USA Election 2004

by Simon 242 Replies latest social current

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  Phantom Stranger

  9/11 Victims' Kin Angered by Bush Ads

  By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer

  WASHINGTON - Relatives of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and a firefighters union said Thursday they're angry that President Bush's new campaign ads include images of the destroyed World Trade Center and firefighters carrying a flag-draped stretcher through the rubble.

  They say the ads are in poor taste and accuse Bush of exploiting the attacks. Bush's campaign defended the commercials as appropriate for an election about public policy and the war on terror, saying they were a tasteful reminder of what the country has been through the last three years. The campaign had said in the past that it would not use the attacks for political gain.

  "It makes me sick," Colleen Kelly, who lost her brother Bill Kelly Jr., in the attacks and leads a victims families group called Peaceful Tomorrows, said Thursday. "Would you ever go to someone's grave site and use that as an instrument of politics? That truly is what Ground Zero represents to me."

  "September 11th was not just a distant tragedy. It's a defining event for the future of our country," Karen Hughes, a Bush campaign adviser, told "The Early Show" on CBS on Thursday. "Obviously, all of us mourn and grieve for the victims of that terrible day, but September 11 fundamentally changed our public policy in many important ways, and I think it's vital that the next president recognize that."

  The first ads started running Thursday on broadcast channels in about 80 markets in 18 states, most of which are expected to be critical to the election, and nationwide on select cable networks. The ads do not mention Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, focusing instead on improving Bush's image after criticism by Democrats in recent months. Bush is expected to spend a large part of his $100 million war chest on ads.

  One of the ads shows the charred wreckage of the twin towers with a flag flying amid the debris. Another ad ? and a Spanish-language version of it ? use that image as well alongside firefighters carrying a flag-draped stretcher through the rubble as sirens are heard. Firefighters are shown in all the ads.

  Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, on Thursday called the ads disgraceful and said they should be pulled.

  "We're not going to stand for him to put his arm around one of our members on top of a pile of rubble at Ground Zero during a tragedy and then stand by and watch him cut money for first responders," Schaitberger said. He said his union is politically independent even though it endorsed Kerry and has donated money to Republicans.

  Barbara Minervino, a Republican from Middletown, N.J., who lost her husband, Louis, in the attacks, questioned whether Bush was "capitalizing on the event."

  David Potorti, an independent from Cary, N.C., whose brother Jim died in the north tower, called the campaign's use of the images audacious.

  "It's an insult to use the place where my brother died in an ad," Potorti said. "I would be just as outraged if any politician did this."

  Until Bush cooperates with the federal commission that is investigating the nation's preparedness before the attacks and its response "by testifying in public under oath ... he should not be using 9/11 as political propaganda," said Kristen Breitweiser, of Middletown Township, N.J., whose husband, Ronald Breitweiser, 39, died in the World Trade Center.

  "Three thousand people were murdered on President Bush's watch," Breitweiser said. "He has not cooperated with the investigation to find out why that happened."
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  Badger

  If Bush uses those images, Kerry can too and claim Bush failed the country in the attacks. Only fair.
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  Phantom Stranger

  As President Bush's $10.5 million campaign ad blitz begins today, Public Citizen released a report outlining who helped pay for the campaign ads and what favors they have received during his presidency.

  In the report, Bush Campaign Ads . . . Brought to You by Special Interests, Public Citizen details how much money representatives from key industries - including finance, real estate, communications, energy, health care, and insurance - have helped raise and lists the tax breaks, regulatory changes, legislative favors and plum appointments Bush has given his backers. Many of the beneficiaries of his policies are Rangers and Pioneers, terms Bush gives donors who bundle contributions that total at least $200,000 and $100,000 respectively.

  The ads will run on cable networks and will target voters in 17 battleground states. Bush had spent at least $41 million of his campaign money by the end of January; his war chest holds another $110 million. He is expected to raise another $50 million before September's nominating convention and accept $75 million in public financing for the two months before Election Day.

  Public Citizen's report finds that the 416 Bush Rangers and Pioneers have bundled together at least $58.1 million for the 2004 campaign and that 90 percent of them (374) represent the special interests of America's corporations.

  The report details how Bush has given tax breaks that benefit the finance industry, made it easier for real estate developers to build on wetlands and in the Florida Everglades, reneged on a campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide emissions (pleasing the electric utility and mining industries), increased the amount of public land available for oil and gas exploration and coal mining, filled top Interior Department positions with executives from the mining industry, and aided the pharmaceutical industry by pushing pro-industry Medicare drug legislation.Among the industries highlighted in the report are:
  

