Month: July 2008

Thinking of Trading Cars for Better Gas Mileage? Visit this Site First

Trish

Buck’s post on his family’s decision about which car to drive highlighted a question many people are asking. He and his wife chose wisely, according to an amazing web site everyone should use: www.fueleconomy.gov. Among other things, the site allows you to compare two vehicles side by side and see how much you can expect to spend on fuel.

To use Buck’s example, he will probably get 31 mpg city and 39 highway with his 1994 Suzuki Swift, for a combined total of 34 mpg — exactly what he reported. His 1999 Isuzu Rodeo, on the other hand, will likely only get 18 mpg in city driving and 22 on the road, for an average of 20 mpg. But the comparisons don’t stop there.

It will cost Buck & Co. $3 to drive the Suzuki 25 miles because it will use .74 gallons of gas. That will add up to an annual fuel cost of $1,799, based on average miles. The Isuzu, however, will cost $5.10 to drive 25 miles and will burn 1.25 gallons of gas, for an annual cost of $3,060. Huge difference!

We’re not done yet. At the end of 12 months, the Suzuki will have used 10.1 barrels of oil while the Isuzu will burn up 17.1 barrels. Finally, the carbon footprint on the Suzuki, on a scale of 3.5 to 16.2, is only 5.4. The Isuzu? A much bigger 9.2.

If you’re trying to figure out whether trading your gas guzzler will make sense, use this site. You’ll keep from miscalculating something that could cost you mucho dinero down the line.

And Buck, one more thing. No matter which car you choose, install a K&N air filter. I did, and I’m now getting one extra trip to Jacksonville on a tank of gas. And while I’m sure you wouldn’t want a trip to J-ville, period, it’s a big help to me.

Is Your Car Gaining Value? Mine Is

Buck Banks

I don’t drive much. I either ride a bike or walk to work, and confine my driving mostly to one day on the weekend when we run errands, do the grocery shopping and go to brunch at Burger Bob’s.

But we are a two-car family, though my wife also mostly walks or rides to work. The car that we use for getting around and hauling everything from furniture to garden supplies and kayaks is a white 1999 Isuzu Rodeo. The other is a white 1994 Suzuki Swift, which has fallen into disrepair due to neglect and disuse.
swift.jpg
Although we were considering buying a new hybrid, with a kid in college and one about to start, it seemed prudent to rehabilitate Swifty and use it as our main vehicle for getting around town. The thing only has 48,000 miles on it, but the exterior is looking pretty bad from the ravages of the South Florida climate, falling mangoes and hurricanes. The interior, however, is like new.

So we took it down to the corner gas station to have it fixed up, and Kathy went online to try and locate some parts we need, like the antenna that was lost in Hurricane Wilma. Fixing Swifty up ain’t cheap — it cost us about $900 to put on new tires, belts, brake pads, change all the filters, etc. And we’re going to have it painted so we’re not embarrassed to drive it.

It’s fun to drive, with its zippy little four-cylinder engine and five-speed manual transmission. And it gets more than 30 miles per gallon around town, 35 on the highway.

The interesting thing is we have come to find that Swifty has gained value while we couldn’t give the Rodeo away if we wanted to. Indeed, the guy at the gas station put it inside the bay and locked it up at night, leaving much higher-priced SUVs parked in the unfenced lot, because, he said, Swifty was more likely to get stolen.

In searching for parts online, we came across an advert for the same car, same year, but with 150,000 miles on it listed for $2,195. That may not sound like much, but when I bought the car 14 years ago, it only cost $7,400, and the Blue Book value is just $700. I found another listing for $10,000, but those were Australian dollars and the car had been “customized” by someone with more money than taste or sense.

Kathy’s co-worker wants to buy it. Our pizza delivery guy wants to buy it. Our Haitian mechanic wants to buy it and send it to Haiti where he says it’s the preferred vehicle of car dealers.

But I think we’re going to keep old Swifty. I have a feeling that as the price of gas rises, so will the value of our 14-year-old subcompact hatchback.

