GM suspends Chevy Volt production as sales tank...

Obama's favorite car is turning out to be a huge white elephant for GM. 

General Motors will stop making the Chevrolet Volt for four weeks in June and July due to slow sales and to deal with the change to an all-new version of the gas-electric hybrid car.
The company says the Detroit-Hamtramck plant that makes the Volt and four other cars will probably stay open through the summer despite plans for the Volt. The factory also is undergoing construction so it can build a new full-size Cadillac CT6 and the 2016 Volt starting late in the summer.
Sales of electric and hybrid cars have slowed this year, largely due to low gasoline prices. The national average for a gallon of regular gas was about $2.40 US on Thursday, 35 per cent lower than last year's peak of $3.70.
The cheap gas has really hurt Volt sales and caused inventory to build on dealer lots. Through March, GM sold only 1,874 Volts, down 48 per cent from a year ago. The company now has enough Volts to supply dealers for 210 days, according to Ward's Automotive. A 60-day supply is optimal.

Number of gun companies who won't sell to government now at 118

The list has triples in 2 weeks!

Via CNS:

On February 22, "Right Views" reported that a growing number firearm companies have suspended the sale of guns to states, counties, cities and municipalities that restrict their citizens' rights to own them.

In just two weeks, the number of companies participating in what has been named the "Firearms Equality Movement," has more than tripled from 34 companies to 118.

The Police Loophole lists every company and links to the statements that each has released regarding their new policies.

Ouch: Gun store names Obama “Firearms Salesman of the Year.”

The reason this will hurt so much is it's true...

MERRIMACK, NH (CBS) – One of the posters in the front window of a New Hampshire gun shop depicts President Obama as “Firearms Salesman of the Year.” Below the president are two AK-47 rifles.

A second poster featuring the images of Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong accompanies a statement that reads, “All Experts Agree, Gun Control Works.”

These types of signs have become more common since the gun control debate recently grabbed headlines around the country, but the signs in front of Collectible Arms & Ammo in Merrimack are still irritating to some residents.

Chuck Mower, who lives down the street from the shop, says the message is over the top and unnecessary.

“I can’t even imagine any president’s picture being portrayed on the front of a business with crossed assault weapons underneath it,” Mower said.

Irony: Gun ban talk spikes gun and ammo sales...

If Congress gets around to banning so-called "assault weapons,"  it won't much matter in the short term. They are already all sold out.

NEW YORK (AP) — The phones at Red's Trading Post wouldn't stop ringing. Would-be customers from as far away as New York wanted to know if the Twin Falls, Idaho gun shop had firearms in stock. Others clamored to find out if their orders had been shipped.

Overwhelmed, manager Ryan Horsley had to do what no employee would think of doing just days before Christmas: He disconnected the phone lines for three days.

"We had to shut everything off," says Horsley, whose family has owned Red's Trading Post, the state's oldest gun shop, since 1936. "We were swamped in the store and online."

Phones at gun shops across the country are ringing off the hook.

Demand for firearms, ammunition and bulletproof gear has surged since the Dec. 14 shooting in Newtown, Conn., that took the lives of 20 schoolchildren and six teachers and administrators. The shooting sparked calls for tighter gun control, especially for military-style assault weapons like the ones used in Newtown and in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting earlier this year. Keep on reading...

Chevy Volt Sales Plummet

 It's the Obama green curse. He really knows how to pick green losers...

Via CSM:

Sales of plug-in electric cars fell slightly in November, with continued steady sales of the Nissan Leaf not enough to make up for a decline in Chevy Volt numbers.

This month's total may not quite equal last month's plug-in sales of 6,784. The big unknown, however, is deliveries of the Tesla Model S--which Tesla won't discuss.

With just a month left in the year, up to 50,000 electric cars are likely to find buyers during 2012--almost triple the 2011 total of about 17,500.

This year's sales leader, the Chevy Volt range-extended electric car, logged 1,519 sales.

That brings the Volt's total so far this year to 20,828, though the November number is barely more than half the October total of 2,961--a number helped by now-expired sales incentives.

GM should have campaigned for mitt Romney. Consumers will never forget they are also known as Government Motors while Obama is in office. 

Irony: Fear of anti-gun Obama causes Ruger to sell out of guns and suspend new orders

This story may make liberals heads explode.

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE: RGR), announced today that for the first quarter 2012, the Company has received orders for more than one million units. Therefore, the Company has temporarily suspended the acceptance of new orders.

Chief Executive Officer Michael O. Fifer made the following comments:

The Company's Retailer Programs that were offered from January 1, 2012 through February 29, 2012 were very successful and generated significant orders from retailers to independent wholesale distributors for Ruger firearms.

Year-to-date, the independent wholesale distributors placed orders with the Company for more than one million Ruger firearms.


