Sunday, January 28, 2007

Good For Them, Bad For Us

[The following article originally appeared in the Roanoke Times on December 17, 2006]

What’s Good For Them Is Bad for Us
By Jerry Fuhrman

I read with dismay in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Monday that Governor Kaine intends to propose another series of tax increases next year in order to fix the roads up north.

It’s dismaying for two reasons: (1) the state is already so awash in cash that it is incapable of spending it fast enough and (2) the transportation issue is, by and large, a Northern Virginia issue, one that, in its being solved through higher taxes, will have an adverse effect on this area. While Northern Virginia gains nice roads, Southwest Virginia loses more jobs.

Up north, the issues of the day revolve around businesses being stacked atop one another. Smart growth (sometimes called growth management or land management), and mass transit, along with alternative fuels, are the primary topics of discussion.



Here in Southwest Virginia, our most pressing issues relate to employers and how we might gain a few. And to hold on to the few we have. We talk here of improving the quality of a woefully inadequate public education system. And of improving the quality of the drinking water. In Southwest Virginia - in 2006 – we talk about putting sewer systems into communities that have never had them.

It’s not that we don’t have our own transportation wish list. There is certainly discussion in some circles about the necessary completion of the Coalfields Expressway and about much-needed improvements to U.S. 58. Then there’s the ongoing debate about I-81 from Roanoke to Wytheville and whether it needs to be upgraded, or converted into some kind of traffic-congesting toll road.

That's all, in the big scheme of things, probably important. But generally, transportation issues aren't uppermost in the thoughts and discussions of folks around here.

What’s uppermost? Paychecks. Food. Clothing. Shelter. The kinds of things taken for granted in the fabulously prosperous north. We think about our small communities like Chilhowie and Galax and the Narrows being decimated by the loss of thousands of jobs in recent years.

What we need in order to solve our job-loss problems are employers, pure and simple. What we don’t need are more taxes adding to an already heavy burden being carried by those who provide us with an ever-dwindling number of jobs.


A message for state Senators Phil Puckett and Roscoe Reynolds, both of whom can be called upon to loyally carry the Democratic Party’s water when it’s time to vote in favor of another tax hike to solve transportation issues that are, overwhelmingly, northern Virginia issues: Your allegiance is not to Fairfax or Alexandria. You owe it to your constituents here to vote in their best interests. In fact, it goes beyond that. Your votes in favor of tax hikes do considerable damage to those who are most in need of your help.

There are those who argue that we shouldn’t be trying to pound a wedge between north and south; that we’re all ultimately in this together. Really? It’s fair to suggest that higher taxes will drive more Southwest Virginia employers out of business and our governor and most state legislators are arguing in favor of raising them and raising them again. We are all in this together to benefit whom?

We’re going to raise taxes here to pay a quarter of a billion dollars to construct a tunnel for a small stretch of rail line from Tyson’s Corner to Dulles airport (that amount is just to run it underground; the four-mile railroad extension project will cost $4 billion in its entirety) so as to not affect property values and to preserve Tyson’s scenic ambience?

We’re willing to vote people out of work in Saltville and Pulaski and Hillsville for that?

People in the state’s poorest county, Lee, are going to pay for a tunnel in Fairfax County, the state’s wealthiest, so people don’t have to look upon an unsightly train track when they stroll over to Starbuck’s for their daily Venti Peppermint Java Chip Frappuccino?

I don’t think so.

It’s time our elected representatives were on our side. That means voting to create jobs. And that is accomplished, in part, by reducing the tax burden on Southwest Virginia’s employers.

Folks up north want their roads repaired? Ain’t nobody stopping them.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Amid the Chaos And Dread ...

A U.S. Marine squad was patrolling north of Fallujah when they came upon an Iraqi terrorist, badly injured and unconscious.

On the opposite side of the road was an American Marine in a similar but less serious state.

The Marine was conscious and alert and, as first aid was given to both men, the squad leader asked the injured Marine what had happened.

The Marine reported, "I was heavily armed and moving north along the highway here, and coming south was a heavily armed insurgent. We saw each other and we both took cover in the ditches along the road. "I yelled to him that Saddam Hussein is a miserable, lowlife scum bag."

"He yelled back that Ted Kennedy is a good-for-nothing, fat, left wing liberal drunk."

"So I said that Osama Bin Ladin dresses and acts like a mean-spirited lesbian!"

"He retaliated by yelling, Oh yeah? Well, so does Hillary Clinton!"

"And, there we were, in the middle of the road, shaking hands, when a truck hit us."


Author unknown.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Who's The Real Bigot?

[The following article originally appeared in the Roanoke Times on Thursday, December 28, 2006.]

