Time for Jeff Bridges to dump Hyundai

[paddyoh]

In case you forgot, my original title for this forum was:

“Time for Jeff Bridges to dump Hyundai….”

The topic understandably turned to automobiles, manufacturers, etc. – which was fine by me. I’ve made it clear that I agree with Scarlett/Rt. 66 and her belief in buying American made cars, etc. She has made her case so thoroughly I honestly do not know what I can add to defend the documented quality of the American made automobile or the mass screwing of the American blue collar worker.

The bigger picture to me has become American apathy towards American Made goods – particularly cars manufactured in the U.S.A.

It just baffles me that there is so much venom spewed by Americans against American auto workers and American made cars. It would seem that much of that comes from outright jealousy that the American auto worker had the nerve to make a decent enough wage to own a home and send his or her kids to college. That jealousy is then channeled towards the American car itself.

Then there appears to be guilt. The shame of, in a way, selling out one’s own country during a time of nearly unparalleled crisis, by buying a third world automobile and then trying to justify it by blaming it on unfounded, inferior American quality.

There are no doubt people here who have purchased an American made car that turned out to be a lemon. They have a legitimate gripe and may never buy anything other than an imported car again.

But, all the jealousy, guilt, shame, anger or whatever else is the motivation, does not change the fact that we are all still Americans. Maybe, at the end of the day, we can stop sweating the small stuff and pull together to help fix what the politicians cannot.

By buying American again, or even consciously making an effort to buy American made again, right now, today, even if it hurts or costs more, we can make a tiny step forward in restoring our sorely-needed manufacturing base. Americans did it during the World Wars. Why not now ?

Given the pickle we are in, I don’t think you can consider it protectionism. Nor blind patriotism, or being foolish with your money. Right now, today, it just makes sense.

Please take a few minutes of your time to ask Jeff Bridges to use his clout as a major celebrity and publicly renounce the Hyundai commercials and jump on the American Made bandwagon.

Go here and NOW and help nip the stealth bombing of the American auto industry in the bud:

http://nicko62.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3268355

If your Freedom of Speech is denied at Jeff Bridge’s site, go here:

http://www.HotAirDaily.com

Then, very politely ask Jeff Bridges to support the country that helped make him famous by dropping the Hyundai ads.

It’s not protectionism, or isolationism, or socialism, etc, etc.

Don’t let the nay-sayers get your goat.

HIE-YUN-DIE ~ Hyundai does NOT rhyme with Sunday in blue-collar America.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=flu][quote=CONCHO]….organized labor and all they’ve proved over the years is their ability to get $70k per year for a job a trained monkey could do (and probably do better).

There are an awful lot of posts on this thread made during normal working hours (8-5 M-F). Say what you want about the overpaid spoiled stupid TRAINED MONKEY American autoworker, but one thing I’m pretty confident is that they don’t get paid to sit around making grade school insults at people they don’t even know on internet blogs.

I guess that’s all I have to say. This thread makes me sad.[/quote]

Hah…Well, hell, if I’m going to get paged at 2:30am in the morning, I think my company is going to cut me some slack if I’m in between a software build waiting for a team from india,europe, and the U.S. to finish their source code merge before I sign off of a release.

On an auxilary front…My immediate customers of my side gig pays for the finished software, and not the labor hours that went into it, half of which is coded in taiwan

Everyone’s junior at some point. My excuse is is have about 20 years to reach the maturity of some of the other late baby boomers on this thread, heh heh 🙂

…And…. funny you should mention desk jobs…

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/07/18/report-workers-with-union-desk-jobs-being-sent-back-to-factory/

In an action that is symbolic of the changes America’s auto industry is undergoing, the cushy “union desk job” is reportedly about to disappear for many. According to The Detroit Free Press, UAW bosses at post-bankrupt Chrysler and General Motors plants are informing hundreds of elected and appointed colleagues that their desk jobs are being sent back to the factory floor.

The Detroit 3 have always paid for union workers at each plant to support labor-management initiatives, conduct union elections, and handle grievances. Most of these “desk jobs” were not at the plant, and they were reportedly enved by those required to do labor-intensive work in the factories

Also, can you say job-bank program?[/quote]

Hey, FLU: Like it or not, we’re helping this knucklehead keep this moronic spew going. I see that you did what I did, which was respond to a valid point made by CONCHO. I’m going to sign off, especially after reading how Jeff Bridges site handled this guy and after telling him that his conduct may prove injurious to Bridges (an actor that Patrick ostensibly likes and supports).

