Lexus, Toyota Motor Corp.'s luxury line, was the top brand in J.D. Power's initial quality study, an annual survey of vehicle owners that measures mechanical and design problems in the first 90 days of ownership.
Porsche was the No. 2 brand, followed by GM's Cadillac, then Hyundai and Honda.
Only the Cadillac was in the top 5??
And I love this:
Though Chrysler's scores improved year over year, it had no brands above the industry average. It tied for one segment award, with its PT Cruiser Wagon sharing the top award in the compact activity vehicle segment with Honda's CR-V. Chrysler, however, is discontinuing the car.
So let me get this right: Chrysler only got one award and they are discontinuing that vehicle? Makes perfect sense.
Obviously, the reason that American cars don't sell as well as their foreign counterparts is not an over-abundance of dealers. People don't buy more cars because there are less dealers, they buy cars because they are good quality. So for all the rocket scientists in Washington running the car companies now here's a tip: Build a better car.
After hearing over and over again how Republicans are racist and anyone who doesn't agree with Obama is racist it's a good eye opener. It's worth the read and next time you get accused of being racist because you aren't a Democrat or don't agree with Obama, or went to a tea party you can use some of this information to set them straight. The rest of the site has a lot of good information also.
I don't know how it is where Ms. Boxer comes from but here in the south Ma'am is said in respect. I think what makes it worse is that she cuts him off and has such a nasty, mean tone. And for the record, he worked harder to earn his title than she did to win hers so she really should have refered to him as General. At least he said Ma'am.
A few days ago David Letterman made some derogatory "joke" about Gov. Sarah Palin and her daughter:
Since when is it OK to make "jokes" in such poor taste about someones daughter? The kids are supposed to be off limits right? And lets think back to those awkward teenage years. Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be to have someone as famous as David Letterman say something like that about you? How mortifying.
Well here is the response:
And where is the outrage? Geared toward Gov. Palin's response:
Gov. Palin and Matt Lauer:
I can't believe that Lauer is actually standing up for Letterman. What he said was disrespectful, it doesn't matter if it was about a 14 year old or an 18 year old. Either way it is still degrading and uncalled for. And to turn the tables around and say that Gov. Palin is in bad taste for her comments in response is as bad as the original "jokes". Lauer should be ashamed of himself. I wonder if he would have the same feeling about it if it was said about one of his kids. Matt Lauer and Shepard Smith, because Smith was also defending Letterman tonight (if I find a video for it I'll post it later, are no better than Letterman. They may not have said it but by defending him and attacking the Palins' response they are part of the problem. I can't believe we live in a world where dirty old men are allowed to say such disgusting things about a young girl (of any age) and they can get away with it. I also can't believe that there are other "men" out there that actually defend this disgusting behavior.
I'm getting really sick and tired of politicians and organizations playing politics with the safety of our troops.
It has already been said that releasing the so called "torture" photos would put our troops serving in combat in more danger. So why would anyone want to put these brave men and women in more danger than they are already in? Even President Obama has said he would not release the memos because it would put them in danger.
Now Senators Graham and Lieberman want to make sure they don't get released and have added an amendment to the war spending bill to make sure they don't get released but some Senate Democrats say they will try to strip the amendment from the bill or vote against the bill. What would be their motivation to do that? Do they not care about the safety of our troops, the same ones that they send into battle?
The only point of releasing these photos is to cast the US and our military in a bad light. The people that broke the law have already been dealt with, there is no reason to release these photos now. Please call your senators and tell them that keeping our service men and women safe is more important than partisan politics or the ACLU (funny if it wasn't for these brave men and women there would be no ACLU): (202)224-3121
Someone needs to remind this guy that he works for us not the other way around. Would you get away with that at your place of employment with your employer?
So I ask myself, what country is he talking about exactly? I can understand that we have a separation of church and state. However, I don't get the whole we are not a Christian nation but we could be the largest Muslim nation. ??? We could be a Muslim nation? Does he live in the same America I do?
