Art Sandusky

I don't want Gates kept on at Defense. I can't think of someone else (above my pay scale, lol) but this isn't what needs to be done. Shit, if you're going to keep him on then eliminate the people around him.

This is just ludicrous. If only the liberal blogosphere hadn't fallen in love with this kind of crap.

Saturn Devouring His Children by Goya. I think that's the title, I could be fuzzy on the wording.

So when does everyone start making out?

What an odd time to bring up my Glenn Beck fandom considering Im the biggest Palin supporter here. It's fun how the right doesn't even know who to blame or attack anymore.

Tech's gonna get slaughtered. Like whoa.

That KANERULESFAN banning thread up here ^^ or down here \/\/, wherever, is a trainwreck, and it's a boring one. Like, imagine seeing a train with a bunch of chemicals on it skip some tracks and, well, you get the rest with flames and destruction. There's only one problem. It wasn't cool.

Buck and Aikman did the Packers/Vikings game a couple'a weeks ago.

Why is Johnson back, and how long until he starts posting noose pictures?

If they could, they wouldn't need to give thousands back plus no-interest financing to sell their cars.

Grungy Punk, I understand your frustration. When I was five I was at the fair and saw one of those big lollipops. I said to my mother, "Can I have one of those?" She said "sure," and bought me that lollipop. I untied and unwrapped it and started walking around with this big lollipop, and it was tasty. The Tilt-a-Whirl was next. During one hard twirl, I lost my lollipop to a grassy and oily grave beneath the Tilt-a-Whirl. I wish I had that lollipop right now. I understand your frustration, Grungy Punk.

They sell cars for their prices because you keep up with everyone else's prices. If you do indeed slash $2,000 from an economy car, what was seen as a pragmatic prison becomes a cheap pragmatic prison. Granted, the quality of domestic offerings in the compact and subcompact (one word: Aveo) warrants lower prices, but if the market will support a price in a vehicle class it becomes the standard. What they do instead is heap cash on the hood to lure potential buyers. That $6,000 "instant cash back" if you run down to your local Chevy dealer and sign papers on a Silverado nullifies any labor-induced price inflation. The imports only do it at the end of the year to clear inventory if a financing plan (Toyota doing 0% financing is a big deal, by the way) can't move the metal. It keeps the domestics looking like they're worth just as much wheras the Japanese don't need to lure people into good products. Can't blame the unions on this one.

If Obama uses executive orders only to undo the orders made by the Bush administration, then it's okay. After that I'm really uncomfortable with it. I don't want to see the powerful executive branch that's been made the last eight years get even stronger.

Thanks, Tyler Not on this board, anyway. People are a bore.

http://jalopnik.com/5093074/not+so+big-thr...y-from-congress This is the kind of crowd that's torpedoed the auto industry in this country.

I'm kinda torn on them. It rules in its hardass delivery and whatever, but it kinda means everyone has to be compelling or unique. We are not all little snowflakes. Sorta limits how many people can be involved. Imagine how poor DJ Jeff would handle this.

Whoa whoa whoa. I demand to know how that picture of the White House staff came about.

Instead of giving 50 Billion to the big 3, they should give the 50 billion to Car Companies working on technology for the future like Tesla or the like. Id bet that if Tesla was given just 1 billion, they could probably have more of their electric cars out and they would be at least 50% cheaper too. Tesla is building a two seat performance car with enough luggage space for a couple of small duffel bags, tops. There's a pipe dream sedan on a drawing board somewhere in Tesla's money pit headquarters, but nothing that's reached the development phase of the sports car. Any media that brings them up as some kind of step forward by building a highly specialized product that would be useless for most consumers besides requiring no gasoline is thoroughly deluded. Tesla's original point was to show that electric cars didn't have to be golf carts and could haul ass around a track. They've managed to make themselves part of the eco-cheerleader brigade somehow in this post-Katrina paradigm.

I'd rather not know how I die, but a revised future prediction might be cool.

That picture is so awesome for all the wrong reasons. Jerk, the man has a point. Your position is kinda retarded. Does "Putin coming into our airspace" mean that she thinks he can fly?

Look, she's gone now. The country's safe. Let it go.

