Tennessee Volkswagen plant votes against union in UAW defeat

In a stunning defeat that could accelerate the decades-long decline of the United Auto Workers, employees voted against union representation at Volkswagen AG’s Chattanooga, Tennessee plant, which had been seen as organized labor’s best chance to expand in the U.S. South. …

The loss could further dent the prestige of the UAW, whose membership has plummeted 75 percent since 1979 and now stands at just under 400,000. …

The vote faced fierce resistance from local Republican politicians and national conservative groups who warned that a UAW victory could hurt economic growth in Tennessee. While voting was under way on Wednesday, Republican U.S. Senator Bob Corker said VW would announce new investment in the plant if the UAW lost the secret ballot. …

President Barack Obama waded into the discussion on Friday, accusing Republican politicians who oppose unionization of being more concerned about German shareholders than U.S. workers.

Whilst anyone with a brain knows that BHO is more concerned with pandering to unions than the U.S. economy. Particularly in an increasingly-red state in the South.

Congrats to the blue collar workers in Chattanooga on a wise decision.

Politico warns Beware: More congressional rancor ahead.

Last year’s congressional session, derided by many as the least productive ever, is about to get a run for its money.

Despite ending the year with a glimmer of bipartisanship after passing a budget agreement and defense bill, lawmakers and aides are predicting this year will be filled mostly with show votes and partisan bickering unlikely to abate until the midterm elections.

If the first legislative week of 2014 is a guide, those skeptics could very well be proven right. The Senate fell into a familiar state of paralysis, unable to agree on reviving emergency unemployment benefits and instead shifting to insular debates over the chamber’s leadership and procedure.

Sounds about right. Money quote from our own Sen. Alexander:

“One way to change it is to elect six more Republican senators,” Alexander said.

True enough. But even better, how about six Libertarians?

Area Development surveyed top site consultants to determine the best states for doing business, should a business be looking to build a new facility. The survey ranked the states based on their number of mentions by the site consultants in 17 categories.

The results:

TOP STATES FOR DOING BUSINESS 2013

1.   TEXAS
2.   GEORGIA
2.   SOUTH CAROLINA
4.   ALABAMA
5.   NORTH CAROLINA
6.   LOUISIANA
7.   TENNESSEE
8.   FLORIDA
9.   MISSISSIPPI
10.  CALIFORNIA

Consultant Robert Hess comments on the importance of state leadership in providing an attractive environment for business:

Consistency and confidence are two major intangible business location drivers for our corporate clients these days. The results of the 2013 Top States for Doing Business survey demonstrate that the southeastern region of the U.S. really gets it. Risk management and certainty around investment decision-making is rising as a critical location factor, and Texas, Georgia, the Carolinas, Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi continue to maintain their business climate “edge” through focused advancement of their “business-friendly” policies as well as overall low structural costs.

This is Tennessee’s best showing in the four year history of the survey. Good job!

Two Miami Dade County deputies were escorting Alberto Morales, a sex offender, from Miami to Las Vegas. On the stop for a at DFW for connecting flights, the deputies decided to change from continuing the flight and drive to Las Vegas due to Morales’ disruptive behavior. They stopped at Wal-Mart in Grapevine for supplies and one deputy went into the store and the second stayed with the criminal. Morales broke his own glasses that he then used to stab the deputy repeatedly and escaped.

Texans say, “Thank-you Florida.”

Officials believe ‘extremely dangerous’ escaped Miami felon still in area | Dallas-Fort Worth Crime News – News for Dallas, Texas – The Dallas Morning News.

With unemployment destroying lives throughout America, the professional, scientific and technical services sector has actually expanded ~15% over the last dozen years.

The Praxis Strategy Group took a look at the top 50 metropolitan areas with these jobs and ranked them according to how they have performed during that time. Let’s take a look at how the only 2 Tennessee regions did:

Under visionary leadership, Nashville’s medical and technology industries have boomed. Meanwhile, Memphis is shedding highly paid jobs.

Take a look at the city leadership and ask, is it any wonder?

Link: The Cities Winning The Battle For The Fastest Growing High-Wage Sector In The U.S. | Newgeography.com.

Californian Joel Kotkin bemoans the decline of his home state in The Golden State Is Crumbling:

California’s dominant ruling class—consisting of public-employee unions, green jihadis, and Democratic machine politicians—has no real use for science as Gilman saw it: as a way to create prosperity for its citizens. Instead, the prevailing credo of the state has been how to do everything possible to return to its pre-settlement condition, with little regard for what that means to the average Californian. …

Increasingly, California no longer beckons ambitious newcomers, except for a handful of the most affluent, best educated, and well connected. Through the 1980s and even through the late ’90s, the aspirational classes came to California. Now they head to other, more opportunity-friendly places like Austin, Houston, Dallas, Raleigh-Durham, even former “dust bowl” burghs like Des Moines, Omaha, and Oklahoma City. Meanwhile, Golden California, particularly its expensive, ultragreen coast, gets older and older. Marin County, the onetime home of the Grateful Dead and countless former hippies, is now one of the grayest urban counties in the country, with a median age of 44.

