Apathy or a lack of information?

This poster was put out during WW I showing how business and the Government had partnered to destroy the evils of Unionism. Look in the back at the greedy Union boss sneaking out with the money belonging to business and the Public. Listen to any right wing talk show, listen to the K.J. and you will hear the same talk.

Lack of member participation, interest, lack of concern and understanding about their own union and the Labor Movement in general, are reaching critical levels. Until 1/20/2009 the G. Bush labor department will be trying to disassemble a hundred years of labor gains. In Maine a portion of the legislature is preparing a devastating attack on wages and benefits under the guise of saving the public from the rapacious Unions. We will no longer be able to afford both the Mercedes and the Bentley. Some of us may have to fire one of the maids. The lack of concern for learning how to affect their future and the future of their families is a hugely frustrating problem for me. The MSEA has an outstanding monthly newsletter, staff and a website. The chapters have regular meetings; stewards are active and helping members every day. I publish this Blog and still the uphill fight to motivate members to act in their own interest is nothing but uphill over twenty miles of bad road.

Regardless of the web, and the efforts of the active members, we are not getting the level of support that will be needed. I realize that people are busy with jobs, children, and just trying to have a life and they can't be bothered with one more thing.

We know the signs, the hype has started. State employees will be painted as the devils with the gold plated everything, stealing from the public. I can understand not being interested in the troubles of transit workers in France but I find it amazing that so many Union members seem to have given up the fight before it has started.

If Members are so apathetic, why bother?

I am publishing UnionMaine because I think our members need and want several things that they have not had or not known about.

1. The members need a place where they can freely speak out about what is on their mind. I also invite non-members because they say no one listens. If all it takes is someone to listen to bring them in, I will listen.

2. Members need to know that they can not use the remote to watch their unions and benefits crumble. There is no Tivo for wages and benefits.

3. I don’t know what it will take to get members active but they must learn that they are not alone and there is power in numbers. They need to know that other members share the same concerns. Wages, Health care, retirement and more. Talking to members is the core of the answer, find out what they want, and find out what they will do to help themselves. Most of all they need to know they can make a difference, there is truly strength in numbers.

The State will say “it is bad all around” and we have to take another cut in pay and benefits. State employees could understand a temporary sacrifice to help everyone in the State. With one exception, no cut is ever temporary, no benefits are ever given back The one exception was furlough days. When the State had to get along without State employees they soon realized how much we do to enable the business of government. We regained our lost wages and regained lost respect. Apathetic workers believe that the legislature will do what they will do regardless. They forget that the legislators don’t want to read in the newspapers about employees qualifying for food stamps and they want votes! A highly active Union in Maine could sway fifty to a hundred thousand votes. We have real power; we need to let Augusta know that we will use it.

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Go away and die, Please, pretty please.

The Bush legal system has decided it is OK to lie to anyone over 65 and let them starve or die if their benefits might cut into profits. Here is the opening of a NY times story with the link to the whole article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/27/washington/27retire.html?ex=1199422800&en=db7fb71c091ca559&ei=5070&emc=eta1

U.S. Ruling Backs Benefit Cut at 65 in Retiree Plans

By ROBERT PEAR

Published: December 27, 2007

WASHINGTON — The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Wednesday that employers could reduce or eliminate health benefits for retirees when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare.

Read the whole story, here, they say it is not age discrimination and they can cut your families health care too. BRING AN AIRSICKNESS BAG!

The ruling is the Bush/Cheney way of voiding contracts and attacking Unions. They hate Unions, they hate working Americans so much that if they couldn’t win in a contract they needed a way to say “only fooling” after signing the documents. Retirement pensions and health care were negotiated as deferred benefits and both sides knew the costs. Unions and employers figure the costs and make promises. Employers and unions go to the table at the end of every contract. Companies have multiple chances to renegotiate the terms of these deferred benefits. This commission ruling voids negotiated benefits by handing one side a win with no way to bargain. I am still in shock that the AFL-CIO has backed the commission ruling. I have spent 15 years active in the MSEA-SEIU as a member and steward. I can only hope that our Union will never sell us out the way the AFL-CIO is selling out their members. Retirees don’t pay dues; does that mean that their Union doesn’t owe any loyalty to their older members? Is it just the money?

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When do we start Bargaining?

CLICK ON THE CARTOON FOR A FULL SIZE PICTURE.

