Here it is the day after Thanksgiving and I'm finally back to writing. Of course, the doldrums that were left over after the Tigers lost in 5 are finally starting to subside. At least the team made a trip to the World Series after more than a dozen years of ineptitude. Michigan came thisclose to earning a trip to the BCS game. Well, maybe not that close, but close enough that they should be considered to play OSU again. More on that on another day.
There are the lingering effects of the elections to consider. The thought of four more years of Blago in office is enough to frighten many people, including me. The national elections took a "throw the bums out" mentality. Now that the Democrats have control of the House and the Senate, let' see if they can live up to their promises of bipartisanship or block everything that President Bush tries in the final two years in office. I'm betting that it will be the latter instead of the former, but maybe a wake-up call was needed for the Republicans that couldn't keep their hands out of the trough. The Dems may be looking to share in a larger portion of the pork, though it would be nice to find some real reform in politics. The odds are it isn'g going to happen.
Black Friday. Time for the retail industry to turn a profit. It would be better for our community if we had a stronger retail market. Super Wal-Mart and Big Menards will offer some shopping alternatives, but what about a higher end retail store, like Kohl's or even Target. The declining purchasing base, mid-level and high-level managers are leaving like geese flying South. These jobs will not be returning anytime soon, however. Newell-Rubbermaid, Honeywell, Titan Tire, General Casualty are each showing effects of mangement or ownership changes. The tax base is weakening and we keep incentivizing the big-box retailers.
