The Dearborn automaker said it will cut 10 percent of its North American salaried payroll -- that on top of the 15 percent cut in white-collar jobs it announced earlier this year.

That's thousands of jobs, by the way.  Thousands.  Think that 6.5% national unemployment rate that just hit the news wires is ugly?  Wait a week until Michigan's numbers explode onto the scene.  Because Ford isn't the only one going through another (almost weekly) round of contraction.  They weren't even the automaker everyone was looking to for job cuts this morning.

That dubious distinction goes to General Motors, a company that is expected to blow Ford's bad news clean out of the water.  According to the Lansing State Journal:

GM's announcement comes four days after it reported a 45 percent plunge in U.S. sales, including big drops for locally produced crossovers and Cadillacs.

"It's going to be a very bad earnings announcement," said David Cole, chairman of the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research. "It's going to be bad enough to get everyone's attention."

Now say, for a moment, that all of this is President Bush's fault.  It isn't and it never was, but that's the line so let's follow it to it's logical end a little bit here.  Even if the contraction of the automobile industry falls squarely on the shoulders of a big-spending lame duck President, the brunt of the damage always has been and always will be borne by Michigan workers and Michigan families.

Imagine, then, that you are the elected leader of the state of Michigan, tasked, more than anything else, with minimizing the damage and leading the state out of her long single-state depression.  With jobs disappearing weekly, and by the thousands, over the course of years one might assume the elected political leaders would do all they could from Lansing to adjust to the new economic reality.  And if they already raised taxes by an earth shattering amount they might look to other methods of balancing various government budgets to reflect the reality of less cash flowing through Lansing.

The Associated Press checks in with the Democratic administration to see what they're planning in light of additional job losses and projections that indicate the state budget will once again be millions of dollars in the red.

Pointing to souring consumer confidence and shrinking auto sales, Granholm said she will issue an executive order to cut state spending an unspecified amount by year's end. She will wait to first get new economic forecasts later this month. It was unclear if state cuts will affect K-12 public schools.

"It's going to be a very, very challenging period," Granholm said.

Great, so maybe after promising that $1.5 billion in tax hikes would fix the state's problems and watching us fall further and further into debt  she's finally learned her lesson.  Yeah, not so fast.

Granholm said the state treasurer will set aside $150 million that local banks and credit unions can lend to small businesses during the credit crisis. The state will purchase certificates of deposit at participating banks and credit unions that commit to lending at least 80 percent of the money to Michigan businesses.

Besides the foreclosure legislation, Granholm's other top lame-duck bills include expanding Detroit's Cobo Center, planning a light-rail line in Detroit and authorizing public-private partnerships, or "Promise Zones," to provide college tuition for students in impoverished areas.

Asking taxpayers statewide to pay to renovate an eye sore in Detroit.  Great.

Planning a multi-billion dollar light-rail system in a city whose population continues to dwindle away to nothing.  Perfect.

Free college tuition.  Awesome.

Now if I was a college-aged kid living in Detroit and spending my cash on a fancy cell phone instead of payments on an old, reliable car I'd be pretty thrilled right now.  Of course, I put myself through college by working 35 hours a week at the same local grocery store where I slung paper and plastic at sixteen to earn enough cash to spend $100 a month on an 84 Chevy Celebrity.

But what do I know.  Not much, apparently.  If I'd just moved to the other side of the state and waited a few years the Democrats would have saved me all the trouble and had the government force working moms and dads across the state to do all of my work for me.