Now who's the bigot?
By Jerry Fuhrman

Well, ol' Virgil has stepped in it this time. As you may have seen or read, Virgil Goode, 5th District representative from Southside, sent a letter dated Dec. 7 to a number of his constituents, expounding on his personal belief that the recent election of a Muslim from Minneapolis to Congress was the beginning of the end of civilization. Or nearly so.

Had he stopped there, Mr. Goode would have been in trouble enough. God knows we don't say bad things about Muslims in this day and age and get away with it, even if some are inclined to want our children and grandchildren slaughtered in the streets of our cities. Or so it seems. We don't want to get them madder at us, that's for sure.

But Goode went well beyond trashing a Muslim congressman-to-be, who has stated that he intends to use the Quran next month at his swearing-in ceremony. Goode also took the time to denounce illegal immigration, a subject about which many conservatives agree, and to call for reductions in legal immigration as well, something with which most of us don't.

Lord have mercy.

As a result of the publication of his letter, the good congressman has suddenly been thrust into the limelight, finding himself trying mightily to defend his positions to the press. I'll leave it to others to decide whether he's been successful. And I'll not defend him here. He's on his own.

But for those of you who think Goode is a bigot or a xenophobe or a knuckle-dragging throwback, have you the same thoughts and feelings about the Muslim who prompted this uproar? If you're unaware of this guy's history but were now to find out that he is an adherent of one of the most bigoted and hate-consumed Americans alive today -- rivaled perhaps only by Al Sharpton and David Duke -- would you be prepared to denounce the incoming congressman as willingly and as vehemently as you are Virgil Goode?

Keith Ellison is said to be of the Muslim faith. In truth, he is a disciple of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan's fanatical black nationalist religious sect that calls for the complete separation of black America from the rest of society.

Malicious toward whites in general, Farrakhan and his followers save their most venomous hatred for Jews. From his lips, in a speech at a mosque in Chicago in 2003 and earlier on "Meet The Press": "You say I hate Jews. I don't hate the Jewish people, I never have. But there [are] some things I don't like. ... I don't like the way you leech on us. See a leech is somebody that sucks your blood, takes from you and don't give you a damn thing. See, I don't like that kind of arrangement."

He went on: "I believe that for the small numbers of Jewish people in the United States, they exercise a tremendous amount of influence on the affairs of government. ... Yes, they exercise extraordinary control, and black people will never be free in this country until they are free of that kind of control."

But what does this have to do with Ellison, you ask? This: The man who once went by the name Keith X Ellison has never renounced his affiliation with the most hate-driven organization in America. To this day, he is an enthusiastic supporter of Farrakhan, his grossly malevolent pronouncements and the principles upon which the Nation of Islam stands.

Ellison is a home-grown radical Muslim. And he's soon to be a member of Congress. Had Rep. Goode focused on this issue, he'd have gone on record as having brought up a subject that few people in this country seem to want to address but will, at some point, need to.

Having dragged the immigration issue into the discussion, though, Goode has brought upon himself an endless string of denunciations. Perhaps deservedly so.

That having been said, I ask once again: For those of you who think Goode is a bigot, have you the same thoughts and feelings about the Muslim who prompted this uproar? If your answer is no, I ask you this: Who's the bigot now?

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Break Out The Bubbly

[The following column appeared in the Roanoke Times on Thursday, December 4, 2006]

Silver Lining In High Fuel Prices?
By Jerry Fuhrman

I have a theory. Call it the Fuhrman Theory of Southwest Virginia Macroeconomics. Or simply call it crazy.

It's been in development for years and came to me once again after reading two different news articles in The Roanoke Times in recent days -- "U.S. retail gas prices continue to creep upward," (Dec. 5) and "Furniture makers protest rate plan," (Dec. 7). Both articles involve the rising cost of our two most precious necessities -- fuel and electricity -- a circumstance that will undoubtedly be having a disagreeable impact on area consumers and business owners. Disagreeable, that is, unless one looks to the future and sees something of a silver lining.

Let's talk about foreign competition. One of my earliest recollections as it relates to jobs being shipped overseas has to do with baseball gloves. There was a day when Spalding, Wilson and Rawlings ruled the industry -- no Nike, no Mizuno, no Nokona -- with those three U.S. manufacturers producing 100 percent of their mitts here in the United States.

But in the mid- to late-'70s a change started taking place. American companies began seeking deals with plants in Japan and later Korea to provide ball glove inventory for the American masses. Great deals. Such great deals that factories here began to cut back on production and eventually began to close.

