There’s a Catch: Jobs by Bob Herbert

The number of Americans living in poverty has increased by three million in the past two years. The median household income has fallen for the past two years. The number of dual-income families, particularly those with children under 18, has declined sharply. The administration can spin its “recovery” any way it wants. But working families can’t pay their bills with data about the gross domestic product. They need the income from steady employment. And when it comes to employment, the Bush administration has compiled the worst record since the Great Depression.

The jobs picture is far more harrowing than it is usually presented by the media.

Gains in Wages Expected to Give Economy a Lift

Hourly wages have already surprised most economists by growing more quickly than inflation since 2001 in spite of the worst decline in employment in 20 years.

The wage gains have not been enough to overcome the economy’s problems, however. Many families still have less income than they did a year ago because companies have reduced their workers’ hours, and health care costs have risen rapidly.

Resurrection of the Week

Anyway, the Dick G mini-surge must be real, because several reporters have said so. And as we know, that’s enough to start a trend. …

In any event, the market is briefly bullish on Dick.

This is a long summary of various media reports on Dick. mjh

NRDC: The Bush Record on the Environment

The real story on this administration’s dealings on environmental issues, from NRDC’s scientists, lawyers and policy experts.

Back on Campus, Bush Gets Passing Grades

A survey of college students, conducted this month for Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, found that 61 percent approve of Bush’s job performance. That is significantly higher than what most polls of the general population have reported. The most recent Washington Post-ABC News survey placed Bush’s approval rating at 53 percent.

The students also preferred Bush to a generic Democratic presidential candidate, 39 to 34 percent; 18 percent said they were undecided.

Campuses, contrary to image, are not bastions of liberalism: 38 percent of the students identified themselves as independent or unaffiliated, 31 percent said they were Republican and 27 percent said they were Democrats.

Among those who called themselves Democrats, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) led with 17 percent, followed by former Vermont governor Howard Dean, with 16 percent. …

Despite the students’ support for Bush, many reported significant qualms with his policies: Eighty-seven percent said the administration has been “hiding some things” or “mostly not telling the truth” about the situation in Iraq.

So, most students believe Bush is lying to them AND they approve of that. Young Republicans. mjh

Vote To Impeach George W. Bush

‘The rich are coming back’ and retailers are hungry

Luxury is making a comeback.

This holiday season, upscale retailers are selling mega-high-end merchandise like $5,000 handbags, $15,000 diamond necklaces and even $8,500 caviar servers. And they expect consumers to splurge again after two years of hunkering down. …

Well-heeled shoppers, whose spirits have been lifted recently by stock market gains and a lessened fear of terrorism, have been spending more freely the past few months. …

”This year, the rich are coming back,” [some idiot] said.

Out of the Mainstream, Again

Of the many unworthy judicial nominees President Bush has put forward, Janice Rogers Brown is among the very worst. As an archconservative justice on the California Supreme Court, she has declared war on the mainstream legal values that most Americans hold dear. And she has let ideology be her guide in deciding cases. …

She has attacked the New Deal, which gave us Social Security and other programs now central to American life, as ”the triumph of our socialist revolution.” …

Justice Brown’s record as a judge is also cause for alarm. She regularly stakes out extreme positions, often dissenting alone. In one case, her court ordered a rental car company to stop its supervisor from calling Hispanic employees by racial epithets. Justice Brown dissented, arguing that doing so violated the company’s free speech rights. …

President Bush, who promised as a candidate to be a ”uniter, not a divider, has selected the most divisive judicial nominees in modern times. The Senate should help the president keep his campaign promise by insisting on a more unifying alternative than Justice Brown.