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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (516636)	12/29/2003 12:00:53 AM
From: jim-thompson	Respond to of 769670

President Bush is a shoe-in. I just wish he would fire that sorry ass rumsfield. he is the one who screwed up the planning for the iraq invasion in the first place. threw the generals out of his office and told them to come up with a better plan. also invited a mess of general officers to retired. passed over active duty generals and went back into the retired ranks to get a "yes" general to be the new army chief of staff. here it is laid out in simple english "Chief among the lessons learned from Vietnam was that the requirements for facilities engineering support in future conflicts must be anticipated during contingency planning, inasmuch as these requirements represent a substantial portion of the resources required to support such an operation-the total force dedicated to facilities engineering (over 25,000) approached the combined strength of the two engineer brigades deployed to Vietnam (about 30,000). The feasibility and, under similar circumstances, the desirability of providing the major portion of this force by contract was demonstrated in Vietnam. Our experience also clearly demonstrated the need for the Army to maintain, in its active force structure, an adequate number of military personnel trained in facilities engineering to provide management and supervision of contractor and direct-hire civilian maintenance forces and to man sufficient numbers of military facilities engineering detachments to ensure continuity of essential operations in emergency situations. " army.mil

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (516636)	12/29/2003 12:52:49 AM
From: Lazarus_Long	Respond to of 769670

$100 on Bush. You on?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (516636)	12/29/2003 1:53:57 PM
From: Original Mad Dog	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Come on you can't be this naive. This is looking like the 2nd worst Christmas spending season in years, last years Bushonomic disaster being the worst. You keep saying that. It's not true, but that hasn't stopped you before, why should it stop you now? December 29, 2003 9:26 a.m. EST MARKETING Merry After All Holiday Shoppers' Spending Meet Most Expectations By SHELLY BRANCH, AMY MERRICKand ANN ZIMMERMAN Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL In the end, Santa didn't let most retailers down. Official sales numbers won't be known for several weeks, but consumers' retail spending grew 6.5% for the Thanksgiving-to-Christmas shopping season, according to data showing MasterCard use during the period -- a healthy rise compared with tepid gains for the industry last year of 2% to 3% and another sign that the U.S. economy is recovering. The numbers, reflecting hundreds of millions of dollars in retail activity, are compiled by MasterCard Advisors, an information services unit of MasterCard International. The data were adjusted downward by MasterCard to reflect the extra day in the Thanksgiving-to-Christmas period this year. Including activity on that extra day, holiday retail spending on MasterCard rose 10.5% this year. The figures also don't reflect purchases or exchanges made between Christmas and New Year's Day, a period stores increasingly rely on to boost holiday sales. Holiday shoppers kept retailers guessing down to the wire. Department stores, jewelry stores and toy stores all saw declines in spending, reflecting increased competition from discounters such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which sparked a brutal price war on toys. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart itself said Friday it expects holiday sales through Jan. 2 to hit the low end of the 3% to 5% gains it had been forecasting, citing weakness in women's apparel and housewares. Internet stores had strong gains. On Friday, Amazon.com said this was its busiest holiday season ever, including one day when it logged sales at a rate of 24 items per second. Sharper Image said same-store sales rose 21% from Dec. 1 to Dec. 24. "It was a good season -- lots of worry, but the spending came through," says Michael Niemira, chief economist and director of research at the International Council of Shopping Centers. Weekend snowstorms in the Northeast didn't seem to damp sales there in the end. And California saw an 11% boost, possibly due to the recovering tech sector. "I attribute it to the overall economy picking up," says Michael McNamara, director of research products for MasterCard Advisors. "Overall, the holiday season was pretty good." URL for this article: online.wsj.com