“OBAMACA$H FOR CLUNKERS”: A DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST AUTOMOTIVE HOBBIES

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In 1850, there were an estimated 20 million buffalo roaming the Great Plains of North America.

In 1866, General Philip H. Sheridan assumed command of the U.S. Army in the frontier American West. Indigenous, nomadic native American tribes were viewed as the largest obstacle to settling the frontier. General Sheridan proposed exterminating the herds of buffalo that support the Indians' way of life. "Kill the buffalo and you kill the Indians.”

Over the next twenty years, Sheridan’s suggestion was de facto U.S. Policy. By 1889, only 541 buffalo could be located.

Virtually brain-dead “appliance motorist” Rep. Betty Sutton’s (D-Ohio) Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save bill (CARS Act), better known under the deceptive moniker “Cash For Clunkers” is another misguided “buffalo hunt.”

Only this time, the liberal greeniacs intend to “Kill the old cars” in order to “kill our automotive culture.”

Morons like Sutton and her tax & spend ilk point to the “success” of “Cash For Clunkers” in Germany.

But the German “Cash For Clunkers” programs is sweeping up a whole generation of serviceable collector and sporting cars in its dragnet.

Autoweek magazine reports as follows:

Germans also are concerned about seeing sound but aging cars disappear.

“It breaks my heart seeing perfectly good versions of the Golf GTI going to the press,” said one Volkswagen Golf GTI fanatic. “They’re highly sought after by collectors, but all their owners care about is receiving written confirmation from the scrapyard so they can collect their rebate."

(Interestingly enough, much of the German “Cash for Clunkers” money is flowing outside of Germany to Spain and other lower-cost producers. Thus, Germans are losing their automotive heritage in a tax-funded boondoggle and are creating a windfall for foreign producers.)

And that’s exactly what hysterical, Goreian GreeNazis supporting Sutton’s CARS Act intend to have happen here.

In the blinded minds of the radical, freedom-hating Greens, racing, hot rodding, tuning, customizing, antique car collecting and other grassroots automotive pursuits involving historic vehicles are “killing the Planet.” These freedom-hating, power-grabbing, “we-know-what’s-best-for-you” environuts cannot fathom why anyone would waste their time pursuing any automotive hobby or automotive aftermarket vocation in the first place. They will never understand that participation in these automotive pursuits often define much of who we are (just as hiking in the woods, eating tasteless vegan food, and blocking the fast lane in their slow, wimpy Priuses defines who they are).

The liberal “true believer” greens see such “Car Crazy” “rebels” as an impediment to their dream of banishing internal combustion and the 20th Century “car culture” to the ashcan of history. And the only way to “kill the Car Nuts” and subjugate them to the “uniform, happy, shiny, government-designed, sanitized, tamper-proof, disposable electro-micro car ‘reservation’” is to flatten the “obsolete,” “dirty”, “rebellious” objects of our “Car Crazy” passion. In other words, crushing our supply of historic and milestone parts cars and “project cars,” and thereby destroying the businesses which depend on them is in essence the “slaughtering of our buffalo.”

Just as slaughtering the buffalo didn’t exterminate all of the Plains Indians, a well-heeled and resourceful remnant will survive Obama’s war on Automotive “choice.” But our “tribes” will be much smaller, much more insular, and much less diverse. And the “entry costs” for participation will escalate dramatically.

The June 2009 issue of Car Craft magazine features a story on the “Top 10 Affordable Project Cars.” (See Page 26, et seq.) Each of these "affordable project cars" would be "clunkers" as defined in the flawed CARS Bill. Each of these cars often sell for less than the amount of borrowed tax money that an "ObamaCa$h for Clunkers" extermination plan would pay to destroy them. While Ford rodders and tuners would take some issue with the selections (for example no Panther platform vehicles or Lincolns made the list, while the 1965-1975 Cadillac did), the list is a prime example of the sorts of cheap and interesting cars that would be driven to the brink of extinction by a misguided “ObamaCa$h For Clunkers" plan.

Make no mistake about it, “Cash For Clunkers” is a declaration of war against the automotive aftermarket and all “old car” automotive-based hobbies.

As Edmund Burke once said about tyranny “All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.” Burke also said, “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."

Make no mistake about it, supporters of "Cash For Clunkers" and other wasteful errosions of our cherished Automotive liberties are "evil men." They must be stopped.

To withstand the attacks on the free market and automotive freedom being relentlessly pushed by car-haters like Rep. Betty “the-Buffoon” Sutton (D-Ohio) and Barack Obama, we’ve got to stand up to them. The Specialty Equipment Market Association’s SEMA ACTION NETWORK is an essential tool in fighting the “crush our CARS” boondoggle.

We’ve got to be vigilant in keeping the pressure on to defeat any and all “Cash For Clunkers” schemes. Write and call your Congressperson today.

And when any “Cash For Clunkers” supporters come up for reelection in 2010, 2012 and 2014, the greater automotive community has to let its collective voice be heard against the enemies of our automotive rights. It’s time for car haters such as Betty Skelton to be soundly defeated at the ballotbox.

This time let’s stop them from “killing our buffalo.”


UPDATE: THE "BUFFALO KILLERS"

According to the "Govtrack" website, here's a list of the rogue's gallery of big-spending, anti-freedom, historic & milestone car-hating liberals (and a few RINOS) who have co-sponsored "BOZO BETTY" SUTTON'S horrible Cash-for-Clunkers bill:

Rep. Dennis Kucinich [D-OH][Affectionately known here as "Dennis KOOKcinich"]
Rep. Frederick Upton [R-MI]
Rep. Mark Schauer [D-MI]
Rep. Gary Peters [D-MI]
Rep. Candice Miller [R-MI]
Rep. Linda Sánchez [D-CA]
Rep. Bruce Braley [D-IA]
Rep. Dale Kildee [D-MI]
Rep. David Loebsack [D-IA]
Rep. Joe Courtney [D-CT]
Rep. Joe Donnelly [D-IN]
Rep. John Dingell [D-MI][Yes, the U.A.W.'s favorite Congressman]
Rep. John Yarmuth [D-KY]
Rep. Phil Hare [D-IL]
Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick [D-MI]
Rep. William Clay [D-MO]
Rep. Russ Carnahan [D-MO]
Rep. John Sarbanes [D-MD]
Rep. Bart Stupak [D-MI]
Rep. Earl Blumenauer [D-OR]
Rep. Patrick Kennedy [D-RI][Just keep'em away from Dad's Oldsmobile . . . or his own Fords!]

And no, this is not the "Holiday Card" list of Tom and Ray Magliozzi a/k/a Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers (but it might as well be for all of the automotive expertise you'll NOT find on it).

This is a list of awful, power-mad, big-government-loving, borrowed-tax-money-blowing yahoos that any reasonable "car guy" (or freedom-loving American) would never, ever want to see themselves associated with, much less vote for.

Can you imagine any of these "goofs" and mouth-breathers on the Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour? Or at the Street Rod Nationals? Or running at a drag strip or autocross or local dirt track? Or at Hershey or Carlisle or Bonneville or Daytona or even at the genteel events of the Monterrey Weekend at Pebble Beach?

This bunch of car-crushing, freedom-hating sad-sacks probably has no clue which end of the jack to put on the ground or which way to turn the lug wrench in order to "change" a flat tire. Most likely giving one of them a ride in a Dodge Viper or other "real car" would cause whiplash.

It's as if the VW-Beetle-driving, automobile-phobic "chess club" wimps from high school are now in charge of our transporation policies (along with Obama's hapless "Car Czar Central Committee.")

This is a motley bunch that makes Brian France look like a MENSA member.