The Hummers I really wonder about are the ones parked in high rise apartment building parking lots in Dallas.

More Hummer bling.

My ex daughter-in-law owns a Hummer. Good riddance to both of them.

Yet we still sell the Chinese our Humvees. Ironic.

Empires do grand Attention getting things before they die a Hummer is Peacock behavior it says I am rich and desperate to get your attention, or I’m up to my eyeballs in debt and Desperate to get your attention.
It does not say I’m smart and saving on the gas money for things like Marriage. It does not say I care about the planet and am responsible. A rugged car won’t make you a rugged man no matter what GM’s advertising people say.

I think the end of the Hummer a big car with low gas milage reminds us of the end of all Hat no Cattle Bush. Peacock behavior is ok when your young but its no way to live the rest of your life. Its no way to run a country.
Big Loud and inefficient

Now if NBC would just lose their peacock.

This is telling about society if people can’t afford Hummers they can’t afford to be Corporate, Suburban, Status Conscious Republicans. They can go Tea Bag, they can go Moderate Voter or they can even go to our side.
But having been kicked or drag out of GOP heaven screaming very few will return and be like they were before.
Mitt, Newt, etc will have a much harder time trying to beat Sarah.
If the GOP’s Corporate Wing can’t even afford to buy Hummers anymore they can’t afford Mitt or Newt.

I always hear rumors General Electric is trying to sell NBC.

Current monetary and fiscal policies distinctly favor the haves over the have nots. Suspect there are as many Dems as Repubs in that top one percent. Elitism in attitude and wealth appears to be non partisan.

Consumer buying choices predicting elections the GOP’s Corporate wing is in trouble the Hummer is dead. What product best represents the Tea Baggers gun sales, church attendance, porn sales in Red States?
What represents us Personal Computer sales, Mac Sales, Organic food sales, hybrid sales are down with Toyota problems the Chevy Volt might represent us.
How to quantify product sales into votes might be a problem.

Comcast will dissolve NBC broadcast and hold on to the more profitable cable pieces. Zucker won’t last the summer.

Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.

“Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by,” Edelman says.

The biggest consumer, Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users; Montana bought the least with 1.92 per 1000. “The differences here are not so stark,” Edelman says.

Number 10 on the list was West Virginia at 2.94 subscriptions per 1000, while number 41, Michigan, averaged 2.32.

Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year’s presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.

Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don’t explicitly restrict gay marriage.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16680-porn-in-the-usa-conservatives-are-biggest-consumers.html

dissolve NBC broadcast

Dissolve the tv network or just sell it to someone else?

You know it’s a recession when porn sales are down

Diane Duke, the director of the Free Speech Coalition, the adult industry’s trade group, thinks that revenues have fallen 30-50% during the past year. “One producer told me his revenue was down 80%,” she says.

It’s not just the recession though. Pornography is going through the same structural shifts that are putting music, video print and other content companies under pressure:

Piracy is the main problem. And the internet, with its copious free clips, is an increasingly viable alternative to the paid stuff. Pornography in general has become “like potato chips, everywhere and cheap, to be consumed and tossed,” says Ms Hartley. It’s not the same as in the golden age when she joined. “The industry will shrink and stay shrunken,” she reckons.

Not to mention the threat of user generated content

http://lsvp.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/you-know-its-a-recession-when-porn-sales-are-down/

Corporations are going to have to get tough with consumers and restrict our choices. However sales are down allot. I don’t think the Sarah voters/Fundy wing of the GOP is doing well either.

Yes, the Utah porn meme. Might look at age demos there in addition to religion. As to the correlation to gay marriage, are we just talking about straight porn.

Sales of beer have declined in the United States and Europe as consumers cut back on consumption during the global economic recession.

Total global beer volume dropped 5.4 percent last year.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/30314/

If Porn and beer sales are down to traditionally thought to be recession proof industries then are we in a Depression?

U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio charged grocery bills, repairs to the family minivan and purchases from a wine store less than a mile from his West Miami home to the Republican Party of Florida while he was speaker of the Florida House, according to records obtained by The Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times.

Now that we don’t have rabbit ears, terrestrial broadcast is an anachronism. Dissolve it into their various cable vehicles. Maybe keep the studio and production operations.

How much Gay porn do the red states buy online in the safety of their own homes? I suspect that number would be higher in red states because buying or finding gay porn in the red states might be harder.

Will that make any diff to his election prospects?

