even Hyundai is now making cars of superior quality to GM, and cheaper too.

Ford has potential, but largely because they've globalized themselves the most. Unfortunately, they're still keeping the popular small foreign designs out of the US in favor of less lovable local designs, for whatever reason; and their cashflow is married to pickups and SUVs.

Chrysler as usual has cutting edge design, but apparently no money, unless things have changed radically since they went private and their finances went invisible, so cut off the truck and SUV cash cow and they're in trouble. Quality control isn't that good either.

And GM; their idea of product engineering is to import one of their foreign brands. And of course, that's correctly the best thing they can do. If you look at what they sell abroad, a lot of it is in fact other manufacturer's stuff with a GM nameplate. Here too; remember the Chevy/Toyota Nova? etc.

So what do the three all do to get their companies aligned with the new millenium? Bring out updated versions of their 60s muscle cars. It's kind of sad, like the aging athlete who can't keep a job but prides himself on still wearing his high school football jacket. At least Ford has kept the Mustang going over the intervening years, it's not as much of a bridge to the past for them. Still, a couple of years ago one of the American Vroom Vroom magazines went far out enough to test the Mustang vs the Subaru WRX Vti; and was audacious enough to admit that, despite not being the hometown favorite, the Subaru was the better car in almost every way. When I read that review, I knew that the Detroit big three were on the way out.

somebody needs to build Humvees; not for us, but for the troops. the military won't want to end up buying their vehicles from Korea.

"Americans were FOOLED. Obama is a Marxist who hates America."

All our base is belong to the Soviets now! They is in our White House, makin our lawz!

luckily, we have valiant defenders of the American way to outthink them:

"Lefties' smug, self-absorbed Marxism makes me sick. I'm an Ivy League grad, smarter than any Marxist, incredibly well-read and PRO-CHOICE.

I am also civil and courteous"

well thank God you're not smug.

Paglia's column appears to have turned into flypaper for the diehards.

kind of a surprise when i read that; the media has paid more attention to whether she should have worn that red and black dress after the election, than to her connection with the crimson of Harvard's school colors.

does obama (et al) hope that by giving the past administration a pass, his administration will get one from the republicans, in terms of the way they treated the clinton administration? conversely, does he fear that if he starts legal proceedings, that his administration will then be on the receiving end of such proceedings?

is it possible that there is an explicit or implicit deal in place?

what will happen should obama et al not pursue this avenue, but the republicans launch another version of whitewater? will it be too late to start an investigation without it looking retaliatory?

what are the chances the republicans will hold off from trying to hamstring obama's administration with legal crapola, no matter what the verdict is on prosecutions of the bush administration?

" I guess it's just way easier to pick on the weird minority church "

well, yeah, it is. i've been guilty of it myself from time to time and i do thank you for pointing out how it feels from the other side, and I apologize for having given in to the urge. that's what we're fighting against, after all; but we're not immune just because we're against it. please hang in there and bear with us, it's the input of points of view like your own that are the best antidote.

she's told her close friends she intends to run again in the 2009 presidential election

i am not allergenic, and the days of my shedding have ended a few years ago. i would be proud to serve in this administration and i think i could make movies that were as interesting as Barney's.

palindromes?

lieberman will position himself in opposition to obama. he's conservative for a democrat, but he's not politically suicidal. it's one thing to go pro-republican when the republicans are in power, it's another when they are in the toilet. he wasn't exactly pro-bush when Gore was a shoe-in for the presidency.