Events lead Kowalski to resist a local takeover by a Hmong youth gang. The Hmong are an ethnic Southeast Asian people, primarily from Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. In real life Michigan, they are among the fastest growing immigrants. Many Hmong people emigrated from South Vietnam after Democrats shamelessly withdrew monetary support from South Vietnam in 1974. The Paris Peace Agreements thus became toothless and North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam. “Boat people” fled Vietnam and the insane, murderous Pol Pot created the Cambodian Killing Fields.

Gran Torino can be viewed as metaphorical microcosm of the Vietnamese conflict with an alternate ending. Eastwood, the quintessential symbol of American independence and strength, helps defend a group of Asian Americans against a gangster group of other Asian Americans. Kowalski’s courage and independence led to his death and the defeat of the gang members. The image of protagonist Thao Vang Lor (Bee Vang) driving in Kowalski’s Gran Torino, left to Thao in his will, cements the “good Hmongs” victory, and ultimate commitment to America. The juxtaposition of this scene, versus Kowalski’s children trying to unload him in an old age home is striking.

Another morality play is occurring today in the real Michigan. Michigan has a 15% unemployment rate. Detroit’s auto industry, which made the 1972 Ford Gran Torino, has been decimated in large part by federal regulations. In classic “anti-comparative advantage” style, a sclerotic EPA required individual auto companies to meet mandated “CAFE” standards. Even if one wanted the nation’s entire car fleet to meet CAFE requirements on average, the EPA implemented it in the most inefficient way possible.

US automakers’ comparative advantage was in SUVs and small trucks. To keep their fleet within mandated averages, they were forced to build unprofitable, uncompetitive small cars. If the Feds just let comparative advantage work, the US auto fleet would have likely met federal CAFE standards without each company being compelled to build every type of car. But Government does not know economics. They simply know better.

Obama’s “new environmental energy plan,” the Waxman-Markey “Cap and Trade” bill, is a ruse. It is not an energy bill, but a regressive consumption tax in disguise. It is favored by Wall Street, George Soros, Al Gore, GE and other corporatists looking for subsidies paid for by the tax payer. Cap and Trade is the ultimate economic destruction machine. The bill passed the House of Representatives this summer by six votes, 219-213. Forty-four Democrats voted against it. The Senate has not yet voted.

Michigan Congressman Thaddeus McCotter, a real life political “Kowalski” and GOP Policy Committee Chair, opposed this monstrosity. He is among a group of opponents being targeted for attack in the next few weeks. Others include House Minority Whip Eric Cantor and Missouri’s Roy Blount. The campaigns are funded by Soros’ groups MoveOn.Org and Americans United for Change. The attack is preposterous, as this video shows (Groups target GOP on cap-and-trade). What is the goal of the bill?

The goal of the bill is to replace cheap energy with expensive energy. This is called “saving the environment.” This is accomplished by requiring consumers to purchase more expensive electricity, biomass power for example, while also paying taxes to subsidize these enterprises. As we consume more expensive energy, the same amount of labor and capital creates less output. Even if one believed the ridiculous 1.7 million “green job” increase advertised, it doesn’t factor the lost jobs from lower productivity and higher energy costs. The manufacturing heavy states and big users of energy, like Michigan, are clearly poised to be the big losers in such legislation. They are already seeking “exemptions” from regulations because of the bill’s potential economic devastation (Michigan Economic Impact on the State from the Waxman-Markey Bill).

Meanwhile, Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs, and self important financial traders like George Soros, strongly support this legislation because they get to buy and sell “CO2 credits.” The rationale is this legislation will combat “global warming.” Climatologist Chip Knappenberger estimates the best case impact of the bill would be to lower global temperature by “0.1″ degree centigrade in the year 2100. This bill does not address global warming. The bill’s costs exceed its “benefits” by a factor of at least ten, using the UN’s officially approved climate models. This means lost jobs and/or lost real income. This is also why Greenpeace joined with pro-growth conservatives and opposed it. The whole thing is a sham.

So why do Democrats want this bill? They want to raise your taxes under the cover of “climate change” reform. It also gives Government the power to decide which industries get benefited more heavily than others. It is part of the transformation from a free society to a government controlled society. This is yet another highway toward the ultimate c goal of centralized government planning.

McCotter understands, like Walter Kowalski, what it means to be an American. A great American can be a first generation “Hmong” from Vietnam, like Gran Torino’s Thao Vang Lor. Conversely, a treasonous American can be born in Chicago to great advantage, like Weatherman terrorist and Obama supporter Bill Ayers. This speech by Congressman McCotter provides a very clear vision of what America is and should be about. Let’s not permit anti-American fakes, like George Soros, sacrifice McCotter’s (or Cantor’s or Blount’s) “political life” by trying to pull the wool over our eyes. “Green jobs” are a wolf’s tax in sheep’s clothing.

