Telling It Straight--Where Have All The Leaders Gone?

[BankruptPinoy]

Telling It Straight

Remember Lee Iacocca, the man who rescued Chrysler Corporation from its death throes? He's now 82 years old and has a new book, 'Where Have All The Leaders Gone?'.

Lee Iacocca Says...

Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder! We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, 'Stay the course..'

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America , not the damned, 'Titanic'. I'll give you a sound bite: 'Throw all the bums out!'

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore..

The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs.. While we're fiddling in Iraq , the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving 'pom-poms' instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of the ' America ' my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?

I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have. The Biggest 'C' is Crisis!

Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A hell of a mess, so here's where we stand.

We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving.

Obama is running the biggest deficit in the history of the country.

We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia , while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs.

Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble due to poor leadership in school districts.

Our borders are like sieves.

The middle class is being squeezed every which way.

These are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you've got to ask: 'Where have all the leaders gone?' Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo?

We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already
happened.

Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane
Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the
response to the hurricane or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm.

Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when 'The Big Three' referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it?

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debit, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the
health care problem. The silence is deafening.. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on NBC news or CNN news will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?

Had Enough? Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope - I believe in America.

In my lifetime, I've had the privilege of living through some of
America 's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises: The 'Great Depression,' 'World War II,' the 'Korean War,' the 'Kennedy Assassination,' the 'Vietnam War,' the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11.

If I've learned one thing, it's this: 'You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play.

[newbeginning]

...so true! one clear problem is that intransigent IDEOLOGY wins out over objective problem solving!

this country is in great danger of being slaves to ideologies of the extreme left or right and the middle is being drowned out.

a minority party that wants little or nothing to do with solving the issues, rather, merely to sabotage and undermine any success that the majority party may benefit from... btw, the minority hasn't come up with any solutions of their own- anyone notice this obvious fact?! it's all about hoping that america fails so that they can say "i told you so"

majority part that is more interested in cramming legislation at the expense of leaving out objective, careful consideration to details

and don't let me forget about the american people in general... easily succumbs to the rhetoric of the extremes w/o making any honest effort to look at the facts... there are A LOT OF frightened and clueless people in this country ready to believe anything that comes their way...

corporations and businesses that are not, have not been for decades, dedicated to the preservation and strength of the country... profits out-weigh patriotism, of course!

the more and more i look at where we are today, the more i am convinced that this country is on the down slope. NO ONE wants to make sacrifices and that will imminently lead to this country's steady decline. a lot to be done and reformed, but no one to want to do it or not enough will, collectively, to do it...

[AngelinaCatHub]

There are patriotic people all over this Country. They currently are in fear as we are viewing the next Reich in lightning speed being assembled. That fear will soon turn to anger. Ammunition is scarce as it is being purchased rapidly.

The lid on the boiling pot is being lifted and tipped by anger that is about to spill over. If this current regime puts over their unwanted plans and defy the people, I fear there will not be another election of a president.

[OhioFiler]

There are patriotic people all over this Country. They currently are in fear as we are viewing the next Reich in lightning speed being assembled. That fear will soon turn to anger. Ammunition is scarce as it is being purchased rapidly.

The lid on the boiling pot is being lifted and tipped by anger that is about to spill over. If this current regime puts over their unwanted plans and defy the people, I fear there will not be another election of a president.

The tea parties and townhall meetings are just the tip of the iceberg. This non-partisan movement is going to be big and I would not want to be on the receiving end of it's ire.

[justbroke]

The problem is, if you question the leadership in Congress or those in that white colored house, down the street, they call you unpatriotic. That you're not giving them a "chance". I've given the lot of them... many chances. I wish we actually had the fortitude to vote them all out.

I know that I have.

Unfortunately, the powers that be have very good advertising or something, because the uninformed still go into the voting booth and select everyone based on the left column or the right column... and you know what I mean. It's sad.

I forgot the whole quote or where it comes from but it went like this...

In the absence of genuine leadership, people will listen to whomever will step up to the microphone.

[AngelinaCatHub]

The problem is, if you question the leadership in Congress or those in that white colored house, down the street, they call you unpatriotic. That you're not giving them a "chance". I've given the lot of them... many chances. I wish we actually had the fortitude to vote them all out.

I know that I have.

Unfortunately, the powers that be have very good advertising or something, because the uninformed still go into the voting booth and select everyone based on the left column or the right column... and you know what I mean. It's sad.

