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Politics : The Obama - Clinton Disaster -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (3743)	12/24/2008 12:56:07 PM
From: Neeka	Respond to of 103300

Thank you Ken. It's good to see there are a few on this thread who know how to post links. I'll be looking for updates as Bambi's tenure matures. And Merry Christmas to you too. Isn't the snow lovely? gallup.com

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (3743)	12/24/2008 2:22:57 PM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 103300

U.S. consumers are falling deeper into debt, an official at one of the largest U.S. credit bureaus told Reuters on Tuesday, as the U.S. recession deepens and job losses mount. Dann Adams, president of U.S. Information Systems for Equifax Inc, said the already high rate of personal bankruptcies could increase. "We've seen a continued ramp up of delinquencies across the board," he said. That would pile more bad debt on banks already struggling to cope with heavy mortgage-related losses. Consumers are missing payments on mortgages, credit cards, and auto loans, Adams said, adding that Americans may be growing more reluctant to take on new debt and more willing to save. Economists have long warned that U.S. households were taking on unsustainable levels of debt, pushing the savings rate near zero. But although increasing savings and reducing debt can contribute to consumers' financial health, if Americans further tighten their purse strings now it could worsen the recession. VICIOUS CIRCLE What happens in this type of economy is that consumers and businesses get caught up in a vicious circle, where they fall behind on payments, banks clamp down on credit, and the economy deteriorates further. Unemployment reached 6.7 percent in November, its highest since 1993. Economists think it will peak above 8 percent. A government report on Tuesday said the U.S. economy as measured by gross domestic product contracted at a 0.5 percent annual rate in the third quarter. The U.S. Commerce Department, in its final revision, said the decline in the third quarter versus the previous three months was the steepest since the third quarter of 2001, after the September 11 attacks on the United States. U.S. consumer spending shrank by 3.8 percent for the sharpest pull-back since 1980, when a global oil crisis tipped the economy into a prolonged slowdown. And existing home sales fell by a record amount last month. Conditions in the United States are expected to get much worse, with forecasts that the economy will shrink by as much as 6 percent in the fourth quarter and keep declining for the next six months. BUY NOW, PAY LATER Total personal bankruptcy filings in the United States rose to 131,672 in November, up 37 percent from a year earlier. Over a third, 36.6 percent, of subprime homeowners were 30 or more days behind on their home loans in November, according to Equifax data

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (3743)	12/24/2008 4:55:29 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 103300

A fairly wide spread: The 25% approval rating for the Republicans in Congress establishes a new Gallup Poll low, surpassing the 26% measured about this time last year. Gallup first began asking about approval of the Congressional parties in 1999. Congressional Democrats' approval rating is also low from an historical perspective, but does represent a significant improvement from 30% measured a year ago, their lowest rating to date. Congress' overall approval rating -- asked without reference to either party and measured in a Dec. 4-7 Gallup Poll -- is just 20%. Typically, both Congressional parties receive higher approval ratings than the institution overall. Asking about the individual parties appears to cause respondents to answer in more partisan terms. In general, ratings of Congress overall do not vary much by party affiliation, but the approval ratings of the parties in Congress show large differences when looking at party affiliation....

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (3743)	12/24/2008 9:18:38 PM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 103300

In what may very well be the death knell for Norm Coleman's time in the U.S. Senate, the Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously dismissed one of his last legal objections to the recount process. In a five-to-zero decision, the court rejected a Coleman campaign lawsuit that sought to block the course of the recount due to concerns that some ballots had been counted twice. It was the Minnesota Republican's last legal angle for making up the 47-vote deficit he currently faces against Al Franken. Coleman had argued that in the process of recounting, some precincts had accidentally counted both the original ballots and duplicates that were used for those original ballots that couldn't be properly scanned. But the campaign asked only for the state to look at 25 specific counties, suggesting that the argument was politically and not legally motivated. Moreover, it couldn't provide evidence that voting tallies during the recount exceeded those on Election Day -- which would have been the obvious result of duplicates being counted. With this issue, seemingly, out of the way, the recount process will come to an end once the state and both campaigns decide what to do about improperly rejected absentee ballots. That should come in early January. And while it would be foolish to predict how the counting and disbursement of these 1,600 ballots would proceed -- the two camps have agreed on principles by which the process will be conducted -- it seems likely that the results will favor Franken. Franken's campaign has been pining to have these wrongfully rejected absentee ballots counted from the beginning of the recount process, suggesting that they believe the votes will favor Franken. It is more common for Democratic voters to make clerical errors on their absentee ballots than it is for Republicans. All told, the window through which Coleman was looking to hold unto his Senate seat just became measurably narrower.