It's Big Auto who should apologize to the American people

The dust up in Detroit over Washington's Health and Human Services' Secretary Michael Leavitt encouraging agency employees to consider buying fuel-efficient vehicles (that happened to be made by Japanese manufacturers) is a classic study in duplicity and Orwellian doublethink. Big Auto, its less enlightened employees, and its' enablers in DC and Michigan got their shorts all up in knots over the issue, demanding and receiving an apology from Leavitt's office. Of course, the advice given in the HHS newsletter was sound, but don't let logic interfere with Big Auto's priorities! It's seemingly more important to continue producing and selling super-sized, gas-guzzling dinosaurs stamped with the U.S. brand than to do the right thing and conserve on the petroleum that is creating so much havoc in the world.

Regardless that Toyota and Honda are made in the USA and that some parts of the old "Big Three" products are made elsewhere, the cretins keep beating that old "Buy American" drum, apparently to drown out the reality that Big Auto refuses to get out of bed with Big Oil and start producing vehicles that save on gas and are less damaging to the planet. Just imagine, if these guys spent as much energy on designing and manufacturing fuel-efficient vehicles as they do on public relations that defend the discredited status quo, we might be much further down the road toward sustainable transportation. But hey, don't let common sense interfere with the fucking profit motive, even when that motive is built on clay foundations. Like the original dinosaurs, these guys in Detroit will be toast if they keep repeating the same business-as-usual. This observer is all for buying local and "Buying American", it makes ecological sense! But using the "Buy American" mantra when it really doesn't apply and when it contributes to the trashing of the planet is simply bullshit.

Too bad Secretary Leavitt caved so quickly to the political hacks in Detroit, but it should be no surprise given his party affiliation and the Orwellian atmosphere that prevails in Washington. As much of the rest of the world moves toward more sustainable and sensible approaches to transportation, here in the belly of the beast so-called "leaders" continue to herd us on toward the edge of the abyss. The sign up ahead reads "Made in the USA".