Well I got good news and bad news on my car. Volkswagen agreed to pay for the new transmission but are requiring that I pay for the new clutch. This is kind of odd because the clutch was destroyed by the failed transmission. Still, it reduces my bill from $3600 to about $900.

I do appreciate that they were willing to help me out on this. Technically, they have no legal responsibility to do so. On the other hand, it is very worrisome that, from my experience, a Volkswagen tranny is only good for about 30,000 miles.

I love this car for a lot of reasons. I think the human engineering is very well done. I’m a little worried about the technical engineering now, though.

Does Volkswagen suck? I guess I’d have to say….kinda.

From UTI we get this new low in ridiculousness: Woman faces fines for wreath peace sign

A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan.

Some residents who have complained have children serving in Iraq, said Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs. He said some residents have also believed it was a symbol of Satan. Three or four residents complained, he said.

…

Kearns ordered the committee to require Jensen to remove the wreath, but members refused after concluding that it was merely a seasonal symbol that didn’t say anything. Kearns fired all five committee members.

IT’S A FUCKING PEACE SIGN! When did that become a symbol of Satan? When did sentiments of peace turn into a divisive issue during the holiday season?

Bob Kearns now joins our fucktard hall of fame!

I’ve been a big fan of Volkswagen but we are at a crossroads. I have a 2001 Jetta that I bought new. When it had about 25,000 miles in it, the transmission blew up. It was under warranty so I didn’t worry about it too much. They fixed it for free. On Sunday night it just blew up again. I have under 70,000 miles on it. I’m averaging 35,000 per transmission. That is fucked up.

I had a 3rd party extended warranty, but that expired last February. The power train on these is warrantied for a long time, but they say that they won’t fix the same thing twice under the warranty? I asked about goodwill and he sounded like I may have a shot at that but I have to wait until the manager guy gets back after Thanksgiving.

The repair cost for this is $3600. I think Volkswagen should pay for it. If they don’t, they are lame. I did not abuse this car. I did all of the scheduled maintenance. The dealer is the only person that has touched that car, except for an oil change or two.

OK, VW, time to put up or shut up.

I’ll report back.

Six imams ejected from US flight

If we listen to every xenophobic person on every airplane who is uncomfortable with Muslims, we are fucked. Muslims are not terrorists! Some terrorists are Muslim. Big fucking difference. Some terrorists are also protestant white guys.

My title is somewhat inappropriate because I know we are not talking about race, per se, but the net result is the same. Intolerant, ignorant, paranoid people treating people badly for no reason.

You’ll want to be avoiding the Stoney Creek Hospitality Corp chain of hotels. They have banned CNN from their hotels because they “supported terrorism” by showing footage of Iraqi insurgents shooting U.S. troops.

Wha..?

So if you show actual, unsanitized footage of war, you are supporting the enemy? James Thompson, president of the company, is clearly a complete fucktard with his head well up his ass. The market should punish him.

micadelic said:

If you start with the premise that the right has fucked it up so bad that you can never fix it, you are not only cheating the people of this country who deserve a government that actually works, you are cheating yourself by setting yourself up for failure.

I agree. The Democrats need to prove their mettle by showing leadership and good judgment. (This, of course, with the obvious caveat that Bush still holds a tremendous amount of power.)

The thing is, Bush sent the bull in the china shop. You can’t unbreak the china. The possible outcomes have been limited. Success at this point, as we’ve said all along, is international cooperation to try to get a legitimate Iraqi government going. We can’t do it ourselves and we likely can’t do it quickly. We do need Iraqis to take their country back, but we also have to remember that there are sometimes conflicts so deep in sectarian terms that they are almost permanent.

My point being, success means something different than it used to. When Bush went in success was defined as defeating Hussein. Yes, congrats, mission accomplished. Now success is — to what extent can we minimize civil war while we try to get a legitimate government going? That is a shitload harder than taking out a second rate military.

I think the political problem the Right had with Iraq last week was the result of a policy that seems endless and frankly hopeless right now. The Democrats have to lead us out of hopelessness in Iraq. If Bush lets them. The outcome will not be beautiful.

PS – micadelic, I do appreciate your positive attitude towards the outcome of the recent election. If Left and Right honestly tried to work together, regardless of our differences, good things could be done.

The good news: a Democratic House, likely a Democratic Senate, Santorum GONE, Klobachar IN. The bad news: Bachmann IN, Pawlenty stays.

More good news in that South Dakota didn’t approve an all-out abortion ban. Guess they got a little sick of being described as complete fucktards.

Rumsfeld being gone is more good news. When you architect failure, you should expect to lose your job.

As per my last post, I would be very happy if we had some meaningful compromise and honest, good-faith cooperation between the two parties. Lord knows the pendulum swings back and forth, but I do truly believe that good things can happen with a balance of power.

I do think Bachmann is an evil cunt from hell. But that isn’t really a very cooperative statement.

Chucko pointed out this article on big fucking companies who won’t allow their advertising on Air America.

A few comments. First of all, apparently liberal dollars aren’t good enough for these people? There are huge companies on this list, like McDonalds and FedEx. It is really hard for me to believe that these companies would be so partisan and risk alienating 49% of their customers.

Second, the righties always bitch that academia is on the Left. I’ve agreed with them — academics lean decidedly left, no question about it. Liberal ideas, in the non-political sense of the word, are virtually the definition of academics — learning, being open-minded, trying new things, challenging old ideas. No one should be surprised that academics tend to be liberals.

Neither should we be surprised that corporate big wigs are Right Wingers. They are dollar chasers and they are generally from well-to-do backgrounds and yet believe they have succeeded based solely on their own merits. Thus, they believe that social programs reward failure and all that nonsense.

I am a business owner and a capitalist. I believe in the free market but I believe there is a role for government, lest we descend into plutocracy. Big corporations are literally soulless and they should not be allowed to pillage our country without limit. We need consumer advocates, watchdogs, regulation and other tools of government to ensure that corporations don’t bring us down.

So I am personally shocked and appalled that these lame companies would decide that liberal radio is something they can’t advertise on. I do think it is their decision to make, but I think it is a horrible decision. These guys are being boycotted as we speak and they are going to get a lot of bad press. REI, thank god, is disputing that they requested this.

Some people will say, “Oh, I can see why FedEx would not want to be associated with bashing the President.” That’s a lame excuse. The Right Wingers bashed Bill Clinton constantly, from day one of his administration. President bashing is not something that occurs only on the Left.

I seriously hope some advertising agencies get shit canned for this. If I were the president of Fed Ex I would fire everyone in the chain that put my company’s name on this list.

This is ridiculous:

“So I think we got a real glimpse here of the anti-military attitude that prevails on the political left in the United States.”

The speaker, Gary Bauer of the group American Values, wants to takes John Kerry’s statements and make a conclusion about the “political left”. Even Republicans should think this is moronic. Why not just say that the Left hates their mom and likes to smother puppies?

In regards to Kerry’s comments — they are not untrue! It is a fact that the military is composed largely of people from lower than average incomes and without, in most cases, higher education. Your average platoon is not full of PhD’s. This notion is not one that is disrespectful or anti-military, it’s a fact.

Kerry made a gaff and he should apologize profusely. It was a bad joke, prone to misinterpretation and he shouldn’t have said it. But it is hardly a big deal and it is an obvious political tactic that the Right is trying to make it one.