Forget wasting more money to the present incompetent management and inefficient three companies. No use to delay or postpone while wasting more money.
We do not need three companies any more: merge GM, Ford and Chrysler into two new entities, one taking over the best in the upper-middle vehicles, the other taking over the best in the lower range.
Need to fire all the present executives, no bonus to leave. Hire brilliant managers from various segments who can show initiative, savoir faire, at a salary competitive with their counterparts in Japan, South Korea and Europe.
Congress should also be fired, but not having asked the right questions before, and still ignoring major issues, right now. When the president of GM said they have learned from their mistakes, the question should be: what did you learn.
In Asia, when an executive makes a mistake, he resigns.
We can not fire the Congress, unfortunately, but Congress should fire the present mentality in Detroit.
Well, I know it's a little late, but that's the schedule in my country, we get the shows, A WEEK AFTER its viewed on the US (live in Dominican Republic), but I can't feel but feeling excited about Melina's comeback. I mean really, she's my fav. WWE diva EVER!! and after so many lousy comebacks, like Edge and Jhon Cena, both who I completely loathe (Cena more than Edge), and actually getting the title, to top it all... the nerve..
Neways, I'm babbling... the deal, its so good to have a GOOD comeback now, the divas seriously needed some pick up, maybe change the Divas title model, or probably brake that diva entering stereo type (have I been the only one to notice that most divas enter as a companion to a wrestler, and we gotta wait months, sometimes years to actually see them act as pro wrestlers??? I don't know about any of you guys, but when I see a pretty face-non-wrestling-chick, for some reason, its really hard for me to lose that image and start seing her as a shiny new wrestler, and frankly, after Trish Stratus, may the lord bless her, Melina's the only one who's done it)
I mean I like Mickey and respect most of the divas, but there's just something about Melina that really makes me wanna see her in action, plus I'm pretty sure many guys are thrilled to se her in the ring once more, if only to look at her entrance to the ring.
By the way, now I officially gotta get back to my leg-splitting training, I'm only three inches away from my nachas to reaching the floor!!! LOL!!
Katie opens up...and stands up for herself. From People.com...By Marla Lehner
As part of one of Hollywood's most watched couples, Katie Holmes lives an incredibly high-profile life - but says many people still have the wrong idea about her.
"There's a misperception about me that I just became this wallflower, this woman who doesn't have any control of her life," the 29-year-old actress tells the T: The New York Times Style Magazine in the issue hitting newsstands Sunday. "And that's pretty wrong. From the very beginning, I've made choices in my life that have been very strong. "
Holmes, who married Tom Cruise in Italy in 2006 after a whirlwind romance, says that she had a girlhood crush on her now husband, and was surprised how down-to-earth he was in person.
"When I met Tom I was completely in love and, yes, I admired him growing up - he's Tom Cruise! ... When I met him, he was so warm and I thought, Wow! You can be a superstar and a human being. He made me feel so amazing."
Cruise, 46, who is also interviewed in a separate Q&A in the Times Style Magazine, also addresses his early relationship with Holmes. "I knew I wanted to marry Kate when I met her," he says. "After our very first date, I was sure. At one point, I thought she was going to ask me to marry her first and I cut her off by changing the subject. I wanted to ask her."
Asked if Holmes, who has a 2-year-old daughter Suri with Cruise, misses having a more anonymous existence, she says not at all. "My life has expanded. My family and friends are all part of this bigger life."
She maintains her happiness, she says, by tuning out a lot of the chatter about herself and the outside world. "I have too much to do," says Holmes who is currently starring on Broadway in All My Sons. "I'm a mom and an actress with a play to do every night. I can't pay attention to all that noise."
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...That's a very healthy attitude. Maybe our Katie is all grown up.
It was about the simplest of stories too: but they are often the ones that turn out to be a facade behind which all is smoke.
The story was an important anniversary: 30 years since a bunch of hungry and recalcitrant farmers decided to abandon the commune system which had reduced the Chinese countryside to penury and reallotted land to themselves to farm. The anniversary was November 24, which was when the piece appeared, and after a rather hectic week of travel in China and to London I am now in a position to reveal the deep and serious underlying problem with it.
November 24? Well, up to a point, Lord Copper.
The pact the farmers signed promised that they would look after each others' families if any were jailed for disobeying what was still Communist Party policy. In the event, the experiment was allowed to continue by local Party bosses, and gradually became the model for the "household responsibility system" which was the start of economic reform and opening.
The results of that we see all around us, which is why, while the official launch of "Gaige Kaifang" is celebrated in December, the date of the Party Congress which approved the idea, the adventurousness of the villagers of Xiaogang in Anhui is marked on the date of the pact, November 24.
