March 24, 2008

What are the five most "Ugly American" companies?


Here's mine:

1) Halliburton
2) Countrywide
3) Wal-Mart
4) Microsoft
5) General Motors

Get your nominations in and I'll do a poll...

(An ugly American company would be US-based, self-centered, corrupt, evil and hurtful to the people of the world while exhibiting boorish and obnoxious behavior. Fanny packs and sports jerseys optional)

78 comments:

  1. That's a pretty good start. XOM, COP, CVX, LMT, NOC, RTN, GS, MER, JPM, etc., etc.

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  2. Your first 4 plus Blackwater

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  3. Hands down, it's General Motors.

    A company worth appx. 16 Billion OWES hundreds of billions of dollars in debt.

    How will they ever pay that money back?

    Who the hell is going to buy a Malibu when they can buy a Camry for the same money?

    Management and the right wing echo chamber blame the unions but I gotta tell ya, it's management that manages things.

    They sold us crap cars in the 70's. They sold us crap cars in the 80's. The lost market share year after year after year for DAMN GOOD REASON.

    The unions didn't decide to make the Chevette, did they?

    Now make a list in your head of all the stupid mistakes GM made in the last 30 years. Who was responsible?

    Jesus, what a hell hole of a company.

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  4. 1 Halliburton (the worst)
    2 Walmart
    3 Rupert Murdoch News Corp
    4 Phillip Morris
    5 Exxon

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  5. MSFT shouldn't be on the list. They do not pretend to be nice guy they are simply a business. GOOG on other hand..

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  6. 1. Halliburton (yes, it has a double "l").

    2. Wal*Mart.

    3. Blackwater.

    4. Tyson Foods.

    5. A tie between Countrywide, Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, Indymac, Wachovia Bank, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Ambac, MBIA, Moody's, Fitch, and Standard & Poor's, as (still surviving, albeit barely in some cases) leaders in creating the housing/debt bubble fiasco.

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  7. Hellllooooo!!

    Lying Media?????
    Big Pharma
    Archer Daniel Midland

    You could go on for days on end. What's wrong with this picture?

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  8. Here's mine:

    1. Haliburton
    2. WalMart
    3. Goldman Sachs
    4. General Motors
    5. Bear Sterns...opps I mean JPM, Countrywide, and all the other greedy hoes in the financial sector.

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  9. Starbucks--home of the $4 coffee.

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  10. Crap! I forgot about News Corp. Dammit! Bump News Corp up to #2, for pulling the blanket of the eyes of Americans everywhere!

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  11. Fred and the other anon nailed it: Blackwater. But I'd put them in second place.

    I'd also replace GM with Ford as GM actually has a turnaround plan that you can go to a dealership and see. Ford? Not so much.

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  12. Here are my five, in order:

    1) U.S. Govt. (was good, now evil)
    2) Pfizer (peddles drugs no one needs)
    3) Countrywide (housing poster child)
    4) Citibank (soon to be bankrupt)
    5) Starbucks (too many of them; lousy operations)

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  13. ...CFC, BAC, WaMU, MON...

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  14. BushCo.

    btw, I thought H-burton moved to Dubai??

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  15. Here are some more, mostly from the chemical and food industry:

    Monsanto
    Dow Chemical
    Merck (check Vytorin and Vioxx)
    Abbott Laboratories
    ConAgra Foods
    Cargill
    -----
    Home De(s)pot

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  16. 1)Blackwater - inhumanity to man and greed
    2)Blackrock - Financial sculldugery
    3) Goldman Sachs - say one thing do counter to make a killing
    4) Harvard University - gestation home of many Fortune 500 leaders/Wall Streeters who screwed the country "capitalism over patriotism"
    5)Pharma Company - pick anyone- market drugs at inflated prices

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  17. General Motors, the largest blue-collar good wage employer, is "evil?" Who else in America pays blue-collar workers $80,000 per year plus full health benefits?

    Microsoft, the company that made personal computing affordable (i.e. Microsoft Windows PCs for $500 when equivalent Apple computers were selling for $5,000), is "evil?"

    Give me some more of that evil, then.

    Stick to real estate and leave your stupid assessments of corporate America to another blog -- might I suggest "KeithRants.blogspot.com?"

