I mentioned the Daily
Howler recently as a site that prods the Media. Another is Alpert’s
Truth (disclaimer — or ad, you choose — I host Arthur Alpert’s blog).
Here’s a site that offers itself as a resource to
journalists: Poynter Online – Columns (thanks to j f l e c k). Bloggers don’t have to be journalists. However, all of
us should have an interest in the Media — it is a vital part of our democracy. mjh
Lying To Win
Capitol Hill Blue: Dems: Bush Bounce Will Fade
Bush told a
rally in Parkersburg, W.Va., “This Labor Day weekend, it is important for American workers to know that my opponent wants to tax your
jobs.”
Kerry has said he would restore taxes to pre-Bush levels only for people earning more than $200,000, and would cut them for
middle- and low-income earners.
Note that Duhbya is warning ALL workers, not just those over $200K. He was simply LYING TO
WIN.
As a little sidenote, searching news.google.com reveals many copies of this AP article all across the country. The vast majority
have as a headline: “Democrats claim Bush’s bounce will fade.” Our compulsively fair abqjournal says “Campaigns Have Work To Do This
Labor Day.” No arguing with that. mjh
Here’s an article that hasn’t made it to abqjournal so far: ‘Taxes are going up next year no matter who wins’
‘Taxes are going up next year no matter who wins’
President will face strong pressure for increase to pay for economic agenda By Tom Raum, Associated Press
NEW YORK — At their national convention, Republicans were long on rhetoric and short on specifics on how to pay for an economic agenda in a second Bush administration.
One reason is that President Bush could end up having to back a tax increase, just as his father did.
But nobody wanted to spoil the Madison Square Garden party by mentioning such unpleasantries. After all, Republicans are insisting that Democrat John Kerry is the candidate who will increase taxes. …
“Taxes are going up next year no matter who wins the presidency in November,” concluded conservative economist Bruce Bartlett, who advised both Ronald Reagan and the first President Bush.
“It’s out of the hands of politicians,” Bartlett said.
The annual $400 billion deficit leaves little room to maneuver. The shortfall was exacerbated by two earlier tax cuts that Bush pushed through as well as rising costs for Iraq, Afghanistan, homeland security and a major expansion Medicare.
Furthermore, the Federal Reserve has embarked on a course of raising interest rates from their recent 40-year lows. Higher interest rates combined with a continued weak dollar will put more pressure on the government’s balance sheet. …
At the convention, Bush was silent on how to pay for any of his second-term proposals.
“A presidential election is a contest for the future,” Bush told the party faithful. But on the economic front, most convention speakers could not help but look back to what Vice President Dick Cheney celebrated as “the greatest tax reduction in a generation.”
Republicans like to suggest that Bush is following in the path of Reagan, who pushed through Congress the then-biggest tax cut in U.S. history in 1981.
What they usually neglect to mention is that the following year, Reagan reluctantly signed one of the biggest tax increases in history.
‘Working harder and enjoying it less’
Flat wages, spotty job market greet workers for Labor Day by LEIGH STROPE, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A spotty job market and stagnant paychecks cloud this Labor Day holiday for many workers, highlighting the importance of pocketbook issues in the presidential election.
“Working harder and enjoying it less,” said economist Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics, summing up the state of working America. …
Nearly two-thirds of 1,050 full-time workers in a Labor Day survey by Harris Interactive and Kronos Inc. said they have increased job responsibilities in the past six months. One-third said they were working longer hours and 62 percent claimed they had not received a pay raise.
In a poll conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs, a third of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the amount of stress at work. Other leading complaints included advancement opportunities and health and retirement benefits.
Too Quiet
With Pika,
um, tied up, and NewMexiKentraveling and dangerousmeta! also away, the Blogosphere has contracted. One more day of this and I may have to
pick up a book (to knock myself unconscious). mjh
Sunday Reading
Good gawd, it’s John Fleck Day at the Albuquerque Journal, with at least 3
articles on the front and back of Section B (one of the three sections I read on Sundays) and one more inside. This must be the annual
issue they submit for awards. Meanwhile, Flecky (as Duhbya calls him) is riding into the wind (whatever direction he’s riding) in a bike
race. mjh
ABQjournal: Scientists: Earth’s Beginnings Can be
Found on MoonBy John Fleck, Journal Staff Writer
It is hard to think of the moon, floating serenely above the horizon on a
warm summer evening, as a violent place.
Barbara Cohen is not fooled.
There was a time in our solar system’s deep past
when the moon, the Earth and our other planetary neighbors were battered like overmatched, punch-drunk boxers. Massive chunks of asteroid
pounded them again and again.
ABQjournal: Election 2004: A Look at Nuclear Issues By John Fleck, Journal Staff Writer
Kerry, Bush Disagree on the
Military Utility of Atomic Weapons and Ways to Curb Their Spread
John Kerry and George W. Bush offer voters a clear choice on what
has become the central national debate about the future direction of the U.S. nuclear arsenal— the question of whether to pursue a new
nuclear bomb designed to destroy underground enemy bunkers.
[mjh: this is two articles — weapons and waste — rolled into one Web
article]
No Difference? Part 2
ABQjournal: Election 2004: A Look at Nuclear Issues By John Fleck, Journal Staff Writer
John Kerry and George W. Bush offer voters a clear choice on what has become the central national debate about the future direction of the U.S. nuclear arsenalâ — the question of whether to pursue a new nuclear bomb designed to destroy underground enemy bunkers. …
Bush’s administration is pushing for the design of a new nuclear bunker-busting bomb. …
“There is a clear military utility to this weapon,” Bush’s top nuclear weapons program manager, Linton Brooks, told a Senate committee in March.
Kerry opposes it.
“This is a weapon we don’t need,” Kerry countered in a June 1 campaign speech in Florida, “and it undermines our credibility in persuading other nations. What kind of a message does it send when we’re asking other countries not to develop nuclear weapons, but developing new ones ourselves?”