And which is also why I ventured to the village and published my piece on Monday last week.
Er, but...
When I went to the village, a problem became immediately apparent. In the new museum dedicated to the villagers, there is a large copy of the thumb-printed piece of paper that the 21* villagers signed hanging on the wall.
At the top are the unmistakeable characters 12yue - December.
Well, so we asked at the front desk - December or November 24? November 24, definitely, said one man; it says December - what more do you need to ask, said the woman at the desk. We pointed out that November 24 was the official date: the woman hummed a bit, and came up with the perfect compromise - December according to the lunar calendar.
We were partially satisfied with that explanation, but at the old museum - more a collection of old photographs and documents, really - there was a timeline on the wall. It gave the date as December 16 - and there was no doubt that this was the western, not the lunar calendar, being used. Intriguingly, the date was on a sticky strip plastered on top of what appeared to be a previous date - but we couldn't see what that was.
The attendant at this museum claimed not to have noticed the discrepancy at all.
At this point we grew alarmed, and did what all journalists do when alarmed: collude. I rang another journalist who had reported on Xiaogang who, it turned out, had spotted the same conflict. On inquiry with the local government (closed on a Sunday), they had been informed that 12yue did indeed refer to the lunar year, but that the farmers themselves had never been quite sure, when the whole thing became famous, what date they had signed the thing, and so it had been worked out from associated bits of information. November 24 was the only possible date they could have had their get-together.
Satisfied - and anyway, what alternative was there? - I went ahead and published.
Except, except, something nagged. 12yue, you see, could not be referring to the lunar calendar if the western calendar date was November - the lunar calendar, starting on lunar new year, is approximately a month behind, not ahead, of the western (Gregorian) calendar. A quick check on the useful conversion website tells us that November 24 was in fact 10yue in 1978, not 12yue.
Time to go back to square one: and that means internet search engines.
My glamorous assistant thus found a long, anonymous article which addressed this very topic: Chinese readers can see it here, on the People's Daily's famous Strong State bulletin board, though I think it was copied over there from somewhere else. I cannot vouch for its accuracy, but it makes depressing reading.
The desk woman, it seems, may have been right. 12yue did refer to the lunar calendar - and the western calendar date may have thus been January 1979. Over the years, the date was gradually reremembered earlier. The fact that an alternative village came forward to claim to have been the originator of the household responsibility system may have had something to do with it.
At the end of the day it doesn't really matter, does it? The fact is, it happened (nobody disputes that), and it was copied, and dates are irrelevant. So maybe it doesn't matter that we have a formal date that we all agree to follow, even if it's not the right one. But since the "correct" date may have been after the actual launch of reform and opening in Beijing, it may mean that Xiaogang village wasn't quite so out on a limb as we all believe. So much for heroes.
*21? Yes, that's what everyone says, except those who say 18. If you count the signatures, there are 21. But one of those is repeated - at the bottom of the letter, and then in the list of names of those signing. So 20. Two more, it has since been alleged, refused to sign, and had their names thumb-printed for them.
Among the many big stories I missed commenting on during my recent self-imposed break from blogging (enough whither China) was Beijing cancelling the annual China-EU summit. This was in protest at President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who holds the six-monthly rotating chair of the EU, agreeing to meet the Dalai Lama in Poland.
The last China-EU summit, 2007: those were the days, friend
Let us leave aside the image of Nicolas Sarkozy holding a rotating chair, whizzing round and round with his legs off the ground, perhaps. Let us ignore what a fantastic image for the EU a rotating chair is at all, in fact.
Let us also ignore the full weirdness of what a conversation between Lech Walesa (the host) and the Dalai Lama would sound like.
Let us instead consider the cancelling of the summit. This snub (The Economist) was not only an Extraordinary Step (Associated Press) but so important that it went completely unreported in The Times or The Daily Telegraph. The Independent gave it a news in brief.
This perhaps says something, and confirms my initial reaction to the news: Thank God for that, and Thank you China.
The EU-China summits should have been called off long ago. I am not saying that because they are boring - though they were excruciatingly newsless from a hack's point of view. I am not even saying it because they failed constantly to live up to expectations, though they did that too. There would be a big shopping list of things to discuss which strangely enough never seemed to get discussed - or if they did, there was no sign that the discussions had made any difference.
Piracy, exchange rate policies, tariffs: these were all things supposed to be tackled, but they never reached any conclusion. When they did - as in the famous bra wars controversy of 2005 - it was through talks conducted, oddly, outside the actual format of the summit.
