Don't Forget -- Big Oil Gets Thirsty Too...

Who's To Blame? Wal-Mart, Unions, Public Education ... or US

Wal-Mart is alive and glowing on New Richmond's southside. Last week the new super center opened and the future of New Richmond looks...different. From where I live in New Richmond, I can see the bright Wal-Mart lights blazing brightly throughout the night. Down the road, going north, south, east or west, new houses are constantly going up. It has been this way for the last decade. Wal-Mart was only a matter of time.

Wal-Mart: Love v. Hate
I attended a concert last Friday night at the Gem Theater and the musicians made a few comments about driving by the Wal-Mart Super Center on the way into town. Like..."How could you let that happen?" Obviously not of the pro-Wal-Mart set, the comments from the stage were met with pro and con responses. Like it or not, the big WM is here and New Richmond will continue to change.

Personally, my conscience does not bother me when I walk into WM. The same goods for sale at WM can be purchased up the road at Pamida. I first entered a WM in Jonesboro, Arkansas on a hot Sunday afternoon in August in 1982. From the greeter to the prices on the merchandise, I knew this was no K-Mart. Since then, the WM business model has exploded into the largest company in the world. Companies like K-Mart, Sears, Wards and others have virtually vanished from the face of todayÂ’s retail landscape.

Those old guard companies could not compete with WMÂ’s business model of low-prices and low-wages. We see a similar thing happening in the auto and airline industries. The old business models that grew up during the 1900s can't do the dance moves required in today's global business boogie. In business, the target never sits still and, in todayÂglobaling economy, the target is moving and spinning at an ever-increasing rate. It's all part of that "free market" thing.

Hitting Home
As we transition to the "service" economy, things are changing. The smokestacks are coming down, the idea of life-long jobs is rapidly disappearing and leaving many older workers scratching their heads in the dust of disappearing pensions, vanishing 401kÂ’s and rising healthcare costs. All kinds of plans are changing. The talk of revamping Social Securitbeen beden silenced by such things as Katrina and the fact that the push for the change was from the top down where the people have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

You can see this transition right here in our neighborhood. In River Falls, Kolpak, a manufacturer of commercial refrigerators and freezers, in closing its RF operations and relocating its production to a plant in Tennessee. Kolpak says it is not moving because of the taxes. They are moving because the area of Tenesesse to which they are relocating has a strong work force and has a location that makes transportation of their products less costly. This will leave more than 100 people without a job in the RF area.

Twenty miles away, Wal-Mart opens in New Richmond bringing with it over 100 jobs. So it is a zero-sum wash, right? Wrong! Those Wal-Mart jobs will pay substantially less, will not have anywhere near the pension and healthcare benefits that workers received at Kolpak.

A half mile north of the NR WM Super Center, a small group of strikers are quietly picketing across the street from the Bosch/Doboy plant. Hook your horn, if you drive by them. They are your neighbors and they need your support. Better yet, stop by and ask them what is up. They will tell you what they are striking for. They are not the evil demons that some bloggers on this borderline like to paint union members. They, like those bloggers, have families to feed, bills to pay, retirements to plant for, taxes to pay, etc.

I stopped by last Wednesday evening and talked to the strikers. They said the story in the NR News did a good job of covering the issues with the strike. They told me the company wants to increase healthcare premiums, reduce wages and have the option of working 32-hour weeks, i.e., Bosch wants to cut labor costs. These guys are not "young bucks." They have 20 to 30 or more years with the company. Think about them and think about the friends and relatives you know who are out on strike at Northwest Airlines. You do not see the color rose in any of these scenarios.

You Can See The Schools From Here
Up the hill from the Bosch/Doboy strikers is the West Elementary school, a block east of that school is the high school, a couple more blocks and you are at the East Elementary school, go north a couple blocks and be at the middle school and just down the road is WITC. In others words, those strikers are surrounded by New RichmondÂ’s public education system. They support it with their taxes, their kids use it or they have used it. The future of AmericaÂ’s ability to react to and anticipate the changes of the global economy are housed in those school buildings and the teachers to whom we entrust the education of America's future. Now is the not the time to drain the resources needed to educate our future. However, that is exactly what policy is being deployed by the Bush administration, the majority in the US Senate and Congress, at the state level with the Tax Payer Bill of Rights (TABOR) and a the local level by anti-public education groups like those at www.ontheborderline.net.

