In all the sturm und drang over Social Security, there remains this one immutable fact: the plan that the President is proposing is slightly less generous than the plan that Members of Congress now have. They are allowed to invest their money in a thing called the Thrift Savings Program, which enjoys an outstanding rate of return, certainly besting the puny 1% that you get with Social Security.

Maybe the President should call this the “Social Security Parity Act”, to give all Americans parity with Members of Congress. Also, don’t you wonder how NJ Senator Jon Corzine, former Chairman of Goldman-Sachs, can be against giving people the option of investing a portion of their money in a personal account? He has seen what that can do, and has personally benefited from the power of the market. Ironically, his website even notes his leadership in promoting financial literacy among young people. Guess his course doesn’t include the concept — basic to every primer on investment — of the time value of money.

Or maybe it’s just that now that he’s on board, he wants to pull up the ladder for the rest of us.

Did you know that if you are laid off from your job at Amtrak, you get 6 years full pay and benefits? Do you have that deal where you work?

Wow — what a difference a few billion dollars of government subsidy makes.

Just got this from a faithful blog reader:

As Hollywood gathers on Sunday for its biggest night, the Oscars, here are two billboards outside the Kodak theater that’ll be in plain view of the assembled multitude and a nice backdrop to Joan and Melissa Rivers, no?

Oh, and by the way — you’ll see the handiwork of America’s manufacturers on display there as well, not only the silicone, but also the Oscar statuette, which is made by one of our guys, RS Owens Co. in Chicago.

For those of you who despair of those annoying motivational posters — “Achievement”, “Success”, “Teamwork”, take heart. Check out Demotivators over at www.despair.com for the perfect antidote. There you’ll find inspirational (?) thoughts on Mistakes, Cluelessness, Despair and Procrastination, among others.

This is stuff that’s sure to puncture and defeat even the most confident among us. Enjoy!

In case you missed this….

Buried in relatively small print on page A-11 of yesterday’s Washington Post was an item entitled, “Ice Shelf Melt Holds Clues”. In it, the Post spends all of about 250 words noting that scientists have discovered that stable ice shelves in Antarctica have melted in the past. Finding organisms deposited some 9500 years ago (pre-dating even Bob Byrd’s election to the US Senate), “The discovery shows that oceanic and atmospheric temperature variations then were greater than those now that are tied to human factors”, according to the British Antarctic Survey.

In other words, if there’s a warming trend, it’s probably not owing to Cro-Magnon man’s use of the internal combustion engine.

Now, if this study had reched a different conclusion, i.e., if it actually supported the popular and speculative notions of global warming, do you think the Post might’ve given it more ink and more prominence…?

An interesting study from the good folks at Deloitte, entitled, “It’s 2008: Do You Know Where Your Talent Is?” Three top concerns of HR folks (big shocker):

1.) Incoming workers with inadequate skills;
2.) Baby boomer retirement;
3.) The inability to retain key talent.

They talk about new strategies aimed not only at luring critical talent but more importantly at engaging people in a way that promotes flexibility and productivity, just the kind of stuff that federal laws impede.

In any event, take a look — some interesting stuff there.

While the President was uncapping his pen last week to sign the Class Action Fairness Act, lawyers were slithering at record land speed into their favorite holes in Madison County and St. Clair County Illinois, both at the top of the ignominious “Judicial Hellholes” hit parade. Here’s an article from the Madison Record by Steve Gonzales about plaintiff attorney Steve Tillery, who managed singlehandedly to file nine lawsuits on Friday, before the bill became law. Among the plaintiffs who might’ve otherwise been denied justice was one David Rook who sued Sealy, claiming that they refused to replace a warranted mattress because it had a stain on it. My, oh my, where to begin to put a price on his unfathomable pain?

In this article by Paul Hampel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch — a guy who has done a great job of chronicling the tremendous abuse by trial lawyers — he notes that on Friday, all tolled, thirty four class actions were filed in Madison County and fifty one in St. Clair County.

What a disgusting spectacle, these lawyers taking one last shot at the trough. As if we needed more evidence of the need for legal reform. Don’t let anyone tell you it doesn’t matter.

Wonder if there will be any lawsuits from those who were standing around outside the courthouse and were innocently trampled….?

If you scroll all the way down to November 28, you’ll see a thing called, “Sweeney’s Last Term“, where we stared into our crystal ball and predicted that this’ll be it for AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. This was like predicting that the Internet will catch on. As it turns out, this blog entry created quite a dust-up, making that great publication, The Hill, as well as the Chicago Tribune, the SF Chronicle and eventually working its way onto the Imus in the Morning Show. The AFL even got into the act, complaining that we were just taking advantage of their disarray. We pointed out that their disarray didn’t make the story any less true, and so it remains.

