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Comments

1. #1
   On January 21st, 2009 at 8:13 am, madmonkphotog said:

   Should we on the right be any more civil to Hussein? No.

   Should we on the right embrace ‘change’? No.

   Should we on the right show courtesy to the zombies of Hussein? No.

   Should we finally practice ‘in your face’ politics and stop being so damned cordial to those on the left? Yes.

2. #2
   On January 21st, 2009 at 8:18 am, wrcnossen said:

   If the movie comes out this spring, hasn’t this movie already been shot? What placement can be done now? Is this new spending, or an existing obligation?

3. #3
   On January 21st, 2009 at 8:21 am, steveegg said:

   Even if the movie is 100% shot (and somehow I doubt it), there’s marketing tie-ins, advertising, promotion, that sort of thing.

   Oh, and don’t forget the attempt to turn Chrysler Finance into a “bank” so it can tap into more TARP and FDIC money like GMAC did.

4. #4
   On January 21st, 2009 at 8:33 am, ArizonaNeanderthal said:

   If they could get the Governator out of Kalifornia to make Terminator 4 it might be worth it-with cameos by Pelosi and Feinstein of course. I can not think of anything I would rather spend our money on than supporting a FOREIGN car maker such as Fiat.

   Spare tire instructions on new Chrysler/Fiat Hybrid: Hopey Changey

5. #5
   On January 21st, 2009 at 8:54 am, backwoods conservative said:

   Maybe they should branch out into the movie business since the car business isn’t going so well for them.

   1/2 sarc off

6. #6
   On January 21st, 2009 at 8:58 am, maine yankee said:

   If a company wants fed money, it should be required to completely open their books to the public via the internet.

   Same for any and all bills in DC., including names of those submitting earmarks.

7. #7
   On January 21st, 2009 at 9:00 am, FamilyMan said:

   OH GOD!!!!
   This country is become an obscene cartoon. I don’t understand this alternate reality.

8. #8
   On January 21st, 2009 at 9:01 am, Christopher Estep said:

   I’m going to have to disagree with the outrage on this one.

   Product placement is a valuable and effective form of advertisement. To decry Chrysler’s role in T4 is to do likewise for other marketing and advertising efforts.

   The Fiat deal? That’s a joke and it’s clear that Chrysler is using the deal to secure more funding. Do you believe for a moment that Chrysler didn’t suggest tying the deal to another bailout loan?

9. #9
   On January 21st, 2009 at 9:02 am, b-cat said:

   Whenever I go to the movies, I come out thinking, “I should go buy a car. I should buy all that stuff I saw in that stupid movie.”

10. #10
    On January 21st, 2009 at 9:07 am, FamilyMan said:

    It’s is possible that the fantasy of a movie is the perfect place for our money. Our law makers are already living in a unreal word. This would confirm it.

11. #11
    On January 21st, 2009 at 9:08 am, Peejz said:

    GM official says cash could run out by March 31

    Fritz Henderson, GM’s president and chief operating officer, said without the second installment of $5.4 billion, the company would run out of cash long before March 31.

    In December, the Treasury Department authorized $13.4 billion in loans for GM and another $4 billion for Chrysler LLC to keep both automakers out of bankruptcy.

    GM received $4 billion late last year and was to get $5.4 billion Jan. 16 and another $4 billion on Feb. 17, the day it is to submit its plan to show the government how it will become viable.

    Henderson told the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit that the money is critically needed to pay its bills. He attributed the delay in receiving the second installment to the Treasury Department’s workload and the change in administrations.

    “If we don’t get our second installment of the funding we’ll run out of cash, it’s that’s simple,” he said. “We’ve been finalizing what we need to do. We anticipate receiving it. But it’s critical that we receive it.”

    Henderson also disagreed with United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger who said on Monday that that a mid-February deadline for General Motors and Chrysler to complete their restructuring plans may be “almost unattainable” and that the automakers may have been set up to fail.

12. #12
    On January 21st, 2009 at 9:19 am, sonofdy said:

    And they will get it because it also feeds the unions.

