PERSPECTIVE: MANUFACTURING AND THE MIDDLE CLASS

President Obama constantly tells us that the “Middle Class” is in terrible shape and the people who qualify as middle class must be helped in every way possible with US government financial support. His idea is that the middle class is in such bad shape that we must take money away from those who could invest capital to make jobs for the middle class and instead just give that money to the so-called Middle Class.

Now, if Obama were really serious about helping the middle class, he might have noticed the Marcellus Shell development which will provide us with an abundant supply of the lowest cost most environmentally friendly energy on the planet. This combined with the development of new manufacturing technology is causing manufacturing to return from off shore. Both could be accelerated if Obama would get his government out of the way by eliminating unnecessary regulations and taxes on both the developers of our huge reserves of natural gas and the investors in the new manufacturing opportunities. This is what really would help the Middle Class!

The reasons why manufacturing is actually returning to the United States after a three decade hiatus are:

• The United States leads the world in digital technology which reduces the speed from product design to manufacture.



• We are learning that when manufacturing is separated from design and engineering, which are evolving with the needs of the market, manufacturing cannot stay apace.



• The natural gas windfall in the US reduces the cost of energy for manufacturing and also produces raw materials for the chemical industry.



• US labor productivity continues to grow, thus becoming an ever smaller part of manufacturing cost



• There is a better relationship between management and hourly workers who play a larger role in product and engineering design



• The cost of labor is rising in China and other low labor cost countries



• The price of oil is rising, thus increasing the cost to ship product from China and other off-shore manufacturers to the US

Much of the information that will be provided in this blog about the return of manufacturing comes from an article in the December, 2012 issue of the Atlantic written by Charles Fishman. The article states that as recently as five years ago the conventional wisdom held that there was little short of a hamburger that could be manufactured competitively in the United States. But there is a major flaw in the idea of off shoring. It has been thought for several decades that engineering and design could be done in the US and the actual assembling of the product could be done anywhere. It turns out that when you separate assembling from engineering and design to chase low labor costs, you lose the evolving development of manufacturing itself. This occurs slowly at first but the gap grows and you never get back. What is dawning on smart American Companies, according to the author, is that when you outsource the making of a product the whole business goes with it.

The article highlights GE’s decision to bring back their GeoSpring water heater from China to Appliance Park.”. Only a few years ago GE was trying to sell Appliance Park, but now, after years of offshore production, General Electric decided to move much of its far-flung appliance manufacturing operations back home. Fishman states that GE hasn’t just changed course, they have “pirouetted”.

A problem became apparent from the start. GE had forgotten how to make the GeoSping heater. So, a new style team was assembled and assigned to develop and manufacture the product. The team consisted of design engineers, manufacturing engineers, line workers and staffs from marketing and sales. Management was deliberately absent. The team realized immediately that the manufacturing design was all wrong. So they went to work to redesign how the product should be made. The final result was that they cut the cost of materials by 25% and cut the work hours to assemble the product from10 hours in China to two at Appliance Park. Consequently, GE could set the retail price 20% bellow the China-made retail price.

The article reports that there are other factors favoring producing a product in the US beyond just costs. Historically the design of a product would last seven years or more. Today, that time has shrunk to about two to three years. It turns out that factories have a learning curve also. It takes a while to settle into a new product or design. This means that a factory is just getting the hang of a new product just as a new product or design is being introduced. What the companies are finding is that this is virtually impossible to manage that problem if the assembly is off shore.

There is another factor that enters into the equation of where to manufacture a product. That is the need to shorten the time from a product’s inception to when it hits the market. Three dimensional printing is a new technology of computerized molding to produce a prototype on the basis of designs on a computer screen. With this technology a prototype can be produced in a matter of minutes, and variations can be tried to eliminate flaws. Consequently, factory management can determine the cost the next day.

Another major difference between the situation today and that of 15-20 years ago is the relationship of management and labor. The atmosphere is different. Management is aware of the problems of offshore production and therefore tries to create a better workplace environment. Importantly also, hourly workers play a larger role in the decision making.

There is an example from the article that epitomizes how the new team approach improves manufacturing, and it is worth mentioning. GE wanted to try to make a dishwasher more competitively. So they assigned a team at Appliance Park to see if they could develop a better lower cost dishwasher. Hourly workers were included in the team. As originally designed, the door had four visible screws. The marketing people wanted the door to have no screws. The workers liked the idea. Four screws takes a lot of assembly time.The engineers came up with a design with one hidden screw and a rod. The whole thing was sleeker, and cheaper. It would not have been possible, however, without the team members all located in the same place.

It turns out that GE is not the only company that is moving the manufacture of many of its products back to America. In-sourcing solves a number of problems. It simplifies transportation; it gives people confidence in the security of their ideas; it is easier to manage costs; and it is easier to get the right product to the right customer.

