Yes, thanks to this global recession perpetrated by Wall Street and China’s rise as a world power, the world has moved to the lowest common denominator. Once we used to laugh at third world countries with their domestic fleet of ancient dilapidated old aircraft, with natives herded into the mains cabin to be seated like sardines in a can and come 2009, Americans will be treated no differently. Yes, we have come a long way from those pre World War Two Pan Am Clipper Class seaplanes where the entire meal was prepared on board and every passenger was waited upon and treated as royalty. Mind you in those days the waiters were called Flight Hostesses. Today we know them as Cabin Attendants!

We will just have to get used to the fact this country is downsizing and downsizing means so many things we took as granted, like the option to fly better than coach class has been taken away from us. I happen to like a 500 horse power V8 under my hood, but if Pelosi gets her way, within five years we will be just like those poor miserable inhabitants of France driving around in Peugeot, Citroen, Renault and Mercedes Benz two seater A Cars or more likely foreign-made electric golf carts. Just like the wealthy women of New York a few years back had to stop wearing their fur coats for fear of being attacked by paint bombers, I suppose I will have to get used to the risk of those loony greenies vandalizing my American-made “gas guzzling” Pontiac G8 as Pelosi, Barney Frank and their smoked salmon socialist buddies outlaw what was part of my American dream; to be able to drive a car with some grunt!

The big three auto makers last week received the two thumbs down from the democrat-led congress and right now up to ten million jobs are on the line. This is madness. For me, I couldn’t care less that Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers are no longer. If Citibank folded, so what? In fact when I think of my youth in New Zealand, the then government-owned BNZ had branches in every small town/community in the country and still handed a handsome dividend each year to its sole shareholder. Maybe every troubled U.S. bank should be nationalized if we are to bail them out! It is appalling how Pelosi/Frank/Paulsen et al have turned their backs on the Big Three when directly and indirectly ten million plus people will lose their means of support should they fail. If, as the politicians say, bankruptcy is a better option for G.M., Ford and Chrysler, then why not the same for Citibank (just been handed for starters a quarter $billion), Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Wachovia? Maybe if (we are already being told China now owns us) we had a few Chinese banks in America to take their place, we might as a welcome change obtain some good customer service!

President-elect Obama has so much goodwill on his side, but he needs to tell Bush that it is over for him and his band of jerks and he also needs to pull these idiot headline grabbing grandstanding colleagues of his in line. The Big Three could go under if current trends continue until his inauguration and hard working Americans just cannot be held to ransom any longer. What the auto manufacturers need is postage stamps compared to what is being doled out to the bastards that created this unholy mess for us. Where is the justice in all this? and what about the sanity of the people we have elected to look after our best interests? Quite frankly, Pelosi is about as loony as her and Barney Frank’s best friends who run her home town, San Francisco!