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  18. #1's gotta be Monsanto.

    But you're right -- there's so many to choose from.

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  19. "Hands down, it's General Motors."

    Yep, they're evil alright. They grossly overpay their employees and even force them to accept very generous benefits packages too. Evil, I tells ya.

    "Who the hell is going to buy a Malibu when they can buy a Camry for the same money?"

    In the past few months I've driven both as rental cars and the Malibu blows away the Camry big-time. Driving the Camry it felt like the car would break in half over every bump and the interior was the cheapest ugliest thing I've ever seen. Basically it's a toy. The Malibu on the other hand felt solid, handled great, and was even pretty quick and had a great stereo too. It also made the '10 best cars of 2008' in one of the magazines.

    Do I own a Chevy? No, nor do I intend to buy one, but seriously, drive both cars before you jump in the anti-US, pro-Jap bandwagon just because it's trendy to do so. If you hate the US that much then pack your sh*t and get the f*ck out.

    Enough is enough already with this "everything is America's fault" nonsense. Get a clue or shut up.

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  20. Any company that dares make a profit is evil in the eyes of a leftist.

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  21. I wouldn't put Microsoft on the list. Yes, its true after 25+ years they still haven't figured out how to make a stable reliable operating system, but they're more incompetent than ugly.

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  22. GK

    For creating (or letting people create their own) massive SS-style dossiers on every individual in the USA:

    1. Google
    2. Facebook

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  23. What about the realtors?!?! Where is century 21 et.al?

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  24. google
    blackwater
    mcdonalds
    GM
    walmart

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  25. don't see how msft can be on the list. they've basically made the personal computer accessible to everyone on the planet, donated billions to charity, and even their profits go to smart nerds (like me) instead of traditional "money guys"

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  26. Monsanto....single-handedly trying to steal the world's food supply with their genetically altered and most importantly, PATENTED.....seeds.

    These idiots are messin with our food supply!!!

    Also add Bechtel to the list for going down to Bolivia and declaring it illegal to collect rain water, and then charging the peasants exorbitant amounts to simply get a drink after they "privatized" the water supply.

    These parasitic capitalists were thrown out by a people's revolt....but it was evil of them to try and control the Bolivian peoples God-given right to collect rain water.

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  27. News Corp, Monsanto, Microsoft, Coca Cola and Starbucks.

    I'll drink water, thanks.

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  28. the makers of all fake penis pills, give u energy drinks,hair creams that dont work, etc.

    how in the EFF is is possible to see fake drug/snake oil cures all night on TV and the Feds dont shut them down?!

    But if you use the F word on radio they fine your company 250k?!?

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  29. General Motors - By a mile lead!
    Time Warner
    CFC
    Sears


    NOT WMT or MSFT!

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  30. My vote is for Countrywide.
    Halliburton shouldnt be on the list.
    Halliburton was 2 companies in one, ESG energy service group, and KBR kellog brown and roots.

    The controversial part of the company is kbr the building and supply side, as of april 5 2007 is no longer part of HAL, it was sold off.
    HAL is now only involved in providing services and technology for oil drilling companies as far as fracturing and advanced horizontal drilling techniques.
    If you have a problem with war related contracting then KBR is where you need to look.
    People allways talk crap about Halliburton, including myself, without knowing the facts, as a former HAL shareholder I was glad when KBR was sold off because in spite off what was said in the media the buissines was draging down the company, the media doesnt mention the fact that KBR was losing 900 million per year, making ESG pull the entire load of the company.
    I have a real dislike for Cheney and company, so I also bought what the media was saying about HAL, till I became a share holder, and found out the real story, the media isnt to be entirely trusted, either they are too lazy to report the facts or are biased, and to say the company was losing money didnt fit in with the rest of the story.

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  31. President Truman would call in his
    economic advisors and ask them
    questions. What happens if I balance
    the budget? What happens if I raise
    taxes? The advisors would reply,
    “Well, on the one hand…But then on
    the other hand….” Finally Truman got
    exasperated and declared, “What this
    country needs is a good one-handed
    economist.”
    Plagerized from somewhere else-Sorry
    Shakster

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  32. I bought WMT @ 48.33 a few days ago... long MO since 2003 ($26 then, $71 now, and dividends by the way)... I'm "in love" with XOM (from $40 to $85)... Ugly? Whatever you say...

