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19486 [lbo-talk] NYC TA's last-minute pension grab -- rank: 1000

New York Times - December 21, 2005 In Final Hours, M.T.A. Took a Big Risk on Pensions By STEVEN GREENHOUSE On the final day of intense negotiations, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, it turns out, greatly altered what it had called its final offer, to address many of the objections of the transit workers' union. The authority improved its earlier wage proposals, dropped its demand for concessions on health benefits and stopped calling for an increase in the retirement age, to 62 from 55 ...

Document Size:	11626
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Dec 20 21:30:46 PST 2005

19487 [lbo-talk] all aboard for heaven -- rank: 1000

B. wrote: >Sean, > >http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/archives/001085.html > >It was a post on this list in 2002, I think. Bradford >Delong has it archived at his blog above. > >-B. > > >Sean Johnson Andrews asked: > >"Any chance you have a citation or link to that poll? >It just sounds too good to be true (hence I'll need >proof when I use it.)" Yikes, BdL cites me citing Sam Smith citing Brooks. So even I contributed to this bi ...

Document Size:	5375
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Dec 20 21:23:19 PST 2005

19488 [lbo-talk] all aboard for heaven -- rank: 1000

B. wrote: >This reminds of the 2002 Time-CNN poll wherein 19% of >respondents claimed they were the top 1% of income >earners and another 20% thought they'd get tot hat 1% >sooner or later. Not exactly. David Brooks reported it that way, and it got widely recirculated, but in fact the question was about whether people thought they'd benefit from Bush's tax cuts. Since most of the benefits of the tax cuts went to the top 1% or so, Brooks apparently conflated the issues. But the questi ...

Document Size:	5143
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Dec 20 21:21:01 PST 2005

19489 [lbo-talk] Re: Chip Berlet on Hustler -- rank: 1000

Kevin Robert Dean wrote: >Carrol Cox wrote: > >> >> >>Gar could not conceivably write this (placing the burden of proof on >>Chip) except for the fact that pro-pornography has long been established >>as THE PARTY LINE, THE ACCEPTED DOGMA on the left, and anyone who even >>remotely questions that dogma is immeidately ganged up on. >> >>Carrol > > >And I always though Carrol was the first one to pop in on comments >like this saying ...

Document Size:	5554
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Dec 20 21:13:27 PST 2005

19490 [lbo-talk] Goldman on NYC transit strike -- rank: 1000

DAILY FINANCIAL MARKET COMMENT 12/20/05 Goldman Sachs Economics * The New York City transit strike is not likely to have a noticeable effect on near-term economic activity -- certainly not for the national economy and quite probably not for the local economy either. We base this conclusion on judgments that (1) the strike is not apt to last long, (2) widely circulated estimates of its per-day effect include items that are not lost output, (3) offsets are inevitable, and (4) the strike spawns act ...

Document Size:	10709
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Dec 20 21:09:54 PST 2005

19491 [lbo-talk] NY Transit strike or solidarity in the US and the UK -- rank: 1000

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: >I am monitoring reader's reactions to the NY transit strike on the BBC. Watching the vox pop on NY1 - the New York City news channel on Time Warner cable systems - I've been surprised at the sympathy to the strikers. There was one woman tonight going on about how they should be fired like Reagan did with PATCO, but there were three or four pro-strike remarks in the same segment. Doug

Document Size:	5213
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Dec 20 21:03:52 PST 2005

19492 [lbo-talk] all aboard for heaven -- rank: 1000

Chuck wrote: >Those fancy university scientists say that there is all this "dark >matter" in the universe. Curiously, a couple of economists are now arguing that there's "dark matter" in the international accounts that saves the US from being a huge net debtor. It's lunacy. Original at <http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/cid/cidpublications/hausmann_darkmatter_0512.htm>. Pop version follows. Doug ==== Financial TImes - December 8, 2005 'Dark matter' makes the US deficit d ...