People need to understand that education is not an issue about right or wrong, it is about exercising political power. There is a great deal of blog ink being expended on the borderline about how bad public education is. If I believe everything, I read on the borderline, anything to do with public education is negative. Is public education the perfect solution to our educational needs? Are the schools the cause of all the problems in society?

Like it or not, the pressures of parenting and providing the necessities of today is not they used to be. The greater the sophistication of our communication tools, the more isolated we seem to get as individuals and members of the community. We can talk on the cellphone to our friends on the other side of the state, as we wind our way through morning traffic, but are we talking to our neighbors down the road? Do we even know them?

There is a lot to think about. The kind of thinking needed involves the whole community and focuses on our long-term future. As the community grows, the need to update the educational facilities grows. The charting of the future needs your input. Get involved. Find out what is happening at your local school, town, city and county boards. In the links to the right of this post, you will find links to the local school district. Check it out. Find out when the next board meeting is...and go.

Your understanding of the process and your input is what the members of these boards need. Anybody can sit home, watch “Fear Factor” and complain about local, state and national politics. It's up to you to get off you duff and change things. I know it is much easier to blame it on Wal-Mart or blame it on the unions, but the blame might legitimately be placed on you and me. There is a great deal of power stored in the votes of the people of this nation. To use or not to use that power is the question you need to understand and ponder.

Pen & Ink Jambs: The Reading Equation

Doing the Math ... On The Border Line Style

On The Border Line bloggers Dr. Bubba and Dr. Junior were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking up. A man named Dratsum walked by and asked what they were doing.

"We're supposed to find the height of the flagpole," said Dr. Bubba, "but we don't have a ladder."

Dratsum took a wrench from his pocket, loosened a few bolts, and laid
the pole down. Then he took a tape measure from his pocket, took a
measurement, announced,

"Eighteen feet, six inches," and walked away.

Dr. Junior shook his head and laughed. "Ain't that just like a socialist? We ask for the height, and he gives us the length!"

Don't Delay ... Just In Time For The Holidays: Internet Fruitcakes

Order your fruitcake on line at the OTBL Fruit Cake Emporium. Don't spend the holidays in Roswell, New Mexico without it.

Garage Logic: Big City v. Country Living

Last week on the drive home from work, I was listening to Joe Soucheray's Garage Logic radio talk show. He was quacking on about a group in St. Paul that is pushing for an ordinance that requires St. Paul businesses to shutoff business and billboard lights at 10 PM. Soucheray rambled on about the silliness of this proposed ordinance and its obvious anti-business focus. The group said it's not anti-business and just wants to be able to see the stars at night.

Coincidently, there was a development built across the field from me going on five years ago. When the roads were put in, there were no street lights included. It is the country and not in the city limits. A couple years later, street lights were put up. The light from those newly installed street lights has dimmed the night sky I view out my back door. I have it from a good source that the reason the lights were put in was because it was too dark at night. Most of those people living there moved from the Twin Cities.

Across the field the other way, a family from the Twin cities built a big house on the hill in what was previously farm pasture. A year or so after moving in, they were complaining to the town board chairman about the neighbors fence line. It seems they thought the fence was too dangerous, because their son road his dirt bike next to it. The chairman explained to them that the fence had been there for over a hundred years and it was currently being used to keep in their neighbors horses.

The family didn't understand that kind of logic. The house was quickly put up for sale and they moved back to the city. This fall I've been hearing the whine of a dirt bike over that way. It's probably time to check in with the chairman again...

Garage Logic

It's Official: The Eagle Loses The Rubber Match

Official Announcement:
The government today announced that it is changing its emblem from an Eagle to a Condom. A survey takenby a private consulting group found that a condom be more accurately reflects the government's political ideology and economic policy. It was found that a condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while you're actually being screwed.

Bush League Math

Congratulations! 3 Brazilian Hits in October @ On The Border Line.net

Great news! Last month our "friends" over at www.ontheborderline.net had 3 brazillian hits on their web site. The number of unique visitors for the month also increased 30%. Since the site originated in September 2004, the had at least a gazillian brazilian hits. It's good to see them wish everyone a heartfelt "Thank You" to all their visitors from the fruit basket of America, from sea to shining sea, from Roswell, New Mexico to the grave site of Joe McCarthy in Appleton, WI.
However, it saddens us to see they have once again forgotten to thank the evil Dr. DRATSUM. We all know he is the reason for their success. With out his humble guidance, mentoring and virtual digital examples, they would just be a bunch of redneck economists typing about the joys of Ayn Rand in the middle of the night..

