, have a little respect and just post your evidence.

"stop posting propaganda/ disinformation..." Come on man, you must be kidding me, if you honestly think I was posting this to spread a bad name for the Obama administration...

Look, I posted it because it may have some validity but, I really haven't heard much about it... So I posted it here in hopes of shedding some light on the issue... So calm down once again. Geeze some people just have a perminent stick up their a$$! It's obvious who is on the far left political spectrum though... I could really give two SH*** about republicans or democrats, cause we are all human in the end...

And did you seriously add me as your foe... Haa, what a bunch of BS! Get a life man.

[edit on 11-5-2010 by NoFilter2323]

[edit on 11-5-2010 by NoFilter2323]

[edit on 11-5-2010 by NoFilter2323]

The time has come to identify the sources and cite them.

Granted this may be untrue, however I would like to know which of these facts is true. I would like to know who uncovered them, and are they on record?

Frankly, the knee-jerk partisan response is par for the course.

Snopes has developed a bad habit when it comes to certain topics.... thus I can't blindly accept it as gospel as I once may have been inclined.

There is no defense for lies, and facts are stubborn things. Let's see if you can come up with the whys and wherefores; pick one and find a link, vet the author and catalog it, rinse, repeat.

That's how we do it here. Good luck!

reply to post by Maxmars


If you read the Snopes article, it does what you ask. I can't copy and paste it for some reason. Snopes also quotes other sources (even Fox News) saying that the claim is baseless.

www.factcheck.org...

If anything, the percentage of Republican auto dealers on the list is smaller than their percentage among car dealers generally, or at least self-identified auto dealers who contributed to presidential candidates in the last election.

We find the Fox News study especially convincing because it compared a sample of dealerships set to close with a sample of dealerships that were allowed to remain open. That procedure follows the accepted scientific method of using a control group to determine whether a set of data in an experiment is significantly different from what one would find normally, or by chance. In this case, Fox News found the answer was a solid "no."

Here from Fox News:

www.foxnews.com...

A preliminary study by FOXNews.com found that the data do not support the charges. Among the dealerships set to close, 12 percent of a random 50 selected for review donated to Republicans and 8 percent to Democrats. Of the dealerships remaining open, 14 percent of a random 50 selected donated to Republicans and 10 percent to Democrats. In both samples, the average size of donations was similar for both parties.

Here (from Reuters):

blogs.reuters.com...

Chrysler said in the Reuters article that it made the decisions based on location, customer satisfaction and sales potential. The company also noted that almost half of the targeted dealerships sell other brands of cars and most rely on used vehicle sales for their business.

Here is a statistical analysis debunking the statistical significance of the claim:

www.fivethirtyeight.com...

In fact, in several cases -- such as for the data on Republican donations -- the coefficient has the opposite sign of the one that the purveyors of the dealergate hypothesis were hoping for. Republican donors were incrementally less, rather than more likely likely to have their dealerships shuttered, according to Singer's analysis, although the pattern is nowhere in the ballpark of being "statistically significant" as most of us would define it.

www.fivethirtyeight.com...

Overall, 88 percent of the contributions from car dealers went to Republican candidates and just 12 percent to Democratic candidates. By comparison, the list of dealers on Doug Ross's list (which I haven't vetted, but I assume is fine) gave 92 percent of their money to Republicans -- not really a significant difference.

There's no conspiracy here, folks -- just some bad math. It shouldn't be any surprise, by the way, that car dealers tend to vote -- and donate -- Republican. They are usually male, they are usually older (you don't own an auto dealership in your 20s), and they have obvious reasons to be pro-business, pro-tax cut, anti-green energy and anti-labor. Car dealerships need quite a bit of space and will tend to be located in suburban or rural areas. I can't think of too many other occupations that are more natural fits for the Republican Party. Unfortunately, while we are still a nation of drivers, we are not a nation of dealers.

More proof that Chrysler, not Obama, made the decisions regarding dealerships closing:

www.carseek.com...

