LONG THOMPSON APPEARS HEADED FOR A WIN

According to a SurveyUSA poll conducted on April 28th exclusively for WHAS-TV Louisville, Kentucky, and WCPO-TV Cincinnati, Ohio, Jill Long Thompson still leads her challenger, Jim Schellinger, by a margin of 12%.

This can’t be the kind of news that Schellinger and his avid followers want to hear. Schellinger just can’t quite seem to catch on. Despite early backing from the Democratic establishment and a much larger bankroll than Long Thompson, he isn’t generating the anticipated support among Hoosiers that he needs.

Long Thompson is running progressively stronger among Moderates, where she started tied with Schellinger but now leads by 28, and among Liberals, where she now leads by 14. Schellinger continues to lead among Conservatives. Schellinger leads by 7 in Central Indiana and by 10 in Southern Indiana. Long Thompson leads by 12 in greater Indianapolis and by 34 in Northern Indiana.

Long Thompson’s lead comes almost entirely from women, among whom she now leads by 23 points. The contest is effectively tied among men. Starting at age 42, women outnumber men. By age 85 and older, there are more than twice as many women as men. It is about time women came out in numbers to support and vote for other women.

Although the election is still six days away, and elections can be unpredictable, unless something unforeseen happens, we are looking at Jill Long Thompson as our nominee to take on Mitch Daniels. I have never liked the phrase I am just about to use, but YOU GO GIRL!

NORTHWEST LEGISLATORS ENDORSE LONG THOMPSON

Democrat gubernatorial candidate Jill Long Thompson has been endorsed by five Northwest Indiana legislators. At a campaign rally in East Chicago this week, the following legislators threw their support to Long Thompson:

• State Senator Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes
• State Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary
• State Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond
• State Rep. Dan Stevenson, D-Highland
• State Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Munster

Jill Long Thompson, a former congresswoman and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture for Rural Development, faces Indianapolis architect Jim Schellinger in the May 6th Democrat primary. The winner of that primary will face Republican incumbent Mitch Daniels in November.

Long Thompson has also been endorsed by five Indiana Teamsters locals, the United Steelworkers, the Service Employee International Union, Communication Workers of America, the American Federation of Government Employees, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, the United Transportation Union and Local #446 of Association of Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees.

Even though Schellinger has raised more money than Long Thompson and, early on, received the blessing of some of the higher ups in the state Democratic Party, he has failed to convert those assets to his benefit. He is a CEO and, frankly, I think Hoosiers have become leary of business leaders who attempt to convert themselves to politicians - a la Daniels.

By Schellinger’s own admission he is “new” at this. Do we really want someone who is inexperienced in the realm of politics taking the helm of our state? The answer is no. Come May 6th, Hoosier voters will have the opportunity to select Jill Long Thompson, a Hoosier with strong rural and working class ties who was educated in Indiana, knows Indiana, loves Indiana, and will bring Indiana “back on track” from the destructive and exploitative course set by Daniels.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

DANIELS IN TOUGH SPOT - UNABLE TO MAKE HEADWAY DESPITE HIS MILLIONS AND HIS MINIONS

Despite his millions of campaign dollars from his minions, the Guv can’t seem to get a leg up on either of his opponents. A new poll, taken by IPFW in Fort Wayne, show’s Daniels would get 47% of the vote to Democrat Jim Schellinger’s 46%. And he’d get 48% to Jill Long Thompson’s 47%.

The poll of over 1,200 Hoosier voters also showed people are lukewarm on Daniels’ performance as governor. A showing of only a percent lead on either of the two Democrat challengers must be pure misery for those who believe the sun rises and sets on what Daniels purports to have accomplished.

Remember how absolutely certain Daniels and his Republican-controlled General Assembly were that switching Indiana to daylight saving time would save energy? What a shock it must have been to see a study come out that found that going to daylight saving time actually increased energy costs by $8.3 million dollars.

And, the leased toll road? Well, we now see that the foreign company involved in the Public-Private Partnership is almost doubling its tolls. Two of Daniels’ much-touted “accomplishments” that appear to have backfired.

