The proposed US bailout of greedy financial institutions is crazy enough, but now there's talk of bailing out the automakers? What in hell happened to the free market? US automakers are in trouble because they build shitty products that people don't want to buy. And they haven't retooled fast enough, as others have. Toyota's not looking for a bailout, they're just making better products. Honda's doing OK. etc...
A US automaker bailout is just the government declaring "we know our products are shit, and we think you should keep buying them, so we're going to subsidize the morons that run the companies."
Companies that come up with brainstorms like the 3 ton monster truck "Escalade Hybrid" (now getting 18 miles per gallon! amazing!) shouldn't be allowed to continue existing. They need to go away. It's sad that people will lose their jobs, but the companies are zombies already. Lots of OTHER people are going to lose their jobs, without the chance of bailouts. Why are automakers special? Because we LOVES our cars. And burning oil. That's the (North) American way.