Good morning all.

Good morning, pups. Mr. Kristof is flying solo today. I wish I had the vacation schedule that the Times columnists do. Gail Collins is off today, and Mr. Kristof has a question: “Do Toxins Cause Autism?” He says autism and other development disorders constitute a huge national health burden, and suspicions are growing that one culprit may be chemicals in the environment.

Here he is.

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and I’ve got apple cranberry muffins. I’ve always thought that anyone driving a Hummer was shouting “Hey, look at me — I’ve got LOTS more money than brains!” Our next door neighbors have a bright yellow H3, but they’re from Texas and he’s in the Army so I suppose that explains it. Have a great day.

Good news I think we should be able to beat this guy:)

Anything related to the internet is down in price. As for beer, is it recession proof. Alcoholics are not addicted to beer me thinks.

OMG… How will the repoppisites wave their penis’s around?

Bookmaker Ladbrokes reported a 28pc drop in profit and said it does not expect a recovery in spending by its customers this year because of fears of unemployment.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/7265779/Ladbrokes-counts-on-World-Cup-gambling-boost-as-profits-fall.html

TABCORP’S lacklustre profit result, including a slide in revenues from its Victorian poker machines, does not bode well for rival gaming giant Tatts Group, which reports later this month.

Tabcorp yesterday posted a profit of $258 million in the first half, down 2 per cent on last year. Revenues generated by the company’s Victorian poker machine business in the past three months were down 4 per cent to $542 million due to the withdrawal of the Government’s stimulus payments and changes to rules that cap bets at $5.

The result in the gaming division – which has machines in 2600 clubs and hotels – echoes figures released by the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation, which showed December poker machine revenues across all operators fell by 11 per cent compared to a year ago.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/gambling-profits-dip-as-stimulus-fades-20100204-ng6d.html

Porn, Beer and Gamboling are all down I think we are in a Depression. We need a job Stimulus bill. Whats amazing is that the Party in charge of the House, Senate and White House is still running better than the GOP.
Normally 10% unemployment the Party in Power always gets the blameeuntil now?
I don’t think this has ever happened before in the history of polling. Obama and the Dem’s numbers have gone down yes but the GOP numbers are not going up.
I think the GOP needs to change directions.

Utah aside, I think consumption of porn is probably non partisan, as is shopping at Walmart. Consumption of consumer technologies may be one partisan bellweather, skewing to blue. Google’s algorithms is likely coded for blue.

Alkies will drink anything but yes I don’t think we are in a Recession anymore either its a Depression.

We all buy it but they buy more.

Weather hysteria in the NE. In the mid-Hudson, got a couple to 4 inches yesterday, but was above freezing so a lot has melted. Light rain now. Maybe 6″ if it does the worst, down from a foot forecast earlier. I’m hoping that it keeps just above freezing so it falls as rain. In any event, no sun expected until Tuesday. Drat. Local news is all snow all the time.

What does it say about the GOP that 10% unemployment gamboling, beer and Porn sales are down for months and they can’t beat us in the polls? Sure their base is energized and we are demoralized but thats Obama’s fault for not going Left.
If we had the same or just more enthusiasm we would see every poll saying we were going to take seats this election.
Obama you tried being Moderate its not working go Left!

In other news, the announcement today from Detroit that a consumer version of the M1 Abrams tank will be made available to domestic buyers beginning in 2011. Called the Abby, it will be sold in two configurations, the double-hatched SL and the single-hatched SL Coupe.

They’ll just buy a pickup truck.

Cherry Blossoms blooming in Seattle the weather here is the warmest I’ve ever seen but I’m a new resident.

Yes, we probably need another stimulus. The Fed and Treasury are feeding banks and not people. There are no significant new private sector jobs in sight.

I’d like everyone to welcome me back after my computer was attacked. Started on Sunday night; had to spend a day in the computer hospital. Faux virus attack warnings oriented to get you to buy a nonexistent security program in order to get your credit card number. Luckily I didn’t fall for it. Completely disabled my computer, including not letting my computer consultant get in remote to fix it. I was his first casualty, but he had 2 others immediately after my attack, including someone with high price security. Instructions to remove it were 3 pages long, but it seems OK now. Didn’t lose anything that I know about. Whew.

My bees are salivating over your cherry blossoms.

thanks, Marion. And today the narcissi are blooming too.