Unique Blogs Hits
That said, here's a little more granularity to the site numbers. The first chart shows the obvious upward trend the hits they are getting on their sight. Analysis shows that 90 percent of those hits are the result of their attack dogs chasing off new members who don't agree with them.

Average OTBL Group Intelligence Level

The next graph shows that the more unique hits they get on their site, the lower the combined OTBL-group intelligence level. At this pace, by the end of the year, they will be burning their copies of "Fountainhead" and reading President Bush's favorite book "The Little Goat." If they keep the same trend going, they'll be able to read "The
Little Goat" upside down. Soon they will be able to discredit that "liberal" theory that two heads are better than one. You go boys...

WPT Addresses the Meth Problem

WPT Headline: We've heard a tremendous response to the power of "The Western
Front" the first story in Frederica Freyberg's series on "Meth in
Wisconsin." This story will repeat in our Sunday play of "In Wisconsin"
on Sunday at 5:30 P.M.
And the series will continue with stories in each November episode of "In
Wisconsin."
- "Addiction," with a focus on the use and speaking to former addicts.
Some are incarcerated. Some have children. (7 PM Thursday, Nov. 10)
- "Doing Battle," offers the perspectives of law enforcement officials at
the local, state and federal level. (7 PM Thursday, Nov. 17)
- "The Fix," looks at some possible ways to deal with a problem which one
law enforcement official says he "can't arrest his way out of." (7 PM
Thursday, Nov. 24)
All episodes will repeat the following Sunday at 5:30 PM.

Wisconsin Public Television

He Stoops To Conquer...

Bush's Popularity Reaches New Low
58 Percent in Poll Question His Integrity

By Richard Morin and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers

Friday, November 4, 2005
For the first time in his presidency a majority of Americans question the integrity of President Bush, and growing doubts about his leadership have left him with record negative ratings on the economy, Iraq and even the war on terrorism, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows.
On almost every key measure of presidential character and performance, the survey found that Bush has never been less popular with the American people. Currently 39 percent approve of the job he is doing as president, while 60 percent disapprove of his performance in office -- the highest level of disapproval ever recorded for Bush in Post-ABC polls.
----
Gee...I wonder why?----

"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is."

George W. Bush, 1999,
regarding the Kosovo War

Big Oil Slick...

Today in Labor History: November 5 -- Eugene V. Debs Born

1916: Everett, Wash., massacre, at least seven Wobblies killed, 50 were wounded and an indeterminate number wound up missing.

1855: Eugene V. Debs - labor leader, socialist, three-time candidate for president and first president of the American Railway Union, born.

Labor leader, radical, Socialist, presidential candidate, Eugene Victor Debs was a homegrown American original. He formed the American Railway Union, led the Pullman strike of the 1890's in which he was jailed, and emerged a dedicated Socialist. An idealistic, impassioned fighter for economic and social justice, he was brilliant, eloquent and eminently human. As a "radical" he fought for women's suffrage, workmen's compensation, pensions and social security -- all commonplace today. Five times the Socialist candidate for president, his last campaign was run from federal prison where he garnered almost a million votes.

Read more about Eugene V. Debs
Wikipedia biography
Debs Personal History site

Qutoes That Don't Want You To See @ On The Border Line . Net

FA Hayek on US Public Education

"It is important to recognize that general education is not solely and perhaps not even mainly, a matter of communicating knowledge. There is a need for certain common standards of values, and, though too great emphasis on this need may lead to very illiberal consequences, peaceful common existence would be clearly impossible without any such standards. If in long-settled communities with a predominantly indigenous population, this is not likely to be a serious problem, there are instances, such as the United States during the period of large immigration, where it may well be one. That the United States would not have become such an effective "melting pot" and would probably faced extremely difficult problems if it had not been for a deliberate policy of "Americanization" through the public school system seems fairly certain."

-- FA Hayek

JPN Note: Hayek is one of the chief economists who pushed the free market economic theory that is held so dearly by the bloggers at www.ontheborderline.net. It's doubtful that you will find the above quote on their site. Below are two links that might provide you with more info on Hayek. The first link is to an OTBL post. The second is to the Wikipedia Hayek bio.
1. Diamond In The Rough
2. Wikipedia profile

Pen & Ink Jambs: No Child Left Behind

No Child Left Behind: What Do The Real Conservatives Think?

It appears that President Bush's No Child Left Behind program is not being lovingly embraced all across the nation. Below is a recent editorial from one of the nation's leading conservative daily newspapers.

