Quote:The bureau said it made changes to normal payroll survey procedures for the first time ever to account for the hurricane.
For example, non-responses from areas that the Federal Emergency Management Agency designated as being flooded or as having catastrophic damage were treated as lost jobs. Previously, non-responders were assumed to have the same change as similar firms in their industry. That change raises the risk that employment losses were overstated, the bureau said.
More than a third of the companies in the damaged region were based elsewhere, and officials should be able to get accurate readings from them, the bureau said.
source: Bloomberg et. al. as of yesterday.
That's interesting, Walter, because the BLS's accounting would cause it to err on the side of exaggerating the job loss. This would mean that the real job loss is even less of a problem.
Published on Friday, October 7, 2005 by the Associated Press
Poll: Key Groups in Bush's Political Coalition Grow Worried About Direction of Nation
by Will Lester
WASHINGTON - Evangelicals, Republican women, Southerners and other critical groups in President Bush's political coalition are increasingly worried about the direction the nation is headed and disappointed with his performance, an AP-Ipsos poll found.
The growing unease could be a troubling sign for a White House already struggling to keep the Republican Party base from slipping over Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, Gulf Coast spending projects, immigration and other issues.
Politically, this is very serious for the president. If the base of his party has lost faith, that could spell trouble for his policy agenda and for the party generally.
James Thurber, a political scientist at American University
"Politically, this is very serious for the president," said James Thurber, a political scientist at American University. "If the base of his party has lost faith, that could spell trouble for his policy agenda and for the party generally."
Public sentiment about the nation's direction has sunk to new depths at a time people are anxious about Iraq, the economy, gas prices and the management of billions of dollars being spent for recovery from the nation's worst natural disaster.
Only 28 percent say the country is headed in the right direction while two-thirds, 66 percent, say it is on the wrong track, the poll found.
Those most likely to have lost confidence about the nation's direction over the past year include white evangelicals, down 30 percentage points, Republican women, 28 points, Southerners, 26 points, and suburban men, 20 points.
Bush's supporters are uneasy about issues including federal deficits, immigration and his latest nomination for the Supreme Court. Social conservatives are concerned about his choice of Miers, a relatively unknown lawyer who has most recently served as White House counsel.
"Bush is trying to get more support generally from the American public by seeming more moderate and showing he's a strong leader at the same time he has a rebellion within his own party," Thurber said. "The far right is starting to be very open about their claim that he's not a real conservative."
The president's job approval is mired at the lowest level of his presidency - 39 percent. While four of five Republicans say they approve of Bush's job performance - enthusiasm in that support has dipped over the last year.
Almost two-thirds of Republicans strongly approved of the job done by Bush in December 2004, soon after his re-election. The AP-Ipsos survey found that just half in his own party feel that way now.
The intensity of support for Bush's job performance has also dropped sharply among white evangelicals, Southerners, people from rural areas and suburban men.
"We've lost focus on where we're supposed to be going and not able to respond to the crises that affect the people of this country," said David Ernest, a Republican from San Ramon, Calif., who is angry about the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. "We're mired in a Middle Eastern adventure and we've taken the focus off of our own country."
Bush has tried to reassure conservatives about his Supreme Court nominee. He's also trying to counter critics of the war by tying U.S. efforts in Iraq to the larger war against terrorism. And he's made frequent trips to the areas devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita to offset criticism of the government's initial response to Katrina.
Even those efforts get viewed with suspicion by some.
"I just think the president is doing things for political reasons, not what's right for the people," said Traci Wallace, a Democrat from Tallahassee, Fla. "Every time he makes a trip to the hurricane zone, he's blowing a million dollars."
Of all the problems facing the country, the continuing war in Iraq is the one that troubles some Bush supporters the most.
"I approve of what the president is doing, but it's a mixed decision," said Richard Saulinski, a Republican from Orland Park, Ill. "We should get out of Iraq. It seems like there's no light at the end of the tunnel. I just think we're dealing with a culture we don't really understand."
The poll of 1,000 adults was conducted by Ipsos, an international polling company, from Monday to Wednesday and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
AP manager of news surveys Trevor Tompson contributed to this story.
Isn't Ipsos that anti-American French think tank? Or am I thinking of something else?
Foxfyre, could be. Could it be too that Bushie's conservative base is happy and united with him as ever? I'd say we all know that aint true. Especially since the Miers nomination.
Achieving power is one thing. But, then exercising that power wisely, competently, humanely and with selflessness and transparency is all quite another thing.
The Bush administration - and the new conservative movement which bolsters it - is now perceived increasingly within the US (a tad belated compared to most other jurisdictions) to be failing, perhaps very seriously failing, in each of these requirements.
from Bush's latest speech...note the strawman fallacy
Quote:Some have also argued that extremism has been strengthened by the actions of our coalition in Iraq, claiming that our presence in that country has somehow caused or triggered the rage of radicals. I would remind them that we were not in Iraq on September the 11th, 2001 -- and al Qaeda attacked us anyway.