  • The financial industry. Bankers, stockbrokers, venture capitalists and wealthy private investors have contributed at least $38.4 million to Bush's campaign efforts in 2000 and 2004 and produced more Rangers and Pioneers than any other industry - 73 who have bundled at least $10.8 million this cycle. Bush's tax cut dramatically reduced the "double taxation" of dividends, the securities industry's No. 1 priority. His other major tax cuts benefited the securities industry and its CEOs, who personally will save hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in taxes a year. Social Security privatization, likely to be a top Bush priority in a second term, would shift trillions of dollars of retirement savings to private sector investment accounts.
  • Real estate developers. The real estate industry has donated $32.2 million to Bush campaign efforts in 2000 and 2004, and 37 real estate developers have qualified as Rangers or Pioneers in 2004, bundling at least $5.4 million. The Bush administration has made it easier for developers to build on wetlands, has attempted to narrow the Clean Water Act so that it no longer covers many ponds, streams and wetlands, and has appointed crusading opponents of the Endangered Species Act to key positions at the Interior Department.
  • Electric utilities. The electric utility industry has donated nearly $6 million to Bush campaign efforts in 2000 and 2004. In return, in 2000 three industry Pioneers got slots on the transition team at the U.S. Department of Energy. The administration also rewrote a key Clean Air Act rule to effectively neutralize existing government lawsuits against energy companies and prevent future challenges. Bush launched a "Clear Skies" initiative that would dramatically delay emissions reductions and do nothing to contend with carbon dioxide, and has proposed mercury regulations indistinguishable from industry proposals.
  • Oil and gas. Oil and gas companies gave $15.8 million to Bush campaign efforts in 2000 and 2004. Bush has opened federal land for oil and gas exploration and coal mining, targeted Wyoming's Powder River Basin for coalbed methane drilling, and required federal agencies to consider how agency rules will affect energy supply, distribution and use.
  • Mining companies. The mining industry has contributed at least $3.1 million to Bush campaign efforts in the 2000 and 2004 cycles. Mining executives have been appointed to top posts in the Interior Department, and Bush's Environmental Protection Agency has permitted mountaintop removal for coal mining, is trying to lift a Reagan-era regulation that banned mining within 100 feet of a stream and increased the amount of public land available for mining company waste dumping.

  Get the report here. Text from here.
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  Phantom Stranger

  Thank God for government spending...wait...I thought Big Government was bad? Job Growth Weak With 21,000 Feb. Hires

  WASHINGTON - The nation's payrolls grew by just 21,000 in February and left the unemployment rate stuck at 5.6 percent, just as President Bush revved up a re-election campaign that is counting heavily on a revived economy.

  AP Photo

  The frustrating news for out-of-work Americans, contained in a jobs snapshot released Friday by the Labor Department, showed a continuation of the slow employment growth the country has been enduring. The net gain in "nonfarm" payrolls ? government and private employers ? fell well short of the 125,000 jobs that economists had been forecasting.

  The little growth there was came from the government. (Oh, the conservatives have to love that!) Private-sector employment was flat.

  "This remains a jobless recovery, pure and simple," said David Rosenberg, chief economist at Merrill Lynch. "Meaningful job creation remains alarmingly elusive."

  The report also showed that job creation in December and January was weaker than previously thought. Total payrolls in December grew by just 8,000 and were up by 97,000 in January, according to revised figures.

  The overall seasonally adjusted civilian unemployment rate stayed at 5.6 percent in February as 392,000 people left the civilian work force for any number of reasons.

  The health of the nation's economy, especially the job climate, is a major issue in this year's presidential race.

  The economy has lost 2.2 million jobs since Bush took office in January 2001.

  There were some 8.2 million people unemployed in February, with the average duration of 20.3 weeks without work. That marked the highest average duration of joblessness in over 20 years.

  In February, manufacturers lost jobs for the 43rd month in a row. Factories cut 3,000 positions last month, but that marked a slower pace than the 13,000 cut in January.

  Construction companies lost 24,000 jobs in February as bad winter weather in some parts of the country delayed projects. Leisure and hospitality firms cut 9,000 jobs in February.

  Retailers, however, added 13,000 positions in February. Temporary help firms added 32,000 and education and health-care services gained 13,000 jobs last month.

  After adding up the job gains and losses, private employment was unchanged in February from January.

  The government, meanwhile, added 21,000 positions last month.

  Analysts want to see the economy generate around 200,000 or 300,000 net jobs a month on a consistent basis before they declare a recovery in the fragile labor market.

  Excerpted from http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=668&u=/ap/20040305/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy&printer=1
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  Phantom Stranger

  The tax cuts and other policies President Bush proposed in his 2005 $2.4 trillion budget would probably have a minimal impact on the economy, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Monday. "... the differences are likely to be small, affecting output by less than one-half of one percentage point on average," the study said.

  A year ago, the Congressional Budget Office examined Bush's 2004 budget and concluded that its impact was "not obvious."

  http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&e=3&u=/ap/20040308/ap_on_go_co/tax_cuts_deficit
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  Phantom Stranger

  (CNN) -- Presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry leads President Bush in the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, although the race appears to be fluid and remains close.

  The poll, released Monday, found that among likely voters, Kerry was the choice of 52 percent and Bush 44 percent in a two-way matchup, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

  In a three-way race with Independent candidate Ralph Nader, Kerry had 50 percent, Bush 44 percent and Nader 2 percent.

  Among registered voters, Kerry's lead over Bush narrowed from 8 percentage points to 5 points in a two-way race and from 6 points to 2 points in a three-way race.