Let him die on the vine. Left to his own devices, he keeps re-posting the same little missive. He isn’t engaging any support, except for ours! Based on all of the websites he’s set up to pursue this maniacal quest, I think he might be mentally ill.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=flu][quote=CONCHO]….organized labor and all they’ve proved over the years is their ability to get $70k per year for a job a trained monkey could do (and probably do better).

There are an awful lot of posts on this thread made during normal working hours (8-5 M-F). Say what you want about the overpaid spoiled stupid TRAINED MONKEY American autoworker, but one thing I’m pretty confident is that they don’t get paid to sit around making grade school insults at people they don’t even know on internet blogs.

I guess that’s all I have to say. This thread makes me sad.[/quote]

Hah…Well, hell, if I’m going to get paged at 2:30am in the morning, I think my company is going to cut me some slack if I’m in between a software build waiting for a team from india,europe, and the U.S. to finish their source code merge before I sign off of a release.

On an auxilary front…My immediate customers of my side gig pays for the finished software, and not the labor hours that went into it, half of which is coded in taiwan

Everyone’s junior at some point. My excuse is is have about 20 years to reach the maturity of some of the other late baby boomers on this thread, heh heh 🙂

…And…. funny you should mention desk jobs…

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/07/18/report-workers-with-union-desk-jobs-being-sent-back-to-factory/

In an action that is symbolic of the changes America’s auto industry is undergoing, the cushy “union desk job” is reportedly about to disappear for many. According to The Detroit Free Press, UAW bosses at post-bankrupt Chrysler and General Motors plants are informing hundreds of elected and appointed colleagues that their desk jobs are being sent back to the factory floor.

The Detroit 3 have always paid for union workers at each plant to support labor-management initiatives, conduct union elections, and handle grievances. Most of these “desk jobs” were not at the plant, and they were reportedly enved by those required to do labor-intensive work in the factories

Also, can you say job-bank program?[/quote]

Hey, FLU: Like it or not, we’re helping this knucklehead keep this moronic spew going. I see that you did what I did, which was respond to a valid point made by CONCHO. I’m going to sign off, especially after reading how Jeff Bridges site handled this guy and after telling him that his conduct may prove injurious to Bridges (an actor that Patrick ostensibly likes and supports).

Let him die on the vine. Left to his own devices, he keeps re-posting the same little missive. He isn’t engaging any support, except for ours! Based on all of the websites he’s set up to pursue this maniacal quest, I think he might be mentally ill.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=flu][quote=CONCHO]….organized labor and all they’ve proved over the years is their ability to get $70k per year for a job a trained monkey could do (and probably do better).

There are an awful lot of posts on this thread made during normal working hours (8-5 M-F). Say what you want about the overpaid spoiled stupid TRAINED MONKEY American autoworker, but one thing I’m pretty confident is that they don’t get paid to sit around making grade school insults at people they don’t even know on internet blogs.

I guess that’s all I have to say. This thread makes me sad.[/quote]

Hah…Well, hell, if I’m going to get paged at 2:30am in the morning, I think my company is going to cut me some slack if I’m in between a software build waiting for a team from india,europe, and the U.S. to finish their source code merge before I sign off of a release.

On an auxilary front…My immediate customers of my side gig pays for the finished software, and not the labor hours that went into it, half of which is coded in taiwan

Everyone’s junior at some point. My excuse is is have about 20 years to reach the maturity of some of the other late baby boomers on this thread, heh heh 🙂

…And…. funny you should mention desk jobs…

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/07/18/report-workers-with-union-desk-jobs-being-sent-back-to-factory/

In an action that is symbolic of the changes America’s auto industry is undergoing, the cushy “union desk job” is reportedly about to disappear for many. According to The Detroit Free Press, UAW bosses at post-bankrupt Chrysler and General Motors plants are informing hundreds of elected and appointed colleagues that their desk jobs are being sent back to the factory floor.

