Bush 2004 !!!

[Sandy73]

I SAY HE WILL HAVE OSAMA CAPTURED BY JUNE 04...

 

[MtnBiker]

Has Madeline Albright been talking to you?

 

[5stringJeff]

Wanna get Bush elected? Volunteer, donate (even a $25 donation goes a long way), wave signs, doorbell, do whatever you want, but get involved!!!

 

[lilcountriegal]

Has Madeline Albright been talking to you?

 

[janeeng]

I knida think the same thing that Osama will be caught before 04. I just said this the other night to my Dad, that I think he might get caught, and should he, you can be sure the cards will surely change for Bush. My vote is ready!!!!!!!!

 

[Sandy73]

my vote is waiting for W too !!!

 

[nbdysfu]

originally posted by janeeng
I knida think the same thing that Osama will be caught before 04.
_______________________ _______________________

"Look at the poor old man! His turban is all rumpled from sleeping against rocks. He's had nothing to do with any of the terrorism that's happened since we took him out of power! Bush is the Devil!"

 

[jon_forward]

G.W has my vote!!! 04 doesnt concern me as much as 08 does.

 

[acludem]

Even if he captures Osama, which I seriously doubt will happen, people still vote with their wallets. If the economy, and especially the job market don't improve, he won't be re-elected.

I haven't decided which candidate to support in the Democratic race, but whoever gets the nomination, unless it's Al Sharpton, will have my vote. If Al Sharpton gets it (which will be when hell freezes) I'll have to vote for Ralph Nader.

Bush go home in 2004!

 

[nbdysfu]

Yeah take a look at those stock numbers too.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=749&e=2&u=/nm/20031218/bs_nm/economy_dc
Jobless Claims Drop, Some Industry Surges
Thu Dec 18, 5:44 PM ET Add Business - Reuters to My Yahoo!


By Daniel Bases

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Good news on the U.S. economy piled up on Thursday with a quartet of reports showing a fall in new claims for jobless benefits and a surprise surge in regional manufacturing that bodes well for the entire nation.


Reuters Photo

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First-time claims for state unemployment insurance, a rough guide to the pace of layoffs, plunged 22,000 to 353,000 last week from a revised 375,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department (news - web sites) said.


The unexpectedly steep drop brought claims back to the 2-3/4 year low they hit in early November. Wall Street economists had expected claims to slip to 365,000 from the 378,000 originally reported for the Dec. 6 week.


"The jobless claims numbers show the labor markets are improving and that increases the likelihood that the economy will remain strong," said Gary Thayer, chief economist at A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis.


Another report showed manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region jumped in December from an already strong level, despite forecasts of a slight decline. New orders hit a 23-year high.


The Philadelphia Federal Reserve (news - web sites) Bank said its monthly gauge of regional industry jumped to 32.1 in December from 25.9 in November, confounding economists' forecasts of a slight fall to 25.4. New orders, a harbinger for future growth, rose to 41.8 in December from 20.8 in November.


"It is reassuring with respect to the national manufacturing outlook because it counteracts some unexpected softness in the (New York) Empire State survey earlier this week, particularly in new orders," said Pierre Ellis, senior international economist at Decision Economics in New York.


"Demand for manufactured goods clearly continues to strengthen and backlogs are accumulating sharply in both of those surveys, indicating production growth to come," he said.


Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasuries rose despite the economic data, while U.S. stock prices climbed and the dollar's fall was uninterrupted by the good news.


The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI - news) and S&P 500 (^SPX - news) stock indexes gained more than 1 percent while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC - news) index climbed 1.81 percent.


The private Conference Board (news - web sites) said its index of leading indicators rose 0.3 percent in November to 114.2, matching expectations, after an upwardly revised 0.5 percent climb in October.


The leading index, which foreshadows economic activity in the next three to six months, has increased at almost a 6 percent annual rate since its most recent low in April.


"The continued strong growth in the leading index ... is signaling that strong economic growth should persist in the near term," the Conference Board said.


