There have been six new publications added to the Forum since last Friday. The first article can be found posted under the GM, Ford and Chrysler tab. The article comes from the Ft. Wayne Journal-Gazette. It gives a firsthand account of life on an assembly line, even though it was just for a couple hours. The reporter spent time in the Fort Wayne Assembly plant and talked with people from one end to the other. She spent time in Body Shop and worked on fender assembly. She also had a bit of smoke blown up parts of her anatomy by management. It is a good article and I am sure that those of you who work at this facility or other assembly plants can relate to what she went through and what it is really like.

One post has made it into Hodgepodge. The article comes from AOL Autos. It tells that if you spend any amount of time behind the wheel, the results of a recent national drivers test should scare you. And if they don’t, they should. 1 in 5 can’t pass a driving test.

Two new posts have been entered into the Open Discussion section. The first article comes from the Detroit News. It states that last month’s weak auto sales crushed hopes for a rebound in demand this year. Auto executives and analysts increasingly see 2010 sales coming in at the low end of their forecasts ranging between 11.5M 12M light vehicles. That would be only about a million vehicles above last year’s disastrously low 10.4M. The second article is a release from the Associated Press reporting that some 161 companies are seeking to raise more than $56B through initial public offerings, of which General Motors Co. is one. This is the most companies in the IPO pipeline since 2000 and the largest pent-up dollar amount on record.

One new post has been added to the Opinion category. The article came from the AARP website and talks about the 3 legged stool most older Americans depend on for their income. The 3 legs are a defined pension plan, Social Security and savings that they hopefully were setting aside during their working years. Corporate America has basically taken away one of those legs by doing away with defined pensions for the new generation of workers and now the Republicans want to reduce, if not do away with Social Security. Since its creation 75 years ago, Social Security has been our country’s most important family protection program and our most effective anti-poverty program.

One new post has been placed in the Social Security and Medicare portion. The article comes from the Washington Post and reports that there are a lot of things Congress doesn’t know right now. What to do about jobs, for instance. Who’ll be running the House come January and how to balance the budget. But there is one thing that both parties increasingly seem to agree on: You should work longer. I have no idea how this will help the unemployment rate, but the article is all about Social Security, where it got its start and where it’s going.