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  33. GE,GM,JP MORGAN,BoA,and the grandaddy of Ugly.....The Creator of Crap.......The one,the only .........USofWDC.
    Just stinky I Tell Ya.
    Shakster

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  34. Please read these postings of disgruntled investors whose brokerage firms parked their money into the collapsed Auction Rate Securities (ARS). They're all planning class auction suits against those major brokerage firms:

    http://tinyurl.com/2f65jw

    What a mess! And financials were rallying today??!!??

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  35. I'm defending Starbucks but why are you complaining about $4 coffee? If people are willing to spend that kind of money on a cup of Joe that's their dumbness. At lease they paid over minimum wage and offered some benefits. I think there are alot worse companies than Starbucks.

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  36. 1. Wal-Mart
    2. Blackwater
    3. News Corp (Faux News)
    4. Halliburton
    5. Any financials
    6. Any tele or cable company
    7. Any lobby Company
    8. Tata Consulting
    9. Any American automaker
    10. Any company that will have Cheney and Bush on the board

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  37. 1) McDonalds
    2) Coke
    3) Altria-Phillip Morris whatever
    4) Exxon
    5) Blackwater

    best 5

    1) Apple
    2) Yahoo!
    3) Intel
    4) Google
    5) Blizzard

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  38. 1. Countrywide- They destroyed the American dream. (PERIOD!)

    2. Exon Mobile- Profits are up up because prices are up up while people's wallets are down down.

    3. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac- They kept buying garbage loans from companies like Countrywide and this just kept fueling the mortgage mess- NICE JOB ASSHOLES!

    4. Bear Sterns- They are the reason for the coming depression. They created the demand for garbage loans by buying them- and then when things went bad,the FED turns around and gives them a
    FU%KING bailout.

    5. The Mainstream Media- for falsely reporting on the financial situation of the US for the last seven years, and continuing to lie about the current situation of the state of housing and the faltering American economy.

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  39. Take GM off the list.

    They are stupid, but they're trying to turn it around.

    Dumbth isn't the same as malevolence.

    0) Republican National Committee
    1) News Corp
    2) Blackwater
    3) Kellogg, Brown & Root
    4) Walmart (a branch of the PBOC)
    5) Exxon
    6) Microsoft
    7) Archer Daniels Midland
    8) AT&T

    Ugliest foreign companies
    1) CNOOC
    2) Gazprom
    3) PDVSA
    4) Chinese pharmaceutical industry


    any more ideas?
    .... any suggestions?

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  40. 1) Boeing

    2) Lockheed Martin

    3) Raytheon

    4) United Technologies

    5) Carlyle Group

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  41. McDonalds
    WalMart
    Microsoft
    All telecom companies
    All insurance companies

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  42. 1) any war profiteer
    2) any company that issued neg am or interest only loans
    3) snooze corp
    4) any company that sells mostly made in china stuff

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  43. My list would be quite different. I would list most private equity funds, KKR, Blackstone, Carlyle and poorly run financials like Countrywide, Citigroup, Washington Mutual, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Lehman, Goldman Sachs, etc.

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  44. > Lying Media?????
    > Big Pharma
    > Archer Daniel Midland

    What do you see as wrong with Archer Daniel Midland?

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  45. I add to your list, one of the worst US company environmentally wise, know for orange agent, pesticides, stupid gmo's aka frankenstein food, and lots of other "wonderful" products.

    MON - MONSANTO

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  46. My vote would be Wal Mart

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  47. Yes, Blackwater... also,KBR-now not, of course, part of Halliburton. Question... are Exxon and News Corp American? Lastly, for as much good as they do, I also believe there should be a Pharma company represented, yo.

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  48. i don't know if you can get more evil than monsanto

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  49. Hands down all financial, and especially the Criminal Reserve.

    I don't see how GM is all that bad. They provide more value in their vehicles than anyone else. Why get a camry 4 banger getting 34mpg when you can get a malibu or impala with a v6 getting 32mpg for the same price or cheaper? Apples to apples, GM gets the best MPG in just about every class. For power/L of displacement, yeah GM sucks.