Why was this? Because, as it happens, the summits aren't supposed to be about as trivial and mundane matters as trade, in bras or anything else that consumes billions of pounds and is responsible for millions of jobs. This is not a China-EU trade summit, or economic summit, like the one that's being going on between the US and China this week. Trade commissioners, like Peter Mandelson in 2005, are kept firmly at the tradesmen's entrance.
The EU-China summits are much grander affairs, led by Wen Jiabao, the Chinese prime minister on one side, and on the EU side by Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, whoever the rotating chair happens to be, and Javier Solana, High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy. (He would become the EU's foreign minister under the new constittution/treaty/whatever, if it were ever passed).
As such, they are to represents the heights of EU-China policy, not the niceties of bra sizes.
One problem, though: the EU doesn't have a foreign policy, and so cannot properly be said to have a policy with regards to China or anywhere else. Foreign and defence policy are the preserve of the nation states.
This is not some piece of Eurosceptic arcana. I can leave that to other blogs. But it does explain the problem with China-EU summits, does it not? And also, the wider problem with China-EU relations, which are now described as being in a poor state.
All those meetings with the Dalai Lama are said to have gravely disappointed the Chinese government because it had such high hopes of the relationship. The EU after all was supposed to be the third pillar of the multipolar world that China was hoping to build, in contrast to US hegemony, and yet it constantly felt let down by aggressive posturing from European politicians on Tibet, on human rights, etc etc. But the point was not that China's love for the EU was unrequited, but that it was love for a chimera.
No sooner had it become engaged to the dashing M. Chirac and Herr Schroder, whose affection for Beijing knew no bounds, than they had been replaced by colder suitors. Then there was Mr Blair, who spoke out of two sides of his face, trilling of China's glorious future but dashing his bride's hope of an unconditional dowry, namely the lifting of the EU arms embargo. Then Mr Brown took over and turned out to be an even stranger, colder fish.
No-one expects the EU to be a particularly democratic organisation: it is big and unwieldy. Europeans know that trade negotiations, the size of vegetables and other important matters of EU life cannot be conducted by perpetual referendum. But it is in the nature of the beast that if one country can get advantage over another it will do so, and the respective governments will look to their voters to decide where to push the envelope.
Foreign policy is one area where they can legitimately do so, and that is what happens with China - if the German chancellor wants to make a stand over China, the French president must do likewise or look like a creep to his electorate. Until the EU has a foreign policy decided in secret and without reference to individual national electorates - and that really would be the end of the nation state - it is hard to see this changing.
All this is very hard for China to understand - let's face it, it's hard for the EU to understand, given that it totally forgot that it didn't have a foreign policy to put to China when it agreed to the summits in the first place.
The summit's existence raised expectations, like so much else about the EU, and as so often (think the Balkan wars) raised expectations of what the EU can do are more dangerous than no expectations.
If all they did was discuss bras, we'd all know where we were. The scrapping of the summit is a blow for honesty, and better for all of us, including China.
Many gossip whores are convinced that Madge and A-Rod are together, but they've never confirmed. There's been rumors that they are buying a house together and planning all sorts of gross things. Well, A-Rod says people are lie-telling. He has denied the relationship.
When People asked him about the it, he said, "We're friends - that's it. I can tell you this. I have never been on a plane with her."
Riddle me this. Aren't these pictures of A-Rod and Vadge getting off of a plane together? My one working brain cell is starting to rot away, so I may have forgotten what an airplane looks like, but I'm 95% sure that's a plane.
Madge's "just friend" went on to say, "I've been to two [of her] concerts, yet I've read that I went to 20. I've also read that we were buying an apartment together. That is absolutely ridiculous and not true. You have to have a sense of humor when it comes to this stuff. If I answered every rumor we'd be here for three weeks."
That silly A-Rod. He could've used a better description than "friend." Madge doesn't have friends! She has slaves, pawns and toys!
-DLISTED.COM
TOM AND KATIE
The New York Times Style Magazine is all about Tommy Girl and his weepy robot wife this week. There's an interview, pictures and even video. Methinks this issue was sponsored by Scientology and features subliminal messages. Don't stare directly into their eyes, because you will starting saying the word "glib" on a loop.
In the interview, Tommy and Katie (or KATE as he calls her) talk about the first time they met. It was love at first contract. Tommy said, "I knew I wanted to marry Kate when I met her. At one point, I thought she was going to ask me to marry her first and I put her off by changing the subject. I wanted to ask her."
Katie said she fell completely in love him during their first meeting. "He was so warm, and I thought, 'Wow, I thought, 'You can be a superstar and a human being.'" This is how you know this girl is all sorts of crazy. Tommy of Risky Business was a human being, Tommy of today is an ALIEN. An alien with insanity in the brains.