Four more years of Mitch? I don’t think so. Indiana can’t afford another four years of a marketer who is better at manipulating his feats than coming through with real solutions.

MITCH DANIELS WORLD OF FANTASY

I can’t help but marvel at the audacity of Mitch Daniels. His commercials - with supporters touting his “achievements” ad nauseum - are nothing more than glorified efforts to pander to Hoosier voters with his farm cap and long-sleeved shirts.

With all the commercials floating about, it must be quite a shock that Indiana’s unemployment rate jumped in March to 5.1% - the highest seasonally adjusted rate since July 2006.

The half point jump from 4.6% in February put Indiana in a tie with California for the second highest month-over-month increase nationally - right behind Louisiana.

I am sure this can’t be welcome news for a governor who has tried to deflect attention from Indiana’s continuing job-loss predicament by news conference after news conference flashing announcements of new jobs two and three years down the road.

But Daniels is good at marketing techniques according to Jim Miller, Reagan’s OMB director from 1985 to 1988. On learning of Daniels’ appointment by Bush as OMB director, Miller commented that “Daniels would be an unconventional OMB director inasmuch as he would be much more a marketer than a number cruncher.

Apparently, Miller was right. Daniels left less than three years after his appointment when he saw his efforts to maintain some semblance of a budget unraveling before his eyes as Bush sank the the country farther and farther into debt. Daniels, try as he might, was unable to manipulate budgetary figures to cover the bloated deficit.

He came back to Indiana where he has, once again, succeeded at marketing his “accomplishments” in a way to cover the realities of job losses, failed privatization policies, and far-off promises of employment. His marketing techniques of smoke and mirrors certainly are suitable to his fantasy world where reality doesn’t quite seem to materialize.

SKILLMAN TO LEAD MORE JOBS OUT OF INDIANA

Lieutenant Governor Becky Skillman - aka Outsourcing Annie - will lead a 26-member delegation of Indiana food and agribusiness leaders to Mexico. Indiana Agriculture Director Andy Miller will join the traveling party. The group will visit a pork processing plant and the largest dairy operation in Latin America as well as meet with representatives from grain and biotechnology industries.

See a trend here - anyone? Anyone? Daniels and Skillman unleashed the Possibilities Unbound Plan in 2005 which triggered the filing and approval of hundreds of CAFO permits to operate confined operations to meet the goal of doubling hog production within a few years. The visits to the pork processing plant operation will no doubt be to work out agreements for processing the pork product or to open the possibility to contract for raising hogs in Mexico. But why would outsourcing processing even be needed?

Wasn’t one of the Guv’s goals in doubling pork production to increase economic benefit to Indiana? The next excuse we will hear from the Guv and Skillman is that we just don’t have the capacity to handle all the processing.

In addition to outsourcing possibilities visiting pork and dairy locations, one of the foremost topics appears to be “rural development.” This is code for “rural exploitation” of Mexican agricultural areas; obviously we are not discussing rural development here in Indiana. Much of the country is too arid or too mountainous for crops or grazing, and it is estimated that no more than one-fifth of the land is potentially arable. However, Mexico’s burgeoning population has made it a net importer of grains.

Add to this mix the fact that NAFTA, which was implemented 14 years ago, required the lifting of tariffs on corn and beans by early 2008, and it looks like the Guv and Skillman will be some of the first to exploit the elimination of the tariffs by shipping Indiana grain to Mexico.

Again, more exploitation of the Mexican people and land. Note that Emily Otto-Tice of the Indiana Soybean Alliance and Corn Alliance is one of the 26-members making the trip.

Photo Credit: Photovault.com

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With much of the land too arid or too mountainous for grazing, it also raises the prospect that Mexico would be an excellent experiment in building and running CAFOs since CAFOs do not require a large number of acres to operate. Build CAFOs in Mexico, ship Indiana grain to Mexico to supply the necessary feed, and ship the finished product to the growing middle classes in countries such as China. With states and local communities becoming ever more wary of the environmental dangers of CAFOs, why not use Mexico with its less stringent environmental standards.