In another report, the Chicago Federal Reserve said its National Activity Index jumped in November to its highest level since March 2000, helped by improving industrial production. It rose to +0.55 from an upwardly revised +0.19 in October.


"I think we are poised for good news on the economic front for some time to come," U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said in a television interview, saying the U.S. economy was hitting a "sweet spot."


RANKS OF CLAIMS APPLICANTS SHRINK


The job outlook brightened with the Labor Department report on initial jobless claims.





It said a closely watched four-week average of initial claims, which smooths out weekly gyrations for a clearer read on underlying trends, dropped by 2,250 to 361,750.

Claims have been below the 400,000 level economists see as a divide between an improving and a deteriorating labor market for 11 straight weeks -- the longest stretch since a run that ended in April 2001.

The department said the number of unemployed workers who continued to draw benefits after an initial week of aid rose 28,000 to 3.34 million in the week ended Dec. 6, the latest week for which data were available.

However, a four-week average of that barometer dropped 34,000 to 3.33 million, the lowest since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks -- a sign that it has become a bit easier recently for unemployed Americans to find work.

While economists have welcomed the end to a long stretch of job losses -- the economy has created net gains in jobs in each of the last four months -- they say the number of new positions has fallen woefully short of what is needed to cut into unemployment.

The latest claims data took on added importance for Wall Street because it covered a week that corresponded to the survey period for the Labor Department's comprehensive monthly jobs report.

"Since (claims) surprised on the positive side for the employment outlook, it could bode well for that report," Carl Riccadonna, an economist with Deutsche Bank in New York, said of the December jobs report, due Jan. 9. "It could help drop the unemployment rate by another tenth of 1 percent."

The U.S. jobless rate dipped to 5.9 percent in November from 6.0 percent in October. (Additional reporting by Tim Ahmann in Washington and Victoria Thieberger in New York.)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=749&e=2&u=/nm/20031218/bs_nm/economy_dc

 

[nbdysfu]

Here's another gem, just for you

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031219/ap_on_re_us/ap_poll_iraq_3
Poll: Public Confident of Osama Capture
Thu Dec 18, 8:21 PM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!


By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Public confidence that Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) will be caught is rising along with approval of President Bush (news - web sites)'s handling of foreign policy and terrorism in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s capture, an Associated Press poll says.


AP Photo



Americans remain wary, however, of the continuing deadly conflict in Iraq (news - web sites).


Increased confidence in the campaign on terror apparently has provided a bump in Bush's overall job ratings and a slight increase in public sentiment for his re-election, according to the poll conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs.


Almost half of respondents, 45 percent, said they would definitely support his re-election, while 31 percent said they would definitely vote against him. A month ago, people were evenly divided on that question, at 37 percent definitely for and 37 percent definitely against.


Two-thirds in the poll said they were confident the United States would capture or kill Osama bin Laden, who is believed to have orchestrated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. That's up from about half who felt that way in a poll in September.


"I'm confident we'll capture Osama bin Laden," said Jill Chiccino, a surgical technician from Wilmington, Del. "I still don't feel that will solve terrorism, but it may help."


More than six in 10 registered voters, 63 percent, said they approved of Bush's handling of foreign policy and terrorism — up from 54 percent who felt that way in early December in an AP-Ipsos poll. Bush's overall job approval among voters was 59 percent, up slightly from 53 percent in early December but still far below his wartime ratings in the mid-70s.


Some 94 percent said they thought the war in Iraq was still going on.


Asked whether they thought the capture of Saddam would cause violence against U.S. troops to increase, decrease or stay about the same, the biggest group, 47 percent, said they expected no change. A third, 33 percent, said violence would decrease and 19 percent said it would increase.


People were evenly divided on whether Saddam would get a fairer trial from an international tribunal or from Iraqi courts.


"Iraqi courts will be controlled and run by the United States," said attorney Adam Allen of Tampa, Fla.


