Thursday, March 03, 2005

Lots of Good News on the Economy Today

Minus the fact that oil prices ended at $53.57 a barrel today, near a record high of $55.

reference articles here and here

Jobs are still being created in this economy and at a pretty brisk clip:

A decline in new jobless claims and a jump in the employment component of a U.S. service sector industry survey helped to fortify already entrenched expectations that the Labor Department's February employment report on Friday would show solid jobs growth.

In addition to that, productivity in the economy suggests inflation (rising costs of goods and services) remains tame.
A government report that U.S. productivity was faster than expected in the fourth quarter last year suggested that inflation in the longer term remains subdued, analysts said.

Retail sales are also up sharply:
A brightening jobs picture, early tax refunds and a later date for the largest single U.S. sports event boosted February sales at Wal-Mart, other discount retailers, and warehouse shopping clubs.

At the same time, youth-oriented clothing sellers -- which were one of this past holiday season's strongest sectors -- continued to post sharply higher results.

These are all indications that America's economy will continue to be a world leader for strength and growth. These factors also bose well for President Bush's intention to use the growing economy to decrease the US account deficits. Better sales of items means more tax revenue to the government.

A recent poll by CBS News/New York Times indicates that 43% of Americans want to make President Bush's tax cuts permanent while 40% want to allow them to expire.

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Mis-Quoting Ann Coulter To Show Racism? Indeed and Here Is the Proof:

Barbara Ferguson of Arab News writes today:

Arab bashing reached a new low in Washington last week when Ann Coulter, a loudmouthed, mean-spirited, pro-Bush columnist, decided to defend the White House press pass controversy over faux-reporter James Guckert (a.k.a. Jeff Gannon) by writing in her syndicated column: “Press passes can’t be that hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president.”

But is that exactly what Ann Coulter wrote? Nope:
"Press passes can't be that hard to come by if the White House allows that dyspeptic, old Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president."

The left-leaning journalists can no longer besmirch conservative jounalists with the truth so now they make up lies. So I invite any dyspeptic (some sort of stomach condition) people to write me and share their outrage at being the target of Ann Counter.

UPDATE: According to Ms. Ferguson, I should be able to find a copy of the article in question with the Arab reference intact. But I can not. My question is this: If indeed Helen Thomas is an Arab and Ann Coulter called her an Arab, is there anything inherently wrong with that?

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It Turns Out SoCalPundit Was Correct Not To Endorse A Candidate For LA Mayor

Because if we had, we might have set our self up to have to pay some fines to the Federal Elections Commission. It seems that although traditional news organizations are exempt from being fined under current election laws, the same might not be extended to bloggers such as SoCalPundit.com.

In 2002, the FEC exempted the Internet by a 4-2 vote, but U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly last fall overturned that decision. "The commission's exclusion of Internet communications from the coordinated communications regulation severely undermines" the campaign finance law's purposes, Kollar-Kotelly wrote.
Why wouldn't the news exemption cover bloggers and online media?
Because the statute refers to periodicals or broadcast, and it's not clear the Internet is either of those. Second, because there's no standard for being a blogger, anyone can claim to be one, and we're back to the deregulated Internet that the judge objected to. Also I think some of my colleagues on the commission would be uncomfortable with that kind of blanket exemption.
UPDATE: Instapundit.com is updating on this subject here.

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Democrats, More Desperate Than Ever, Sink To New Low

As Powerline reported on today, Ann Coulter's latest volley at the left speaks of the new and despicable practice that Democrats have undertaken; the outing of prominent Republicans and/or their children. The Democratic message as Ann Coulter sees it is:

"We love gay people! Gay people are awesome! Being gay is awesome! Gay marriage is awesome! Gay cartoon characters are awesome! And if you don't agree with us, we'll punish you by telling everyone that you're gay!"

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SoCalPundit's New Address On The Web

SoCalPundit can now be reached with the much simpler address of www.SoCalPundit.com. We are still on the Blogger.com server until the new site has been completed and tested. But from now on, you should be able to reach us where ever we are by typing www.SoCalPundit.com into your browser.

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"KKK" Byrd's Office Denies He Likened Republicans To Nazi's

See, this is why the Democrats are always looking like careless, moronic fools; they fail to see how their harsh rhetoric is absorbed by the public. According to MSNBC.com:

Sen. Robert Byrd's description of Adolf Hitler's rise to power was meant as a warning to heed the past and not as a comparison to Republicans, a spokesman for the West Virginia Democrat says.
Yeah right. Ok so according to this phrasing, Byrd is warning Republicans that they are about to become Nazi's. Oh that is so much better!

What Senator Byrd was referring to in the comments he made on the Senate floor was in answer to Republicans talk of using a process that would end the filibuster against President Bush's judicial nominees.
"We, unlike Nazi Germany or Mussolini's Italy, have never stopped being a nation of laws, not of men," Byrd said. "But witness how men with motives and a majority can manipulate law to cruel and unjust ends."
So according to the former leader of the KKK, Democrats are so right to use the filibuster against the nominees that to end the filibuster would be in essence, the same as becoming Nazis. Excuse me while I go throw up.

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