Welcome to the IHoP

[heckvr4 2]

new wheels

4ft of snow. '08 blizzard

[j-roadtatts 1,129]

That's Beautiful in black. I use to want an Eclipse REAL BAD, back in the day.

[MKader17 332]

3000GT VR4 =

[MKader17 332]

much better with the new wheels

[MKader17 332]

much better T0P!

[Adrian_D 520]

Uh oh.

Do want

If I were in the market for amps I'd scoop them up.

[Adrian_D 520]

Nice first post in the ihop.

[lithium 358]

Uh oh.

Very attractive. I wanted the Onyx Xenon's bad, but could not grab them in time.

sex!

m5, how much are you asking for them? not that i could ever afford them lol

[2kchevy 3]

wow you parting out your system now sean?!

[dem beats 1,223]

I drove a 3000GT Turbo to my prom when I was a junior.

[dem beats 1,223]

The only image I have on SSA?

lol

[Penguin4x4 1,761]

NEWARK -- Six women from the Essex County area who wanted fuller bottoms ended up in hospitals after receiving buttocks-enhancement injections containing the same material contractors use to caulk bathtubs, officials said.

The women checked into hospitals in the county after their procedures, apparently administered by unlicensed providers, went horribly wrong, state health officials said. The women underwent surgery and were given antibiotics. No arrests have been made.

Different from medical-grade silicone, the substance used in the botched procedures was believed to be a diluted version of nonmedical-grade silicone.

"The same stuff you use to put caulk around the bathtub," said Steven M. Marcus, executive and medical director of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System, who learned about the bizarre procedures through a committee he sits on that monitors outbreaks in the metropolitan area.

[dem beats 1,223]

all those women paid to put caulk in their but!

[Penguin4x4 1,761]

Big Booty Mommas 6: Hot Butt-Caulking Action

[Penguin4x4 1,761]

[j-roadtatts 1,129]

THat's alotta bar mang.

[Penguin4x4 1,761]

ST. LOUIS – Some Obama administration officials have made clear their unease with the increasing control a handful of corporations have over the nation's food supply, and this week in Iowa they could show whether they are serious about changing the system.

The first joint workshops on agriculture by regulators at the U.S. Justice and Agriculture Departments is expected to give farmers, lobbyists, executives and academics a strong indication of where the Obama administration stands on consolidation in agriculture.

Administration officials said the meeting Friday in the Des Moines suburb of Ankeny will give antitrust attorneys and farm regulators their first chance to work side-by-side and examine the concentration of power in rural America. The Iowa meeting will be followed by four other gatherings held later in the year.

Industry officials and farming groups aren't sure whether the hearings are political theater or a first step toward legal action, or both. For farmers, it's the most attention paid in years to their long-standing complaints that big corporations are choking out smaller players.

"This is certainly a much brighter spotlight than we've seen in the last 10 years," said Tara Smith, the American Farm Bureau's director of congressional relations.

A newly invigorated antitrust team in Washington is behind the hearings.

Christine Varney, head of the Justice Department's antitrust division, came into office last spring complaining that regulators have been too slow to file cases and that the Bush administration's guidelines on enforcement had fostered "extreme hesitancy" in the department.

In a troubled economy where food costs are pinching consumers, Varney said agriculture will be a top priority.

"We've seen a lot of consolidation in the industry in the past decade," she said. "Any time you have a lot of concentration in any part of the market, or any part of a vertical chain, it merits looking at."

Varney and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said the workshops are aimed at creating broad policies to foster competition in agriculture, rather than scattered enforcement actions. Both will attend the hearings, and they emphasized that no action would be taken if competition was deemed fair. The point is to listen and learn.

"We want to make sure the playing field is level," Vilsack said.

The series of workshops will run through December, looking at the seed, dairy, poultry, beef and crop industries. At issue will be the practices of industrial agriculture's biggest players, such as grain processors Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Cargill Inc., meat companies Tyson Foods Inc. and JBS SA and biotech seed firms Monsanto Co. and DuPont.

The hearings are welcome news to Bill Heffernan, a retired rural sociologist from the University of Missouri who has been tracking growing concentration in agriculture for 20 years.

When he began studying the issue 22 years ago, Heffernan said the greatest consolidation was in the beef industry, where four firms controlled more than 50 percent of the market.

When he took his last survey in 2007, the top four meatpackers processed 84 percent of all U.S. beef. Consolidation also had spread to the poultry market, soybean crushing (which turns beans into a wide array of food products) and corn milling, he said.

With so few companies given so much power, Heffernan contends they don't need to cut backroom deals to control the market. They just follow each others' lead on how much to pay for grain or animals and force farmers to take what they can get.

"They don't have to go down to the lounge and talk about price fixing," he said.

Industry groups dispute the notion that consolidation signifies a lack of competition or could lead to price fixing.

The American Meat Institute, which represents meat processors, filed testimony for the hearings, arguing that the companies have gotten so big in large part because of government regulation.

Stringent food safety rules and constant inspections forced the industry to build expensive, high-tech plants, the group said. And the firms have paid the cost for massive recalls of tainted meat, forcing large companies to merge to share the risk and smaller ones to leave the market, the testimony said.

"I think the meat industry is extremely competitive," AMI Policy Director Mark Dopp said. "My hope is (regulators) learn how things really work. We think that will be a good story for the meat industry."

That story line is sure to be one that many regulators will hear in the coming months.

"As I travel around the country, listening to farmers and ranchers, there is a fairy consistent message coming from them," Vilsack said. "They want to make sure that the playing field is level, whether it's access to technology or the way they market their products."

[topgun 262]

It looks like my home county says more bars than grocery stores, which is actually correct.

[Adrian_D 520]

Hello MSN/Bing bot

[Mac N Cheese 90]

LATE top

[Mac N Cheese 90]

supposed to not drop below 50 this week

[2kchevy 3]

yeah it's warmed up quite a bit around here in Arkansas. Feelin pretty good finally.

[jcarter1885 995]

74* tomorrow with plenty of sun shine, I finally put the top on the box. All I have to do left is cut out the hole for the sub and caulk up the hole for the speaker wire.

[topgun 262]

53* and raining here currently.

[nem 2,019]

Spent the day outside, playing with the truck and bike. God it was a great day.