Tonight I sent out over one hundred emails to stewards. I will enclose the body of the letter in this post. If you know a steward that did not get an email it was because either there was no email listed, a bad email was listed, or the only address was a Maine.Gov address and I won't abuse the system the same way some of the decert people abused the email in 2007. This is not just my idea, the last negotiations team unanimously endorsed early bargaining. A Union official said publicly that bargaining would start early. Bargaining before all the money is gone. Bargaining with time to collect all the bargaining proposals and do the research. Time to answer members questions about proposals. We need time. If you know anyone that was P.O.ed about their proposal not being included in the last contract or someone that wants to know what we can do to try to head off the attempt to make MSEA-SEIU members pay for the budget deficit with no raises and cuts in benefits tell them to start asking when the bargaining teams will be elected. Unless we start NOW we will be in the same boat again.

Here is what I sent out. Pass it on.

I am sending this email to as many stewards as possible. If you know anyone, steward or member that might be interested please pass this on.

My name is Thomas Maher, a steward from Bangor. I am a member of the Pro-Tech unit. I have been involved in contract negotiations for the MSEA-SEIU for several contracts as both a negotiations team member and as a bargaining committee member. Most members don’t know that the negotiations team last year voted unanimously to start bargaining as early as possible this time around. The reason is that the State always puts us up against the wall saying that time is short and if we don’t have a contract members will go without step raises, we could see shut down days, and more scare tactics of that type. I am trying to contact as many stewards as possible to get involved and to get bargaining going early before the legislature has taken all the cash and we are reduced to collective begging in place of collective bargaining. Another effect of this would be for all members to get their proposals in early so every proposal has a chance to be read and studied if research is necessary.

I will be putting up articles about early bargaining on my website, address included and I have already collected a number of bargaining proposals. Please drop by if you have a minute. My site is not Union sponsored or supported. I am doing this on my own. If do not want me to email you again just reply with “Do not Email” in the subject line and I will not email you again.

In Solidarity,

Thomas Maher

E.T.I. 2009
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Merry Grinchmas Contract to be signed 1-4-08

The 2007 -2009 contract for State Employees will be signed on January 4, 2008. I don't know how you feel about this contract, wages and benefits but unless you think it was the best thing since free beer and pretzels just wait. Too many State Employees think that "the union" will bargain the contract and that there is nothing that can be done. We can make a difference, we are the Union and if we are not interested enough to take care of our own issues no one will do it for us.

When contracts are bargained, both the Union and the legislature start looking at neighboring States to make economic comparisons. The legislature only looks for cuts while your Union is looking at the whole picture. If another State pays less do they have better benefits? If their benefits took a hit did they get a better raise? Here is what New Hampshire got hit with at their last contract. They did get an 11% raise in two years, nearly twice what we got. They pay almost all of their employees overtime and standby regardless of being "salaried". Our legislature will be looking for cuts and the only way we will get anything is to look ahead and plan.

The Union has promised to start bargaining early, when? Read this summary of New Hampshire and see if you would settle for a contract that guts your health care and that makes a joke of all the promises you were given when you came to work last year or or twenty five years or more ago. You kept your word, you worked for less for the promise of a health plan.

Cutting your pre paid health care would be like Chevy, Ford, and Chrysler sending tow trucks to your house to take your car back even a paid off car. They could just say that it was too expensive to honor the warranty they promised, too expensive too keep making spare parts so you will need to give up your car to help them.

Will you settle for a contract like this?
If you say yes, you would settle we have not seen 11% in two years since Dick Cheney ran his last marathon for charity. It is likely that the legislature is going to try for another zero and zero with benefit cuts. Contact your legislator now and ask them if they will fight for you.

Wages

What would it take for you to accept the rest of this agreement? New Hampshire Employees settled for about 11%. After you take out what they are going to be paying they got about 6%, the same as Maine employees.

Healthcare, the Agreement

• Provides $200 in "health reimbursement" funds to employees who complete an on-line "Health Risk Assessment" questionnaire (this money can be used for office visit and prescription co-pays);
• Cap maximum out-of-pocket expenses for office visits at $500 per individual and $1,000 per family;
• Cap maximum out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs at $500 per individual and $1,000 per family;
• Employee pays $25 per pay period health care fee for employees who subscribe to the state’s health insurance system (a total of $650 a year in pre-tax dollars); the fee would increase to $30 per pay period ($780) on January 1, 2010;
• Office co-pays will also increase effective January 1, 2010; primary care visits will increase to $20; most specialists' visits will increase to $40, but some will remain at $30);
• Prescription drug co-pays remain at current rates;
• Increase maximum dental benefit 20%
• Add adult orthodontia benefits

While you are working these amounts don't look like they would destroy your budget. They would prevent you from going to the doctor, they will prevent you from affording care for your kids, which is the whole idea. If you can't use your health care the costs will definitely go down. The State is looking to balance the budget on your backs and on your family's health. If you are near to retirement it will make the health care you worked a lifetime to earn a joke. "Thank you for thirty years, get out!"