  That is because Democratic voters are indicating they are more likely to vote than the overall electorate -- something that has rarely happened in past elections and may be fueled by the interest in the recent Democratic primaries.

  The president's job approval rating in the poll was 49 percent, with 48 percent saying they disapproved of his performance.

  That is a slight dip from February, when Bush's approval numbers were in the low 50s. The 50 percent threshold is considered important for an incumbent seeking re-election.

  Despite Kerry's lead and Bush's approval numbers, 52 percent of those polled thought Bush will win in November, compared to 42 percent who thought Kerry will prevail.

  The president also held leads over Kerry when potential voters were asked who would do a better job handling terrorism, Iraq and world affairs.

  Asked which candidate was more likely to change his mind for political reasons, 49 percent said Kerry and only 37 percent said Bush.

  But Kerry held leads over Bush when voters were asked who would better handle health care, the budget deficit, Social Security and the economy.

  And a bare majority of voters -- 51 percent -- said the economy was more important to their vote than terrorism. Forty-two percent said terrorism.

  An equal slice of voters -- 57 percent -- each said they thought Kerry and Bush have the personality and leadership qualities a president should have.
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  Phantom Stranger

  In America, if you don't have a job, it sucks to be you.

  Americans Drop Out of Labor Force, Posing Risks for Bush, Fed (excerpts from http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aEUT7DAoLUZ8&refer=us)

  March 8 (Bloomberg) -- Anthony Whitmore lost his job as a die press operator at Midland Steel Products in Cleveland 10 months ago and holds little hope of finding work. In Chester, Pennsylvania, Chris Rabzak, a former aerospace engineer with a law degree, is stretching out his master's program in business administration rather than jumping into the labor market.

  ``Every month some economist comes out and says that next month or next year things will get better -- I don't believe them anymore,'' said Rabzak, 36. ``In this economy, I'm not optimistic about finding a job,'' said Whitmore, 40. Rabzak and Whitmore are among the 1.6 million Americans who have dropped out of U.S. workforce in the past year. The percentage of those working or looking for jobs has skidded for four years and fell in February to 65.9 percent, a 16-year low, the Labor Department said Friday in Washington. Last month, 588,000 people left the labor force as the economy created just 21,000 jobs, a sixth of the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 65 economists.

  Job growth averaged just 60,000 a month since September, and the U.S. has shed 2.3 million positions since Bush became president in January 2001, according to Labor Department statistics. To keep up with population growth, the U.S. needs to create 150,000 jobs a month, according to Fed estimates.

  After growing at a 6.1 percent annual rate in the second half last year -- the fastest six months since 1984 -- the world's largest economy may expand 4.6 percent this year, based on the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey last month. ``If we get 4 percent growth this year and the participation rate is declining, it means we are far below potential,'' said James Glassman, senior economist at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in New York, in an interview Friday.

  The situation is ``very astonishing,'' said Lyle E. Gramley, a former Fed governor and now a senior economic adviser with Schwab Soundview Capital Markets. ``Here it is, two-and-a-quarter years into the recovery, and we're still having trouble creating jobs. My confidence about when the job pickup is likely to begin is waning.''

  The U.S. added 21,000 jobs in February, just one sixth of the 130,000 media forecast of economists polled by Bloomberg News, the Labor Department reported Friday. The results fall short of what would be needed to raise this year's average nonfarm payroll by 2.6 million jobs to the 132.7 million level predicted by the White House last month. Bush and his advisers have since declined to back that target.

  The exodus of workers from the labor force may mean the nation's unemployment rate of 5.6 percent in the past two months looks better than it really is. Returning discouraged workers to the labor market and adjusting the participation rate back to the long-term trend would increase the unemployment rate last month to 7.1 percent, said Ian Morris, chief U.S. economist at HSBC Securities USA Inc. in New York, in an interview Friday.

  ``The unemployment rate is really understating the lack of job availability,'' said Harry Holzer, a former chief economist at the Labor Department who is now a professor of public policy at Georgetown University in Washington, in an interview Friday. ``The drop in the participation rate is telling us that the labor market is weak.''
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  Badger

  PS:

  I'm on your side here, but just cutting and pasting the whole article is a peeve of mine.

  Try a link...like this:

  www.bartcop.com

  Trust me, you'll dig it.
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  Phantom Stranger

  Actually, I now typically post excerpts (such as the last). Used to post links - then one of a few posters would post one line out of context and no work was saved, as there would now be a debate about the validity of the out-of-context quote.

  I can edit the excerpts more... but I worry about the above.

  Don't worry... that feeling will pass soon. ;)
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  Phantom Stranger

  Who said this?

  After completing 20 planes for which we have begun procurement, we will shut down further production of the B-2 bomber. We will cancel the small ICBM program. We will cease production of new warheads for our sea-based ballistic missiles. We will stop all new production of the Peacekeeper [MX] missile. And we will not purchase any more advanced cruise missiles. ? The reductions I have approved will save us an additional $50 billion over the next five years. By 19xx we will have cut defense by 30 percent since I took office.