Well, the clock keeps ticking for Brother Sweeney. In a piece in Saturday’s Washington Post, Tom Edsall reports that Hotel and Restaurant Union President John Wilhelm (as we predicted) is gearing up for a run at Sweeney. Edsall’s piece is pretty accurate judging from our sources, but he couldn’t resist the paean: “Under Sweeney, organized labor’s political clout has been significantly strengthened, with boosted voter turnout among union households and high Democratic vote margins among union members going to the polls.” He goes on to note that union membership continues, however, to decline. First of all, membership would seem to be pretty darned important, no? And, we’re not sure he boosted their political clout all that much, since their candidates pretty uniformly have sunk like a stone.

In any event, one faithful blog reader deep within the bowels of the incredible shrinking AFL wrote to us to complain about all this self-absorption over there about the fate of the AFL-CIO, wondering why the member unions aren’t more focused on their own well-being. They went on to point out the idiocy of the proposals to cut the AFL budget by 50%, asking whether NAM members, facing a tough economy would advocate as their cure-all proposal cutting the NAM budget in half. (We certainly hope not!)Good point.

Carpenter’s President Doug McCarron comes out of all this looking pretty good. He left the AFL and took all that money that was propping up causes that his members didn’t believe in and he put it into — gasp! — organizing. If they had a search committee and not an election, Doug McCarron would be the head of the AFL-CIO. For the moment, however, it looks like Wilhelm is making progress, gaining some traction, but still needs the support of a few more unions to put him over the top.

For John Sweeney, the gold watch is calling, and ticking….

Stay tuned.

It’s a long weekend, so we’ll give you some extra stuff to get you through. We’ll be back on Tuesday:

– A Good Week for Manufacturers in Washington: No, make that “An historic week”. Thanks to all of you who descended upon this town this week and made a great showing. Manufacturers were everywhere. Along the way, you pushed the class action bill across the goal line after 7 years of struggle. It reminded us of the great quote from jurist Louis Brandeis, that the most important political office is that of private citizen. You came, you saw, you conquered. Great job, manufacturers, you did us all proud.

– Noah and the Regulators: OK, enough schmaltz. Here’s a cute piece sent to us by NAM Board Member Extraordinaire Della Williams (Della, hope you don’t mind that we coughed you up). She sent it with the simple note saying, “Noah had the same woes as manufacturers.” As you’ll see in this piece, indeed he did. And, by the way, don’t mess with Della. She seems like a really nice person, but she makes parts for the F-18 so if you cross her she will take you out.

– Daytona and Manufacturers: It’s been said that NASCAR is unique in that it begins its season with its Super Bowl. No one who’s ever been to the Daytona 500 can ever soon forget it, (our own Kendig Kneen is there with his daughter) the noise, the crowds, the whole deal. If you’re lucky enough to be in the infield, you get a great bird’s eye view of the unbelievable speed and efficiency of the pit crews and you usually see a spectacular wreck or two. You will also see the great contribution of manufacturers to the sport of NASCAR racing. From Goodyear, the sole supplier of tires (which get changed pretty often) to DuPont (you want to be wearing their stuff if you’re driving) and Ingersoll-Rand, we are quite literally at every turn. Thanks to Dave Kralik, Aimee Short and NASCAR fanatics Pam Roper and Dave Walker for this great article about manufacturers and the Daytona 500.

– Greenpeace Gets Their Bums Kicked: We saved this one for last, if only because it’s priceless. Here’s a story from yesterday’s London Times about a Greenpeace protest gone awry — for Greenpeace, that is. Apparently, they picked on the wrong people this time. They descended on the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) in London hoping to stop trading on the day that the Kyoto Protocol (which China and India are not a part of, by the way) took effect. However, they made the tactical error of arriving after lunch and finding the traders feeling their oats. When Greenpeace set up the trading flow, some 25 traders began to pummel the protestors. Never get in between a trader and their daily bread, we say. “They were just a bunch of Cockney barrrow boy spivs”, said one Greenpeace person, whatever the hell that means, but it sounds nasty. The Times reports that a trader nearby, on the balcony of a pub, pint in hand, hollered back, “Sod off, Swampy!”. You gotta love the Brits. If only they spoke the King’s English.

In any event, here’s the link to the story so you can read it for yourself. Send an ice pack to your local Greenpeace office. Poor babies.

And sod off, Swampy.

Have a good weekend!

Good news — after only some 7 years in gestation, now that both the Senate and House passed the Class Action Fairness Act, it has rocketed down Pennsylvania Avenue today and the President has wasted no time signing it into law. NAM member — and Chair of the NAM’s Legal Issues Policy Committee — Kirk Liddell of Irex Corporation was there at the White House for the signing of this historic bill.

Here’s the press release on today’s signing.