We post this link to a Wall Street Journal editorial by the above title only because it has its roots — as did the New York Times story this past weekend — in our post from a week or so ago.

No attribution necessary….

Further to yesterday’s post, looks like the Governator has cut a deal with the top Democrats in the state legislature to pass AB32, the bill that would make California the firsts state to put limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Apparently, there are still way too many employers in California and Arnold and the Dems aim to thin the herd a bit.

On the topic of global warming were sent — independently — two separate articles today. One came from our friend and fellow blogger Carter Wood. It’s a great op-ed by Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam entitled, “MIT’s Inconvenient Scientist.” It’s a profile of Richard Lindzen, who’s written prolifically, persuasively and skeptically about global warming — for which he’s been roundly attacked by the left.

However, more interesting was this piece by Tim Hames from the (UK) Times On Line entitled, “Look On the Sunny Side,” about the effects of the sun on climate change — a science the author notes is often overlooked in the current hysteria. Talking about the group of scientists who study the suns apparent impact on warming temperatures, the article says, “The most persuasive subsection of this community is convinced that the principal cause of climate change on Earth is the intensity of solar activity,” but goes on to add that nevertheless, “Public discussion is dominated by those inclined to the most doom-laden predictions.” Yeah, we already knew that. Looks like somebody should’ve passed this on to the misguided folks out on the left coast.

As a public service, we want to alert all you economic development officials out there for the other 49 states. Get ready for a bunch of (more) business.

We came across this Web site innovation.org and felt that we owe both of you loyal blog readers a service to report on what we found. This is the innovation channel, afterall.

Innovation.org is a project of NAM-member PhRMA.

Their goal is to create a site that exchanges ideas, raises awareness and communicates essential information about pharmaceutical innovation.

One really cool thing they have on their site is a power point slide presentation called “The Value of Medicines: Facts and Figures 2006.”

It’s 64 pages long but (like USA Today) its mostly charts and big print.

It’s broken up into several sections that make for quick reading and easy reference to a bunch of fascinating research including:

So, take a look and let us know what you think, we’ll scour the site some more in the coming days and provide additional links to other neat content that they have.

Add this to the list of headlines you’ll never see: Gas prices are dropping. Every uptick brings hysteria, every slight upward movement in price brings more politicians jockeying for political advantage, always shedding more heat than light on the issue. But when the price ticks down, nary a peep. No votes there.

And, apropos of all this is this article sent to us by one of our two faithful blog readers. It’s a short piece by Lindsay Walle that appeared in the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs newsletter entitled, “Energy ‘Crisis’? Let the Free Market Operate.” It’s a good read and makes all the salient points. We said in our Labor Day Report that energy prices writ large are taking an ever-increasing bite out of workers’ pay, but the solution is clear: more supply will ultimately drive down prices. We need to get on with that.

So don’t bother to keep looking for the daily headlines tracking the dropping price of gas. You won’t find them.

The AFL-CIO ignored Labor Day and focused on what has been their raison d’etre for the last 10 years or more — politics — yesterday and announced (as we noted earlier) that they would flush $40 million of their members’ heard-earned money down the political rathole.

How sad for union members. Please pass this on to any that you know, and tell them to ask their union for their money back. The union’s required to refund the portion of their dues that they would otherwise be flushing — if the members ask for it.

Happy Labor Day — not.

Flush.

Two op-eds in today’s WaPo that deserve comment before the sun sets on the day:

The first, by lefty labor skate Harold Meyerson, is newsworthy for its author’s calling Labor Day “a joke.” He’s feeling the unions’ historic grip on the day loosening and he’s none too happy about it. Along the way, he cherry-picks statistics to paint the usual grim picture of a Bleak House-like workforce. This in spite of the fact — as you can see from our Labor Day Report (we’re still celebrating the day, y’see), real compensation is up, manufacturing output is up, exports are up, homeownership is at an all-time high. He takes the obligatory union-enforced swipe at Wal-Mart, since they allegedly wrecked the buzz of the grocery workers, according to Meyerson. Meyerson ignores the fact that many union members shop at Wal-Mart — teachers notoriously flock there for there inexpensive supplies, for example — and also that Wal-Mart sources from over 60,000 American businesses — many of them NAM members, and many of them union shops.

For the truth about Wal-Mart (which Meyerson must revile if he’s too keep his union card) you need to read the thoughtful piece below it by Bob Samuelson. It’s entitled, “Wal-Mart as Red Herring.” Samuelson begins with a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that the government take over Wal-Mart so they can “legislate good behavior.” He goes on to note quite seriously that Wal-Mart’s expansion has resulted in an average savings of $2,329 for each household. As Samuelson’s colleague, Sebastian Mallaby, said in the piece we wrote about below, “By beating up Wal-Mart and forcing it to focus on public relations rather than opening new stores, Democrats are harming the poor Americans they claim to speak for.”

As we approach Labor Day, expect to hear lots about Wal-Mart from the shrinking, increasingly desperate labor movement. As Samuelson’s title implies, it is their favorite red herring.

