Good thing I was really hungry.

 

My people? The majority of elected democrats are spineless and ineffective. But they aren't outright dangerous and pushing for fundamentalism. They aren't passing out purity tests, calling people DINO's at the slightest difference of opinion, trying to make religion a litmus test for leadership or doing their best to screw over the Joe Sixpacks that they built their careers on manipulating.

The dems aren't trying to claim to be the party of small government while trying to decide what I do in the privacy of my home or who I marry.

You desperately need to take a Macro and Micro Economics course. You also need to look up the definition of the word socialism. No one is asking for pure marxism or actual communism, which are ideologies you toolbags keep conflating to make good soundbytes.

I am somewhat left of center... for the US. Which on a global political inclination matrix still puts me on the right. Actual liberals make up a very small contingent of the US population.

But it sure makes for a scary buzzword for ignorant folks like you.

You can ask anyone around here that has read my opinions that I am FAR from a bleeding heart.

But to just make these defensive projections without actually addressing the core of what I discussed and slough it off as "you and I will never agree" is ridiculous. It basically says "I got nothin, capitalism is awesome cuz jesus says so"

Capitalism is why we needed things like market oversight, trust-busting and collective bargaining in the first place.

Didn't have to work a 70 hour week for pennies an hour?

Thank a "socialist."

Have some means to support your family in case of a medical emergency like my fathers current bout with an adenocarcinoma in his esophagus?

Thank a "socialist."

We are not in this mess because the black democrat got elected and the world went to hell starting Jan 20 2009.

By the numbers Obama has turned it around. With no help from obstructionist republicans, claiming they will "break him" or "make our main goal to keep Obama from getting re-elected"

A clusterf*ck of this magnitude will take time to repair. And to fault the democrats for not unf*cking the situation in 24 months is stupid on its face to anyone with a memory span longer than that of a goldfish.

There is a great deal that he does that I disagree with, but if you think for a second that this is the fault of the dems who finally wrested control back in 2006 and ousted Bush two years later.. you are sorely misguided.

This is a mess 3 decades in the making. A good deal of this is Reagans fault, but GW gets to take the blame. Not that he helped a whole lot.

Heres the good part though... the republicans have already lost the war.

You have alienated giant swaths of the population. Hispanics, Blacks, Gays... the majority of the college educated and most people under 30.

The Teahadist's are only doing you a further disservice. They will turn on you guys too when they find out the establishment republicans played them for the suckers they are..

You guys have a square peg you are trying to jam into a round hole.

Keep up the rhetoric, and calling for second amendment solutions, watering the tree of liberty etc. and see where it gets you... back to the minority.

You guys are doing your damndest to become a fringe regional religious party.

The saddest part is that you are all failing our country by not providing a viable alternative to the democrats.

Here's something for you to try and wrap your mind around (Don't strain yourself!) I vote for both republicans and democrats, recently I voted for a couple republican judges and mark kirk.

Sometimes you need to realize that party over country is killing us. And maybe a blue dog or a moderate democrat in your district is a good thing.

For every Mckinney, Reid, or Rangel there are several Palins, Bachmanns, Gohmerts, Tancredos, Santorums, Foleys, Angles, and O'Donnells.

On top of that the dems don't embrace these people, they get marginalized.

When a dem says something crazy you don't have people leaping to their defense and then further upping the crazy and then repeating it as a new talking point through the echo chamber of Becks, Hannity's Savage, O'Reily, Cavuto, Limbaugh, Breitbart et al.

Now that Olbermann (who sucked as a "pundit" and sucked on ESPN) is gone, you guys don't have anyone to point to and try to equivocate.

This isn't a case of both sides being equally bad.

Try country over party sometime. Wait, that would require you to not be a selfish prick.

You know whats socialist? Roads, electricity, water, sidewalks, building codes, market regulation, street lights, police, firefighters and disaster relief.

So next time something bad happens, like a burglary, fire or medical emergency you better take care of it at home on your own dime.

Wouldn't want to be a hypocrite now would we?

 

Wow, so many insults in one post. You sound so angry!!!!

Maybe you will feel better when your party is in power.........oh wait.........it is in power!



Flea

 

Damn right I am angry. After years of being told we should never criticize the president in wartime, what do the reps do 24/7?

Then non-reps are told we aren't real americans, as if that means anything or helps anyone. It silly posturing like that which has so many so angry. But we aren't out donning silly hats and misspelled or just plain crazy signs like "keep big government out of my medicare"

And yes the dems did retain control. But there is a reason for that. One of the big ones is the democrats compromise. They are not the party of "no" and unlike the house/senate prior to 2006 they aren't intent on ramming everything through without some sort of negotiation.

