U.S. regulators said on Thursday they were reviewing more than 60 complaints that fixes made on recalled Toyota Motor Corp vehicles for unintended acceleration had not solved the problem.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in a statement it was reviewing the complaints and interviewing vehicle owners. The agency stressed that the complaints are unproven allegations.
The agency has also asked Toyota to provide information about any complaints it has received.
Toyota said on Wednesday after NHTSA reported the first 10 complaints that it, too, would move quickly to investigate the matter. The automaker said its recall remedies were rigorously tested.
NHTSA Administrator David Strickland said on Thursday that regulators were “determined to get to the bottom” of complaints. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told a Senate committee earlier in the day Toyota owners should bring their cars back to dealers if they are still having problems.
The government said it has the authority to order Toyota to provide a different solution if it appears that remedies are not working. NHTSA did not object to the company’s recall fixes.
Toyota said this week it had fixed more than 1 million of the more than 6 million cars and trucks subject to recalls in October 2009 and January. Recalls covered loose floor mats that can jam the accelerator and gas pedals that do not spring back as designed.
NHTSA is reviewing whether there are glitches with Lexus and Toyota electronic throttles as a possible explanation for unintended acceleration.
Toyota, which has hired an independent consulting firm to study the issue, has said it has tested the systems exhaustively and found no problems. Congress has sharply criticized NHTSA for its handling of previous complaints about electronic throttles.
Separately, Edmunds.com, an online research source for consumers, said Toyota’s newly unveiled purchase incentives including interest-free loans and free maintenance have noticeably boosted interest in the company’s vehicles among prospective buyers. Kelley Blue Book also noted a spike in traffic for Toyota.
Article published March 04, 2010
More drivers file complaints after Toyota fix
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — More Toyota drivers say their cars have sped up by themselves even after being fixed to correct the problem.
Another five people have reported problems to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s complaint database, describing surges of speed that came without warning. That is on top of at least 15 similar cases found by an Associated Press review of the data on Wednesday.
The complaints, which are submitted online or through a NHTSA hot line, have not been independently verified. Government investigators said Wednesday that they had found 10 possible cases of post-fix problems.
As part of two recalls involving more than 8 million vehicles worldwide, Toyota is installing special metal shims and shortening gas pedals to solve the problem of unintended acceleration. The Japanese automaker blames the problem on gas pedals that can become sticky or be trapped under floor mats.
The company says it is confident its fixes will take care of the problems, but that its engineers will check into the complaints.
The driver of a 2008 Camry, which received fixes under two Toyota recalls, wrote in a complaint that the sedan speeds up when it is started.
“I can drive up to 30 miles an hour without applying the gas,” the driver wrote.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told a Senate appropriations subcommittee Thursday that drivers who are still having problems after the fixes should take their cars or trucks back to the dealer.
A panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that deals with consumer protection told lawmakers Thursday it plans to hold a March 11 hearing to look at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The hearing was titled, “NHTSA Oversight: The Road Ahead.”
LINO LAKES, Minnesota – Ever since his 1996 Toyota Camry shot up an interstate ramp, plowing into the back of an Oldsmobile in a horrific crash that killed three people, Koua Fong Lee insisted he had done everything he could to stop the car.
A jury didn’t believe him, and a judge sentenced him to eight years in prison. But now, new revelations of safety problems with Toyotas have Lee pressing to get his case reopened and his freedom restored. Relatives of the victims — who condemned Lee at his sentencing three years ago — now believe he is innocent and are planning to sue Toyota. The prosecutor who sent Lee to prison said he thinks the case merits another look.
“I know 100 percent in my heart that I took my foot off the gas and that I was stepping on the brakes as hard as possible,” Lee said in an interview Wednesday at the state prison in Lino Lakes. “When the brakes were looked at and we were told that nothing was wrong with the brakes, I was shocked.”
“Our preliminary assessment is that Toyota resisted the possibility that electronic defects could cause safety concerns, relied on a flawed engineering report and made misleading public statements concerning the adequacy of recent recalls to address the risk of sudden unintended acceleration.”
Toyota has been accused by a U.S. House of Representatives committee with misleading the public and investigators over its recent recalls.