Last October, my nephew, Barron Smith gave me a chance to visit four machine shops in the Dallas area where he also operates such a facility. During this tour I was able to see first hand the latest cutting and shaping technology for manufacturing parts. This is something everyone should see, because all of the opportunities and problems that American manufacture has to deal with are on display. The new technologies for forming, shaping and cutting a piece of material to meet some specification are just amazing. And these shops are not just working with ordinary iron or steel anymore. The materials include complex and constantly changing alloys and even plastics. The sophisticated use of the computer in managing some of the complex machinery is inspiring, and one gets the feeling that we “ain’t seen nothin’ yet”. As a consequence of this, the workers must be skilled, and more than that, they have to be able to adapt to new methods of working with newer materials such as alloys and plastics as well as the addition of computerization in the operation of the machine itself.

Which leads to a problem that the shop owners have, namely, how to get and keep workers who are capable of doing more and more sophisticated tasks? Each manager in the plants lamented the fact that he cannot see where the new employees will come from considering the state of our K-12 system and the under supported Vo-tech schools. One of the owners has become so discouraged about his that he has set up his own Vo-Tech school right on his plant site with a professional educator to head it up!

In summary, American manufacturing is making a come back, and it could become bigger than ever before. We are witnessing a virtual revolution in the creation of and manufacture of products which will lead to more good jobs in America than ever thought possible only a few years ago We still have innovative persons at all levels in the process as the GE example shows, and such innovation is not exclusively held by the big companies such as GE. I observed the same thing in our machine shops in Dallas. What is new is that the jobs will be more sophisticated than ever before as more and more the workers become an integral part of the designing of the product. This means that these will be well paying jobs for those with the skills, and who are willing to work.

Finally, it would help if the main stream media and our legislators would take the time to catch up with this exciting and vitally important development. For example, if our legislators understood these principles, they could help by removing barriers that thwart the development and expansion of US energy development and manufacturing. Tax and regulatory barriers that make American manufacture less competitive globally should be removed. It would also help if our school system placed more focus on VoTech and less on college where only half of the graduates can find work commensurate with their training. Research that helps expand manufacturing efficiency should be supported and even subsidized where appropriate. Such cooperation between industry and government would do more to expand the middle class than anything else President Obama has in mind. Moreover, with the development of low cost energy and if manufacturing comes back, our economy will start to grow with the attendant rise in revenue which will help ameliorate our debt problem.

PERSPECTIVE: ON ABORTION

Since we are acknowledging the fortieth anniversary of Row V. Wade, it seems appropriate to reflect on   what we have gained, if anything, from this ruling.

First let’s see what has happened to language in our country. Old words and old definitions do not meet today’s politically correct sensibilities. As an example, consider the re-definition of the word “acts of terror”. These heinous acts are planned to destroy other humans. Today, acts of terror are now defined as “man made disasters”. There is no question that an act of terror is a “man made disaster”
Abortion is such a word. We now call it “choice”. Abortion, plain and simple is the deliberate destruction of an incipient human. The aborted fetus was on the way to becoming a human being, and the natural process was cut short by the decision of a human being who “choose” to terminate it. Should these acts be called “man-made disasters”?

Since 1973 when the Supreme Court decided that the Constitution permitted a pregnant woman to decide to have her viable fetus killed by a health provider, over 40 million potential Americans have been killed or about one million per year. For comparison cancer, our worst killer causes about 550,000 deaths per year. And there are about 15,000 murders per year of which about 9,000 are from firearms. Can you imagine the outrage and demand for action if there were one million murders per year related to firearms? The demand for repeal of the Second Amendment would be ear shattering.

These statistics should give us pause. How can abortions be two times the rate of cancer deaths and 100 times the rate of murders in our country with nary a comment by the media, the church or any other so-called responsible group? This is nothing less than an outrage, and it should cause all to scream out loud.

Part of the question about what is abortion stems from the question of when does life begin. Abortion advocates believe that life only begins when the fetus is born and leaves the womb, unless the abortionist fails to terminate the fetus, and it is born still alive, then it is within the right of the abortion provider to kill the now human baby.

Well, as any fool knows, life begins at conception, period. We have always known this. If we did not know it right away, the woman whose menses stopped had a very strong clue. Then when the fetus was large enough to stir around in her womb, the woman knew it and usually asked her husband or boy friend to place his hand on her stomach and she would say, “Did you feel it kick”. Whereupon, he would reply, “Yes, and I wonder if it is a girl or boy!”. Today, there is no guess work. We can tell within days that conception has taken place, and then with sonograms, can watch the progress, and long before the birth date, can tell if it will be a boy or girl.

