Thursday, October 14, 2004

It's amazing what you find when you actually read a good newspaper

I haven't read a newspaper in years. When I was in college in San Diego, my parents got me a subscription to the Union Tribune, which I found to be pretty much worthless (except for the sports page and crossword). Then when I moved back to the LA area, I refused to read the LA Times because of it's failure to at least acknowledge its blatant bias. But yesterday I picked up a copy of the Wall Street Journal (there's always a stack sitting outside my office building), I read it today, and I actually learned a few things.


  1. Democrat filibuster: "Since the beginning of George W. Bush's tenure in the White House, liberals have waged an unprecedented campaign to block, delay and besmirch his judicial nominess.... Leaked Democratic memos indicate that Mr. Estrada [one of the nominees] was targeted, in part, because, 'he is Latino, and the White House seems to be grooming him for a Supreme Court appointment,' and because, 'we can't make the same mistake we made with Clarence Thomas.' Judiciary Democrats, led by Sens. Edward Kennedy, Patrick Leahy, and Richard Durbin, agreed to block or slow-walk particular nominees at the behest of liberal campaign donors, including the trial lawyers, the NAACP, and the national abortion providers' lobby. These Democrats decided, in advance of hearrings, which nominees to block, and Democratic staffers characterized Bush nominees as 'Nazis'." THIS IS UN-FRIGGIN-BELIEVABLE! Nevermind that this has never happened before, and that they've been stalling these appointments for well over a year, these judges are all either women, minorities, or people of religious faith. I thought the Democratic party was supposed to be the party of tolerance, diversity, and affirmative action. And these are just the appelate judges; they don't include federal circuits, etc!!!
  2. Halliburton fallacy: "It's been suggested that Halliburton was awarded contracts to support the troops in Iraq because of special relationships. In fact, Halliburton has been awarded contracts by every administration - both Democratic and Republican - since World War II.... Halliburton is one of the few companies in the world with the range of services required in Iraq." Duh. The other top notch services company is a French company, and we're sure as hell not going to "outsource" taking care of our troops to the French.
  3. The great economy Bush's policies have fostered: Here are some statistics (Warning: if you get queasy when presented with hard facts, stop reading now, put your head between your knees, breath deeply through your mouth, and then go hug a tree)
  • GDP average growth since 2001: 3.4%
  • Inflation adjusted consumer spending over past year up 3.6%
  • Residential housing investment over the past year up 13.2%
  • Capital goods investment by businesses over the past year up 13.9%
  • Spending on machine tools for heavy-industry manufacturing over the past year up 54.2%
  • Exports and imports over the past year up 11%
  • After tax corporate profits over the past year up 19.5%
  • Industrial production over the past year up 5.2%
  • High tech production over the past year up 23.7%
  • Household wealth over the past year up 11.1% hitting a record high
  • Home ownership at record high 69.2%

"Impressive? No, remarkable, considering the economy was up against an inherited recession, a busted tech bubble, corporate scandals, 9/11, two wars, and an oil-price shock...Europe's GDP is growing at less than 2% with unemployment between 9 and 10%." That's pretty damn good.

Why do people want to elect Kerry again?