Last week, I suggested that talk show host Dave Ross help Detroit (and the UAW) by buying a car built by UAW members. This is not an unreasonable request; I am just asking Ross to do what most Republicans do, and give American cars a fair chance — even if those cars are built by UAW members. (Oddly, the UAW has not been notably grateful to the Republicans for their support.)
This is a chance for Ross to do the right thing, to help out folks who have less than he does. And to get a fine new car. It is, I think, a win-win for him. (And for the taxpayers, if enough Democrats follow his example.)
So far though, I have not heard back from Ross, have not heard whether he is willing to do what most Republicans do and support the UAW by buying a car (or pickup) built by UAW members. I am not sure why Ross has not taken this step yet, but he may be overwhelmed by the choices. Perhaps there are so many good cars built by UAW members that he has been unable to choose one.
In case that's the reason for the delay, let's help Ross out and make some suggestions to help him narrow down his choices. (If you aren't sure what cars are built by the UAW, you can find check their official list.) Next week, I will put the top suggestions into a poll so that you can vote on them. And I am sure Dave will thank us for our help.
Ross is fond of hybrids, so I suggest that he choose the Ford Escape hybrid, which gets quite good mileage. (The Ford Fusion, another hybrid, gets even better mileage, but is being built in Mexico.) In green, of course.
Ross can make the mileage figures even better by car pooling, and the Escape has plenty of room for passengers. It may not have quite the political image that he wants, but he can fix that by adding a few bumper stickers. (Such as the one I saw on a Cadillac Escalade yesterday, a MoveOn-Obama sticker. Incidentally, I don't think that MoveOn will move on any time soon.)
Posted by Jim Miller at January 05, 2009 10:13 AM | Email ThisIntroducing www.craigslist.com. Thousands of "recycled" vehicles available daily, within 500 miles and many that have been recycled several times.
Recycling vehicles avoids the need to mine more material from the earth, harness electricity from Salmon killing dams and supports local (mechanic) businesses.
With a careful selection, one can find some fairly fuel efficient US built vehicles that are ready to be recycled.
"Come on Dave, do it for children. Do it for Mother Gaia".
Posted by: Boxxerace on January 5, 2009 11:11 AMReally, if this is a true example of a liberal American, do you really think that the USA can survive with liberals running the show?
Posted by: dogg on January 5, 2009 01:12 PMUh huh like Corker in TN with Volkswagen, Shelby in AL with Mercedes and Hyundai?
"In late 2008, Shelby opposed a Federal government bridge loan for US-owned auto companies, saying: "We don't need government - governmental subsidies for manufacturing in this country. It's the French model, it's the wrong road. We will pay for it. The average American taxpayer is going to pay dearly for this, if I'm not wrong." However, foreign-owned auto manufacturers Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Toyota, and Hyundai received approximately $788 million in government subsidies in the cities of Vance, Lincoln, Huntsville, and Montgomery in Shelby's home state of Alabama, according to analysis by Good Jobs First. Good Jobs First executive Director Greg LeRoy pointed out that "while proposed federal aid to the Big 3 would take the form of a loan, the vast majority of subsidies to foreign auto plants were taxpayer gifts such as property and sales tax exemptions, income tax credits, infrastructure aid, land discounts, and training grants."
Posted by: gop not on January 5, 2009 01:54 PMI don't agree with Dave much and I certainly do agree with Jim that the politicians that are so stressing on bailing out the big three and the UAW should be looked at in what vehicles they choose to own, and if they don't own a big three vehicle, they should explain why OUR tax dollars need to be spent in that direction.
By the way, I didn't listen to it, but I did see it.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on January 5, 2009 03:11 PMFrom what statistics did you gleam that from, Jim, or are you just making it up?
(It's rhetorical. You're making it up.)
Ross has recently been adamant and strident about saving America and capitalism by pushing workers into unions. So isn't it droll that he buys an overpriced car (Priuses almost never break even) probably built by non-union slave labor in the South.
And isn't it very droll that Ross couldn't or wouldn't drive his Prius to town during our Christmas storms. Ross wants to jam and cram all of us onto Metro or Skittles SLUTs to Nowhere, but when a little snow fell he parked the Prius and actually joined us, um, little people on public transit.
Was not a pretty sight. In fact Ross used two programs to whine and whimper about being trapped in the Tunnel as buses passed him by, and about being stranded at Westlake when the SLUT never came.
Then, being Ross, he made fun of SUV 4X4s hi-centered on snowdrifts with their four wheels hopelessly spinning. More DRD. Two weeks of Joe-6-Pack road reports during the Blizzard of Ought-Eight had this in common: almost every caller who called in to say they had no trouble getting through to anywhere mentioned that they were driving 4X4s.
