First, came the Japanese—Datsun, Toyota and Honda. Then, came the Germans—Mercedes and BMW. Then others came as well. Each foreign competitor having taken more and more of the UAW’s slice of the pie. Somewhere along the way, it finally dawned on the UAW’s leaders that foreign imports were cleaning their clock—and, worst of all, setting up their own UAW-free shops right in the union’s own backyard. By then, though, it was too late.

After years of trying to beat back the threat of foreign automakers, the UAW finally resigned itself to the fact that they are here to stay.  That realization, however, came at the heavy price of lost members by the tens of thousands and a bleak financial picture for the future (with or without tax-payer funded bailouts). As a result, the shareholders of General Motors and Chrysler (the UAW) have become more determined than ever to unionize the U.S. auto plants owned by Asian and German car companies. That determination, though, poses a significant challenge for the UAW: After demonizing the foreign car companies for so many years, how can the UAW convince their employees join the union?

Well, in answer to that, the UAW’s newly-anointed top boss, Bob King, believes he’s got the right approach which encompasses both a carrot and a stick.

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Over the next few days, various news networks, newspapers, magazines, and others will present a retrospective on 2010: what the media got right, what the media got wrong, best moments, worst moments, etc.

Let me present what has to be the quintessential example of media bias in coverage of the 2010 elections.

The candidate was the upstart upset. With the state’s political players all lined up in the primary for the other guy — including the party chairman, the congressional delegation, EVERYBODY — the candidate beat the establishment pick, upset the apple cart, had people crying foul, and went on to be annihilated in the general election.

That candidate was not Christine O’Donnell, though you’d think so given the facts as I presented them. Certainly that was her story too. And the media covered the heck out of Christine O’Donnell.

But I’m talking about Alvin Greene. Remember him? I’m sure you do, though not if any major news outlet had anything to do with it.

The media was quite titillated at the idea that Alvin Greene was a Republican dirty trick. They clung to Congressman Jim Clyburn’s every word when he made those accusations. There was a great “whodunit” story the media circulated. But an investigation discovered Alvin Greene saved his money, paid his fee, and won fair and square.

Then the media went silent on Alvin Greene, only pulsing when the drumbeat of YouTube clips turned into a roaring din of the absurb. Otherwise, the media pretended Alvin Greene did not exist. They only wanted to cover Christine O’Donnell.

There were two candidates who rocked the boat, shocked everyone, and caused unforeseen upsets. I don’t know whether it was because of his party, his skin color, his IQ, or what, but the media willfully ignored Alvin Greene.

Instead, they gave such over the top coverage to Christine O’Donnell many Democrats were left venting that other candidates escaped the media pat down. That’s also why Christine O’Donnell is my big hero for the 2010 election cycle. Because she so distracted the media, others had a chance to win they might not have gotten.

RedState Morning Briefing
For December 29, 2010

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

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Bwhahahahahaha!

In a replay of last year’s weather pattern, the U.K. is once again in the grips of a Global Warming Climate Change-induced record cold snap.

Not to worry. Those industrious Brits had the foresight to build wind farms with rated capacity equal to 5% of the country’s electricity needs.

But they’re getting only 1.6% of their electricity from the wind farms. Because…

Extreme wintertime cold comes from high pressure weather systems. And high pressure weather systems don’t generate much wind. Not much wind = not much wind energy.

But since the weather is so cold, big mechanical things like wind turbines freeze up. To prevent damage, they need to be thawed out.

This is priceless:

As the temperature has plummeted, the turbines have had to be heated to prevent them seizing up. Consequently, they have been consuming more electricity than they generate.

Bwhahahahahaha!

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Awesome and from the diaries by Erick

Former Chairwoman of the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Jamie Radtke, as speculated, has filed paperwork to run for U.S. Senate, reports WTVR in Richmond.

Radtke is currently leading our completely non-scientific candidates’ poll for the GOP nomination with 211 votes. Trailing closely behind her is former U.S. Senator George Allen, who has yet to file, but is expected to, with 208. No other candidate contends in the poll.

According to WTVR:

…she mailed in the papers on December 23, after gaining the support of family members and friends and raising some money from political backers.

When asked about the primary reason for her decision to run, the Moseley mom cited her three children, who she fears will suffer the fallout from a national debt that continues to balloon.

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Progressives, liberals and left of center politicians have teamed up to radically curtail the rights of Republican Senators in the next Congress.  They have a plan to “kill the filibuster,” so that they can establish a top down system of control next year in the Senate.  This plan to kill the filibuster will stifle dissent and relegate Republican Senators to observer status in the newly reformed Senate.  If you thought that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) ran a tight ship during her tenure, get ready for a Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) willing to obstruct all Republican opportunities to offer amendments and extend debate.

