Auto bailout, boycott Alabama site

The rescue bill is now on its way to the Senate. And that's where it will likely hit some bumps in the road. Everyone agrees something needs to be done, but the hangup is whether the American people can afford to keep borrowing and bailing out companies in trouble.

Alabama Senator Richard Shelby says the big three could help themselves if they wanted to. Shelby is threatening a filibuster and that's where a retired auto-worker has stepped in.

Joe Babiasz retired from General Motos after 34 years with the company. He says he's fed up with Alabama Senator Richard Shelby and all his criticism. Shelby, of course, a staunch critic of using any kind of federal money to rescue GM, Ford and Chrysler, because he says in the long run the money just won't work.

So, Babiasz created a website BoycottAlabamaNow.com asking people across the country to boycott the state of Alabama.

Senator Shelby's reaction to the site

"The purveyor of the website does not explain how an attempt to cause job losses in Alabama will save jobs in Detroit. They also fail to explain how the natural disasters that decimated the fishing industry on the Gulf Coast are analogous to the decades of mismanagement that led to the Big Three’s current situation. To be clear, Senator Shelby wants the Detroit automakers to survive, saving thousands of jobs in the process. Senator Shelby just does not want the American taxpayer to take a bath in that process, particularly without any upfront assurances that these entities will take the necessary steps to become viable.

Shelby quotes from 12-10-08 press conference on auto bailout agreement between Congressional Democrats and the White House:

“I want them to survive, but they have to make that decision. They can strip down. They can become competitive. They could save thousands and thousands of jobs.”

“Failure is never a good thing for anybody. Competition is a good thing. We want these companies to be competitive. There's nothing in this proposal that will make them competitive.”