By Richard Miller
Author, “In Words and Deeds: Battle Speeches in History”

Granted, no one likes pain. Everyone prefers to avoid it, including unions, auto parts suppliers, politicians, and auto manufacturers. So instead of confronting painful but necessary decisions in a bankruptcy proceeding, the aforementioned parties would prefer to sell a motion for progress under cover of a political bailout, which means less pain. Translation: fewer pensions cut, fewer salaries eliminated, fewer union jobs lost.

Sounds good, eh? Well, who wouldn’t opt to treat their cancer with a box of Cracker Jacks rather than chemotherapy? Tastes good, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work.

Of course, public perception in a major democracy requires theater–meme and trope laden fairy tales of greedy (or struggling) unions representing over-indulged (or just-above-the-poverty line) retirees and fat cat (or honest and
earnest) company managers who are either seeking bailouts on the taxpayers’
dime or just want to preserve a fine national resource. What the American leadership class learns quickly and excels at the most is theater.–In just two weeks, the Big Three CEOs have gone from flying private jets with big carbon footprints to working for a $1 a year and driving their own cars from Detroit to Washington.

In the meantime, a Chapter 11 filing for the companies they lead is presented as the business equivalent of Attila the Hun coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

Alas for the performers and their audiences, it’s not only a lie, it’s also beside the point. The automakers need to file for bankruptcy because that’s the only genuine bailout available. First, it will provide relief from creditors who are currently being overpaid or for whom there simply isn’t enough cash left to pay.

During the relief period that these creditors–yep, that includes auto workers, golden parachutees, retirees and the rest–cool their heels, the automakers under court and (perhaps) trustee supervision can start making real economic decisions—probably for the first time in two generations.
Eventually a plan will be filed and the car companies can emerge with debts they can actually service. And if they do their job right during reorganization, they’ll also emerge competitive.

Yes, it will be painful. Some creditors will be receive the traditional “zotz” on what they’re owed. Some blue and white collar workers will lose their jobs. Auto lines will be consolidated. Plants closed. And retirees will probably get less.

Despite the lies, bankruptcy isn’t pulling the plug–it’s offering new life. Not life on a respirator, but quality of life where the patient eventually has a chance to get out of bed and take a drive in his or her new, quality-built, fuel efficient (maybe even green) automobile at an affordable price.

But here’s question for my readers: if Detroit gets bailed in a way that doesn’t
really allow it to make the changes to become competitive with say, Toyota, how many of you are going to rush out and buy a Ford?

So I say, support the auto company bailouts… let ‘em file for Chapter 11.

By Tommy De Seno
Attorney/Writer

When it comes to the War on Terror, India has always thought locally, not globally.

Condoleezza Rice at a joint press conference in India on Dec. 3 (AP)

In 1998 India asked the U.S. and Great Britain to stop bombing strategic targets in Iraq.

In 2002 when the United States was considering invading Iraq over weapons inspections and Saddam Hussein’s support for terrorism, India’s Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said that no country should “force it’s will on another.”

It’s time for India to choose sides.

After the American invasion of Iraq, India claimed there was no justification for it, while at the same time expressing belief that Iraq actually did have weapons of mass destruction.

Think about that last paragraph. While hindsight may be 20/20, foresight is blind and requires judgment. Any country (like India) that believed Hussein had WMDs but still didn’t want to invade showed horrid judgment about security around the world.

What’s puzzling about India’s ambivalent position on the U.S. fight against world terror is that India has many more terror attacks on its soil than we in the US have on ours.

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Last night’s special screening of new movie “Frost/Nixon” in Washington, D.C. was an early holiday gift to Beltway liberals, delivering glad tidings of anti-Nixonian feelgood vibes to the permanent Washington establishment, which has felt shut out of power for so long, during the dark night of Gingrich-DeLay-Bush these past 15 years, before the Obama dawn.

Frank Langella portrays Richard Nixon, left, and Michael Sheen portrays David Frost in an image released by Universal Pictures

But even during this happy masque of lefty triumphalism, FOX News’ Chris Wallace threw a fair-and-balanced apple of discord into the middle of the festivities. Wallace had the nerve to defend George W. Bush from the ongoing liberal effort to Nixonize the 43^rd President.

After the film’s screening, at the National Geographic Society headquarters in downtown Washington, director Ron Howard, playwright/screenwriter Peter Morgan, and Nixon-hater James Reston Jr. (son of the legendary New York Times columnist) appeared onstage for a question-and-answer session with the audience. The discussion was moderated by Robert Dallek, the retired Boston University professor and well-known historian.

Wallace had the nerve to defend George W. Bush from the ongoing liberal effort to Nixonize the 43^rd President.