The Detroit 3 have always paid for union workers at each plant to support labor-management initiatives, conduct union elections, and handle grievances. Most of these “desk jobs” were not at the plant, and they were reportedly enved by those required to do labor-intensive work in the factories

Also, can you say job-bank program?[/quote]

Hey, FLU: Like it or not, we’re helping this knucklehead keep this moronic spew going. I see that you did what I did, which was respond to a valid point made by CONCHO. I’m going to sign off, especially after reading how Jeff Bridges site handled this guy and after telling him that his conduct may prove injurious to Bridges (an actor that Patrick ostensibly likes and supports).

Let him die on the vine. Left to his own devices, he keeps re-posting the same little missive. He isn’t engaging any support, except for ours! Based on all of the websites he’s set up to pursue this maniacal quest, I think he might be mentally ill.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=flu][quote=CONCHO]….organized labor and all they’ve proved over the years is their ability to get $70k per year for a job a trained monkey could do (and probably do better).

There are an awful lot of posts on this thread made during normal working hours (8-5 M-F). Say what you want about the overpaid spoiled stupid TRAINED MONKEY American autoworker, but one thing I’m pretty confident is that they don’t get paid to sit around making grade school insults at people they don’t even know on internet blogs.

I guess that’s all I have to say. This thread makes me sad.[/quote]

Hah…Well, hell, if I’m going to get paged at 2:30am in the morning, I think my company is going to cut me some slack if I’m in between a software build waiting for a team from india,europe, and the U.S. to finish their source code merge before I sign off of a release.

On an auxilary front…My immediate customers of my side gig pays for the finished software, and not the labor hours that went into it, half of which is coded in taiwan

Everyone’s junior at some point. My excuse is is have about 20 years to reach the maturity of some of the other late baby boomers on this thread, heh heh 🙂

…And…. funny you should mention desk jobs…

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/07/18/report-workers-with-union-desk-jobs-being-sent-back-to-factory/

In an action that is symbolic of the changes America’s auto industry is undergoing, the cushy “union desk job” is reportedly about to disappear for many. According to The Detroit Free Press, UAW bosses at post-bankrupt Chrysler and General Motors plants are informing hundreds of elected and appointed colleagues that their desk jobs are being sent back to the factory floor.

The Detroit 3 have always paid for union workers at each plant to support labor-management initiatives, conduct union elections, and handle grievances. Most of these “desk jobs” were not at the plant, and they were reportedly enved by those required to do labor-intensive work in the factories

Also, can you say job-bank program?[/quote]

Hey, FLU: Like it or not, we’re helping this knucklehead keep this moronic spew going. I see that you did what I did, which was respond to a valid point made by CONCHO. I’m going to sign off, especially after reading how Jeff Bridges site handled this guy and after telling him that his conduct may prove injurious to Bridges (an actor that Patrick ostensibly likes and supports).

Let him die on the vine. Left to his own devices, he keeps re-posting the same little missive. He isn’t engaging any support, except for ours! Based on all of the websites he’s set up to pursue this maniacal quest, I think he might be mentally ill.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=flu][quote=CONCHO]….organized labor and all they’ve proved over the years is their ability to get $70k per year for a job a trained monkey could do (and probably do better).

There are an awful lot of posts on this thread made during normal working hours (8-5 M-F). Say what you want about the overpaid spoiled stupid TRAINED MONKEY American autoworker, but one thing I’m pretty confident is that they don’t get paid to sit around making grade school insults at people they don’t even know on internet blogs.

I guess that’s all I have to say. This thread makes me sad.[/quote]

Hah…Well, hell, if I’m going to get paged at 2:30am in the morning, I think my company is going to cut me some slack if I’m in between a software build waiting for a team from india,europe, and the U.S. to finish their source code merge before I sign off of a release.

On an auxilary front…My immediate customers of my side gig pays for the finished software, and not the labor hours that went into it, half of which is coded in taiwan

Everyone’s junior at some point. My excuse is is have about 20 years to reach the maturity of some of the other late baby boomers on this thread, heh heh 🙂

…And…. funny you should mention desk jobs…

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/07/18/report-workers-with-union-desk-jobs-being-sent-back-to-factory/

In an action that is symbolic of the changes America’s auto industry is undergoing, the cushy “union desk job” is reportedly about to disappear for many. According to The Detroit Free Press, UAW bosses at post-bankrupt Chrysler and General Motors plants are informing hundreds of elected and appointed colleagues that their desk jobs are being sent back to the factory floor.