Yes nobody will hire anyone until consumers start spending consumers won’t spend because they have no jobs. The richest however got richer during the Bush years what ever happened to trickle down economics?

gack. I think I’m low profile, wouldn’t be worth attacking, and don’t do much internet shopping – but maybe it’s just random vitriol.

Not all Democrats are Progressives. You underestimate the disenfranchised left. Then there are the Independents.

Welcome back, eCAHN!

Do you have a firewall? I hope I don’t get that kind of attack. I use zone alarm.

I’m glad your computer is feeling better and that your back. Cherry Blossoms smell great in the spring winter.

I’m low profile too. Do about $600/year or less internet shopping, mostly books at amazon. It’s really virulent so keep alert.

thanks, I will.

You underestimate the disenfranchised left.

I underestimate the Left….? That is funny!

Yes, I have all that kind of stuff. But as you know, the hackers & theives get better & better, and the protection is, by necessity, always one step behind.

I am lazy about backup so I was really nervous. I asked my consultant about off-site backups that I’ve heard advertized. He recommended it and installed Carbonite. After the initial backup it automatically backs up every time you save a file. And if you save over something by mistake, you can retrieve any of several (10 maybe) earlier versions. After about 16 hours, my original backup is only 1/3 done, but after that, it takes minutes per day. Costs about $4 per month. Worth it for peace of mind.

Lost its way at the casino. Obama needs to press bankers to invest this new liquidity, not just trade it. He is failing. He even killed the standalone Consumer Protection Agency yesterday.

You underestimate the disenfranchised left.

Welcome back! I thought you were suspiciously absent, but put it down to possible vacationing. Glad your ‘puter is okay. I got that nasty thing last year and had to take my machine to my glorious computer guru/doc down the street. It’s a really nasty piece of work, and it took him 2 days to get rid of it.

Its his choice to fail. We Lefties need to make sure voters understand Obama’s ideas are not ours. Bush discredited Neo Hooverism everywhere except in the Democratic, Republican parties and the media.
Obama with Rahm’s help is doing the same to Clintonism.
We as a nation then either go FDR, Hitler or Stalin’s way. Bush/Obama will be compared to Hoover and Hindenburg.

Nasty is an accurate word. As is gack.

I’m really excited about the HRC summit. Expect great things to emerge. /s

So excited that I’m gonna light a fire & read the Patricia Cornwall book I bought Tuesday until democracynow comes on.

For real? Link?

Not all Democrats are progressive.

Take Obama for example.

The difference is that Hoover tightened money while Bernanke has massively loosened. The money is going to the same people but the outcome is less clear, for now. I hear Congress is muttering about HOLC. Don’t know if it’s the Dems or Repubs, hard to tell them apart.

However, anyone who was fortunate as I was to be watching Weiner on the floor yesterday, what a great day, want to see more mopping up the floor with the wingnuts.

In exile, he wrote numerous books and articles about the German military’s conduct of the war while forming the foundation for the Dolchstoßlegende, the Stab-in-the-back myth, for which he is considered largely responsible.[citation needed] Ludendorff was convinced[weasel words] that Germany had fought a defensive war and in his opinion, Kaiser Wilhelm II had failed to organise a proper counter-propaganda campaign or provide efficient leadership.[citation needed]
Ludendorff was also extremely suspicious[vague] of the Social Democrats and leftists, whom he blamed for the humiliation of Germany through the Versailles Treaty. Ludendorff also claimed that he paid close attention to the business element (especially the Jews), and saw them turn their backs on the war effort by letting profit dictate production and financing rather than patriotism. Again focusing on the left, Ludendorff was appalled[weasel words] by the strikes that took place towards the end of the war and saw the homefront
collapse before the front, with the former poisoning the morale of soldiers on temporary leave.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Ludendorff

Erich Ludendorff A man I see shades of Darth and Rahm in.

WaPo

The Obama administration is no longer insisting on the creation of a stand-alone consumer protection agency as a central element of the plan to remake regulation of the financial system.

Do Progressives have a party. I hadn’t heard.

In what possible way does my comment at 31 suggest I’m underestimating the Left when I tell Obama to go Left?

Good man Weiner. I hear he’s getting married.

Do Progressives have a party.

Not every night.

But when we do – it rawks.

…today the narcissi are blooming

well of course they are.

show-offs….

shhh, you’ll inhibit them … as if.