Document Size:	9928
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Dec 20 09:29:26 PST 2005

19493 [lbo-talk] Re: Chip Berlet on Hustler -- rank: 1000

Carrol Cox wrote: >The party line of the left is pro-porn. Now the party line may be >correct in this case. It often is. But let's not deceive ourselves over >the overwhelmingly pro-sex/pro-porn consensus on the left for at least >40 years. Man, you really are out of touch out there in the cornfields. There's no party line. It's quite controversial. Where do you get these ideas? Doug

Document Size:	4966
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Dec 20 09:23:15 PST 2005

19494 [lbo-talk] Bush summoned Times bigwigs to Oval Office -- rank: 1000

<http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10536559/site/newsweek/> Bush's Snoopgate The president was so desperate to kill The New York Times' eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper's editor and publisher to the Oval Office. But it wasn't just out of concern about national security. WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY By Jonathan Alter Newsweek Updated: 6:17 p.m. ET Dec. 19, 2005 Dec. 19, 2005 - Finally we have a Washington scandal that goes beyond sex, corruption and political intrigue to big issues like securit ...

Document Size:	9212
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Dec 20 09:18:55 PST 2005

19495 [lbo-talk] NYT had wiretap story before election -- rank: 1000

Los Angeles Times - THE NATION Critics Question Timing of Surveillance Story The New York Times, which knew about the secret wiretaps for more than a year, published because of a reporter's new book, sources say. By James Rainey, Times Staff Writer The New York Times first debated publishing a story about secret eavesdropping on Americans as early as last fall, before the 2004 presidential election. But the newspaper held the story for more than a year and only revealed the secret wiretaps last ...

Document Size:	11787
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Dec 20 09:14:33 PST 2005

19496 [lbo-talk] poverty draft -- rank: 1000

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: >I fundamentally disagree. The most convincing ideologies are those claiming >a better design for the future or for more people or both, not the ones >trying to settle the past scores for some minority or special interest >groups. The latter sounds like vindictive whining or being a sore loser. Yeah, isn't it better to have a "we can do better than this" message than a "the evil rulers are screwing you" message? It's not always easy to g ...

Document Size:	5143
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Dec 20 09:09:27 PST 2005

19497 [lbo-talk] read "harmless" Mao, get visited by federal agents -- rank: 1000

[via Sam Smith's Progressive Review <http://prorev.com>] HOMELAND SECURITY AGENTS VISIT STUDENT WHO TOOK MAO'S BOOK FROM LIBRARY AARON NICODEMUS, STANDARD-TIMES - A senior at U Mass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book." Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the U Mass ...

Document Size:	7137
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Dec 17 15:12:02 PST 2005

19498 [lbo-talk] Hustling the Left -- rank: 1000

Carrol Cox wrote: >Also, at least on this list, there is an obsessive and probably >unhealthy concern with reaching the followers of Falwell & David Duke >rather than with reaching the 10s of millions who already agree with us >on the war, on anti-racism, on women's liberation and other key issues. And all those people in between, or with contradictory attitudes, or un- or malformed opinions - just forget about 'em? Doug

Document Size:	4915
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Dec 17 14:02:23 PST 2005

19499 [lbo-talk] Horror Stories -- rank: 1000

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: >With the exception of >Max Sawicky, nobody on this list even met me >face-to-face I saw you at a Progressive Sociologists' party at an ASA convention about 8 years ago. Didn't say hi, though. Doug

Document Size:	4670
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Dec 17 14:08:16 PST 2005

19500 [lbo-talk] NYT sat on wiretapping story for a year -- rank: 1000

[looks like the Post is having fun with a competitor, esp after the Woodward stuff] Washington Post - December 17, 2005 At the Times, a Scoop Deferred By Paul Farhi Washington Post Staff Writer The New York Times' revelation yesterday that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to conduct domestic eavesdropping raised eyebrows in political and media circles, for both its stunning disclosures and the circumstances of its publication. In an unusual note, the Times said in its story ...

Document Size:	9726
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Dec 17 15:17:31 PST 2005