At the annual Radio & TV Correspondents Association Dinner in Washington on Wednesday night, those feisty folks over at Jib-Jab previewed their newest effort, “What We Call The News.” Unfortunately you have to suffer through a 30-second commercial at this link to get to the 2-minute video but it’s worth the wait. It’s an all-too-sad — but true — commentary on the state of the news today.

We’ll warn you it’s a little PG-rated in spots, but hopefully you can make it through. If not, turn back now, while it’s safe.

Click here to watch this week’s Friday Follies — it’s what we call the news.

Senator Kennedy’s introduction of the Senate version of the spuriously named Employee Free Choice Act came at an odd moment. A usual course of action would have been to drop the bill earlier in the week, for example, at his HELP Committee’s hearing on the legislation.

Another typical PR stroke would have been to announce the bill’s introduction at one of this week’s many labor events and rallies, like the Building and Construction Trades conference. (A fair-minded report on the event is at TNR Online; Jim Geraghty had coverage here and here.) The announcement would have fired up the unionists and the actual bill would have given them something to take to congressional offices as a prop.

The delay probably occurred because Kennedy could not round up the full Democratic caucus to sign on as original cosponsors. As you can see from the text, the following Democratic Senators are not on the bill: Sen. Lincoln, AR; Sen. Nelson, NE; Sen. Pryor AR, and Sen. Salazar, CO. Neither is Sen. Arlen Specter, R-PA, who was an original cosponsor two years ago of S. 842, Sen. Kennedy’s previous bill. (Kennedy also sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act in 2003, S. 1925).)

Which brings us to this item from yesterday’s White House Bulletin:

Labor union backers of a bill that would make it easier for workers to form unions say they face an uphill battle in the Senate, although they’re confident they have unanimous support from Democrats. Labor union leaders expect a vote late in the spring or perhaps in the summer; one estimated that a vote could be three to four months off on the Employee Free Choice Act.

We’re almost starting from scratch in the Senate,” says Bill Samuel, legislative director of the AFL-CIO. He predicts the bill will have unanimous support from Democrats and at least one Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Samuel says that if there is a filibuster threat in the Senate, labor will need to come up with eight Republicans to support the bill. “It’s never been debated in the Senate. For the last 12 years, these issues have had scant attention,” he says.

We detect an absence of bravado. And the confidence about having unanimous support from the Democrats appears misplaced. Could the effort to ram the Employee Free Choice Act through Congress without a full debate or understanding of its radical implications be sputtering?

Yes, it could.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-MA, today introduced the Senate companion to H.R. 800, the counterfactually named Employee Free Choice Act. Kennedy release here. The statement includes this familiar canard:

In 2005 alone, more than 30,000 workers were illegally fired or retaliated against for attempting to exercise their right to have a union in their workplace. Every 17 minutes, a worker is fired or punished in some illegal way for supporting a union. Unscrupulous employers routinely break the law to keep unions out—they intimidate employees, harass them, and discriminate against them. They shut down whole departments—or even entire plants—to avoid negotiating a union contract. It’s illegal and unacceptable, but it happens every day.

We again refer the reader to “The Truth About Improper Firings and Union Intimidation,” an issue paper by James Sherk of the Heritage Foundation.

First, the claim that companies fire workers in one-quarter of organizing drives comes from a survey of union organizers, which is hardly an impartial source.[3]

No less mistaken is the claim that “illegal firings and other discrimination against workers” occurred 31,358 times in 2005. The number itself comes from the 2005 annual report of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).[4] The report shows that the NLRB ordered employers to pay that many workers back pay in 2005, but the NLRB awards back pay to resolve many types of disputes, very few of which involve intimidation during organizing. For example, the NLRB orders companies to provide back pay if they have unilaterally changed a collective bargaining agreement. Asserting that all of these cases concern intimidation, fraud, or illegal firings during organizing campaigns is simply false.

Putting that number in context reveals the absurdity of the unions’ claim. About 149,000 workers were eligible to vote in union certification elections in 2005. If 31,000 cases of back pay resulted from employers illegally firing or coercing pro-union workers, then employers fired or coerced over one-fifth of all workers who voted on organizing that year, which is a far higher proportion than even unions assert.

Union activists and their Congressional allies play fast and loose with the facts, a sad practice that will no doubt continue. Notable, as well, in its absence from Kennedy’s statement is any mention of the means by which the bill would achieve “fairness,” i.e., the destruction of secret-ballot elections in the workplace. Seems relevant to the debate.

