Inflation

FWIW, car batteries are $5 more than they were 2 months ago. (Bought one for the 4runner.)

I road tested it and it's still missing to where it has a hard time pulling itself up a long hill at 60mph in 5th. It's hard to narrow down to the cylinder by pulling plug wires. The coil is hot enough that it'll jump a 1" gap so it's very hard to pull the wires one at a time while it's running without getting shocked. I think I'll try pulling the computer codes; that may tell me more...

So the fed govt didn't shutdown and everyone is claiming they're a hero for avoiding it.

• Democraps in the senate & whitehouse didn't bother passing a budget last year when they controlled both houses. The only thing they can brag about to their voters is that they didn't give the right anywhere near the cuts they wanted ($38 out of $100 billion).
• Republicans caved in. They promised to cut spending, and they did, but they didn't ask for near enough in the beginning and they caved in instead of shutting the fed govt down. As part of the deal they will do an up/down vote on fed spending for abortions and obamacare in the senate.
  

I'm thinking they traded the billions on this bill just so they would force each liberal senator to g on record voting for these issues, which will be used against them in the 2012 and 2014 elections as they attempt to recapture the senate & whitehouse. Issues aside, the bean-counters on the right has always impressed me with their ability to model elections and put the assets where needed to win elections. There's a hell of a lot of money involved in the elections and 100x in the outcome. It'll be interesting to see if Bammi, his teleprompter, and his $1 billion can sway the sheeple again by flooding them with slogans.