As a loyal Toyota owner I've been somewhat dismayed at the media circus surrounding Toyota's product failures.  When Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that all Toyota owners should immediately stop driving their vehicles and take them into the shop, I thought something was afoot.  Even coming from a government official, such a statement seemed extreme and rash.  Well, it turns out that where there's smoke there's fire.  And neither are probably emanating from under the hood of your car.

The part in question, a sticky accelerator pedal, is not made by Toyota, but by the Elkhart, Indiana-based company CTS.  CTS supplies the same part to Ford, GM, and the U.S. military.  So why is LaHood picking on Toyota?  Could it be an attempt to capture market share for the (essentially) government owned GM?  Or is it warning to Japan over its insistence that the U.S. pull out of its base in Okinawa?

Read more from Wayne Madsen via LewRockwell.com.