Skillman has previously led separate missions to Taiwan and Vietnam and to Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama. All countries which produce all those lovely, cheap products competing for the American consumers’ attention. So, while Indiana’s economy is not faring so well and the United States appears headed into a recession, the Guv sends his right-hand woman on another field trip with 26 cohorts at the expense of the taxpayers.

The following are those individuals who owe us thanks for their memories in Mexico since I assume the Hoosier taxpayer is again paying for the privilege of losing jobs. I have underlined and bolded those names connected with agriculture. Notice that two areas are predominantly represented: grains and pork. Connect the dots: Mexican rural development - exporting crops and outsourcing meat production and processing.

• Lt. Governor Becky Skillman
• Andy Miller, Director, Indiana State Department of Agriculture
• Juana Watson, Senior Advisor to the Governor on Hispanic Affairs
• Steve Akard, Director of International Development, Indiana Economic Development Corporation
• Angela Coats, Press Secretary, Office of the Lt. Governor
• Bart Lomont, Special Assistant to the Lt. Governor of Indiana
• Matt Harrod, Assistant Director of Policy and Research, Indiana State Department of Agriculture
• Lesley Taulman, International Trade Program Manager, Indiana State Department of Agriculture
• Dale Whittaker, Associate Dean for Academic Program, Purdue University College of Agriculture
• Guillermo Vasquez de Velasco, Dean, College of Architecture and Planning, Ball State University
• Susan Sutton, Associate Vice Chancellor of International Affairs and Chancellor’s Professor of Anthropology, IUPUI
• Dr. David A. Bathe, Chancellor, Ivy Tech Lafayette
• Don Villwock, President, Indiana Farm Bureau
• Mike Platt, State Executive Indiana Pork Producers Association
• Terry Vanlaningham, Indiana Pork
• Emily Otto-Tice, Director of Grain Marketing, Indiana Soybean Alliance and Indiana Corn
• Fayte Brewer, Indiana Grain Producer
• Jim Eichhorst, Manager, State Government Relations, Midwest Region, Biotechnology Industry Organization
• Ted McKinney, Leader, U.S. Food Chain and States Affairs, Dow AgroSciences
• Andres Felix, Legal and Government Affairs Lead, Latin and North America, Monsanto
• Angel Saavedra, Regulatory and Government Affairs Manager, Dow AgroSciences, Mexico
• Mike Murphy, President, Murphy Partners, LLC
• Beth Bechdol, Director of Agribusiness Strategies, Ice Miller LLP
• Terry Anker, Chairman, The Anker Consulting Group
• Steve Churchill, President and CEO, PreferredPartners

NEW YEAR - NEW CAFO LEGISLATION MOVES FORWARD

Last year not one of the three CAFO-related bills made it out of the legislative session.  This year, maybe common sense and the reality of environmental and health issues intertwined with huge factory farms will prompt our legislators to do what they are supposed to do:  pass laws that protect citizens.

New legislation regulating CAFOs would require annual inspections and other tightened regulations under a bill given initial approval by a House committee.   The House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee last week voted along party lines, with seven Democrats endorsing it and five Republicans opposing it.

The current bill would affect Indiana’s roughly 2,200 confined feeding operations, of which 625 are large enough for a separate distinction of concentrated animal feeding operations. The sprawling farms with thousands of hogs, cattle, or chickens are often opposed by neighbors because of their odor and potential impact on property values and the environment.

Several GOP members had concerns about additional regulations on the industry possibly driving up food prices.  That argument is simply a red herring.  The increased meat production is to benefit up and coming economies such as China, whose middle-class population is growing at an astounding rate, and, with that growth, the desire to live on a meat-based diet. 

“This bill is very troubling,” said Rep. Eric Gutwein, R-Rensselaer who, along with others, wanted to wait until an agricultural regulatory task force established by Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman finalized its recommendations.  You bet they wanted to wait.  That would be like waiting for the fox to tell the chickens how to protect themselves. 

Daniels and Skillman came up with their “Possibilities Unbound” plan in 2005 which focused on increasing pork production while backing off regulations.  One of the goals of the Plan was to review regulations to make Indiana a more “business friendly” environment.  In other words, Daniels and Skillman wanted to reduce regulations as much as possible. 

