[Willie Green]

ping

[mdittmar]

blah,blah,blah.

You a union man,Willie?

[Josh in PA]

Lewistown is a dump.

[Tribune7]

ping

[narby]

Six plants in Centre County and one in Huntingdon County closed during the past year, because of either foreign competition or the outsourcing of jobs to other countries,

And the US EPA regulations helped or hurt that issue?

I predicted back when I was a wee lad that we would loose manufacturing jobs because of that bunk.

Thanks for helping Kerry with this post, Willie.

(I think it's so funny that union people support dems, while the dem addiction to environmental theocracy hurts union jobs the most)

[johniegrad]

[oldtimer]

...and it is all Bush's fault.

Thanks Willie: You are the show.

[Hot Tabasco]

The company gave some of its employees the option of working at other Lear facilities, including plants in Carlisle and Virginia, but there were few takers.

Tough times require tough decisions. My plant in Detroit went thru real hard times during Carter and I know of a number of individuals who relocated to Texas.

However, that being said, the state of my plant is now in jeoparday due to the draconian measures being taken by our German owners and the inability of us procurring additonal stamping work.......

I don't even pretend to have an answer........

[Willie Green]

ping

[franky]

I live in and about Lewistown, PA and Lewistown is no worse than many old Pennsylvania Cities that have a large demographic of unskilled workers who have either quit school or did not go onto higher education. And the major new building in the middle of Lewistown’s main street is the Mifflin County Prison with the new court house within a short distance.

The companies that employ this demographic pay minimum or just a little higher that minimum wages. As soon as there is a negative economy, the assembly line jobs are cut and there are no other companies taking on the unskilled. And to say that the employees are dependable would not be the truth.

There are suburban homes in the area but they are homes of people either employed in State College or Harrisburg. The young people who graduate college go to other areas of the country for employment. This happens in Pottsville, Shamokin, Altoona, Huntingdon, Sunbury and other similar areas.

Lewistown is no different.

[Texas Eagle]

For Frymyer, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan seem like a better option than the losing battle for decent jobs in Lewistown,

What the hell. Is Lewistown the only city in PA? Philadelphia, Pittsburh, Harrisburg (those are the only PA cities I can think of) have to be a lot closer than Iraq or Trashkanistan.

[Lancey Howard]

I was in Lewistown last week. That is one very bleak place.
They do, however, have terrific baseball program for the kids. Mifflin's 13-year-olds kicked our behinds, and our kids' team is very good.

[Texas Eagle]

As Frymyer rides off to boot camp, her stepsister, Tabitha Campbell, 13, issues a warning to no one in particular. "If she gets hurt over there," she says, "we'll go over and nuke 'em."

Atta girl, Tabitha!

[MplsSteve]

No matter which we cut it (whether its EPA rules that caused the job losses or NAFTA), this area is very ripe for John Kerry's message.

I don't profess to have the economic answer for cities like Lewistown but in many ways, this area could be considered the American heartland, an area you wouldn't think susceptible to Kerry's ideas.

If Bush loses Pennsylvania, it'll likely be because of cities like Lewistown.

[narby]

I'm just amazed at all the whiners out there who sit on their hands in rust belt places that have been dying for decades and do nothing.

Here in Phoenix, the population is increasing with people buying new houses at incredible rates. I'm not talking about illegals, I'm talking about professionals buying 2500 sq/ft houses.

I obviously don't have to explain that all these people have jobs.

The growth of the East valley is somewhere around 1-2 miles of desert built out every year, along a 15-20 mile front.

Stop whining and move to where the jobs are. It's been that way every generation. Still is.

[Barlowmaker]

I see the Marxists at the DNC continue to outsource their FR propaganda work to you.

[Huber]

Looks like Lewistown lost focus on its core competencies and lost any competitive advantage it may have had at one time.

[Edit35]

It's funny how people (like Willie Green??) see only doom and gloom in a Bush economy where the unemployment is 5.6 percent and falling.

Yet, back in the mid-1990s, with exactly the same unemployment rate of 5.6 percent, many were raving about the great economy. So much so that people refused to rock the boat by giving the boot to Clinton.

Perceptions are a funny thing. I live in Southeast Pennsylvania and I find the economy to be execptionally strong, almost to the point it is over-amping.

[Publius6961]

Wow.
A three-fer!

I don't know s**t cuz I dint like school.
I can't get a job and it's Bush's fault.
The big bad war came and got me, and it's Bush's fault!

Grateful Dead teddy bear tattoo? You just can't make up stuff this weird. The DNC is working overtime?

[bmwcyle]

I left for the Navy in 1984. There was no jobs in PA then.