Well, it was really only a matter of time before they did it, but I knew it was coming.

The South rose again, and Alabama Senator Richard "Dick" Shelby waved his confederate flag and led his white hooded mafia to a rousing defeat of the American auto industry -- all based on his hatred of unions and his attempt to score points with the foreign automakers who have plants in his state.

The Senate had no problem handing the financial industry all the money it needed without condition or concession to correct the economy, never mind that no evidence has presented itself that they've even tried to do so. But when the CEOs of General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford came to Washington for help, they got their noses rubbed in the carpet for flying private jets.

These cats spend taxpayer dollars on golf outings for Saudi sheiks and they're complaining about guys flying their own jets.

Bottom line is that unless billions of dollars magically show up for Detroit, the town, the State of Michigan, and several surrounding states are screwed in the short term and the U.S. in the long term. ...

As UAW head Ron Gettlefinger pointed out at a Detroit press conference, Shelby and his cronies either do not care or are too ignorant to know how they may well have damned the U.S. economy. Truth is, most wealthy southerners cringe at the very idea of organized labor. Their idea of a good job and a living wage are the honorable duties and lofty wages of a Wal-Mart greeter.

The GOP felt that the bailout plan did not do enough to ensure that the auto companies could return to viability, but the devil is in the details. There was only one real sticking point in this whole debacle: the union. The Rebubs wanted the UAW to cut their wages and benefits down to parity with that of workers who are employed by foreign automakers, which they were willing to do by 2011 because of the complicated means of doing it and because that's when their contract expires.

Shelby and Co. wanted it done immediately and when the union said it had no more blood to give, the Senate voted the loan of $14 billion down.

This comes after weeks of conservatives who know nothing about automaking blathering on television the myth that every autoworker makes $70 and hour; that they sit in factories and do nothing all day; that Chapter 11 bankruptcy will give the companies a chance to restructure themselves and correct every problem; that the financial and credit crisis has nothing to do with poor auto sales.

Here are some facts:

_ The average autoworker wage in this country is closer to about $28 an hour. It goes up when benefits and insurance costs are factored in.

_ Auto plants are filled with people who have several responsibilities from welders, to engineers to inspectors, to linemen and women. It's tireless, stressful work and it takes teams of skilled laborers much effort to put together good cars. I should know, I was raised in a family of them.

_ Chapter 11 bankruptcy will almost certainly lead to Chapter 7 liquidation because there is not enough time to restructure the companies in a way that will allow them to become more efficient and eventually profitable. In the early 80s, Chrysler did have the time because they were given a chance by the government.

_ The economy tempest we're in is the biggest culprit of all in the suffering of the Big 3. The diminishing inability of many Americans to get loans to finance large purchases was predicted months ago to have an effect on the auto industries since, like homes, most people do not buy cars outright with cash.

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, whose home state hosts GM's Saturn plant and other foreign automakers did try to negotiate with Gettlefinger to make some type of 11th hour deal. But Scrooge Shelby would have none of it. Essentially, the GOP's demand was that there would be no deal unless the union put the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun in its mouth and pulled the trigger.

Now, I'm not saying that the Big 3 have not made mistakes. To be honest, the seeds were sewn when Hondas and Toyotas entered the American marketplace in the 70s, giving baby boomers who couldn't afford Detroit hogs cheaper cars to drive during a double-whammy recession and oil crisis. The children of those baby boomers grew up and remembered those brands, never feeling loyal to the American companies. Instead of offering them cost-effective fuel efficient options in the 90s, they sold them SUVs that they eventually would not be able to afford when their credit went bad.

Some of the blame does go to the UAW, even though they negotiated for future wages and benefits for younger workers, they did not see the writing on the wall when it came to what U.S. trade policies would do to their employers, making them unable to stay profitable and continue with the wage and benefit structure.

Most of the blame goes to the American consumer (YES YOU), however, for demanding gas guzzlers from the Big 3 as if the 90s gravy train would never run out. Rather than demanding and purchasing well-engineered, safe autos with a high resale value, you bought those big, ugly Escalades and Yukons. That was pretty stupid, folks.

There is one last longshot, maybe (and I do mean maybe) President Bush will redeem himself for eight years of idiocy by giving money meant to bailout the finance industry to the auto companies. $14 billion does not seem like a lot when the potential cost to the U.S. could run into the trillions in unemployment payments, welfare, business bankruptcies and health care.

New Orleans had been warned for years that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would wipe the town out. Nobody listened. Nobody wanted to spend the relative pittance of federal money it would have taken to shore up the levies in that town to prevent catastrophe. The storm came. The storm destroyed an entire American city.

Once again we're facing a catastrophe that Stevie Wonder could see with clarity. If nobody acts, we can expect a slow motion Hurricane Katrina, first in Detroit, then spreading to the entire nation.