The Detroit 3 have always paid for union workers at each plant to support labor-management initiatives, conduct union elections, and handle grievances. Most of these “desk jobs” were not at the plant, and they were reportedly enved by those required to do labor-intensive work in the factories

Also, can you say job-bank program?[/quote]

Hey, FLU: Like it or not, we’re helping this knucklehead keep this moronic spew going. I see that you did what I did, which was respond to a valid point made by CONCHO. I’m going to sign off, especially after reading how Jeff Bridges site handled this guy and after telling him that his conduct may prove injurious to Bridges (an actor that Patrick ostensibly likes and supports).

Let him die on the vine. Left to his own devices, he keeps re-posting the same little missive. He isn’t engaging any support, except for ours! Based on all of the websites he’s set up to pursue this maniacal quest, I think he might be mentally ill.

[paddyoh]

[quote=flu]
Anyone want to place bets on when Jeff’s attorney sends a cease and desist letter to paddyoh?

[/quote]

Flu:

To Jeff Bridge’s attorney I say…bring it on.

BRING IT ON !

Here’s Jeff Bridge’s website if you’d like to ask him yourself.

http://nicko62.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3268355

While you are there, very politely ask Jeff Bridges to support the country that helped make him famous by dropping the Hyundai ads.

It’s not protectionism, or isolationism, or socialism, etc, etc.

It’s just plain old common sense. Don’t let the nay-sayers get your goat.

HIE-YUN-DIE ~ Hyundai does NOT rhyme with Sunday in blue-collar America.

[paddyoh]

[quote=flu]
Anyone want to place bets on when Jeff’s attorney sends a cease and desist letter to paddyoh?

[/quote]

Flu:

To Jeff Bridge’s attorney I say…bring it on.

BRING IT ON !

Here’s Jeff Bridge’s website if you’d like to ask him yourself.

http://nicko62.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3268355

While you are there, very politely ask Jeff Bridges to support the country that helped make him famous by dropping the Hyundai ads.

It’s not protectionism, or isolationism, or socialism, etc, etc.

It’s just plain old common sense. Don’t let the nay-sayers get your goat.

HIE-YUN-DIE ~ Hyundai does NOT rhyme with Sunday in blue-collar America.

[paddyoh]

[quote=flu]
Anyone want to place bets on when Jeff’s attorney sends a cease and desist letter to paddyoh?

[/quote]

Flu:

To Jeff Bridge’s attorney I say…bring it on.

BRING IT ON !

Here’s Jeff Bridge’s website if you’d like to ask him yourself.

http://nicko62.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3268355

While you are there, very politely ask Jeff Bridges to support the country that helped make him famous by dropping the Hyundai ads.

It’s not protectionism, or isolationism, or socialism, etc, etc.

It’s just plain old common sense. Don’t let the nay-sayers get your goat.

HIE-YUN-DIE ~ Hyundai does NOT rhyme with Sunday in blue-collar America.

[paddyoh]

[quote=flu]
Anyone want to place bets on when Jeff’s attorney sends a cease and desist letter to paddyoh?

[/quote]

Flu:

To Jeff Bridge’s attorney I say…bring it on.

BRING IT ON !

Here’s Jeff Bridge’s website if you’d like to ask him yourself.

http://nicko62.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3268355

While you are there, very politely ask Jeff Bridges to support the country that helped make him famous by dropping the Hyundai ads.

It’s not protectionism, or isolationism, or socialism, etc, etc.

It’s just plain old common sense. Don’t let the nay-sayers get your goat.

HIE-YUN-DIE ~ Hyundai does NOT rhyme with Sunday in blue-collar America.

[paddyoh]

[quote=flu]
Anyone want to place bets on when Jeff’s attorney sends a cease and desist letter to paddyoh?

[/quote]

Flu:

To Jeff Bridge’s attorney I say…bring it on.

BRING IT ON !