Howard was, well, Hollywood-ish, talking about the making of the film and the screen-testing of various alternate endings. And Morgan was arty and somewhat abstract, seemingly more hostile to Frost—who conducted the 1977 “checkbook journalism” interviews with the disgraced 37^th president that are the heart of the film—than to Nixon. But Reston, portrayed in the film as a young Nixon-hating researcher for Frost, was relentlessly vehement, using every occasion he could to steer the discussion back to Nixon’s “criminality” and the need to confront it. Again. And again. And again.

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As America was preparing to give thanks around the family table, 10 young men with a chip on their shoulder turned Mumbai, India, upside down — destabilizing relations between two nuclear neighbors and making the free world recalibrate its limitless hope in the Obama Revolution.

In these days, under these conditions, I’ve heard subtle misgivings about our Thanksgiving duty. Grumbling, anxiety, and fear seem somewhat more fitting for the times in which we live.

“Thanks for nothing”. Or “Thanks, Almighty God, for what used to be, for what you did for the Pilgrims and for my immigrant grandparents too. But let’s talk straight; this New World of ours is going to pot. Plus, I’ve got no money.”

Not. So. Fast.

It was for the increase of that kind of existential misgivings — doubts about the real value of our life and the things we love most — that these 10 young men shed innocent blood and desecrated their own. Are we willing to say their mission was accomplished? Did you see the headline of Thursday’s Mumbai Daily? One four-letter word stood out: “FEAR,” printed in the biggest type you’ve ever seen. For 60 hours, fear gripped the city, all of India, and the world-wide-web.

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By Lanny Davis

There is enough that is horrible and tragic about the killings of innocent people in Mumbai (the Indian city long known in the West as Bombay) without the careless media reporting and premature accusations by Indian officials suggesting Pakistani government responsibility, making matters worse.

Full disclosure: I represented Pakistan in the 1990s, have visited the country several times, and made many close Pakistani friends during the time I helped Pakistan recover hundreds of millions of dollars the U.S. government owed it.

It is not clear whether the government of India has actually made charges that the government of Pakistan was involved in the attacks or simply remained silent while its officials anonymously suggested such involvement — instead of waiting for the facts to emerge.

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By Jon Kraushar
Communications Consultant

As details emerge about how commandos ended the brutal attack on Mumbai, India it will offer the incoming Obama administration — and the world — lessons about the most effective ways to quickly end a terrorist strike on a city and may also suggest longer-term strategies to discourage future terrorist traumas.

President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign declarations on everything from national security to economic security are undergoing severe reality checks day by day.

Under what conditions is it effective to negotiate with terrorists? What anti-terror strategies result in at least limited havoc and horror?
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GUTFELD’S FIRST ANNUAL TURKEY BOWL

By Greg Gutfeld
Host, “Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld“/Editor, The Daily Gut

Watch “Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld” Monday -Friday at 3 a.m. ET.

In no particular order, I think.

MADONNA: Forever an example of how NOT to age gracefully, she’s exercised her physique into a tortured coil of rope. She could pass for a sailor’s knot or a portion of a pachyderm’s intestine. But her real crime is, on tour, flashing images of President Bush up on screen, next to folks like Hitler - is it any wonder Guy Ritchie is the happiest man alive right now?

SANDRA BERNHARD: - Madonna’s ex could win a turkey award simply through her uncanny resemblance (even without feathers)- but it’s worse than that. In one of her performances, she made a sick comment about Sarah Palin, suggesting that Sandra’s “black brothers” should rape her if she ever came to Harlem. It amazes me how little the press covered this — if it were Jackie Mason saying it about the first lady-to-be, he would have been dead. Sandra is a bitter racist — proof that those who claim to be the most tolerant, are usually the least.

JOHNNY DEPP: It’s bad enough he has those cheekbones. He actually has more to answer for: piracy. Every day, we see another large ship taken hostage by pirates. And who’s silent in all of this? Depp, who has made over a $100 million glorifying what really is an awful activity. Depp has come to symbolize the glorification of evil and the reflexive rejection of all things good. We get it: bad people are more interesting than good people. Not, however, when it happens in real life. Ask any victim.

AL QAEDA: The only thing worse than flying planes into buildings? Insulting the Messiah. And when Al Qaeda called Barack Obama a “house negro,” that’s exactly what they did — earning outrage from — get this — American Muslim groups like CAIR. Mind you — CAIR rarely gets outraged about anything, including terror. Al Qaeda better apologize soon or they may earn a disappointed chuckle from the president-elect.

“THE VIEW”: Where to start, and where to end? There is not a single redeeming feature to this program — the entertainment equivalent of the innermost circle of hell, where ignorance and hot flashes meet — culminating in loony tunes conspiracy theories and crying jags. Joy Behar realized early in life that opinions require no factual basis — just stare at the camera and say, “isn’t he a big jerk?” about no one else but Bush. Barbara Walters pretends to be the classy one - but really she’s just a carnival barker trapped in a Mary Kay nightmare.

