I suspect GM's stock price would shoot back up upon such an announcement, and there would be unprecedented anticipation for how Apple's co-founder, the visionary Steve Jobs, might bring the same type of innovation to the American automobile industry that he brought to the computer and communications and music industry.

Would it be enough and in time to save them? That I couldn't tell ya, but it'd be just about the best chance they'd have, I'd venture.

While I'm focused on this point, allow me to link back to my recent article asking why Congress hasn't asked GM about their popular, fully-electric car, the EV1, before trying to give them billions of dollars.

The company introduced the EV1 in California in 1996, before killing it inexplicably three years later and, literally, shredding every last one of the much-sought-after vehicles. Several excellent comments left by readers on that article, also look into the related mystery of Texaco having purchased the patent for the second generation battery for the car. The purchase occurred at nearly the same time as the EV1 was taken off the market. The new battery technology is said to have had a superbly long life on a single charge. The purchase effectively took the battery off the market --- has it been heard from since?

Texaco itself was purchased by Chevron just days after they'd bought the rights to the battery in 2000. At the time of the purchase, as coincidence would have it, Condoleeza Rice was on Chevron's board, and Andy Card was GM's VP of Government Relations, according to Wikipedia, where he served until he was selected as George W. Bush's Chief of Staff. Prior to that, from '93 to '98, Card had been President and CEO of the American Automobile Manufacturers Assoc. (AAMA), representing GM, Ford and Chrysler. All just coincidences, of course.

But back to the main point of this item...If Steve Jobs is disinclined to leave Apple, the company he co-founded, in order to take the reins as CEO of the floundering GM, then I suppose I could revise the headline of this piece to read instead:

How to Save the American Automobile Industry in Three Words:
'The Apple iCar'

Just sayin'.

UPDATE 12/11/08: Looks like a few others were having the same idea just about the time that I was, and in a bit more detail...

I haven't been able to watch all of the Capitol Hill hearings with the Big 3 automaker CEOs, but caught a fair portion. I've yet to hear anybody ask GM CEO Rick Wagoner why the hell his company killed their perfectly good, and rather popular, fully electric car which was introduced in CA in 1996.

The EV1 was much beloved by its owners (leasers, actually, since they were not allowed to buy them). There were waiting lists to be able to get one, before finally, three years later, with little or no explanation, GM announced they would not be renewing any of the leases on those cars and those who used them would have no recourse but to give them back.

Customers were outraged, heartbroken even. Many had tried to buy them outright --- and even sign contracts that they'd not hold GM accountable for any future problems or repairs --- but they were all turned down. When the devoted customers learned the planned fate of the cars --- and discovered, by helicopter, that they were all being rounded up in the desert --- they took up a round-the-clock, 24/7 vigil in an effort to block what GM had planned for them.

Incredibly, not only had GM taken back the cars, they were actually sending them, in perfectly good working order, to be shredded --- yes, literally shredded. As EV1 supporters tried to physically block the movement of cars to the shredder, they were threatened with arrest if they didn't get out of the way to allow the perfectly usable, and almost brand new cars to be taken out by trucks to be completely destroyed.

Why? That was never really made clear, at least not in the excellent 2006 documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? which detailed the entire heartbreaking tale of the cars which ran quickly and quietly, and without a drop of gasoline. Here's a short teaser for the film...

So, as promises of the Chevy Volt for 2010 have been well advertised, has Wagoner been publicly asked about the shameful EV1 chapter, and why his company can't just start making them again --- like tomorrow? Surely they didn't shred the blueprints for the cars as well, did they? If anyone has asked him, even about why the hell they destroyed them in the first place, I've not seen it. But with everything that's going on right now, and with GM's hat-in-hand, threatening "bankruptcy within the month" if they don't get billions of dollars pronto, it sure seems like someone oughta bring up the still unanswered questions of the EV1.

Guest blogged by Jon Ponder, Pensito Review.

George W. Bush's trashing of America is not quite complete...

Guest blogged by Jon Ponder, Pensito Review.

“There are things you can do individually to save energy,” Barack Obama said last week “… Making sure your tires are properly inflated — simple thing. But we could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling — if everybody was just inflating their tires. And getting regular tune-ups. You’d actually save just as much.”

Despite the fact that even NASCAR extols the gas-saving virtues of proper tire inflation on its website, the McCain campaign spent the early part of this week mocking Obama’s assertion that keeping tires inflated conserves gasoline by selling tire gauges, for a $25 donation, labeled “Obama Energy Plan.”