Despite the Company's continuing successful efforts to increase production rates, the incoming order rate exceeds our capacity to rapidly fulfill these orders. Consequently, the Company has temporarily suspended the acceptance of new orders.


The Company expects to resume the normal acceptance of orders by the end of May 2012.
The Company will announce its results and file its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the first quarter of 2012 on Tuesday, May 1, 2012, after the close of the stock market.

Obama wants to prop up Volt sales by taping $10,000 to the hood

GM only sold a total of 603 Volts in January.

Via Daily Caller:

The White House intends to boost government subsidies for wealthy buyers of the Chevy Volt and other new-technology vehicles — to $10,000 per buyer.

That mammoth subsidy would cost taxpayers $100 million each year if it is approved by Congress, presuming only 10,000 new-technology autos are sold each year.

But the administration wants to get 1 million new-tech autos on the road by 2015. The subsidy cost of that goal could reach $10 billion.

The planned giveaway will likely prompt populist protests from GOP legislators, but it will likely also will be welcomed by auto-industry workers in the critical swing state of Michigan.

The new subsidy level represents a 33 percent jump from the current $7,500 government payout for each Volt buyer, even though the Volt’s buyers are already among the wealthiest Americans. It will be offered to buyers of any new-technology autos, including battery-powered autos and cars powered by natural gas, said a White House official.

Keep on reading…

A sign of the times

McDonald's sales are booming. It's one of the few places people can afford to eat anymore.

OAK BROOK, Ill. (AP) -- Strong sales of McDonald's McCafe drinks and breakfast items in April drove a key revenue measurement up 6 percent worldwide.

Violent Crime Falls as Gun Sales Rise

Liberals always blame crime on the economy and guns. Recent data disproves that hypothesis. The economy has been in a recession and unemployment hovers around the 9.5% range. At the same time, gun sale have skyrocketed. If there was any truth to liberals hypothesis, violent crime should be on the way up too. The opposite thing has been occurring.

CNS News reported:

Violent crime continued to fall in 2009, even as gun sales reached an all-time high, according to statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This is “proof positive that gun prohibitionists have been consistently and undeniably wrong,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said in a statement.

Housing Sales Headache: New Home Sales Fall to 1963 level

The housing tax incentive for home buyers has ended. This incentive was for housing what 'cash for clunkers' was for vehicles. Now that the artificially pumped up sales have ended, the inevitable has happened. New home sales have collapsed to the lowest level since the year JFK was assassinated. That breaks a low housing sales record that has stood for 47 years.

AP reported:

Sales of new homes collapsed last month, sinking 33 percent to the lowest level on record as potential buyers stopped shopping for homes once they could no longer get government incentives.

The Commerce Department says new home sales fell in May from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 300,000. That was the slowest sales pace on records dating back to 1963.

Are GM and Chrysler Facing a Bailout Backlash?

September sales for GM and Chrysler have plummeted far below other car manufacturers.

From NewsBusters:

* The awful performance at General Motors -- down 45% from September 2008.
* Chrysler's even worse performance -- down "only" 42% from September 2008, but a mind-boggling 61% from September 2007 (62,197 in 2009, 156,799 in 2007)
* Ford's tiny decline of only 6% from a year ago, despite the end of the Cash For Clunkers program in August.

The bailouts for GM and Chrysler were aimed at saving the UAW at the expense of taxpayers, bondholders and dealers. The GM bailout alone is calculated to cost taxpayers $710,000 per employee.

After the 7,500 take their “buyout” and leave, GM will have 54,900 remaining hourly workers. (62,400 – 7,500)

The cost of “Bailout” part 1 ($17.4 Billion) and “Bailout” part 2 ($21.6 Billion) is $39 Billion Dollars.

If you divide the cost of the “Bailouts” by the number of hourly GM employes ($39,000,000,000 / 54,900 =) you get the figure of $710,000 per employee. (Seven Hundred And Ten Thousand Dollars Per Employee).

Using the UAW's number of $53 per hour, the wage and benefit package of a unionized auto worker comes to an average yearly salary of $114,400. This doesn't include overtime or bonuses. Using taxpayer money to payback Democrat's political supporters may have left a bad taste in the mouths of taxpayers trying to get by on half the UAW's wages.

Cash for "Clunkers" Hangover

Cash for "clunkers" cost taxpayers almost $3 billion and caused a spurt in auto sales of mostly foreign vehicles. Most dealers are still waiting to get paid by the government. Meanwhile, showroom traffic has plummeted and dealers are worried.

Like many dealers across the country, the dealership in Ypsilanti Township, Mich., west of Detroit, is suffering from a Cash for Clunkers hangover, and Sales Manager Paul Grahl isn't sure when it will end....

"It was good while it lasted," said Phil Warren, sales manager at Toyota Direct in Columbus, Ohio. "Now we're a little bit concerned about what happens next. The program may have just taken a lot of people out of the market."