It may surprise you to learn who does choose abortions. Here are the facts:

• 93% of all abortions are because the child is unwanted or inconvenient

• 6% of abortions relate to physical health problems regarding mother or child

• 1% of all abortions occur because of rape or incest

Of all the information given above, the most important and disgusting is the child is unwanted or inconvenient. This should shock us and frighten us to a point where we should want to do something about it. Choosing to abort a fetus should not be a unilateral decision because there are others who have a stake in this incipient human life; namely, the father, the relatives of the potential child. Society also has a stake because it needs new lives to replace those who are leaving life so that society and our culture can be sustained. It is an interesting and frightening statistic that Western Civilization is not replacing itself. As a result it is predicted that Europe will become Muslim within the current century. That is scary because the technological developments we have come to rely upon and enjoy have been created principally by members of the Western Civilization. If the supply of humans in what we call western culture continues to diminish, the outcome and result can be predicted. The picture is not pretty.

Consider this. If a person tires of a pet and drops it into the street, it is considered “cruelty to animals” for which one can be arrested. Because we are concerned about this horrible act society has formed an organization called the Society for Prevention to the Cruelty of Animals (SPCA). SPCA facilities exist in nearly every neighborhood in America.

If we have no compunction about providing funds for the sheltering of unwanted animals vis a vis the SPCA, what would be so terrible about providing a comparable organization for the handling of these unwanted potential citizens? If the word Orphanage is too repugnant to use in our politically correct environment, surely we can find a euphemistic and politically correct term to define what such a facility might be called. Might I be so bold to suggest the “Society for the Prevention of the Abortion of Unwanted Fetuses (SPAUF)?

PERSPECTIVE: WHY THE NEW ENERGY SUPPY IS IMPORTANT!

This Blog will pick up where the last one left off.



At last the Media has caught on to the idea that the United States is up to its eyeballs with natural gas and oil supplies due to deep well drilling technology that has recently been demonstrated to be viable and environmentally safe. It has also suddenly become known that the cost of compressed natural gas (CNG) is significantly less than gasoline and diesel fuels and that it is being adopted by trucks and buses everywhere. And soon the public will learn that when we abandon the foolish idea of using corn and soy beans for automotive fuels, the price of foods will come down. Once the public becomes better informed, perhaps they will start to lean on their representatives to get off such senseless ideas as windmills, solar panels and using foods to substitute for transportation fuels, and instead get on with the use of our own low cost environmentally friendly natural gas to get our economy moving again. This “windfall” will not only result in low cost energy and lower food prices but it will strengthen the dollar and create a multitude of new high paying jobs. And if that is not enough, getting off foreign oil means that the United States could reap multibillion dollar cost savings by withdrawing its military commitment to the Middle East and let the Russians and the Chinese deal with the radical Muslims and their Arab Spring. What’s not to like?

In addition to methane, the main energy source, natural gas contains other hydrocarbons such as ethane, propane and butane which are attractive feed stocks for chemical plants. Shell Oil and Dow Chemical Company have just recently announced multi-billion dollar plants based on natural gas products. Normally, these chemical companies would obtain their feed stocks and energy sources from oil, and, in all probability, without this new low cost supply, these chemical and polymer producers would locate their new plants overseas. And there is another development which needs be noted. This new low cost energy source coupled with our innovative and rapidly developing digital technology is attracting manufacturing back into the United States. More on that subject will be in a future blog.

Now, you would think that the environmentalists would be wild about natural gas, because it produces about 50% less carbon dioxide than other fossil fuels. It also practically eliminates the production of toxic gases from the combustion of gasoline and diesel fuel. Finally, natural gas does not require a petrochemical refinery. Actually, environmentalists have been trying to kill refineries for years, and for the most part they have been successful. With the exception of two new refineries under construction out west, we haven’t built a new refinery in the United States in 35 years because of expensive environmental regulations and the NIMBY syndrome (Not In My back Yard).

Nevertheless, we can expect the “spoil sport” environmental activists to do everything they can to thwart the development and exploitation of this new drilling technology. However, it will be difficult for them because these new supplies of energy are being procured from privately held land. Drilling on public land, wildlife refuges or off-shore is not needed at this time. Nevertheless, we can expect the Obama Admistration to do everything within its power to regulate natural gas development claiming that fossil fuels are the cause of climate change, citing such examples as Sandy, Katrina and the large number of tornados.

Fortunately for us this energy windfall is being spear headed and financed by the big oil companies; consequently, this exciting development does not require new entrepreneurs who have to learn how to run businesses, raise capital and develop the US and export markets. Most importantly, it does not require the Federal Government to provide capital and subsidies to make it competitive as do wind, solar and bio energy sources.

The biggest advantage of this enormous new source of energy is that it will doubtless cause the GNP of the United States to grow at a huge rate. This, in turn, will produce large increases in Federal revenue, which in all probability, will cover the cost of the Medicar , Social Security and other entitlements that the voters will not permit their representatives to reduce or even touch.

This new source of energy will last more than 100 years, and if we believe that it will create a huge economic boom, then we should stop worrying about the problem with entitlements. Actually that problem will end in about thirty years anyway.

Here is why. The 80 million “boomers” are retiring at the rate of 10,000 per day and are in the final two or three decades of their lives, and the next generation is only half the size of the boomers. Therefore, it is clear that the entitlement problem will take care of itself without the government or anyone else doing anything about it.

