Robert Hall

Picked up a gold '10 Fusion SE from Alamo at Denver International Airport Friday morning, put about 200 miles on it this weekend around the city, suburbs, and freeways. It and 3 HHRs were sitting in the 'fullsize' row. None are fullsize, but that's the way it is w/ rental cars.. Overview: A smooth and quiet midsize sedan, pleasantly put together, clean exterior styling, clean interior design, decent materials for the price point (what do these go for, $20k or so?). Pluses Very quiet. Sitting at a light w/ the HVAC and radio off, it's dead silent. As quiet as a hybrid. Only the tach gives away that it is idling. Drives smoothly. The faux brushed aluminum dash trim is nice. The controls generally worked well, esp. the radio and HVAC. Decent legroom front and rear (had 2 adults in the back last night when went out for dinner and a movie. Minuses Base cloth seats seem thinly padded...my butt was sore after a 75 mile drive. The rear view mirror does wierd things with the rear view--cars behind me seem tall and narrow. An optical issue w/ the glass? Or the rear window? It's very easy to turn on the highbeams or wipers when using the turn signals. Maybe it's a familiarization issue w/ the stalk, but I was doing this alot this weekend. Did use the wipers some in cold rain Friday night. Gauges are difficult to read on a sunny day when wearing sunglasses. The gauge lighting is unusual. Probably because it was an SE w/ few options, but there are a number of black button plugs on the lower dash. All in all, though, a comfortable, competent midsize FWD sedan.

Been on alternating cycles of tedious dullness and busy intensity at work. Also doing a lot of the work of an unproductive (employee) coworker that is about to get sacked, I think. Frustrating, but my contract is good until Sept. My sister has been working from home the last month, we have been getting on each others' nerves lately. She's going out to a client's site in Michigan on Monday, so I'll have the house to myself & the beasties for a week. Got new glasses this week...been less than two years since I got my previous ones, but they were falling apart. Good to have spring hinges again. Taking tomorrow off for a long weekend in Denver...going to relax and reconnect w/ friends in the Mile High City.

Seemed fair and balanced to me.

Citizens and aliens probably should have some sort of national id to carry, though. A driver's license is state-specific and doesn't indicate anything as to citizenship status. Not to mention people that don't have a driver's license..

A passport card would make a good national id. I've always thought the idea of having DLs specific to a state rather quaint, at least for id purposes.

I've used my passport instead of my DL in the US when going through the TSA checkpoints a couple of times...once when I'd misplaced my DL the day of a flight (it had fallen under the car seat) and another time when I discovered my newly issued DL had a glaring error that would have raised a lot of questions)...I figure it's a better form of id than the DL since it's national.

And Sherriff Joe is probably going to run for governor..that's the last thing this state needs, a fascist thug in the governor's office.

The reality though is AZ has a huge Hispanic population..it's inevitable that the police will do some racial profiling. It's not like the illegal aliens in AZ are blonde and blue eyed Scandinavians. There have been many racial profiling lawsuits and other issues already in the past here with Maricopa County Sherriff Joe Arpaio..so the tradition is already there. (Amost 2/3 of the population of the state are this one county--about 4 mil out of a population of 6.9 mil)

humourous

Understandable..at some point, spending money to keep an old car going is just throwing good money after bad. Once the level of trust is gone it's time to unload. My Jeep's at 114k, hasn't reached that point yet, I still trust it enough for the 50 mile daily commute. But if it ever strands me, then it's replacement time.

The big question is---are your papers in order, and do you have them with you?

