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12421 [lbo-talk] Bush: vacation champ -- rank: 1000

Houston Chronicle - August 9, 2007 <http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/mason/5042364.html> Bush on track to become the vacation president By JULIE MASON Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau President Bush tries to set an example for Americans whenever he can, in terms of physical fitness, faith, optimism and a certain overall moral rectitude. He also sets an excellent example on taking vacation. On Thursday, Bush left for a weekend in Kennebunkport, Maine, and ...

Document Size:	7936
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Aug 12 11:42:40 PDT 2007

12422 [lbo-talk] capitalism and collapse -- rank: 1000

On Aug 12, 2007, at 1:26 AM, Patrick Bond wrote: >> but in any case...yes it was about $7 trillion lost stock market >> value between 2000 and 2002 (from $17.8 trillion to $9.4 trillion, >> which brought nominal capitalization back to 1996 levels). And the >> consequences of that "crisis" were... > > Well my mum's pension was busted, and so were a few other million > folks'. > (Like you Doug, for years she's poohpoohed my chicken little squawk.) Agai ...

Document Size:	5292
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Aug 12 10:32:52 PDT 2007

12423 [lbo-talk] Housing Slump Takes a Toll on Illegal Immigrants (was Max's house) -- rank: 1000

On Aug 12, 2007, at 8:38 AM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: > That is because many construction workers were undocumented immigrants > who do not show up in statistics. There's something to this, but: 1) they were counted in the expansion (up 30% from 2001-2005, and now off only 4% from the peak), and 2) they show up in part in the survey of employers, who are simply asked how many jobs they have, not who fills them. Doug

Document Size:	5329
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Aug 12 06:09:16 PDT 2007

12424 [lbo-talk] Max's house (was capitalism and collapse) -- rank: 1000

On Aug 12, 2007, at 8:57 AM, bitch at pulpculture.org wrote: > Exactly. so, shouldn't the question be: as the real estate bubble > based > economy tanks, what kind of effect will it have on the employment > situation > of those in industries dependent on a booming real estate market? > Or, is > that so negligible it won't have any sort of domino effect? According to several Wall Street estimates, about half the growth in jobs and GDP through 2005 came from housing, directly ...

Document Size:	5775
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Aug 12 05:07:59 PDT 2007

12425 [lbo-talk] Capitalism and Collapse -- rank: 1000

On Aug 11, 2007, at 11:15 PM, abu hartal wrote: > "The consequences in the political and > cultural sphere approximated zero." > > > Nothing changed culturally or politically? Well perhaps not as a > result of the wiping out of fictititious capital. But we are > witnessing the complete transformation of criminal law including > the suspension of habeas corpus and the destruction of the > Westphalian order in name of anti-terrorism. For sure. But that had noth ...

Document Size:	5144
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Aug 11 20:37:30 PDT 2007

12426 [lbo-talk] Capitalism and Collapse -- rank: 1000

On Aug 11, 2007, at 7:48 AM, Patrick Bond wrote: > Doug, the 'reproduction of a system' was not really in doubt in > 1929-32, but > capitalist 'crisis' was not a bad description of those years, surely? > > Why not advance to the Robert Cox definition which - I'm nowhere > near my > copy of Production Power and World Order - if I recall is that a > 'crisis' > sets in when the system's natural self-corrective mechanisms no > longer work > to stabilise or equilibrat ...

Document Size:	6206
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Aug 11 19:17:41 PDT 2007

12427 [lbo-talk] Zionist insanity in NYC -- rank: 1000

<http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/10/under-fire-arabic- themed-school-principal-resigns/#comment-12076> August 10, 2007, 2:08 pm Under Fire, Arabic-Themed School s Principal Resigns By Julie Bosman Updated, 5:56 p.m. | The principal of a new Arabic-themed public school in Brooklyn resigned under pressure today, days after she was quoted defending the use of the word intifada as a T-shirt slogan. Debbie Almontaser, a veteran public school teacher, was hired to lead the Khalil ...