What this tells us is that we should stop wasting time fretting about whether the Congress and our current President are hopelessly gridlocked. Instead, we should hope that they remain gridlocked so the private energy entrepreneurs can get the infrastructure in place to provide and transport the new low cost energy to us the consumers as fast as possible so that we can realize the large increase in GNP. All our representatives have to do is get out of the way.

The voters are not stupid; they consume energy and food, and most of them seek work, so we can expect them to support this development even while the Obama Administration tries to convince them that that this opportunity should be regulated so as to promote wind, solar, bio and other so-called clean energy ideas. Consequently, sooner or later they will be screaming for their representatives to get on board with this energy windfall.

Finally, the mantra of the Conservative Party should be this: Waste no time worrying about entitlements, do everything we can to capitalize on this “energy windfall” and speed us on a sensible path that will keep the United States the greatest country on the planet for the next one hundred years.

PERSPECTIVE: WHITHER THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?

One should not be surprised at and at the same time deeply concerned about the outcome of the November 6 re-election of Barack Obama. This President came into office in 2008 talking about spreading the wealth, and now he believes he has a mandate to raise taxes on the wealthy come hell or high water. He has a democratically controlled Senate that will rubber-stamp this idea but a House controlled by the Republicans who are against that idea. The Country is divided, and we elect representatives for the House and Senate who are also divided. Consequently, and shock of shock, they are not working together. Thus we are in for stalemate while we continue to face major problems such as the “fiscal cliff”, a non-job creating sluggish economy, huge and growing entitlement driven debt and a middle east about to explode. This is not the first time that a President has had to work with a divided Congress, but at this critical time leadership from this President will be vital!

The problem is that during the last four years President Obama has demonstrated his inability and/or unwillingness to lead. He proudly let Nancy Pelosi develop the “Affordable Healthcare Legislation” (Obamacare). The nearly one trillion dollar stimulus bill was nothing more than a huge pile of “pork” which nearly everyone agrees had virtually no effect on improving the economic condition. On foreign policy he takes pride in “leading from behind”. We need only observe the fiasco of the Terrorist attack on our Consulate in Libya and the murder of our Ambassador and three other Americans to see the lack of leadership on that issue.

Bob Woodward in his latest book, “The Price of Politics” documented Obama’s rudeness to the Republican leaders from the very first days of his becoming President. This past week we saw it again in both Obama’s embarrassing tax increase proposal, and a few days later we saw it again in the way he dismissed the Republican’s counter proposal. Because of such a high-handed approach, it is no wonder that Republicans not only can’t trust Obama, they can barely stand him.

Despite these perfectly clear deficiencies in his leadership capabilities, especially when contrasted with those demonstrated by Romney, and notwithstanding that Obama may just be following Saul Alinski’s principles for destroying the country, a majority of the voters decided to keep Obama anyway. So, we are stuck with this kind of inadequate and inappropriate leadership.

However, the Country simply can’t afford Four More Years like we have just finished. So what can be done? Perhaps the Congressional Democrats could persuade Obama to hire Colin Powell for some key advisory position in the Administration. Why? Well, Powell has just co-written a book on Leadership. Perhaps he could teach Obama how to lead. Moreover, Powell endorsed Obama thus there may be a buddy to buddy relationship which will help our Country at this dangerous time.

But let’s assume the worst from this President and his clueless entourage. What is in store for the Country? Is it doomed, will it fall apart? Will the takers increase to a point where the makers can’t give any more? Worse, will the makers decide to make it in an other country? In this digital age that is distinctly possible.

The good news is that we have two very important assets which will be vital for not only our survival but for the United States to continue to be the powerhouse we have been for the past two centuries.

These assets are:

• An unbelievable abundance of energy supplies

• The best Universities in the world for creating cutting-edge technology

The energy resources are so enormous that no government will be able to shunt them aside or completely control them regardless of theories that utilization of these fossil materials may cause and/or exacerbate so-called global warming. Specifically, we are talking about the super abundance of natural gas found a mile underground which is already being liberated and additional supplies being discovered a mile or so below that. We are now told that our Country has the largest supply of natural gas and oil on the planet

Compressed natural gas (CNG) is the perfect fuel of our trucks, trains and even automobiles. Already fleets of busses and trucks are being converted to CNG. Not only is it less expensive than diesel fuel and gasoline, it is more environmentally friendly. It produces only half of the so-called greenhouse gases of any fossil fuel, and it produces virtually none of the toxic gases of coal or petroleum. Moreover, it does not require a refinery to convert the oil to fuel. Equally important, it avoids using increasingly scarce food stuffs such as corn and soybeans to make ethanol and bio-diesel.

