And if you think ...

I was extreme in my rants about the car industry:

...

Car Dealership Service Departments:

You, single-handedly, have done more to destroy the reputation of mechanics than any other cause. It's called "upsell" and you all do it so well. It's a dictum that no one leaves a dealership service department without buying something. Take your car in for warranty or recall work and see what happens. You get a laundry list of things wrong with your car, from the brakes to some kind of service, to a cooling system flush, to a tire rotation, that "you really should have done now before something bad happens". And they get you for a thousand bucks. And people wonder why everybody thinks most mechanics are crooks. Rotten fucking scumbags.

...

Go read this and then tell me if you think so.

...

So imagine my surprise when my fiance dropped it off and called me to say that they gave her an estimate of $450-$500. Same car. Same windshield. 24 hours apart. Now, I'm not quick to assume bad faith or nefarious motive, but I'm pretty damn sure some pig in the service department thinks it's ok to try to rip off women.

...

I wouldn't take my car to a dealership service department unless it's for warranty or recall work. This shit is more the norm than the exception.

Take my advice, find a good local independent shop (ask your friends and neighbors) and stick with him, give him your business (stay away from the "oil change places") regularly, and tell your friends about him. Good, honest, independent mechanics can only turn wrenches if customers keep them in business.

Happy Friday!

Update:

Just an anecdotal story.

The Mrs. had to bring her Escape in for a recall (transmission cooler) about a month ago (Ford wouldn't give me the parts and let me replace it myself even though I'm an ASE certified Master Mechanic, Ford Certified Master Mechanic and a licensed New York State Motor Vehicle Inspector). She dropped it off one day in the afternoon and I picked her up at the dealership. The next day they called her and told her she needed a service (oil change, check fluids, lube) - I serviced the car the week before and they couldn't bother to look up at the service sticker on the windshield and figure out that the car had only gone 150 miles - tire rotation - I rotated the tires when I did the service - brake job - 20K miles and I checked those when I did the service the week before - and a coolant system flush - 20K miles for "permanent anti-freeze"? Also, it's a lease car that's going back in October. They gave her the "stoplight spiel"; "the brakes are 'yellow', the tires are 'red'", etc. Then she let them know who I was and what I did for a living.

Now, we love the dealership and the sales staff. When they have a deal, they'll call us, even if it's 6 months before the end of the lease (and they'll eat the last 6 months - they ate the last 3 months of my old Escape) and offer to take the old car back and give us a new one. We strike a good deal and they give me professional courtesy because I'm in the business and we live locally. Their service department, on the other hand, are slimy, no good crooks. It's always amazing to us how such a dichotomy (not that I have any love for car salesmen) can exist in one business. It sure wouldn't happen if I ran the show.

And just a note, this isn't about the mechanics. Some of the best mechanics I ever met worked at Ford Motorsport with me. This is about the service manager and that peculiar species of lowlife called the "service writer" who get paid to pad bills as thickly as possible and pray the customer doesn't kvetch too loudly.

Ya just raised my taxes ...

On a pack of smokes, why not legalize my other fucking habit and tax me for that too? I'll gladly pay a sales tax on my reefer (and not have to put my freedom on the line every time I go pick up a bag) if it'll help get us off the balls of our ass.

Yawn ...

Me and Ol' Fez:

...

I, of course, won't be watching (I'll be sleeping), I'm too good of a person (actually, no, I'd just be sleeping) to put up with this kind of bullshit (but, other varieties I'll entertain obviously, when I'm not sleeping).

...

Dark Age, mark my words ...

Eating the messenger, part deux

Following up on Fixer's post, he ain't the only one. Heh.

HuffPo, links at site.

The psychic octopus known for his amazingly accurate World Cup predictions has received death threats, the Telegraph reports. Paul, the oracle octopus whose prescient premonitions perfectly predicted the outcome of all six German World Cup games, first generated anger from Argentinian fans who believe his percipient pick doomed Argentina in the quarterfinals.

