Toyota Owner Testifies to Congress, Toyota Prez Pretends Apology, Still No Fixes

From Denny: The problems with Toyota are long term and systemic of the Toyota culture. They offer up public apologies and still continue to stonewall owners on fixing their cars. Since the President Akio Toyoda testified and apologized before Congress, Toyota's new campaign is to hit the airwaves with more ads.

They are blasting the social sites like Digg with their public relations "news stories" FOX network style, claiming all is fine and in control. All that says to me is they are still too cheap to let go of the money to properly correct their electronics problems. They would rather spend that same money - and probably more in the final analysis - on ads, denials, public relations companies and pretend fixes.

As usual, Toyota is tone deaf. What do the American owners of Toyotas want from the parent company? They want their cars fixed and fixed properly. If Toyota is unable to do so, then buy back the cars.

Toyota's answer to the angry public is to do slick advertising of their vehicles. They also advertise their Lexus brand more, hoping people don't focus upon the connection to the parent company of Toyota.

Rhonda Smith, a Lexus owner from Tennessee, testified before Congress about her ordeal. Her car went careening out of control at 100 mph - and that was in 2006. Toyota refused to fix the car. Listen to her ordeal and tell me it doesn't leave you wondering why America still tolerates this car company to do business here.

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Akio Toyoda, President and owner of Toyota, offers his apology, yet still does nothing to correct the problems:

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Funny Colbert Interviews Erickson, Head of Conservative RedState.com

From Denny: If you missed this cheeky interview last month you are in for a grin! Erick Erickson - please tell me that's a nickname and not what his parents really named him - is the head and main writer for ultra conservative RedState.com. This guy used to be a lawyer and it's evident as to why he wasn't any good at it and is writing for conservatives online full time.

They discuss the crazy notion of a Republican Purity Test to see if you get to remain in the Republican Party. It isn't a private club, guys, it's called politics. You know, there are 300 million people in this country, all with the right to be represented.

The quote of Erickson saying that he thought "there were a lot of Republicans calling themselves as conservatives who weren't actually conservatives" to be a bit weird. Right now in the Republican Party they are busy defining what is a conservative. Of course, there are as many interpretations as there are members.

Colbert basically mocks Erickson's writing online that mocks liberal public figures. Then Colbert calls him out to say the same charges in person, face to face, instead of hiding behind the anonymous website. Erickson squirmed a bit on that one, then tried to shrug it off with "the usual suspects" smirking.

Do the Republicans have a special school everyone goes to with a voucher to learn how to smirk, sneer and mock effectively? Erickson doesn't come across as terribly smart - just thuggish and cavalier - the usual caricature of the current day Republican. We could be doing something so much better with our politics than this sorry excuse...

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