Last week, I made fun of the idea that I was supposed to have something special to say about the pending G.M. news.  (I was going on the radio and among the topics the producer wanted me to talk about? The G.M. bankruptcy.) 

Luckily, the full hour (it was KUOW's Friday morning Weekday news roundtable) ended up being all about local politics.

If we had talked about G.M.'s demise, I guess I could have just blamed it all on Mayor Nickels. 

But voila. You know who does have something to say about G.M.? Flint Michigan's own Michael Moore.

So here we are at the deathbed of General Motors. The company's body not yet cold, and I find myself filled with -- dare I say it -- joy. It is not the joy of revenge against a corporation that ruined my hometown and brought misery, divorce, alcoholism, homelessness, physical and mental debilitation, and drug addiction to the people I grew up with. Nor do I, obviously, claim any joy in knowing that 21,000 more GM workers will be told that they, too, are without a job.

But you and I and the rest of America now own a car company! I know, I know -- who on earth wants to run a car company? Who among us wants $50 billion of our tax dollars thrown down the rat hole of still trying to save GM? Let's be clear about this: The only way to save GM is to kill GM. Saving our precious industrial infrastructure, though, is another matter and must be a top priority. If we allow the shutting down and tearing down of our auto plants, we will sorely wish we still had them when we realize that those factories could have built the alternative energy systems we now desperately need. And when we realize that the best way to transport ourselves is on light rail and bullet trains and cleaner buses, how will we do this if we've allowed our industrial capacity and its skilled workforce to disappear?

Thus, as GM is "reorganized" by the federal government and the bankruptcy court, here is the plan I am asking President Obama to implement for the good of the workers, the GM communities, and the nation as a whole.  

He goes on to lay out a 9-point plan that includes converting G.M. factories into  engines of the Green economy where workers build light rail, clean buses, and solar panels.

He also recommends a $2 -per-gallon gas tax.

Yeah. So, that's what I would have said.