Zzzzzzzzzzz………………

Oh, sorry, we dozed off there for a bit watching Lou’s show. If you think it’s hard doing the same monotonous show night after night, imagine how hard it is to write about the same show night after night.

However, we’ll give credit where credit is due. Lou actually took a (electronic) page from the blog on Monday night to do a story on the breakup of the AFL-CIO. The breakup itself isn’t that good for Lou as he counts on some of the Sweeney gang to come on from time to time to rant about — you guessed it — trade. Unfortunately for Lou, the AFL isn’t with him on immigration, either.

In any event, he was briefly on (our) message for one day, then went back to his old ways by inviting — again — Flat-Earther Alan Tonelson. He’s almost become a co-host on Lou’s show, carping about — you guessed it — trade, chirping that the earth is really, really flat. No, this is not a repeat blog entry, although you’ve read this before.

Last night he stacked the deck again with a pretend debate about CAFTA (which will passed last night despite Lou’s best efforts), with poor Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) the lone defender against Lou (who dominated the microphone) and Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH).

Watch this space tomorrow for more news or — better still — just print this out and read it every day.

Things are only beginning to get interesting in the debate surrounding John Roberts’ nomination to the Supreme Court. There was a great editorial in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday entitled, “Nefarious Ties” about the Washington Post’s breathless, front-page article accusing (?!) Roberts of belonging to the Federalist Society. This subversive group, says the Journal (quoting the Post): “was founded in l982 by conservatives who disagreed with the leftist tilt in the nation’s law schools. The group sponsors legal symposia and similar activities and serves as a network for rising conservative lawyers.”

Gasp!

It really is just so silly. It’s not like it was the Hitler Youth. Are you shocked? We are, but only by the reaction of the Post.

We also ran across a call to action/fundraising piece from moveon.org, screaming that Roberts “worked with Ken Starr (yes that Ken Starr)…” [hysteria theirs]. Ken Starr, long before he was reviled for carrying out his duties regarding former President Clinton’s adventures, was the Solicitor General and is widely viewed as one of the best and smartest lawyers in the country. John Roberts was the Deputy Solicitor General, a coveted slot typically reserved for the cream of the crop of the nation’s bar.

However, if you want some real news, a contrary story that has somehow eluded the radar of the MSM (Main Stream Media), here’s a letter that the Painter’s Union sent to Sens. Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Pat Leahy (D-VT), endorsing Roberts’ candidacy for the Supreme Court. You’d think that a letter of support from a union, a core part of the liberal coalition fighting Roberts’ nomination, would make news, no?

We’re happy to break the story….

Got an interesting call yesterday from Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz, said he wanted to talk about our humble little blog and especially “Dobbs Watch.”

First, he wanted to know, “Why?” We told him Lou’s message is so far off of ours that we felt it was important to point that out in a bloggy, irreverent sort of way. It’s funny watching the mainstream media (MSM to the blog world) get their brains around blogs, like watching your parents dance to rock music. Ick.

He asked if our blog wasn’t a little personal. After all, he said, we call Lou a “xenophobe.” (Personal? Has he read the Washington Post lately…?) We pointed out that first, Lou is a xenophobe and second, that the blog is written in the language of — and should be viewed in the context of – the blogosphere. It is irreverent, edgy and satirical. Good thing he didn’t read the stuff about John Sweeney!

We’re not sure whether this will lead to a story or not, but it was a funny and interesting conversation. As John Sebastian sang, “Like tryin’ to tell a stranger ’bout rock ‘n roll…..”

Here’s the link to see how your Representatives voted. We were up late because there’s a lot at stake.

Thanks to all the manufacturers who weighed in to push this one over the goal line and score one for free trade.

Hopefully this CAFTA vote marks the end of political opposition to trade liberalization.

For those of you who made it all the way to Wednesday without listening to the weekly NAM radio show, shame on you! Would you miss the Wolfman’s countdown? Don’t think so, you shouldn’t miss this one either. This week’s show features the Manufacturing Institute’s Phyllis Eisen talking about skills education and our “Dream It. Do It.” Campaign, NAM member Gary Johnson on the skills shortage his California company and finally a chat about high court nominee John G. Roberts with ABC World News Tonight’s Supreme Court correspondent and the dulcet tones of our own Darren McKinney, host. You can even Podcast it. As manufacturers, we are of course way ahead of the technology curve. Enjoy the show!

