Musings from Brian J. Noggle

I oppose the Miers nomination.

And you gentle readers might have wondered if I even care about national or international politics given the recent topic matter on this blog. With the neophyte nature of this nominee, her closeness to the Bush administration, and the better choices available, I can’t help but think she got the job for reasons other than she’s the best choice.

See also:

• Truth Laid Bear call to a stand
• Truth Laid Bear current results
• Robert Prather seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths, and sixths the sentiment
• John Cole is another sexist elitist

What can local and state governments expect for $17,000,000 in giveaways to large corporations to keep their plants open?

Not a whole hell of a lot:

Two years ago, Ford Motor Co.’s assembly plant in Hazelwood survived plans to close it after an intense state and community campaign persuaded the company to keep it open through 2007.

Now, the Hazelwood plant may be forced to run a similar gantlet after Ford rolls out a restructuring plan late this year.

Excess production capacity continues to weigh heavily on the automaker. The plant in Hazelwood, where about 1,450 people work, is among the company’s most vulnerable facilities.

Never fear, though; the local and state governments are ready to spring into spending to throw bad taxpayer money after bad:

Still, it’s too early to speculate about the Hazelwood plant’s future, said Hazelwood Mayor T.R. Carr. He’s a member of the Ford Hazelwood Task Force, the group of state and local politicians, business and labor leaders formed in 2002 after Ford announced it would close the plant.

“What is ‘obvious’ is not necessarily true,” Carr said. “There are a lot of decisions that are up in the air for Ford right now.”

The region needs to focus on building a business plan that will encourage Ford to bring a new vehicle to replace the Explorer at the Hazelwood plant, he said.

We’ve spent $12,000 per employee already to keep those employees working for a coouple of years; soon, we will have spent the equivalent of a full college education for each (in state tuition for public universities, but hey, it’s an education). What equivalent amount of money will be enough? Masters degrees? Doctorates? Eventually, Ford will close the plant, and the money will be just as lost.

Not that it’s the government’s job to develop business plans, but I’ll help, no consulting fees attached: you know what kind of business plan calls for spending more and more money on a failing proposition? A bad business plan.

Let’s return to Carr for the most appropriate, although inappropriately so, metaphor:

“It’s kind of like (Cardinal baseball player Albert) Pujols … the game’s not over, and we’re going to stay at bat until we secure a future for this plant,” he said.

Timely, sir, and it connects with the little people too unintelligent to see what bull you’re selling.

Unfortunately, Albert Pujols’ ninth inning home run in game five of the National League Championship Series only saved one game, forestalling the Cardinals eventual loss to the Houston Astros by a single game and a couple of games. Much like your business plan and next set of tax incentives will delay Ford’s decision to close the plant for another short interval; but if it’s in Ford’s best business interest to close the plant, it will close the plant.

Perhaps it’s time to let the air out of the Keynesian tires and abandon the plant on the side of the road.

What could make telephone conversations better? Commercials:

In a few short years, consumers can expect to make telephone calls for free, with no per-minute charges, as part of a package of services through which carriers make money on advertising or transaction fees, eBay’s chief executive said Wednesday.

I assume that’s how the advertising would work. Of course, carriers already make money on transaction fees–like charging you money for each call you make–but I’m not the one trying to make a press release out of an expensive acquisition that won’t really revolutionize communications as much as one would hope to convince shareholders.

And you probably wouldn’t believe it if you did:

Police said the woman had spent Monday at the house on Mimika, and on Tuesday morning she went on her way and homeowner went to work. The woman obviously returned, and broke out a kitchen window, unlatched it and tried to crawl through, police said. But the window had a second latch that permitted it to raise up only so far, and the woman became wedged and later died, police said.

In her struggle to free herself, her pants came off, police said.

Right.

The street is, in fact, rising up and attacking popular propoganda’s convenient targets: neo-Nazis:

A crowd protesting a white supremacists’ march Saturday turned violent, throwing baseball-sized rocks at police, vandalizing vehicles and stores, and setting fire to a neighborhood bar, authorities said.