Six in 10 thought the United States' government was likely to be embarrassed by some of the information disclosed by Saddam in a trial. That was higher than the percentage of people who felt Saddam's disclosures would embarrass the governments of France, Russia, Britain or Germany.


Six in 10 said the capture made it more likely the United States would get help from longtime allies who opposed the Iraq war, but only 12 percent said they felt that was "very likely."


Overall support for Iraq policy was strong in the poll.


Seven in 10 said they believed the Iraq war was an important part of the campaign against terrorism rather than a distraction. And by more than a 2-1 margin, people said the war was the right decision and not a mistake, according to the AP-Ipsos poll.


People are divided on whether the war in Iraq has made terrorist attacks in this country more likely, 40 percent, or less likely, 49 percent.


Almost two-thirds said they expected a terrorist attack on a major U.S. city, building or national landmark in the next year. But only 15 percent said they thought such an attack was very likely. In a different poll in May, almost half said a terrorist attack was very likely in the near future.





"I'm not expecting anything as bad as 9-11," said Indiana college student Deanna Moon. But she expected this country would be attacked by people loyal to Saddam and bin Laden: "There's going to be something here and there because their followers are so nutty."

The AP-Ipsos poll of 1,001 adults was taken Monday through Wednesday and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, slightly larger for subgroups such as registered voters.

___

On the Net:

Ipsos Web site: http://www.ipsos.com


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031219/ap_on_re_us/ap_poll_iraq_3

 

[DKSuddeth]

tho jobless claims are dropping, i'm one of them. I'm not happy about it though and I have a feeling that many others will be like me. Yes, I have a new job now but I'm making 2/3rds what I was at my last job and I'm doing more.

yea, stock market is up, jobless claims are down, but how many are making less money than before?

 

[lilcountriegal]

Bush go home in 2004!

He will. Right to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

 

[lilcountriegal]

Yes, I have a new job now but I'm making 2/3rds

Congratulations on the new job DK.

 

[DKSuddeth]

Thank you countrygal, and heres something that could further destabilize the political environment

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17412

White-Collar Anger

By Kevin Danaher and Jason Mark, AlterNet
December 18, 2003

Pete Bennett is fed up, and he's not going to take it anymore.


"People are tired and angry and upset," says the 47-year-old unemployed worker from Danville, California, frustration noticeable in his voice. "People are hurting, losing their homes. If we keep pulling jobs out of the country, how is the economy going to stay up?"


Coming from an autoworker or a steelworker, these would be familiar words. But Bennett isn't a laid off Ford or GM employee. He used to work for companies such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo, where, as a contract database programmer, he earned between $80,000 and $90,000 a year. But in the last year, he says, he hasn't been able to find any programming work – such jobs, he is told, are moving overseas.


Bennett is not alone. In recent years, hundreds of thousands of highly skilled, well-paid positions have been sent abroad.


These days architects in the Philippines are producing blueprints for Fluor; electronic engineers in India are designing cell phone chips for Texas Instruments; and computer programmers in the Czech Republic are building software for Kodak. The stream of job loss is set to become a torrent; a November 2002 study by the consulting firm Forrester Research estimated that over the next 15 years some 3.3 million US service sector jobs would be sent abroad. A more recent report by economists at UC Berkeley says as many as 14 million programming, accounting, paralegal and other service jobs are at risk of being "off-shored."


The off-shoring of service jobs is déjà vu all over again. In the 1970s, U.S. corporations started shipping manufacturing jobs to low-wage countries such as Mexico, China and Indonesia in an effort to cut labor costs. Now, that same drive to reduce labor costs is hitting more highly skilled workers as service jobs go to well-educated workers in New Delhi and Prague and Singapore. As skilled workers are painfully starting to learn, the logic of cost cutting doesn't distinguish between blue collar and white collar.