Here’s the link to listen to it online or click here for our Podcast.

With all the stuff going on with the AFL-CIO this week, we almost forgot our Wednesday poster of the week! This one will be from our new – as opposed to vintage – series, one like last week, of our manufacturers, not necessarily looking like manufacturers, but carrying the manufacturing message. This week we have NAM Board member and small manufacturer Kendig Kneen of Al-jon in Ottumwa, Iowa, standing atop one of this car crushers, massive machines that he makes and ships all over the world. Although Kendig looks kinda scary in the picture, and poses an ominous presence, he’s actually a sweetheart, one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. A Harley rider and one of the leaders in our efforts to involve manufacturers and their employees in the political process, Kendig does us proud every day. Click on the poster to see a larger view.

We mentioned yesterday Juan Gonzalez’ story in the NY Daily News that raised the issue of whether John Sweeney would be eligible to run for President of the AFL-CIO if his union, the SEIU, left the federation as it did yesterday. It appears that indeed he is not eligible without having a union to claim as his own. We opined that he’d probably just join the OPEIU, the Office and Professional Employees International Union, one of the in-house unions for employees at AFL-CIO headquarters on 16th St. in Washington, DC. We discovered today from several sources that in the last day or two that Sweeney – apparently aware of this potential controversy — has been heard to invoke the name of the OPEIU as his union. However, it occurred to us that he might have another problem here. If in fact the OPIEU is one of the in-house unions for employees at the AFL-CIO and since after all he is the President of the organization, as unpalatable as it may be to Bro. Sweeney, he has joined the ranks of management under the definition of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). As such, he is ineligible to join the union made up of the proletariat from his organization. This would be a management-dominated union, a big no-no under the NLRA, and not exactly admired by the brothers and sisters over at the AFL-CIO.

We’re sure we’ve got this wrong and that some sharp-eyed reader from within the bowels of the AFL will write to us and set us straight. If not, let us be the first to welcome John Sweeney to the ranks of management bosses, and send him his honorary “Union Buster” card…

This has been the other pressing question on the Fourth Estate’s mind these days, i.e., what does all this turmoil at the AFL-CIO mean for manufacturers? Is it good? Is it bad? Is a revitalized labor movement a threat to business?

Well, we prayed on it and noodled on it and rolled it around among ourselves a bit and finally found the answer. We finally gleaned what it all means:

(continue reading…)

This has been the question on everyone’s lips these days, at least among the Fourth Estate covering the AFL Convention. Amy Joyce of the Washington Post – a pretty capable scribe in her own right – called tonight to ask. Here was some of our reaction:

First of all, it’s important to understand that unions have been losing ground on organizing for 30 years and have been finding an endless stream of villains to blame for it. First it was the “anti-union Reagan Administration” (for 8 years), followed by “the anti-union Bush (41) Administration” (for four years). After that, they pretty much got 8 years of a hand-picked Clinton Administration, yet their numbers continued to slide. That was about the time they began to blame the statue, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), under which they saw fabulous success in the 50′s and 60′s. Somewhere, somehow, it took a turn for the worse, became a bad statute. Not sure where, not sure when. They blamed the firing of the air traffic controllers, blamed companies who fight organizing drives – in short, blamed everybody but themselves. Frankly, sounds like a whole lotta excuses to us.

In our view, there are a few key reasons why they’ve not been able to organize:

(continue reading…)

There’s a very important vote scheduled in the House of Representatives today on the Trade Rights Enforcement Act that we talked about last week. This is a big trade week in the House, with a vote on CAFTA expected later in the week.

This bill — H.R. 3283 — will authorize the application of US countervailing duty (CVD) laws to exports from China. In addition, it’ll require that the US Government track intellectual property theft and China’s World Trade Organization (WTO) compliance, and it provides more funding for US enforcement of trade agreements. In short, what’s not to love?

Here’s a link to our legislative alert. Better still, you can go right to our website and weigh in with your Member of Congress by following this link.