It's never all or nothing for them. Look at the amount of republican filibusters in the last couple sessions of congress if you need a sharper example.

They also do not fall in lockstep with the party, and are not sent off into the wasteland when they disagree.

Take 3 democrats, put them in a room, ask for 10 different policy positions.

They will all differ in their responses.

Repeat the same with the 3 republicans and they will re-iterate whatever Limbaugh had to say that afternoon.

In spite of all the talk, you guys only managed to rally and take a slight majority in 1/4 of the federal government. In a midterm where that is expected. This was not a mandate, record breaking or historic. Opposition usually takes in more seats during midterms.

When it comes to the party of mostly bad ideas vs. the party of no ideas, most people will pick the party that occasionally tosses up a solution if they aren't complete partisan cheerleading hacks to begin with.

People care about jobs right now, not abortions, unions or gays. That should serve as a good indication that you folks are completely missing the mark.

Guess what.... angry and scared people vote! Moderates, Independents and Democrats centre and left have much to be angry and scared of. If we aren't being threatened with assassination, or disenfranchisement, we are having individual liberties denied by the party that pretends to care about the constitution while they wipe their asses with it.

So you can bank on the "silent majority" you guys assumed was on your side in 2008 showing up again to hand you your ass if you don't start focusing on real issues that individual citizens care about and are impacted by.

 

I'll say this about your posts....they are entertaining, even if altogether misguided by your hatred.

As for what this country wants, wait until the next election. It gave you a hint in the mid-term election.

I will take issue with your following comment:

People care about jobs right now, not abortions, unions or gays. That should serve as a good indication that you folks are completely missing the mark

Sir, your party is in charge of the country, the Republicans can't get anything passed now, YOU HAVE THE MAJORITY IN THE SENATE, YOU HAVE THE WHITE HOUSE, and you still blame us for the lack of jobs???? Get real, it's your team that can't get this economy turned around.

How's your Fit running?


Flea

 

Misguided eh? Find one thing I said that was factually inaccurate then.

I'll wait.


The midterms? The ones the opposition has historicall always gained seats in? That sort of midterm election?

You mean the one were all the Red counties stayed red, a good deal of the Talibaggers running lost, and the republicans only took back the house after all that sound and fury?

Then you have guys like Scott Brown take a historically blue district, get hailed as a teaparty win and then immediately tuck tail and work with the dems, and you pretend that is a victory?

What should catch your attention is when people like Olympia Snowe are being called RINO's and sure fire republican seats like NY-23 are being lost to a dem for the first time since the civil war.

There are now blue and purple districts in the republican heartlands of oklahoma, arkansas, and texas. Iowa is allowing civil unions, so is West Virginia.

That is a good indication of what the country wants.

Try using facts and reality instead of cognitive dissonance.

My Fit runs just fine

 

Heres the deal.. the dems aren't looking to be dictators. They keep making the "mistake" of trying to capitulate and compromise in the hopes the republicans will get on board to do something besides the opposite of whatever a democrat proposes.

The whole health care reform bill was modelled on Romney care yet since a black dem backs it, it must be a socio-fascist commumuslim take over!

The dems are in control precisely because they don't run away with power like you man-children. They cannot fix 30 years of f*ck ups in 24 months. Get that through your skull.

They were not elected to repeat the republican attempt at totalitarian control. Thus progress takes time.

One man, leading one country cannot fix a global situation on his own overnight. Especially with one of two main parties actively trying to take him down.

You hate on the dems for not abusing the "supermajority?" What sort of screaming would you guys be doing if they had, and they used it to ram every single pet project down your throats?

Do you never re-examine your own line of thought?

Besides when he does enact things with any sign of promise you guys freak out and tell us he is killing grandma or some such non-sense.

Here's a hint.. death panels are real. They existed long before Jan 20 2009.

Obama took a big stab at them by making it illegal to discriminate against those with pre-existing conditions among other things.

This is like claiming he is anti-gun... the facts don't support you no matter how many times you repeat your delusions and doublespeak. Like intentionally re-defining preventative war as pre-emptive war.

Donald Rumsfeld's recent flubs on this is another good example of how big of a mistake letting you guys keep the reins the
last time around.

 

Geez I'm only a member of this forum for one day and get subjected to all this polictical dialogue. Please take it to an Off Topic forum and start your own thread.