Dr. Democrat: Wes Clark Is Not Going to Hell

Buck Banks

Dear Dr. Democrat:

Is retired Gen. Wesley Clark going to go to hell for trashing John McCain’s military record on TV?

Martial Problems

Dear Martial:

This controversy is not about what Clark said. It’s really about polls showing Obama ahead of McCain by double digits. Those numbers put the McCain team on the offensive, seeking out an opening, any opening, that would enable them to change the subject from gas prices to security and McCain’s military creds.

What really happened was:

SCHIEFFER: Well, General… I have to say, Barack Obama has not had any of those experiences either. Nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.

WESLEY CLARK: Well, I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification for being president.

The fact is, only one U.S. president has been shot down in a plane during wartime — Poppy Bush. Since the other 42 weren’t shot down, being shot down is clearly not a requirement to be president.

Of course, facts don’t matter to Republicans. The McCain campaign responded to Clark’s statement with unbridled outrage: “Stop trashing McCain’s military record!”

Faced with this, Team Obama unfortunately did a full John Kerry: The senator “regrets” that Gen. Clark trashed McCain’s military record. Sen. Obama admires John McCain’s record, no — he worships McCain’s record. Senator Obama would never besmirch McCain’s patriotism.

Obama revealed a weak spot and the McCain team has been exploiting it ever since.

Monday night, in an interview with Keith Olbermann on “Countdown,” Sen. Jim Webb said something like, “John McCain is a friend of mine but I wish he’d dial back on the politicization of the military. Not everyone in the military agrees with his political views.”

The McCain team responded with more manufactured outrage, accusing Webb is participating in a concerted effort with the Obama campaign, Wes Clark and Keith Olbermann to trash Sen. McCain’s military record.

Last night, McCain demanded that Obama “cut loose” Wes Clark, even though McCain has not cut loose Charlie Black who recently said a 9/11 style attack on American soil would probably help McCain get elected. Plus, Clark is not officially tied to the Obama campaign. (However, he was spotted in D.C. going into a building a few minutes after Caroline Kennedy, who is vetting Obama’s vice presidential picks, went into the same building.)

Obama could have stopped this on Monday by pushing back. Instead, he laid down and let the GOP run over him.

The Obama campaign needs to change the subject in the media — today. Where is the war room? Where is the rapid response?

McCain: “I’m Not a Dumb F**k on the Economy”

Trish

Remember when John McCain admitted, as is his straight-talkin’ maverick-elicious wont, months ago that he’s not really up on the economy? Well so does everybody else. And now he’s backpedaling like Lance Armstrong.

McCain has tried previously to deny that he ever claimed ignorance of economic matters, but that quote won’t go away

The original remark…slipped out last December in New Hampshire when McCain said, “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.” He went on to joke, “I have Greenspan’s book,” referring to the biography that has just been published at the time by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

McCain has tried previously to deny that he ever claimed ignorance of economic matters, but that quote won’t go away.

No, even on a campaign stop/vacation in Columbia to address Americans’ greatest concern right now (for those who guessed the e-word again, you’re wrong), the War on Drugs, his candid and witty moment follows him.

…”Good Morning America’s” Robin Roberts…asked McCain why he went abroad when the No. 1 issue for voters was the U.S. economy.

“You have admitted that you’re not exactly an expert when it comes to the economy,” Roberts began.

“I have not. I have not. I actually have not,” McCain interrupted. “I said that I am stronger on national security issues because of all the time I spent in the military. Very strong on the economy. I understand it. I have a lot more experience than my opponent.”

Let’s recap. McCain is very strong on the economy. He understands it and everything. Hey, I’m convinced. But how come he has no ideas on what to do about anything, you know, economic?

“I’m not ignoring the economy,” he said. “I’ve been speaking about it over the last two weeks.” McCain said a key to reviving the economy is ending the country’s dependence on foreign oil, and he ticked off elements of his energy plan, including more offshore oil drilling and nuclear power plants along with increased use of wind, solar and clean coal technology.

See? McCain understands the economy. Or is it energy? If you were hoping he’d weigh in on the credit and housing crises, keep waiting. When asked what he’d do about that stuff, McCain said, “Uh, I got nothing.”