Posted by: Little Big Mouth on January 5, 2009 03:31 PMMisreading the graphics, like you, one can easily conclude that Porsche, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus, and Audi top the list for republicans. These vehicles are not American made.
Since there are more foreign-made vehicles in the country, it is almost certainly true that more republicans own foreign-made vehicles than own vehicles made in the US.
Posted by: John Jensen on January 5, 2009 03:39 PM"Republicans are more likely than Democrats to buy cars built by UAW members."
The graphic and the UAW list support that conclusion.
You may want to check this statement: "Since there are more foreign-made vehicles in the country." Most cars and trucks built by Chrysler, Ford, and GM are built in this country. A very large proportion of Hondas, Nissans, Toyotas, et cetera, are also assembled in this country. Here's a table with some Honda numbers to get you started.
He admits that he has committed crimes so heinous that he can't face Congressional scrutiny.
And then gets to walk away ????
How about a follow up investigation anyway!
Posted by: John Bailo on January 5, 2009 04:33 PMAfter all he can explain any choice by calling it "common-sense," a term which has lost all meaning. It's essentially now a euphemism for "I'm right, you're wrong. So there!"
It should have been on the list of banished words and phrases from Lake Superior State U.
Posted by: russell garrard on January 5, 2009 05:03 PMAmerican values is capitalism and if you understand capitalism you know that trying to shield groups (whether it be the UAW workers or anyone else) from economic realities hurts everyone more than letting them fall.
Posted by: Lysander on January 5, 2009 05:39 PMSorry but NO! I have a Toyota Landcruiser. This is my second one. Why do I have it. Because after owning not one, but two brand news Fords that lived in the shop and got very little help from the dealer & Ford. I gave up and will never go back.
Now if you think that's wrong and I should buy American. Let me ask you. Does it help me or the UAW to buy a car that lives in the shop and reduces my income because it breaks all the time?
Get off the Ron Paul website dude... Jezzz
Posted by: Medic/Vet on January 5, 2009 08:28 PMWhat Jim is proposing is nationalism as opposed to capitalism. I am pro capitalism as are most republicans. Jim appears to be more of a mercantilist.
Posted by: Lysander on January 5, 2009 09:16 PMThe top two cars for mileage are NOT american:
Toyota Prius (hybrid)
Honda Civic (hybrid)
the others don't come close.
Still waiting on the Chevy Volt due in 2010.
You seriously need to work on your reading comprehension.
Posted by: Andrew Brown on January 6, 2009 08:24 AMI almost fell over laughing when he said "I don't buy my vehicles based on an ideology, I just think the Prius' are cool looking" or something to that affect. Of course you don't,Dave.
Posted by: Rick D. on January 6, 2009 08:37 AMYeah maybe your right... I type to fast.
I'll keep that in mind when I read some of your (foolish) stuff.
Posted by: Medic/Vet on January 6, 2009 09:49 AMNot "torture." "Torture" = Gitmo and Aguillera tunes. Torture = Stalin.
Check THE FORSAKEN: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY IN STALIN'S RUSSIA by Tim Tzouliadis, Penguin Press, New York, 2008.
When secret Soviet archives were briefly opened about 15 years ago, Haynes & Klehr mentioned a community of Depression-era Ballard Americans, Finns in Seattle USA, who went back to the USSR to build socialism and to build Fords.
Tzouliadis shows that there were thousands of others who gave up on America at a bad time and who knew, from Walter Duranty's reporting in the New York Times, that Stalin's Russia was a good place to be for liberals in a hurry. FDR was also swayed by Duranty, and granted recognition to Stalin's terrorist regime.
The book Forsaken tells the story and conveys the spirit of the time. It's more harrowing than Stephen King (whose dust-jacket photos give me nightmares) and it's a story told without photo support. Perhaps that's why it's no story at all to liberals, who mostly can't read, and to Hollywood. So ...
"Here was clearly a man who seemed to embrace all. So kindly - I can never forget that warm feeling of kindliness and also a feeling of success. Here was one who was wise and good - the world and especially the socialist world was fortunate indeed to have his daily guidance."
- Robeson re Stalin, during the Terror
"The use of the word 'Famine' in connection with the North Caucasus is a sheer absurdity. There a bumper crop is being harvested as fast as tractors, horses, oxen, men, women, and children can work ... There are plump babies in the nurseries or gardens of the collectives ..."
- Walter Duranty re the Famine
"Each concentration camp forms a sort of 'commune' where everyone lives comparatively free, not imprisoned ... They are fed and housed gratis and receive pay for their work ... They are certainly not convicts in the American sense of the word."