Here’s Jeff Bridge’s website if you’d like to ask him yourself.

http://nicko62.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3268355

While you are there, very politely ask Jeff Bridges to support the country that helped make him famous by dropping the Hyundai ads.

It’s not protectionism, or isolationism, or socialism, etc, etc.

It’s just plain old common sense. Don’t let the nay-sayers get your goat.

HIE-YUN-DIE ~ Hyundai does NOT rhyme with Sunday in blue-collar America.

[paddyoh]

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Marney Rich Keenan

Buying American cars: It’s finally catching on

Sales of cardigans at J.Crew have soared ever since Michelle Obama wore an ivory sweater with sequins to 10 Downing Street. Now, if she’d only buy a Chrysler.

I stole that joke from “Saturday Night Live.”

But, here in Detroit, where bumper stickers read “Want Change? Buy American,” driving a foreign-made vehicle is becoming an anathema.

A prime example is my brother-in-law, Joe Keenan, an interior-design consultant with expensive taste. For years, he has driven a Jaguar, but since Ford sold the brand in 2008, he’s now in the market for a Lincoln MKS. (His first choice, a hybrid Ford Fusion, has a lead time of seven months.)

Because the decline in the auto industry has led to severe cuts to Detroit’s arts and cultural institutions, Joe says he can’t, in good conscience, contribute to the downturn.

In January, the GM Foundation, the charitable arm of the struggling car maker, told groups like the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Michigan Opera Theater and Mosaic, a youth theater group, not to expect any funding this year. Late last month, Chrysler Foundation followed suit, announcing that it, too, would suspend its arts philanthropy. The Ford Motor Co. has said it expects its giving to fall by about 40 percent from last year.

“Everyone in this town that drives a foreign make should write a check to the DIA or the Detroit Symphony and then another check to a local charity to make up for the lost funds from the Big Three,” Joe says. “People in this town don’t realize how much support the auto industry contributes to the arts and to the needy.”

Dr. Bruce Garretson, an ophthalmologist with offices in Royal Oak and Rochester, has bought BMWs for almost two decades. This will be the first year he will buy an American-made vehicle. “Although I prefer the way a BMW drives,” the father of two college-age sons says. “I believe that supporting Detroit is more important than my personal taste given our current economic condition.”

Even though Dr. Diane McShane of Birmingham was in the market for a used vehicle for their family car, the internist says: “My husband would not look at anything except an American car. We bought a Pacifica.”

Reflecting a similar trend, a statistic has been making the e-mail rounds lately that has galvanized consumers to buy local. According to the Michigan Department of Agriculture, the projection is: “If every household started spending just $10 per week of their current grocery budget on locally grown foods, we’d keep more than $37 million each week circulating within Michigan’s economy.”

In 2003, Ryan Anderson of Lincoln Park says he saw the writing on the wall. The following year, he started the Web site buymichiganproducts.com. “I just figured if people would start pumping their money into the local economy, we just might improve,” says Anderson, a Web site development and software consultant.

The site provides a directory of Michigan-made products and company listings and also is sponsoring a buy-Michigan pledge calling for spending the extra few bucks expected in paychecks from the economic stimulus package on in-state products.

The 36-year-old says: “The site was running steadily until about six months ago, when traffic shot up dramatically. Last month, March 2009, was our best month ever.”

Who knows? One visit to the site and you might be eating Kellogg’s brand cereal from Battle Creek and Jiffy Mix muffins from Chelsea for breakfast, Koegel’s deli meats from Flint for lunch and Romano’s pasta sauce from Shelby Township for dinner with a glass of Merlot from St. Julian in Paw Paw or a glass of milk from Guernsey Farms in Northville.

Now, if we could just get the members of President Obama’s auto task force to dump their personally owned foreign-made vehicles.

In February, Detroit News Washington Bureau Chief David Shepardson reported only two of the eighteen policymakers own American-made vehicles.

Unfortunately, that track record is no laughing matter at all.

[email protected] 313-222-2515

Ladies and gentlemen. Please go here and NOW and help nip the stealth bombing of the American auto industry by Hyundai:

http://nicko62.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3268355

If your Freedom of Speech is denied at Jeff
Bridge’s site, go here:

http://www.HotAirDaily.com

Then, very politely ask Jeff Bridges to support the country that helped make him famous by dropping the Hyundai ads.

