I JUST participated in the program yesterday. As such, I'm familiar with all the ins and outs of the program, and through my search learned a bit about the auto companies themselves.

1. Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge sold out of most of their inventory early in this thing. If you remember they had been in bankruptcy. Most of their plants had been shuttered when the program kicked in and they sold out of whatever they had lying around in a week or two. So Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge may have been higher in the rankings if they had planned better, but the timing was bad for them too.

2. The way the incentives were structured was odd. You can imagine the horse-trading and lobbying that produced some of these results.

In order to get the full $4500 incentive, any purchased CAR had to be over 10 MPG higher than the trade-in. Yet in order to get the full $4500 for a new SUV, you only had to get 5 MPG better than the trade in. Below those amounts you could qualify for $3500.

A smaller gas efficient SUV was therefore the way to go for a lot of people.

3. AND Yes... I traded in an SUV. I got rid of my 2000 Jeep Cherokee. The government rewarded me for my stupidity.

When we bought it, I was a struggling college student, and Jeep was practically giving them away in the Detroit area for nothing, since they were phasing out the model that year. It was really all I could afford at the time, and provided a helpful platform for the frequent moves and travel routine of this college student-grad student. Sorry...

Because I drove an SUV for 9 years, do I have to trade in my liberal card?

is it possible that the Aztecs,Maya and Inca originated with the Mound Builders?

No, if had any idea about the dates, you'd know that the Mayan culture had already disappeared by these dates. Their pyramids (made of stone, not dirt) had long been abandoned by 900 AD.

The Aztec culture was only the latest of a series of cultures in Central Mexico that dated back hundreds of years.

The Inca were way too far away. Remember, these people did not have the wheel, and they did not domesticate any animals. Without the wheel, horses, oxen, or even donkeys, transporting large quantities of goods was difficult.

These cultures were all isolated from eachother by both time and geography.

Yeah, they are high. That might seem shocking until you realize (or accept the fact) that these are for-profit institutions preying off the intellectually slower or financially unlucky members of the population.

These institutions are not in place to create a more well-educated work force. They are solely there to line the pockets of their administrators.

More established institutions just have better PR depts.

They know what buttons to push.

A few years ago, I was sitting in the EL here in Chicago, and happened to look up at a particularly obnoxious ad for Kaplan's LSAT prep courses. In the ad, an attractive 20-something in a well-tailored business suit was sitting on the grass, in the sun, in an Eastern Buddhist Lotus-pose type position with a briefcase nearby.

The ad read "Practice Law Your Way."

Yeah right. Good luck paying for it. $150K of student loan debt, an over-crowded job market, slaving away in a profession dominated by self-absorbed nudniks for a boss that views you with suspicion at best, hatred at worst... and you're sitting in the sun practicing law "your way."

Madison Avenue is adept at hiding the reality of higher education in America today. There are just too many college graduates for too few jobs in this country. And that doesn't even factor in the half-bright kids getting cranked out of the diploma mill commuter schools.

Lou Dobbs has always had it in for Obama since he perceived that Barack snubbed him for an interview after Obama gave his speech at the DNC a few years back. I understand it wasn't personal - he was doing interviews left and right in those days - just couldn't fit Dobbs' in for the slot he wanted.

Of course when you're a small-minded, self-absorbed media goof... you'll take this perceived slight and really run with it.

...sucks.

Also, there are a lot of stupid people in this world who have unsurprisingly bad taste in movies, music, and art. so it shouldn't surprise anyone that when these people contribute to a list of greatest movies (imdb)... their list also sucks.

For chrissakes... there is apparently a "reality tv" show about fat people who compete against eachother as they attempt to lose weight and cry a lot. And it's popular (!)

People who watch shows like this shouldn't be allowed to vote on things.

I understand that you are or were a lawyer, by now you should realize that justice in this nation isn't blind, and lawyers can and will contort the language to make it mean whatever they want it too.

of course a judicial confirmation hearing (which is supposed to be unbiased) has nothing to do with advocating a position while representing a client.

One is a proper venue for "contorting language" the other is not. At least in theory, though maybe not in practice for the GOP's approach, which is what is being criticised here.

What a laugh! There's never a shortage of parasites looking to earn a buck off the brilliance of others. Crowther was another. Pure presumption. Art speaks for itself - it does not need an intermediary. But these self-appointed judges work no end of mischief with their foolish prating - distorting truth, misleading the gullible, blocking the enjoyment of others, and contrary to reason, actually affecting the outcome of intense, creative work and the forward movement of culture.

My, what highbrow trolling this piece has attracted...