When Mayor Jack Ford and a local minister tried to calm the rioting, they were cursed for allowing the march, and Ford said a masked gang member threatened to shoot him.

At least 65 people were arrested and several police officers were injured before calm was restored about four hours later.

Ford blamed the rioting on gangs taking advantage of a volatile situation. He declared a state of emergency, set an 8 p.m. curfew through the weekend, and asked the Highway Patrol for help.

Funny, but isn’t this the reason why Hollywood changes villains in movies from actual threats in today’s world–such as radical Islamists (think The Sum of All Fears)–to Nazis? Because the better-minded amongst us don’t want hooligans and vigilantes to attack the people depicted in the movie as unrepentant evil?

Well, I guess Hollywood might be right about its impact on popular sensitivities, and it can rest assured that the themes it espouses don’t deal with contemporary evils, but instead continue to dish propoganda which demonizes a movement which has caused sporadic violence but which was last a credible global threat sixty years ago.

Another municipality says “Lights, Camera, Revenue!” Or it would, if it can only overcome a couple of obstacles:

The St. Peters project has two big obstacles – its cost and the possibility that tickets generated by the system could be thrown out of court.

Good to know law enforcement works as hard to circumvent the law as lawbreakers.

Lohr dispute heats up as strikers lose jobs:

A labor dispute at St. Louis city beer wholesaler Lohr Distributing Co. has turned uglier after Lohr told strikers that they’ve lost their jobs to permanent replacement workers.

The move complicates any settlement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents the drivers. They’ve been on strike for nearly five months.

Maybe a couple more instances like this will help fatcat union leaders remember that their slush funds are fatter when they manage to keep their union members employed, and perhaps some concessions might be necessary in that effort. A good job is a good job, and apparently Lohr like Northwest Airlines before it, didn’t have any trouble filling those jobs for lesser terms.

It was bad enough I had to suffer through the American Airlines CEO’s column in the September in-flight house organ, but now the company has commissioned a study to indicate that if it loses its government-enforced monopoly in Dallas, everyone will pay:

A push by Southwest Airlines to increase flights from Dallas Love Field could trigger a reduction of service by American Airlines to Lambert Field and a number of smaller cities in Missouri and Illinois, according to a study made public on Monday.

The study labeled Lambert as at “moderate risk” to lose a small number of American flights.

However, Gerard Slay, deputy director at Lambert, said he doesn’t expect any impact, describing the study’s discussion of St. Louis as a “what-if scenario.”

American commissioned the study by Eclat Consulting Inc., an aviation-consulting firm in Reston, Va., in what has become a bruising battle over a federal law that limits direct flights by Southwest from Love Field to most of the country.

Here’s how American will put the hurt on our particular region:

If American’s hub at Dallas/Fort Worth were to shrink, however, there would be fewer connecting flights, resulting in reduced service to smaller communities that rely on the airline’s extensive network as their link to the world.

Such a development, the study said, would hurt towns such as Kirksville, Mo., and Quincy, Ill. These towns rely on federally subsidized service provided by American affiliates that fly under the banner of AmericanConnection, the Eclat study said.

“Hub degradation would take place, making marginal routes unprofitable,” said Eclat’s president, William S. Swelbar. “Inevitably, those routes would be eliminated.”

Of the 11 daily flights between Lambert Field and Dallas/Fort Worth, five could be lost, Swelbar said. While three of those five flights could be shifted to Love Field, travelers would see a reduction in the number of connection flights, he said.

So that’s the loss of a government-enforced monopoly, increased competition, and a reduction in government-subsidized flights? American The impartial third party Eclat presents this as a nightmare scenario, but to me it looks like a dream come true. Now if the bloated, incapable-of-adapting carrier collapses before sucking off any more government “loans” and without pushing its employee liabilities off on taxpayers, I will awaken disappointed.

UPDATE As Mr. Hill notes in the comments, the threat or promise has been heard elsewhere. Google News helps prove the “reduced flights” extortion has been targeted to:

• McAllen, Texas
• Hell, all of North Texas
• Arkansas
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Flood the zone, AA, flood the zone.