"Some have also argued that extremism has been strengthened by the actions of our coalition in Iraq..." Yes. Many have made this argument.
"...claiming that our presence in that country has somehow caused or triggered the rage of radicals. I would remind them that we were not in Iraq on September the 11th, 2001 -- and al Qaeda attacked us anyway. " And here he does the sneaky strawman switcheroo, substituting another claim for the one actually made.
blueflame1 wrote:Foxfyre, could be. Could it be too that Bushie's conservative base is happy and united with him as ever? I'd say we all know that aint true. Especially since the Miers nomination.
Hard to say Blue. I check in on the Rasmussen site every day and over the last couple of weeks Bush's poll numbers have remained pretty steady with his base, in fact may actually be edging up. Does everybody in his base agree with everything he does? No way, and we all have been quite vocal about that. But then Conservatives don't have to agree on every issue to be conservative, nor do we require perfection from our leaders.
Are a lot of us happy with the Miers appointment? No we aren't. Because it was a bad appointment? Not necessarily. Then why? Because she was not what we were expecting.
Needless to say there isn't a saint among us nor among our elected leaders. We're all human with inconsistencies, failings, gifts, talents, and feet of clay. And we are just as capable of childish disappointment as any kid who wants a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas and gets a new wool sweater instead, no matter how much more practical that sweater might be.
Miers is a wool sweater. She may be absolutely wonderful on the Court, but she just didn't provide the satisfaction and excitement and feeling of triumph we all wanted. And we are disappointed.
But give us time to get used to the idea. And don't count on it making the President's base flee in utter dismay. I just don't think it's going to be all that serious.
Bush Addresses Unease Over Court Nominee
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: October 9, 2005
The White House is scrambling to control a conservative uprising over the nomination of Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court.
Foxfyre wrote:Isn't Ipsos that anti-American French think tank? Or am I thinking of something else?
Ipsos is (originally) French, not a think-tank, however, but an advertising research company.
Did you hear about Bush's brain scan, performed by the Surgeon General? Bush asked how the scan turned out.
"Well, you have a right brain and a left brain."
"Doesn't everybody?" asked Bush.
"Yes. But in your case, there's nothing right on the left and nothing left on the right."
Well, according to the inside rumor mill, Karl Rove's fourth trip to the grand jury is not sparking any additional speculation about an indictment. Awhile back, John Tierney wrote a piece re that whole Valerie Plame, Judith Miller, etc. thing calling it "Nadagate".
In this week's issue of Editor & Publisher, Joe Strupp reports Tierney's summation:
"Time will tell whether Tierney's commentary in his "Nadagate" column will hold up. He wrote: "...it looks as if this scandal is about a spy who was not endangered, a whistle-blower who did not blow the whistle and was not smeared, and a White House official who has not been fired for a felony that he did not commit. And so far the only victim is a reporter who did not write a story about it."
LINK
Yeah, lol, keep hoping that that's the case, Fox...
What rumour mill are you referring to? The one that leads back to Luskin? Because, well, there are some decidedly contrary rumours floating around out there...
Cycloptichorn
He He
, i've just been reading first afew pages of this huge thread, there were some hardline Bush supporters around.
I wonder how they feel now ?
e.g...
Moishe3rd wrote:President Bush will go down in history as one of the greatest Presidents this nation has ever had.
If - he can overcome the greatest threat to this nation - Islamic fascist jihaddist death cultists.
I sincerely hope, now that he has a mandate from the people, that we can stop fighting a war against "terrorism" and fight Islamic fascist death cultists.
Why?
Because these people will not change unless we help them to change. And unless we identify them as to who they are.
Nonetheless, George W Bush is a fine man and a great President.
freedom4free wrote:I wonder how they feel now?
Well, I'm ambivalent about Harriet Miers' nomination to the SCOTUS. Other than that, I feel the same.
Why? Did you think the views of a bunch of whiny, complaining liberals was going to sway my own?
I think the Bush Adminstration needs to remember the first rule when you find yourself stuck in a hole: Stop Digging!
You guys are helping him dig real deep.
Just as a reminder, all the whiney butt proclamations of doom and gloom do not create doom and gloom but rather just create doom and gloom in the gullible mind. Those that care to look, will find much that is not doom and gloom, and if actually considered, might create a different perspective.
That's the difference between the conservative and liberal ideologies after all: perspective.
The following gives a very different perspective and one that most liberals seem determined to ignore:
October 14, 2005
An American "Debacle"?
More unjustified negativity on the war in Iraq.LINK
Miers-if she does not carry the Senate, Bush is a dead duck president, there will be zero Bush agenda passed in Congress. The republican party will splinter into religionist ideologues vs conservative republicans (McCain) leaving the Dems back on the power bench by default. Sad, really. I was hoping for a return to liberalism rather than the same old and tired Dems. So it goes.