Document Size:	11670
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Aug 11 19:08:52 PDT 2007

12428 [lbo-talk] capitalism and collapse -- rank: 1000

On Aug 11, 2007, at 2:17 PM, Robert Wrubel wrote: > On a related issue, how can Bernanke talk about fear > of inflation as the reason the Fed wont lower interest > rates to restore liquidity? How could inflation be a > threat in this tottering financial moment? They're worried that the unemployment rate is too low ("high levels of resource utilization"). Doug

Document Size:	4929
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Aug 11 18:59:36 PDT 2007

12429 [lbo-talk] capitalism and collapse -- rank: 1000

On Aug 11, 2007, at 8:57 AM, James Heartfield wrote: > On Patrick's/Cox's definition of crisis as the moment when a major > intervention from outside the system is needed, I would have > thought on the > Marx-Lenin-Mattick definition, the system has been addicted to outside > interventions to sustain accumulation for more than a century. The > welfare-warfare state is just such an intervention. If the system has been reaching outside for a century maybe the definition of insid ...

Document Size:	5099
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Aug 11 18:58:18 PDT 2007

12430 [lbo-talk] climate change denial -- rank: 1000

> Doug asks > > "James, you've always struck me as a rational person ...So how is > it that you're so at odds with "mainstream science" ... on this one?" > > To which I have to reply, first, is that a rhetorical question, or > are you > really asking? Really asking. > Second, "mainstream science" is an oxymoron. Science is not faith; > not faith > in its findings (which are always provisional); nor faith in its > methods > (whi ...

Document Size:	9273
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Aug 10 15:56:46 PDT 2007

12431 [lbo-talk] Dem candidates weigh in on gay issues at special forum -- rank: 1000

On Aug 10, 2007, at 5:43 PM, B. wrote: > [Only 2 Dem candidates support gay marriage: Kucinich > ... and Gravel, yikes. -B.] Here's Hillary at her best, as reported in the NYT: "Asked what was at the heart of her opposition to same sex-marriage, Mrs. Clinton said, 'I prefer to think of it as being very positive about civil unions.'"

Document Size:	5121
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Aug 10 15:04:09 PDT 2007

12432 [lbo-talk] working at Prada -- rank: 1000

<http://jezebel.com/gossip/i-work-retail/the-devil-wears-prada- because-prada-is-hell-288327.php> I WORK RETAIL The Devil Wears Prada Because Prada Is Hell [Welcome to our second installment of "I Work Retail," in which we investigate the very peculiar torture of selling designer goods. The anonymous author, C, worked at the Soho Prada flagship store, the site of a five-alarm fire last year. She saw symbolism in that, and shared with us this cautionary tale.] In the literary ...

Document Size:	11816
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Aug 10 14:27:34 PDT 2007

12433 [lbo-talk] Capitalism and Collapse -- rank: 1000

On Aug 10, 2007, at 4:29 PM, Seth Ackerman wrote: > the vast majority of people in the US and Europe > still see 1945-1973 as a baseline. The median age of the U.S. workforce is approaching 40, meaning that for most people, 1973 is an early memory, and 1945 was not even a glint in the parental eye territory. Europe is even older. So if all these people are seeing the Golden Age as a baseline, it's not from personal memory. And, in any case, why should 28 exceptional years be seen as t ...

Document Size:	5231
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Aug 10 13:46:21 PDT 2007

12434 [lbo-talk] Big One postponed -- rank: 1000

__________________________________ MARKET ALERT from The Wall Street Journal. Aug. 10, 2007 U.S. stocks rebounded, stopping a global market swoon, after the Fed stepped in to provide liquidity. The Dow ended trading about 30 points lower, after earlier being down by more than 200. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118674492611394201.html?mod=djemalert __________________________________

Document Size:	4930
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Aug 10 13:26:51 PDT 2007

12435 [lbo-talk] climate change denial -- rank: 1000

On Aug 10, 2007, at 11:01 AM, James Heartfield wrote: > "Ok James, you've given up on rational argument and you're just making > tendentious lists instead? The faith must be wavering...." > > I didn't make the list, it is in the posted Newsweek article. Sorry to > disturb your faith. James, you've always struck me as a rational person - unlike Alex Cockburn, who has an aristocrat's distrust of science as being too complicated and wonky, especially now that he's become ...

Document Size:	5404
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Aug 10 13:05:14 PDT 2007