Of course, the self-described “progressive” mafia that runs California will point to Silicon Valley and its impressive array of startups. But for the most part, firms like Google, Twitter, and Facebook employ only a small cadre of highly educated workers. Overall, during the past decade the state’s high-tech employment fell by almost 4 percent, while Texas’s science-based employment grew by a healthy 11 percent. The sad reality is that turning T-shirt-wearing kids like Mark Zuckerberg into multibillionaires doesn’t do much to reduce unemployment, which even in San Jose—the largely blue-collar “capital” of Silicon Valley—now hovers around 10 percent.

Exactly.

Non-blogging Advised by Wolves writes:

California’s Prop. 31 is a regionalist program to raid the suburbs and transfer that wealth to failed cities. Failed cities will not be required to reform, they can depend on new funding from the suburbs.

The beginnings of this idea is also taking hold in Tennessee with the Memphis Independent School District declaring failure in order to require the County to step in and take over in accordance with State Law. Bartlett, as an organized municipality, is withdrawing from the County School District and establishing an ISD of their own. If the regionalists get their way, Bartlett will be suborned by Memphis. Now there is a nightmare.

Exactly.

The Obama Machine has cranked out a 17 minute mockumentary narrated by none other than legendary actor Tom Hanks with the aim to get Barack Hussein Obama reelected. According to FactCheck.org, it is filled with half-truths and misleads the viewer.

It has now come to light that there is yet another lie embedded in the video. This time, it is about the decision to make the raid that captured Bin Laden:

In the first clip, actor Tom Hanks narrates: “How do we understand this president and his time in office?” The next clip is of Vice President Joe Biden praising the President’s decision to kill Osama Bin Laden: “As he walked out of the room, it dawned on me. He’s all alone. This is his decision. Nobody is standing there with him.”

But that isn’t what happened. Time Magazine has uncovered a memo that paints a very different story altogether:

“The timing, operational decision-making and control are in Adm. McRaven’s hands,” the memo says. “The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the president. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the president for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and, if he is not there, to get out.”

In other words, it was McRaven’s call to pull the trigger or not on the raid.

Some would say that this is a distinction without a difference, sort of like a head coach in football drawing up the game plan and letting his offensive coordinator actually call the plays. Then, technically, President George W. Bush gets the credit, since it was on his watch our war on terror was declared, Navy SEALs and Special Forces funding was increased and the hunt for Osama bin Laden began.

The Panetta memo, rather than presenting a profile in courage, says “approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the president.” This left enough wiggle room to blame the operation planners and controllers if the raid had gone as wrong as President Jimmy Carter’s famous failure to rescue American hostages held by Iran. This memo left room for the blame for another “Blackhawk Down” snafu to be blamed on anyone and everyone but President Obama.

One has to respect Tom Hanks for his accomplishments in driving for the WWII memorial in Washington D.C., but that respect is diminished when he mouthed half-truths and borderline lies in support of a president that has squandered the economic livelihood of our children’s children.

Even before this latest revelation, the RNC had a great take on the mockumentary:

“In 2008, [Obama] did a 30-minute infomercial to talk about what he would do as president, and it seems somewhat ironic that four years later he has to stretch a 17-minute video to say what he’s done,” [RNC] spokesman Sean Spicer said. “As well done as it is, even the best Hollywood studio effects can’t cover up the failed policies of the last three years.”

While on the subject, Spicer took aim at Obama’s hectic fundraising pace and Hollywood-style leisure activities, like playing golf.

“Americans understand that politicians are going to raise money, and that their presidents need downtime and time with their family,” he stressed. But “for a guy who’s trying to talk about the 99 percent, to be blatantly living the lifestyle not just of the 1 percent but the .1 percent looks contrary to everything that he’s talking about.”

Then again, selective blindness is a well known Liberal affliction.

Mick Wright brought a YouTube video to our attention, writing:

“In this little-known video posted in June 2010 (only 18 total views) by the pro-government consolidation group Rebuild Government, none other than Tomeka Hart assures voters the school systems “are not affected and they will remain separate entities.”

It has been a week, and the video is still only up to 155 views.

Courtesy of The Truth About Guns:

Politicians object to guns. Citizens not yet in the grip of political ambition are amazingly clear thinking.