What was difficult for me to understand at the time was that the raw materials -- the hides that were used to build the ball gloves -- continued to come from this country, from American beef cattle. Huge stocks of untanned leather would be gathered up at slaughterhouses in Omaha, bundled, put on trains heading to the nearest port, loaded on ships bound for Osaka and trucked over to the baseball glove plants, where our kiddies' ball gloves were made. The finished products would then be shipped back here for sale.

It cost less to ship raw materials halfway around the world and have low-wage, no-benefit employees work them into finished goods that were shipped (halfway around that same world) back here than it did to have those same commodities manufactured here. And the exodus of American jobs began.
The predominant factor in the decision-making over the last few decades has been the price of labor. Villagers in the jungles of Indonesia work cheap and don't demand dental and optical benefits. Far down the list of production costs are -- were -- transportation and utilities.

That's changing. Rapidly.

With the price of oil climbing once again, the cost of transporting raw materials is rocketing skyward, as is the cost of manufacturing itself (due to rising heating, cooling, lighting, energy bills). Thus both are becoming key factors with which to reckon.

It is soon going to be an expensive proposition to ship timber that was cut from the forests of Tazewell County to China where that Wal-Mart bookcase is made and then to ship the finished product back to Tazewell County for sale.

Looking back, it's easily understood why America's leading furniture manufacturers had processing and finishing plants in Southwest Virginia. This is where the raw materials are, and where the productive, skilled workforce is.

Perhaps, just perhaps, until that (inevitable) time when another cheap fuel -- and with it, cheap electricity -- comes along, our furniture companies will see expansion opportunities and prosperity once again.

Gasoline and energy prices are going up. So break out the bubbly.

There is, of course, a downside to all this. Besides the increase in prices consumers will pay, the vast majority of the exports that depart the state of Virginia this year for foreign lands were finished goods. So rising transportation costs and more expensive electricity will be bringing about considerable upheaval on the export side of the equation.

Still, looking to Southwest Virginia, where we are graced with a perpetual abundance of raw materials, that dark cloud that has been hovering over our heads these many years might just have a silver lining once again.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Showdown

[The following column appeared in the Roanoke Times on Thursday, December 7, 2006]

Preparing For The Party Fight
By Jerry Fuhrman

It's high noon in the OK Corral. The Clanton gang looks warily upon its foe. The desperados array themselves tactically opposite Wyatt Earp and his deputies. All have loaded their weapons and are preparing for the epic gunfight. The outcome of this battle, very much in doubt, will determine who controls Tombstone.

To better understand the epic duel, think of the commonwealth of Virginia as Tombstone, the state legislature as the OK Corral, and the Clanton gang as the Democrats. Now think of the Republicans opposite them -- Wyatt Earp and his deputies -- being hog-tied, muzzled, bleeding profusely from previous encounters, with broken legs and arms, nearly blinded, and with delirium and fever having set in. And they're low on ammunition. Oh, and half the Earp posse has gone over to the Clanton side.

Welcome to the Big Transportation Funding Debate -- 2007.

The nature of this larger-than-life face-off probably began when former Gov. Mark Warner succeeded in pulling a handful of spineless Republicans over to his side to end the education funding debate in 2004, an act of cowardice on their part that resulted in a massive tax increase being foisted upon the people of Virginia and levels of improvement in our education system being ... well, they really didn't change at all. But that's for another day.

Then came Republican Jerry Kilgore's trouncing in the governor's race last year. An avowed conservative, Kilgore's message, convoluted though it became, by all accounts never resonated with the people of Northern Virginia (though he remained wildly popular in all other regions of the state) and he was defeated handily by a temporarily conservative foe who took away Kilgore's thunder by vowing to not raise taxes under any circumstances.

Which brings us to Gov. Tim Kaine's tax increase proposal of 2006. Though smarting from Kilgore's loss and the betrayal of formerly stalwart Republicans in the previous tax hike wars, party loyalists, led by Roanoke's Morgan Griffith and his band of courageous House delegates, did what was seemingly impossible: They stopped a powerful and influential bloc, referred to famously as the "axis of taxes," comprised of senators of both parties, Democrat House members, the mainstream press, public school and university administrators, and every other group in the state with a hand in your pocket, in their tracks. Because of their valiant efforts, the people of Virginia were spared another massive tax increase in 2006 that would have followed close on Warner's massive tax increase of 2004.

Then came Sen. George Allen's shocking loss last month, followed by recriminations within the party and the obligatory soul searching:

"We've lost touch with the people of Northern Virginia." "We haven't taken into account the rapidly changing demographics in Northern Virginia." "We need to understand that 60 percent of the population growth in the commonwealth, much of it 'ethnic,' is in Northern Virginia." "Traditional family values are unimportant in Northern Virginia; education, transportation, and 'smart growth' are the important issues in Northern Virginia."