Among other provisions, the bill would require farm operators to disclose “good character” information, including violations in other states or pending legal action. It allows the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to consider this information before granting a permit.  This session our legislators appear to be ready to step up and make some tough but necessary decisions to protect us from the health and environmental impact of CAFOs.

Photo Credit:  Wikipedia

SLIGHT OF HAND - DANIELS AND JOB COMMITMENTS

As a starter, here are the JOBS LOST numbers for 2007 under the Guv:

January - 911
February - 334
March - 569
April - 1836
May - 962
June - 111
July - 570
August - 1088
September - 908
October - 1115
November - 118
December - 483

9005 Hoosiers out of work.

Daniels is astute at using the podium from which to announce job “commitments” while in the background Hoosiers are losing jobs.  Many of the new jobs Daniels brags about are two to three years in the future.  A commitment is simply that - it mean a pledge or promise.  And pledges and promises can be broken as the Guv has learned with Getrag.  For those who don’t recognize the name, Getrag is a leading manufacturer of manual automatic transmissions.

Earlier this month, Inside Indiana News reported that autoparts supplier Getrag had suspended construction of a $530m dual sequential gearbox (DSG) transmission plant in Tipton County. Starting in 2009, the factory was set to produce 700k transmissions per year and employ some 1400 people.

Photo Credit: The Truth About Cars website

Indiana had provided several incentives to Getrag.  The Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) ponied up $8.75m worth of performance-based tax credits and offered up to $500k for training grants. The state was on the hook for $3.4m for local road improvements.  According to Getrag Human Resource Director, Randy Cyman, the plant is on hold indefinitely while Chrysler and Getrag work out a supply agreement. 

But look for the Guv to step up his job announcements this next year. Something tells me we will be hearing more and more “commitment” announcements which have no impact on unemployed Hoosiers today.

VERA BRADLEY - THE ULTIMATE OUTSOURCER TO CHINA

A big thank you to TDW for a blurb about Vera Bardley and her outsourcing to China. I was absolutely amazed when I read the post. And, not one to believe things without checking them out, I researched and found that others had posted online that they, too, had looked at their labels and found that yes, indeed, the labels say:

MADE IN CHINA

Still incredulous and somewhat skeptical about those statements online, I looked at the two items I had received as gifts. The first was a huge duffel bag I had received a couple of years ago. It said “Made in the USA.” Then I looked at my second, smaller bag - also a gift but received within the last year. The label had been slit with scissors right on the name “China”, but it did, indeed, say:

MADE IN CHINA

I have been so accustomed to thinking of Vera Bradley as a company totally devoted to maintaining jobs for Americans and right here in Fort Wayne, that the thought never crossed my mind that this icon of Fort Wayne fame and charity would make such a blatantly profit-making decision.

Photo Credit: SCORE

Vera Bradley’s president and CEO is former Indiana Department of Commerce Secretary Patricia Miller (left in the above photo), who helped lead a state trade mission to Asia from July 30, 2005 to August 7, 2005. Is it just possible she was making “deals” for herself while she was there? Or were the negotiations already in progress? How does one go about making plans to outsource American jobs?

After all, the duffel bag I received in 2006 still said “Made in the USA” while the handbag I received in 2007, 1 1/2 years later, said “Made in China.” Just about the right amount of time between a visit and a switch to outsourcing.

Photo Credit: ebay

The Vera Bradley website touts locations where its handbags have been spotted. Now the company can not only say “spotted in China” but also “Made in China.”

The website also states:

Located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Vera Bradley continues to remain steadfast in our commitment to excellent quality, exclusive designs and dependable customer service.

 

Committed to many things but not the American worker.

And here is a statement from SCORE:

Today, Vera Bradley Designs’ 75 employees produce over 800 products from a 25,000-square-foot manufacturing center in Ft. Wayne.

I suggest SCORE change its statement to include the locations in China which now make Vera Bradley items. Just to be fair about this, I do not know how many of the Vera Bradley products have been outsourced to China. But with every outsourced product, go American jobs.

