When ants need to cross some dangerous span in order to get to the thing they want, certain ants in the colony will sacrifice themselves to build a bridge that other ants can cross. That's how you get the honey. In GM's case, the honey is a $12 billion government lifeline. The dangerous span is, well, extinction. And the sacrificial ants in this case could be Pontiac, Saturn, and Saab.

The 2009 HUMMER H3T Alpha arrived in the Autobog Garage on Election Day, and so it was my transportation to and from the local polling station to exercise my civic duty. I had the HUMMER in my thoughts when I went to cast my ballot, and looking at the paper before me was like seeing the fate of General Motors reflected in this year's presidential election.

General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner has confirmed that HUMMER is the only brand in the automaker's portfolio that's up for sale. Many believed that Saab's days were also numbered and the Swedish brand would be getting out from under the corporate umbrella as soon as a buyer could be found. Not so says the Ricker. Other brands thought to have been out on the lawn behind a For Sale sign included Opel-Vauxhall, GM of China and Holden. While HUMMER may be the only GM brand for sale, the automaker is certainly keen to sell other assets weighing it down. Wagoner didn't elaborate on which assets those might be, but his company's remaining 49% stock in GMAC doesn't seem to be doing it any good.

Click above high-res gallery of 30-inch wheels

HUMMER's presence at this year's SEMA show will be typified by a trio of tuned H3s, ranging from a mildly modded Alpha to an H3T ready to traverse the desert surrounding Sin City.

General Motors seems pretty anxious to see its HUMMER division go away. In fact, it's called the sale "urgent," and recent actions appear to bolster that claim.

The world's maddest battles usually earn a brief sobriquet: Red vs. Blue, Holyfield-Tyson, Lingerie Bowl. Although the battle we'll describe today isn't finished, the clash of HUMMER vs. Any Decent Off-roader - especially HUMMER vs. Jeep - has made so much noise on Autoblog alone that we decided it was time to investigate. Not having a Jeep at our disposal, we pitted an H2 against the Toyota Landcruiser on three trails in the California desert to find out if either of them had any quit - or if they'd keep going but complain about it. Follow the jump for the answer we came up with, and check out the gallery of off-road shenanigans below.

Question: What's more intimidating than a group of Australian Police roaming the streets in search of drunken party-goers? Answer: Aussie Police driving Hummer H3s with the same intent... supposedly. The Hummers in question were provided by the General in all-black before getting custom livery from the authorities, complete with a blue-and-red flashing light bar on top. Police hope to be a bit more conspicuous in the SUVs, which will be prowling the nightclub districts in Melbourne. There may be a few problems with this scheme, as there will only be five such vehicles making the rounds and they are only equipped with the standard five-cylinder powerplant.