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As I watch the coverage of the fate of the U.S. auto industry, one alarmingand frustrating fact hits me right between the eyes. The fate of ournation's economic survival is in the hands of some congressmen who arecompletely out of touch and act without knowledge of an industry thataffects almost every person in our nation. The same lack of knowledge isshared with many journalists whom are irresponsible when influencing theopinion of millions of viewers.Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama has doomed the industry, calling it adinosaur. No Mr. Shelby, you are the dinosaur, with ideas stuck in the '70s,'80s and '90s. You and the uninformed journalist and senators that hold ontomyths that are not relevant in today's world.When you say that the Big Three build vehicles nobody wants to buy, you musthave overlooked that GM outsold Toyota by about 1.2 million vehicles in theU.S. and Ford outsold Honda by 850,000 and Nissan by 1.2 million in the U.S.GM was the world's No. 1 automaker beating Toyota by 3,000 units.When you claim inferior quality comes from the Big Three, did you realizethat Chevy makes the Malibu and Ford makes the Fusion that were both ratedover the Camry and Accord by J.D. Power independent survey on initialquality? Did you bother to read the Consumer Report that rated Ford on parwith good Japanese automakers.Did you realize Big Three's gas guzzlers include the 33 mpg Malibu thatbeats the Accord. And for '09 Ford introduces the Hybrid Fusion whose 39 mpgis the best midsize, beating the Camry Hybrid. Ford's Focus beats theCorolla and Chevy's Cobalt beats the Civic.When you ask how many times are we going to bail them out you must bereferring to 1980. The only Big Three bailout was Chrysler, who paid back $1billion, plus interest. GM and Ford have never received government aid.When you criticize the Big Three for building so many pickups, surely you'venoticed the attempts Toyota and Nissan have made spending billions to try toget a piece of that pie. Perhaps it bothers you that for 31 straight yearsFord's F-Series has been the best selling vehicle. Ford and GM havedominated this market and when you see the new '09 F-150 you'll agree thiswon't change soon.Did you realize that both GM and Ford offer more hybrid models than Nissanor Honda. Between 2005 and 2007, Ford alone has invested more than $22billion in research and development of technologies such as Eco Boost, flexfuel, clean diesel, hybrids, plug in hybrids and hydrogen cars.It's 2008 and the quality of the vehicles coming out of Detroit are onceagain the best in the world. Perhaps Sen. Shelby isn't really that blind. Maybe he realizes the qualityshift to American. Maybe it's the fact that his state of Alabama has givenso much to land factories from Honda, Hyundai and Mercedes Benz that he ismore concerned about their continued growth than he is about the people ofour country.. Sen. Shelby's disdain for "government subsidies" is veryhypocritical.. In the early '90s he was the driving force behind a $253million incentive package to Mercedes. Plus, Alabama agreed to purchase2,500 vehicles from Mercedes. While the bridge loan the Big Three isrequesting will be paid back, Alabama 's $180,000-plus per job was pureincentive. Sen. Shelby, not only are you out of touch, you are aself-serving hypocrite, who is prepared to ruin our nation because of lackof knowledge and lack of due diligence in making your opinions anddecisions.After 9/11, the Detroit Three and Harley Davidson gave $40 million-plusemergency vehicles to the recovery efforts. What was given to the 9/11relief effort by the Asian and European Auto Manufactures? $0 Nada. Zip!We live in a world of free trade, world economy and we have not been able toproduce products as cost efficiently. While the governments of other autoproducing nations subsidize their automakers, our government may be ready toforce its demise. While our automakers have paid union wages, benefits andlegacy debt, our Asian competitors employ cheap labor. We are at an extremedisadvantage in production cost. Although many UAW concessions begin in2010, many lawmakers think it's not enough.Some point the blame to corporate management. I would like to speak of FordMotor Co. The company has streamlined by reducing our workforce by 51,000since 2005, closing 17 plants and cutting expenses. Product and futureproduct is excellent and the company is focused on one Ford. This is acompany poised for success. Ford product quality and corporate managementhave improved light years since the nightmare of Jacques Nasser. Thank youAlan Mulally and the best auto company management team in the business.The financial collapse caused by the secondary mortgage fiasco and the greedof Wall Street has led to a $700 billion bailout of the industry thatcreated the problem. AIG spent nearly $1 million on three company excursionsto lavish resorts and hunting destinations. Paulson is saying no to $250billion foreclosure relief and the whole thing is a mess. So when the BigThree ask for 4 percent of that of the $700 billion, $25 billion to save thecountry's largest industry, there is obviously oppositions. But does it makesense to reward the culprits of the problem with $700 billionunconditionally, and ignore the victims?As a Ford dealer, I feel our portion of the $25 billion will never betouched and is not necessary. Ford currently has $29 billion of liquidity.However, the effect of a bankruptcy by GM will hurt the suppliers we all dobusiness with. A Chapter 11 bankruptcy by any manufacture would costretirees their health care and retirements. Chances are GM would recoverfrom Chapter 11 with a better business plan with much less expense. So whofoots the bill if GM or all three go Chapter 11? All that extra health care,unemployment, loss of tax base and some forgiven debt goes back to thetaxpayer, us. With no chance of repayment, this would be much worse than aloan with the intent of repayment.So while it is debatable whether a loan or Chapter 11 is better for the BigThree, a $25 billion loan is definitely better for the taxpayers and theeconomy of our country.So I'll end where I began on the quality of the products of Detroit . Beforeyou, Mr. or Ms. Journalist continue to misinform the American public andturn them against one of the great industries that helped build this nation,I must ask you one question. Before you, Mr. or Madam Congressman vote toend health care and retirement benefits for 1 million retirees, eliminate2.5 million of our nation's jobs, lose the technology that will lead us inthe future and create an economic disaster including hundreds of billions oftax dollars lost, I ask this question not in the rhetorical sense. I ask itin the sincere, literal way. Can you tell me, have you driven a Ford lately?