NEW HAMPSHIRE school officials despise No Child Left Behind, and no wonder. For the first time, they are being held to very high standards, and everyone knows when those standards are not met.

Normally we don't buy excuses from education bureaucrats who complain that their students are not learning. Too often the students are not learning because of the bureaucracy's failures. But when it comes to No Child Left Behind's rigid standards, the bureaucrats have a point.

There is no doubt that New Hampshire public schools need improvement. Only 40 percent of eighth-graders scored at or above "proficient" in reading in the last National Assessment of Educational Progress tests. Only 35 percent scored at or above proficient in math. But No Child Left Behind, through which bureaucrats in Washington order bureaucrats in New Hampshire to achieve large yearly gains in test scores, is not the right tool for fixing this problem. Too few New Hampshire students know what they are supposed to know because the public schools don't provide the proper incentives for improving student performance.

"We have been state average, or slightly above state average. However, that has not been good enough for the federal government," Dover Superintendent John O'Connor complained on Tuesday. Well, why has the state average been good enough for Dover?

That kind of complacency is why Washington took action. Unfortunately, it was the wrong action. Now education officials are scrambling to meet Washington's goals instead of exercising the kind of creative reforms that might have come had Washington devolved all educational responsibilities to the states.

Check out the New Hampshire Union Leader

Pssssst...Hey Over On The Border Line. Did You Hear TABOR Died In Colorado?

Public Schools Win; Pot Holes To Be Filled; Unsafe Bridges To Get Repaired; Regressives Weep On The Borderline

The Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) is dead in Colorado, Joe Stengel told more than 40 small-government activists and conservative lawmakers from around the country in a national conference call Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Colorado voters approved Referendum C, which suspends TABOR surplus-tax refunds. The five-year timeout will allow tax revenues to grow so much that the TABOR cap eventually will be no cap at all, said Stengel, the Republican minority leader in the Colorado House and a leader of the opposition to Referendums C and D.

Denver Post coverage of TABOR-related vote results.
Referendum C coverage of TABOR-related vote results.
Referendum D coverage of TABOR-related vote results.

Editorial Distraction

Editor’s Note: In a letter appearing in the Oct. 27 N R Oracle written by Bob Mudslingski aka MTF aka Mulish aka Muchlinski the Fraudulent aka Whatever Other Name You Can Query At The OTBL Web Site, one paragraph states: “I wish I could also send you photos so you could recognize them when they show up at your school board meetings. Just check the post office for mug shots.”

We intended to post those mug shots, but there was such a long line at the post office trying to get mug shot copies, we decided to use these mug shots instead. The above statement makes those in question appear to be criminals or -- even worse -- Viking fans -- which they are not. The men in the mug shots were taken into custody after being caught drinking numerous bottles of Blogger Lager outside the arch at Stone Pine in the middle of the night. During the arrest, they began to quack bloggerese about black helicopters leaving the area in the middle of the night, men wearing black t-shirts with a skunk emblem, tour guidebooks for Roswell, New Mexico falling from the night sky, something about the password being "Mississippi" and a mouse in a beer bottle. The only names these two would give were Dr. Bob and Dr. Doug. Since they would not shut up, the arresting officer had to duct tape their mouths. After the booking process, they made bail and then asked to be dropped off at the school board meeting. We regret the editing error and encourage future letter writers to refrain from over stressing the truth when referring to those with wingnut opinions and fruit cake conspiracy theories.

Borderline Blogger Defends Himself In Parking Ticket Court

"Your Honor, Tte evidence that there are objects which have been seen in our atmosphere like black helicopters, and even on the terra firma in the Stone Pine neighborhood, that cannot be accounted for either as man-made objects or as any physical force or effect known to our scientists or the results of math equations gone wrong on the OTBL web site, seems to me to be underwhelming... A very large number of sightings have been vouched for by persons whose credentials -- many who use "Dr." before their name -- seem to me unimpeachable. It is striking that so many have been trained observers, such as police officers and airline or military pilots or sanitation workers or paperboys or drunken patriots coming home from hot tub parties or retired liberal professors all jacked up on too much coffee. Their observations have in many instances... been supported either by technical means such as radar or, even more convincingly, by... interference with electrical apparatus of one sort or another...and sometimes a convenient lamp post. So where I park my saucer seems to be nolo contendo at this stage of the trial."

Dr. Parkingmetersarelarceny

Hudson Municipal Traffic Court

Wear What Local "Conspiriologists" Wear

Don't leave Stone Pine without it...