Chrysler Seeks Further Consolidation Through Project Genesis 12:58 a.m. EDT, February 11, 2008

In a move to address a surplus of floundering metropolitan dealerships and duplicate badged products, Chrysler announced a program this week dubbed Project Genesis.

Previously the company worked through Project Alpha to consolidate its three brands in single locations. Project Genesis takes that concept to the next level, said Jim Press, co-president of Chrysler, in an interview with Automotive News. "Genesis incorporates the whole company getting on the same alignment with the same overall strategy," he said. "The dealer network component is a piece of an overall plan."

By reducing the number of unprofitable dealers operating in close proximity to one another, Chrysler hopes to push the advantage of marking its three brands under one roof "to get the full lineup of Chrysler Corp. everywhere" said Press.

Citing an intention to seek dealer feedback and describing Genesis as a forum, Press said there is no existing time table or set numerical goals on reducing either dealerships or trimming vehicles. Each metropolitan area will be visited by "business solution teams" to help Chrysler dealers evaluate their viability for remaining in business and "to help bring our owners financial capability to draw on new sources of equity, financing property, handling tax consequences, estate planning" and other issues, said Press.

After the launch of Project Alpha in 2004, Chrysler successfully reduced its number of dealerships from 4,000 to 3,600. The new plan will raise that number as well as create outlets for service-only operations as well as satellite dealerships.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

Chrysler executives said Thursday the company is trying to preserve its best-performing dealers and eliminate ones with the weakest sales. More than half of the dealerships being eliminated sell less than 100 vehicles per year, they said, and account for 14 percent of U.S. sales.

Best,
SN

[edit on 5/11/2010 by skunknuts]

Allegations Distilled:

[edited for clarity]

... weeks before Chrysler declared bankruptcy. Chrysler, like GM, was in dire financial straits and federal government offered to "buy the company" and keep them out of bankruptcy and "save jobs."

Chrysler was, in the words of Obama and his administration, "Too big to fail," same story with GM.

The feds organized their "Automotive Task Force" to fix Chrysler and GM. Obama, in an act that is 100% unconstitutional, appointed a guy named Steve Rattner to be the White House's official Car Czar....

Rattner is the liaison between Obama, Chrysler, and GM.

Initially, the national media reported that Chrysler 'had made this list of dealerships'. Not true!

The Washington Examiner, Newsmax, Fox New and a host of other news agencies discovered that the list of dealerships was put together by the "Automotive Task Force" headed by no one other than Mr. Steve Rattner.

Allegations:
1- Automotive Task Force 'act' was unconstitutional
2 - Rattner - not Chrysler, authored the list of dealerships to be closed

... there's a very interesting pattern as to who was closed down....

Again, on May 27, 2009, The Washington Examiner and Newsmax exposed the connection. (please add links and citations)

Amazingly, of the 789 dealerships closed by the federal government, 788 had donated money exclusively to Republican political causes, while contributing nothing to Democratic political causes. The only "Democratic" dealership on the list was found to have donated $7,700 to Hillary's campaign, and a bit over $2,000 to John Edwards. This same dealership, reportedly, also gave $200.00 to Obama's campaign.

Allegations:
3- A pattern of dealership closures shows that (generally speaking) only those dealerships which failed to support the Obama campaign were closed.
4 - The Washington Examiner and Newsmax exposed the pattern

Steve Rattner (the guy who put the list [of dealerships to be closed] together... happens to be married to a Maureen White. who happens to be the former national finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee. As such, she has access to campaign donation records from everyone in the nation- Republican or Democrat.

Allegation:
5- Strong implication that the DNC via Rattner contrived to limit or destroy the business opportunities of non-supporters.
6 - Indirectly, Ms. White must have run all the names of dealerships through the contribution database for this purpose.

...It seems that Bill Clinton's former White House Chief of Staff, Mack McClarty, owns a chain of dealership in that region, partnered with Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television Together they own a half dozen Chrysler stores under the company title of RLJ-McClarty-Landers... none of their dealerships were ordered closed...