Notice this guy was one of the main planners of the war but he blames Germany not himself for them fighting a defensive war.
Jews the Left they get the blame to one for profiting supposedly the other for striking which would cut into profits 2 conflicting ideas held at the same time Cognitive Dissonance.

Kaiser Wilhelm II had failed to organise a proper counter-propaganda campaign or provide efficient leadership.

America lacked the will in Viet Nam, Men of Will like Cheney and Rahm manage the press to provide the appearance of success.
They concentrate less on actual success. Rahm can’t get bills passed unless they are evil like NAFTA. Dick got lots of things passed for Bush but did any of them ever work?
Torture did that work then where is Ossama. Dick’s secret energy meeting nope didn’t work Enron went under. The war for oil nope we are still fighting it.
Dick’s failure are endless.

Evidently not.

I’m sure there’s a place for hummers just like there’s a place for panel trucks

the problem with hummers (I believe) is that they received some kind of truck exemption so everyone bought one

when they became a market into themselves gm produced them in mass to reduce the cost and thus make them pretty affordable

if they had a price tag of 100 to 200 grand and did not get any kind of truck exemption, I think the market should have survived

again, just like panel trucks, there is a need for these kinds of auto’s, just not the market it turned into

that’s another thing

why do we allow businesses a tax deduction on foreign cars?

I guarantee, if businesses couldn’t get a tax or fleet deduction on cars built with foreign labor our auto industry would be doing quite well right now

and don’t give me “protectionism would have repercussions”, if targeted right this wouldn’t even look like protectionism

for instance;

“the labor tax you pay will be reduced when you use a product from another company who already paid a labor tax”

see that?

it looks like you are simply not double taxing when in fact you are protecting labor

now I just thought of that off the top of my head while typing so I am sure there are even better methods of getting away with “no deductions on products produced by foreign labor

get

a

mac

I thought it was a tax break?

you are such an excitable young girl

I’m with you though, I’ll put this into words;

the president is using this “bipartisant effort” as cover to keep the corporate giveaways in this bill and to keep the public option out of it

why do we allow businesses a tax deduction on foreign cars?

Very good question

macs aren’t imune, nor do they have an inherant superiority over windows, as has been proven time and again by security professionals.

the only reason macs aren’t attacked as much as windows is that the attack would be less effective on such a small amount of computors

as the mac gets more and more market share it will be exposed as much or more then windows

in other words, the more you tell people to get a mac the less secure mac becomes

Pawn shops should have cheap ones or maybe Craigslist in this economy Pawn shops should be doing well.

taking away a deduction for autos bought outside the us can’t possibly hurt us since most other countries buy other cars instead of ours

the exception might be china, they love their buic

btw

in china the buick is considerd a better car then the lexus, I sure hope gm doesn’t mess with the quality control buick obviously enjoyed

old computers (even macs) aren’t worth the differance over a new one, I just saw a state of the art laptop with everything I could ever want including 4 gigs of memory, quad core and a 64 bit operating system

this for 500 bucks!

how little could they sell a used laptop for, you’ll need a new battery at least and that’s a hundred bucks right there

my we’re all up and at it early today, 65 posts on the early thread!

GOOD MORNING FIREDGAWGS!!!

Obama needs to succeed not just with policy but with his ability as a leader. Many on the left were convinced two years ago that he would not follow through on the former and that he did not possess the latter, and they’re no longer part of the Democratic party. The left is as fragmented as the right. When you say left, it’s not clear who you speak for.

remember my diary?

“mr president, all the economy needs is a help wanted sign”

still a fact, jobs, good living wage jobs, once they are out there to be had everyone starts spending again because they won’t be affraid of losing their jobs

that one thing will turn this economy around in two months

Swim is up…

I speak for the entire Left.

And all this makes social democrats more worthy, how.

that one thing will turn this economy around in two months

explain?

trying to find my diary now

got it

Good Morning, my friend. :)

Yes, like not taxing repatriated multinational offshore profits. The $200 billion tax plan to correct that imbalance got shelved last I heard.

great point

China borrows the nameplates and manufactures their own buicks and audis, and they fall apart in three years.

The only reason why it was controversial was because the eco-thugs hijacked the message, and that the lemmings and sheeple were too ignorant to say something otherwise.

I never wanted a Hummer, but the reaction to GM killing the brand makes me worry that eco-thugs will dictate that everyone should drive a small hybrid, whether they like it or not.