Happy New Year.

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A lack of understanding in Liberal writing

Usually I am comfortable with the liberal view points I follow. Today I got a comeuppance. If a right winger or a conservative disagrees with something I say I am comfortable with my point of view and ready to defend what I say.
I have said that we have to be open minded in the U.S.A. and in our Union to see and value differing view points. I thought I was living up to that ideal. Today someone told me, after reading my blog, "you know I am a conservative" and I could tell that I had written something to upset that person, someone that I respect. What is the problem? The problem is that I had no idea what I had set to upset that particular individual. If I don't know what I said to upset someone, while I can't admit to being wrong, it shows that I didn't know my audience well enough and perhaps used a barb or an insult rather than a reasoned argument.

Dwight D. Eisenhower cautioned against the military industrial complex, a visionary.
Most of the founding fathers would be considered honest conservatives today with their beliefs in self sufficiency.
Teddy Roosevelt would never have been considered a bleeding heart liberal.

This country and hopefully our Union will be made stronger by uniting and understanding that most of us want nearly the same things, we simply see different ways to get there.

To that one reader and to anyone that thinks that a conservative, a Republican, or anyone would not get a fair chance a UnionMaine I apologize.


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Marijuana, Guns, Social Security, Unions, Questions for Chellie Pingree

First: The distribution notices were gummed up by BLOGGER yesterday, but they seem to have cleared up the problems. You may have gotten a 403 forbidden and contrary to popular belief the conservatives have not found a way to block free speech........yet.
The same topics keep coming up again and again, and while IRAQ is on everyone's lips "all politics are local" and voters want to know if their representative will represent them.

1. Social Security Offset State employees that have contributed to the Social Security system are punished by the Social Security offset. As a member of congress, will you work to repeal this unjust law? What will you do?

2. Describe what you would do to improve the Department Of Labor and how you would make it friendlier to labor. Will you support a card check law on the Federal level? Would you support and Enforce prevailing wage across the country?

3. Unions believe in the right of workers to organize and to bargain collectively. Will you work with Unions to extend and return collective bargaining rights to (ALL) Federal workers that have been denied bargaining rights?

4. What are other major issues upon which your campaign is based?

5. What is your position on the war in Iraq and how soon it can be ended?

EDITOR: So far number 6 has been a third rail for Democrats in Congress or for Candidates. Democrats are portrayed as “gun grabbing liberals” that want national registration leading to confiscation. The “assault weapons” ban is seen as the first step in following in the footsteps of Australia and England.

6. On the second amendment, do you believe your views are consistent with the majority of Mainers? Do you believe the second amendment is an individual right or a collective right? Do you see the need for more gun laws or do you believe we should enforce the laws we have?

Do you support the assault weapons ban? Registering all weapons?

7. Would you vote to allow undocumented workers to collect Social Security?

8. What is your position on Bush tax cuts?

9. What role does the Federal Government have in helping to alleviate the health care crisis in this country?

10. What are the most important things Mainers need to know about you that will help us to decide how to vote?

11. What can you do to help Maine if you are elected? Our current (R) representatives have been ineffective in getting LIHEAP money, increasing the road weight limits, or anything else a congressional representative is supposed to do to help their state.

12. Do you have a position on the legalization of marijuana research and the legalization for medical purposes?

13. This next question comes from Helen Hanson, president of the new MSEA-SEIU Union Local 771

What does she think about cutting Medicare benefits that cover the cost of home health care for our elders? This is a program that pays for the health services an elder receives in their home. Like having a nurse go into the home to do a routine check up or having a physical therapist go into the home to do some physical therapy to help keep the person mobile. Is it better to put these people in a nursing home where those costs are high, the care is not that great? Not to mention that the elders would rather stay in their own homes and be comfortable. The work I do is not covered under Medicare. Home Care for Maine does not receive any Medicare money. HCM does not employ nurses that go into the home for these types of services. But a lot of the consumers that Home Care for Maine helps do receive these types of services from other agencies like Health Reach.
Is Ms. Pingree aware of PCAs and PSSs and the type of work we do? I can give her a brief outline. Please let me now if you'd like a brief outline of what a PCA/PSS does and I'll be glad to send it.

Editor: I am posting the job description that was previously sent in.

A Personal Support Specialist usually works with a consumer, right in the consumer's home. The work entails personal care like assisting with bathing, dressing, toileting, etc.

