Picking winners; choosing losers (pt. 3)

I knew back in October that it was a bad sign when the federal government started deciding which banks would succeed (with bailouts) and which banks would be allowed to fail. It seemed even scarier when the fed began deciding which industries it would help through these tough times while ignoring the others. Now the Fed has let all this power go to its head as it begins picking and choosing which facilities will be closed or remain open...

When the new GM team (You've seen the commercials we're paying for: They're not going out of business, they're getting down to business.) decided that the Norton parts distribution center in Massachusetts needed to be closed. It is not clear why they decided this center should be closed, but I'll bet it was more than a dart being thrown at a map of GM facilities.

However, there is a small chain of relevant circumstances that far outweigh their professionally analyzed conclusions which GM forgot to consider:
1.) Rep. Barney Frank represents Norton, Mass.
2.) Rep. Barney Frank heads the Financial Services Committee
3.) The Financial Services Committee pretty much owns GM now.
4.) Rep. Barney 'NIMBY' Frank doesn't like closing facilities in his district.

So, under the guise of being environmentally concerned, he visited the government-installed CEO GM employees calls boss, Fritz 'The Puppet' Henderson. In this meeting he explained to 'The Puppet' that he was just a puppet and that while just about anyone in our government can have a tug at his strings, Barney is one of the few puppet masters holding the strings up. Then, he explained that closing the facility in his district would increase global warming because those parts would have to be shipped to New England from Philadelphia instead. Not entirely inaccurate, but lets assume that in its place, the Phillie facility gets closed instead. Will that not mean that the Eastern Great Lakes region would have to get theirs shipped from New England?

And, of course, the boss gets what the boss wants. GM no longer finds it necessary to close that facility as a part of its re-structuring.

The government exerts supreme power over its new puppets under the guise of environmentalism, proving that regardless of what they say, our government IS in the business of running the automotive industry...
Not long ago, I respected Barney Frank.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.