Mr. Bush and the Flag... (Washington Post). Mr. Bush and the Flag... (Washington Post) [Common Dreams]

More evidence of pandering. If Bush can write on a flag, then can anyone? Or does it matter what you write? But wouldn't that run up against the first amendment? Maybe the first amendment needs to be altered so that people can not write stuff on flags?

This is why regulating the flag in this way is a slippery slope. Burning the flag is an inherently political act. That is the purpose of the first amendment, to protect political speech. All an amendment would do is to outlaw certain types of political speech. It would not make the opinions go away.  11:40:38 AM    

Sweet Home Alabama, Where Theocrats Rule... (Christopher Brauchli). Sweet Home Alabama, Where Theocrats Rule... (Christopher Brauchli) [Common Dreams]

What got me was something stated at the end of this article. The House attached an amendment to an appropriations bill saying that no federal money could be used to remove the sculpture in Alabama. Think about that, no federal money could be used to follow a federal order upholding the Constitution. Since the members of Congress knew that this amendment would never make it out of committe, it was purely a gesture of support for an unconstitutional act. 260 gutless representatives pandered to the mob. Where is Ashcroft in all of this? Silent on something that is a basic foundation of this country. There is NO historical rationale for this statue, as evidenced by its supporter's own words. Our own fundamentalists are making a huge push to marginalize anyone who is not Christian. The House continues to pander to them. I am sure the neocons believe they can control these people but extremists do not live in the real world. They will not be controlled. By giving them a platform to spew their filthy rhetoric, this Adminstration continues its assault on basic liberties. To quote their own words:

They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind

11:27:28 AM    

Resistance to American Occupation is Growing, Thriving on the Country's Instability... (Scott Ritter). Resistance to American Occupation is Growing, Thriving on the Country's Instability... (Scott Ritter) [Common Dreams]

The fastest way to keep Americans from being killed is to remove the instability that runs rampant. We are moving to the tune of the terrorists right now. Fear is causing our military to respond in ways that only hardens the Iraqi populace. We need to get much more civil authority there and it needs to be less American. We are seeing the results of leaving the UN out of this war. They need to be a part of it now.  9:37:25 AM    

Promises Turn to Toxic Dust... (Tom Brazaitis). Promises Turn to Toxic Dust... (Tom Brazaitis) [Common Dreams]

It is becoming the expectation by many people that anything this Adminstratyion says is a lie. Continuing reverberations of the EPA report are still being felt. Gettng Wall Street open may have been an important aspect but issuing misleading press releases is the wrong approach. Too many people in this Adminstration believe that the ends justify the means, so if we have to lie to the electorate, so be it, as long as we can get the capital markets open, or attack Iraq. It is a bankrupt policy if you have to lie in order to get it approved. This Administration is full of them.  9:29:25 AM    

Third Quarter Growth Forecasts.

Andrea Hopkins of Forbes writes about expectations for faster U.S. growth:

Forbes.com: U.S. recovery is here -- we mean it this time: ...Often burned but never shy, economic forecasters have ramped up predictions for growth for the rest of 2003 and into 2004, certain -- once again -- that America has turned the corner on the 2001 recession. "All the data's saying the same thing: this quarter is going to be a cracker," said Ram Bhagavatula, chief economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Financial Markets, predicting gross domestic product growth will hit a 6 percent to 7 percent annual rate this quarter. He's not alone. A raft of positive economic news in recent weeks has many economists hiking third-quarter growth forecasts as high as 7 percent -- more than double the 3.1 percent annual growth rate notched in the second quarter...

And this leaves me looking at the labor market and scratching my head: if workers are becoming so much more productive so fast, why aren't firms hiring more of them. I have no special reason to doubt either the output or the work hours figures, but this business-cycle configuration is very, very unusual indeed...

[Semi-Daily Journal]

This is a telling conundrum. Productivity is going up. So, why not hire more employees and become more productive? This would be true if the situation was truly creating new productive employees. But I think that companies are just working their people harder. Instead of hiring a second person, they are making the one employee work twice as hard. That way the company saves on benefits. It only has to pay for insurance for one employee, not two. And, by now being able to declare almost anyone a manager, companies can get around overtime laws. Looks to me like the next few years could be good recruiting times for a new breed of union.  9:22:21 AM