The accusations, in a statement from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, claim that Toyota both relied on a flawed study in its assessment of the issue of sticking accelerator pedals at the heart of the recalls, and then made misleading statements about its response. According to the authors of the letter, Henry Waxman andBart Stupak, Toyota dismissed, rather than investigated, the idea that the cars’ computers were at fault. In a statement, James Lentz, the president of Toyota’s American division, claimed that hardware issues were to blame, and that dealers were repairing the faulty part. Toyota also released a study commissioned from the research firm Exponent that said electronic systems were not to blame. According to the House committee, however, the study involved only six vehicles, none of which had problems with their electrical systems, and was insufficient to produce an accurate result. Continue reading Toyota accused of misleading public over recalls
Just had to pass this on. Now that Corolla could get recalled, another 500K vehicles, my confidence with Toyota is GONE. No possible way I could put my wife, Kids, or Family in one of those vehicles
Bill Clinton Undergoes Stent Procedure After Chest ‘Discomfort’; Said To Be In
‘Good Spirits’
Former President Bill Clinton, 63, was rushed to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City today following chest pains, and underwent a stent procedure.
Current Location: Columbia Presbyterian Hospital 168th street in New York.
Here’s the statement by Douglas Band, counselor to the former president:
Today President Bill Clinton was admitted to the Columbia Campus of New York Presbyterian Hospital after feeling discomfort in his chest. Following a visit to his cardiologist, he underwent a procedure to place two stents in one of his coronary arteries. President Clinton is in good spirits, and will continue to focus on the work of his Foundation and Haiti’s relief and long-term recovery efforts. In 2004, President Clinton underwent a successful quadruple bypass operation to free four blocked arteries.
After visiting a Denny’s Restaurant, President Obama was visibly shaken and disillusioned; and plans to abandon complex policies on emissions, clean coal and refocus on achievable goals like applying deodorant daily, and learning what to say when you burp [2:46]
Had to add the latest report just because it’s so DANG funny watch. Plus people were all up in arms about the video!! Enjoy it!
In fact, most of my 10th graders know that “corpsman” is pronounced “core-man.” And this guy’s supposedly really smart? Saying “57 States” is a snafu during a long campaign, but the Commander-in-Chief needs to know that while the Obamaprompter is spelling his words correctly, he still has to say them right. Here’s the clip from yesterday:
Why am I picking on Dear Leader today? I just downloaded John Legend’s cover of U2’s “Pride (In the Name of Love).” It’s a great cover and worth putting on my iPod, but something happens towards the end I did NOT anticipate (fast forward to 3:40 and let it play), nor was present in the original version of the song I heard! While I can’t take the song back, I’m going out of my way to pick on Obama for something silly in order to adequately balance out the karma.
British economist John Maynard Keynes had a number of theories that the Left loves because Keynes finds a nice cozy place for big, powerful government in free markets. Keynes was an advocate of the government taking a huge role in investment, something corporatists everywhere could cheer! So, while I do not agree with the benefits of Keynes’ demand-side economic theories, which takes money from one part of the economy and merely shuffles it somewhere else with the government at the helm, the Left has taken much of his approach over the years and tweaked it to do their populist bidding.
Keynes believed that government stimulus during economic recessions should be temporary to make the business cycle less harsh on investment, giving people more confidence in spending. Makes you feel nice, but not very good math. Also, spending like Obama (and Bush before him) which creates “structural deficits” was also something Keynes likely did not condone; instead he wanted deficits to be temporary during the tough times and paid for during the good. Raising taxes on anyone to raise government revenue during the economic downturn was something he believed to be nearly suicidal to an economy — even Keynes knew that was dumb!
Carnegie Mellon economist Allan Meltzer believed that even Keynes would “roll over in his grave if he could see the things being done in his name.” Considering Obamanomics uses failed Keynesian theories as its premise while including damaging structural deficits does not bode well for our economic future — whatever Frankenstein-like economy emerges from this latest Keynesian plunge will not be pretty. Obamanomics will take the world’s biggest economy and pull it back to the 1970s — and who wants to go back to the ’70s!
Ronald Reagan (February 6, 1911 — June 5, 2004) would have turned 99 today. As a rallying point to both Conservatives and Republicans, Reagan’s legacy continues to grow as the years go by. Many historians have had to move on from their original “amiable dunce” interpretation of Reagan to grudgingly admit or contemplate the importance of both supply-side economics to rejuvenating a flailing economy and the “peace through strength” approach to foreign policy as lessons for future and current Presidents on how to deal with both domestic and foreign affairs.