The left is promoting a myth that the filibuster can be changed with merely 51 votes.  Progressive Katrina vanden Heuvel wrote over at the Washington Post demanding that liberal Senators rid the Senate of Rule 22 by a simple majority vote in the new Congress.  This is nothing more than a naked power grab by the left so they can confirm far left wing nominees to the Courts and to establish complete control over the agenda of the United States Senate.

The Senate’s rules are constitutional.  According to Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution, “each house may determine the rule of its proceedings.”  Senate Rule 22 sets up a procedure for debate to be curtailed with a three-fifths vote (60) of Senators.  This rule has been in place since 1917 when the Senate had a 2/3rds requirement to shut off debate. Furthermore, the Senate was set up as a continuing body with only one third of Senators seats up for election every two years pursuant to Article 1, Section 3.  The left is promoting a fallacy and they hope that the media does not question the baseless assertion that the filibuster is unconstitutional. 

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From the diaries by Erick

Colorado State University recently completed a study on the economic feasibility of increasing the usage of renewable energy. The results of this study were published in the world-renowned science periodical, The Coloradoan. Another stimulus-funded study of the obvious? No, what we have here is simply a heavy dose of reality for academicians who aren’t willing to match their rhetoric with their pocketbook. Some of the quotes in this article are quite humorous.

Fort Collins campus President Tony Frank acknowledges that the 2008 plan to “rapidly” become carbon-neutral won’t be a reality for decades because the university can’t afford to make major changes right now.

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From the diaries by Erick

Investing in math and science is the way to solve the economy. A great idea. And somehow liberals have co-opted it to make it sound like their own.

Today’s Los Angeles Times for instance contains an article entitled, “Fixing the Economy the Scientific Way,” arguing that the federal government must spend more money on math and science education. They point to the fact that over the last 40 years the government’s support of science has declined 60% as a portion of GDP. They then argue that Republicans will only make the problem worse, pointing to their pledge to reduce federal spending on nondefense-related science research to pre-stimulus levels.

There is a lot wrong with this argument. For instance, given that the stimulus was a one-off, emergency spending measure, I’m not sure you can call a return to pre-stimulus investment a “reduction.” If we simply kept all stimulus programs intact forever and ever it would be akin to adding $800 billion to our deficit annually, not exactly a financially or politically sound proposition.

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(H/T: Hot Air) I like Charles Krauthammer, and he’s a smart guy. And I even see his point about how destroying Obamacare before it gets off of the ground will give the Democrats a talking point/excuse/whine about how the program was never given a chance.  So I can see the strength of his argument that letting Obamacare play out would pay dividends.

But…

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RedState Morning Briefing
For December 28, 2010

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

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Tech at Night took Christmas off (in fact I even decided not to bother to put up a post saying I was taking Christmas off), so I have some catch up to do. Looks like nine links tonight, so let’s start.

Jack Shafer at Slate of all places has made fun of Net Neutrality by detailing what might have happened had the FCC regulated information services back in 1993 instead of starting it now in 2010. Poor Marc Andreessen really does take the brunt of it, but it’s funny and enlightening at the same time.

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That’s the implication, at least: Ms. Shea-Porter is going around telling people that the reason that she lost was because of all that dirty, dirty (and apparently foreign) special interest money.  The quote: “They’re in the halls of Congress everywhere, and it means, for example, that you sit on a committee and you say something about concern about Chinese influence or something, you don’t even know if in the next election, somehow or another, they manage to send some money to some group that now doesn’t even have to say where they got it.*”

Let us leave aside for the moment the minor detail of why the PRC would want to topple a fellow-leftist: has the woman no understanding of campaign disclosure rules?  It’s not as if the money’s being delivered in paper sacks: we are actually able to know who contributed to various campaigns.  For example - and to use her own election race as an example - incoming Congressman Frank Guinta raised a total of 1.53 million this cycle, 21% of which was via PACs (and none of it from, say, the US Chamber of Commerce’s PAC).  Ms. Shea-Porter?  1.64 million, 30% via PAC money. Business/ideological in Guinta’s case, labor/ideological in Shea-Porter’s: all perfectly obvious,  and all reasonably transparent.

What’s actually bugging Shea-Porter, of course, is that the aforementioned US Chamber of Commerce happened to allocate 149K worth of negative campaign ads against her in the last two weeks of the race; probably not all that necessary (her polling was terrible), but it certainly didn’t help the incumbent much.  It nonetheless does give a crumb of rationalization to any progressives out there not yet ready to face objective reality; which is why the soon-to-be-former Representative is implying as overtly as she dares that her election losses were all the fault of the Godless Chinese Hordes. It’s a more appealing narrative to the left than the truth, which is that being an open progressive in the wild is an excellent way to lose one’s election by double digits.

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