“TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION” on The Daily Caller

One of the more endearing qualities of the American people is their appetite for excess. Bureaucrats have fashioned careers on wagging their plump fingers at excess, and documentary filmmakers built an industry on reprimanding free people for living their lives, but then again, these merchants of guilt could find fault with box seats at Wrigley. (more)

U.S. auto sales may have run at the fastest pace this month since the 2009 “cash for clunkers” program as Toyota Motor Corp.’s incentives to counter global recalls spurred rivals to match the discounts. (more)

When Barack Obama played Monopoly as a kid, I can only imagine he did not carefully cultivate a business reputation and earn enough money to buy properties on Boardwalk and Park Place. He probably created a special Democratic version of Monopoly, [intlink id="236613" type="post"]the Hugo Chavez Edition[/intlink], where he would denounce the owners of properties as “greedy and mean” and then simply legislate himself control of those enterprises—for the “greater good,” mind you. The “greater good,” of course, is the perpetuation of his power.
As long as he can conjure up envy from 51 percent of the population, he can take from the more productive 49 percent, thus creating a culture of dependency. The more people need you, the greater your tributary of votes in the next election. It is sad that the rugged individualists who built this country have slowly been replaced by “hitchhikers of virtue,” as Ayn Rand described them in Atlas Shrugged.
Aside from expanding the misguided policies of the Bush administration by taking over automobile companies, firing CEOs and inserting his own operatives, Obama has bullied financial companies and taken control of one-sixth of the economy with a nefarious health care vote he had to buy from his own party (Louisiana Purchase, Cornhusker Kickback, etc.). His government now has quietly taken complete control of the $72 billion student loan lending business, outlawing any private lending in that area.
Obama has been a strange agent of the “change” he promised. He quickly “changed” Washington, D.C., into [intlink id="669123" type="post"]a corrupt, Chicago-style, political strong-arming system[/intlink] of graft, self-dealing, intimidation and payoffs.
Obama found the Bush administration’s wasteful spending on unnecessary wars of choice and prescription drug entitlements to be a good start. He set out to ramp up the pace, enlisting the audacity of dopes to rack up a record $3.2 trillion in national debt in his first six months. In just five years, the Obama-Pelosi-Reid triumvirate will run up another $10.5 trillion in debt, as much as it took every President from George Washington through Dubya Bush to accumulate.
Harry Reid looks like a creepy operator. He reminds me of the only proctologist in town who takes your insurance, and Nancy Pelosi is like his wife who works at the practice keeping two sets of books.
Obama’s Washington has impressed many in the world including Fidel Castro, who applauds his efforts. Even the Somali pirates are so taken by his boldness that they have asked to send some of their pirate trainees to Washington to intern with the Obama administration this summer. (more)

Toyota Motor (7203.T) and Mazda Motor (7261.T) announced a deal under which Japan’s top automaker will supply its hybrid technology under licence to Mazda, in the latest link-up within the fast-changing auto industry. (more)

Americans are turning against Toyota Motor Corp. after sudden-acceleration complaints forced it to recall more than 8 million vehicles worldwide, while Ford Motor Co. is the most popular automaker. (more)

In the press gallery of the House of Representatives, off the beaten path of tourists, and accessible only to those with proper credentials, hangs a large photograph of a herd of cows. They’re standing in a haphazard semi-circle, gazing into the camera lens with that vacant stare that cows generally have. The caption under photo reads, “Press Conference.” The photo is shot from the position of someone who would have called the press conference. It’s easy to imagine that person standing before the herd, taking a deep breath and beginning. “Thank you for coming this morning …” (more)

E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post wrote a pretty interesting, (albeit wrong, in my humble opinion) opinion piece recently where he asked this important rhetorical question: (more)

Daily Caller reporter Aleksandra Kulczuga strikes gold and passes it along. According to the Washington Examiner, there’s a pattern among drivers who reported unintended acceleration in their Toyota: (more)

The latest instance of sudden, uncontrolled acceleration in a Toyota – an incident Monday in which a Prius hit 94 mph on a freeway east of San Diego before the driver got it under control- raises the question: What do you do if this happens to you? (more)

In a dramatic showdown at [Toyota's] U.S. sales headquarters in Torrance, Calif., engineers from Exponent, a consulting firm hired by the embattled automaker, re-created and said they refuted an experiment conducted by an Illinois engineering professor that had shown how an induced electronic short could cause Toyota vehicles to suddenly race out of control. (more)

Interest in purchasing a Toyota has soared since the beleaguered car giant started offering its first widespread zero-percent APR financing this week, according to traffic data gathered by Edmunds.com, the prominent automotive resource. (more)

Product recalls are the Dante’s Inferno of crisis management. Ostensibly about the process of identifying and fixing a problem, they have become the hellholes of America’s political and legal systems. What awaits the unfortunate manufacturer facing a full-blown national recall is not an exercise in remediation, but months (or longer) in the dunking pool of public disgrace followed by the transfer of huge sums of money to plaintiffs’ lawyers. (more)

On Nov. 23, 1986, CBS’s “60 Minutes” broadcast a 17-minute segment, “Out of Control,” about a rash of reports of a “sudden unintended acceleration” problem with the Audi 5000. It was presented by correspondent Ed Bradley, a man who now stands in the annals of TV journalism as a revered and legendary figure. (more)

Congress dragged Toyota to Washington to testify in one of the indignant show trials they so love. I wish they would subpoena themselves and bring Congress before a Senate hearing, under oath and under the hot lights of TV cameras. Then we might get to the roots of most problems in America: too much government intervention, confusing rules, and second-guessing politicians. (more)

Toyota executives head to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for the first of three hearings on the automaker’s product safety record — a trip to the political woodshed that could get the company into a deeper legal thicket in courts around the country. (more)

1.) Anticipating health care showdown, Republicans studying, slapping one another in the face — Congressional Republicans training for Thursday’s health care summit swallowed an extra raw egg and ran additional wind sprints upon learning Sunday night that Pres. Obama plans to further empower health care regulators. The Daily Caller’s Jon Ward reports that Obama plans to “include in a health care proposal new authority for the secretary of health and human services to veto insurance rate hikes that it deems excessive, and will create a federal panel that would set guidelines for health insurers to follow in determining their rates.” On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell went on the TV and asked a very interesting question: “If they are going to lay out the plan they want four days in advance, what are we discussing?” Answer: Open your mouth and close your eyes, and you will get a big surprise! (more)

When some of the world’s best-known companies faced disputes over secondhand smoke, toxic waste in the jungle and asbestos, they all turned to the same source for a staunch defense: Exponent Inc. (more)

The gloom is lifting a bit from the Japanese economy, as sharp growth from China and other Asian neighbors is lifting exports and spurring more capital spending by the nation’s manufacturers. (more)

While Toyota remains mired in embarrassing recalls, dealers gathered here say they are excited about a major marketing push the Japanese automaker has slated for March and noted that the company’s payments to fix recalled cars and trucks will help offset lost sales. (more)

In a bid to regain consumer confidence after massive vehicle recalls, Toyota plans to disclose all flaws it fixed following complaints from drivers, a newspaper said Friday. (more)