Brad,

In what way was your flight "Harrowing"? And was blaming Palin serious or tongue in cheek? (I freely admit that my sarcasm detection gene is SERIOUSLY defective.) If serious - what's your chain of thought?

Alaska Airlines has always done well for me (at least since they stopped dropping bible verses on the seats before boarding!), so I'd prefer they aren't maligned without good reason.

Holy shit, look what's flying under the radar:

http://www.democracynow....rces_tapped_by_obama_for

Please contact the White House and your members of Congress, this is obscene.

Steven Dorst -

Harrowing flight wasn't Alaska Air's fault. Turbulence was horrific on Portland to LA flight. I hate flying, and last night reminded me why.

Palin joke was satire (me blaming her for a bad Alaska Air flight).

Hope that clarifies. Alaska Air was swell, by and large. But I still hate flying.

Brad,

OK. All clear now. Thanks.

from earlier comment elsewhere on 3/16

"Brad,
a request? Hear anything yet on 130 Congress critters moving to get China declared as a currency manipulator and laying all sorts tarriffs on them across the board? Thom Hartmann was ranting about it today."

I haven't heard anything more on this since 3/16. Wondering if the first signs of tradewars to come was fired at Toyota with all the lame recalls and is now coming round to target China overall. Gonna get hard to buy replacement batteries for my hybrids for awhile apparently. At least until the US starts mfg them again.

Thank you for the good work
R
ps is it possible the obusha ship is trying to turn around with all these investigations into corruption coming? or is Holder going to bury all but the smallest and lowest ranked culprits in "we need to look forward and not back" rhetoric?

Renzoku - Not familiar with the Congressional effort re: China that you're speaking about (have been on the road, and off the grid for much of this week, so my apologies). But just ringing in to note that Toyota is a Japanese company, not a Chinese company, so I don't believe any of that has anything to do with China.

Thanks for the lesson on Asian steel. Take a look back at a few years before Pearl Harbor though. US was crushin Japan and not doing China any favors either on trade. Particularly in steel and petrol. US is doing it again. I think. That's my question.

Hostility to Akio Toyoda in Congress was recently insane. Tobacco CEO's got better welcomes and they were unrepentant. Toyoda San grovelled. Now the news about calling China a "currency manipulator" in Congress is curiouser, yah? Specially considering the level of debt (both trade and finance) the US has with China.