There are a few things that are mildly unsettling about all this. First, the use of executive orders. No no no. What next, Bush-esque signing statements? Fucking checks and balances, goddammit. I don't care if it's something great for the nation, there's still a process that must be honored. Second, Detroit. The post from earlier about Ford going back to larger, thirstier models is crap. The importation of the Euro-spec C1 platform Focus (Americans have gotten a second-rate version) and other measures put them ahead of the pack. GM blew its last huge R&D/advertising wad on the GMT9000 platform SUVs (Tahoe, Suburban, Escalade, Yukon) in 2004-2005, with these being released into the market in the fall after Katrina. These bastards have done their damndest to promote beancounters who wanted to cut their way to profitability and couldn't conceive an automobile that the American public wants and needs if their life depended on it. It wasn't low gas prices that made GM the most profitable, biggest corporation on the planet in the 50s. It was a belief of "a vehicle for every pocketbook," with cohesive brand identities and genuine differences between, say, a Pontiac and Chevrolet product beyond the badge on the front. Dealership bloat is also killing off the Big Three. Relative to market share, these companies have far too many stores for small demand. Various franchise laws make it impossible to kill them off, and shuttering a brand can financially hurt more than help (Oldsmobile's mothballing in 2002 cost GM $2b). In Chrysler's case, they shouldn't be eligible for any federal aid, as they're owned by a private firm (Cerberus) which had no intention of making them profitable when they bought the company from Daimler. The point was a "strip and flip." They have nothing in terms of new product in the pipeline and have no intent or capital to improve their lot. Chrysler is damn near worthless in every way, shape, and form with the exception of the Jeep brand and even that was raped with no fewer than three brand diluting products introduced in the last few years. Ford had the sense to bring in someone from the outside (though the Ford family still holds massive pull) and has had to make some hard choices but is in the best financial position of the three Detroit automakers. GM is simultaneously too big to be allowed to fail but also too big to survive. Chrysler is a rotting corpse, a sad end for a once semi-prestigious marque. Anyone who blames the unions with no qualification is a retard. The unions have had unrealistic demands relative to their employers' balance sheets, but beyond the factory floor the blame ultimately lies with the fuckers who allow promising, desirable, and market relevant concepts to be cost cut, delayed, and parts binned into oblivion. It's an extremely difficult situation for both sides of the aisle. Also complicating matters is that many of the suppliers for the automakers, the manufacturers of the transmissions, glass, and interior bits just to name a few are in terrible straits as well. If automaking firms can't get parts for their cars, no one goes anywhere. Any bailout must be structured in the same fashion that Chrysler got in the early 80s: A plan for recovery is required for government money, and the current boards of directors have to be tossed for the most part. It worked and a new one can too but only if done properly. Third, the answer to Afghanistan isn't necessarily more soldiers on the ground. That the militaristic angle is considered before others in American foreign policy is a crime of the highest order. Yes, the fuckers killed 3,000 civilians seven years ago. Yes, they swear up and down that they'll do it again. What happened to the hardline diplomatic stance that won the Cold War? We might be the Great Satan, but people sure do dig the devil's entertainment and blue jeans and representative government. Winning hearts and minds doesn't involve bombs, it involves a hardball diplomatic line that forces our enemies to consider alternatives rather than sending them running for the nearest cave to reload. Fourth, the world is going to keep spinning between now and January 20th and beyond. We can't afford to sit around and put the burden of recovery on a new administration and new Congress. Solutions have to be hammered out quickly. The Q1 reports will start coming out before Obama takes office against the backdrop of what will surely be a lean Christmas season for consumers. Then what? Wait for the magic man to take office while markets collapse? The last week and a half has reeked of euphoria at the expense of a deteriorating situation. I'm as happy as anyone at the conclusion the electorate has reached but there's still a stupiddumbhuge list of problems that need to be addressed.

I found some good, good stuff by telling a homeless dude half a block away from the hostel that I'd spare some coin if he could hook me up. I'm good on that front if anyone wants to have a chill session. I visited the Ghostbusters firehouse today, in fact. Funny it would come up, and that I ate at Tom's Restaurant the first night I was here. I saw it from the bus on the way from the airport and freaked. By the way, I need addresses if you want to hang out, people. I'm living and dying with the navigation on my phone, especially when I've gone downtown and nice, organized numbers don't really apply anymore. KANERULESFAN or someone like that called me last night using the IP Relay thing, but the operator was retarded. Then someone sent me a picture of a spoon and gave me five guesses as to who it was. I demand answers!

I do so hate paying for the internets. That's right NYC people, 843-364-0367. I'm starting to go a little nuts since no one besides fellow out-of-towners are willing to talk to me, not even the freaks at the Lost and Found in Bedford-Stuyvesant. You think a bunch of tattooed, skinny jean wearing, pierced-ass, scuzzy lookin' muh'fuckas would delight in anyone who doesn't look homeless talking to them, but noooo. That and it's a bitch and a half trying to find weed here without knowing anyone. I have an eye for smokers in Charleston, but here it looks like almost everyone between 15 and 30 is on drugs. I am indeed staying at 237 W107th, but am willing to meet people wherever. In fact, somewhere in the outer boroughs is almost better since I've been lazy and haven't left Manhattan yet except for last night. Not like that's a huge problem, since I had a fuckin' awesome time at the karaoke bars 'round Koreatown. Getting drunk in this town is expensive as shit, so I bought a bottle of rum and immediately felt like an alcoholic when I took it back to my room. I spent the afternoon watching the NFL games at The Back Page on 3rd Avenue and was much more impressed with the spirit for pro football than the sad lack of passion for the college games yesterday. I'm here through Thursday so gimme a shout, people!

This kinda rules. The whole country just up and started partying. Who knew?