    Without competitors like GM, Toyota today would be like the big 3 of the 70's and 80's. All monopolies and cartels provide shit products and services.

    And I don't understand the demonizing of oil companies either. They provide the energy you need that enables your lifestyle. Oil is still a bargain, even at $100/bbl.

    Oh, and our federal govt. is worse than any company. Worse than all the bad companies combined.

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  50. Well, GM's just one of many very corrupt business firms in this country.

    What's even worse is while these companie's revenue decreased sharply year-over-year, undeserved bonuses for top-executives in many cases rose just as steeply.

    This pervasive corporate theft is just another reason things have gotten so rotten in this country.

    Anonymous said...
    Hands down, it's General Motors.

    A company worth appx. 16 Billion OWES hundreds of billions of dollars in debt.

    How will they ever pay that money back?

    Who the hell is going to buy a Malibu when they can buy a Camry for the same money?

    Management and the right wing echo chamber blame the unions but I gotta tell ya, it's management that manages things.

    They sold us crap cars in the 70's. They sold us crap cars in the 80's. The lost market share year after year after year for DAMN GOOD REASON.

    The unions didn't decide to make the Chevette, did they?

    Now make a list in your head of all the stupid mistakes GM made in the last 30 years. Who was responsible?

    Jesus, what a hell hole of a company.

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  51. "Who the hell is going to buy a Malibu when they can buy a Camry for the same money?"

    In the past few months I've driven both as rental cars and the Malibu blows away the Camry big-time. Driving the Camry it felt like the car would break in half over every bump and the interior was the cheapest ugliest thing I've ever seen. Basically it's a toy. The Malibu on the other hand felt solid, handled great, and was even pretty quick and had a great stereo too. It also made the '10 best cars of 2008' in one of the magazines.


    Frank,

    I couldn't agree more. I have always liked the Malibu as I've rented more than I can count. On the other hand the new Camrys are a total joke, like you say they feel like they're about to fall apart any second. And I believe the Malibu is significantly cheaper too.

    Americans have been brainwashed into thinking American Car bad, Japanese car good. Not unlike the renting bad, owning overpriced McMansion good mentality. Facts don't mean anything when the great unwashed in on autopilot like that.

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  52. Health Insurance Companies - pretty much all of them. National City Bank. ANY PAY DAY LENDER.

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  53. Health Insurance Companies - pretty much all of them. National City Bank. ANY PAY DAY LENDER.

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  54. Monsanto - OMG! Thats RIGHT! They Top the list - the are EVIL beyond even GM!

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  55. Anonypuss 10:11:

    "Who the hell is going to buy a Malibu when they can buy a Camry for the same money?"

    -------------------------------

    I drive a '98 Malibu with about 125,000 miles; my wife drives a '98Camry with about 165,000 miles.

    The Camry is clearly the better car (but to be fair, I think the Malibu was stolen and crashed before I bought it).

    My short list, most to least hated:

    1.) The Homely Despot
    2.) Sterile Grinch
    3.) Golden Nut Sacs
    4.) Cuntrywide
    5.) ADM, Cargill, Tyson & ConAgra

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  56. Google
    ACLU
    Yahoo
    Target
    Apple

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  57. Cargill
    Cargill
    Cargill
    Cargill
    Cargill

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  58. Monsanto should be very high on the list...

    Happy European

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  59. GE Money has to be somewhere in the top 10, top 15 at least.

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  60. "They sold us crap cars in the 70's. They sold us crap cars in the 80's. The lost market share year after year after year for DAMN GOOD REASON.

    The unions didn't decide to make the Chevette, did they
    ============================

    I remember about 20 years ago when the Japanese yen was outpacing the dollar, major big time, and the Big Three had their one-and-only, once in a lifetime chance to literally BURY the foreign competition, even with crappy American cars!

    What did they do, the Big Three caved in to the greedy auto workers union's (remember, most "foreign" cars are made here too, in union shops) and RAISED the price of American cars to match the "foreign."

    Screw em all, Big Three and unions, and good riddance!

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  61. Any company who bended over to Wal-Mart and sent its manufacturing base to the stinky Chinese.