An ancillary benefit of converting our trucks and cars to CNG is that we can stop importing OPEC controlled oil. This not only will strengthen the dollar, but will permit a complete overhaul of our foreign policy. The United States would no longer need to place expensive military equipment and personnel in Arab territories to protect the supply of oil. We could then let the Chinese and the Russians, who have never supported us, take over that role.

Chemicals and plastics can also be manufactured from natural gas. It is a perfect raw material, and natural gas is perfect for heating the chemical plant boilers, as well. Already Shell Chemical and Dow Chemical have announced multibillion dollar plants based on this low cost supply of natural gas

In addition to the above, the idea of low cost electricity made from natural gas is being eyed by manufacturers who, utilizing the latest digital high tech technology, can now afford to bring manufacturing back to the United States.

As regards our second resource, namely that our universities are the best in the world and at the cutting edge of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, (STEM), the problem is they are not producing enough graduates who major in STEM. Today after spending about

$ 200,000 for a four year college degree only half of the graduates can find employment commensurate with their degree. However, the ones who majored in STEM are having no difficulty finding very remunerative jobs. In fact the demand is so great for STEM graduates in the United States that the starting salary for a chemical engineer needed to design and run the aforementioned Shell and Dow chemical plants is
$ 125,000.

In short, the good news is that the force of this natural gas windfall is so powerful that any attempt by Obama’s Czars to throttle it will fail. Further, we don’t have to reconstruct the K-12 system to solve the stem problem as the Obama administration suggests. We simply have to find a way to encourage the half of college students who are taking courses for which there are no jobs, to take courses for which there are jobs. In other words to major in STEM.

These are the questions that will be considered in future blogs as we examine the broad question of “Whither the United States of America?

PERSPECTIVE: WHY LEADERSIP MATTERS.

Any Committee or Group must have a leader, or else it will not produce what is wanted. The leader of a committee is called the Chairperson. The Committee we are concerned about that lacks leadership is the United States Congress and Senate. The leader of that group should be the President of the United States. The Country is divided, and we elect representatives who match that division. So, we can bitch all we want about the ineffectiveness and stalemate of these two groups, but the only way there can be any progress forward is if a strong leader steps up to lead and knows how to lead. We need only to observe President Obama, and notice that, because he fails to lead, the Country is stalemated.

As President, with a democratically controlled House and Senate, he chose to let Nancy Pelosi develop the “Affordable Healthcare Legislation” (Obamacare) which contains some 2400 pages of stuff that Nancy said had to be passed before we could read and understand it. His nearly one trillion dollar stimulus bill, was nothing more than a huge pile of “pork” which he said he is against. Everyone agrees that it had virtually no effect on improving the economic condition. On foreign policy he takes pride in “leading from behind”. We only need know about the fiasco of the Terrorist attack on our Consulate in Libia and the murder of our Ambassador to see the lack of leadership, and worse, buck passing..

So the Administration is now taking a page out of Bill Clinton’s book, “It depends on what the meaning of we is”. And what does “we” mean? Does it mean the Administration? Does it mean the State Department? The Defence Department? The National Security Council?

It is unthinkable that our Government did not see the latest episode of Terrorist activity coming. There were two prior attacks on our Benghazi facility this past Spring. Moreover, we have a National Security Council that is constantly meeting and supposedly updating the President every day on the status of the “War on Terror”? the problem we have with this President and his Administration is that as far as they are concerned, there are no “Terrorists Attacks”. Remember Fort Hood?

Oops, we know that would be the case: Obama missed the National Security meeting the day after we were told that Terrorists were responsible for the destruction of the Consulate and the murder of our Ambassador because of he had an urgent need to fly to Las Vegas for campaigning. Now, we have been informed that he misses about half of these NSC meetings. Perhaps his missing that meeting explains why Omama, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton our UN Ambassador, Susan Rice and Press Secretary Carey failed to get the message from the NSC and days later kept stating it was not a Terrorist attack but merely a predictable reaction to a nasty American-made anti-Muslim movie.

Not only is this embarrassing, it is an outrage beyond belief, and it is a dereliction of duty! We have been under attack from the Islamic radicals ever since Bin Ladin first declared war on the United States during Clinton’s Administration about 20 years ago. Subsequently, we have witnessed one Terrorist attack on US property after another. It started with the first attack on the World Trade Center then the attacks on two of our Embassies in Africa, then the attack on the Cole, to the 911 destruction of the World Trade Center Buildings, the Pentagon and the diverted Crash in Pennsylvania to the massacre at Camp Hood. In addition there were several thwarted attempts to kill Americans and now the assination of our Ambassador and three other Americans at the Consulate in Benghazi in Libia.

What I have just revealed is what you already knew or surmised. Now, for more evidence of the lack of Obama’s leadership, you can read Bob Woodward’s new book, “The Price of Politics”. Woodward is not a conservative ideologue by any means, but he manages to reveal on page after page that Obama not only doesn’t like to deal one-on-one with members of the other party, he is downright rude to them. Woodward documents that Obama was so rude to the Republican leaders from the very first days of his becoming President, that they not only can’t trust him but can barely stand him.

