Why is everyone so reluctant to admit that Lucas, despite being super rich and a creative giant, may be the WORST director of acting ever to work for a major studio? To call the actors in any of the Lucas directed films wooden is to be too kind. He can't seem to get a decent performance out of a minor character under any circumstances, and quite frankly, JarJar Binks may be the best acted character Lucas has ever directed.

Samuel Jackson is particularly bad in his Star Wars work. It's painful to watch. Quite honestly, I was so traumatized by episode 1 I still haven't recovered enough to watch 2 and 3.

So, dare we hope that the acting in this animated version is decent? It's always been a real shame that Lucas' writing is so wonderful (see the Indiana Jones films), his visual sense is magnificent, and yet his actors are so unbelievably bad for a major studio project. Is this finally changing? I certainly hope so.

emotional flatulence never heard of civil court?

As a people, we Americans are the biggest narcissists in the history of the world. This type of tantrum is just obscene, no matter how badly you feel or how much of a victim you believe yourself to be. People, it's a mighty thin line between these photos and Betty Broderick. There's a reason all world religions feature a version of the Golden Rule. The person most hurt by these outbursts is the perpetrator.

Several reasons occur to one offhand. For one reason, the type of flex fuel vehicle described doesn't exist. The ignition systems necessary to burn diesel, biodiesel or vegetable oil are so radically different from those of gasoline or ethanol burning cars that they can't be combined.

As for ethanol-gasoline models, they're a great idea in Brazil where every fueling station sells both, less so in America where ethanol is difficult or impossible to get. The best Americans can do at this point is an ethanol-gasoline mix. Even there, as has been pointed out in Salon, the use of ethanol increases food costs considerably, with little to no savings in carbon emissions resulting. Do Americans advocate starving an already stressed underclass in the developing world in order to fuel their automobiles?

LP-gasoline hybrids are a bit more practical. The major difficulties there are, given their availability in some other countries, solvable, but because of the necessity of having an lp system under pressure, the extra costs are considerable. Achievable, and probably the most practical and economical, so the lp-gas hybrid will most likely be the first one that Americans see.

In the end, though, hybrids are a dead end, simply because of the sheer amount of carbon that any type of hybrid fuel vehicle produces. The goal ought to be green electricity and new battery technology, to enable rapid recharging and greater capacity. Only new electric technology will really address the current problems. Switching from one carbon intensive fuel, like gasoline, to another, like ethanol, biodiesel or lp bottled gas, will help cope with rises in gasoline costs, but do nothing to address global warming. A huge investment in hybrid technology is a misguided attempt to solve one pressing issue, but does nothing to address the even greater one just down the road.

has hit rock bottom by electing and re-electing an illiterate cokehead, this comes along. Is anybody ready for the triumph of White Trash Barbie and Skinhead Ken?

This entire family crawled out from under a rock. Even Alabama wouldn't elect this woman. Only in the Great White Trash North could this crew be seen as leadership material.

Okay, White Trash Barbie ain't exactly reassuring from her vantage atop the GOP, but this is how American National Socialism truly gets started.

It always pays to remember that lunacy translates into psychosis fairly easy. Even Mencken retreated into fascism when mocked by FDR, and if he chose not to actively support Hitler, he passively threw whatever support he had to the Nazi element in America.

Bear in mind that Hitler started his Final Solution with an attack on gays and his intellectual opponents. The Jews were added later. This is scary stuff!

is that to the extent that one person can be blamed for 2000, the Iraq War, the cancellation of the Constitution, the Wall Street Meltdown, Presidential signing statements, and a whole host of evils, it's Nader. Run a few ads reminding the country that if it weren't for Nader, Gore would have won handily in 2000.

Nader's runs are not constructive, Nader cares nothing for democracy, all he wants is the name Nader on the ballot. And to keep the name Nader in front of everyone, he will willingly see us turn into a totalitarian state. Is that a good man? Not by any standards that I can see.

doesn't skew left anymore. That ceased about the time Lake Woebegone gave way to reruns of Dobson seminars and Bob Barr as a PBS talking head on Georgia PBS. About the time Shrub took the White House and remade PBS into the media wing of the Fascist party.

Palin isn't hot, unless you're the type who thinks playboy bunnies are hot, drinks 4 cases of Bud on the weekends, and votes GOP. Baked brown ceased being hot about the same time the link with melanoma became clear, and, let's face it, idiocy, while hot to the Hefner crew, has never been hot to anybody with half a brain. Your brother is an imbecile.

Palin on toast? God, anywhere but in the White House. I guess they've just replaced the first Christ (a word which means anointed one) with the new one. Sure to bring millions from some newly wealthy Roman Catholic immigrant or Born Again Baptist soon.

Let's just all keep praying that they have peaked and are running downhill fast.