Paul's keeper in Oberhausen, Germany said "there are always people who want to eat our octopus but he is not shy and we are here to protect him as well. He will survive."

Paul's powers reached a new level on Wednesday, when his bold pick against his current home country proved correct, bringing his World Cup record to a jaw-dropping six for six.

To update a comment I made on Fixer's post, "Will you be having un periquito on your tacos de pulpa, Señor?"

A little silly shit like this is good for the soul.

The Repug Walk - Backing Into The Past

"If you fuck with me, I'll kill you all."

Slate

Gen. James Mattis has been joking recently that after 41 years in the Marines, he was going to return to his home of Walla Walla, Wash., to become an onion farmer. He'll have to wait. The four-star general is going to Tampa, Fla., to take over for Army Gen. David Petraeus as commander of the U.S. Central Command, overseeing combat in both Afghanistan and Iraq. The news will be announced by Defense Secretary Robert Gates at a press conference later today.

[...] He commanded Marines as a brigadier general in Afghanistan in 2001. In 2003, he was the Marine ground commander in Iraq, leading the 20,000 troops of the 1st Marine Division for 500 miles over 17 days, the longest sustained march in Marine Corps history. [...]

Holy shit...

It was a disappointment for Mattis. With few spots for someone of his rank, his only real option was to retire. Still, it was inconceivable to those around the energetic 59-year-old that after a lifetime in the service he would be leaving. Then Gen. Stanley McChrystal's career abruptly ended, and Mattis' fortunes were reversed.

It's heartwarming to know that the Corps fucks over Generals just like they do PFCs and Lance Corporals. On the other hand, I guess the way you get to be a four-star General is to like getting fucked over until you can be the one that gets to do it. There's always someone higher though...

[...] In the spring of 2003, in the first of his meetings with recently defeated Iraqi military leaders he famously said: "I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I'll kill you all." [...]

I like this guy.

Semper Fi, General Mattis. Best of luck.

Shut up and pick faster, you lazy white good-for-nothing

EssEffChron

Lost your job in Silicon Valley?
...

Tonight, United Farm Workers of America president Arturo Rodriguez will join the deadpan host of "The Colbert Report" to talk about the UFW's "Take Our Jobs" campaign, which encourages American citizens and legal residents to take jobs in the agriculture sector.

According to the UFW, most agriculture laborers are undocumented workers. But if you — a bona fide U.S. citizen — want to relocate to California's Central Valley or Texas' onion fields, they're all for it.

They're assuming that you don't. Rodriguez will be trying to talk up a UFW-backed bill in Congress that would give currently illegal agriculture laborers the opportunity to earn legal residency by continuing to work in agriculture. The proposal has bipartisan support in both chambers.

Heh. I have watched my produce getting harvested from the comfort of my air-conditioned pickup in the Salinas and Santa Maria Valleys, and they are very mild in climate compared to the hothothot San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys.

Somebody's got to pick the crops. There's a lotta money in produce. If you wanta see these morons who want all the Meskins rounded up and sent home really snivel, hand 'em a celery knife and have 'em spend a day bent over with their noses in the pesticide in the lovely Mediterranean climate in Guadalupe.

They might last an hour. It'd be good for a laugh.

If you wanta kill the same snivelling bastards, have 'em pick onions in Mettler in August. They'd drop like flies from the heat.

The truth of the matter is the Anglos'd get fired after ten minutes and the growers'd be clamoring to get their hard-working Meskins back.

Morning Schmoe ...

Big dumbass crybaby:

...

I'm not sure this is the kind of attention MSNBC and Joe Scarborough were expecting to garner after Scarborough had his hissy fit. But, again, they're the ones who decided to turn a couple of tweets into a major battle.

...

Eating the messenger ...

I love octopus.

Paul is not a normal octopus. He is a psychic one. He has managed to predict every Germany game correct through out this years tournament.

...

Cured and served in a salad would be fine with me.

Chutzpah ...

