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23821 [lbo-talk] Why I Won't Be Voting for Ralph Nader. . . -- rank: 1000

Jim Westrich wrote: >. . . because he is NOT going to be on the ballot. > >He probably failed to meet the relatively easy threshold of getting 10,000 >signatures in MASSACHUSETTS! Nader's campaign said they collected 14,000 >signatures but the Secretary of State has only received 5,700 3 days after the >deadline. > >http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/08/06/nader_effort_to_gain_mass_ballot_access_is_in_doubt/ > >This goes to a huge problem. A lot of peo ...

Document Size:	5650
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Aug 6 11:47:17 PDT 2004

23822 [lbo-talk] employment -- rank: 1000

Nathan Newman wrote: >Look, I don't want to play a layman on these issues, since I'm not, but >most people sort of expect when they hear "90,000 jobs were created last >month" that this means that the Commerce Department Bureau of Labor Statistics, actually. > went out and found that >many new jobs, period. All adjustments add to the uncertainty that the >numbers reported reflect reality rather than problems in the statistical >adjustments. > >Of course, th ...

Document Size:	6995
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Aug 6 11:44:42 PDT 2004

23823 [lbo-talk] O'Reilly & Krugman -- rank: 1000

Washington Post - August 6, 2004 On ABC, CBS and Fox, a Whole Lotta Cross-Pollination Going On By Lisa de Moraes [...] We think Tim Russert has found a surefire way to get more viewers for his weekend CNBC show. Book Bill O'Reilly as a guest with fill-in-the-blank from the New York Times. Fox News Channel's chief talking head was invited to "chat" with Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist and author of "The Great Unraveling," after one of the "Tim Russert Show" pr ...

Document Size:	6650
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Aug 6 09:27:41 PDT 2004

23824 [lbo-talk] employment -- rank: 1000

Nathan Newman wrote: >I'm not sure it's attributing "evil motives" for Crudele to think these >particular adjustments for firm startups/deaths are inaccurate. > >He's made his criticism, noted that the job creation numbers last July were >unusually low because of these adjustments, then confidently predicted that >the job numbers today would be significantly below estimates by other >economists. So did I. The BLS put out a research note this morning that in part co ...

Document Size:	9696
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Aug 6 08:38:48 PDT 2004

23825 [lbo-talk] employment -- rank: 1000

Dwayne Monroe wrote: >Heard a rosy interpretation of the disappointing >employment report on the radio this morning. Some >fellow (from an investment house or similar outfit as >I recall) said this meant the "red hot growth" of >recent months was easing into a "healthier", >steady-state rate of expansion. Oops. Nope, nothing healthy about it. The numbers are crappy. We need stronger job growth to sustain the expansion, and 32k ain't it. Doug

Document Size:	4912
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Aug 6 07:09:48 PDT 2004

23826 [lbo-talk] employment -- rank: 1000

Dwayne Monroe wrote: >Heard a rosy interpretation of the disappointing >employment report on the radio this morning. Some >fellow (from an investment house or similar outfit as >I recall) said this meant the "red hot growth" of >recent months was easing into a "healthier", >steady-state rate of expansion.

Document Size:	4768
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Aug 6 07:09:18 PDT 2004

23827 [lbo-talk] employment -- rank: 1000

Nathan Newman wrote: >Although I've been impressed with John Crudele, at the New York Post, who >for over a year has been analyzing the jobs reports as having more to do >with statistical games than real job booms or busts. He argued that the >boom in jobs in the Spring was based on "mirage" jobs assumed to exist (ie. >not actually found in surveys) because of seasonal adjustments, then >yesterday correctly predicted today's terrible jobs numbers because the BLS > ...

Document Size:	5383
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Aug 6 07:08:57 PDT 2004

23828 [lbo-talk] employment -- rank: 1000

Really weak employment report this morning - just 32,000 new jobs, way way below both recent trend and expectations - and earlier months were revised down. U.S. economy really seems to be slowing down....

Document Size:	4617
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Aug 6 06:22:06 PDT 2004

23829 [lbo-talk] Progressive taxation vs flat tax -- rank: 1000

Bill Bartlett wrote: >Yes, I'm serious. You say the merchant remits the sales tax to the >government. How can you interpret this as other than the merchant >paying sales tax? Because I paid the fucking merchant! I pay retail plus tax, the merchant pays wholesale, overhead, and tax, and keeps a profit. Is the merchant the origin of the wholesaler's revenue, or is s/he just an intermediary for me? Doug

Document Size:	5025
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 5 21:12:49 PDT 2004

23830 [lbo-talk] MIM parses the distinctions -- rank: 1000

snit snat wrote: >At 07:25 PM 8/5/2004, Doug Henwood wrote: >>[I think this is for real, but you never know. Thanks to Michael >>Pug (of course) for pointing it out.] >> >><http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/wim/cong/languagetheory2004.html> > > >that is just flat out scary! MIM's like eight people in Ann Arbor, no? The funnest thing to hit that town since the Stooges. Alums include a NYT reporter, who must remain nameless. Doug

Document Size:	5171
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 5 17:36:00 PDT 2004

23831 [lbo-talk] new radio product -- rank: 1000

[Tariq's position on Bush's defeat will annoy some, but it's splendid stuff - he gives some of the best radio around.] Just added to my radio archive <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html>: August 5, 2004 Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of Gallup and author of Polling Matters, on the public opinion trade and the 2004 election polls * Tariq Ali, author most recently of Bush in Babylon, on the importance to the whole world of defeating Bush, and the maddening wrongness of the " ...

Document Size:	8256
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 5 17:33:08 PDT 2004

23832 [lbo-talk] Progressive taxation vs flat tax -- rank: 1000

Bill Bartlett wrote: >That is a fiction. Do the retail buyers forward a percentage of the >purchase price to the tax office? If not, they aren't paying tax. >The person who actually pays the tax pays the tax. You serious? On most purchases I make in NYC, 8.25% is added to the price, which the merchant subsequently remits to the tax collector. There's a debate about who pays corporate taxes or VATs - probably a mix of capital and labor. The most reactionary states in the U.S. rely heavil ...

Document Size:	5335
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 5 17:12:30 PDT 2004

23833 [lbo-talk] MIM parses the distinctions -- rank: 1000

[I think this is for real, but you never know. Thanks to Michael Pug (of course) for pointing it out.] <http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/wim/cong/languagetheory2004.html> Maoist Internationalist Movement Resolutions on Writing in Context Over more than a decade there has been whining in the party on writing in context, because the rules of writing are not simple or even stated as if they could be for all contexts. Past oversimplified proposals included only using the term "settler&qu ...

Document Size:	18200
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 5 16:25:42 PDT 2004

23834 [lbo-talk] Bush "looking for new ways to harm our country" -- rank: 1000

<http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=2137613> Bush says administration seeking "new ways to harm our country" Aug 5, 2004 Associated Press WHITE HOUSE It's another entry in the long catalog of Bushisms. Signing a defense spending bill, President Bush declared America's terrorist enemies "never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people" -- then he added, "And neither do we." The president went on to make his larger point -- that America ...

Document Size:	5770
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 5 16:09:36 PDT 2004

23835 [lbo-talk] Liberal yuppies go ballistic over Nader petition -- rank: 1000

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: >The question is whether those who promise to protest against John >Kerry after he gets elected will be campaigning for a candidate to >the left of the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates in >2008 or they will be resurrecting the arguments against Nader/Camejo >2004 in 2008. If the former, they may be called Anybody But Bush >campaigners, and their support for the Democratic Party is limited >to this election year; if the latter, they a ...

Document Size:	6264
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 5 16:02:14 PDT 2004