On Wednesday night, however, during a conference call with supporters, McCain did a complete 180 on tire inflation:

As The BRAD BLOG expands into new territory, we bring you our first, important, hard-hitting nature documentary...

Guest blogged by Jon Ponder, Pensito Review.
Drilling off the coast of California, Florida and elsewhere would increase domestic oil production by 7 percent by 2030, according to the Energy Information Administration. But “because oil prices are determined on the international market…any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant.” There is no short-term benefit to drilling, says the EIA, because it would take at least five years for oil production to begin. (Source: Center for American Progress.)

On the other hand, in a single step tomorrow --- closing the Enron Loophole --- Congress and George Bush could create an overnight drop in oil prices of between 25 and 50 percent. This is according to testimony before a Senate Committee two weeks ago by Michael Greenberger, the former director of Trading & Markets for the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC), the government board that oversees commodities markets.

"Yes," Greenberger testified, "overnight [closing the Enron Loophole] will bring down the price of crude oil to get at least a 25 percent drop in the cost of oil and a corresponding drop in the cost of gasoline. Some people estimate 50 percent."

Greenberger's testimony was brought to light by an investigation into the Enron Loophole by Keith Olbermann on MSNBC's "Countdown" last week. (A transcript of Olbermann's report follows.)

The Enron Loophole is the nickname for a provision written into the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) of 2000 that was drafted by lobbyists for Enron and inserted in the bill by then Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) that deregulated an aspect of the market Enron sought to exploit with its "Enron On-Line" trading program, the first Internet-based commodities transaction system. Phil Gramm is now a key economic adviser for the John McCain campaign.

While it was a technical success, Enron On-Line was based on a flawed business model that drained corporate revenues --- even while the company was manipulating the rates consumers paid for electricity in California. Enron On-Line eventually drove the company into bankruptcy, and the cooking of the books to hide its losses led to charges of conspiracy and fraud against Enron executives.

The Republicans' sudden rollout of the campaign to lift the ban on offshore drilling is really meant to shift the blame from Bush and the GOP to the Democrats and their opposition to offshore drilling. To their credit, they have done a masterful job --- and all it has cost them is the credibility of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who broke tradition in the state and came out in favor of lifting the ban. (It has also cost whatever meager credibility Crist's predecessor, Jeb Bush, had left. Bush opposed lifting the ban when he was in office but came out wholeheartedly in favor of it this weekend.)

*

Here's the transcript of the video of the report on the June 18 edition of "Countdown":

Last week we reported that a CBS poll finds Al Gore trailing Hilary Clinton by just 5% in the Presidential Primary race and is ahead of all of the others, even though he's not officially on the ballot.

Last month we reported that a Zogby "blind bio" poll of Republicans found that some unknown guy --- Ward Casscells --- who's not even running, led the Republican candidate field among GOP voters when no names, just summarized resumes, were given for each candidate polled.

Yesterday, Zogby released the results of their Democratic "blind bio" poll, showing that Al Gore is, hands down, in front of the pack with 35% support. His closest rival was Hillary Clinton at 24%.

Also in the poll, 60% of Dem voters would consider voting for someone other than the current slate of candidates, based on dissatisfaction with the positions on the Iraq War by the current official crop. 65% said they'd be open to supporting a new candidate based on the current candidates' global climate change positions...

More details...

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

Before Washington Week with Gwen Ifill aired last Friday on PBS its corporate sponsor, The National Mining Association (NMA), ran a ridiculous piece of propaganda which I could not let go unanswered. The mashup to the left (4:37) adds a little reality, courtesy of Bill Moyers, to the mining industry's commercial.

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

During the "Live Earth" concerts this past weekend, in one of the great speeches (both video and text transcript here) in recent American history, activist and radio host Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (his other sites here and here) called Glenn Beck and other right wing pundits "flat-earthers" and "corporate toadies" for continuously lying to the American people about global warming. Tonight, RFK, Jr. appeared on the "Face-Off" segment of Beck's CNN Headline News show and (in a heavily edited interview, see "UPDATE" at end of this story) continued to call out the host, stating at one point, "Your sentence should be that you should have to read the IPCC Report from cover to cover and I don't mean this with any particular disrespect, but I don't believe you have a long attention span."

The "IPCC Report" referenced by Kennedy is a report on global warming, recently issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an international body which "assess[es] on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation," according to their website.

