You gotta hand it to Howard Dean

One would think that after Howard Dean's meltdown during a speech in Iowa during the last presidential race he would have learned to watch what he says publicly. Well, if you thought that you were pretty much wrong. Dean made a huge gaffe when among other things he said something to the effect that many republicans had not worked an honest day in their lives. That is not an exact quote but you get the idea. As you might guess, there was an outcry from Republicans and even some Democrats as well as making it the highlight of every conservative talk show (and actually some not so conservative ones as well). Why Dean would want to give the Republican Party more ammo to use against his party is hard to fathom.

What was even more interesting were the quotes by some people from his own party, such as Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Sen. Joe Biden that either implied or outright stated that Dean was not the spokeperson for the Democratic party. Yikes! When two heavyweights in a political party publicly state that the party chairman is basically not the voice of the party, that is not a good sign. One has to wonder if the Democrats will wait for a third strike from Dean before they decide he is out or if they will cut their losses now. I don't necessarily think he is doomed, but it might be better for his party if he resigns unless he can put this behind him right away, something that appears unlikely. You can bet conservative talk show hosts will beat this one to death (and I don't blame them really, what Dean did was PFD without a doubt).

I myself am not worried since I belong to neither party, but if the Dems want to have a chance at winning seats in 06 or the Presidency in 08, they need to get unified and get their act together and quickly.

My prediction is that Dean will resign but who knows, stanger things have happened.

Big court decision in abortion battle

Big news on the abortion front, the 4th District US Court of Appeals shot down a Virginia law banning a late term abortion procedure. The reason it was shot down is that it did not provide for someone who might need the procedure out of medical necessity or at the risk of their own life. The ruling is certain to get conservatives in an uproar and stir more debate about the courts in Congress. According to the article (from the Washington Post via Yahoo), the 4th district is actually considered one of the most conservative appeals courts.

Here is a link to the article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/washpost/20050604/ts_washpost/appeals_court_overrules__160_va__late_term_abortion_ban;_ylt=Au4YGhCW5Tu98CF3hOxH0HV34T0D;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

Another not so wise move by GM?

General Motors recently announced that it will offer employee pricing to the general public on most GM vehicles from the beginning of June until July 4th. Now its a good deal for the public if they are looking to buy a GM vehicle, although I myself hardly even considered GM due to all of their quality issues when I was recently shopping for a vehicle. The reason the move may not be that wise is actually two reasons: 1.) You lose a big chunk of profit per car sold, meaning you have to sell many more to make the same profit and 2.) Its a short term band aid for a long term problem. What will they do to attract buyers once this is up?

GM has improved their quality and they have closed the gap somewhat on the Japanese, but they are still not there. Look at small cars, Toyota has the Celica and now the red hot Tc, Honda has the Civic (redesigned for 06) and Chevy has the Cobalt. Which would you buy? In the sedan category while the Malibu is improved and is cheaper than its competition, unless you are a die hard buy American kind of person, I doubt you will buy a Malibu instead of an Accord, Altima or Camry or even a Civic or Corolla. Last, but not least the category they have ruled with Ford is under attack from a pretty good crop of Japanese built trucks and suv's. And in the luxury market, Lexus beat Cadillac in their first year out of the gate and have never looked back. Long term GM has to find a way to get people to buy their cars without the tons of incentives they have to offer to entice buyers to buy a GM product. But they have not figured out a way to do that thus far.

Here is the article if you want to read it:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/gm_discount;_ylt=Au_YXV0a0rxQzYbGjJ604Aes0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2bm5xNHVjBHNlYwNtcA--

Good ol' Ding Dong is at it again

Hey, guess what, its time for another boycott from my favorite preacher, Ding Dong Donald Wildmon. This time the target is Ford Motor Company. The reason for the boycott is that Ford is committed the cardinal sin of supporting diversity, which the AFA considers just supporting homosexuals. As you know, Wildmon and his band of idiots in the AFA consider homesexuals the scourge of the earth and they consider homosexuals the root of all evils who must be stopped.

Isn't it awesome that a supposedly moral and religous group is boycotting a company for supporting diversity (remember that part about all men are created equal and how god loves all his children). Gotta love ding dong and his merry bunch of morons.

Here is a link to an article from MSNBC.com if you want to read it, but first remember to say Heil Donald! This is from the same people who probably have to go to confession if they seem themselves naked or enjoy having sex. Remember, enjoying life is a sin they probably say.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8047423/

Adios Pepsi Edge, and maybe coke C2

What a shocker, Pepsi has announced that PepsiEdge will be discontinued by January of next year. While Coke has not announced anything yet, can C2 be too far behind. With the low carb craze, food companies were willing to try anything to get sales, not so sure that a low carb pop really made that much sense to begin with. It seems like there are far more failures than hits in the soft drink industry as of late. There have been some winners like Wild Cherry Pepsi, Orange (can't remember the name of it) Mountain Dew, Cherry Dr. Pepper seems to be okay, and Coke with Lemon and Lime appear to be holding their own so far. But do you also remember the infamous New Coke, or Crystal Pepsi?

You can read the article from Motley Fool via MSNBC at the link below:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8059780/

I have to hand it to Missouri's lawmakers

I was kind of disgusted after watching a recent Problem Solvers segment of Fox4 News recently. Fox4 has been crusading to get a lemon law (concerning car sales) on the books since Missouri currently has no law. They met with the appropriate committee in the House, but as they reported on the recent segment, it will not only not become law this session, it won't even be voted in this session. Apparently the bill never made it out of committee. One rationale from the committee was that they wanted to hear the dealers side of it, and that part is fair, but damn, you guys had like 4 months to do that. What the hell were you doing?

So I guess we have to read from the actions from the Legislative branch here in Missouri that banning lap dances (and despite claims made by the religious wrong) which hurt no one was more of a legislative priority than getting a lemon law passed in Missouri. How screwed up is that? I guess that is what you get by mixing politics and religion (Republicans, are you listening?)

Yikes!