It’s not protectionism, or isolationism, or socialism, etc, etc.

It’s just plain old common sense. Don’t let the nay-sayers get your goat.

HIE-YUN-DIE ~ Hyundai does NOT rhyme with Sunday in blue-collar America.

[paddyoh]

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Marney Rich Keenan

Buying American cars: It’s finally catching on

Sales of cardigans at J.Crew have soared ever since Michelle Obama wore an ivory sweater with sequins to 10 Downing Street. Now, if she’d only buy a Chrysler.

I stole that joke from “Saturday Night Live.”

But, here in Detroit, where bumper stickers read “Want Change? Buy American,” driving a foreign-made vehicle is becoming an anathema.

A prime example is my brother-in-law, Joe Keenan, an interior-design consultant with expensive taste. For years, he has driven a Jaguar, but since Ford sold the brand in 2008, he’s now in the market for a Lincoln MKS. (His first choice, a hybrid Ford Fusion, has a lead time of seven months.)

Because the decline in the auto industry has led to severe cuts to Detroit’s arts and cultural institutions, Joe says he can’t, in good conscience, contribute to the downturn.

In January, the GM Foundation, the charitable arm of the struggling car maker, told groups like the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Michigan Opera Theater and Mosaic, a youth theater group, not to expect any funding this year. Late last month, Chrysler Foundation followed suit, announcing that it, too, would suspend its arts philanthropy. The Ford Motor Co. has said it expects its giving to fall by about 40 percent from last year.

“Everyone in this town that drives a foreign make should write a check to the DIA or the Detroit Symphony and then another check to a local charity to make up for the lost funds from the Big Three,” Joe says. “People in this town don’t realize how much support the auto industry contributes to the arts and to the needy.”

Dr. Bruce Garretson, an ophthalmologist with offices in Royal Oak and Rochester, has bought BMWs for almost two decades. This will be the first year he will buy an American-made vehicle. “Although I prefer the way a BMW drives,” the father of two college-age sons says. “I believe that supporting Detroit is more important than my personal taste given our current economic condition.”

Even though Dr. Diane McShane of Birmingham was in the market for a used vehicle for their family car, the internist says: “My husband would not look at anything except an American car. We bought a Pacifica.”

Reflecting a similar trend, a statistic has been making the e-mail rounds lately that has galvanized consumers to buy local. According to the Michigan Department of Agriculture, the projection is: “If every household started spending just $10 per week of their current grocery budget on locally grown foods, we’d keep more than $37 million each week circulating within Michigan’s economy.”

In 2003, Ryan Anderson of Lincoln Park says he saw the writing on the wall. The following year, he started the Web site buymichiganproducts.com. “I just figured if people would start pumping their money into the local economy, we just might improve,” says Anderson, a Web site development and software consultant.

The site provides a directory of Michigan-made products and company listings and also is sponsoring a buy-Michigan pledge calling for spending the extra few bucks expected in paychecks from the economic stimulus package on in-state products.

The 36-year-old says: “The site was running steadily until about six months ago, when traffic shot up dramatically. Last month, March 2009, was our best month ever.”

Who knows? One visit to the site and you might be eating Kellogg’s brand cereal from Battle Creek and Jiffy Mix muffins from Chelsea for breakfast, Koegel’s deli meats from Flint for lunch and Romano’s pasta sauce from Shelby Township for dinner with a glass of Merlot from St. Julian in Paw Paw or a glass of milk from Guernsey Farms in Northville.

Now, if we could just get the members of President Obama’s auto task force to dump their personally owned foreign-made vehicles.

In February, Detroit News Washington Bureau Chief David Shepardson reported only two of the eighteen policymakers own American-made vehicles.

Unfortunately, that track record is no laughing matter at all.

[email protected] 313-222-2515

Ladies and gentlemen. Please go here and NOW and help nip the stealth bombing of the American auto industry by Hyundai:

http://nicko62.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3268355

If your Freedom of Speech is denied at Jeff
Bridge’s site, go here:

http://www.HotAirDaily.com

Then, very politely ask Jeff Bridges to support the country that helped make him famous by dropping the Hyundai ads.

It’s not protectionism, or isolationism, or socialism, etc, etc.

