1. Taxman :: Cometh
2. Material :: Girl
3. Format :: Disk
4. File cabinet :: Key
5. Ignore :: Neglect
6. Super! :: Awesome!
7. Fireproof :: Safe
8. Blockbuster :: Movie
9. Snooper :: Eavesdropper
10. Good will :: Ambassador

Top Gear’s James May takes a wild ride with rally driver Ken Block… and dirt bike driver Ricky Carmichael joins in the fun!

Yowza!

Hubby called last night and opined that the everglades must be on fire… but it was just the sun going down… SOOC.

Reposted from beannachd, but I do so love this image… y’all never go over there, anyway, right? ;-)

People all over the country are diving for the clunker cash. A boon for the auto makers, both foreign and domestic…. but I won’t be taking advantage of the rebate. The great thing about Jeeps? You can just keep rebuilding them and they’ll run forever…

Clunker auto rebate attracts thrifty, middle income buyers on first day

Tamarac homemaker Cynthia Gilbert is the thrifty type, who buys for the long-term and only after careful research.

On Friday, she fit the profile of consumers visiting auto dealerships for the formal debut of the “cash-for-clunkers” program, which offers $1 billion in rebates this summer for drivers who trade in older cars and trucks for new ones that are more fuel efficient.

Gilbert wanted to turn in her gas-guzzling 1999 Ford Expedition for the maximum $4,500 rebate and to buy a new gas-sipping Honda or Hyundai sports utility. She was leaning toward a Hyundai for its 200,000-mile warranty, expecting she and her husband would share their sole family car for years to come.

She’s already scoured Web sites for information and showed up for test drives Friday with Consumer Reports magazines in hand. She considered paying in cash to skip financing fees.

“That’s just the kind of people we are: frugal,” the 42-year-old said proudly.

Across South Florida, dealers reported a stream of prudent spenders for Friday’s launch of the “clunkers” program that aims to trim pollution, boost car sales and rev up the U.S. economy.

Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation reported seven “clunker” deals closed at one Honda seller and six at a Chevrolet dealer ? with some paid all in cash.

A wider variety of buyers is expected to turn out in weeks to come. They include low-income drivers who might otherwise buy a used car but can use the credit for a new one ? likely a low-priced model like a Honda Civic or Ford Taurus.

Dealers are enthusiastic, piling on extra perks ? including up to $4,500 in additional rebates on some models. Rick Case, with 16 dealerships mainly in Florida, expects a 20 percent rise in sales this summer.

The government issued final regulations Friday, 136 pages worth, clarifying how the program works. The rules specify one rebate per person and require drivers leasing cars to take a minimum five-year lease.

Honda and Acura on Friday extended their lease programs to 60 months to meet the new requirements.

For consumers, the program offers a credit of $3,500 or $4,500 deducted from the price of a new car or truck. The dealer then seeks reimbursement from the government, expected within 10 days or so.

To qualify, so-called clunker cars must get 18 miles or less per gallon and be insured for the past year, among other conditions. The new replacement cars must get 22 miles per gallon and cost less than $45,000.

The clunker is destroyed, with the dealer to receive $50 to cover the cost of scrapping the old vehicle.

Obama’s admittedly uninformed diatribe on the issue of his friend’s arrest. Has to be racial, right? I’m beginning to think that obama is the last man standing on the issue; everything seems to come down to race and he can’t let go of it. He uses it, both personally and professionally. Makes me sick.

Here’s the police report.

If this were just one of them it wouldn’t have been a big deal… but both? So many little legs in the air, I had to take a picture.

The site is running like a 98 year old with arthritis, but Pixy is looking into the problem.

YsD just called; she was awarded Medicaid so now her health care is free. Still living in the ‘free’ (your tax dollars at work) apartment, getting fat. No, really. She said so herself. Sigh.

Anyway, the dogs are cute, right?

Once in a while Joan at Primordial Slack writes something that makes my eyelids turn inside out. And she’s done it again. Profound truths are her stock in trade. Well, that and alcohol. Heh…

The propaganda train keeps chugging along. This obama malaprop via Gateway Pundit.

“That’s part of the African American experience. You are, in some ways, connected to this distant land, but on the other end, you’re about as American as it gets.
In some ways, African Americans are more fundamentally rooted in the American experience because they don’t have a recent immigrant experience to draw on.
It’s that unique African American culture that has existed in North America for hundreds of years long before we actually founded the nation.”

Oh, please!

Here’s a little un-planted garden flower I found this morning…

…the flag the clubhouse flies… I look at every day…

…my friend Harvey the Mockingbird, who waits for us to come walking by before settling onto the street sign. He used to sing for us, going through his entire repertoire with unbridled joy. We still get a greeting, but he remains, at least for now, mute.
He’s growing up, Harv is.

Breagha, good girl that she is, waits patiently for me.