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My name is George C. Joseph. I am the sole owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in Melbourne, Florida. My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business. We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people. We are active in the community and the local chamber of commerce. We deal with several dozen local vendors on a day to day basis and many more during a month. All depend on our business for part...

Chrysler announced the closing of 789 dealerships earlier this month. On today's radio program, Rush Limbaugh spoke for a few seconds about whether or not some of the dealership closings are the result of politics (campaign contributions). After hearing this, I decided to look up the contributions of the dealers on the Internet. Here are a few examples of the campaign donations made by some of the dealers who will close their doors shortly. I'm not anywhere close to going through the entire list yet. The figures are only from the 2004, 2006, and 2008 Election cycles: (1) Michael E....

MUNICH – NATO's top official chastised Germany and France for refusing to commit more troops to Afghanistan, but the two European powers skirted the issue Saturday even while agreeing that Washington should not be left to fight international conflicts alone. Vice President Joe Biden came to the Munich Security Conference amid expectations he would forcefully repeat President Barack Obama's calls for greater European troop deployments in Afghanistan, as Washington prepares to double American troops there to roughly 60,000. But Biden kept his Afghan comments general in an apparent attempt to avoid a public dispute among allies.

You're behind the wheel of a 1970 Dodge Hemi Challenger in a Vintage Grand Prix race. You're chasing a Ferrari, hitting speeds up to 160mph. This is NOT a video game! Ten minutes of outstanding arm chair racing. My first vanity, I apologize, but this video was Sofa King cool, I just had to post it! So who do you think wins?

They call him "Dodge." That's where a baby boy made his entrance into the world Tuesday night, in his parents' Dodge van while they were heading south on the Antelope Valley Freeway. "Dodge," whose real name is Jonathan, and his parents were doing fine Thursday at the Antelope Valley Hospital Women & Infants Pavilion as they waited for an OK to go home after doctors checked out mother and child. Chris and Susan Barnum were still giddy and ecstatic following the arrival of their fifth child on Tuesday en route to the hospital. The infant only wanted his mother's milk...

Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden came to Pittsburgh today, but decided not to march in the Labor Day Parade. He said Hurricane Gustav in the Gulf Coast made it inappropriate for him to campaign in the festive setting of the parade. "This is just not a day for national politics. Our focus should be what's happening in the Gulf," Mr. Biden said during a Downtown news conference while the parade was under way a few blocks away. Gov. Ed Rendell, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and numerous Allegheny County politicians marched at the front of the parade.

Chrysler LLC Vice Chairman and President Jim Press said Friday that the auto maker needs its dealers to start consolidating on their own without expecting big buyout checks from the company as an incentive. Mr. Press, speaking to an automotive conference taking place before an annual car-dealer convention here, said that in coming years, the company will shrink its product portfolio to improve profitability. The smaller portfolio will best benefit dealers who combine the auto maker's three brands -- Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep -- into one location, he said. For dealers waiting on big buyout incentives, they may want to...

Automaker says Dakota trucks, Durango SUVs and Ram pickups could potentially shift out of park without a key in the ignition. WASHINGTON (AP) -- -- Chrysler said Friday it is recalling nearly 600,000 Dodge trucks and vans to address concerns that the vehicles could shift out of park without the key in the ignition. The recall affects 576,417 2001-2002 Dodge Dakota trucks, Dodge Durango sport utility vehicles and Dodge Ram vans and the 2002 Dodge Ram pickup. In some cases, long-term wear on the gearshift assembly could erode the height of the shift blocker, creating the potential for the vehicle...

DETROIT (Reuters) - DaimlerChrysler AG could lay off up to 4,000 workers in North American truck operations next year due to a downturn in demand, the head of the automaker's truck operations said on Monday. Andreas Renschler, a member of DaimlerChrysler's board of management, said the cuts in the United States and Canada would include 800 layoffs that have already been announced and that will take effect in March in Canada. Speaking to reporters in Dearborn, Michigan, he said demand in the truck business, which is coming off a strong year, will slow in 2007 but will likely recover toward...

Heavy-duty action is heating up in the pickup arena. Each of the Big Three is fielding a new or revised diesel engine, beefed up to grind it out in the marketplace. All are powerful and capable, but Dodge believes its new 6.7-liter Cummins inline six-cylinder turbo-diesel, available in 2007 Dodge Ram 2500 and 3500 models in January, stacks up well against its formidable competitors. The engine also marks a big evolutionary step from the 5.9-liter turbo-diesel it replaces. Displacement is a key advantage in the diesel battle, said Don Altermatt, Chrysler Group senior manager for diesel engine engineering, with the...