It’s just plain old common sense. Don’t let the nay-sayers get your goat.

HIE-YUN-DIE ~ Hyundai does NOT rhyme with Sunday in blue-collar America.

[paddyoh]

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Marney Rich Keenan

Buying American cars: It’s finally catching on

Sales of cardigans at J.Crew have soared ever since Michelle Obama wore an ivory sweater with sequins to 10 Downing Street. Now, if she’d only buy a Chrysler.

I stole that joke from “Saturday Night Live.”

But, here in Detroit, where bumper stickers read “Want Change? Buy American,” driving a foreign-made vehicle is becoming an anathema.

A prime example is my brother-in-law, Joe Keenan, an interior-design consultant with expensive taste. For years, he has driven a Jaguar, but since Ford sold the brand in 2008, he’s now in the market for a Lincoln MKS. (His first choice, a hybrid Ford Fusion, has a lead time of seven months.)

Because the decline in the auto industry has led to severe cuts to Detroit’s arts and cultural institutions, Joe says he can’t, in good conscience, contribute to the downturn.

In January, the GM Foundation, the charitable arm of the struggling car maker, told groups like the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Michigan Opera Theater and Mosaic, a youth theater group, not to expect any funding this year. Late last month, Chrysler Foundation followed suit, announcing that it, too, would suspend its arts philanthropy. The Ford Motor Co. has said it expects its giving to fall by about 40 percent from last year.

“Everyone in this town that drives a foreign make should write a check to the DIA or the Detroit Symphony and then another check to a local charity to make up for the lost funds from the Big Three,” Joe says. “People in this town don’t realize how much support the auto industry contributes to the arts and to the needy.”

Dr. Bruce Garretson, an ophthalmologist with offices in Royal Oak and Rochester, has bought BMWs for almost two decades. This will be the first year he will buy an American-made vehicle. “Although I prefer the way a BMW drives,” the father of two college-age sons says. “I believe that supporting Detroit is more important than my personal taste given our current economic condition.”

Even though Dr. Diane McShane of Birmingham was in the market for a used vehicle for their family car, the internist says: “My husband would not look at anything except an American car. We bought a Pacifica.”

Reflecting a similar trend, a statistic has been making the e-mail rounds lately that has galvanized consumers to buy local. According to the Michigan Department of Agriculture, the projection is: “If every household started spending just $10 per week of their current grocery budget on locally grown foods, we’d keep more than $37 million each week circulating within Michigan’s economy.”

In 2003, Ryan Anderson of Lincoln Park says he saw the writing on the wall. The following year, he started the Web site buymichiganproducts.com. “I just figured if people would start pumping their money into the local economy, we just might improve,” says Anderson, a Web site development and software consultant.

The site provides a directory of Michigan-made products and company listings and also is sponsoring a buy-Michigan pledge calling for spending the extra few bucks expected in paychecks from the economic stimulus package on in-state products.

The 36-year-old says: “The site was running steadily until about six months ago, when traffic shot up dramatically. Last month, March 2009, was our best month ever.”

Who knows? One visit to the site and you might be eating Kellogg’s brand cereal from Battle Creek and Jiffy Mix muffins from Chelsea for breakfast, Koegel’s deli meats from Flint for lunch and Romano’s pasta sauce from Shelby Township for dinner with a glass of Merlot from St. Julian in Paw Paw or a glass of milk from Guernsey Farms in Northville.

Now, if we could just get the members of President Obama’s auto task force to dump their personally owned foreign-made vehicles.

In February, Detroit News Washington Bureau Chief David Shepardson reported only two of the eighteen policymakers own American-made vehicles.

Unfortunately, that track record is no laughing matter at all.

[email protected] 313-222-2515

Ladies and gentlemen. Please go here and NOW and help nip the stealth bombing of the American auto industry by Hyundai:

http://nicko62.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3268355

If your Freedom of Speech is denied at Jeff
Bridge’s site, go here:

http://www.HotAirDaily.com

Then, very politely ask Jeff Bridges to support the country that helped make him famous by dropping the Hyundai ads.

It’s not protectionism, or isolationism, or socialism, etc, etc.

It’s just plain old common sense. Don’t let the nay-sayers get your goat.

