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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (18594)	12/4/2003 9:50:42 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793808

It is so sad that they cannot come up with a better choice to run. The Democratic Party is hollow. They have lost their core beliefs with the worldwide collapse of Socialism. Now all they have are pressure groups and a laundry list of issues. The problem for us "Eagles" is that this allows the Social Conservatives to get too much power and overreach. When this happens the remnants of the Left could regain the Presidency. They would not be able to do too much domestically, but it could lead to terrible Foreign Policies, IMO.

To: John Carragher who wrote (18594)	12/4/2003 10:07:34 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793808

More Economic "Mumbo Jumbo" that makes my head hurt. :>) But it's all going in the right direction. December 04, 2003, 9:04 a.m. The Jobfull Recovery Begins There are many signals that the employment drought is coming to an end. — David Malpass is the Chief Global Economist for Bear Stearns. NRO Jobless recovery? Doesn't look like it. Signs are clearly pointing to big increases in payrolls going forward. The Labor Department's establishment survey (which counts the number of payroll jobs in established businesses) should deliver months where we see 300,000 new jobs, supporting the position that the expansion is strong and sustainable. There are many signals out there that new jobs are arriving. The employment component of the Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) November index for manufacturing moved above the critical 50 level for the first time in more than three years, indicating that the employment drought in manufacturing is coming to an end. The four-week moving average of initial jobless claims has fallen to 359,000. This is below the post-1989 average and not far above the 315,000 level common in the mid-1990s when job growth was fast. As a percentage of employment, the current weekly claims level is consistent with past periods of fast job growth. One reason for the lag in job creation after the 2001 recession was the unusually deep drawdown in inventories (there's a strong correlation between inventories and job creation). But inventories rose in September and October, indicating that robust job growth will follow. In addition, employment gains reported in the Labor Department's household survey have already been strong. The household survey (which is a job survey of Americans from home to home, rather than business to business) often leads the establishment survey during a recovery. The typical process is as follows: Existing establishments cut employment in a recession; new companies (not covered in the establishment survey) then add jobs in the early stages of the ensuing recovery; and at last the job growth begins to register in the establishment survey. Meanwhile, today's strong productivity growth is not and impediment to growth or a substitute for it, as some naysayers argue. In fact, the rate of productivity growth will slow as job growth accelerates. Some naysayers also argue that "true" unemployment is higher than today's 6 percent rate. Here's the thinking: In the 1990s, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan introduced an alternative, broader measure of slack in the labor market — the pool of available workers. This included those looking for work (the normal measure) plus those who would like to have a job but haven't looked in the last four weeks. So, there are now 8.8 million unemployed, but in addition to that there are 4.5 million people who would like a job but aren't looking. Of those, 1.6 million have searched during the last 12 months but not in the last 4 weeks, and 400,000 are "discouraged" in their search. Yet while the broader measure shows a higher percentage "unemployed" than the conventional unemployment rate, it does not really contain any additional information about labor-market conditions. It has generally moved up and down with the unemployment rate, just at higher levels. And which direction is the unemployment rate headed? Down. nationalreview.com

To: John Carragher who wrote (18594)	12/4/2003 10:12:10 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793808

These people do funny things. But they are not funny. Take a look at the Billboard. News Channel 10 PETA Billboard Depicts Virgin Mary Cradling Chicken Carcass Group Picks R.I. To Launch Vegetarianism Campaign POSTED: 8:34 p.m. EST December 1, 2003 PROVIDENCE -- The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is urging people to go vegetarian with a billboard that shows the Virgin Mary cradling a chicken carcass. The billboard, seen by motorists near exit 4 on Interstate 195 in East Providence, includes the phrase, "Go Vegetarian. It's an Immaculate Conception." 195 Billboard Brouhaha PETA said its message is designed to highlight that animals raised for food are mistreated and that vegetarianism combats the practice. The group said it chose Rhode Island to debut its campaign because the state has the highest percentage of Catholics in the nation. Someone apparently upset with the billboard spray-painted "Shame!!" on it. Copyright 2003 by turnto10.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. turnto10.com

