Whirlpool: Sorry Indiana, we're off to Mexico

WHILE ARIZONA IS engaged in a zealous full-court press against illegal Mexican immigrants, Whirlpool will close its refrigerator plant in Evansville, Ind., tomorrow (Friday) and move the operation to a new plant in....Mexico. Meantime, the move will cost 1,100 Whirpool workers their jobs in Evansville, where the plant had been operating since 1956. The company said it was " uncompetitive from a cost standpoint." Critics of the move have pointed out that Whirlpool had received $19.3 million in stimulus money to strengthen its, eh... resources. A thought: If enough U.S. companies follow Whirlpool to Mexico, will we have found a solution to the immigration problem, if not the U.S. unemployment problem?

Bonehead-of-the week is Rob Nichols, GOP gubernatorial candidate John Kasich's press secretary, Rob Nichols, who said this of Gov. Strickland in a press release:

"Not until Ted Strickland feared needing their votes did he give urban Ohioans a second thought. Having grown up in a chicken shack on Duck Run, he has all but ignored our cities economies and their workers."

Yes, the governor did spend some of his childhood living in a chicken coop because of family poverty. But even though Nichols' perspective is the view from Wall Street via Kasich, he's still worth a Grumpy Abe Linguistic Lunacy (GALL) Award. Or should it have gone to Kasich, himself, who said he was "not part of the chorus" in northern Ohio who wants James to stay in Cleveland.

A WEEK TO GO and LeBron is keeping the sports media and fandom on edge about his plans. Heavens. (I think he should remain here.) The tension seems to be increasing as free agency day nears. What will the hitherto mentioned sports media do for news in July other than another Browns training camp filled with optimism? Back to LeBron: It's like the countdown moments when the Russian ships were heading to Cuba against President Kennedy's blockade. Will the story end happily? Or will the Cavaliers be doomed?

President Obama appears to have gained a few points (some grudgingly) as a man of action in firing Gen. McCrystal, following in the footsteps of Lincoln (Gen. McClellan) and Truman (Gen. MacArthur). The same can't be said about Congress, where Republicans and half-hearted Democrats have yet to find a substantive issue that they can't butcher to death. And these guys and gals are paid well to be dysfunctional, including plenty of cash from lobbyists.

OSU, New Mexico St: Big payoff for a loser

ALTHOUGH YOU don't have to look that far to find travesties in the scheduling of college football games, rising to the top of the current culture is Saturday's game between the forever Olympian Ohio Sate Buckeyes and a forlorn team called the New Mexico State Aggies , which had lost its last two games by a cumulative score of 79-10. You couldn't have missed it. It was on all of the sports bar monitors as patrons toyed with their swizzle sticks or thumbed their cell phones. For their efforts in agreeing to a hopeless scrimmage in Columbus as 44-point underdogs, the Aggies were paid $850,000 - plus, you would hope, second helpings from the visitors' buffet. By the end of the third quarter, the home team was up 45-0 with the game's radio analyst exclaiming "45-0, 45-0, how about that Buckeye fans?" (It occurred during the 2 minutes that I tuned in.) Mercifully, the score didn't change as the Buckeyes decided not to pile it on their guests. That was about $19,000 a point. I went for a walk wondering whether people really paid for their tickets.