Awol Bush

[dissention]

Originally posted by Merf
But I'm caucusing for Edwards.

Yeah, but I'm not exactly rooting for another on-the-job training kind of guy. Shrub was enough. I like Edwards a lot (he seems like a *really* wonderful person), but he's out of his league; he has no experience. He didn't even know what the Defense of Marriage Act was.

[gldstwmn]

Originally posted by strandinthewind
He is not an economist is he? Interestingly, when Kennedy cut taxes in the 60's the liberals were all for it. And it worked then as it is now. Interestingly, if the tax cuts are not working, why is the economy recovering?

It's not.

[dissention]

Originally posted by gldstwmn
It's not.

Exactly!

On MSNBC last night, some GOP schmuck was on and started talking about how laborers are getting the best benefits in history right now and how they are being grossly overpaid. The he said that the standard of living has gone up 4% and almost every worker in this country has gotten a raise because of it. What lies! No one I know has gotten a cost of living increase in years!

[gldstwmn]

http://www.reuters.com/financeNewsAr...type=bondsNews

Gaffes by Bush economic team worry conservatives

WASHINGTON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - More than a year after President George W. Bush revamped his economic team, none of the current players has emerged as a leading spokesman on the economy and conservatives are fretting over a series of election-year gaffes.

The lack of a clear economic voice was underscored last week when officials were forced to back off a jobs forecast unveiled in the Feb. 9 Economic Report of the President.

The forecast called for average job growth of more than 300,000 jobs a month this year -- a figure that exceeds most private forecasts and prompted a slew of Democratic criticism.

Treasury Secretary John Snow, touring the hard-hit Pacific Northwest, was the first to pull away from the figures. White House spokesman Scott McClellan followed suit.

That forced Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Gregory Mankiw, lead author of the report, to row back, even though he had defended the numbers in a Capitol Hill hearing.

Mankiw was already in hot water for remarks that seemed to show approval of the outsourcing of jobs to cheaper labor markets overseas -- a sensitive issue at a time when the factory sector is hemorrhaging jobs.

The controversies had many conservatives cringing over what they saw as public-relations missteps with the economic report, a collaboration of officials from across the economic team.

"The question is, are they wrong or are they just not communicating it effectively? I would suggest it's just more a case of not communicating it effectively," said a Republican congressional aide, who asked not to be identified. "It's easy to throw stones," but the aide wondered why officials did not sit down ahead to vet "the sensitive aspects" of the report.

Democrats, seeing the report as a potential gold mine of ammunition, have also pounced on an academic discussion of whether fast-food jobs should be considered manufacturing jobs rather than service jobs as they are now labeled.

The flap comes as Bush's poll numbers are already slumping amid concerns about the economy and the adminstration's justifications for invading Iraq.

Many Republicans thought a major shake-up of the economic team was unlikely in an election year because it might make matters worse for Bush.
In December 2002, Bush fired Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and National Economic Council head Lawrence Lindsey.

CEA chief Glenn Hubbard left the administration last year and was replaced by Mankiw, a relatively unknown figure until the recent furor.

Stephen Moore, head of conservative Club for Growth, gave Snow high marks and said he would like to see him emerge as more of an economic spokesman.

However, he harkened back to the 1990s and commended former Clinton adviser Gene Sperling for his deftness in both politics and economics and said the Bush administration could use someone with those skills.

Moore was sympathetic to Mankiw's plight.

He and other Republicans felt White House officials made the fuss over the forecast worse by backing away from it. Sticking to their guns, they said, would have conveyed an upbeat view that might have helped Bush.

"I think the White House is really hanging Mankiw out to dry on this," Moore said.

Several Federal Reserve officials have also come to the defense of Mankiw on outsourcing.

"These days it has become politically incorrect to say certain things -- even if everyone recognizes them to be correct," said Dallas Fed President Robert McTeer. "Outsourcing has become the third rail of economics."

Political analyst Larry Sabato said Mankiw's comment was typical of the split between professional economists and those skilled in politics. "Economists tend to be blunt-speaking and they say exactly what they think even if it's impolitic, and this was horribly impolitic," he said.

[strandinthewind]

Originally posted by gldstwmn
It's not.

