Never heard of Interstate 403?  It’s actually not a highway, but a great piece of political trivia.

America’s Eisenhower Interstate Highway System touches 403 of the 435 congressional districts.  Now that’s one way to assure funding!

(our crack lab coat-wearing Extreme Mortman trivia staff found that fabulous chestnut here.)

Today is the 50th anniversary of the federal act that began the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.

Great photos on the commemorative website.  I swear the other day I got caught behind this guy still on the Beltway:

Cher is on C-SPAN this morning, chering her thoughts about Operation Helmet.

We only hope Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is watching from his hospital room.

If he could turn back time.

New York, it is famouly said, is a city that never sleeps.  It’s also a city that never drives.  No one in New York has a car.  In fact, New Yorkers, in their patented more-impressive-than-thou attitude, look down on folks who drive, just like they look down on most things the rest of America enjoys.

And by “they,” of course, I mean the New York Times.

Tom Friedman wonders, “Is there a company more dangerous to America’s future than General Motors” and compares GM to “a crack dealer looking to keep his addicts on a tight leash.”

I used to own a GM car, my beloved ‘71 Oldsmobile Delta ‘88 Royale convertible.  Biggest thing you ever saw.  All steel.  it was so thirsty for gas, I swear it didn’t get 10 miles to the gallon, it got 10 gallons to the mile.  But it never posed a danger to anyone.  And boy was it fun.

Likewise, the new movie “Cars” is fun.  And by fun, of course, I mean offensive to the elitist sensibilities of the New York Times film critic.  Naturally, the first car the critic plugs in the movie review is a Volvo, and that’s in the second sentence.

And from there it just gets, well, equal parts politically correct and snide:

• “tow truck with a deep-fried accent”
• “ethnic and cultural profiling is pretty much par”
• “only identifiable “black” voice”
• “film’s regrettably retro attitude toward all things automotive”
• “not a hybrid in sight!”
• “instead of blowing the living world into smithereens, these machines have just gassed it with carbon monoxide”
• “Detroit’s paving over of America”

That last one take the cake.  Yes, if only America sees the world the way they do in New York — a city that perfected trash collection strikes.

Political junkies will love the ending to auto columnist Warren Brown’s comparison of the 2007 Mercedes Benz GL-Class SUV to the GMC Yukon:

“They are red state vs. blue state, certainly in attitude, if not location. They are hoot-and-holler good old boys versus preppy bluebloods from the right side of the tracks. One drinks beer. The other sips wine. The GMC Yukon is for the former. The 335-horsepower, all-wheel-drive GL-Class with its standard stitched pleather (vinyl “leather”) instrument panel and optional off-road package is for the latter. Together, the two vehicles are motorized proof of class warfare in the United States.”

Talk about your rack-and-opinion steering …