UAE Seizes Explosives Laden N. Korean Arms Ship Heading to Iran

Sanctions against North Korea were ramped up after there last round of missile firing.
This is the first seizure under the stiffer sanctions, which prohibit North Korea fron selling any conventional weapons.

From Fox News:

UNITED NATIONS — The United Arab Emirates has seized a cargo ship bound for Iran with a cache of banned rocket-propelled grenades and other arms from North Korea, the first such seizure since sanctions against North Korea were ramped up, diplomats and officials told The Associated Press on Friday.

The seizure earlier this month was carried out in accordance with tough new U.N. Security Council sanctions meant to derail North Korea's nuclear weapons program, but which also ban the North's sale of any conventional arms.

Diplomats identified the vessel as a Bahamas-flagged cargo vessel, the ANL Australia. The diplomats and officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

"We can confirm that the UAE detained a North Korean vessel containing illicit cargo," a Western diplomat told the AP.

Turkey's deputy U.N. ambassador, Fazli Corman, who chairs the Security Council's sanctions panel, also confirmed the incident without providing details and said council members are examining the seriousness of it.

The UAE, a hub for Iranian goods, seized the ship earlier in August. The ship is registered in the Bahamas, a common country of registry for vessels, but it wasn't immediately clear who owns it nor where the owner is based.

The Security Council's latest resolution came in the wake of North Korea's second nuclear test in May and firing of six short-range rockets.

Ford drives ahead while GM and Chrysler stall

In what may be a backlash against the government takeovers of GM and Chrysler in a plan to save the UAW at the expense of secured creditors, Ford sales are much stronger than either GM or Chrysler. Many Americans are angry at what amounts to the nationalization of GM and the handover of Chrysler to the UAW. They want to buy American and Ford is benefiting from their sentiment.

From the Washington Times:

"Government Motors" is driving Americans away.

There is a groundswell of disdain for the federal bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler, even as polls show that a growing "Buy American" sentiment is boosting sales for the only Detroit automaker that avoided bankruptcy and federal rescue - Ford.

GM and Chrysler say some buyers are coming back to support them, even trading in their Mercedes for Chevrolets.

But it is bailout opponents who are the most visible - and audible.

Conservatives thunder that the country has taken a socialist route with President Obama at the wheel.

"I won't buy a socialist car," columnist and radio talk-show host Hugh Hewitt thundered last month.

Others agree - at least about GM.

"Over the years, we have mostly been a General Motors family. Since GM has become Government Motors, we will never again buy a GM product," said William Crowley of Spicewood, Texas.

It's not just conservatives who are turning away from two of the Big Three. The bailouts were opposed by most Americans, including substantial minorities of Democrats surveyed in March and June polls, according to Gallup.

"You could say even Obama supporters don't like [it]," said Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive officer of car-buying site Edmunds.com. "I'm not sure you can put a party label on it."

Here is a list of June U.S. sales for most major auto manufacturers:

▼ 28% Industry total, 872,877 units from 1,212,933 units a year ago.

▼ 5% Kia, 26,845 units vs. 28,292 units
▼ 11% Ford, 148,153 units vs. 167,090 units
▼ 15% Volkswagen, 26,551 units vs. 31,411 units
▼ 20% BMW, 20,849 units vs. 26,155 units
▼ 23% Nissan, 58,298 units vs. 75,847 units
▼ 24% Hyundai, 37,943 units vs. 50,033 units
▼ 26% Mercedes, 16,271 units vs. 22,121 units
▼ 30% Honda, 100,420 units vs. 142,539 units
▼ 32% Toyota, 131,654 units vs. 193,234 units
▼ 33% GM, 175,792 units vs. 264,065 units
▼ 42% Chrysler, 68,297 units vs. 117,457 units

Ford sales are only down 11% compared to 33% for GM and 42% for Chrysler.

Obama is stimulating ammo sales

Gun owners are fearful the Obama administration will restrict sales. They are rushing to buy ammo and creating a shortage. CNN reported:

AURORA, Colorado (CNN) -- Gun shops across the country are reporting a run on ammunition, a phenomenon apparently driven by fear that the Obama administration will increase taxes on bullets or enact new gun-control measures.

"In the last two months it's gotten very, very difficult to find ammunition," says Richard Taylor, manager of The Firing Line, a gun shop and shooting range in the Denver, Colorado, suburbs.

"There are a lot of rumors floating around that the present government would like to increase taxes on ammunition. I think [there is] just a lot of panicked buying going on."

While campaigning for the White House, Obama supported re-enacting the now-expired ban on assault weapons. But there is no indication that the administration will take up that measure -- or any other gun-control initiative --anytime soon.

Nonetheless, some gun owners aren't taking any chances.

Two weeks ago, The Firing Line was forced to impose a four-box-per-customer limit on ammo. Before that, the shop was selling 10,000 rounds of 9 mm handgun ammunition a day.