"We need some more fingers! We're all thumbs over here."

I photographed this abandoned Pontiac two years ago in Truchas, NM. God, how
was it I was so prescient, suspecting that it might one day serve as an appropriate
metaphor, not just for the Pontiac brand name, but for the company that built them?

The nation's so screwed up. We have more holes in the dike than fingers with which to plug them all. Having shoveled $ billions to GM which will most likely declare bankruptcy next month, we learn they plan to increase the production of cars they build overseas from 15% to 23% of their worldwide output. A downsized American auto manufacturing workforce will certainly alter the past as we knew it in this country. But it won't do a thing to alter the future as we don't know it, i.e., the day of the cranking out millions of autos annually to consumers who can no longer afford them, nor the energy resources required to refuel them, are likely over.

Of course, the cost of providing health care for every employee adds $1,500 to every GM auto built. But that's just another hole in the dike we've no fingers (or national will) to plug.