FADING CELEBRITIES: Tim Robbins. Margaret Cho. Sean Penn. Matthew Modine. Tim Daly. Never before in the history of our society have so many said so little about so much. They cling to the belief (the way the rest of us cling to our guns) that America should ashamed of being America - and that we owe the whole world an apology for basically feeding and saving the world. Meanwhile, they continue making terrible movies and clogging the airwaves with self-absorbed pap. With Obama in office, will they finally shut up? Yeah, right.

ASSORTED BLOGGERS: This year we saw a few good people die, and a lot of anonymous bloggers taking pleasure in it. Whether it’s the Daily Kos or Gawker, there exists within the same mentality found in a bathroom wall scrawler — cowardly evident in anonymous commentary and mockery of other’s misfortune. It was indeed gratifying to see some of these websites — who often take pleasure in the downsizing of their peers in other media outlets — be forced to fire some of their own spiteful little soldiers. Where was the mockery then? Not here, fellas. We’ve got class!

JENNY MCCARTHY: It was just a few years ago that health experts were in a rage over vaccines and their link to autism. When I say health experts, I mean you know, Jennie McCarthy. Even though there was little evidence to show that a preservative called Thimerosal caused autism — it didn’t matter — because when a celebrity takes up a cause - science becomes secondary. But this year new research shows what the real experts knew all along — that there was no link between autism and this drug. In fact, autism continued to increase, even though the preservative was removed from vaccines.It makes you wonder how many parents avoided vaccinating their kids because of the obnoxious blatherings of morons. The real question: will any of these bozos now admit they are wrong? I’m not holding my breath, because I learned in medical school that holding your breath gives you rickets.

BRAVO CHANNEL: Look, I love “Project Runway” and all that other crap — but the fluffy content of the channel has spawned a new way of speaking: what I call Enervation-X - in which men speak from the back of their throats — saturated with ambivalence - as though every word they utter is as hollow as Rachel Zoe’s botoxed head. In the world of fashion, I suppose, nothing is ever a big deal. Which is why love Gordon Ramsey, where everything is.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: On their front page this year they ran a piece on American war veterans, basically painting them as homicidal maniacs, committing up to 121 murders total, stateside. But this is The Times, of course — so you know what they leave out is always more important than what they leave in. Fact is, the murder rate for returning vets is only one-fifth of that of young Americans who did not fight. The take home message: if you want to make peace, make warriors. The truth is, Times’ writers do this stuff because the closest they’ve ever gotten to a soldier is to snicker at the Salvation Army lady at Christmas time. It’s easy to believe bad things about people you never met. Which is why they also despised Sarah Palin, the turkey “executioner.”

ANTI-WAR MUSICIANS: This year Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Pearl Jam made an anti-war soundtrack to accompany an anti-war movie. Sorry, isn’t it a little late? With thanks to General Petraeus, the war has turned around. And I feel bad for these celebs — it’s got to hurt to be anti-war –when it looks like the other side is winning. The other side, being, US. Yeah I know: we’re going to be there for a while. But not even Obama is going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory — which is why he’s now BFF’s with Robert Gates.

USA TODAY: This year, the nation’s largest high school paper ran a piece noting that dozens of cities with populations over 100,000 haven’t lost a servicemember in the Iraq war. The list included crime-free, economic powerhouses like…. Oakland and Fort Lauderdale. Analysts suggested that recruits probably come from less-populated areas, with crummier economies (than Oakland!!) - so their career choices are limited.. The gist of this stupid article: people volunteer because they have no choice - not because they are patriotic. The real truth: USA Today cannot understand why anyone would give up a comfy life to wear a uniform. The reason can only be one of desperation - never of conviction. Imagine USA Today during WW2. Morbidly obsessed with lists, no life would be worth sparing, even if it ended the Holocaust.

BEN & JERRY’S: Of course, they endorsed Barack Obama for President, lending two “Obamamobiles” to give away “Cherries For Change” ice cream. The hippie millionnaires explain that Obama represents real, inspirational change. Just like heart-stopping ice cream. And that’s my point: Change means nothing if it’s not defined as either good or bad. For example, Ben & Jerry’s has definitely changed our country… by killing off fat people. My guess is that Ben & Jerry’s, since their inception — has probably killed more folks through heart attacks, than the number of American soldiers who gave their lives in Iraq.

ETHANOL SUPPORTERS: Faced with imminent destruction of the planet due to global warming, farmers are now forced to turn crops into fuel. Ethanol, that is. This has forced farmers to raise their prices, which they don’t mind - and reduce supplies of food. And here’s the heart of global warming theology - and it is a theology: a fundamental self-loathing for the human race, knitted into an overpowering sense of self-importance. The selfish, all-consuming human is what’s wrong with the world — and hooray for me! — the sensitive, intelligent Prius driver, for pointing it out. Which means –with a reduction in food and rising prices — we’re approaching what the Gores of the world really want — the sacrifice of humanity for a false god: global warming.