Northern Virginia, where Republicans and Democrats, male and female alike, old and young, white and black (and ethnic) unite in a grand desire to raise everyone's taxes beyond their means to resolve problems that citizens in the remainder of the state would give their eyeteeth to have, all relating to explosive growth and eye-popping economic prosperity.

You can see it coming. Republicans suddenly feel like they're on the ropes and there's only one way to get right with the people. Listen to Rep. Tom Davis's (R-Northern Va.) assessment to The Washington Post after the election:

"This is a challenge to our leaders in our legislature to find some common ground. The voters look at our legislature today and see the fighting between the different factions and say: 'Are we capable of governing?' That's going to be our challenge in 2007."

Translation: You knuckle-draggers in the party need to compromise or we're doomed.

So Morgan Griffith and his cohorts, Reagan conservatives in that fine tradition, the only elected officials remaining in office in the state of Virginia who remember the ones what brung 'em, are soon to begin assembling in the OK Corral for the fight of their lives. For the fight of our lives.

Bruised, battered, bloody, bandaged -- but not bowed -- they face a formidable foe.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Eat The Rich

[The following article originally appeared in the Roanoke Times on Thursday, November 30, 2006]

Rising Tide
By Jerry Fuhrman

"That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprise."

-- Abraham Lincoln, 1864

"Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures."

-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1902

The election of 2006 is over. The dust is settling. The Democrats have won a decisive victory over their Republican opponents. The celebration begins. Power shifts. The platform takes shape. And, as if we learned nothing from the early '70s when the party then (and now) in power did its best to drive the wealthy among us into oblivion, and nearly destroyed the economy in the process, we find ourselves once again returning to the ugly politics of class envy.

It first arose here in Virginia. Just days after James Webb won an upset victory over Sen. George Allen, Webb wrote a commentary for The Wall Street Journal in which he brought us the shocking revelation that some in this country have accumulated great wealth while others haven't:

"America's top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. It is not unfair to say that they are literally living in a different country. Few among them send their children to public schools; fewer still send their loved ones to fight our wars. They own most of our stocks, making the stock market an unreliable indicator of the economic health of working people. The top 1 percent now takes in an astounding 16 percent of national income, up from 8 percent in 1980. The tax codes protect them, just as they protect corporate America, through a vast system of loopholes."

What Webb plans to do about this situation wasn't stated. But his having mentioned the tax code makes his intentions clear. Since the bottom 40 percent of wage-earners pay no federal income taxes, you can bet your life savings -- at least the portion that he doesn't intend to confiscate -- who it is Webb plans on going after. The detested rich.

Then there's Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel's call for the reinstatement of the military draft. Traditional arguments in favor of forced conscription revolve around the fulfillment of manpower needs in the most expedient, if ultimately detrimental (think Vietnam), way. But if you listen to Rangel's explanation, you come away with the understanding that his goal has nothing to do with improving the fighting effectiveness of our military; he simply wants Harvard and Yale students, those children of the pampered and pompous classes, to be dying in Iraq too. Feel the resentment:
"Am I raising the class issue? You bet your life I am. Am I saying that the affluent and those that are hooked up politically are excluded from serving? You bet your life."

Blind, seething rancor. And a jaw-dropping misunderstanding of how our all-volunteer military is incorporated. How does drafting the wealthy improve the military? To him it doesn't matter.

Closer to home, certain left-wing bloggers here in the commonwealth have taken up the cause too, not realizing the hypocrisy in their denouncing the war raging in Iraq and decrying the tragic loss of American lives, while at the same time demanding that the children of the rich share the experience. How depraved.

It has been said, and I believe it to be true, that the key difference between conservatives and liberals is in their attitudes toward the rich. Conservatives work to make everyone someday wealthy. Liberals work to destroy wealth.

I called a meeting of my sales team not long ago and in the course of my laying out the coming year's plan, I told each of them: I intend, if you do your part, to make every one of you rich. In so doing, of course, I intend to enrich myself. For having succeeded, the corporation to which we all answer will prosper. As will its shareholders. And the families of each shareholder.

As someone once said, "A rising tide raises all boats." This will only happen, though, if there isn't a tidal wave of class hatred sweeping over and capsizing us all.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Separated At Birth?

[ I have included this post for one reason: It received more negative feedback than anything else I ever posted to From On High. Even loyal friends unloaded on me for stepping over the line. I thought the look that Speaker Pelosi had on her face, and with that clenched fist raised, it was a startling likeness. Oh well.]