Wednesday October 25, 2006 By TOM KRISHER AP Business Writer DETROIT (AP) -- From July to September, GM, Ford and Chrysler racked up losses as large as the entire annual gross domestic product of Africa's Malawi. That's $7.5 billion. Despite the massive losses, company officials and some industry analysts say the Big Three can do little more than wait for drastic cost cuts to kick in and new products to take hold before they can staunch the bleeding. All three reported third-quarter losses this week, with General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group joining the misery Wednesday. A $1.5...

But with a few notable exceptions, the Democrats are mostly ducking the hard question of what to do next. They act as if all those America-hating terrorists will evaporate back into the sands of Anbar province if the United States pulls out its troops. Alas, that is not the case. That is the problem with Iraq -- it is not an easy mistake to fix. An example of the Democrats' fudge on Iraq was highlighted yesterday by Post columnist Dana Milbank in his description of retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste's appearance before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. Senators cheered Batiste's...

DETROIT (Reuters) - DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group (XETRA:DCXGN.DE - News; NYSE:DCX - News) could link up with a Chinese automaker to launch a new small car as Chrysler works to conclude a review of potential partners in the coming weeks, Chief Executive Tom LaSorda said on Monday. LaSorda, speaking to the Automotive Press Association in Detroit, noted that the No. 3 U.S. automaker has never named the companies in Asia and Europe it had discussions with about a deal to produce subcompact cars for sale in the United States and other markets. But, when asked, he said "China has not...

The direct descendant of the 1969 Dodge Charger that Bo and Luke used to tear up the back roads of Hazzard County is poised to do the same on the boulevards of New York. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly announced Monday the department would be testing 15 flashy new 2006 Dodge Chargers on regular patrols, giving the NYPD a new top speed of 150 mph. The cars go from 0 to 60 in 6.5 seconds and stop much faster than NYPD's current fleet of Chevrolet Impalas and Ford Crown Victorias, which max out at 110 mph. They also get better gas...

An ABC News poll finds that most Americans oppose gay marriage but markedly fewer — especially those outside George W. Bush's core supporters — would amend the U.S. Constitution to ban it. Opponents, however, are far more likely to call it a make-or-break issue in their vote for Congress — a finding that explains Bush's renewed push for a gay marriage ban. Among all Americans, 58 percent say gay marriage should be illegal, but fewer, 42 percent, say it rises to the level of amending the U.S. Constitution. Among conservative Republicans and evangelical white Protestants, though, opposition to gay marriage...

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- It all started last winter, with a faulty remote starter on her 1996 Chevrolet Lumina. Like many others, Sarah Dodge dreaded the thought of having to brave the elements to warm up her car before school. In today's world of high-tech gizmos, the 18-year-old senior at Saratoga Springs High School figured there had to be a better solution. Turns out, there was -- and now Sarah is the first student in a pre-engineering program at the school to have a federal patent pending, teacher Michael Gallagher said.

A Canadian company has developed a new, more efficient process to make the alternative fuel ethanol from farm waste. With today's high oil prices, experts hope the new technology could reduce demand on fossil fuels and increase energy security. "In the past, ethanol fuel use has been limited, because the cost of production was too high," said Jim Easterly, a Washington, D.C.-based bioenergy consultant. "Ethanol produced from corn kernels and wheat grain has historically been more expensive than gasoline produced from oil." Producing corn-based ethanol, for example, uses energy from oil and electricity for everything from growing the corn to...

Seven people were injured when the driver of a pickup truck fleeing from Border Patrol agents crashed into a second pickup in Marana. A Border Patrol agent spotted the Chevrolet truck on Arizona 86 near Sandario Road about 10:30 p.m. Sunday, said Agent Sean King, a Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. The agent was suspicious because the truck had no license plate. He tried to pull it over, but the driver sped away, King said. A helicopter followed as the truck turned onto Interstate 19 and then Interstate 10, he said. It left the freeway at Tangerine Road and ran...

Is This Dodge 'Fairy' Commercial Actually Hate Speech in Disguise? Bod Garfield's Ad Review: Watch the Video By Bob Garfield Published: April 17, 2006 Faggot. Queer. Fairy. These are synonyms, epithets one and all disparaging gays -- or, more often, heterosexual men deemed insufficiently masculine. Let's call that Fact No. 1. The 'Fairy' spot was created for Dodge by BBDO, Detroit. ALSO: Comment on this review in the 'Your Opinion' section below. Macho brand Fact No. 2: Dodge is marketing its new Caliber subcompact as a tough little car, as opposed to sissy little Civics, Corollas and the like. This...

<p>You can tell a lot about a person by what he or she carries around in the back of the pickup truck during the eight months it's not summer in Alaska.</p> <p>The battered bed of my 1995 Ford 150 contains essential survival gear, in addition to the usual assortment of Alaskan accouterments...</p>