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

To: KLP who wrote (34777)	3/16/2004 12:58:55 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793531

Media Notes - Howard Kurtz The Howard Factor Monday, Mar 15, 2004; 8:21 AM Could President Bush pay a price for the FCC crackdown on airwaves indecency? He's made a powerful enemy, it seems, in Howard Stern. Scoff if you must, but the guy has millions of listeners, and he's furious at Bush. Stern has had a minor political impact before. He helped Christie Whitman get elected in New Jersey in '93 (in return for a promise to name a rest stop after him) and George Pataki in '94. Al D'Amato and Donald Trump were frequent guests. He's been doing the same sex-and-celebrities shtick for 20 years, only recently incurring the wrath of the let's-clean-up-the-airwaves-after-Janet Jackson crowd. Stern's impact could be limited, of course, if he carries out his threat to quit if Congress passes the new indecency law with mega-fines. Or if he gets booted from the air, though he's made a bundle for Viacom. But if he stays near a microphone and continues to trash the administration, Howard Power could take on a new meaning. Salon's Eric Boehlert has the goods: "Declaring a 'radio jihad' against President Bush, syndicated morning man Howard Stern and his burgeoning crusade to drive Republicans from the White House are shaping up as a colossal media headache for the GOP, and one they never saw coming. "The pioneering shock jock, 'the man who launched the raunch,' as the Los Angeles Times once put it, has emerged almost overnight as the most influential Bush critic in all of American broadcasting, as he rails against the president hour after hour, day after day to a weekly audience of 8 million listeners. Never before has a Republican president come under such withering attack from a radio talk-show host with the influence and national reach Stern has . . . "Stern had strongly backed Bush's war on Iraq, but in the past two weeks, he has derided the president as a 'Jesus freak,' a 'maniac' and 'an arrogant bastard,' while ranting against 'the Christian right minority that has taken over the White House.' Specifically, Stern has assailed Bush's use of 9/11 images in his campaign ads, questioned his National Guard service, condemned his decision to curb stem cell research and labeled him an enemy of civil liberties, abortion rights and gay rights. "In other words, it's the kind of free campaign rhetoric the Democratic National Committee couldn't have imagined just one month ago. "'Our research shows many, many people in the 30- to 40-year-old range who were Bush supporters are rethinking that position and turning away from Bush because of what Howard Stern has been saying,' says Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine... "Anecdotally, those daily phone calls from listeners -- mostly men -- who tell Stern they usually don't vote, but this year they're definitely going to vote against Bush (and it's usually against, Bush not for Sen. John Kerry) cannot be comforting to the Bush/Cheney '04 strategists."

To: KLP who wrote (34777)	3/16/2004 11:25:55 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793531

We have both been in the "Biz," so we know what this means. Employers' hiring outlook is best since beginning of 2001 More expect to add workers next quarter, Manpower survey says By JOEL DRESANG - Milwaukee Journal jdresang@journalsentinel.com Posted: March 15, 2004 Employers are more bullish on hiring than they've been since the beginning of the recession, Manpower Inc. says in a report being released Tuesday. Not since the first quarter of 2001 have hiring managers expressed such optimism in plans to add employees, according to the latest quarterly survey by the Glendale company, the nation's leading employer of temporary workers. More than a quarter - 28% - of the 16,000 organizations surveyed expect to increase their work forces in April through June; 6% anticipate staff reductions. That's slightly cheerier than the same time last year, when 22% planned to hire and 9% to fire. The balance expected no changes or weren't sure. "Based on the hiring intentions that were reported across a majority of the companies surveyed, it is clear that demand for their products and services has finally surpassed the capacity and productivity of the current work force," Jeff Joerres, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Manpower, said in a statement. Hiring expectations have improved from a year ago in every region of the country and across every industry group, including the key manufacturing sectors, Joerres said. Nationwide, construction employers indicated their strongest outlook since 1978. In the four-county metro Milwaukee area, 38% of employers responding said they'll add workers in the second quarter, up from 36% a year ago and 25% in 2002. "Even for our staff, we've had to add," said Nicole Langley, Wisconsin area manager for Manpower. "Companies have done more with less. Now, it's totally opened up. We're in a major recruiting mode." The latest survey also found that 13% of the employers in metro Milwaukee plan to cut jobs in the quarter, which is higher than in the two previous years. Langley said she expected some of those cuts to include further factory layoffs as well as buyout plans at companies trying to trim higher-paid staff. Bruce Muszynski, director for human resources consulting at H.S. Group in Green Bay, said he is seeing more employers too busy to keep putting off hiring. "Business has picked up. It's not just a bubble," Muszynski said. "It's a recognition on the part of employers of the need to fill positions that they had open for one, two, maybe three years." In particular, he said, he's noticing more openings in sales, engineering, marketing and operations. Nationwide, the survey showed stronger seasonally adjusted hiring plans in both durable and non-durable manufacturing. Job growth in those areas would be welcome developments in Wisconsin, which relies on manufacturing employment more than any other state but Indiana. Over the last four years, Wisconsin lost nearly 83,000, or 14%, of its factory jobs. Durable-goods employment, which accounts for 61% of the state's manufacturing jobs, fell 17% since 1999; non-durable dropped 9%. From the March 16, 2004 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel