I'd say a typical MPG average for the generic "American Car" - if there could be such a critter, would prolly be somewhere around the low 20s. Little cars do better, bigger one worse. Mrs Timber's mid-size gets around 26mpg. My smaller 4x4 gets around 20, and my big one gets about 16-18, but thats diesel. Dunno what my tractors get - the little one runs a couple hours on 5 gallons of gas, the big one, also a diesel, runs about 6 to 8 hours on 30 gallons, dependin' on how hard its workin'. The Cat will burn 80 gallons of diesel in 4 hours, no trouble at all.
Hmm what do you use the CAT for Timber? My Subaru Impreza Outback gets about 35 mpg on the highway if I'm careful, going down hill, and have a good tail wind. My hubby's bigger Forrester gets about 30 mpg. I wonder if European cars do a lot better?
The Cat is used for real heavy work - earth-movin', land-clearin', log-haulin', heavy snow removal, pullin' out the big tractor when the idiot operatin' it gets it stuck in that same damned seep AGAIN and muds it on foot back to the equipment shed to get the Cat and suffer the wife's amusement. Mrs Timber gets a perverse kick outta that sorta thing.
I once had a lovely Peugeot 205...
Now, we usually do it liters/100 kilometers, but if I got it right it got about 39 mpg...
You bought a French car? Tsk tsk
I like small cars! I wouldn't mind one of those new Minis, though....
But how come you've got a
Japanese car?
AWD, super dependability, good gas mileage, low maintenance, and they're mostly built here anyway. All the stuff we can't get from American cars that are built just about everywhere but here.
Saturn - GM's proof that America can build a $10,000 car every bit as good as anything the the Japanese offer that market - and do it for under $20,000
I have a German/American car made in Mexico (DaimlerChrysler PT Cruiser)
a Japanese truck made in America (Toyota)
and a German car made in Germany (Porsche)
each and every one gets the same mileage (20 mpg)
... and you have a speed limit, Dys!
Takes it a while to wind out and get up there, but the Cat can hit nearly 12MPH ... with or without a load
The Democrat Party is in the grip of a loose collection of more or less single issue advocacy groups, united only by a liberal secular outlook in most (not all) issues. In the first place, that does not add up to a coherent view of the world and the nation that Democrats (or anybody) can communicate effectively to the electorate. Secondly, the candidates who can gain the endorsement or at least acceptance of all these issue groups. more or less simultaneously. is either a particularly adept liar and poseur (such as Bill Clinton) or a seriously defective personality such as Jimmy Carter, Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, or John Kerry.
So the problem is both the platform and the candidate. The cause of the problem is the organized single issue constituencies who are still the most powerful elements of the party. The cure is new leadership strong enough to cut out the deadwood and forge a new constituency.
Lots of luck.
so george the bottom line of your proposition for dems is that if they can become republicans they have a chance at winning elections?
No. If they become any one reliable thing, they have a chance of attracting someone.
one reliable thing is exactly what the dem party is not (perhaps it's only redeeming feature)
Its been said before, but it fits right in here:
"I belong to no organized political party. I'm a Democrat"
Will Rogers
Political Groups Paid Two Relatives of House Leader
By PHILIP SHENON
Published: April 6, 2005
WASHINGTON, April 5 - The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay's home state of Texas.
Most of the payments to his wife, Christine A. DeLay, and his only child, Dani DeLay Ferro, were described in the disclosure forms as "fund-raising fees," "campaign management" or "payroll," with no additional details about how they earned the money. The payments appear to reflect what Mr. DeLay's aides say is the central role played by the majority leader's wife and daughter in his political career.
Mr. DeLay's national political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority, or Armpac, said in a statement on Tuesday that the two women had provided valuable services to the committee in exchange for the payments: "Mrs. DeLay provides big picture, long-term strategic guidance and helps with personnel decisions. Ms. Ferro is a skilled and experienced professional event planner who assists Armpac in arranging and organizing individual events."
Ms. Ferro has managed a number of her father's re-election campaigns for his House seat.
His spokesman said that Mr. DeLay had no additional comment. Although several members of Congress employ family members as campaign managers or on their political action committees, advocacy groups seeking an overhaul of federal campaign-finance and ethics laws say that the payments to Mr. DeLay's family members were unusually generous, and should be the focus of new scrutiny of the majority leader.
Mr. DeLay, whose title of majority leader makes him the second most powerful member of the House, has offered a vigorous public defense in recent weeks to a flurry of ethics charges made by Democratic lawmakers and campaign watchdog groups. The executive director of Americans for a Republican Majority and a key fund-raiser for the committee were indicted in Texas last year on illegal fundraising charges, and prosecutors there have refused to rule out the possibility of charges against Mr. DeLay in the continuing inquiry.
The payments to Mr. DeLay's family have continued into 2005; the latest monthly disclosure statement filed by Americans for a Republican Majority shows that Mrs. DeLay was paid was paid $4,028 last month, while Mrs. Ferro received $3,681. Earlier disclosure statements show that the two women received similar monthly fees from the political action committee throughout 2003 and 2004.
Mrs. DeLay has been intimately involved in her husband's political career and his fund-raising operations in Washington and Texas. In an interview in 2003 with Roll Call, a newspaper on Capitol Hill, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay explained Mrs. DeLay's role as "the final signoff of Tom's travel schedule, what events he attends and what his name appears on."
Mrs. Ferro has also helped manage Mr. DeLay's charity operations. Financial disclosure statements filed by Mr. DeLay's House campaign committees, which are separate from Americans for a Republican Majority, show that Mrs. Ferro and her political consulting firm, Coastal Consulting of Sugar Land, Tex., received $222,000 from 2001 through last year, reflecting her role in the re-election campaigns.
Although there has been no suggestion from prosecutors that Mrs. Ferro is under investigation by the grand jury in Austin, her records were subpoenaed in the inquiry, which is focused on the fund-raising activities of Texans for a Republican Majority, a state political action committee modeled on Americans for a Republican Majority. Mrs. Ferro received about $30,000 in fund-raising and consulting fees from Texans for a Republican Majority, the committee's records show.
"It's 'DeLay Inc.' " said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a research group that has closely monitored Mr. DeLay and his campaign fund-raising and expenditures. "If it's not illegal, it certainly is inappropriate for members of Congress to use their positions to enrich their families."
timberlandko wrote:Its been said before, but it fits right in here:
"I belong to no organized political party. I'm a Democrat"
Will Rogers
See? We have the most fun members in our party. I feel honored to be among the truly great.