It might entail feeding a consumer. It may be helping them take care of a colostomy or help them take care of a catheter.

It also involves doing things like light housekeeping, meal preparation, laundry and taking the consumer to doctors' appointments, shopping, and on errands.

The best part of it is the interaction with a consumer. For the most part, they enjoy your visits and greatly appreciate the help they are receiving.

This type of work helps consumers remain in their homes, where they are most comfortable.

Most of the consumers at Home Care for Maine are elders, but there are a few who are younger and disabled from disease.

Personally, I enjoy working with elders. They have so much to offer with their life-long experiences. I love hearing their stories of times gone by.

Helen Hanson
President Local 771
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Chellie Pingree wants your questions.

UnionMaine has received a number of questions about the Iraq war, guns, Union Issues, and health care. All the questions have been grouped and the common themes have been put together in a series of questions.

Your questions will be posted here tomorrow and the candidates replies will go up as soon as they arrive.

Republican Candidates have been offered chances to post or to respond to questions. No answers. No replies. Nothing. I may be impatient but we have a bounty of good Democratic candidates for office that are willing to talk to the public in an arena that does not cost $200.00 a plate. Democrats recognize the power of communication and have been willing to reach out to us.

In this case, Thank you Chellie Pingree for being open and accessible to the voters.


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Questions for the Chellie Pingree

If you have questions for the candidate, you can comment, or email to UnionMaine here.
Several questions have come in and the similar questions will be grouped together.
What do you want to know?

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Chellie Pingree Candidate for Congress

Chellie Pingree, candidate for Congress in Maine's First Congressional District sent in her Biography and the candidate, through her campaign office has agreed to answer questions from readers. What do you want to ask? Sign up for this site, and then place your questions in the comments. We will accept questions until until December 21 but let's give the candidate a break and not look for answers until after Christmas. I really didn't know enough about the candidate until I read her biography found here. The record is impressive. The real measure of a candidate is not what they promise but who they are and what they have done. I have written to our two Republican Congressional representatives and they have never bothered to answer. The one time I requested help for a State violation of the Federal Fair Labor Standards act, Snowe's office finally sent me a message saying it was a State matter. What part of "Federal Fair Labor Standards Act" didn't she want to understand?
Since the last Congressional election cycle the voters know they can regain control of their country. Please read the candidate's Biography and check out her voting record. Andy Stern should be hoping she wins.
A couple of excerpts.

Chellie Pingree’s Labor Record

1992 – 2000: Knox County Senator and Senate Majority Leader

...State Senator, including four years as Senate Majority Leader....Chellie demonstrated her strength as a lead and fighter for workers’ rights and the labor movement......She also was a strong supporter of expanding workers’ benefits......Chellie voted...to allow workers to sue their employers and to limit mandatory overtime...she also supported legislation to ban professional strikebreakers. ..note how many battles Chellie fought with labor by her side and vice versa. From corporate accountability to fair pricing of prescription drugs, Chellie’s relationship with labor runs deep and has produced some remarkable victories for the people of Maine.

Pingree’s AFL-CIO COPE Rating

1994:	90%
1996:	93%
1998:	100%
1999:	100%
2000:	100%

Pingree on the Issues 1998-2000

Corporate Accountability: Pingree

sponsored Legislation....so the (State)...could get money back from companies that move jobs out of state. In 1998, Pingree worked with workers and union leaders to pass LD 2243 .......If a company doesn’t comply with the standards laid forth in the Act or fails to create or maintain the jobs as promised in its incentive package, the...provision of the Act kicks in and mandates that the violating company must return all money back to the state. [LD 2243,1999] (Editor: Imagine that, if the company lies, they have to give back the money. I LIKE it!)

Living wage: ..... “We shouldn’t subsidize businesses with economic development incentives and then have to subsidize those workers to get off of food stamps and Medicaid,”

Organizing: Pingree voted to allow legislative workers to join unions. (LD 2096, 4/7/98)

Family and Medical Leave: Pingree voted to expand family and medical leave. (LD 406, 5/6/93)

Permanent Replacement Workers: Pingree voted to prohibit hiring permanent replacement workers. (LD 66, 4/29/97)

Strikebreakers: Pingree voted to prohibit professional strikebreakers. (LD 113, 5/5/97)

Pingree as a Leader for Working Families

Chellie Pin gree fought to keep jobs in Maine. According to the Bangor Daily News, “The workers at Van Baalen [a subsidiary of Nautica] in Rockland will never forget the state senator from North Haven.” ......when the plant announced it would close.......Pingree...worked with company officials to cancel the move..(and)..assisted...with a 330,000-square-foot expansion of the facility that boosted the work force to more than 300 employees.