ALL PUNDITS: Telegraph.co.uk unveiled its list of the 50 most influential political pundits in America. I am not one of them. However, David Gergen is. If you don’t know who David Gergen is –- imagine a sock dipped in flesh, gargling on a gerbil. Also on the list: Howard Kurtz, a walking hairpiece. And Mark Shields –- who was a mime back in the 70s with Lorene Yarnell. Paul Begala is also there, a giant thumb with sad eyes. And what’s a list without James Carville, a skull on a lollipop, possessing a vocal delivery that suggests something smaller and far more alien lives inside his mouth. If you look at the list you’ll find that they all have something in common — they’re unattractive. Is it my fault, that as a pundit, I am handsome? I believe we live in an age where we can’t accept our pundits unless they look like pundits. This “punditism” has created a glass ceiling for handsome gents like me whose only strategy now is to gain weight and shave my head. I’m starting now.

AND THE WINNER: The Yale student, Aliza Shvarts, who claimed she artificially inseminated herself and then induced miscarriages as part of her senior art project. After getting a pile of attention, it’s now been announced that it was a “creative fiction,” otherwise known as a ghoulish hoax. The associate dean and vice president for public affairs Helaine S. Klasky said the whole exercise was to draw attention to “the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a womans body.” And this is the crux behind performance art - it’s never supposed to do anything but raise awareness of raising awareness. Performance art exists only to perpetuate the myth that performance artists have something to say - when instead they’re untalented goons in desperate need of a solid kick in the ass. But speaking of ambiguity, there should be none among parents thinking of sending their kids to Yale.Your performance art should consist of you running as fast as you can to another campus.

By Greg Gutfeld
Host, “Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld“/Editor, The Daily Gut

So Applebee’s restaurant is being sued by a customer who claims that their low-calorie meals aren’t really low calorie at all. This happened right after an ABC Action News crew investigated the same joint for not serving diet-friendly portions.

And here, my friends, is why our country is in bad shape: For every business that’s trying to do good, there are at least five pointless chuckleheads trying to sue it because their expectations are disappointed.

Add to that smarmy consumer reporters who congratulate themselves every time they humiliate a dry cleaner because the poor guy forgot to starch a shirt and we’re now living in a world where you can’t make a living at all.

It’s time for all Americans to rally around companies that provide services as well as jobs. And it is also time to shame lawsuit-happy losers into crawling back under the rock where they came from.

We have created a nation not of doers, but of “suers” — people who devote their energies not to making things that improve lives, but filing motions that serve only to dissuade people from taking risks.

Look, if you think Applebee’s food is fattening, your first instinct shouldn’t be to sue but to take your fat ass elsewhere. Even more, if you’re serious about losing weight, don’t pick a restaurant that has a menu thicker than a phonebook featuring items like the “Brewtus Steak Burger.” Join a gym and stop blaming others for your apron of fat.

It’s time for all Americans to rally around companies that provide services as well as jobs. And it is also time to shame lawsuit-happy losers into crawling back under the rock where they came from.

Now, if that doesn’t get me an Applebee’s gift card, I’m suing.

And if you disagree with me, then you sir are worse than Hitler.

Greg Gutfeld hosts “Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld” weekdays at 3 a.m. ET. Send your comments to: redeye@foxnews.com

An elementary school near New York City changed its name to the Barack Obama Elementary School on Friday, effective immediately.

Similar efforts to rename schools, parks and streets are under way elsewhere around the country, the Assocaited Press reports, as communities pay tribute to the United States’ first black president, who takes office on Jan. 20.

Is this a fitting honor, given Obama’s achievement, or is it too early to enshrine the name of someone who has yet to prove himself in the White House?

You decide.

Editor’s Note: The non-partisan Web site “Opposing Views” offers readers a look at all sides of the debate on a variety of issues. This is part of a series of posts from the Web site that will appear in the FOX Forum.

By Erich Pratt
Director of Communications, Gun Owners of America

“Change.”

That’s what the next four years are going to bring. More government regulations … more government spending … and more battles over gun control.

Once Barack Obama takes his oath of office in January, he will become, without a doubt, the most anti-gun president this nation has ever seen.

Obama’s record shows that he opposes “concealed carry” laws, supports bans on many common shotguns and semi-automatic firearms, opposes guns being available and ready for self-defense (that is, he wants guns locked up) and favors prohibitive taxes on firearms and hunting ammunition.

What’s worse, Obama has also supported a total and complete prohibition on firearms.

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