My grandparents were killed instantly. I lived.  My grandparents were driving an AMC Gremlin. I was driving a Dodge 3500 diesel dually pickup truck.

AMC is now out of business. Dodge Trucks are still selling well. The free market decided that we didn’t need AMC Gremlins.

I still drive a Dodge dually. We factor in safety versus miles per gallon on every automobile purchase that my wife and I make. Devo could not have said it better: “Freedom of Choice…It’s what you want!” Freedom to choose is a basic American right. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness are guaranteed to me and 299,999,999 other Americans by the Constitution.

Mr. President, I did not give you nor the Federal Government permission to use my tax dollars to bailout Chrysler or GM. Neither did any of my friends. We did not have a choice in that matter.

We all knew that GM and Chrysler were headed for bankruptcy. So be it. It would be a hit to the American economy. Yep. Let’s take the hit and move on. I believe President Obama, that you knew that GM and Chrysler were headed to bankruptcy as well, but by giving them our money first, you were able to seize control of the American auto industry. In one fell swoop, you became the head of GM and Chrysler. You turned the United Auto Workers Union into GM and Chrysler owners. You nailed the coffin shut on Ford, the one manufacturer who turned down your money (…our money). How is Ford going to negotiate wages with a union that is now also their competitor?

Mr. President, you have created an army of Czars that are answerable only to you.  Our Constitution says that only Congress has the power to create taxes and they are answerable to the people. Not only does our new car Czar not answer to Congress, he won’t even go on Neil Cavuto. Where is the transparency, Mr. President?

But I digress. Your administration has already strong-armed the auto industry into accepting mileage compliances for their new vehicles. Michael Moore is giddy with the fact that the US Government now owns 60% of GM. He wants you to end the auto industry as we know it. According to him, GM should only produce bullet trains, buses and hybrids. If the two of you have your way, Americans will no longer be able to purchase a GMC SUV or a big Dodge truck.

Our family car is a General Motors Hummer H2. I am sure you are familiar with the brand and model; you just sold them to China. China may not want our debt, but they will still take our SUVs.

It is fairly common for us to get cut off and then flipped the finger by eco-saints whenever we drive into the city. Several times we only narrowly avoided a serious freeway accident. Quite often, Mr. President, these cars have bumper stickers with your name on them. These self-righteous “Earth Savers” feel completely justified in their actions as they curse at my children and me because they are only offending and risking the lives of people who are riding in a “planet killer.”  The fact that we heat our house with reclaimed wood, run almost 100% of our ranch on solar power, grow our own fruits and vegetables, and for the three weeks out of the year when our dirt road washes out, the only way in or out of our ranch is in a 4×4 Hummer or it’s equivalent, never enters into their sanctimonious consciousness.

I see this same kind of prejudice in your speeches and your actions Mr. President. I see this same arrogance as you steer our nation away from free enterprise and into the arms of the Central Planning Committee.

Last week, my wife was rear-ended by a driver who never even hit his brakes. His truck slammed into my wife at 50 miles per hour.

I thank God that the Germans put good steel in their vehicles and know a little something about engineering. If my wife had been driving an AMC Gremlin, she would probably be dead now.

Soon my children will be driving and buying cars of their own. Mr. President, will you allow them to have freedom of choice or will you doom them to take their chances in a 21st century AMC Gremlin?

It is hilarious that Al Gore’s electricity bill is ten times the national average. However, our idea of a perfect world is when everyone in Africa and the developing world is so wealthy they are using the same amount of electricity as the former vice-president.

If the world were that wealthy it would mean the end of the scourge of needless child mortality. It would mean that people in Africa would live long and healthy lives and get to know the joy of their grandchildren.  It would mean that children would know how wonderful it is to see their parents live to an old age.

So our initial reaction to Al Gore’s electricity bill is that we wish it for everyone. But then we are faced with the reality that Al Gore wants legislation to force people to use less electricity and fly less. Then his electricity bill becomes an issue of hypocrisy and freedom. He wants the freedom to use and consume but wants to deny that to ordinary Americans and, perhaps more tragically, to the people of the developing world. So Al Gore’s electricity bill and use of a private jet should be highlighted as part of a belief by the environmental movement that change and deprivation “for the good of the planet” should only be borne by other people. Private jets are essential for eco-celebrities because their work is important. The rest of us have to reduce our carbon footprint because our travel is “frivolous and wasteful.”