While the economics of sending manufacturing jobs and service positions abroad may be the same, the political consequences promise to be different. In American politics it's one thing to attack the working class, but quite another to undermine the middle class, which votes in higher percentages. As any political consultant will tell you, as the middle class goes, so goes the nation. By cutting white collar positions, American businesses are sowing the seeds of a populist backlash that could redraw the political map.


One political topic that is bound to be influenced by the off-shoring of service jobs is the hot-button issue of trade policy. Surveys by the Pew Center show that support for free trade policies splits sharply along income lines. Among families earning more than $75,000 a year, 63 percent of people see globalization as positive; among families earning less than $50,000 a year, support drops to 37 percent.


In effect, better paid workers have supported free trade policies so long as they aren't impacted by them. But now many of those people are suffering the same cold fate that manufacturing workers have grappled with for decades. As more and more skilled jobs go abroad, supporters of free trade are almost certain to reassess whether corporate globalization is in their best interests.


The loss of high skilled jobs could also have a significant impact on next year's presidential election. Voters' job anxiety is shaping up as the number one election issue, with President Bush struggling against the loss of more than 2 million jobs on his watch and a so far "jobless economic recovery."


Off-shoring skilled positions is only going to make the anemic job market worse: According to the industry consulting firm Gartner Inc., one in 10 U.S. technology jobs will move overseas by the end of 2004. The disappearance of those good-paying jobs gives Democrats a chance to reach out to more affluent voters whose natural sympathies may lie with Republicans – but whose anger could translate into Democratic gains.


Winning elections is in large measure about managing expectations – and it's the newly unemployed skilled workers whose expectations are being downsized furthest. As Pete Bennett puts it: "These people have never experienced this before. ... What are we going to replace these jobs with? Flipping burgers?"


The long-term political effects of the off-shoring of skilled jobs promise to be larger than one single issue or one election. The export of skilled jobs could very likely cause an anti-corporate backlash that will reverse the decades-long drive toward deregulation and the weakening of organized labor.


During the heady days of the late 1990s, America's high tech class by and large supported the push for deregulation and laissez-faire economics. Now, the software designers and tech engineers who didn't think the government needed to play a role in overseeing the economy are the victims of uncontrolled economic forces. The once comfortable are becoming the insecure. The shift from being a winner to a loser is bound to prompt some serious rethinking about whether corporations should be given free rein to do whatever they like.


The first signs of this are already evident. Newly vulnerable high tech workers – traditionally not big union supporters – are starting to listen to the entreaties of organized labor. The Communication Workers of America says it is seeing increasing enthusiasm for unionization among off-shored high tech workers. Calls are also increasing for government regulation to staunch the hemorrhage of jobs. In response, state and federal legislators are considering laws to keep service jobs in the United States. The laissez-faire mentality of the 1990s is being replaced by demands that government act to restrain corporations' basic instincts. The political pendulum between dislike of big government and dislike of big business is swinging in a new direction.


Those businesses shipping high skilled jobs overseas should beware: Short-term profits may come at the cost of future political peril.

 

[jon_forward]

congrats DK!!! maybe it wont take long for you to get back to the level you were at.

 

[5stringJeff]

DK, congrats!

As to where else to get hired... try Uncle Sam, he's always hiring!!!

http://www.usajobs.com/

 

[DKSuddeth]

thanks guys, as to the usajobs thing.....I don't know whether to be angry or embarassed but I tried to apply for the TSA as an airport screener and was turned down. I didn't 'qualify'.

I wonder if that had to do with all the 'political' type questions in their screening.

 

[jimnyc]

Don't feel to bad, DK, I was turned down for a part time job at Staples! They looked at my resume and immediately shot me down. Your either overqualified or underqualified. Then when you do find a job that is a match, you find out it's paying much lower than industry standard.

 

[DKSuddeth]

my issue with the airport screener test was mainly the first section.

Its all true/false questions and the questions are to determine whether you believe its true or false about you.

An example of one question is 'Do you think your political leaders know what they are doing. T/F

About 1/3 of the 374 questions seemed to be based on your political ideals. something seems wrong with that.