Moreover, Woodward confirms that Obama and his Administration’s approach to most problems is from a passive position. They wait for things to develop before they even consider acting. We knew this! Recall that during the financial collapse of 2008 John McCain rushed from the campaign trail back to Washington because, as a Senator, he felt obligated to do that. Do you recall where Senator Obama was? That’s right! He remained back on the campaign trail waiting to learn more. Somehow Obama’s followers think this is a very intellectual and “cool”, a sign of his being unflappable. Wrong!! This is the sign of a person who does not know what to do and stalls action on the preface that more and more information is needed. This is a telltale sign of a person who does not know how to lead, is afraid to lead or deliberately wants the system to collapse for some ideological objective. God only know what, but it is totally unacceptable. Worse, in the case of Benghenzi, the dereliction of duty may be impeachable.

It really does not matter just why Obama does not lead. It only matters that he DOES NOT LEAD! At this very challenging time in our Nation’s History we not only need a strong experienced leader, WE MUST HAVE A STRONG EXPERIENCED LEADER

Now let’s look at Romney. He played a major leadership role in hugely successful Bain Capital where he led his business partners to take over failing companies and resurrect them into viable organizations in the face of the extremely competitive worldwide business environment. Then he left that job to help the failing 2002 Olympics, and he led the 2002 Olympics to be one of the most successful of all time, placing a “feather in the USA cap at the same time. Then as Governor of Massachusetts he led the State’s democratically controlled House and Senate to enact laws that set the State on a course to balance their budget, reduce unemployment, improve their public education and pass a healthcare bill that works for the State.

THAT IS A LOT OF LEADING!!

So, what else do you have to know about what the key issue is this election cycle. Obama is not the man we need. He has already demonstrated that he is either incompetent and does not want to lead or that he wants the country to fail so that, “Saul Alinski style” the country can be rebuilt as a socialistic state. Regardless of the “why”, he as already failed us and must be replaced. We simply can’t afford Four More Years

By contrast, there is a man of proven ability to lead, and who has the personality, demeanor, along with the brain power and experience to define the problems and create solutions along with the skill and willingness to persuade persons of differing views to follow.

That man is MITT ROMNEY!!

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PERSPECTIVE: WHAT DOES OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM NEED?

When you listen to our politicians speak about what is needed to produce jobs, you will hear a lot about improving our ‘Infrastructure”. By this they mean improving our roads, bridges, and our K-12 educational system. Lately, especially because of the teachers strike in Chicago, the emphasis is on education. President Obama recently stated that what is needed to upgrade school quality is to add teachers and reduce class size.

To determine what our education system really needs, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded a multi-million dollar study to “Learn about Teaching”, and their first report has been published.

Prior to reading this report, I had the chance to hear Melinda Gates being interviewed by Brian Williams of NBC News, and Williams asked her whether there was one single issue that rose above all others with regard to improving education. She responded, “Yes, it is a good teacher”. Then Williams asked if there was a second. Again, she responded, “Yes, a supporting parent”. And as the report mentions: “For four decades, educational researchers have confirmed what many parents know: children’s academic progress depends heavily on the talent and skills of the teacher leading their classroom. Although parents may fret over their choice of school and class room size, research suggests that their child’s teacher assignment in that school matters a lot”

Well, I just about fell out of my chair in shock. I KNEW THAT, AND YOU KNEW THAT! What is fascinating is that any, and I mean any, graduate of the K-12 public education system can tell you who was the best teacher and who made the biggest impact on their life. Now as the report shows, every student knows, as well. It turns out nearly everyone knows it, EXCEPT PRESIDENT OBAMA AND THE TEACHER’S UNION.

It is to the credit of Bill and Melinda Gates that they are providing the wherewithal to probe deeply into what makes a good teacher. Their findings from their Measures of Effective Teaching Project (MET) are found in a research paper that can be downloaded from the Internet. It is quite erudite in its detail and analysis, and qualifies as excellent research.

The three premises of the MET Project were:

• Whenever possible, a teacher’s evaluation should include his or her student’s achievement gains.

• Any additional components of the evaluation (e.g., classroom observations, student feedback) should be demonstrably related to student achievement gains.

• The measure should include feedback on specific aspects of how a teacher teaches to support the teacher’s growth and development in teaching skills.

The MET project measured teaching of mathematics and English in grades 4-8 and then added three courses that serve as gateways to high school, namely, Algebra I, grade 9 English and biology. The following data were collected from the classrooms.