I forgot the whole quote or where it comes from but it went like this...

Better than that:

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything. by Alexander Hamilton.

Unfortunately we not only have the best Government money can buy, but we also have news press who invent news, not report it. They wish to form reality not report it. 'Hub

[StartingOver08]

Better than that:

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything. by Alexander Hamilton.

Unfortunately we not only have the best Government money can buy, but we also have news press who invent news, not report it. They wish to form reality not report it. 'Hub

So true.

[OhioFiler]

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing -Edmund Burke

I'll be attending my first tea party next Wednesday.

[AngelinaCatHub]

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing -Edmund Burke

I'll be attending my first tea party next Wednesday.

Good for you. I would rather not see all these "newbies" that of course we welcome, but they are here because of our stity economy. AND it is not all Bush's fault. I DID NOT LIKE BUSH, and I AM a registered Democrat, but I am a free thinker and my real politics is Libertarian. I see Liberty leaving us as individuals. It once was called freedom and that word is being perverted into we are free to be led. The real joke is where ARE the leaders???

FREE MONEY FOLKS, just sell your soul to 'Bammy.

[AngelinaCatHub]

The Coming Obama 'Theocracy'
People mocked Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney for their religious backgrounds often during the presidential campaigns, but at least they never claimed to be on a mission to save the souls of Americans through government action. Oh, people accused them of wanting to do so -- to impose Southern Baptist or Mormon theology on an America that wants relentless secularism, but in point of fact both men gave stirring speeches on how their faith informs them personally but not their governance.

One campaign really has explicitly claimed to be on such a mission, however. Michelle Obama gave a speech at UCLA earlier this month in which she told supporters that her husband was the only man who could fix American souls -- if we elect him President first. Here's the transcript:

In 2008, we are still a nation that is too divided. We live in isolation, and because of that isolation, we fear one another. We don't know our neighbors, we don't talk, we believe our pain is our own. We don't realize that the struggles and challenges of all of us are the same. We are too isolated. And we are still a nation that is still too cynical. We look at it as "them" and "they" as opposed to "us". We don't engage because we are still too cynical. ...
Americans are not in debt because they live frivolously but because someone got sick. Even with insurance, the deductibles and the premiums are so high that people are still putting medications and treatments on credit cards. And they can't get out from under. I could go on and on, but this is how we're living, people, in 2008.

And things have gotten progressively worse throughout my lifetime, through Democratic and Republican administrations, it hasn't gotten better for regular folks. ....

We have lost the understanding that in a democracy, we have a mutual obligation to one another -- that we cannot measure the greatness of our society by the strongest and richest of us, but we have to measure our greatness by the least of these. That we have to compromise and sacrifice for one another in order to get things done. That is why I am here, because Barack Obama is the only person in this who understands that. That before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation.


It's hard to know where to start in with this speech. First, what evidence does Mrs. Obama have that the largest part of credit card debt goes to health care? Second, if she has seen the standard of living get progressively worse during her lifetime, she needs new glasses. The living standard of even those classified as poor now have per-person expenditures of the American middle-class of the early 1970s, according to the Census Bureau. Eighty percent of the poor live in air-conditioned housing, 43% of them own their own homes, and the average poor American has as much living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, and Athens. Only 3% don't own a color TV.

But it's the notion that only Barack Obama can save our souls that is the most offensive part of the speech, by far. Government doesn't exist to save souls; it exists to ensure domestic tranquility and provide for the common defense. If I feel my soul needs saving, the very last place I'd look (in the US) for a savior would be Washington DC or Capitol Hill. I'll trust God and Jesus Christ with my soul, and I'm not going to mistake Barack Obama for either one.

This, though, is the religion of statism distilled to its essence. Only a government can rescue people from the consequences of their own decisions. Only government programs can provide for your every need, and only government can use your money wisely enough to ensure that your needs get covered. Individuals cannot possibly manage to help their neighbors through their churches or community organizations, let alone encourage people to do for themselves.

And all you need to enter the statist Utopia is to sell your soul. So that it can be fixed.

No, thank you.

UPDATE: Ron at Liberal Values implies that I'm a hypocrite. Ron's a good guy, but he's wrong. People rely on their values to formulate policy, and religious values are just as legitimate as others for that purpose. People who claim to know the status of my soul and promise that they can fix it through government intervention -- on either side of the aisle -- explicitly have crossed a line, not to mention exhibited arrogance in diagnosing the status of my soul.