On your next trip to Mississippi or Roswell, New Mexico, before you lift-off from the www.borderline.net conspiracy launching pad in the black helicopter in the middle of the night, make sure you are wearing one of these shirts. They are out of this world and endorsed by one-world governments throughout the universe. You'll stick out like a socialist butterfly at any collectivist gathering you attend. Your comrades will be impressed -- or else! Do we need to say it?...one size fits all!

Quotes They Won't Post @ On The Border Line.net

"From the saintly and single-minded idealist to the fanatic is often but a step."

--FA Hayek

FYI: FA Hayek is the author of "The Road to Serfdom" and a major source of the cut-n-paste quotes used to rationalize the fanatics at www.ontheborderline.net. Clearly, they've taken the step...

Today In Labor

October 31
1971: Int’l Alliance of Bill Posters, Billers & Distributors of the United States & Canada surrendered AFL-CIO charter and disbanded.

November 1
1835: Nation’s first general strike for 10 hour day; Philadelphia.

1918: Malbone tunnel disaster in New York City; scab motorman crashes train during strike, 97 killed, 255 injured.

1972: United Stone & Allied Products Workers of America merge with United Steelworkers of America.

November 2
1909: 150 arrested in IWW free speech fight, Spokane, Wash.

1920: Railroad union leader and socialist Eugene V. Debs receives a million votes for President while imprisoned.

$10 Million In Campaign Contributions Help The Drug Companies Keep The Word "Free" Out Of Their Trade

This was sent in from one of our readers:

A car company can move its factories to Mexico and claim it's a
Free Market. A toy company can outsource to a Chinese subcontractor and claim it's a free market. A major bank can incorporate in Bermuda to avoid taxes and claim it's a free market.

We can buy HP Printers made in Mexico. We can buy shirts made in Bangladesh. We can buy Oysters from Japan. We can purchase fish eggs from Russia. We can by Biscuits or flu vaccine from England. We can purchase almost anything we want from many different countries.

BUT, heaven help the elderly who dare to buy their prescription drugs
from a Canadian or Mexican pharmacy. That's called un-American!
And you think the pharmaceutical companies don't have a powerful lobby?
Think again!

Please forward this to every person you know over age 50.
Maybe this issue should come up in the next election!
Forget the 50 -- send it to everyone.

We're all in this boat together.

Progressive Heroes: Former NR Mayor Billy Smith Dies

Former New Richmond mayor and all around good guy, Billy Smith, passed away Saturday. He was mayor of between 1988-1996. My wife and I used to stop and talk to nice long chat with the mayor at the Shamrock on St. Paddy's day a decade our so ago. I remember one of us spilled green beer on the other's shoes. It didn't matter them and it doesn't matter know. It's the thought that counts...

Our world needs more mayors like Billy Smith who put the community on the front burner and politics in the back of the junk drawer.

Visitation for former New Richmond Mayor H.W. "Billy" Smith will be from 4 to 8 p.m. today,Tuesday Nov. 1 at Beebe Mortuary and for an hour before the 11 a.m. funeral Wednesday, Nov. 2 at Immaculate Conception Church in New Richmond.

St. Paul Pioneer Pressobit

Do You Feel A Draft Coming On?

Uncle Sam wants you – even if you’re 42 years old

The Defense Department quietly asked Congress on Monday to raise the maximum age for military recruits to 42 for all branches of the service.

Under current law, the maximum age to enlist in the active components is 35, while people up to age 39 may enlist in the reserves. By practice, the accepted age for recruits is 27 for the Air Force, 28 for the Marine Corps and 34 for the Navy and Army, although the Army Reserve and Navy Reserve sometimes take people up to age 39 in some specialties.

See what Army Times has to say about it...

OnTheBorderLine.net Bloggers Call 9-1-1

Dr. Junkyarddog and his wife, Dr. Luke, were out walking and Dr. Luke suddenly clutched her heart (they actually do have a heart) and fell to the sidewalk. Dr. Junkyarddog unlaced his shoe phone (they don't all wear slip-ons -- some can actually tie their shoes) and called 9-1-1.

The Operator said "Where are you?"

Dr. Junkyarddog said, "We were walking and Dr. Luke is on the sidewalk on Eucalyptus Street."

The operator said, "How do you spell that?" and the phone seemed to go dead. The operator kept shouting for Dr. Junkyarddog. She could hear him panting (afterall, he is a junk yard dog).

Then he came back on and said, "I dragged Dr. Luke over to Oak St, that's O-A-K."

...so that's why they all call themselves "Dr." at www.ontheborderline.net!