Lee Iacocca Speaks Page One

[Robert_Flowers]

A friend sent me this and i must say i agree with everything he has to say.



Remember Lee Iacocca, the man who rescued Chrysler Corporation from it's
death throes? He has a new book and here are some excerpts.
_____________________________________________________________

Lee Iacocca Says: "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 all 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 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 the "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. 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.

I had to break this in to two pages hope thats ok 

[MountainDon]

Moved page two topic to here as a continuation....

Page two


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. 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, omnipotence, 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
rest ore 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 bonehead 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 1970's 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 crap and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had "enough."



**********************************************************

Excerpted from "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?". Copyright (c) 2007
by Lee Iacocca. All rights reserved.

[ScottA]

I can't argue with the man. He is right. No leaders and no wonder. Step up and take charge and guess what you get blamed for everything. We have become a nation of cry baby finger pointers. Everything is someones fault. Nothing just goes wrong and we say ok, that sucks, lets fix it. No first we have to blame someone then argue about the punnishment or the amount of the settlement. Nothing ever gets done, just more arguing and finger pointing. No one wants to be the guy to get blamed, so no one does anything.  We bandaid every problem, oil the squeaky wheels and hide our heads hoping it all works out. Meanwhile the country gets robbed blind by the Texas mafia in the white house who's made sure they can blame everything they've done on someone else. Look at Bush. He blamed the handling of Katrina on the director of FEMA. He Blamed the war on Sadam. He let his people take the fall for the prosecutor firing scandal, which I'm 100% sure was his idea. Something goes wrong or he gets caught and one of his minions takes the blame and resigns. I'm sure they are all well compensated for being team players. Until we as a people can accept that leaders are not perfect and stop blaming every stupid thing on the guy who steps up we won't see any real leaders. All we'll have is finger pointers and thieves running this country instead of people who want to do the right thing.

[glenn kangiser]

Unfortunately if the people decided they wanted to clean out Washington, they would be confronted with hundreds to thousand of Jack Booted police in full SWAT regalia - even tanks were used in WACO. 

http://www.serendipity.li/waco.html

Not much chance of really straightening our government out.