Just last week, President Obama and the first lady flew to New York to see a Broadway show. They also flew an entourage of assistants and media in separate planes.  In a statement, President Obama said: “I am taking my wife to New York City because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished.”  Well that’s great and we hope they enjoyed the show. But isn’t this the same president who said during the campaign that: “We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times…and then just expect that other countries are going to say ‘OK.’”?

I know he promised his wife that he would take her to a show but if we all have to make sacrifices for the good of the planet, perhaps he should have started with their little jaunt to New York for a date.

But it seems for President Obama that sacrifice is something only other people (poorer people) make.

Ann McElhinney & Phelim McAleer are the producers and directors of the documentary Not Evil Just Wrong – the True Cost of Global Warming Hysteria.

The property owned by Ms. David off North Road was the subject of a series of wetlands violations in 2005, when construction of a stone fire pit, barbecue grill area and wooden stage for a children’s theatre with seating was begun in a wetland without a permit.

Ms. David, as you may recall, produced the Goracle’s epic documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.  She also wrote The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming for children (doing her part to convince one in three frightened children that the earth will implode before they grow up), and went on a much ballyhooed bus tour with fellow greenie Sheryl “One Sheet” Crow in order to help Save The Earth™ a couple of years back. How riding around the country in an exhaust-spewing bus and using up oodles of electricity for Sheryl’s musical stylings was supposed to “help” is beyond me. But wait, the bus was powered by vegetable oil instead of that dastardly fossil fuel, and pal Sheryl is committed to being green by driving a hybrid and using cold water to wash her clothes. Forgive my cynicism; I’m convinced.

Fortunately for Ms. David, her contractor was fully prepared to take the heat:

The new infractions occurred during the construction of a tennis court. Workers installed a makeshift road with boards and stones and drove heavy machinery across the resources area making a path to the tennis court site. Attempts to reach Ms. David were unsuccessful but Bart Thorpe, who said he is the contractor on the job, took full responsibility for the violations yesterday.

“She’s obviously a very busy person and she trusted the contractor, just like last time,” he said. “And I inadvertently made a mistake. It’s something she had no knowledge of and had nothing to do with, and it’s a minor thing.”

Perhaps, as “the boss,” the buck should stop with Ms. David. But it’s all in a day’s work for the “do as I say” celebrity set. David’s in good company with folks like Arianna Huffington for her penchant for flying on corporate jets while decrying the evils of SUVs and the like.

That’s okay, though, because as Laurie herself once said:

“Yes, I take a private plane on holiday a couple of times a year, and I feel horribly guilty about it. I probably shouldn’t do it. But the truth is, I’m not perfect. This is not about perfection. I don’t expect anybody else to be perfect either. That’s what hurts the environmental movement – holding people to a standard they cannot meet. That just pushes people away.”

Frankly, it’s hard to know what she expects. She seems to be all over the place.

But perhaps Ms. David is unaware that these days, more people are concerned about the fate of the economy than their culpability in so-called anthropogenic global warming. Being able to afford gas in order to get to a job that may be in jeopardy has become more important.

And as for the claim by global warming activists that the “debate is over” among scientists, she obviously hasn’t spoken to Dr. Jim Buckee, who says that:

…far from warming, the Earth is set to enter a 20-year cooling period. Dr Buckee believes human behaviour has no effect on the climate and the vast sums spent by governments trying to promote renewable energy to cut greenhouse gas emissions are being wasted. Far from being a key cause of climate change, he says, carbon dioxide emissions have little or no impact. … Instead of human activities being responsible for the warming climate over the past 100 years, Dr Buckee insists there is a natural explanation, based on the activity of the Sun. Solar activity can affect the cosmic rays that reach the Earth’s atmosphere, and this in turn affects the climate, he says.

Then again, it’s no longer chic to call it “global warming.” A switch to the term “climate change” conveniently covers all bases, so it’s still naughty to drink out of a plastic bottle or purchase a car larger than a golf cart – or purchase any car at all, for that matter. (No worries, our glorious leader is taking care of that with his big plans for GM.)

Homes on both coasts, ski trips to Aspen, irresponsible home improvements, and a member of the private jet set – yep, Laurie David is just the one I plan to call when I have serious questions about the environment.

All the regular environmental fixtures are here.  Barack Obama, SUV’s, polar bears and cow farts.  Who could ask for anything more? I would also like to take this moment to formally express my hatred for both Ted Turner and his crappy, poorly drawn, douchebag of a hero known as “Captain Planet.”  How many more lives must be ruined?  How many more boys must be stuffed into lockers, Ted… How many more?