It’s a good question: what spurs innovation? Lots has been written about this and there are many answers to that question. I’m not going to delve into all of them here today, but it is fair to say that our country’s standard of living hinges on whether the current innovative U.S. economy performs along similar lines in the coming decades.

A key part of the answer lies in manufacturing because over 60 percent of all private sector R&D stems from the manufacturing sector. New automobiles, new drugs and new processes in manufaturing plants that make the products we use daily less expensive–all of these are the results of that intensive manufacturing R&D.

Intellectual property plays a role too–patents and copyrights ensure that a creator will be paid back for his or her creativity. Recently The Manufacturing Institute released a new report on the link between innovation and IP: Intellectual Property for the Technological Age. It’s recommended reading for anyone interested in the future of manufacturing.

More recently, a California-based group picked up on the report and had a short article on innovation that is worth looking at: Do Intellectual Property Rights Help or Hinder Innovation? The Innovate Forum looks at the role of IP in innovation and finds some surprising differences of opinion. Not everyone links IP to innovation. Click on the link above and read what this short article has to say, including a quote from the institute’s president, Jerry Jasinowski.

Our Competitiveness Redbook shows that California already ranks dead last in net state migration, meaning more people leave California to move to other states. One of the big reasons is California’s business-unfriendly climate, a legacy of former Governor Gray Davis. In fact, someone once remarked that if state economic development folks gave a “Man of the Year” award, they should give it to Davis, as he did more to boost economic development in the 49 other states — by driving jobs there — than anyone else in the country. Governator Schwarzenegger has tried to reverse the tide, but his progress has been hampered in part by an unfriendly legislature seemingly hell-bent on ridding the state of all private sector jobs.

Case in point: According to this article, the California Assembly yesterday approved a bill that would “eliminate private medical insurance plans and establish a statewide health insurance system.” No matter that in countries with universal coverage there is rationing — California is launching headlong into the breech.

At the same time, the Assembly is debating AB32, a bill that would establish a cap on carbon emissions — for California only. Says NAM ally Jack Stewart — head of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association — in this op-ed:

“Earlier this year, the governor’s Climate Action Team conceded that if California implements a greenhouse-gas reduction program ‘without other states,’ as now appears likely, ‘there will be an incentive for production to shift to other states to avoid the cap…’”

As the kids say, “Duh!”

California is fast becoming a sad object lesson for the rest of the country, a dark abyss into which we all can peer. When you mandate single-payer health care, put a carbon cap on your own state, and try to ban substances like acrylamide that occur naturally in some fruits and vegetables, it’s just a matter of time before companies flee to a friendlier climate. With them goes the jobs and prosperity they bring. California is flirting with economic disaster.

As the saying goes, “Would the last manufacturer out of California please turn out the lights?”

Our friends at the Webcast Group (who host all of our streaming video content) brought to our attention this timely educational webcast about business’ role in the post-Katrina rebuilding. Some $200 billion in direct economic activity is planned for the Gulf Coast area.

We were struck by one telling indication: The new phone books are out for the New Orleans area and there’s a 50 percent increase in the number of listings for general contractors. We are about to witness the greatest rebuilding project in history.

Recovering from a natural disaster takes many, many hands, businesses among them. And amid all this activity, businesses obviously have to make sure they get paid in order to carry out their operations. The online seminars provides essential guidance on credit and collections.

The webinar will lead businesses through the steps to take now, during, and after their involvement in the rebuilding to ensure everyone succeeds.

Here’s a link to watch a webinar on this topic.

Our annual Labor Day Report provides a clear picture of the damage being done to an otherwise strong economy by soaring energy costs, which are hurting manufacturing workers at the pump and in their paychecks.

In our ninth annual report, our chief economist explains that while manufacturing production has increased at its fastest pace in six years and jobs on the factory floor have expanded, the lack of true energy reforms has tempered the positive news.

Over the past year energy prices have risen 23 percent due to increased global demand, limited domestic supplies, natural disasters and global instability. As a result, real wages have fallen by 0.5 percent over the past year when they should have gone up by 1.2 percent.

This fact illustrates the need for energy reforms now. The time has come to build a national energy policy to address these costs by increasing domestic production and supply. Our nation was galvanized around the Manhattan Project, we put a man on the moon, and 50 years ago, we created the Interstate Highway System. If we marshal that same national spirit of cooperation, unity and focus, we can ensure energy security.

While there is no “silver bullet” solution, there is a clear path to get energy policy moving in the right direction. In fact, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 — the first comprehensive energy strategy in many years — was a first step.

There is now a need to be even bolder. In just a few short days, Congress will be back at work after its August recess. Waiting for them are two pieces of legislation to open the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to energy development — one approved in the House and one in the Senate — that need to be reconciled and sent to the President’s desk in September.

We call on Congress and the Administration to build a plentiful, flexible, diverse and affordable energy supply through these actions:

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