This forum is: (word is "specific", meaning about Fits only please)
2nd Generation (GE 08-present) The New Fit... Generation specific talk and questions here.

And this thread is about choices, prices and buying a new Fit. No hijacking please.

_

 

Why do you keep bringing up race? Are you racist yourself? I never mentioned President Obama's race, but you keep doing it. Most Republicans would love to see Congressman Allen West as President, he's Black, but he exhibits the traits of someone who truly loves his country and is on the right track. General Colin Powell is another great Black man who would serve this country well, in the White House (even though he backed President Obama). You see Star, we couldn't care less about the President's race, we simply wish President Obama weren't so....??.....like you.

Silver Bullet is right, this is my last post on this thread.

Flea

 

You mean factual?

And not ashamed of not dumbing it down to buzzwords?

You wonder why someone would dare suggest such a thing... I can't see why:

That is Dale Robertson. The founder of TeaParty.org.







These are just a couple of hundreds of reasons why. Crap like "monkey see monkey spend" Making pictures of him and michelle with a bone through their nose or dressed up like witch doctor.

Telling him to go back to kenya.

All because none of you can list anything beyond pre-digested talking points for why you don't like him or his policies. So you use epithets and side step outright saying it.. calling him uppity or elitist. It is pretty transparent to those with more than two braincells to rub together.

That sort of shit.

You can dislike him and his policies.. but when you cannot articulate why factually it calls your motives into question.

There are hundreds more where these came from.

Also there are not millions of teabaggers, and these guys above are not fringe elements.

Again, there are hundreds of these racist sign waving fools. These are also just the ones dumb enough to espouse their feelings in public.

Dale Robertson is a founder of a national group. TeaParty.org.

The difference between the folks who hate obama and the folks who hate bush is that bush was despised globally by people of all ideologies, creeds and countries. For legitimate reasons.

That doesn't make the folks calling him a nazi any less ridiculous. However this is you equivocating on one bit to play both sides are bad so vote republican.

Notice how you never actually address the bulk of the policy points that I tough on and instead focus on the only thing you understand reactionary defense of the indefensible instead of actually finding something factually incorrect.

Obama is hated by predominately older white males who can never seem to nail down what it is they don't like about him or any specific policy discrepancies. Go figure.

And remember both sides are bad.. so vote republican!

 

Welcome to the freakworld! You have noted one of the sorely lacking attributes of this place - moderators. Actually some might feel the lack there-of is a quality. No matter, it's something to try and get used to. It comes in waves and there are some fine threads out there, so keep the faith and enjoy the show and don't be shy - I'm guessing your not, so that's a good thing.

K_C_

 

And.... scene.

Now- back to talking about cars, please.

 

Sorry, I can't let it go. He picks a few pictures and then all of a sudden typifies millions of people as racists. You know very well that there is an equal number of pictures that insult, belittle and straight out show disrespect for President Bush. You can pretend that you've never seen a poster of President Bush as a Nazi, but the rest of us have seen them.

http://www.google.com/images?client=...iw=971&bih=528

There are fringe elements on both sides. The vast majority of people are decent human beings, Democrat and Republicans with a few Independents for good measure. Just because I criticize the President does not make me, a racist. Until you see me with one of those posters in hand, I would thank you to not include me in with that small bunch. In the
Tea Party itself these few are on the fringe.

Keep posting star, each time you do so you paint yourself closer and closer to the fringe element on the left. Too bad for the many Democrats that don't go off the deep end when presented with a differing opinion.

Flea

 

I'm not going to get into this argument- not who started on politics, not who started personalizing the debate.

I am going to ask you all to return to talking about cars. Or at least cigarettes.

 

And who can forget Dan Quail or Jerry Ford... simply let it go, or take it here: The Wasteland - Unofficial Honda FIT Forums

Enough already.

 

Wow,
I thought this forum was about cars….

Back to the original subject, (sort of), I remember the oil embargo of the 70’s. People seem to focus on higher gas prices and forget the more major ramifications during that era. (Auto wise)
Two interesting developments happened rather quickly. During this time period:

First, availability became the major issue. People didn’t like the higher price, but they really got concerned about whether or not they could GET gas. Most readers here may not have ever experienced long gas lines. We are talking blocks here folks. It was common to finally get to the pump, only to find out that the station had just run out of fuel. Of course, your car was nearer empty than before you started this waiting process too. Now you were really screwed.