HIE-YUN-DIE ~ Hyundai does NOT rhyme with Sunday in blue-collar America.

[paddyoh]

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Marney Rich Keenan

Buying American cars: It’s finally catching on

Sales of cardigans at J.Crew have soared ever since Michelle Obama wore an ivory sweater with sequins to 10 Downing Street. Now, if she’d only buy a Chrysler.

I stole that joke from “Saturday Night Live.”

But, here in Detroit, where bumper stickers read “Want Change? Buy American,” driving a foreign-made vehicle is becoming an anathema.

A prime example is my brother-in-law, Joe Keenan, an interior-design consultant with expensive taste. For years, he has driven a Jaguar, but since Ford sold the brand in 2008, he’s now in the market for a Lincoln MKS. (His first choice, a hybrid Ford Fusion, has a lead time of seven months.)

Because the decline in the auto industry has led to severe cuts to Detroit’s arts and cultural institutions, Joe says he can’t, in good conscience, contribute to the downturn.

In January, the GM Foundation, the charitable arm of the struggling car maker, told groups like the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Michigan Opera Theater and Mosaic, a youth theater group, not to expect any funding this year. Late last month, Chrysler Foundation followed suit, announcing that it, too, would suspend its arts philanthropy. The Ford Motor Co. has said it expects its giving to fall by about 40 percent from last year.

“Everyone in this town that drives a foreign make should write a check to the DIA or the Detroit Symphony and then another check to a local charity to make up for the lost funds from the Big Three,” Joe says. “People in this town don’t realize how much support the auto industry contributes to the arts and to the needy.”

Dr. Bruce Garretson, an ophthalmologist with offices in Royal Oak and Rochester, has bought BMWs for almost two decades. This will be the first year he will buy an American-made vehicle. “Although I prefer the way a BMW drives,” the father of two college-age sons says. “I believe that supporting Detroit is more important than my personal taste given our current economic condition.”

Even though Dr. Diane McShane of Birmingham was in the market for a used vehicle for their family car, the internist says: “My husband would not look at anything except an American car. We bought a Pacifica.”

Reflecting a similar trend, a statistic has been making the e-mail rounds lately that has galvanized consumers to buy local. According to the Michigan Department of Agriculture, the projection is: “If every household started spending just $10 per week of their current grocery budget on locally grown foods, we’d keep more than $37 million each week circulating within Michigan’s economy.”

In 2003, Ryan Anderson of Lincoln Park says he saw the writing on the wall. The following year, he started the Web site buymichiganproducts.com. “I just figured if people would start pumping their money into the local economy, we just might improve,” says Anderson, a Web site development and software consultant.

The site provides a directory of Michigan-made products and company listings and also is sponsoring a buy-Michigan pledge calling for spending the extra few bucks expected in paychecks from the economic stimulus package on in-state products.

The 36-year-old says: “The site was running steadily until about six months ago, when traffic shot up dramatically. Last month, March 2009, was our best month ever.”

Who knows? One visit to the site and you might be eating Kellogg’s brand cereal from Battle Creek and Jiffy Mix muffins from Chelsea for breakfast, Koegel’s deli meats from Flint for lunch and Romano’s pasta sauce from Shelby Township for dinner with a glass of Merlot from St. Julian in Paw Paw or a glass of milk from Guernsey Farms in Northville.

Now, if we could just get the members of President Obama’s auto task force to dump their personally owned foreign-made vehicles.

In February, Detroit News Washington Bureau Chief David Shepardson reported only two of the eighteen policymakers own American-made vehicles.

Unfortunately, that track record is no laughing matter at all.

[email protected] 313-222-2515

Ladies and gentlemen. Please go here and NOW and help nip the stealth bombing of the American auto industry by Hyundai:

http://nicko62.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3268355

If your Freedom of Speech is denied at Jeff
Bridge’s site, go here:

http://www.HotAirDaily.com

Then, very politely ask Jeff Bridges to support the country that helped make him famous by dropping the Hyundai ads.

It’s not protectionism, or isolationism, or socialism, etc, etc.

It’s just plain old common sense. Don’t let the nay-sayers get your goat.

HIE-YUN-DIE ~ Hyundai does NOT rhyme with Sunday in blue-collar America.

[Author]

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