While all of their competing Chrysler/Dodge and Jeep dealership were [closed]!

Allegations:
7-Prominent Democratic party members and supporters were shielded from losing business by virtue of the 'closure' list; while their business competition was decimated from their regions leaving the beneficiaries without competition.

Go look in The Washington Examiner, the story's there, and it's in a dozen or so other web-based news organizations; this isn't being made up. (please add links and citations)

Now if you thought Chrysler was owned by Fiat, you are mistaken. Under the federal court ruling, 65% of Chrysler is now owned by the federal government and the United Auto Workers union! Fiat owns 20%. The other 15% is still privately owned ...

As horrifying as this is to comprehend, and being as how this used to be the United States of America , it would appear that the president has the power to destroy private businesses and eliminate upwards of 100,000 jobs just because they don't agree with his political agenda.

Allegation:
8- Chrysler remains a private (implicitly for profit) company - despite the bailout
9 - The President can and did 'punish' those commercial interests that failed to support him

... There are voices in Washington demanding an explanation, but the "Automotive Task Force" has released no information to the public or to any of the senators demanding answers for what has been done.

9 - The Czar's task force has refused to answer requests for information from public servants

...Steve Rattner, resigned on July 13 and was promptly replaced by former steel workers union boss Ron Bloom.

... Rattner is under investigation for a multi-million dollar pay-to-play investment bank scandal in New York .

And, according to several news sources out there, there are rumors he's being investigated for what could be pay-to-play scandal involving the closing of Chrysler and GM dealerships....

10 - Rattner resigned because of an impending or ongoing criminal investigation
11 - Rattner may have executed precisely the same kind of crime in respect to the dealership closures.


-----> I would hope the OP can address or expand upon the 11 allegations I distilled from the chain email...

This is not some e-mail. The White house controls the mainstream media. I have seen the dealers come right out and prove this. My dad works for a very good Ford dealer and even he knows this is what happened.

The government also ruined every car and engine they took in on that stupid cash for clunker deal. They poured liquid epoxy and hard metal into the engines and killed them so no place could do anything with the car. Some of the cars were only 5 years old, They should have gave the cars to people who don't have one, DUH. Now they can not even be used for parts. Our government is beyond stupid let alone corrupt to the core. Anyone who can sit around and defend this government needs to go to the doctors office and have a mental exam.

www.washingtonexaminer.com...

Originally posted by Sky watcher
The White house controls the mainstream media.

The only time I felt ripped off by Bush and our Illuminati controllers
was when I was anticipating Loose Change on the View.
The View.
I was gong to watch the View.
ABC TV in New York.

And then we see Bush in the Rose Garden until Rosie O'Donnell
was finished with Building 7 falling down, perhaps invented by
the people of the falling down London bridge fame, and why
steel buildings caught fire with out and oxidant accelerator like
thermate plastered all around and I'll never catch that secret
again.

Like Tesla, van Dresser, Patton and the rest all a big Illuminati
secret.
Toss in Shakespeare being the spy Marlowe under Francis Bacon
to boot.
The ball of media wax will never be melted.

And Chrysler does what they want.
ABC Disney are your temporary robot controllers until Tesla robots
takeover, easier to handle and the View will be out of a job.
They took our job.
ED: Have we seen robots in action.
Sure in movies and TV shows.
We are already trained and controlled but that will not satisfy
progress and Tesla waves can control people bots and well
as mechanical and is not sifi but sireality.

[edit on 8/6/2010 by TeslaandLyne]

weeks before Chrysler declared bankruptcy. Chrysler, like GM, was in dire financial straits and federal government offered to "buy the company" and keep them out of bankruptcy and "save jobs."

Problem here. The government never offered to "buy the company". Chrysler and GM declared bankruptcy and the government became the 'debtor in possession'. Right from the start this article is attempting to deceive the reader. boo.