AAM's Town Hall Tour rolled into Detroit and Cincinnati this week--and just in time, judging by the looks of downtown Detroit.  Any trek through Detroit, or much of the Industrial Midwest, makes clear that job losses and hard times have really crunched people pretty hard.   Much of Detroit is shuttered.  Stores and homes are boarded up.  Once vibrant communities appear desolate.  A trek past Seven Mile Road and Eight Mile Road shows that nothing is doing.  At one point near a boarded up business, someone on a motorized lawn mower was cutting the grass and weeds that have sprouted through a large, cracked lot of vacant asphalt. AAM's Monday night Town Hall meeting received widespread media coverage.  WXYZ-ABC TV's reporter Tom Wait covered the event and his report is available here.  AAM Director Scott Paul also appeared live in-studio on WDET (NPR, Detroit) this past Monday.  That broadcast is available here.  Listeners should look for WDET Program Archives and select Oct. 13, 2008, ‘Detroit Today.’ As the Detroit Free Press reported, AAM's Detroit Town Hall featured speaking appearances by both of Michigan's Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Carl Levin (D-MI). The Cincinnati Town Hall also brought in a concerned audience.  Ohio has lost more than 243,800 manufacturing jobs since 2000, and its residents can feel the effects of this downsizing.  The panel discussion featured commentary from Ohio manufacturer Bruce Cain, who talked about his firtshand experiences with the inequities of foreign VAT taxes as well as subsidized competition from China. At both Town Halls, AAM premiered its new song "America This Year." AAM continues its Town Hall Tour next week, with five more events.  Stay tuned.