From the world where all things old are new again and all things new have that ring of eerie familiarity, I dug these news items up from the deep-dark past of 1979. Gas rationing, looming recession, the Carter Malaise speech and Chrysler! In 1979 it was Lee Iacocca and the great national nose-turn at the Gas Guzzler. In 2008 it was endless wars, looming recession, Bush cluelessness and the great national nose-turn at really ugly, mundane, rubber-stamped cars.

Strangely, 30 years later not a whole lot has changed. The names and faces have, the cars have (and not in a good way). But Detroit is still pretty clueless.

Oh . . .and they can still use a spare Billion or two.