Nautica Chairman Announcement Business Would Remain in Maine. A few months later, “Our business will remain in Maine,” Nautica Chairman Harvey Sanders said. Van Baalen, a subsidiary of Nautica, is a clothing firm with 135 -1 50 employees and a $3 million payroll, which has been in Rockland since 1939. Because of unprecedented business expansion, the company has outgrown its 200,000 -square-foot building in the city industrial park.

.....Althea Leach of Union, a Van Baalen employee. "She not only talked the talk. She walked the walk,’ Leach said.” [Bangor Daily News, 6/07/0 1]

Pingree on the Issues 2002-2007

Chellie ran a...campaign against....Susan Collins in......2002. (With)....the support and endorsement of virtually all labor unions, and thousands of supporters across the state of Maine, her campaign was considered strong even if it was not a good year from Democrats, in Maine or across the country.

In 2003,Chellie was....national president of the government watchdog organization Common Cause.....she fought for fair elections and “counting every vote,”......Under Pingree's watch, Common Cause...helped to expose the corrupt ethics and practices of leaders such as Tom Delay and Duke Cunningham.

Pingree continued to be an outspoken and forceful advocate for workers.... At Common Cause she helped.....(fight) the Bush administration from undermining workers rights.....by developing a Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Pingree also led efforts in Washington to fight against no-bid contracts given to companies like Haliburton with little or no oversite and cost controls.

Chellie Pingree on current legislation

If Chellie Pingree were in Congress today, she would be an ally to working people: Pingree supports H.R. 800, The Employee Free Choice Act

Pingree supports H.R. 676, The United States National Health Insurance Act

Pingree would not support additional “free trade” agreements; would push for the reexamination of existing trade agreements,.......

Appointments, Awards and Union Membership

Pingree is a proud member of the National Writers’ Union/UAW Local 1981.

Pingree serves on the board of the national organization, Wal-Mart Watch, and previously served on the board of Families USA, which advocates for universal health care.

Editor: As long as this list of accomplishments is, this is only a heavily edited distillation of the record of Chellie Pingree. Read her record, ask yourself "What would Dick Cheney do?" and you will know we should find out all we can about Chellie Pingree.

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Growing hunger in Augusta

In both Washington DC and in Augusta Maine there exists a rising hunger made worse by the knowledge that many of the old crew are going to be gone in 2009.
They want their last meal to be made up of the rights of citizens and the rights of the Unions.
I thank Change to Win for the hard information in this post. At least my health care plan still pays for the blood pressure medication these facts make necessary.

The National Labor Relations Board was established to encourage "the practice and procedure of collective bargaining" and to protect the "exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid and protection."

Recent NLRB decisions prove the corporations that paid for Bush are not satisfied. They want the law destroyed before Bush leaves office.

This President has tried to rewrite the Constitution, and is attempting to destroy the administrative rules which by which our laws have been enforced. Obviously, he plans to finish the job before he leaves office.

Stop em from joining, make it easy to kick em out!

• Dana Corp., 351 NLRB No. 28 (Sept. 29, 2007) –The Board reversed 40 years of precedent and invented a new rule: even when more than 50% of the workers sign cards indicating they want a union and the employer respects that choice, a 30% minority of employees may, within 45 days of voluntary recognition, petition to decertify the union, prevent the parties from bargaining, and force employees to suffer through the NLRB’s lengthy and divisive election process.

• Wurtland Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, 351 NLRB No. 50 (Sept. 29, 2007) – The Board took the opposite view about the reliability of signing a card when it comes to getting rid of a union! In this case, the NLRB ruled that signatures on a petition were good enough to get rid of an existing union and the Board rejected its own election process, arguing that employees who want to get rid of their union should not have to endure the delay involved in a decertification election. In Dana, the NLRB said that signature cards were not true indicators of employee support.

Easier for Employers to Fire and Intimidate Union Supporters

• BP Amoco Chemical-Chocolate Bayou, 351 NLRB No. 39 (Sept. 29, 2007) - The Board ruled that it was perfectly permissible for an employer to target union supporters for layoffs, and then to force them to sign release forms, as a condition to receiving severance pay, that prevented them or anyone else from challenging the legality of their termination.

The next election cycle, local, State, and Federal may be the most important chance for workers in this country to share in the wealth they are producing.

We need to vote. The last two elections proved that only a few votes can make the difference. In Maine the legislative talk is already on how to take the easy way out. Cut State Employees benefits, retirement, and deny pay raises no matter what inflation is doing. One party is already blaming the deficit on State Employees. If we don’t want to wear that target on our backs we have to let the legislature know we are here. Email, write, call, or see them in person.