And please, keep the EV-1 out of this. It’s never coming back, build a bridge and get over it. And let me dream some more about getting a Camaro, whether you like it or not.

And to the assholes playing the small penis card: my wang is big, thank you. Anyone who plays the card must have a small wang and is jealous.

Those people have no lives. Never had, never will.

It must be, seeing as that you have to advertise it.

Or Linux if you’re feeling a bit more macho. Also use a combination of FireFox and noscript for any site you know nothing about or that is built around easily injectable php pages or run by a neophyte.

No matter what, stop using IE whenever possible.

Progressives are the most unpopular people in the country. Telling people how to live, is never, ever, a good thing. It is not the way to advance the cause. Calling people stupid that disagree with you, does not work either.

The GOP never tells people how to live. Never.

Actually that is only partially true. Windows put a bunch of MS specific hackable tricks into IE that were intended to make it a proprietary web platform. The whole binary support for uploadable com/dcom/ActiveX objects and the unique LDAP cross-site single sign-on being just couple of obvious examples. Microsoft has always been about building the market capturing tricks first – embrace, extend and extinguish – and treating security as the orphan stepchild.

As well most people that run Windows, because they haven’t been taught better and because it is more awkward to install software with a separate account, as an administrator to the machine. OS X makes that very hard to do and UNIX variants generally make it harder still. I have Macs, Linux boxes and some Windows machines. The only ones I have to be very cautious using because of the number of potential exploits are the ones running Windows.

The GOP is unpopular also. The party that stops telling people how to live, will be the one that thrives in the future. With our govt,. The happenings in Greece will soon be here.

eco-thugs will dictate that everyone should drive a small hybrid

As an owner of a 2002 Prius I missed the time that I forced you, whoever you might be (trust me I’m not asking) to do something to protect the environment. I drive a car that I like, just as when I was in high school I saved my pennies a bought a used Corvette. It has been my experience that people that refer to others that have a different lifestyle as thugs are often guilty of projection.

That’s the best comeback that you have? To play the small wang card again? And people bash Hummers as juvenile. I’m amazed.

Next thing you know, you’re going to tell me that I can’t have a muscle car because you said so.

Letting people drive what they want to drive. I know it’s a foreign concept, but pissing off the muscle car community is not a good idea.

What will be the car symbol of the Obamarahma era? The bicycle.

lol

“Progressives are the most unpopular people in the country.” What country is that dickwad? Texas?

During the election he bought one of those Hybrid Escapes, though he certainly doesn’t drive it anymore.

I’ll go with the Volt. Might be produced, might get good mileage and might be just another expensive GM product.

You reverting to name calling is the reason progressives are unpopular.

Sorry, name calling in all it forms are not unique to any political affiliation.

Death threats and foul language together on the other hand occur much more often on sites popular with of those that lean quite right.

Woot! 5 years of not supporting the auto and oil industries is finally starting to pay off.

The right is organized. More so than I have ever seen. Watch out. November should be a wake up call to big govt. minded people. Americans are looking at Europe, and saying uh oh. I am sure the unions rioting in Greece are conservative.

Sadly, I think we are drifting toward Benito.

We will go the way of the founding fathers. Limited govt.

So you want me to drive what Greenpeace wants me to drive. Stay classy, eco-thugs.

You are implying that I have said things that I have not said. Read my comments again.

Greenpeace, ACORN, boogiemen, parents that tell me what to do, scary monsters, peer pressure, blah, blah, blah. It’s much easier to pretend something was said by someone than it is to honestly deal with was typed.

Playing a cartoon version of strawman won’t make you more persuasive. You can be sure that no one here actually cares what people that aspire to be trolls drive. They might be disappointed but life is like that. If you enjoy spending money on gas and need a great big vehicle to protect you from scary things like snow and rain more power to you. If you want to drag race or whatever, go out and do it. Please be sure to duck your head before you hop into your virtual Ferrari and put the pedal to the metal.

There are plenty of folks that think they need to drive a big car or SUV in order to feel safe. Happily the days of the H3, an ugly pretend Hummer, are drawing to a close. There are still a lot of land-fortresses available for those with deep pockets.

You said “lol” to my desire to drive something that I want to drive.

I hope you jerks didn’t pop the champagne yet.

http://jalopnik.com/5480242/hummer-not-dead-yet-gm-considering-other-offers

It’s also funny how nobody bothered to respond to the last post. It’s like I urinated in the punchbowl.