Snyder’s lies helping Bernero cut into his lead

Outsourcing and killing American jobs is bad enough, but now Rick “The Chief Executive Outsourcer (CEO)” Snyder is doing that and lying about it.

During the first and only gubernatorial debate on Sunday, the outsourcer lied to Michigan voters when he told them one of his newer companies, Discera, did not have a facility in China – in fact, not only did Discera create jobs in China, they are sharing technology to help arm Chinese businesses to better compete against American companies. After the debate he contradicted himself and said there was an office but that it was only a sales office.

“Rick Snyder has tried to run from his record of offshoring jobs, but when confronted with it head on in a one-on-one debate, he flat out lied to Michigan voters,” said Mark Brewer, Chair of the Michigan Democratic Party. “The facts are there. Snyder cannot say he had no part in creating jobs in China and worse, making Chinese businesses more competitive against Michigan. He’s proven he’d rather invest in China and Chinese workers than in Michigan workers.”

Discera, a high-tech company Snyder founded and is currently a board director, and which is funded through his venture capital firm, opened a new state-of-the-art facility in China in July 2010. Discera officials have said that through technology sharing and funding researching and development in China, their business is helping Chinese businesses become more technologically advanced. In fact, in a Discera news release announcing the company’s new facility, the company’s own Chief Technology Officer actually said: “Discera is helping Chinese businesses compete and win in the global marketplace.”

In other words, the outsourcer is now not just shipping lower skilled factory jobs off shore, he is outsourcing highly skilled and educated research and development jobs from a state that has some of the best research universities in the world, and from a state trying to ensure those high intelligent and skilled young graduates from the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University stay in Michigan.

Even before the debate, Gubernatorial nominee Virg Bernero was beginning to close what some pundits said was an insurmountable 20 point lead, but the largest independent poll to date has the Mayor of Lansing closing the gap to 12 points. The gap should close after people get wind of the debate and the outsourcer’s bold face lie.

“This is still a competitive situation,” Eric Foster, president of Foster McCollum White and Associates, told the Detroit News.

In fact, it has led the outsourcer to again spend some of his millions on TV ads that created the false image of a “tough nerd.” He has not paid for an ad since the primary election. He also lied, indirectly, on Sunday when he said he had not received any PAC money. That may be technically true, but the Republican Governors Association (RGA) has been spending millions on his behalf on false attack against Bernero.

This is the same RGA that got $1 million from the Faux “news” and from foreign corporations. They have been blackmailing Michigan TV stations into not reveling how much they are spending on ads by refusing to buy ads on their station if they tell the truth.

The Chief Outsourcer continues to chicken out on debates

Somebody is going to have to follow Rick “Chief Executive Outsourcer” Snyder around to his staged townhall meetings with friendly audiences in a chicken suit shame him into a debate with Democratic Gubernatorial Nominee Virg Bernero.

It has been more than a month since Bernero issued a challenge to debate, and Synder has come up with excuse after excuse to not do it. Snyder has a history of being afraid to debate. He even ducked the debates with the Republican nominees. The last and only debate he took part in was a debate sponsored by the Michigan GOP on April 21 at Michigan State University broadcast by Lansing TV station WLNS. He did so badly in the debate that he went back to his staged townhall meetings.

He did a friendly interview yesterday on classic rock station WHMI in Howell with the “morning crew,” and his new excuse for ducking the debates is that Bernero wants too many debates. Bernero formally issued a challenge last month to hold eight debates before the November 2 election, but the Lansing Mayor has accepted three. But Snyder lied to the hosts and said eight is too many.

Fine, then do the three that Bernero has already agreed to. The simple truth is the only way Snyder will debate is if the media and the public pressure him to do so.

Snyder has paid millions to cultivate this image as a successful businessman and job creator, and this is simply not true. Snyder spent $7.6 million on 30-second TV spots to win his party's gubernatorial primary, $6.1 million of which came from his own deep pockets. A real debate in front of a neutral audience will tarnish that expensive, bought and paid for image and revel him to be the empty suit he really is.

He also claims to be a job creator, but that is a lie, unless you count jobs created in China. He shipped 20,000 American jobs to China and other parts of Asia when he was head of Gateway. A report earlier this month by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) shows that the more CEOs cut jobs, the more money they made, and Snyder earned millions doing so. He cashed in on 355,000 stock options worth $23.7 million at a time that executives at the company admitted they misrepresented the company’s financial outlook. He took that money to buy the governorship of Michigan.

Republicans seem to be taking the example of the chief outsourcer at the top of the ticket and ducking debates.

Democratic Secretary of State nominee and Wayne State University law Professor Jocelyn Benson challenged her opponent to three debates last month, and, like the empty suit at the top of the ticket, the Republican has been silent. That’s a little strange, considering the Republican is a “career politician” teabggers claim they hate, and Benson has never ran for elective office before.

The only people who have agreed to debate are the Attorney General candidates. Democratic nominee and Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton will take part in a debate moderated by Off the Record host Tim Skubick that will air on Sept. 24. The taping will take place this weekend at the studios of PBS station WKAR TV in East Lansing.

Off shoring and outsourcing kills another U.S. industry

United Furniture has been a fixture in Monroe for 40 years, but the founder and owner leaves some parting wisdom on off shoring and outsourcing upon his retirement from the business he spent his life building.

Jack W. Cosby, 74, told the Monroe Evening he is retiring, but he said you should not be buying some of the stuff he sells out of his 28,000-square-foot showroom.

“I have to be honest with you,” he told the MEN. “I sell people stuff that I feel guilty selling them. It’s not what I’ve always been selling. It’s really tough for me to accept the foreign market, but I have to accept it because that’s all that’s selling.”

Cosby said he resisted selling the stuff made in China and elsewhere because the quality was inferior, but the market forced him to sell cheap over quality. In other words, sell foreign crap or go out of business. In fact, 98 percent of the wood furniture sold in the U.S. is foreign made.

Overall, according to the paper, U.S. manufacturing employment has dropped more than 32 percent since 2000, falling below 12 million, the fewest working in manufacturing since 1941.

“It’s not the quality we’ve been used to selling,” Cosby said of the imported furnishings. “It comes over on a boat as everybody knows and it’s bound to get damp coming over and it shows every crease where it’s put together.”

“They have hardly anything that’s solid wood. It’s usually like a particle-board with wood veneer over it,” Cosby said. “I think most of your American companies have closed their factories and use them for warehouses. They just buy it and sell it like we do.”