They come out when the sun goes down, and the sun is going down on failed policies and policies of hate. Before the next elections they will be trying to get a last bite out of you.

They got one million dollars from the health plan last time and now they are hungrier.

E.T.I. 2009

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Lee Iacocca

The following is an excerpt from Lee Iacocca's book: "Iacocca: Where Have All the Leaders Gone?"

By Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney

-Had Enough? 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 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 President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). 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 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. My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to, as soon as I can pry them away from their IPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us. Who Are These Guys, Anyway? Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them, or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy. And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or liberal Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall together.

Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of Lincoln? What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?

The Test of a Leader I've never been Commander in Chief, but I've been a CEO. I understand a few things about leadership at the top. I've figured out nine points, not ten (I don't want people accusing me of thinking I'm Moses). I call them the "Nine Cs of Leadership." They're not fancy or complicated. Just clear, obvious qualities that every true leader should have. We should look at how the current administration stacks up. Like it or not, this crew is going to be around until January 2009. Maybe we can learn something before we go to the polls in 2008. Then let's be sure we use the leadership test to screen the candidates who say they want to run the country. It's up to us to choose wisely.

A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen to people outside of the "Yes, sir" crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because the world is a big, complicated place. George W. Bush brags about never reading a newspaper. "I just scan the headlines," he says. Am I hearing this right? He's the President of the United States and he never reads a newspaper? Thomas Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter." Bush disagrees. As long as he gets his daily hour in the gym, with Fox News piped through the sound system, he's ready to go.

If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different ideas, he grows stale. If he doesn't put his beliefs to the test, how does he know he's right? The inability to listen is a form of arrogance. It means either you think you already know it all, or you just don't care. Before the 2006 election, George Bush made a big point of saying he didn't listen to the polls. Yeah, that's what they all say when the polls stink. But maybe he should have listened, because 70 percent of the people were saying he was on the wrong track. It took a "thumping" on election day to wake him up, but even then you got the feeling he wasn't listening so much as he was calculating how to do a better job of convincing everyone he was right.

A leader has to be CREATIVE, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box. George Bush prides himself on never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control. God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping. There's a disturbingly messianic fervor to his certainty. Senator Joe Biden recalled a conversation he had with Bush a few months after our troops marched into Baghdad. Joe was in the Oval Office outlining his concerns to the President, the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanded Iraqi army, the problems securing the oil fields. "The President was serene," Joe recalled. "He told me he was sure that we were on the right course and that all would be well. ’Mr. President,' I finally said, 'how can you be so sure when you don't yet know all the facts?'" Bush then reached over and put a steadying hand on Joe's shoulder. "My instincts," he said. "My instincts." Joe was flabbergasted. He told Bush, "Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough." Joe Biden sure didn't think the matter was settled. And, as we all know now, it wasn't. Leadership is all about managing change, whether you're leading a company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt. Maybe Bush was absent the day they covered that at Harvard Business School.

A leader has to COMMUNICATE. I'm not talking about running off at the mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality and telling the truth. Nobody in the current administration seems to know how to talk straight anymore. Instead, they spend most of their time trying to convince us that things are not really as bad as they seem. I don't know if it's denial or dishonesty, but it can start to drive you crazy after a while. Communication has to start with telling the truth, even when it's painful. The war in Iraq has been, among other things, a grand failure of communication. Bush is like the boy who cried wolf. After years of being told that all is well, even as the casualties and chaos mount, we've stopped listening to him.

A leader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you want to test a man's character, give him power." George Bush has a lot of power. What does it say about his character? Bush has shown a willingness to take bold action on the world stage because he has the power, but he shows little regard for the grievous consequences. He has sent our troops (not to mention hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens) to their deaths. For what? To build our oil reserves? To avenge his daddy because Saddam Hussein once tried to have him killed? To show his daddy he's tougher? The motivations behind the war in Iraq are questionable, and the execution of the war has been a disaster. A man of character does not ask a single soldier to die for a failed policy.

A leader must have COURAGE. I'm talking about balls. (That even goes for female leaders.) Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage. George Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk like a cowboy. You know, My gun is bigger than your gun. Courage in the twenty-first century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.

If you're a politician, courage means taking a position even when you know it will cost you votes. Bush can't even make a public appearance unless the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.