    How close are we to national bankruptcy again????

13. #13
    On January 21st, 2009 at 9:33 am, FilmLadd said:

    Brings new meaning to the term “italian tune up.”

14. #14
    On January 21st, 2009 at 9:38 am, PKAmmoTroop said:

    I was thinking of getting a Blue Ray player and 7.1 surround sound home theater. Where do I sign up for Bailout $$$?

15. #15
    On January 21st, 2009 at 9:52 am, akoypinoy said:

    De javu! Remember the failed Chrysler-Renault” partnership? Oh well, it’s feeding time again so might as well get in line.

16. #16
    On January 21st, 2009 at 9:53 am, Jeff2161 said:

    Hey, c’mon…Chryslers hold their resale value. See what the big O’s used one is worth? $271,300; not bad for a used car.

17. #17
    On January 21st, 2009 at 10:01 am, tiredofit08 said:

    well let’s see we’ve given them a bailout already….I think those in need of a new car should be able to waltz down to the local car lot and pick out the car of their choice since they’ve already paid for it via their taxes…..sounds good to me….

18. #18
    On January 21st, 2009 at 10:28 am, cheapseat said:

    oh yeah, that makes me reeeeal excited to run down to my local fiat store and plunk down money on a car they can’t sell as american, but now we are expected to buy it as italian. fiats aren’t even sold in this country , are they? i don’t think they can pass the crash tests, the pollution tests, or the smell tests. it was one thing to think about chrysler when it was owned by mercedes and getting engineering from them, but now we are to get chryslers with engineering from fiat. isn’t fiat an acronym for FIX IT AGAIN TONY.

19. #19
    On January 21st, 2009 at 11:33 am, RabbidSquirrel said:

    I have to admit that I bought a Chrysler last year. All in all I throughly enjoy it… but its got this weird quirk.

    Every once in a while, I turn on the vehicle but NOTHING else works. I cant turn on the radio, I cant shift into gear, I cant roll down the windows. Its like everything electric in the car is managed by a central computer. Solution: restart the car. Can I get a ruling by the global warming nuts on wasted fuel for the restart?

    Or maybe I should act like a liberal and be paranoid. Is the government really tracking me because of my ‘views’ on these blogs and so they lock down my car until they can lock their satellite on to me. Hmmm, now that I think about it, it first started having this quirk around the time of the election!!!!!!

20. #20
    On January 21st, 2009 at 12:00 pm, Jeff2161 said:

    It’s waiting on another bail-out.

21. #21
    On January 21st, 2009 at 12:02 pm, jpm100 said:

    Companies advertize. They need to that in order to make money.

    Should we forbid them from buying steel to make cars, too?

22. #22
    On January 21st, 2009 at 12:06 pm, b-cat said:

    On January 21st, 2009 at 12:02 pm, jpm100 said:
    Companies advertize. They need to that in order to make money.

    Should we forbid them from buying steel to make cars, too?

    Successful businesses budget and forecast business conditions, set sales quotas. They do not rob from the consumer to cover incompetence.

23. #23
    On January 21st, 2009 at 12:10 pm, Hangfire said:

    I’ll support the bailout if it means moving the Big 3 out of Dee-troit, and the Army moves Aberdeen Proving Grounds to Dee-troit.

24. #24
    On January 21st, 2009 at 12:12 pm, RabbidSquirrel said:

    On January 21st, 2009 at 12:02 pm, jpm100 said:

    Should we forbid them from buying steel to make cars, too?

    If I run a lemonade stand AND I want to be independant from my parents, then if I dont sell enough lemonade to meet my margins, I sure as hell wont go ask my mom for $299 for a new iPhone so that I can better run my business.

25. #25
    On January 21st, 2009 at 12:15 pm, RabbidSquirrel said:

    On January 21st, 2009 at 12:00 pm, Jeff2161 said:

    It’s waiting on another bail-out.

    i just got that…

    yeh, the ‘stop working correctly until the next bailout’ switch signal must have been broadcast by Detroit.