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  62. Buy USA made products!!! WHEN you have a choice. Unless its not available, or just way unaffordable. USA made cars are top quality! Check'em out!

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  63. Any American company run by warmonger and crook Zionists. Go back to your POS holy desert.

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  64. GE
    GE
    GE
    GE
    GE

    If you have not worked for this company, you do not know how evil it really is.

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  65. i dont get the hate for GM. their new products are awesome, much better than Toyotas. Plus they still employ Americans.

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  66. KB&R, CITGO, EBAY, GOLDMAN SACHS

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  67. Microsoft, the company that made personal computing affordable (i.e. Microsoft Windows PCs for $500 when equivalent Apple computers were selling for $5,000), is "evil?"

    Actually, Microsoft had nothing to do with it. IBM made computers affordable with "open architecture" which made it possible for other companies to make cheap clones. Computers still cost twice as much as they should because of Microsofts bloated operating system

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  68. In defense of Starbucks suggested by anon - it's only $4 for a specialty drink - you can get the equivalent of a Dunkin Donuts Medium coffee for $1.65 at Starbucks (which is $2.49 at Dunkin)- less if you bring your own cup - plus they offer their staff health benefits for as little as 28 hours/week and profits from their ethos water helps build potable water supplies in 3rd world countries - nobody knocks my Starbucks!

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  69. Anonymous Peter T said...

    > Lying Media?????
    > Big Pharma
    > Archer Daniel Midland

    What do you see as wrong with Archer Daniel Midland?

    March 25, 2008 4:24 AM

    This:

    http://tinyurl.com/yqedcd

    The Archer Daniels Midland Corporation (ADM) has been the most prominent recipient of corporate welfare in recent U.S. history. ADM and its chairman Dwayne Andreas have lavishly fertilized both political parties with millions of dollars in handouts and in return have reaped billion-dollar windfalls from taxpayers and consumers.......

    Read it. They control the food. Screw GM & Ford, It would be really prudent with all that is happening in the markets to begin thinking about food sources and medicine. ADM is evil and they control the grain supply.

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  70. Why are people talking about Chevettes?

    Hint: It's not 1978 anymore. Move on.

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  71. I couldn't agree more. I have always liked the Malibu as I've rented more than I can count. On the other hand the new Camrys are a total joke, like you say they feel like they're about to fall apart any second. And I believe the Malibu is significantly cheaper too.

    Americans have been brainwashed into thinking American Car bad, Japanese car good. Not unlike the renting bad, owning overpriced McMansion good mentality. Facts don't mean anything when the great unwashed in on autopilot like that.


    In fact, the Mercedes dealer where I get my car serviced gives you a choice between a C-Class Mercedes loaner, or a Malibu rental, and I always take the Malibu because it's a nicer and better car than the C-Class.

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  72. My vote:

    The Federal Reserve.

    Yes, it IS a private company.

    Yes, it IS US-based (I think), self-centered, corrupt, evil and hurtful to the people of the world while exhibiting boorish and obnoxious behavior!

    The Federal Reserve is evil. The Federal Reserve hates you.

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  73. Exxon - worst of them all. They've been doing Haliburton stuff since Rockefeller and they're destroying the climate too.

    Haliburton - we ravage nations.

    Blackwater - murderers inc.



    Also bad:

    Yahoo - censcoring your blog, ratting on Chinese dissidents.

    Fox News



    Bad guys of old:
    Ford, United Fruit Company,

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  74. HP is great when it came to predicting how this real estate mania was going to end up, also great political info.
    However when companys who provide what consumers want, and are actualy profitable, get tared and feathered for it, thats stupidity.
    If people dont like walmart, they dont have to shop there, if they dont like GM, buy a Toyota.
    GM may be incompetant, but evil?
    I dont think so.
    Mcdonalds evil for providing what people whant to eat?
    I personaly dont eat fast food, because of the fat, but if an mentaly competant adult whants to buy their 99 cents heart attack, that is their free will to do so.
    And Microsoft helped make this exchange of information and ideas a reality.

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  75. Frank, put the whiskey down. You are making a fool of yoursef.

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  76. .

    You do realize that Halliburton is one of very few companies who can do their particular type of work!


    .

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