To be a leader you've got to have CONVICTION, a fire in your belly. You've got to have passion. You've got to really want to get something done. How do you measure fire in the belly? Bush has set the all-time record for number of vacation days taken by a U.S. President, four hundred and counting. He'd rather clear brush on his ranch than immerse himself in the business of governing. He even told an interviewer that the high point of his presidency so far was catching a seven-and-a-half-pound perch in his hand-stocked lake. It's no better on Capitol Hill. Congress was in session only ninety-seven days in 2006. That's eleven days less than the record set in 1948, when President Harry Truman coined the term do-nothing Congress. Most people would expect to be fired if they worked so little and had nothing to show for it. But Congress managed to find the time to vote itself a raise. Now, that's not leadership.

A leader should have CHARISMA. I'm not talking about being flashy. Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him. That's my definition of charisma. Maybe George Bush is a great guy to hang out with at a barbecue or a ball game. But put him at a global summit where the future of our planet is at stake, and he doesn't look very presidential. Those frat-boy pranks and the kidding around he enjoys so much don't go over that well with world leaders. Just ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who received an unwelcome shoulder massage from our President at a G-8 Summit. When he came up behind her and started squeezing, I thought she was going to go right through the roof.

A leader has to be COMPETENT. That seems obvious, doesn't it? You've got to know what you're doing. More important than that, you've got to surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. Bush brags about being our first MBA President. Does that make him competent? Well, let's see. Thanks to our first MBA President, we've got the largest deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and we've run up a half-a­trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq. And that's just for starters. A leader has to be a problem solver, and the biggest problems we face as a nation seem to be on the back burner.

You can't be a leader if you don't have COMMON SENSE. I call this Charlie Beacham's rule. When I was a young guy just starting out in the car business, one of my first jobs was as Ford's zone manager in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. My boss was a guy named Charlie Beacham, who was the East Coast regional manager. Charlie was a big Southerner, with a warm drawl, a huge smile, and a core of steel. Charlie used to tell me, "Remember, Lee, the only thing you've got going for you as a human being is your ability to reason and your common sense. If you don't know a dip of horseshit from a dip of vanilla ice cream, you'll never make it." George Bush doesn't have common sense. He just has a lot of sound bites. You know, Mr.they'll-welcome-us-as-liberators-no-child­left-behind-heck-of-a-job-Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush.

Former President Bill Clinton once said, "I grew up in an alcoholic home. I spent half my childhood trying to get into the reality-based world, and I like it here." I think our current President should visit the real world once in a while.

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. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day, and he told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of

our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero. That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq, a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the crap out of you ,I don't know what will.

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. We're 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. 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, competence, 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 debt, 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 bobblehead on Fox 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. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough

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Lee Iacocca

The following is an excerpt from Lee Iacocca's book: "Iacocca: Where Have All the Leaders Gone?"

By Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney

-Had Enough? 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 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 President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). 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 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. My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to, as soon as I can pry them away from their IPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us. Who Are These Guys, Anyway? Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them, or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy. And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or liberal Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall together.

Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of Lincoln? What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?

The Test of a Leader I've never been Commander in Chief, but I've been a CEO. I understand a few things about leadership at the top. I've figured out nine points, not ten (I don't want people accusing me of thinking I'm Moses). I call them the "Nine Cs of Leadership." They're not fancy or complicated. Just clear, obvious qualities that every true leader should have. We should look at how the current administration stacks up. Like it or not, this crew is going to be around until January 2009. Maybe we can learn something before we go to the polls in 2008. Then let's be sure we use the leadership test to screen the candidates who say they want to run the country. It's up to us to choose wisely.

A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen to people outside of the "Yes, sir" crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because the world is a big, complicated place. George W. Bush brags about never reading a newspaper. "I just scan the headlines," he says. Am I hearing this right? He's the President of the United States and he never reads a newspaper? Thomas Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter." Bush disagrees. As long as he gets his daily hour in the gym, with Fox News piped through the sound system, he's ready to go.

If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different ideas, he grows stale. If he doesn't put his beliefs to the test, how does he know he's right? The inability to listen is a form of arrogance. It means either you think you already know it all, or you just don't care. Before the 2006 election, George Bush made a big point of saying he didn't listen to the polls. Yeah, that's what they all say when the polls stink. But maybe he should have listened, because 70 percent of the people were saying he was on the wrong track. It took a "thumping" on election day to wake him up, but even then you got the feeling he wasn't listening so much as he was calculating how to do a better job of convincing everyone he was right.

