Politics
Economy: The Leading Indicators Farce
Monday's report on the economy, the Leading Indicator index, was touted as still further evidence of how "strong" our economy is.
The Leading Indicator report, considered a broad overview of the direction of our economy, was reported as increasing + 0.2%, slightly below the expected +0.3% predicted. A review of how today's total was calculated, however, reveals much cause for concern. Many important indexes declined. Many of the positives were only weakly positive. Manufacturers' new orders for non-defense capital goods declined 7% over the last month, for an annualized rate of decline of -84%. Building Permits declined 6.3% over the last month alone, and have and have declined 22% since April. Though Manufacturers' New Orders for Consumer Goods increased slightly (+0.4%), they are still 2% below August levels, and 4% below June's level. Even the big "gainers" are of dubious benefit. One big gainer was Stock Prices, which added +0.13% to the total index. Another gainer was the index of Consumer Expectations, which was +0.19. (Indicating media spin about the economy has been very successful.) The Average Workweek increased from 41.1 hours in August to 41.2 hours in October. This added +0.06 to the total. However, the Average Workweek was less than it was in August, July, and June, and the same as it was in May and April. Another very dubious positive.
PAC came out of nowhere to support war vets running for office
By GARY ROTSTEIN
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The political advertisement depicting a mannequin in U.S. military wear being shredded by small-arms fire began showing up in August against U.S. Sen.
A GOP pro-choice group buys political ads
By BILL TOLAND
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The 2006 election is over, and the 2008 election is 718 days away. So why is a pro-choice Republican group launching a controversial advertising campaign in Pennsylvania TV markets this week?
A week that was supposed to be the first in six months fully devoid of political ads?
"Our ad, which is, you know, purposely divisive, could have hurt Republicans in certain races," said Jennifer Stockman, national co-chair of the Republican Majority for Choice, itself an outgrowth of the former national Republican Pro-Choice Coalition.
Denver still counting ballots
By ANN IMSE
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Denver is still counting votes a week after the election because bar code misprints on 70,000 absentee ballots required five days of hand sorting of 23 ballot styles.
Stumping candidate saves woman trapped under fridge for days
By M.S. ENKOJI
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Gray Allen poured his heart into his first political campaign, knocking on doors every day, sending out mailers.
But in the three-way race for a seat on the Placer County, Calif., Water Agency board last week, one of Allen's 6,109 votes came his way as the result of more than just standard stumping.
Inge Walen, 72, had been pinned under the refrigerator in her home for four days, she says, when Allen showed up on her doorstep seeking her support at the polls.
Ohio ban called key in war on smoking
By JIM PROVANCE
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
With last week's landmark decision by voters to go smoke-free from the Ohio River to Lake Erie, Ohio became the first Midwestern stop on a long national journey by anti-smoking advocates.
As of Dec.
Some evangelical Christians reconsider their faith in the GOP
By MATTHAI CHAKKO KURUVILA
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Pastor Steve Madsen urged the 4,000 people worshipping at his Livermore, Calif., evangelical church on the Sunday before the election to be sure to vote.
Conservative Utah Democrat plans to stand his ground
By REBECCA WALSH
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Four years ago on election night, Jim Matheson was a basket case. He won his congressional seat by less than 1 percent.
This year was different.
Vilsack explores presidential run
By JAMES O'TOOLE
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
With the ballots of one national election barely counted, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack formally kicked off the next one as he became the first candidate to form a 2008 presidential exploratory committee.
The two-term Democratic governor signaled his candidacy legally as he filed the papers to form the committee with the Federal Elections Commission last Thursday.
The public debut of his bid came with the launch of a Web site in which he speaks of his presidential ambitions while acknowledging his underdog status in a Democratic race against several unannounced but better-known candidates.
"I've never started a race that I've been expected to win, and I've never lost," Vilsack says in a video on the new site.
Nearing the end of his second term, Vilsack was elected in 1998 as the first Democrat to lead Iowa in more than three decades.
Chafee rethinks his political future, party
By KATHERINE GREGG
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
In his first interview since losing the Republican U.S. Senate seat that has been in his family for three decades, Lincoln D. Chafee said a lot of people had been coming up to him "and saying, 'We're sorry you lost, but glad the Congress switched' " from GOP to Democratic Party control.