Reagan also showed that a conservative candidate (running as a conservative) can win 49 states and change the direction of American politics, which had by 1980 veered too far off to the Left. By 2012, I think the nation will have the same feeling about how far Left we’ve veered, and Reagan’s message of hearkening back to the real strength of America (her people, not her government) will sound very nice to the public once again.
By the way, only three other Presidents have been born in the month of February aside from Reagan: two of them are Lincoln and Washington… I’m just sayin’.
The country received some excellent news today when it was announced the that the economy grew at a rate of 5.7 percent during the fourth quarter of 2009. Of course we still have to wait to see what the adjusted numbers show because the initial release doesn’t always get it exactly right and this administration has a history of fudging data. Nevertheless, 5.7 growth is tough to fake so it is likely that the economy experienced some good growth at the end of the year. In fact, the last quarter was the country’s highest growth rate since President Bush governed alongside a Republican Congress in 2003.
Some people on our side imply that the Obama Administration doesn’t deserve too much credit for the good numbers because the economy contracted during 2009 calendar year, but I don’t think that’s a fair criticism. It takes more than a few months for economic policies to take effect. Surely, no thinking person would blame Ronald Reagan for the 1981-1982 recession he inherited from Jimmy Carter. That said, the Obama Administration should be careful in how they trumpet this news.
Taking credit for the good news actually takes a big weapon out of their political arsenal, the “blame Bush card.” When the Administration takes credit for the good numbers, they will in effect be admitting that the consequences of Bush policies have played out. For better or worse, the Obama Administration owns the economy from this point forward. There are already some indicators that the growth may be short-lived and with spending out of control and tax rates scheduled to increase at the end of the year since President Bush never convinced Congress to make the tax cuts permanent, our nation is not out of the woods yet.
But for now, let’s accept the good economic news. As Ace of Spades argues, we should not act like the liberals did during the prosperous times our nation enjoyed during the Bush years before the Democrats won control of Congress. Today’s a good day.
These paintings by Dan Lacey, also known as The Painter of Pancakes, shows his portrayal of the president of the United States in a series of unique paintings. Lacey’s artworks can also be ordered as posters at Dan Lacey’s blog.
Some of the weirdest paintings you will ever see in your lifetime:
Barack Obama has a checkered past, and we all know that, but the videos and context below actually shocked me too.
Here’s another video that I found interesting that compares what Obama campaigned about the wars. It is titled: Obama’s Youtube Arrogance Just Became A Nightmare
News came out today that California is going to have to cut up to $9 billion from its budget or be broke by March, leaving them with no money to run the government until April when a fresh load of taxes start coming in. The constitution in California makes each proposition have the power of a state constitutional amendment, essentially meaning that there’s a lot of waste which the government is legally bound to fund unless repealed. It’s a mess no one seems willing or able to take-on full force, so it’s especially ugly compared to other states.
Unfortunately, this where the future of our nation may be headed. First of all, I believe that the biggest bailout in US history will be the approaching bailout of California — a state which will be deemed “too big to fail” and will require the 49 other states to flip the massive bill.
But the larger issue which ALL of us will have to deal with is the impending Entitlement Crisis, in which California is mired at the moment. Every sane person believes we must trim down government, but no one is willing to say what they will cut. When anyone makes a suggestion, they are either rhetorically shouted-down or everyone starts whistling past the proverbial economic graveyard. Nationally, the day of reckoning is coming: Social Security and Medicare are still able to sit up but are nonetheless on life-support; a major attack or war could easily slam down the accelerator to bankrupting the nation; a potential new health care entitlement will send us into an imminent debt death-spiral. There’s no one left to bailout the United States herself. Where does that leave us?
Jon Stweart is growing on me. Although he’s a dedicated liberal, he knows good humor when he sees it, and has taken plenty of opportunity to go after Obama and the state-run media (such as Olbermann) in recent weeks. Yesterday, he went after Chris Matthews, for his statement that Obama’s State of the Union made him forget that he was black.