A leader has to be CREATIVE, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box. George Bush prides himself on never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control. God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping. There's a disturbingly messianic fervor to his certainty. Senator Joe Biden recalled a conversation he had with Bush a few months after our troops marched into Baghdad. Joe was in the Oval Office outlining his concerns to the President, the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanded Iraqi army, the problems securing the oil fields. "The President was serene," Joe recalled. "He told me he was sure that we were on the right course and that all would be well. ’Mr. President,' I finally said, 'how can you be so sure when you don't yet know all the facts?'" Bush then reached over and put a steadying hand on Joe's shoulder. "My instincts," he said. "My instincts." Joe was flabbergasted. He told Bush, "Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough." Joe Biden sure didn't think the matter was settled. And, as we all know now, it wasn't. Leadership is all about managing change, whether you're leading a company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt. Maybe Bush was absent the day they covered that at Harvard Business School.

A leader has to COMMUNICATE. I'm not talking about running off at the mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality and telling the truth. Nobody in the current administration seems to know how to talk straight anymore. Instead, they spend most of their time trying to convince us that things are not really as bad as they seem. I don't know if it's denial or dishonesty, but it can start to drive you crazy after a while. Communication has to start with telling the truth, even when it's painful. The war in Iraq has been, among other things, a grand failure of communication. Bush is like the boy who cried wolf. After years of being told that all is well, even as the casualties and chaos mount, we've stopped listening to him.

A leader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you want to test a man's character, give him power." George Bush has a lot of power. What does it say about his character? Bush has shown a willingness to take bold action on the world stage because he has the power, but he shows little regard for the grievous consequences. He has sent our troops (not to mention hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens) to their deaths. For what? To build our oil reserves? To avenge his daddy because Saddam Hussein once tried to have him killed? To show his daddy he's tougher? The motivations behind the war in Iraq are questionable, and the execution of the war has been a disaster. A man of character does not ask a single soldier to die for a failed policy.

A leader must have COURAGE. I'm talking about balls. (That even goes for female leaders.) Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage. George Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk like a cowboy. You know, My gun is bigger than your gun. Courage in the twenty-first century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.

If you're a politician, courage means taking a position even when you know it will cost you votes. Bush can't even make a public appearance unless the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.

To be a leader you've got to have CONVICTION, a fire in your belly. You've got to have passion. You've got to really want to get something done. How do you measure fire in the belly? Bush has set the all-time record for number of vacation days taken by a U.S. President, four hundred and counting. He'd rather clear brush on his ranch than immerse himself in the business of governing. He even told an interviewer that the high point of his presidency so far was catching a seven-and-a-half-pound perch in his hand-stocked lake. It's no better on Capitol Hill. Congress was in session only ninety-seven days in 2006. That's eleven days less than the record set in 1948, when President Harry Truman coined the term do-nothing Congress. Most people would expect to be fired if they worked so little and had nothing to show for it. But Congress managed to find the time to vote itself a raise. Now, that's not leadership.

A leader should have CHARISMA. I'm not talking about being flashy. Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him. That's my definition of charisma. Maybe George Bush is a great guy to hang out with at a barbecue or a ball game. But put him at a global summit where the future of our planet is at stake, and he doesn't look very presidential. Those frat-boy pranks and the kidding around he enjoys so much don't go over that well with world leaders. Just ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who received an unwelcome shoulder massage from our President at a G-8 Summit. When he came up behind her and started squeezing, I thought she was going to go right through the roof.

A leader has to be COMPETENT. That seems obvious, doesn't it? You've got to know what you're doing. More important than that, you've got to surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. Bush brags about being our first MBA President. Does that make him competent? Well, let's see. Thanks to our first MBA President, we've got the largest deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and we've run up a half-a­trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq. And that's just for starters. A leader has to be a problem solver, and the biggest problems we face as a nation seem to be on the back burner.

You can't be a leader if you don't have COMMON SENSE. I call this Charlie Beacham's rule. When I was a young guy just starting out in the car business, one of my first jobs was as Ford's zone manager in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. My boss was a guy named Charlie Beacham, who was the East Coast regional manager. Charlie was a big Southerner, with a warm drawl, a huge smile, and a core of steel. Charlie used to tell me, "Remember, Lee, the only thing you've got going for you as a human being is your ability to reason and your common sense. If you don't know a dip of horseshit from a dip of vanilla ice cream, you'll never make it." George Bush doesn't have common sense. He just has a lot of sound bites. You know, Mr.they'll-welcome-us-as-liberators-no-child­left-behind-heck-of-a-job-Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush.

Former President Bill Clinton once said, "I grew up in an alcoholic home. I spent half my childhood trying to get into the reality-based world, and I like it here." I think our current President should visit the real world once in a while.

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. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day, and he told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of

our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero. That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq, a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the crap out of you ,I don't know what will.

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. We're 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. 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, competence, 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 debt, 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 bobblehead on Fox 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. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough

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