Don’t look for the outsourcing of Vera Bradley items to lower product prices either. Visit the website, and it will be quickly apparent that prices have not dropped. The duffel bag in the picture above from eBay has a price tag of $139.95. The one I received as a gift - exactly the same but a different pattern - cost $85.00. Not only are prices not any cheaper at the website, the annual Vera Bradley sale at the Coliseum has simply become a way for women to show up, buy a large quantity of Vera Bradley products, and then proceed to overprice them on eBay.

So all you Vera Bradley obsessives out there, dig out those handbags and check the labels. Maybe you don’t care if Vera Bradley items are made in China instead of here, but, if you do, then you have the power to make a choice and commit to not purchasing any more Vera Bradley products.

HE’S AT IT AGAIN - DANIELS BRAGGING ABOUT JOBS THREE YEARS AWAY

Columbus software firm to add 320 jobs
High-tech posts pay $35 to $37 per hour

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I guess I have come to expect that Governor Daniels simply likes to put on a good show. The headline is from the The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky.

Dave Glass, president of LHP Inc., joined Governor Mitch Daniels for the announcement in the governor’s office. The software development company plans to add 320 jobs in Columbus by 2011 to nearly triple its current work force. Glass said the new high-tech positions will be in engineering services and engineering research and will pay $35 to $37 per hour. He said the company expects to recruit many of its workers from out of state because it can’t find enough in the area with the appropriate advanced degrees.

LHP, an international developer of software and hardware solutions for the military, automotive and medical industries, also will invest more than $1 million to expand its Columbus, Indiana, headquarters and development center, making room for new research and development equipment and new computer hardware.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. will give LHP up to $2.1 million in performance-based tax credits and up to $50,000 in training grants based on the company’s job creation. Columbus will provide the company with property tax abatements.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

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Daniels called the announcement “another major economic expansion.” He said the new jobs are among nearly 22,000 that will be created in the coming years by economic development deals the state closed in 2007. Daniels said that beats the number of jobs created by deals in 2006 and 2005. However, the total includes more than 3,000 jobs that have not yet been announced.

Indiana Economic Development Corp. spokesman Mitch Frazier said in those cases, companies have accepted the state’s incentive offer and committed to the jobs but haven’t completed negotiations with local governments or completed other business transactions.

What really concerns me is that he gets up on his podium and makes these announcements, many of which have no practical effect on Hoosiers today. But, boy it sure sounds good when he touts his newly created jobs - jobs that are years in the future.

It really gets old after a while. I just hope that the man who blithely estimated the Iraq War would cost $40 - $50 billion dollars (now approaching $500 billion dollars) and who made a shambles of the OMB under Bush is not able to hornswoggle Indiana voters to return him to another term.

 

 

 

INDIANA 8TH IN GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

The National Environmental Trust, which found the United States to be the single-largest emitter of greenhouse gases from 1750 through 2006, recently issued a report which names Indiana, population 6.3 million, the eighth greatest polluter in the U.S. Indiana emits more gases than 95 countries combined.

The report was unveiled while world leaders convene in Bali to hash out a new accord that would succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which most developed nations - with the notable exception of the United States - had signed.

The group wants states to recognize how much more pollution they are generating individually as compared to many developing countries.

According to data compiled and analyzed by the group, Ohio and its 11.5 million residents emit more greenhouse gases than 98 developing countries with more than 714 million people.

Kentucky and its 4.2 million residents emit more gases than 87 developing countries with a combined population of 548 million, according to the study.

Ohio and Indiana, but not Kentucky, were among nine states that recently signed an agreement as “observers” that commits them to establishing greenhouse gas reduction targets and time frames, developing a market-based and multi-sector cap-and-trade system, and creating complementary policies to achieve the goals. Indiana will decide at a later date whether it will fully participate in certain aspects of the agreement.

Targets of 60 to 80 percent reductions of greenhouse gases will be established by the end of 2008. Governors of the nine states have agreed to achieve full implementation of the accord within 30 months.