Animal farm

I have a confession to make: I love my car. Lovelovelove it. It's a 2000 Chevy Cavalier, the first car I ever bought brand-spankin' new right off a dealer's lot in Toadtunnel Toontown, at a fabulous college-grad deal of 0.9% APR financing. It was the biggest purchase I ever made, and I remember almost passing out when signing on the dotted line--but it certainly was the best one I ever made, as well. This car has saved my life during an Evel-Knievel-type spinout and numerous California highway full-stop brake maneuvers (80 to Roseville during morning commute, guys!), and it's never ever let me down. It's never required any major repair, gets 30 miles+ per gallon, and has done so for the past 200,000 miles. And it's never asked for the top-shelf vodka.

If you're looking for someone to wholeheartedly endorse American cars (well, Chevys, at least), look no further.

That's why I am stupefied why everyone calls the car industry thing a "bailout," just like with the banks. Those two are hardly related. Remember how the banks, with Citibank leading the way, all of a sudden refocused on mergers and acquisitions, rather than trickling their bailout money down to the mortgage holders, the way it had been originally intended? And how nobody really ever talked about payback with interest?

In contrast, you have the Big Three. They're not asking for free money; they're asking for a loan--a revolving loan, nonetheless, to keep the impact on the taxpayer as low as possible. In contrast to Paulson's greedy bank posse, their statements of this morning (at least that's when I saw the whole thing on CNN) show how they've tried to react to the credit market slowdowns with factory retooling, new gas-saving models, and business alignments (Ford, for example, is converting one of its plants from truck manufacture to the Focus Hybrid, which apparently gets better gas mileage than the Prius, and Chevy's got the Volt, admittedly a concept car, but certainly an interesting one). They also talked about payroll, pensions, and healthcare, furloughing people if necessary, and, in agreement with the UAW, cutting any bonuses and merit raises for the next year. Heck, they'd take the famous Iacocca $1 paycheck per year. All in all, together with the UAW president Ron Gettelfinger (and yes, being German, I love me a good autoworkers' union), in my mind, they represented a credible case against an impending quarter million new unemployed, who'd be leaning on social programs and, bereft of their former purchasing power, contribute to plunging the country even deeper into the recession.

Did you hear anything like this from Paulson's bank buddies? Or did you, like yours truly, hear greedy, greasy fingers snap with joy in anticipation of the Thanksgiving weekend retreat to a Vegas bunny ranch?

Thought so.

So, yes, project manager and anal finance diva that I am (just ask TBIK!), I don't want to see $25 billion sunk into something that doesn't guarantee return on investment. I want to see plans, projections, government oversight, and full disclosure of where every last penny went--things that the CEOs of the Big Three mentioned themselves. I want accountability, strict business ethics, lean manufacturing processes, and elbow grease. I know these guys have it in them--much in contrast to the bank dudes, who, after getting the lion's share of the $700 billion, so nonchalantly declared that oversight? accountability? good joke!

So, for crying out loud, give them the cash--it's less than 4% of the $700 billion!

Update: Dutch says it even better--go here and read. It's good for you.

That was the first thing for today. The second thing:



Yes, that's an ultrasound picture of the back of my daughter's head, apparently with a little hand stuck right next to it, taken by the ob/ gyn two days ago. Because, IN CONTRAST TO THE DOULA, the dude with the fancy MD couldn't tell just by touching my belly where left, right, up, and down is! He didn't even care that that's her hand right there, by her head. But boy, did his eyes ever sparkle when he whispered the words "emergency c-section" and "general anaesthesia" like a mysterious mantra. No more Gray's Anatomy for him! In fact, I'm hoping, at this point, that if/ when things get started, it won't be on his rotation. In fact, I plan on frustrating the hell out of this Cut-Happy-Wannabe-Hero medical group with a nice, boring delivery. Which means, too, that I'll be going to the hospital at the last possible minute, and not a second before that.

Butchers, all.

Seriously, I am going to have my next child anywhere but in the U.S. and A, where people won't treat pregnancy and childbirth either as illnesses, or as cash-maximizing opportunities (what with the pitocin and epidural upsell)--and where an average ob/ gyn is able to tell the position of a baby in the womb, especially at 37 weeks.

37 weeks, people. 21 days left, and I haven't even begun to sterilize the kitchen floor, repaint the hallway, clean the hand-me-down co-sleeper, or make my labor playlist.