SUMMARY: On Hardball, discussing Sen. Barack Obama’s bowling performance at a campaign stop, Chris Matthews said to MSNBC political analyst Michelle Bernard, “You know, Michelle — and this gets very ethnic, but the fact that he’s good at basketball doesn’t surprise anybody, but the fact that he’s that terrible at bowling does make you wonder.” While showing the video of Obama’s bowling, Matthews asserted, “[I]t isn’t the most macho form there.”
The Debt Limit has been raised by Congress to $14.3 trillion dollars. The Senate voted to raise it $1.9 Trillion on a strictly partisan basis, 60-40 (no wonder they delayed the swearing in of Scott Brown). The amount that they are raising it is unprecedented in our nation’s history. Some perspective:
The total of debt ceiling increases passed during the first year of the Obama administration now nearly equal to the increases passed in the first six years of Bush’s presidency.
Or, to look at it another way:
Total debt ceiling increases under Bush and Republican Congress (6 years): $3.4 trillion
Total debt ceiling increases under Bush and Democrat Congress (2 years): $2.35 trillion
Total debt celiling increases under Obama and Democrat Congress (1 year): $3. trillion
The Democrats in the last 3 years (under both Bush and Obama) have increased the rate of spending faster than any Congress in history, raising the debt limit by $5.35 trillion (or an average of $1.78 trillion per year) Continue reading New Debt Limit – $14.3 Trillion
Chris Matthews has put his foot in his mouth before on live television, and following the State of the Union, he did it again.
“I forgot he was black tonight for an hour,” Matthews said of President Barack Obama’s speech before a joint session of Congress and to millions of Americans.
That single line quickly bounced around Twitter and the blogosphere, along with widespread criticism of Matthews on the left, right and in between.
“The tingle appears to be back for Chris Matthews,” wrote Noel Sheppard on NewsBusters. And the headline on Wonkette: “Chris Matthews Has An Apology On The Way.”
The Matthews’ comment was met immediately on Twitter with both confusion and contempt.
The New Republic’s Michael Crowley wrote “Huh?,” with the the Huffington Post’s Jason Linkins asking, “W to the F?”
Meanwhile, The American Prospect’s Adam Serwer offered a terse response to the Matthews line: “F–. You. The Washington Independent’s Spencer Ackerman wrote that the MSNBC host should “get off the air.” And from the The Joshua Blog: “He needs to be gone from @MSNBC for good. Enough already.”
Matthews’ line about Obama’s skin color was part of a longer comment about the presidency and race, that’s below. (MSNBC had no immediate comment).
From Our Friends:
Chris Matthews: “he is post-racial, by all appearances. I forgot he was black tonight for an hour. You know, he’s gone a long way to become a leader of this country, and past so much history, in just a year or two. I mean, it’s something we don’t even think about. I was watching, I said, wait a minute, he’s an African American guy in front of a bunch of other white people. And here he is president of the United States and we’ve completely forgotten that tonight — completely forgotten it. I think it was in the scope of his discussion. It was so broad-ranging, so in tune with so many problems, of aspects, and aspects of American life that you don’t think in terms of the old tribalism, the old ethnicity. It was astounding in that regard. A very subtle fact. It’s so hard to talk about. Maybe I shouldn’t talk about it, but I am. I thought it was profound that way.”
Speaking with fellow MSNBCers Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann, Matthews gushed, “You know, I was trying to think about who he was tonight, and it’s interesting: He is post-racial by all appearances.”
He then amazingly added, “You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour”
VIDEO:
President Obama promised to make the Health care debate open and transparent. Stop your secret health care shenanigans and let C-SPAN cover the meetings. No more secret sessions. No more sweetheart deals. The American people have a right to know. If you don’t have anything to hide, you would welcome the light. Let the cameras in.
GO HERE to sign the petition NOW!
Over 30,000 have already signed!
President Obama and Congressional Democrats are ramming health care reform through Congress. In March 2008, President Obama promised the health care debate would be open and transparent saying: “I am going to do it all on C-SPAN so that the American People will know what’s going on.” (Town hall meeting, Lancaster, PA, 3/31/08)
Now the Democrats are holding secret meetings to negotiate the health care reform bill – and keeping the cameras out. Sign the petition today and demand transparency and an end to the secret meetings and back room deals. Let the cameras in!