Michelle Malkin responds:

When Republicans talk about broken souls in the context of civil society, the nutroots start screaming about the obliteration of the church-state line.
When the Obama campaign uses the same rhetoric to get him elected to the White House, everyone swoons.


I'd rather both just stick to policy, and let me worry about the status of my soul.

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/017003.php

[banca rotta]

I always did like this man. This is just another reason why.




God Bless all the folks speaking their minds at the town hall meetings against the dictatorship.



I'm counting the days to the mid term elections where we will at least have the balance of powers restored. We won't have a perfect government, not now or ever, but we will restore checks and balances that all of YOU Obama, Pelosi and Reid supporters took away from the rest of us. Thanks for nothing!

[Iwantmyname]

OOps, slipped into the "alternetative Amerika" here. You actually quote Malkin and Limbaugh? Aren't they discredited bozos? I wish the forum had an alternative Amerika tag or something. I life in the Blue world-- clean air, green grass and penty of Dems. Obama is the Prez and we will eventually get universal health care like all the other civilized nations on the earth. It is all a matter of getting past the dukes of hazzard here. I am amazed there are no white sheets or Dixie flags.

[justbroke]

Obama is the Prez and we will eventually get universal health care like all the other civilized nations on the earth.

Until we get a single payer system, ours will never be the same as the other civilized nations on earth. Simple as that.

[banca rotta]

OOps, slipped into the "alternetative Amerika" here. You actually quote Malkin and Limbaugh? Aren't they discredited bozos? I wish the forum had an alternative Amerika tag or something. I life in the Blue world-- clean air, green grass and penty of Dems. Obama is the Prez and we will eventually get universal health care like all the other civilized nations on the earth. It is all a matter of getting past the dukes of hazzard here. I am amazed there are no white sheets or Dixie flags.

Who's quoting "Limbaugh and Malkin"? I don't listen to either. Our Government was supposed to have checks and balances. I posted many times I no longer care about one party over another just a reasonable balance.

Still cannot figure out why the universal healthcare or single payer bunch can't go to where it is currently and live in peace.

If I was more inspired by socialism I would move to a socialist nation and all my problems would go away. Lucky for me I'm not one because it has failed or is failing everywhere it's been tried. That is no Limbaugh my friend that is history.

[newbeginning]

...tempered socialism is alive and well. if by socialism (so many mistakenly equate anything with socialism to totalitarianism/communism) you mean what the USSR had, yes failure. What about China? Failure? Doing better than we are economically... what about the various European nations that have a much more socialistic approach and system of health-care, etc. Failure? No. Heck, our Social Security System, Medicare/Medicaid are both obvious socialist systems that no American I know is willing to give up because of ideology...

the reality is, no civilized and successful society can survive w/o carefully thought out social network of some sort.

one role of government is to counter-balance the will and inertia of the non-government (corporate) drive for profit and dismissal for social conscience/welfare. companies, by nature, seek profits by whatever means they have to their disposal (legally for the most part). most companies do not accommodate for moral considerations- money and profit is are amoral, at best, pursuits for these companies.

this country has allowed corporate-bought politicians to take the reigns of governing to the point where a very large plurality of laws are geared towards business interests, not yours or mine.

anything unchecked will show its true colors. CAPITALISM is no exception. think about it... capitalism is predicated on the old model of social darwinism- survival of the fittest at the expense of the competition, however small or detrimental to overall society, and yet, it is the best that we can work with today. GREED drives capitalism. this is not to say that there aren't people who create opportunities and businesses because they truly want to provide a meaningful service. such people do and have existed. but the big boys, those who truly make the greatest impact on the teetering resolve of capitalism, they're the ones who spend millions on lobbyist to pass laws that further undermine the common citizen's leverage.

as for checks and balances... it would appear that many who argue that it does not exist now, must also be admitting that the voice of the people is as unsavory. we voted in these reps, so the people did speak. so, it would appear that what some of you want is a system of government that guarantees that neither party ever gets such a lop-sided majority as we see it today (and yet, the president doesn't seem to me to have FREE reign). hmmm.... sounds like other democratic nations other than the USA. imagine- a political system with more than 2 entrenched political parties..... what am i thinking about, americans have long dismissed such ideas by arguing that it would create impasse in government.... eesh.