To: John Carragher who wrote (18594)	12/4/2003 11:48:04 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793808

‘Me too, pal,’ says Bush, hanging up By Jonathan E. Kaplan "The Hill" Conservative Republican frustration over the failure of the Bush administration and the House Republican leadership to restrain federal spending has boiled over in recent days, producing a rare confrontation between GOP lawmakers and party leaders. The internal conflict, fueled largely by recent passage of the $78 billion Iraq reconstruction effort and the $400 billion prescription-drug benefit for senior citizens that squeaked through the House on Nov. 22, came to a head last week when President Bush abruptly terminated a phone conversation with a Florida Republican who refused his plea to vote for the landmark bill. Well-placed sources said Bush hung up on freshman Rep. Tom Feeney after Feeney said he couldn’t support the Medicare bill. The House passed it by only two votes after Hastert kept the roll-call vote open for an unprecedented stretch of nearly three hours in the middle of the night. patrick g, ryan Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feeney, a former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives whom many see as a rising star in the party, reportedly told Bush: “I came here to cut entitlements, not grow them.” Sources said Bush shot back, “Me too, pal,” and hung up the phone. At the same time, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) castigated former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) after he wrote an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal opposing the bill. Armey wrote that he opposed the bill even though he had voted for two similar bills as a member of Congress. House leadership aides said Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) felt blindsided by Armey’s op-ed, which came at a time when they were trying desperately to round up the necessary votes. “The Speaker is very disappointed about the article, especially because Mr. Armey voted for prescription-drugs bills that had even less reform than the conference report did when he was a member,” Hastert spokesman John Feehery told The Hill on Monday. But Armey, who said he called Hastert to sort out their differences, put a different spin on the exchange. “[Hastert] understood where I was coming from and that a lot of people felt the way I did,” Armey told The Hill. “I made the night longer than it ought to have been. One of things we do in our party is appreciate freedom of expression.” He added: “Everybody in the heat of the deal thinks things like that are bigger than life, but things cool down.” Armey, now a lobbyist at the Piper Rudnick law firm, said he was not worried that his access to the GOP leadership would be limited or that Hastert and others would penalize the clients whom he advises. House aides contrasted Armey with former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who was praised by Republicans for his support of the Medicare bill the week of the vote. Gingrich had fallen out of favor with the White House and many Republicans earlier this year when he attacked Secretary of State Colin Powell’s management of the State Department. A GOP aide said that, had lawmakers voted after Gingrich’s rousing speech to the GOP conference, the vote would not have lasted three hours. Gingrich also wrote a positive editorial in The Wall Street Journal. Republican aides said conservatives who voted against the bill, including Reps. Mike Pence (Ind.), John Culberson (Texas), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Roscoe Bartlett (Md.) and Jim Ryun (Kan.), would suffer for their votes against the Medicare bill. Leadership aides said those members “can expect to remain on the back bench” in the months ahead. “Health savings accounts are the most dramatic reform of health care in 30 years,” Feehery said. “Conservatives said they all loved it, but once in the bill they forgot about it.” The fallout over the conservative resistance included some lawmakers who are considered rising stars in the party, as well as a major conservative think tank that aided House Democrats in nearly derailing Bush’s top domestic initiative. Although the House GOP assembled a 400-member coalition in support of the bill, the Heritage Foundation opposed the bill and even held a briefing for members in the Dirksen Building the day before the vote. Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.), who voted against the bill when the Senate passed it by a 54-44 vote, allowed Heritage to use the room the day before the vote. That decision was made at a very low level in the office, according to Rachel Oliphant, Nickles’ press secretary. “So far, we’ve not seen any penalties coming our way,” said Stuart Butler, vice president for economic and domestic policy at Heritage. “[We have] quite a long history of taking issue with the Republican leadership and White House.” Butler said that Heritage had vigorously attacked Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush for raising taxes in 1982 and 1990, respectively. thehill.com