26. #26
    On January 21st, 2009 at 12:27 pm, ThackerAgency said:

    FANTASTIC! NOW our ‘American Companies’ (Chrysler was Mercedes not too long ago) are demanding American taxpayer money to give to ITALIAN COMPANIES!

    THIS MUST STOP! I don’t care who was elected or what ‘greatness’ democracy brings. We were a monarchy before the revolutionary war and were not expecting that to change any time soon either.

    If these thieves in DC don’t stop taking and wasting our money, they are going to lose the ability. Our Republic is really in trouble. It isn’t because of Obama, but it is because of many others like Frank, Dodd, Schumer, Rangle, Reid, Pelosi. . . those people shouldn’t be near their own checkbook . . . much less all of ours.

27. #27
    On January 21st, 2009 at 12:32 pm, rotarymunkey said:

    The deal with Fiat is an end-around on the unions. If they can rebadge small, fuel-efficient Fiats made with non-union labor, and sell them in the US, they can close more union plants here and try to return to profitability. Fiat gets an instant market presence and dealer network in the US, which they’ve wanted for years now. It’s just a big FU to the automakers’ union.

    I think it’s a good move, actually. Chrysler did the same thing in the 70′s and 80′s with Mitsubishi.

28. #28
    On January 21st, 2009 at 12:34 pm, b-cat said:

    I think it’s a good move, actually. Chrysler did the same thing in the 70’s and 80’s with Mitsubishi.

    And where are they now?

29. #29
    On January 21st, 2009 at 12:41 pm, rotarymunkey said:

    RabbidSquirrel: Your Chrysler, like most new cars today, uses a “communication BUS” to talk back and forth between the various onboard computers. There’s a CPU for the engine controls, possibly a seperate one for the transmission, and usually one for the body electronics. Because it’s actually a miniature network, sometimes messages from one module will conflict with another, and so to protect the module from a possible damage, that module will deactivate. This is why you have to restart your car.

    In order to save processing power, the programmers do NOT write the code so that the modules test their communication at any time other than start-up, so the modules cannot, by themselves, correct communication errors. Better made cars (like luxury vehicles) have better programming and more expensive (faster) on board processor modules, so perhaps they can correct their own errors. Their software could be written differently to take advantage of this.

    I have a Nissan Quest minivan, a 2007 model. Occasionally the A/C fan controller goes haywire. Occasionally it goes to full speed air even when the knob is set to “low”, and yet, if I turn the knob to “high”, the fan slows down. Occasionally it simply shuts off the A/C system altogether. What can I say? I have a stupid A/C module in my car.

    I hope this helps…

30. #30
    On January 21st, 2009 at 12:48 pm, rotarymunkey said:

    Mitsubishi (Fuji Heavy Industries) eventually bought back most of Chrysler’s interest once they had enough money to do so, and has successfully maintained a presence in the US ever since. The previous generation Dodge Durango was also sold as a Mitsubishi pickup truck, both here domestically, and overseas.

    Mitsu has a strong international sales base, and their 4×4 Montero series has won the grueling Paris-Dakar rally 7 times. Their trucks and small SUVs are often seen in photos from other continents, more so than Land Rover these days. Their Lancer Evolution X is perhaps the best-performaning small car in the world at this moment. $35k for a turbocharged, all-wheel drive rocketship, and they sell all of them they can build without rebates or interest rate incentives (before the current credit crunch that is).

31. #31
    On January 21st, 2009 at 2:03 pm, Freddy said:

    So now the US govt is going to bail out failed/failing foreign auto companies? Any way you look at it, this money will be going to create jobs ‘overseas’.

    If we go down this path, there can be only one end – and that end is the end of the dollar.

32. #32
    On January 21st, 2009 at 2:40 pm, RabbidSquirrel said:

    On January 21st, 2009 at 12:41 pm, rotarymunkey said:

    Thanks! I figured it was a bootstrap or an IPC issue. And it happens so instantaneously it has to be an RTOS. I wish I could acquire the specs and the protocol so I could hack on it. I would even sign an NDA if the corporate legal would let me. (they would want licensing $$$’s at best though)

    I know the Infotainment system I have installed is a Unix based RTOS. I hacked the cars enginering portal – and managed to remap the touch screen off the front dash before I realized I was touching the wrong area.