It was okay for George Bush to appoint a reckless asshole (John Bolton) during a congressional recess, yet heaven forbid a Dem does it.

In April, President Obama nominated Dr. Donald Berwick to serve as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Many Republicans in Congress have made it clear in recent weeks that they were going to stall the nomination as long as they could, solely to score political points.

But with the agency facing new responsibilities to protect seniors’ care under the Affordable Care Act, there’s no time to waste with Washington game-playing. That’s why tomorrow the President will use a recess appointment to put Dr. Berwick at the agency’s helm and provide strong leadership for the Medicare program without delay.

...

The Republicans have blocked more of Obama's appointments than those of any President in recent history. If the GOP can't run the government, they're gonna make sure nobody else can either.

Great thanks to Oliver Willis for the link.

Facing the Future as a Media Felon on the Gulf Coast

LA Progressive, links and photos:

The United States Coast Guard considers me a felon now, because I “willfully” want to obtain more photos like these to show you the utter devastation occurring in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, as a result of the BP oil catastrophe. If the Coast Guard has its way, all media, not just independent writers and photographers like myself and Jerry Moran, will be fined $40,000 and receive Class D felony convictions for providing the truth about oiled birds and dolphins, in addition to broken, filthy, unmanned boom material that is trapping oil in the marshlands and estuaries. We don’t have $40,000 to spare, and have had to scrape the bottoms of our checkbooks as is to hire boats to take us to the devastation the Coast Guard, under the direction of BP, does not want you to see.

The chilling money line is "the Coast Guard, under the direction of BP".

Working and reporting from American Gulf Coast is starting to remind me of working in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where photos and recordings must be hidden on secreted flash drives at border crossings, and where interrogation by drunken border patrols certainly follows if one does not provide a proper “explanation” for visits to certain regions. In 2007, I was accused of being a “spy” and held by the secret police in Goma, DRC, for having video of illicit “conservation” activities. Now the same sick feelings of fear, anger, and helplessness is stalking my mind as I try to plan for the next round in south Louisiana. Never in my lifetime could I imagine that a foreign company could dictate my ability to move freely and openly in American territorial waters (my em).

What’s next? Will media be totally shut down? Will we face assassinations like journalists do in Rwanda? I realize assassination is over-the-top, but when it crosses your mind, even for a moment, you know something is terribly wrong.

No shit. Go read the rest of this. BP is such a powerful entity in the Gulf (and Congress) that it thinks it can get away with anything, and it may be right.

Livin' the iLife

Apple aficionados will love Morford today.

Sweet Jesus in minimalist design heaven, the iPad. No mouse, no extra cables, no mandatory hookups, no startup times, installation DVDs, RAM guides, accelerators, system folders, font drivers, extensions, launch daemons, Kerberos plug-ins, jpg helpers or compression schemes, no diphthong upslingers pongo hurling goober kerfuffling flipblasters.

Just a devastatingly simple, utterly gorgeous sheet of glass and aluminum that does almost everything your average computer user needs it to do, with a couple finger taps and a happy sigh, sans roughly 500 of the usual steps, clicks, guides, installations, file extensions and so on. It's understandable at a glance, intuitive as candy, enjoyable as a porn star in summertime. You know, just like the Mac has always been, except not really.

Enjoy.

Headline of the Day

Hot Dog Eating Champ Kobayashi Charged With ‘Breaking and Vomiting’

Ullllppp...

Quote of the Day

Michael Stickings:

...

Sign already, LeBron. Somewhere. Please.

...

And if you think ...

We have a problem now, just wait a while:

More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one – not industry, not government – is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows.

...

If Big Oil's previous commitments to the environment are any indication, let alone their safety record, this will almost certainly come back to bite us in the ass.

Climate change ...

I tell ya, just anecdotally, in the last 6 months, we've had the worst blizzards in decades this winter and record shattering heat this week (I just love working on a hot car in 110 degree heat). Our storms last longer and are more intense, and tornadoes (though not many) make regular appearances where, when I was a kid, the suggestion of a tornado on Long Island would have men in white suits chasing you with a butterfly net.