• Student achievement gains on different assessments

• Classroom observations and teacher reflections

• Teacher’s pedagogical content knowledge (knowledge of how to teach, not just their content knowledge)

• Student perceptions of the classroom instructional environment



The MET student perception survey gathered information from the students under seven headings called the Seven C’s which are:

Care: How the teacher treats students

Control: How the teacher maintains discipline

Clarify: How well the teacher explains things

Challenge: How the teacher pushes students to work hard

Captivate: How the teacher keeps school work interesting

Confer: How the teacher determines whether the student understands

Consolidate: How the teacher summarizes what has been learned



What has Been Learned So Far:

• In every grade and subject, a teacher’s past track record of value added (what a teacher contributes to what a student could learn on its own) is among the strongest predictors of their students’ achievement gains in other classes and academic years. In other words, teachers who lead students to achievement gains in one year or in one class tend to do so in other years and other classes.

• Teachers with high value-added tend to promote deeper conceptual understanding on state tests as well. Many are concerned that high value-added teachers are simply coaching children to do well on state tests. However, in the MET analysis so far, that does not seem to be the case.

• Teachers as measured on state assessments, have larger effects on math achievement than on achievement in reading or English Language Arts. It is believed that this finding may be due to limitations of the current state tests which typically consist of multiple-choice questions of reading comprehension, because when using a test that requires written responses, a teacher’s impact is comparable to that found in mathematics.


• Student perceptions of a given teacher’s strengths and weaknesses are consistent across the different groups of students they teach. Moreover, students seem to know effective teaching when they experience it. It turns out that student perceptions in one class are related to the achievement gains in other classes taught by the same teacher. Most important are students’ perceptions of a teacher’s ability to control a classroom and to challenge students with rigorous work.


Conclusions From the Study:
• Children’s academic progress depends heavily on the talent and skills of the teacher leading the class room.

• Individual teachers receive little feedback on the work that they do because teacher evaluation is a perfunctory exercise. Principals go trough the motions of visiting classrooms with checklists in hand only to give the same satisfactory rating to all teachers. This makes it easy for school administers because all they have to do is find out who is good enough to have tenure and seniority.



So Why is it So Difficult to Solve This Problem?



President Obama and his kind believe there should be equal outcomes in all endeavors including teaching. They can’t stand rewarding exceptional performance. That is what all this class warfare is about. Unfortunately for the country and especially for our children, when equal outcomes are applied to teachers, the quality of teachers as a whole sinks to the lowest denominator. The idea of tenure and seniority in any endeavor is not only non-productive, it runs counter to nature. This philosophy is what is causing our schools to fail. It is as simple as that, and it turns out that everyone, even a student knows it.!



Can the Problem Be Solved?

Yes! But we must find a way to do two things:

1. Give teachers the mentoring and opportunity to develop to their fullest capability

2. Pay the best teachers commensurate to their performance as evidenced in the development of their students achievement gains.



To do this the education community must develop and install the administration infrastructure that focuses on and hires administrative personnel who have the knowledge and training to develop the teachers. This may require by-passing the Teacher’s Unions, or it may require privatizing the public schools.


An alternative way to deal with this would be to covert our classrooms to digital. In this case the expert teacher is piped into the class room via TV and is interactive with the student. The lecturing teacher of the past is replaced in the class room by a monitor who keeps discipline, and attends to the needs of those students who fail to understand the information. This information is conveyed to the monitor via computer which tracks each student’s performance as they respond to tests while progressing at their own speed. The fact that it is right up to the latest digital technology will have the ancillary benefit of

When you consider that our country has a severe shortage of graduates with knowledge in science, engineering, technology and mathematics, we cannot delay action to make up for this critical shortage if we are to be competitive in the new global and digital world. No matter which course is taken, something must be done soon because we are rapidly losing our competitive edge.

PERSPECTIVE: WHAT DO LIBERALS WANT?

Many of us conservatives ask: “Just what do liberals want?” They voted for Obama despite his not being vetted properly. No one can be absolutely sure when and where he was born, where he went to college, what subjects he took and what grades he received. He demands to see Romney’s tax returns but refuses to provide the above information. If you happen to have a normal conversation with an ordinary everyday democrat, you are likely to be told that they voted for Obama but are not terribly pleased with everything he has done. However, they will add that: “He inherited a terrible problem and is doing a pretty good job handling it”.

A critical review of Obama’s policies, his lack of leadership and his public pronouncements clearly show that Obama has done a terrible job. And it reveals, if anything, that he is a socialist. The mainstream Media naturally tell us that this is not true. Even a so-called “fair and balanced” newscaster such as Bill O’Reilly is reluctant to call what is going on in front of our eyes as socialism. Unfortunately, many of the liberal class do not dig into the facts because they are preoccupied with living or because they do not see or care to find out what is really going on.