Katie even told Tommy that her childhood dream was to marry him. His response? "I said I wouldn't want to disappoint her." Shortly after their first meeting, he bought her an engagement ring.
Why must they go on with this? We knew what happened. Their first date was held in a conference room in Tommy Girl's underground labyrinth. A dozen lawyers, several Scientology scientists, Johnny Travolta, Tommy and Katie were all there. Tommy's lawyers handed Katie a contract and told her to sign it in her blood. Then they asked her to hand over her eyeballs and in exchange they gave her new robot eyes and a shiny engagement ring. Love was born.
If you thought Beyonce's I Am...Sahsa Fierce was over the top, well guess what she's doing now?--She's donating all of her salary from Caddilac Records in full to the Phoenix House rehab program for women. Inspired by her role of Etta James, who has a drug addiction at one point in her life, Beyonce spent a lot of time at the facility and sympathized with the women.
There was a time not long ago when I would look at Christmas Trees made of vintage costume jewelry and a pang of sadness came across me. All that beautiful jewelry that had been torn up to make a decoration, think of the revamped vintage jewelry I could make with it! Lately my feelings have changed. I don't know what happened, it's as if something nostalgic for the trees came over me and now I kind of wish I had one of my very own. These are some fantastical examples by This Little Piggy, Junkmail 050269 and Dally. I started to make myself a jewelry covered tree for this holiday season, but I had a better idea. Jewelry covered Christmas trees can only stay up around the house for a month at most without making you look like those weird neighbors that keep their Christmas lights up all year long. My concept was a Floral Fro that could adorn your walls all year long!
The idea for Floral Fros came to me as I was flipping through a book I found at a thrift store called Hair Today. It's a gold binder full of hair style pictures (front and back) straight out of the 70's. The bottom of each picture says "Hair Style of the Month Chicago, IL". I have been going through a silhouette phase lately and decided why couldn't I combine the two looks together. With that I chose my favorite profile from the book, scanned her in, turned her black and white in Photoshop and printed her out on some sturdy paper.
Next I needed to cut out a piece of felt to the exact size of my head, this is where I started racking my brain for tracing ideas. I placed a piece of parchment paper over my hair style hottie and was able to clearly see the picture and trace her outline. I cut out this piece of paper making a pattern and pinned it to some white felt. I then cut the white felt out in the same exact shape as my woman's head.
My black and white woman needed a protective top coat so it was time to rev up my heat press and bust out the laminating paper. I cut off all her perfectly coiffed hair, ran her through the laminating machine and then trimmed her up. Once this was done I then lined her face up with the piece of felt I had cut out and glued her face down to the felt.
Next the fun part. I keep some of my craft supplies in drawers sorted by colors. This is a system I use mostly for things I only have one of. I hit my white drawers and started pulling out all the earrings, pins, pearls and what not that I could find.
First things first I decided to outline my Floral Fro with a strand of faux pearls using a glue gun.
In my line of work it pays to have very little discretion when shopping for craft supplies. It just so happens that I have 3 whole drawers full of white and cream odds and ends that came in darn handy for this little project. Once upon a time on a trip to Rhode Island I purchased a huge bag of single clip on earrings from several different costume jewelry designers Coro, Sarah Coventry and more. My guess is they were singles so that traveling costume jewelry sales men could take the examples to stores for them to see, the stores chose their favorite styles, placed an order and the rest was history. Lucky for me white was apparently a hot color for clip on earrings in the 50's and 60's.
Using my pliers I removed the backs to all the earrings. I then placed them within the pearl trimmed outline of my Floral Fro and once I had everything placed exactly where I wanted it I went back and glued everything down.
The last few steps were to glue my silhouette onto a piece of black felt and frame my piece of art. I am totally smitten on the finished results!
So smitten in fact that I made another version in black and white!
Think you might want to stick with the traditional jewelry covered Christmas tree this time around? No problem. I scanned in some easy step by step instructions from one of my favorite craft books Don't Throw That Away by Vivian Abell.
You can also visit the Signs of Times n Such blog for more instructions. She also currently has "Hard Candy Christmas" by Dolly Parton playing over there that makes me feel warm and squishy as it is one of my holiday faves.
Don't forget we are doing a crafty how-to a week through December so that you can be sure to give the raddest home made gifts in all the land. Kinky Candles, Jewelry Displays and more! Keep you eyes peeled for book week with contests, reviews and a fun how-to card making guide coming up next!
Let me know what you think of the Floral Fros and if you decide to make one yourself!
"But you told us there would be free booze!Free food!Heather Locklear naked!"
Elmo The Fearless05:15 PM GMT