The city of Detroit is “ground zero” for the culture wars, raves preacher Lou Engle, who has begun to stage overnight prayer events intended to convert Muslims to Christianity through revelations in their sleep. This the latest news from Rachel Maddow, who reminded her audience last night that kooky religious extremism was not foreign to the United States, nor foreign to politics– Engle, it turns out, participated in last summer’s Rick Perry prayer event.

Early Wednesday morning, Michigan State Police received a 911 call from a motorist traveling east on Interstate 696 in Detroit. The crime? Bouncing pumpkins, flying off the back of a semi truck and onto the highway. The driver of the truck, Brian Rose, was delivering the pumpkins to a grocery store, and apparently had no idea that he was losing pumpkins until cops pulled him over and showed him the back of his semi. By then, it was too late; the highway was littered with over 200 pumpkins, closing one lane of traffic during the morning rush. “They were bouncing off people’s cars,” Michigan State Police Sgt. James Kemp told Tammy Stables Battaglia of the Detroit Free Press. “One windshield was shattered, but at least he didn’t get hurt.”

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 24-year-old Nigerian student who boarded an Amsterdam-to-Detroit plane Christmas 2009 morning with a bomb tucked into his underwear, showed up for jury selection with something to say. “Osama’s alive,” he shouted as he entered the Detroit court house where he hopes to defend himself against criminal charges, including conspiracy to commit [...]

In the aftermath of the Jimmy Hoffa Voter Encouragement Crisis/Incendiary Rhetorapocalypse, conservative media figures have been selectively freaking out, and the White House response to ABC’s Jake Tapper has led to a newly-coined “Hoffa standard” by which campaign surrogates are to be judged. Perhaps James Hoffa‘s remarks ought to be judged by the “Bachmann Standard,” since current GOP hopeful Rep. Michele Bachmann used nearly identical rhetoric to encourage voters in 2010.

In the hours since the Jimmy Hoffa Voter Encouragement Crisis/Incendiary Rhetorapocalypse, conservative media figures have looked to the White House to provide some becalming wisdom to a shaken nation. At Tuesday’s White House briefing, ABC’s Jake Tapper asked Press Secretary Jay Carney how Hoffa’s comments fit with the President’s post-Tucson remarks in January.

A quote from Teamster President James Hoffa is making the Labor Day rounds, particularly on the right, as evidence of the kind of “violent rhetoric” that President Obama denounced in the wake of January’s shooting tragedy in Tucson. In an abridged version of the quote posted here earlier, Hoffa says, of the Tea Party, “Let’s take these sons of bitches out,” but according to CNN, Hoffa prefaced his remark by saying, “Everybody here’s got a vote,” which narrows the comment’s meaning.

President Barack Obama used today’s Labor Day address to preview Thursday’s jobs speech and to ask the Republicans in Congress to put country before party. He did not, to the dismay of many, address Teamster head Jimmy Hoffa Jr.‘s remarks from earlier in the day wherein he rallied union workers to war with the Tea Party.

Teamster head James Hoffa declared war with the Tea Party today while warming the stage for President Barack Obama in Detroit, Michigan. As a Labor Day special, he pledged the support of the Unions to Obama, promising that “one thing about working people is, we like a good fight,” and that they “are ready to march” against the Tea Party, which he feels has taken up a charge against workers.

It’s town hall season, and the Congressional Black Caucus is the first this year to get a mouthful from frustrated constituents on the economy. In a clip that quickly made the rounds in the news cycle, the panel meeting the Detroit crowd yesterday defended the President’s work, but with a bit of malaise, as Rep. Maxine Waters argued they were “getting tired” and “don’t know why on this trip… he’s not in any black community.” That the President is having trouble with his most loyal constituency is already being touted as a sign that 2012 isn’t going to be a Democratic cakewalk.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared on Meet the Press and unveiled a creative and somewhat strange idea about how to kill two birds with one stone. Bloomberg’s unique approach to help re-energize the economy, while also tackling the problem of illegal immigration: allow new immigrants into America so long as they agree to live in Detroit, Michigan.

Charlie Sheen‘s first live performance in the “Violent Torpedo of Truth” tour took place last night in Detroit, Michigan and judging from the fans reaction to this show, the only thing torpedoed seems to be Sheen’s promise to deliver an entertaining show. Fans booed Sheen and walked out when it became apparent he hardly had anything planned, and one fan told a reporter “this show sucks.”

Just like we enjoy to see lowly animals behave in human ways, there’s nothing more entertaining than seeing relatable human errors committed in extremely heightened situations. That’s why celebrity tabloids all have “They’re Just Like Us!” sections. However, while it’s hilarious to see, say, the President of the United States get locked out of the Oval Office (he’s just like us!), it’s slightly less humorous to read this story about some security guards in a Detroit federal building forgetting to screen a package for three weeks before realizing it’s actually a bomb.

Ah, the power of a Twitter joke. Last Monday, someone jokingly tweeted to Detroit Mayor Dave Bing that the city should erect a statue of RoboCop, the fictional character who protected a crime-ridden Motor City in his eponymous 1987 movie. Bing dryly responded that there were no plans to build the statue, a tweet which numerous news sources picked up. Once the news got out, fans began to organize a fundraiser to donate the statue which the Mayor said he’d consider accepting. Meanwhile, I joke on Twitter about meeting the now-single Olivia Wilde and absolute jack all comes of it. Life’s just not fair.

Detroit police have released a surveillance video of a violent gun attack on a precinct station in the city in which four officers were wounded and the gunman and one other officer died. The video shows the gunman entering the station and firing shots over the front desk where several officers are waiting, and, eventually, the shootout with a police commander that likely left him dead.

Months removed from the anti-Semetic comments that lost her her front row seat at White House press briefings, Helen Thomas‘s continued remarks on the matter have lost her yet another honor– an award given to undergraduates at Wayne State Univeristy in Detroit in her honor, which has now lost its name.

A couple months ago, President Obama stopped by Chrysler’s Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit and told the workers there he had confidence in them. If the president had said that about us, we’d have been pumped. We might have even had a party. Of course, we probably would have stopped partying after a month and a half. And we probably wouldn’t have been partying during our lunch breaks. I guess the union workers caught boozing it up were just that excited.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano may have given conservatives a great new t-shirt idea yesterday by claiming that the system “worked like clockwork” once the flight 253 incident had occurred (a disclaimer that rendered the statement meaningless), but there may actually be some truth to the notion that the system worked. Napolitano’s statement (since “clarified”) was a wrongheaded attempt at reassurance, it seems that a whole bunch of other people have an interest in making you as scared as possible.

Another incident has been reported on Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, CNN and BNO News are reporting. Details are still coming in, but here’s the information that’s available thus far, as gleaned from Twitter.

Now that the first shock of yesterday’s attempted bombing on Northwest Flight 253 has passed the real fallout is starting to take effect, mainly for regular travelers. But if you want a real sense of what it’s really like to be traveling today then you need look no farther than twitter. We put together a collection from across the Twittersphere to give you a sense of how these new restrictions are (or aren’t, as the case may be) are affecting travelers ability to get where they’re going this holiday season.

Micheline Maynard — “Micki” to her friends and Twitter followers — is the Detroit-based senior business correspondent for the New York Times covering autos and aviation, and the author of the just-released The Selling of the American Economy: How Foreign Companies are Remaking the American Dream. If you’re wondering if it’s a good book, consider [...]

Slate’s Jack Shafer comparing the fate of Conde Nast to that of that other overreaching, reality-ignoring American powerhouse, General Motors. Next up: Graydon Carter and Anna Wintour fly to Washington in their private jets to beg for a bailout!