Replies to post #64978 on Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[JMKel]

It is truly pathetic to watch these the Bush supporters trying to sugar coat Bush's failings as a leader.

They claim that the fact that he got an honorable discharge shows that he did his duty. But this son of a super rich got into the National Guard by political connections.
These same political connections made it possible for them to get him an honorable discharge. They were afraid to ship him to Vietnam like the rest of the abusers.

There is ample evidence of "special treatment" of this guy from him getting into Yale with a lousy gradepoint average and no real record of achievement to the scurilous campaigns that he ran to get himself elected in Texas. Then pulling strings to get into the Natioanl Guard in front of other better qualified candidates.

It is pathetic that people would chose a person of such weak character to be the leader of a great nation over many more worthy and capable people.

We need to get these Vulcan's out of the White House and the neo con congressman out of congress to prevent the murder and mayhem they have planned for the next 4 years and to get the government back to tending to domestic issues, the economy , addressing the causes of terrorism and rebuilding our global alliance. Many nations working together to root out terror organizations will be more effective than one shot from the hip gunslinger.

All these foreign adventures have oil as the proximate interest. We need an energy policy that set goals and emphsizes method to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Even 10-20 percent cutback in oil would relieve a lot of this interntional tension. Hybrid engines, solar power, wind power, hydro power, nuclear power, thermionic batteries, fuel cells, clean coal, and more efficient engins can accomplish this.

[Rick Faurot]

The Truth About Job Numbers Bottom Line:Employers are still reluctant to hire. And it’s not hard to figure out why. Demand for their goods and services remains soft—because consumers, who are also workers, don’t have enough money in their pockets or confidence in their jobs and paychecks to flood back into the malls.
Robert B. Reich
September 09, 2004

The news last week that unemployment was down to 5.4 percent sounded good. But, unfortunately, there wasn't a corresponding rise in payroll jobs. So how good, really, is the news? Robert Reich says that to understand what the unemployment numbers really mean, you need to know what questions surveyers are asking—and how they're asking them. Here, unemployment polling 101.

Robert B. Reich is the Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at Brandeis University, and was the secretary of labor under former President Bill Clinton

Last Friday’s household survey showed the unemployment rate dipping to 5.4 percent in August, which isn’t bad by historic standards. But last Friday’s payroll survey showed that employers created only 144,000 payroll jobs in August, which is pretty awful given that the economy needs at least 150,000 just to keep up with new workers coming into the labor market. So the obvious question: Do we have anything to celebrate this post Labor-Day week?

Well, let’s take a closer look. The more upbeat household survey is compiled every month by a team of surveyers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics who visit a random sample of 60,000 homes around country, and ask: "Are you working?" If the answer they get is "no," the next question is "Are you looking for work?" Only if the answer to that second question is "yes"—I’m looking for work—is the person counted as "unemployed." This means that everyone who’d like to work but has given up looking because they’ve tried and can’t find any work, is not included as being among the unemployed. There’s the additional problem that some people who aren’t working but are embarrassed to admit it will say they are.

The payroll survey, by contrast, asks a much larger and different sample—400,000 employers, who employ about a third of the entire workforce—how many employees they’ve added over past month. No guesswork there. Just look at the payrolls. There’s only one rub: The payroll survey doesn’t include everyone who’s become self-employed.

Now, this would be a problem if self-employment were a real alternative. But that’s not what the evidence shows. A new research paper from the San Francisco Federal Reserve finds that the number "self-employed" rises during weak economies and falls when people can find payroll jobs. In other words, being "self-employed" doesn’t necessarily mean you’re making enough money to live on. All it might mean is you can’t find a payroll job and you’re calling yourself "self-employed." No big surprise there.

Bottom line: Employers are still reluctant to hire. And it’s not hard to figure out why. Demand for their goods and services remains soft—because consumers, who are also workers, don’t have enough money in their pockets or confidence in their jobs and paychecks to flood back into the malls.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/the_truth_about_job_numbers.php