TWO Dodges

Yessiree, I've now acquired two Dodge pickip trucks, and I love both of them. Each has its own characteristics that make it special to me, but for their intended uses, they perform any task I ask, with all my trust, due to their dependability, strength, reliability, design characteristics and engineering.

Both have unique traits that make it special for me, not withstanding the attractive styling and high quality of materials and workmanship of the American Auto Worker built into each one. As you may have noticed, in February of this year, I bought the 2005 Dodge Ram 1500 SRT-10, with it's big V-10 engine and high performance tires as a fun truck to drive, and show off with. It now has just over 7,000 miles, and sits happily in my garage, covered by a taylor-made, special polyester cover, waiting for springtime, when it will roll out onto the driveway for its first 2008 cruise.

The daily driver is the 2004 Dodge Dakota Quad-Cab. It's 4.7 liter engine, (287 cubic inches for you old-school guys), does pretty well as a daily driver. It has just over 50,000 miles, and was a repossession item, acquired from the original lender, after three successful reposession assignments from it's only other owner. Although it was abused in its previous life, the minor body damage was repaired by the professional body-shop guys at Searle Body Shop in Omaha, NE. Previously owned by a man who was apparently a very good employee, (having a great evaluation by his supervisors, and never missing a day's work in over ten years), he was also a drunk, and didn't drive very well, once he had imbibed his daily limit. Consequently, some minor body damage was incurred, and had to be repaired, once we had title to the Dakota. After an additional $1300 in minor repair jobs, covering all four sides of the truck, we now have a great little daily driver, with plenty of capacity for being a very good work truck for years to come. I always called the Quad-Cabs with the nick-name, "Sissy Trucks."

No More.

This thing is anything but a panty-waist. It has four-wheel drive, and 265/75/R16 tires mounted on factory cast-aluminum wheels, (three of which have some small degree of road-rash, due to the previous owner's inability to judge where his tires were, while he was violating the DUI laws), and a towing package, as well as ice-cold air-conditioning, 4-speed automagic transmission, power everything, (except seats), and my add-on Garmin Navigation, (via Garmin dash-mounted model S530), and new tires and brakes all around. I even acquired a spare 16-inch spare wheel, matching the cast originals, to mount the spare tire, located under the rear bumper, on a crank-down cable. The driving lights were missing in action, when I got the truck, so I replaced them, also. They are attached to the original wiring harness, and operate just like the originals, from the headlight switch. I added several accessories, to include a bed net tie-down system, several tow chains/straps, and upgraded jack/wrench combinations. Interior additions include a halogen rechargable Mag-Charger flashlight, stainless steel dash trim, and a Glow-Master lighted gauge cluster that improves the look of the original dashboard gauges.

I also added an air-horn from the folks over at Harbor Freight. It sounds much better than the original wimpy factory horn.

Additions for the SRT-10 have been limited to changing the door/tailgate handles from black plastic to stainless steel/aluminum and the addition of bright stainless mirror covers, to highlight the factory black plastic rear view mirror housings, and a couple of very fancy license plate frames, just to accent the Nebraska University Vanity Plates that read "SRT-10," and a racing-style gas door made of polished billet aluminum, and bright stainless steel tailight frames.

God Bless,

Dan'L

You aren't going to believe this.

Madam speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to put a Windfall Tax on all stock market profits (including Retirement fund, 401Ks and Mutual Funds!

Alas, it is true -- all to help the 12 Million Illegal Immigrants and other unemployed Minorities!Boy, are we in trouble... This woman is frightening.

Take special note of the last paragraph. Is she really this whacked out?

Nancy Pelosi condemned the new record highs of the stock market as '...just another example of Bush policies helping the rich get richer.'

"First Bush cut taxes for the rich and the economy has rebounded with new record low unemployment rates, which only means wealthy employers are getting even wealthier at the expense of the underpaid working class."

She went on to say, "Despite the billions of dollars being spent in Iraq our economy is still strong and government tax revenues are at all time highs. What this really means is that business is exploiting the war effort and working Americans, just to put money in their own pockets."

When questioned about recent stock market highs she responded, "Only the rich benefit from these record highs. Working Americans, welfare recipients, the unemployed and minorities are not sharing in these obscene record highs. There is no question these windfall profits and income created by the Bush administration need to be taxed at 100% rate and those dollars redistributed to the poor and working class. Profits from the stock market do not reward the hard work of our working class who, by their hard work, are responsible for generating these corporate profits that create stock market profits for the rich. We in congress will need to address this issue to either tax these profits or to control the stock market to prevent this unearned income t o flow to the rich."

When asked about the fact that over 80% of all Americans have investments in mutual funds, retirement funds, 401Ks, and the stock market she replied, "That may be true, but probably only 5% account for 90% of all these investment dollars. That's just more "trickle down" economics claiming that if a corporation is successful that everyone from the CEO to the floor sweeper benefit from higher wages and job security which is ridiculous. How much of this 'trickle down' ever gets to the unemployed and minorities in our county? None, and that's the tragedy of these stock market highs."

"We democrats are going to address this issue after the election when we take control of the congress. We will return to the 60% to 80% tax rates on the rich, and we will be able to take at least 30% of all current lower income tax payers off the rolls and increase government income substantially. We need to work toward the goal of equalizing income in our country and at the same time limiting the amount the rich can invest."

When asked how these new tax dollars would be spent, she replied: "We need to raise the standard of living of our poor, unemployed and minorities.

For example, we have an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in our country who need our help along with millions of unemployed minorities. Stock market windfall profit taxes could go a long ways to guarantee these people the standard of living they would like to have as Americans."

Use this link to send all your friends to see what this lady is trying to do to their money:

http://herkimer-snurd.blogspot.com/

God Bless,

Dan'L