And speaking of Muslim, and bringing in the right wing extremism, why is our Commander in Chief just saddened at the senseless violence that was the murder of an Army Private for no other reason than he was in the Army but he's outraged about the heinous act of violence that was the murder of Dr. Tiller?
“I am deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence against two brave young soldiers who were doing their part to strengthen our armed forces and keep our country safe. I would like to wish Quinton Ezeagwula a speedy recovery, and to offer my condolences and prayers to William Long’s family as they mourn the loss of their son.”
I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.
I just got back from visiting my family in Florida this week and there was a common theme in many of our conversations: How much the current situation in our country remind them of what happened in Cuba 50 years ago.
In my last post I said how what was happening with the car dealerships reminded me of hearing about what happened with my grandmother and her beauty salon and in conversation one day she told me that listening to what has been happening reminded her about that also, same with my dad.
When I visited my grandfather, my mother’s father, he kept coming back to the similarities between what happened then and what is happening now. He kept saying that he has seen this before and that people just don’t understand what the consequences are.
While I was visiting with him we went through some old pictures including my grandparent’s wedding pictures and as we were looking over the very few pictures he had from Cuba he pointed to a man in one picture and told me that he was the man that smuggled their pictures out of Cuba, when he left through Mexico. He mailed them to my grandparents from Mexico. The pictures made it to their destination but he never did. He, very mysteriously, was murdered just before he made it to the US. He pointed to several other people in one of the wedding pictures, taken just five short years before the revolution, and told me that they were killed by the Castro government, shortly after the revolution.
I was talking to my dad about the similarities between what is going on now and what happened in Cuba and we got to talking about when they left and I said something about the scene in “The Lost City” when Andy Garcia’s character leaves Cuba and he has to leave everything behind. My dad said that was exactly what it was like; you couldn’t take anything with you at all. Not even family mementos like pictures, things that have no real value other than sentimental value. I had never realized that there were hardly any pictures of either side of my family from their days in Cuba and now I know why that is. I brought home all of my grandfather’s pictures for my mom to arrange for him and as I looked through them the other day I noticed that there were a few black and white pictures in one old album, that I know are old enough to be from Cuba, but other than that, there is nothing. Almost all the pictures pre-1967 are gone. I can’t explain why but it makes me sad to think about that. There are just a few pictures of my mom as a baby and a girl, up until she was 10, there are only a few pictures of my grandmother growing up, there are no pictures of my grandfather until the wedding pictures, he was 27.
So with all the reminiscing last week, I came home and put the lost city on my instant play list on Netflix and some suggestions popped up. One of the suggestions was Fidel. It is a documentary about Fidel and according to it he is a wonderful man and possibly the best thing that has ever happened to Cuba. I beg to differ. There was one old man, a journalist, talking about how great Fidel is from the comfort of Miami. I kept thinking: if he’s so great then why are you in Miami instead of in Cuba?
Of course there were also the American celebrities that think he’s wonderful too. Belafonte and Alice Walker think he has great qualities. But of course they live here in the United States and not in Cuba. I wonder if they would still think so highly of him if they had to live in Cuba, as everyday Cubans, in poverty. I wonder if they would feel the same way if they had to live like these people:
All these videos are from O-jec.com. They have a lot of great videos, some are subtitled and some you don't even need to know what they are saying to realize how bad the situation is. Check them out.
Getting water in Cuba:
How about food?
There is no translation on this one but this guy interrupts an interview and he's pretty much saying that there is no food and that the people of Cuba are going hungry:
How hungry are they? Well how hungry would you have to be to eat garbage off the street?
And how about living conditions:
This lady pretty much says that tourists have this image of Cuba being so pretty and that the people don't have any need but that in fact they dont have clothes or shoes, that it's hard to get food, that kids are dying because they can't get the medicines they need:
This lady is showing how she works her old stove and then her family buys her a new stove:
Can you imagine if these celebrities that thing Castro is so great had to live like this?
And after seeing that look at these pre-revolution pictures of Havana and tell me which one you would rather live in:
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