On tonight's Countdown, Tweety Matthews was leading a discussion with about the Charlie Black comment that a terrorist attack before the November election would benefit John McCain. This is when lightning struck -  again

From today's Huffington Post:

Former congressman J.C. Watts is behind a major push to launch an all-news channel for black people.

The network, tentatively called Black Television News Channel and slated to launch in early 2009, already has an agreement with Comcast cable to be carried in several cities with large black populations including Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Washington D.C., Atlanta and Baltimore.

Watts said only that he and "two cable industry vets" whom he declined to identify are bankrolling most of the start up. A list of private equity partners will be "released at a later time," he says.

At least once a week, for the past 10 weeks, I've gone out of my way to drive past the American Axle plant on River Road in Tonawanda, NY. The UAW has been on strike, and I honk my horn and pump my fist in solidarity with the guys and girls on the picket line. My late father worked there (when it was the Chevrolet Tonawanda Engine Plant) for 30 years.  He earned a good enough living to own a home, put 4 kids through college, and spend the 20 years after his retirement comfortably pursuing his hobbies of fishing and home imporovement. As proud as my father was of his work, he insisted that his children do well in school, "so you can do better than I did".   He must have sensed what was coming.

This morning, the front page of the Buffalo News said it all:

AMERICAN AXLE SEEKS TO EXIT AREA - Two remaining sites would shut down

As part of the strike settlement, GM wants to close the Western NY plants in Tonawanda and Cheektowaga. 580 people may lose their jobs. This would be in addition to the 300 people who lost jobs when the Buffalo plant closed last year. This is an area that has already been devastated by the loss of thousands of industrial jobs.