KABUL, Afghanistan — The White House does not expect to make an announcement today on the fate of the domestic auto industry, according to Reuters.President Bush, who ducked in time to avoid shoes thrown by an angry Iraqi journalist during a surprise weekend visit to that country, said on Monday in Kabul that an announcement on the auto industry rescue was not imminent.In the meantime, General Motors said it would slash another 250,000 vehicles from its North American production forecast for the first quarter of 2009. The latest cuts involve 20 assembly plants, including three each in Canada and Mexico. The cuts also affect the automaker's Bowling Green, Kentucky, plant, which builds the Chevrolet Corvette and the Cadillac XLR, as well as GM's Lansing Grand River plant that builds the Cadillac CTS and the Cadillac STS.The debate continues to rage about which direction the federal government should take to help out the embattled Motor City.Consumer advocate Ralph Nader weighed in on Friday, after the U.S. Senate rejected the aid plan on Thursday night: 'The action by the Senate Republicans is extraordinarily reckless, challenging the most important institution for advancing working people's living standards — unions — and threatening to worsen drastically an already severe recession,' Nader said in a statement.But New York Times , who has been critical of aid to the Motor City, said on December 13 that the management of Detroit's Big Three have 'now gone from caretakers to undertakers.... If all we are doing is prolonging auto undertakers , then we have to let nature take its course,' Friedman said.He also asked: 'What is the core truth about Detroit?... Walk through any college campus today,' Friedman wrote. 'You don't see a lot of Buicks.'Inside Line says: Detroit continues to twist in the wind as it waits for a decision by the feds. — Anita Lienert, Correspondent