[Las Vegas Sun’s Jon Ralston asks about the foreclosure bill in Congress]

[McCain] It is imperfect but I am also saying, and I may not have said this a month ago, we may have to do more.

[Ralston: “Like what?”]

[McCain] I don’t know, but we may have to do more…The housing crisis continues to deepen…

Just call McCain the Man with the Plan…for the War on Drugs.

McFlipflop: McCain Surrenders His Principled Stand against Swiftboating

Jon Ponder

Of all John McCain’s reversals of longheld positions — his 180s on taxes, offshore drilling, intolerant Christians and even torture, to name just a few — nothing is sadder or more disgraceful than his flipflop on Swiftboating, a practice he decried when it was used in 2004 to defame the Democratic presidential nominee, his former friend and fellow Vietnam veteran, Sen. John Kerry.

McCain’s sudden embrace of Swiftboating — which today is synonymous with a concerted effort to lie about an opponent’s history — is all the more deplorable because he has hired retired Col. George “Bud” Day, a proud member of the group that Swiftboated Kerry — and someone McCain once described as having “tunnel vision” — to lead what McCain is calling his “Truth Squad.”

At Huffington Post, Sam Stein reports that “[during] the 2004 campaign, [Day] said of Kerry: ‘My view is he basically will go down in history sometime as the Benedict Arnold of 1971.’ And after appearing in a national advertisement for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign, Day formed the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation, an extension of the Swift Boat effort.”

During a McCain campaign conference call with reporters this week, Bud Day was asked how his work for McCain will be different from his efforts to Swiftboat Kerry four years ago.

“The Swift Boat attacks were simply a revelation of the truth,” Day told reporters. “The similarity does not exist here. What the Swift Boat campaign was about was to lay out John Kerry’s record. John Kerry has never produced any evidence to deny that. We are producing the evidence of these attacks right now to show that those remarks were completely inaccurate.

“One was about laying out the truth,” Day said. “This one is about attempting to cast a new shadow on John McCain.”

Just four years ago, John McCain had a very different view of Day’s attacks on Kerry. According to Media Matters:

[…]

McCain’s Spotty Military Record Is Declared Off the Table – And Obama Appears to Accede

Jon Ponder

This Q&A on “Face the Nation” on Sunday between retired Gen. Wesley Clark and host Bob Shieffer has caused quite a stir:
Much to the dismay of Democrats who took Obama at his word that he would bring a gun to the Republicans’ knife fight, less than 24 hours after Clark’s appearance on “Face the Nation,” Obama unceremoniously threw Gen. Clark under the bus.
SCHIEFFER: You went so far as to say that you thought, and these are your words, that John McCain was “untested and untried.” And I have to say I had to read that twice because you’re talking about someone who who was a prisoner of war. He was a squadron commander of the largest squadron in the Navy. He’s been on the Senate Armed Services Committee for many years. How can you say that John McCain is untested and untried?

WESLEY CLARK: Because in the matters of national security policy making, it’s a matter of understanding risk. It’s a matter of gauging your opponents, and it’s a matter of being held accountable. John McCain’s never done any of that in his official positions. I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in Armed Forces as a prisoner of war.

He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron … in the Navy he commanded, it wasn’t a wartime squadron. He hasn’t been there and ordered the bombs to fall. He hasn’t seen what it’s like when diplomats come in and say, “I don’t know whether we’re going to be able to get this point through or not. You want to take the risk? How are we going to handle it? What about your reputation…” He hasn’t made those calls, Bob.

SCHIEFFER: Well, General… I have to say, Barack Obama has not had any of those experiences either. Nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.

WESLEY CLARK: Well, I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification for being president.

SCHIEFFER: REALLY?

*

In an article about the controversy published on the CBS News website, Ben Smith, the reporter who covers the Democrats for right-leaning Politico.com, laid out a key element in the conservatives’ strategy for delivering a win for John McCain this year. “The highest voltage third rail of this presidential campaign may not be race, sex, or age,” Smith wrote, “but Senator John McCain’s military service.”

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