UPDATE (5:20 p.m.): Kennedy’s repetition of the AFL-CIO’s claims are refuted more thoroughly at this post at The Union-Free Employer blog.

Big news in the world of energy and the global economy. China has struck oil in a big way.

PetroChina Ltd. announced it has found an offshore field that could become China’s biggest new domestic-petroleum source in a decade, with reserves of 2.2 billion barrels, the official Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday.

Such a field would be a “world-scale discovery,” said Gavin Thompson, an oil consultant in Beijing for the Scottish firm Wood Mackenzie. “In terms of energy security, a 2-billion-barrel discovery is going to be very welcome, not only to PetroChina but to China’s energy planners.”

Wow. More than 2 billion barrels. Sure wish the United States could buttress its own national energy security with a world-scale discovery of its own.

Surveys conducted by the USGS suggest that between 5.7 and 16.0 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil are in the coastal plain area of ANWR, with a mean estimate of 10.4 billion barrels, divided into many fields.

In general, the entertainment industry would get a D or lower if graded on how much they know about modern manufacturing and their steadily inaccurate portrayals in films and on television.

So it always comes as a surprise when someone in Television Land actually tunes into the real world of manufacturing and even seeks to improve the understanding of our industry. Such an earthquake is taking place in Florida with Platinum Productions TV (PTG).

Doug Scott and Lisa Vrancken from PTG were interviewed recently by Ken Rayment with BetterProcess Podcast and their comments were really like a breath of fresh air. Their productions, aimed at both students and adults, seek to strengthen entrepreneurship. They take a good hard look at some of things you have read about in this blog that affect manufacturing:

high energy prices and the need to seek alternative fuels to lower those costs that raise costs for all manufacturers;

legal reforms that will curb the crazy litigous culture in the United States and the often crushing costs that go with it;

the need to spur more research and development;

skilled workers that are in short supply and the need to train more engineers, production workers and scientists.

If you have an interest in today’s manufacturing, then I’d strongly recommend you listen to this really good interview with Platinum Productions TV. Click here to listen. And kudos to Ken Rayment for bringing PTG’s initiatives to a wider audience.

Trade was on lots of minds yesterday, too — OK, so we teed it up, asked a lot of questions. But since our buddy Lou was on the Hill yesterday bloviating on the topic, it was fresh in our minds. Here’s what some of the assembled GOP had to say about trade:

For starters, here’s an interesting piece by Bob Novak in today’s WaPo on the topic of the Dems’ budget. By letting the tax cuts expire, they claim no new taxes, but the assembled GOP gang had lots to say about that yesterday. The beauty of the blogosphere is that there is no filter, so you can see what they had to say, in their own words:

Anyone who doubts the GOP’s ability to stay on message should have sat with us in HC-9 of the Capitol yesterday. Almost thirty Members of Congress — including Leadership — came through to visit with the assembled bloggers and take questions. However, virtually all of them made the same three key points:

Again, you can agree or disagree, but their ability to hammer away and stay on message was impressive. Whether it’ll make a difference in press coverage or public opinion remains to be seen.

It also appeared that they had renewed vigor. Most also made the point that in their view, the Democrats didn’t win the elections of ’06, the Republicans lost it. They feel they lost the election by losing their way and by drifting from their core principles of smaller government and fiscal responsibility. It’s clear from yesterday’s session that they intend to embrace those principles with a vengeance.

By the way, thanks to our blogging buddy — and shutterbug — Rob Bluey, here are a bunch of photos from yesterday’s session.

Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (R-FL):

This blog row is a part of our effort to shake the dust off our wings, take the opportunity to connect with people in America. We’re going into the Spring District Work Period with 2 issues hanging over the America people:

Today kicked off with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), who represents a district that is manufacturing-rich, home to many NAM members large and small.

“We (Republicans) need to get back to our roots to reclaim our identity and our principles. Nowhere is this more clear than in taxes and spending. There is an enormous difference between our parties and governing philosophies.

Last time the Democrats were in the majority, they passed the largest tax increase in history. They are doing it again. The budget resolution continues their policy of raising taxes. The budget bill includes a $392.5b tax increase. In Wisconsin, 2 million taxpayers will see an increase of $2964 per household.

The difference between the parties has never been as crystal clear as it is today. Washington doesn’t have a revenue problem, has a spending problem. In order to fix and save entitlement programs, you need to reform them.