Second, the bloated Detroit crap-ola that the big three had been selling immediately went to used dealer lots. Downsized models were introduced. People found that they didn’t really need a huge car to transport only themselves. The same thing is happening today. When is the last time you saw a crew cab pickup with 6 people inside? How about 4 people? Seen a full SUV lately?
VW was the only manufacturer that saw the writing on the wall. They introduced the Rabbit about a year before the embargo hit. They were, of course, instant best sellers after the fact.

One great benefit of the embargo was that it removed many of the huge gas guzzlers off the road. Traffic lessened and we all felt safer without so many 18ft long, chrome bumpered, tanks on the road.

I just bought a 2010 Fit Sport. I bought this car because I believe that much higher gas prices and possible shortages are on the way. (Sooner rather than later)

I do find a certain amount of amusement when I fill my tank for less than half what it is costing the pickup/SUV owner beside me. The sad thing is, many of these owners are old enough to remember the embargo. They are in denial that something like that, or even worse, can, and probably will happen again. I don’t feel the least bit sorry for them.

Even at $10 a gallon, I can still probably afford to fill my tank once a week, even while everything else is more expensive. The bloamobilers will not be able to cope with $1000 a month fuel prices.

Oh yeah, I really like my new Fit! In addition to being pretty fuel efficient, it is just a good solid fun car.

 

[QUOTE=FitAK;967096]Wow,
[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]
I do find a certain amount of amusement when I fill my tank for less than half what it is costing the pickup/SUV owner beside me. The sad thing is, many of these owners are old enough to remember the embargo. They are in denial that something like that, or even worse, can, and probably will happen again. I don’t feel the least bit sorry for them.


Don't feel sorry for us. I spent many hours sitting in my car waiting for gas back in the 70s and I am not in any kind of denial.

You may see me in my Dodge Durango sitting alone in my car getting 13mpg, but what you don't know is that I need the gas hog to tow my 5000lb boat and also my utility trailer loaded down with 3 motorcycles and 1 ATV. Our Fit would not be able to move either one. Yes, most of the time I am alone in my car. Don't be so quick to judge those around you in the gas hogs.
Besides, most of us can afford it.

SUVs are like condoms, you don't need them most of the time, but when you do, you need them desperately.


Flea

 

Yeah, but I don't wear a condom all day in case I need it.

I was part of a focus group on electric cars a couple of years ago and I realized how silly we are. We insist on buying a car that will meet ALL our needs- a family will buy a giant vehicle because they go on vacation once a year and need it for that. When it would make much more sense to buy a car that's fine 51 weeks a year and is way less expensive to buy & use, and then just rent when they need to.

I'd be fine with a 200 mile range plug-in electric car 95% of the time, and for longer trips I could just switch cars with my parents. But no, I want my own car for everything... which would be very uneconomical if electric cars were actually affordable.

 

BrainChampagne, yes, in the example you cite it would make more sense to rent, but you must understand that people like me don't need the gas hog once a year, we need it every weekend or every other weekend. If I were to rent, it would be prohibitive.

To make up for the Durango, I also own a Honda Fit (son's) and a Nissan Sentra (wife) both give excellent mileage.


Flea

 

It truly all depends on what your needs are in a vehicle. If you have a need for driving a Durango, Tahoe, etc., more power to you. Many people need to transport several people or tow cargo on a routine basis...the SUV is warranted in those circumstances (Flea your scenario would apply there). I think what gives SUV owners a bad name are buyers that purchase them strictly as items of opulence. You know what I mean...the douchebags riding around in yellow Hummer H2T's and Escalades on incredibly gaudy 26'' rims, and soccer moms that THINK they need to drive a land barge when a smaller, more economical crossover (or Fit!) would probably suit just fine. I think it comes with consumers thinking that they need more than what they really do. You're riding around in a huge vehicle that you have no practical use for...just being unnecessarily wasteful.

A base 2011 Escalade starts at $63,160. I could think of probably 20-25 cars in that price bracket or cheaper that I would rather have, and are more economical. I know it's a matter of personal taste as well...but still.

I bought my Fit because it is usually just myself or my wife and I in the car...the Altima was way too big. I also wanted something that was still practical, better on gas, and more fun-to-drive. FIT ticked all of those boxes for me. I have around 2400 miles on my SSM now and I have loved every minute of it. It is a blast to drive and it is fun exploring the limits of the car (I have the most PERFECT winding back road by my development that I let her loose on when there's no other cars on the road; which is often). In addition, the mpgs are fantastic, and there is more than enough room for monthly excursions to Sam's/BJ's and impromptu finds at the Columbus, NJ flea market.