- Duranty re the Gulag
Stalin "gives the impression of a strong mind which is composed and wise. His brown eyes are exceedingly kind and gentle. A child would like to sit in his lap and a dog would sidle up to him ..."
- Ambassador Joseph Davies on Joseph Stalin
"You believe in vain in the all-world revolution ... You disperse not revolution,but fascism with great success throughout the world ... Fascism did not exist before your revolution ... You are terror and violence ..."
- Ivan Pavlov, age 85, allowed to die a natural death in 1936.
And liberal fascism's body count? Maybe 25,000,000. Maybe 30,000,000 ... including American POWs and MIAs from WWII and Korea ... a statistic and a tragedy.
Pick up the February 09 Road and Track. They have tested 4 new mid-sized Hybrids. The Camry, the Altima, the Malibu and the Fusion.
Of the four the Fusion came in first in a number of areas. Fit and finish being one of them ("superb quality" they said). It also had (and I quote them), "major mpg".
There. I expect that Fusion to be in your driveway in a week or so.
Posted by: G Jiggy on January 6, 2009 01:50 PMActually what I believe Jim is proposing is that Dave Ross (who favors a Government bailout of the big 3/UAW and yet drives a foreign made car) adheres to that age old saying :
"put your money where your mouth is"
Perhaps one of Ross' staff can look up the term "cognitive dissonance" for him.
Posted by: Rick D. on January 6, 2009 07:24 PMRoss is putting his money where his mouth is. He favors the bailout, he favors more fuel efficient cars, he favors economy, and apparently even favors curvy cars shaped like the Prius. After weighing all the things he favors he came to the conclusion the Prius is the car for him. That is not hypocritical at all, it is called a rational decision in free market economics.
Posted by: Lysander on January 6, 2009 08:09 PMRight, almost as consistent as a PETA member employed at a slaughterhouse.
"He favors the bailout... and apparently even favors curvy cars shaped like the Prius."
Not sure where you're confused on this Lysander, but if you, like Ross, favors a public/taxpayer bailout of a Private Company that he/you refuses to buy from in order to keep them afloat in a "free market economy", you're apparently as tone deaf as he is.
"After weighing all the things he favors he came to the conclusion the Prius is the car for him."
He chose not to support the big 3 or the UAW while cheerleading the way for this private entity that hasn't earned his business to keep them in business with taxpayer funded monies. Explain how that is "free market economics" if you will.
"That is not hypocritical at all, it is called a rational decision in free market economics."
Wow, you're one confused Libertarian. Perhaps the words in bold can help you sort through your confusion.
My comments are directed torwards Jim's anti free market stance, not Dave Ross's anti free market stance. Do not confuse my lack of condemnation of the bailout in this thread with a support of the bailout. To make clear I will list some oppositions of mine regarding the current financial crisis. I am sure you will find them all consistant with a free market.
I oppose all government bailouts including both the auto industry and financial industry.
I oppose the federal reserve bank.
I oppose fractional reserve banking.
I oppose fiat money.
I oppose the Community Reinvestment Act.
I oppose Freddie and Fannie.
I oppose stimulus packages.
I oppose about 90% of federal governments spending.
And I oppose calls to buy inferior american products.
Also please note...I am a libertarian, not a Libertarian.
Posted by: Lysander on January 7, 2009 05:38 AMOn the whole, I think the second explanation is more flattering. Most people would rather be thought honest and misinformed, than the reverse. And in that spirit, I offer some help to Lysander.
Incidentally, I can understand a commenter missing the point on a first reading. But when other commenters are nice enough to explain my simple argument, there is really no excuse for persisting in error.
(Of course, if Lysander has any manners at all, he will apologize to me, once he understands my argument.)
Oh, silly me. Not Blagoshpere ... BLOGosphere. That would be Shark's Sound Politics, marca registrada, where Ross is taking hits for hypocrisy. And if there's one thing Democrats do better than pathology, it's hypocrisy.
Imagine the surprise of us compassionate conservatives when we learned that Ross does not live in a sustainable South Lake Union treehouse under I-5, and that he does not save the planet by climbing down (avoiding heavy carbon-centric breathing) and walking to "work" at Eastlake. Instead, Ross lives way over in East Snobville, Mercer Island. And he drives to work. In an SOV, a single-occupancy vehicle. And that he wants you and me to be jammed on overpriced public transit, to save the planet, but that he himself has taken Metro maybe once.
Almost gives me Prius Envy. Makes me listen to Dori.
Posted by: Little Big Mouth on January 8, 2009 03:19 PM