What is going on is far more sinister that the average citizen would or could imagine. The fact of the matter is that we have been fed a pack of lies about Obama’s background, his policies and from whence comes his support. So, what is really going on? David Horowitz and Jacob Laksin in their new book explain in simple language what is going on. The title of the book is: “The New Leviathan”. The definition of leviathan is:

“Something large or formidable, such as a sea monster or a totalitarian state having a vast bureaucracy”

The jist of the book is that large 501C3 tax deductible Foundations such as Ford, Rockefeller, MacArthur, Pew, Woods etc., which were created from funds accumulated by their capitalist founders, are now being led mostly by liberals who fund liberal programs. Most frightening, is the fact that the grants from several Foundations combine to fund the same liberal cause. This creates much larger incomes than that cause would normally obtain, and thus their influence can be much larger than normal. The authors cite The Thomas Merton Center as an example of an umbrella organization of thirty five left-wing groups that sends protestors to disrupt conservative organization gatherings.

However, it turns out that government bureaucrats can hire organizations and personnel from the Foundations for politically related studies. If you are beginning to sense the size of this monster and its influence on government policy, you are correct.

The book details the kinds of liberal causes the Foundations fund that are having such an insidious impact on our personal lives and business ventures. Examples include: Anti Capitalism, Environmental Issues, Anti-War, Global Justice, Public Broadcasting, Redistribution of the Wealth and individual liberal community organizations such as ACORN and a host of Saul Alinisky based entities.

It is interesting to learn from the authors that Bill Ayers brought Obama onto the Board of Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a left-wing Foundation that provided educational grants and was pursuing Alinsky politics in Chicago Schools. Of course, Obama said he did not know Bill. He only casually met him at a neighborhood party. Yeah, sure he did!!!

Let’s consider just one liberal cause of the many discussed in the book to illustrate how powerful these Foundations are. Various environmental groups such as EarthJustice, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Environmental Defense Fund promote man-made global warming as though it were absolutely gospel. They and massive investment by left-wing foundations have influenced disproportionately the policical debate and conned the main stream Media and many politicians in both parties to believe man-made global warming is a scientifically proven fact.

Many of the persons who have worked for these Foundations end up in positions of power in the United States and State governments. For example, Carol Browner, a believer in man-made global warming, is Obama’s environmental “expert”. She and the other environmental activists in the EPA do everything possible to get programs in place to reduce the green house gases that they claim are the cause of global warming. So, they tried to have Congress pass a law under the Clean Air Act, which controls toxic gases, to add carbon dioxide. When Congress refused to do this, they got Obama to approve an executive order claiming that carbon dioxide is a toxic substance. We should have expected Congress to be beside itself at such an outrageous idea and furious at the encroachment on their authority. But have we heard any complaint about it from them? Nor has the Media chosen to expose this outrageous seizure of power on the part of the Executive Branch.

Ask yourself when was the first time you heard the word photosynthesis? You were probably in grammar school where it used to be taught. To refresh your memory, this is the process where the chlorophyll in plants in the presence of sun light catalyzes the conversion of carbon dioxide taken from the air into carbohydrates which make up the leaves, stems and flowers of plants and the wood in trees, all the while emitting oxygen. Carbon dioxide is also the chemical that every human and every animal emits after the oxygen they intake is converted to carbon dioxide in their body.



There is no way that carbon dioxide is toxic! Perhaps, Browner and her ilk got carbon dioxide confused with carbon monoxide which really is a toxic gas that some people pipe into their cars from their exhausts to commit suicide. In the world of yesteryear when we taught common sense as early as grammar school, even a school kid would have laughed anyone out of the room who claimed that carbon dioxide was a poison.



What is particularly disgusting is how small the amount of man-made carbon dioxide is being emitted. According to the authors, the atmosphere contains about 38 molecules of carbon dioxide for every 100,000 molecules of air. To that concentration man-made carbon dioxide emissions have added only one molecule every five years.

What is sillier is this! If you want to talk about green house gases, you have to include clouds which consist of water vapor, and methane both of which are naturally occurring gases. Methane is emitted from cattle, other animals including humans and the composting of vegetation. Composting is just loved by environmentalists, but they never acknowledge that the methane and carbon dioxide that are emitted are green house gases. Methane and water vapor turn out to be the most effective of green house gases. By the way, each of these green house gases can kill you. It depends on how they are administered. You may recall that lungs filled with water or carbon dioxide that replace oxygen which cause asphyxiation which will cause death. Methane will also cause asphyxiation, but it is in fact toxic.

What is really scary and should be of great concern, is the length that the radical liberals will go to get control of our lives. One needs to know that this brand of liberals, and Obama is their most famous member, is made up of Saul Alinski protégés. Alinski taught that the establishment should be destroyed so that it could be rebuilt on the Command and Control principles of Socialism and Communism. The cap and trade bill which is designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions for the burning of coal, oil and other fossil fuels, will needlessly increase the cost of living and production for every citizen in the United States. It is just one of their tools to bring down our great country.

It was only seventy five years ago that Hitler and his Nazi Party overtook Germany with the big lie about the Jews. His mantra was that a big lie told often and loud enough becomes accepted as the truth. The United States had to destroy Hitler to get rid of that lie. What can “We the People” do to destroy these lies? That’s right! Vote those associated with the New Leviathan out of our government. Your God Given Right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness depends on it!!