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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (25743)	8/18/2003 3:45:27 PM
From: jlallen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Wrong again. Bush declared major hostilites at an end....he did not delcare the war over.... JLA

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (25743)	8/18/2003 5:04:00 PM
From: Rick Faurot	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

U.S. Soldier Killed by Explosive in Iraq -Military Mon August 18, 2003 04:37 PM ET BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An American soldier was killed by an explosive device in Baghdad on Monday, the U.S. military said in a statement. While the military did not give any further details of how the incident occurred, a Central Command spokesman in Florida said: "It was a hostile act." The soldier, from the 1st Armored Division, was taken to the 28th Combat Support Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:15 p.m., the Central Command statement said. The military said the incident happened in Karada, a mainly Shi'ite neighborhood in central Baghdad. Attacks on occupying troops in Iraq have killed 61 U.S. and seven British soldiers since Washington declared major combat over on May 1. A Danish soldier was also killed on Saturday west of Basra in a battle with thieves looting power cables. The United States blames the guerrilla campaign on hardcore Saddam Hussein loyalists, and says some foreign militants have also entered the country to mount attacks on U.S. forces. At the 4th Infantry Division's headquarters in Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit, a U.S. Army spokesman said two American soldiers were wounded on Sunday when their convoy was shot at just north of the town.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (25743)	8/22/2003 12:48:03 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

OUTSOURCING WRAP-UP msnbc.com <<...The outsourcing and jobless recovery discussion could continue for a long time—-not only do comments from readers keep coming in, but so does the news. In just the last 10 days, for example: JP Morgan Chase is outsourcing financial analysis to Mumbai; BellSouth may move up to 600 jobs to India; General Motors will spend $60 million on its R&D center in Bangalore over the next three years; Sprint is preparing to offshore hundreds of jobs; and Hewlett Packard will spend $55 million on an R&D center in Singapore . What’s unique about several of the recent stories is that these are jobs like financial analysis, journalism and R&D work, further up the food chain than the low-level programming and call-center functions that were initially outsourced. Numerous readers — usually software professionals — suggested that outsourcing causes more problems than it saves dollars. But it’s hard to imagine that the outsourcing wave would not only be growing, but spreading to new kinds of jobs, if the results were not on balance beneficial for bottom lines. And I suspect that the results companies get overseas will only improve. One call-center manager in the Midwest wrote that she has visited the site in India where her company’s jobs are outsourced. She reports that the job of call-center operator is sufficiently well paid, by local standards, that some operators have drivers, nannies and two servants at home. Even allowing for some exaggeration in that report, it has to be the case that countries now receiving the benefits of outsourcing will do everything in their power to keep that work, and train new generations to be even better at attracting opportunities. Without massive government intervention, it’s hard to imagine that the tide will turn back. As one reader pointed out a few days ago, we’re seeing the beginning of a vast leveling effect on salaries worldwide. The citizens of the United States have had a very comfortable existence as 5 percent of the world’s population that consumes 50 percent of its resources — that translates into a pretty nice lifestyle. But as true globalization occurs — the movement of white collar jobs as well as production — we’re going to be competing against significant new populations that also want their piece of the pie (a pie richly described to them in large part by our own exported media). I also heard from readers who support the historical view that nothing here is new — technological threats to jobs have occurred for centuries, and workers learn to adapt. The familiar statistics are used: most of the American population was engaged in farming at the turn of the 18th century and by now it’s a tiny percentage. In a sense, I think that’s true in the case of outsourcing; we’re simply exposed to a much larger labor pool that’s willing to work for less, and we’re either going to have to get much smarter at what jobs we choose, or else learn to settle for lower pay as we share the riches with the rest of the planet. But there’s more at work, as well, because in a sense, the same rapidly evolving technology that raised the stakes on global competition is also working to automate jobs and decrease human workforces by improving productivity. So the American workforce is undergoing two shocks at once, from within our country and from outside. The “jobless recovery” is thus a combination of factors that is hard to untangle and whose outcome is very difficult to predict. Probably the best solace for the moment is Paul Saffo’s sturdy admonition that we should never mistake a clear view for a short distance. Global salaries may be on a course to parity, but that course will not be smooth; trade unions, government intervention, local political instability, cultural differences, a whole vast stew of impediments will prevent anything like that happening quickly. Instead, several generations will have the chance to adapt slowly, although the ultimate direction is not in doubt. The same goes for next-generation automation, in everything from service jobs to white collar. There’s no question that far more automation will occur, but it will happen to the longer beat of capital improvement cycles, union negotiation, and the built-in uncertainties of new technology. Again, over a generation or two, workers will adapt. But none of that does any good to the worker today with a brand-new college education in computer science (for which he still owes $50,000), or the 50-year-old, not nearly ready for retirement, whose skill set has been abruptly devalued. “Creative destruction” may be a good thing for healthy capitalism, but it is unacceptable for a humane society to apply to individuals. Social and educational policy in this country should better support people directly hit by the twin shocks of globalization and automation, because those shocks will keep coming. With any justice, that should be a campaign issue in 2004. And so it’s time to bring the outsourcing and jobless recovery discussion to a close. As soon as the power is back on at Newsweek and the team is back at work, I’m heading out for two weeks off the Web on an island in Maine. I’ll see you back online Sept. 2...>>