While I probably know as much about climate science as the average politician and take the word of the experts (real scientists as opposed to conservative loudmouths), a lot of deniers believe the way to fix the problem is to kill the scientists.

...

A sobering new report warns that oceans face a "fundamental and irreversible ecological transformation" not seen in millions of years as greenhouse gases and climate change already have affected temperature, acidity, sea and oxygen levels, the food chain and possibly major currents that could alter global weather.

...

As Philippe Cousteau said not long ago:

... So it’s not a question of can the oceans can take any more. The ocean can’t take any more. They couldn’t take any more fifty years ago. The question is, when are we going to stop?

...

The way it looks to me, and I see no change of opinion coming anytime soon, the environment will always come in a distant second next to making a buck.

Go laugh yer asses off...

The story of the trial I rode on Saturday is up at Fixer & Gordon. Enjoy.

¡Cuba Sí!

The Hill

A bipartisan pair of senators said Thursday they have the votes in the Senate to lift the longstanding U.S. ban on travel to Cuba.

Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) said they believe they have the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster and lift the travel ban to the communist-held nation south of Florida.

“It makes no sense to punish the American people by restricting their right to travel simply because our country is trying to punish the Cuban government,” Dorgan said in a statement.

"Decades of the same policy will get you the same result. We're hopefully about to change that and open up a new world for the people of Cuba," said Enzi.

'Bout fuckin' time. The sanctions against Cuba haven't made sense for decades except to woo a bloc of (now) older voters in Florida.

Best of luck with this bill, Senators, and pick me up a '59 El Camino or a '57 Ranchero while yer down there.

Who's winning in Afghanistan?

Hint: Not the U.S.

Antiwar Newswire

As US fights, China spends billions to build a footprint in Afghanistan

As the U.S. and its NATO allies fight to stabilize Afghanistan, China has expanded its economic footprint with several high-profile investments and reconstruction projects. In 2007, it became the country's largest foreign investor when it won a $3.5 billion contract to develop copper mines at Aynak, southeast of Kabul.

For China, the reward is not only expanded trade and access to natural resources, it's also security for its western flank, the vast Xinjiang region that is home to a separatist movement of minority Uighurs, said Liu Xuecheng of the China Institute of International Studies, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's think tank.

Afghanistan is "well aware that the U.S. is likely to only be a temporary ally so it's looking for a longer-term partner in the region. China would be an obvious choice," said security analyst Christian Le Miere, editor of Jane's Intelligence Review.

China has also benefited by focusing its investments on Afghanistan's relatively safer north, while much of the U.S.-funded effort is in the more violent south and east regions. The Taliban is not known to have made threats against Chinese involved in Afghanistan.

They know better. Threaten the Chinese today, expect a million troops tomorrow. No quarter, no rules of engagement, and soon no Taliban. Or much of anyone else. Think 'locusts' and 'wheat field'.

"The Afghan people prefer this gift from China. The Chinese side has done streets, roads and clinics in Afghanistan," Karimi said. "They didn't bring their troops here."

Liu, the Beijing think tank analyst, said he doubted China would ever send troops. "The war is not China's war," he said. "... But economically and socially, we can try to help."

For Afghans such as Akbar the merchant, China is an example to be emulated.

Clever, these Chinese. Smooth sailing for them while the U.S. and the West dashes its blood and treasure on the rocks.

Who's the fool?

What is this "work"?

I know my productivity has been down:

BERLIN - Told they couldn't watch the World Cup on the job, Italian autoworkers went on strike - conveniently, a half-hour before game time. German companies set up office viewing areas to keep employees from defecting on game days.

...

One study suggests the German economy, Europe's largest, loses more than $8 billion in productivity, about 0.27 percent of gross domestic product, during the monthlong tournament. Surveys in Britain predict output losses there of $1.5 billion to $2.3 billion.

...

Hey, everybody's got their priorities. Heh ...