Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Revisiting the American Auto Industry

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In July 2007, I wrote an epic piece titled Fixing the American Auto Industry. In it, I reviewed the state of affairs at Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors (GM) at the time, how they got where they were, and what I felt they needed to do to get back on track. Reading it today, I stand by the vast majority of what I said. I am also sad to say that my dire predictions have essentially come true:

 . . . With imagination and guts, the leadership of these venerable corporations can ensure their survival and even regain a leadership position in the industry. If Apple Computer could come back from the brink of bankruptcy to become the computer, music, and electronics leader it is today, the ‘big three’ can orchestrate a similar turnaround.

But it will not be easy, and for that reason I am not convinced that each of the ‘big three’ will still exist in ten years’ time. If I were to hazard a guess, at least one of them will either slide into bankruptcy or be bought-out by a competitor (if they can find any value in it) within the next decade. But I am very optimistic that at least one of them will survive, and that they will do so by implementing some or all of the recommendations I have made in this document—cutting abusive UAW contracts out of their financial equations, improving product quality and value, and being innovative rather than reactive.

All-in-all, I wasn’t all that surprised when two-thirds of the ‘big three’ went bankrupt (Chrysler and GM). Nor was I surprised that one of the ‘big three’ is still surviving and doing pretty well in the market (Ford). That’s basically what I said would happen; though I was a bit surprised at how quickly things fell apart for Chrysler and GM.

I certainly didn’t predict everything though. Fresh off of ‘going private’ under the leadership of Cerberus Capital Management, I would have expected in 2007 that Chrysler would be in the best position to turn itself around. Less than two years later, Chrysler was a bankrupt shell of a company jointly owned by the United States government and Italian automaker Fiat. I am thoroughly disappointed in Cerberus; they had a great opportunity and missed it. I’m also surprised that Ford was able to survive and, indeed, do very well for itself without breaking the UAW union or eliminating a large portion of their dealerships.

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WebOS App/Patch Roll-Call

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If you read my in-depth review of the Palm Pre Plus back in February, you know that I love Palm’s WebOS operating system. The phone itself, hardware wise, is fine but nothing incredible . . . but the usability and flexibility of the OS more than makes up for it. I find it far easier to use than the Android-based competition, and it’s both easier and more powerful than Apple’s iPhone OS (now re-christened iOS). Imagine an iPhone without the idiotic limitations and restrictions (and on a better network), and you have Palm’s WebOS. Imagine Android’s openness and flexibility but arranged in a way that you can actually use it, and you have Palm’s WebOS.

However, WebOS does have its limitations and its little usability annoyances. This is where apps and patches come in. With the addition of a handful of excellent apps from the official Palm App Catalog and some patches from the unofficial PreWare universe, your Palm phone can be even more awesome than it was from the factory. Here are the key apps and patches I’m using on my Pre Plus. Most of them will work on any of the other Palm phones too, like the original Pre and the Pixi/Pixi Plus.

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Our Dishonorable Society

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It occurred to me recently that our society no longer seems to frown upon dishonor; we simply accept it.

We don’t think it wrong or abnormal for somebody to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth . . . and then lie. We don’t blink an eye when somebody promises to stay with somebody until death . . . and then divorces them. We don’t fight when a company says it’s providing unlimited Internet access and then sets a maximum bandwidth limit. Our politicians and public servants swear an oath to uphold the Constitution and then blatantly disregard its provisions. Heck, they’ll even give you a new civil right—the ‘right’ to health care—and then demand that you take advantage of it. If it were really my ‘right,’ it would be my right to choose whether I want to take advantage of it . . . after all, my right to free speech does not require that I speak!

It seems like we’ve gotten to the point where nobody will make an unequivocal, honest, straightforward statement. Everything comes with diplomatic hedges, fine print, disclaimers, corrections, and exceptions. When a company says ‘unlimited Internet’ or a politician says ‘you have a right to [x],’ you have to research it and make sure that the fine print doesn’t say ‘unlimited isn’t really unlimited’ or ‘it’s not a right, it’s a compulsory mandate.’ We can’t trust hardly a word anybody tells us.

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No-Nonsense Weather 0.5.0 for WebOS (UPDATED)

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I’ve just submitted my first application for Palm WebOS: No-Nonsense Weather 0.5.0. It is open-source under the GNU-GPL license.

I was somewhat disappointed with the state of weather applications for WebOS (at least the handful that I tried), and I was also pretty disappointed with the mobile web experience on the National Weather Service web site. So, using free NWS data sources, I wrote my own weather application.

Right now it gives you a five-day forecast and lists out any current warnings, watches, and advisories for locations in the United States. By default, it uses the phone’s location services to get a forecast for your current physical location. You can change this in the settings to use a particular ZIP code instead. I have a number of future features planned before I call it a ‘1.0’; you can see a list on the application’s page, along with some screen shots.

The app. has been submitted to Palm for inclusion in the App. Catalog, but that can take a while (assuming it gets approved). As soon as it’s available I’ll let you know. If you’re daring, you can download the source code today from the app. page and then package and install it using the Palm SDK.

Available now from the Palm App Catalog! Click here.

Another Scandal That Isn’t

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In 2007, I wrote a little bit about the United States Attorney scandal that rocked the administration of President George W. Bush (R) around that time. Bush had fired seven federal prosecutors—all of which are presidential appointees—for apparently political reasons. This may well have been politically unpopular, and it may well have been a bad or even immoral decision depending on the circumstances, but it was in no way illegal. Presidential appointees serve at the pleasure of the president, and can be legally removed at any time for pretty much any reason.

The real scandal at that time, which did not directly involve Bush at all, was that then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez lied under oath about the firings. That, my friends, is perjury . . . even if he was being questioned over something completely pointless and stupid. That’s something President Bill Clinton (D) learned almost a decade earlier; lying under oath is a crime, whether or not the thing you’re being questioned about is.

Now a new scandal is rocking President Barack Obama’s (D) White House, and again I’m a little perplexed. Apparently, when Obama put his support behind Senator Arlen Specter’s (D-PA) bid for reelection, he indirectly contacted Representative Joe Sestak (D-PA 7th) through former President Clinton in an effort to keep him from running against Specter in a potentially damaging Democratic primary. These discussions involved options for un-paid positions in the Obama administration if Sestak chose to stay in the House and let Specter stand as the Democratic candidate for the Senate. Sestak chose not to accept Obama’s offer and went on to defeat Specter in the primary. Sestak will stand for election to the Senate in November against Representative Pat Toomey (R-PA 15th).

Now some Republicans are calling for a Special Prosecutor and a long, drawn-out investigation into what went on . . . despite there being no evidence whatsoever that any law was broken. We do have a word for what went on here: politics. The trading in executive branch positions for political reasons is part of our politics and is not illegal. Obama should be criticized by the pundits and people for what he did, especially since he campaigned against this kind of ‘politics as usual’ quid-pro-quo stuff, but to act as if he broke a law is just plain silly. From what I can see, he didn’t.

If we’re going to have a Special Prosecutor for anything, it should be the Bush/Obama bailout bonanza. Our federal government buying General Motors and dumping billions-upon-billions of dollars into Wall St. bigwigs’ pockets actually was a crime, as it was a direct violation of the plain text of the United States Constitution. Let’s look into the TARP bailout under Bush too; I’m reasonably certain that if Congress writes a law saying ‘do X with this money,’ and then the president does Y with it . . . well I think that’s probably a crime too. There have been near-constant real examples of our government officials violating the law since the autumn of 2008; let’s stay focused on them!

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.