Ford and UAW appear to have agreed on additional lay-offs and buyouts as a part of the new contract negotiations.  They've already bought-out some 30,000 workers over the last couple years but apparently that isn't enough.

Industry analysts say agreement on the issue means Ford could close more factories beyond the 16 that it said would be shuttered under a restructuring plan announced last year. The company has identified 10 of the closures, but has yet to announce the remaining six. The closures are to be fully completed by 2012...

Just how many workers would leave is still under negotiation, the person said.

30,000 down and, it sounds, a lot more to go.

But it's not Jennifer Granholm's fault, right?  It's a national economy thing.  It's a NAFTA and CAFTA giving us the SHAFTA thing, right?  It's something that we really need the President to start caring about... right?

Why is it then that the Governor just endorsed Hillary Clinton but the woman refuses to step foot in Michgian?  Suddenly our issues aren't important or dependant on national assistance?  Which is it, Madame Governor?

Oh, and enough of this "she's being held hostage by New Hampshire" nonsense.  Last week we discussed the extreme-left Democrat strategy session being held in Dearborn under the guise of an Arab American outreach meeting.

The Detroit News reports this morning:

The sessions are considered significant enough that the Democratic chairs of the party in Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina extended a singular exemption from a ban on candidates campaigning in Michigan -- in a dispute over scheduling the primary -- so that candidates could attend the National Leadership Conference of the Arab American Institute, beginning today.

Among the participants in the conference are four presidential candidates: Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Paul and Democrats Mike Gravel, the former senator from Alaska, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Wait, where's Hillary?  Governor Granholm, where's your candidate?  She was granted permission to come talk to us here in Michigan.  So was Barack.  So was John Edwards.  Where are they?!  They think this little of Michigan?  That they sign pledges not to step foot in the state and then when they're granted explicit permission to visit from their comrades at central committee they still refuse?

I sincerely hope my friends on the other side of the aisle are paying attention to this little episode.  That they're seeing what's happening here and that they'll have the strength of conviction to call this what it is, one giant backhand after another right to the kisser.

Or that they'll support Denny or Gravel or Bill.  At least they're willing to ask for your votes.

Finally, the Free Press reports this morning that the NAACP is on the warpath to kill the one-man-one-vote principle.  

The Justice Department complaint filed by the NAACP claims Michigan's voter identification law violates the 1964 Voting Rights Act and will decrease voting by minorities. The civil rights organization also plans to file a friend of the court brief by December in a U.S. Supreme Court appeal of a similar law in Indiana, said Melvin Butch Hollowell, the Detroit chapter's general counsel.

The only way it'll decrease voting by minorities is if minorities were cheating, Butch.  One person, one vote.  It's a pretty simple principle.  

Isn't it interesting, though, that it's the extreme liberal interest groups that oppose ballot integrity.  Just saying.