Beck then followed up with a clever retort about Kennedy's "even shorter attention span" because the longtime environmental advocate-turned-media critic had failed to define "fascist" for the host. Kennedy quickly replied:

After more Beck antics, RFK Jr. closed by prescribing that Beck "Go back to journalism school, number one" and "number two, that you read the IPCC Report with somebody standing over your shoulder to help you."

UPDATE FROM BRAD: I spoke with someone from RFK's office late yesterday, who said the interview with Beck was originally much longer, but that it was greatly edited by air time. Indeed, the version of the video posted by Alan above reveals a number of uneven cuts where, clearly, the interview had been edited. Big time.

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave one of the great speeches in recent history at Live Earth where he spoke truth to power to our "rotten politicians" who are "nothing more than corporate toadies" for "villainous companies that consistently put their private financial interest ahead of American interest and ahead of the interest of all of humanity."

RFK jr. also offered a couple of ways to combat the corporations, politicians, "slick public relations firms and their phony think tanks" and "crooked scientists" including getting involved in the political process and boycotting the companies that advertise on programs where the corporate toadies consistently lie about global warming. Specifically, RJK Jr. suggests:

This mashup is produced entirely from the July 9th Hannity & Colmes and provides consumers with a list of corporations to avoid as well as evidences a number of typical Sean Hannity lies.

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at Live Earth yesterday spoke truth to power in this fantabulous speech (video above).

Kennedy challenged the notion that environmental advocacy was in contradiction to sound economic policy. He charged that "the oil industry and the coal industry and their indentured servants in the political process" making the claim were presenting "a false choice."

Among his exhortations was a call to action to respond to environmental disinformation by holding advertisers who support the disinfo operatives accountable.

"The next time you see John Stossel or Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity --- these flat-earthers, these corporate toadies, lying to you, lying to the American public, and telling you that global warming doesn't exist," Kennedy said, "you send an email to their advertisers and tell them that you are not going to buy their products anymore."

A transcript of RFK Jr.'s comments at Live Earth follow in full below...

Blogged by Brad from "Thor" Country (St. Louis, Missouri)...

"Emptywheel" at Next Hurray has the details on the latest Republican front group to go missing on the Internets in the time-honored cowardly tradition of George W. Bush's cut and run vote-suppression capo Thor Hearne of the "non-partisan" propaganda outlet, "American Center for Voting Rights" (ACVR).

At least the latest GOP scam outfit to see their website set to "This site is temporarily unavailable," Italia Federici's "Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy," (CREA) had the decency to include the name of their party in the group's name. As well, unlike Thor and his buddies, the group --- whose major funder was the now-jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff --- waited until its President, Federici, had pled guilty to obstruction and tax charges before giving up their website's ghost.

Thor, on the other hand, got out as soon as the U.S. Attorney Purge scandal began to shine a spotlight on the "Democratic voter fraud" scam he had been perpetrating for years on a gullible nation and a pliant corporate mainstream media. If we ever find out who funded Thor's tax-exempt ACVR scam to the tune of more than $1 million, we'll not be surprised to see Abramoff's finger prints all over it. Pointing even more directly towards the White House, we've got reason to believe that James A. Baker and friends were also likely on the inside of the hoax set up by the man who was Karl Rove's top election "legal" eagle and, by no coincidence, Bush/Cheney '04 Inc.'s general counsel.

With groups like ACVR and CREA, the GOP helped raise the art of "astroturfing" to new, unforgivable heights of cynicism and criminal fraud. The CMSM let 'em do it for years, as most of us looked the other way in disbelief that the folks who ran this country --- by hook and mostly crook --- would ever be so blatantly disingenuous. They were. We fell for it. And it'll likely take years to undo the damage.

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

Senator Barbara Boxer has a little talk with Senator Exxon, uh, James Inhofe who did not want to let former Vice President Al Gore answer his questions on global warming. It was Gore's first appearance on the Hill since January, 2001. Lou Dobbs covers the entertaining bit (1:32).

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer
Democracy Now's Amy Goodman interviews Greenpeace's John Passacantado in this 10 minute clip that aired yesterday. Passacantando discusses the plight of the polar bear and the extensive effort undertaken by Exxon and the White House to mislead the public about global warming. Also worth checking out is Greenpeace's sobering website, "Exxon Secrets", which is essentially a searchable database evidencing the long reach of the oil behemoth's disinformation campaign.

For the record, despite all appearances, Passacantando and BRAD BLOG's own Brad Friedman are not related.