Good op-ed piece this morning from the New York Times about this strange state...(bolded items are points I thought were particularly interesting). Desert Derangement Syndrome PHOENIX — Driving south from the high, age-worn plateau of northern Arizona, where the earth seems to have turned itself inside-out, I pulled over to take in the full sweep and wonder of this place during one of its better moments. The infinity of sky, the open gallery of sandstone masterpieces — it never fails to amaze. Arizona is full of ancient communities — the Hopi, the Papago, the Havasupai, the Navajo — and outsized geology, with the Painted Desert, the Superstition Mountains and the big slit of the Grand Canyon. Related: Op-Ed: Why Arizona Drew a Line (April 28, 2010) From Show Low to Tombstone, from Snowflake to Casa Grande, from the tiny Indian village at the bottomof the canyon to the Colorado River town that reassembled the old London Bridge on its desert edge, this is the American West of singular scenery and goofy glory. But for all its diversity of land and people, Arizona is also a lunatic magnet. As I drove, I listened to the radio blather of a state in mob-rule frenzy of cranky old men. Once in Phoenix, I saw on television that sign in a car’s rear window, the new image of Arizona to the rest of the world: “I’m Mexican. Pull me over.” The Associated Press Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed the state’s immigration law last Friday. This week, Jon Stewart called Arizona the “the meth lab of democracy.” A few days ago, the governor signed the instantly infamous “show me your papers” law, allowing authorities to stop and question anyone who looks Hispanic. Another new measure lets people carry concealed weapons without a permit, following on the heels of the new-found freedom to pack heat in bars and restaurants, something that was outlawed in much of the Old West. And the state house has just approved a bill that would require candidates for high office to show a birth certificate. The birther bill is a sop to the flat-earthers who believe — without a shred of evidence, even after all the hard work of hard-right opposition-research — that our president was not born in the U.S.A. “It suggests that Arizona is a place where any crackpot whim can be enshrined into law.” That was the verdict from the sensibly conservative Arizona Republic, the state’s leading newspaper, which had also urged the Republican governor, Jan Brewer, to veto the immigration bill that could foster a police state. She signed it, of course. Stewart, the Mark Twain of our day with a New Jersey quirk or two, got it right with his meth lab jab. But Arizona is more than a laboratory for intemperate times: this place is a warning of what a state can look like when it’s run by talk-radio demagogues and their television cohorts. The crackpot laws owe their genesis to the crackpots who dominate Republican politics, who in turn cannot get elected without the backing of crackpot media. Arizona has always had a Looney Tunes side: who can forget Governor Evan Mecham, the car dealer with the bad toupee who used a tired insult to describe black children, told a Jewish audience that the United States was a “Christian nation” and canceled the holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He made history of a sorts: the first American governor to be removed from office by impeachment in nearly 70 years. But Arizona has also given us smart, competent, forward-looking governors who stopped the crazies at the executive door. Now, there is not single adult with a spine — let alone a conservative in the mold of Barry Goldwater, who had a healthy distrust of handing the police too much power — left among the Republican governing majority. Can it get any worse? Well, yes. Somewhere deep in the Sonoran Desert is the lost soul of John McCain. He’s taken back nearly everything he ever said or did that was admirable. He’s trying to get reelected to a fifth senate term by being just as grumpy, intolerant and wild-eyed as the aging white voters who make up the primary voting base for Republicans. The Associated Press J.D. Hayworth.His Republican opponent, naturally, is a former wingnut talk radio host and ousted congressman, J.D. Hayworth. To lose to Hayworth, who was thrown out in 2006 from his safe Republican district in tony Scottsdale because of his immigrant-bashing and ties to a disgraced lobbyist, would be the lowest form of ignominy, but perhaps fitting. Hayworth is 250 pounds of broadcast-ready bile, a windbag hall of famer. He compared gay marriage to nuptials with a horse, said the birther bill did not go far enough and wrote a book with the tells-all-you-need-to-know title of “Whatever It Takes.” Still, a sane plurality may yet show its face. Arizona is home to more than 2 million Hispanics — about 30 percent of its population. They are much younger than the average white voter, and do not show up at the polls in great numbers. They will now. Young people, business owners and retirees who are not afraid of the demographic change washing over America — they have also been on the sideline. While the fringe that controls state government goes after the fastest-growing ethnic group in the country with a law that makes a mockery of American values, Arizona crumbles. Its state parks are orphans, left to volunteers. Its university system is being slashed and picked to death. They even considered a plan to sell the House and Senate buildings. What business will want to relocate to such a place? It will cost these hot-heads running the state. Probably not this year. But soon enough, because Americans have always considered the West a place that looks to tomorrow through a lens of hope, instead of hiding in the past, in fear.

I think construction was a big part of it here in AZ over the last 30 years with the massive construction boom. But that has cooled off to a trickle of new construction in the last couple of years.

Good one..the woman in the first one kind of looks like an actress from the '70s..

Fox Mustangs are like that...the shop had to drop the tank in my '87 GT to replace the pump a few years ago..

Ah..didn't see that. And I just got new glasses yesterday..

Whoa...return it from buyer's remorse? Or did it get totalled? Stolen? Hit by a meteorite?

Ever since grad school 15+ years ago I've been used to working w/ a lot of immigrants and have a lot of friends that are immigrants, worked w/ lots of H1-B and green card holders from India, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Russia, the UK, Sri Lanka, China, etc. In my profession, there are many, many legal immigrants. In my department at my current client, I'm in the minority as a US-born WAS. (WASP sans P) (And even though this is AZ, there seem to be no Hispanics at any of the clients I've worked at since I've been here, at least not in the software development groups).

There seems to be a lot of hysteria here in AZ on the radio, in the news, etc about this, from both sides. On the surface it does seem it's all about local/state law enforcement enforcing federal laws. Some are questioning if that is constitutional. Lots of sturm und drang. All I know is that the important question is---'are you papers in order'?

Speaking of yard crews, I finally found a new yard guy...he charges $25/week more than the guys that could barely speak English, but at least he doesn't chop off the sprinkler heads and hasn't stolen my string trimmer yet...

Saw a yellow w/ black stripes '10 Camaro SS w/ a big Transformers logo decal in the back window today. Saw a black 2nd gen CTS-v sedan. Also saw an '11 Mustang GT convertible in Grabber Blue w/ a Michigan 'manufacturer' plate coming out of my neighborhood...pre-pro testing or press fleet?

His style is California geek chic, he's not an old fashioned suit and tie CEO...

Looks solid from the pics. And looks very green there...love the evergreens.

'86 with the Corvette, and '87 or '88 for the Camaro, IIRC? Impressive collection.

Looks fine for what it is...a compact MPV. The styling cues linking it to the Volt sedan are nice. A family of Volt models (maybe a coupe also eventually?) would be nice to see..