Every credible idicator used to measure the health of the economy indicates the economy is recovering. I agree, the U.S. is not at the 1999 levels, but the U.S. lost over a third of its net worth with the collapse of the comp. industry and the failures and total bankruptcies due to corp. fraud. I mean MCI and Enron alone cost this country well a loss of well over a trillion dollars alone not to mention the meltdown of the spec. money in silicone valley and elsewhere. In sum, it will be very hard to get to pre-1999-2000 figures just playing by the rules of smart investing because that economy was not made up on those rules, although the DOW is at 10,700, which is stellar for an economy that is not recovering

[dissention]

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation

[strandinthewind]

Originally posted by dissention


http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation

Which one

This one:

White House admits altering health study
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration says it improperly altered a report documenting large racial and ethnic disparities in health care but that it soon will publish the full, unexpurgated document.
( The New York Times, 02/22/2004 02:01 AM CST)

[dissention]

http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com...2160000&Take=1

"The CIA admitted it didn't provide the U.N. with information about 21 of 105 sites in Iraq singled out by U.S. intelligence before the war as highly suspected of housing illegal weapons, The New York Times reported in its Saturday edition.

The acknowledgement, in a Jan. 20 letter to Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., contradicts statements before the war by both CIA Director George Tenet and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, the Times said.

Tenet and Rice said the U.S. had briefed U.N. inspectors on all of the sites identified as "high value and moderate value" in the weapons hunt, the Times reported.

The statments came amid Congressional debate about giving U.N. inspectors more time to complete their search before the invasion, and helped bolster the White House case that it was fully cooperating with the inspectors and providing them with the best possible information."

[strandinthewind]

I am unsure what they are saying. Are they saying the White House deliberately without info from the UN inspectors? If so, IMPEACH then. But, if those spots had been relevant, why didn't we find stuff there. I am confused (as usal )

[dissention]

Originally posted by strandinthewind
Which one

This one:

White House admits altering health study
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration says it improperly altered a report documenting large racial and ethnic disparities in health care but that it soon will publish the full, unexpurgated document.
( The New York Times, 02/22/2004 02:01 AM CST)

Yup.

[dissention]

Originally posted by strandinthewind
I am unsure what they are saying. Are they saying the White House deliberately without info from the UN inspectors? If so, IMPEACH then. But, if those spots had been relevant, why didn't we find stuff there. I am confused (as usal )

Forget all that, I want to know why Rice still has her job.

But, they should impeach. They should impeach and then strap him onto a missile and shoot it into the ocean.

[dissention]

http://www.abqtrib.com/shns/story.cf...2-18-04&cat=AS

"Bush administration officials ignored expert assessments from three national laboratories in concluding Iraq was seeking to acquire aluminum tubes to make nuclear weapons, a group of scientists charged Wednesday.

The administration also has dropped highly qualified, independent scientists from scientific advisory committees on issues such as child lead poisoning, environmental health and drug abuse, replacing them with figures tied to regulated industries, the Union of Concerned Scientists said Wednesday.

Sixty scientists signed the statement, including 20 Nobel laureates, accusing the administration of suppressing, distorting and undermining the integrity of scientific analyses in policymaking. The group, organized by the scientific watchdog group, laid out its allegations in a 37-page report.

Dr. John Marburger III, director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, called the report "disappointing" and likened it to "a conspiracy theory report."

[strandinthewind]

Originally posted by dissention
Forget all that, I want to know why Rice still has her job.

But, they should impeach. They should impeach and then strap him onto a missile and shoot it into the ocean.

Well, she is an African American woman and it is the Federal Govt.

[dissention]

Originally posted by strandinthewind
Well, she is an African American woman and it is the Federal Govt.

I see, he's appealing to the black vote. And we all know how Condie Rice is representing. Or, as she's know in some circles, C. Ricey.

[dissention]

Three Texas surgeons were having lunch together and discussing surgeries they had performed. One of them said, "I'm the best surgeon in Texas. A concert pianist lost 7 fingers in an accident, I reattached them and 8 months later he performed a private concert for the Queen of England."

One of the others said. "That's nothing. A young man lost both arms and legs in a terrible accident, I reattached them and 2 years later he won 2 gold medals in field events in the Olympics."

The third surgeon said, "You guys are amateurs. Several years ago a guy who was high on cocaine and alcohol rode a horse head-on into a train traveling 80 miles an hour. All I had left to work with was the horse's ass and a cowboy hat. He's now president of the United States."