    Hey!!! Whats this cool thing? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

    

    

    (stupid german engineers, the reset-all touch button (no physical) was remapped to probably where my steering wheel is located)

33. #33
    On January 21st, 2009 at 2:45 pm, RabbidSquirrel said:

    the programmers do NOT write the code so that the modules test their communication at any time other than start-up,

    I will absolutely agree with that.

    That explains why when I drove off the lot the first day, the sat radio went off into the ozone and I couldnt get it to work on the entire drive home. But it was fine when I restarted the engine.

    Occasionally it goes to full speed air even when the knob is set to “low”, and yet, if I turn the knob to “high”, the fan slows down. Occasionally it simply shuts off the A/C system altogether. What can I say? I have a stupid A/C module in my car.

    Sounds like the coder has a pointer issue.

34. #34
    On January 21st, 2009 at 3:18 pm, Bachbone said:

    The UAW yesterday said there have been no negotiations with the Big 3 regarding bringing wages and benefits in line with foreign manufacturers’ costs, which according to the bailout deal were to be finished by February or the bailout deal was off, the bailout billions were to be repaid and GM and Chrysler were to be left at risk for bankruptcy.

    Of course, anyone with half a brain knew, a) these bailout billions would never be repaid; b) when Obama took office, the bailout would be reworked to see that the UAW was paid off and didn’t have to give any concessions; c) GM and Chrysler (at least) would be essentially nationalized auto companies manufacturing cars nobody wants to buy; and d) nationalized car companies would be perpetually subsidized, a la AMTRAK, by U.S. taxpayers.

    Remember that Joe Biden said it’s “patriotic” for us schlubs to pay taxes and Obama said it’s good to “spread our wealth around.”

    Yep, happy days are here again.

35. #35
    On January 21st, 2009 at 4:32 pm, Khyris said:

    I dunno… yes I’m pissed that they’re looking for more handouts, but I’m actually pleased they’re taking some proactive steps in advertising… I prefer spending funds towards turning their business around like this rather than underwriting some golf course (cough UAW cough)

    On a side note, I love my dodge… have had it for 4 years with no issues… and it was the best value for the money. Only V6 coupe I could find for under 15k

36. #36
    On January 21st, 2009 at 7:39 pm, WarTip said:

    And just to think, it is all in the name of promoting the general welfare of we the people. Well, it is at least welfare of some sorts … but I do not see anything good about it for those of us who have to pay for it.

37. #37
    On January 21st, 2009 at 8:50 pm, robert537 said:

    I don’t pay a lot of attention to the auto biz but I can’t say that I’ve ever associated Fiat with quality (or Chrysler for that matter).

    If this is the case then Chrysler won’t do itself any favor sticking its logo on bad cars.

    Thoughts?

38. #38
    On January 21st, 2009 at 9:33 pm, Republicanvet said:

    Chrysler plans to help underwrite the fourth installment of the “Terminator” movie series, “Terminator Salvation,” where it will place its vehicles in cameo roles.

    So are people so stupid they will only buy these vehicles after they see it in a movie?

    …must be Oblahblah voters.

39. #39
    On January 21st, 2009 at 9:35 pm, Republicanvet said:

    On January 21st, 2009 at 8:33 am, ArizonaNeanderthal said:

    If they could get the Governator out of Kalifornia to make Terminator 4 it might be worth it-with cameos by Pelosi and Feinstein of course.

    …hopefully getting a swirly in the toilet by the Terminator.

40. #40
    On January 21st, 2009 at 9:38 pm, Republicanvet said:

    On January 21st, 2009 at 9:38 am, PKAmmoTroop said:

    I was thinking of getting a Blue Ray player and 7.1 surround sound home theater. Where do I sign up for Bailout $$$?

    Create a PKAmmoTroop Bank and Trust, fill out the form, and I bet the check will be in the mail before the ink is dry.