The True State Of The Union

[eg420ne]

The True State Of The Union
More Deception From The Bush White House


By Paul Craig Roberts
2-6-6

Gentle reader, if you prefer comforting lies to harsh truths, don't read this column.

The state of the union is disastrous. By its naked aggression, bullying, illegal spying on Americans, and illegal torture and detentions, the Bush administration has demonstrated American contempt for the Geneva Convention, for human life and dignity, and for the civil liberties of its own citizens. Increasingly, the US is isolated in the world, having to resort to bribery and threats to impose its diktats. No country any longer looks to America for moral leadership. The US has become a rogue nation.

Least of all did President Bush tell any truth about the economy. He talked about economic growth rates without acknowledging that they result from eating the seed corn and do not produce jobs with a living wage for Americans. He touted a low rate of unemployment and did not admit that the figure is false because it does not count millions of discouraged workers who have dropped out of the work force.

Americans did not hear from Bush that a new Wal-Mart just opened on Chicago's city boundary and 25,000 people applied for 325 jobs (Chicago Sun-Times, Jan. 26), or that 11,000 people applied for a few Wal-Mart jobs in Oakland, California. Obviously, employment is far from full.

Neither did Bush tell Americans any of the dire facts reported by economist Charles McMillion in the January 19 issue of Manufacturing & Technology News:

During Bush's presidency the US has experienced the slowest job creation on record (going back to 1939). During the past five years private business has added only 958,000 net new jobs to the economy, while the government sector has added 1.1 million jobs. Moreover, as many of the jobs are not for a full work week, "the country ended 2005 with fewer private sector hours worked than it had in January 2001."

McMillion reports that the largest sources of private sector jobs have been health care and waitresses and bartenders. Other areas of the private sector lost so many jobs, including supervisory/managerial jobs, that had health care not added 1.4 million new jobs, the private sector would have experienced a net loss of 467,000 jobs between January 2001 and December 2005 despite an "economic recovery." Without the new jobs waiting tables and serving drinks, the US economy in the past five years would have eked out a measly 64,000 jobs. In other words, there is a job depression in the US.

McMillion reports that during the past five years of Bush's presidency the US has lost 16.5% of its manufacturing jobs. The hardest hit are clothes manufacturers, textile mills, communications equipment, and semiconductors. Workforces in these industries shrunk by 37 to 46 percent. These are amazing job losses. Major industries have shriveled to insignificance in half a decade.

Free trade, offshore production for US markets, and the outsourcing of US jobs are the culprits. McMillion writes that "every industry that faces foreign outsourcing or import competition is losing jobs," including both Ford and General Motors, both of which recently announced new job losses of 30,000 each. The parts supplier, Delphi, is on the ropes and cutting thousands of jobs, wages, benefits, and pensions.

If the free trade/outsourcing propaganda were true, would not at least some US export industries be experiencing a growth in employment? If free trade and outsourcing benefit the US economy, how did America run up $2.85 trillion in trade deficits over the last five years? This means Americans consumed almost $3 trillion dollars more in goods and services than they produced and turned over $3 trillion of their existing assets to foreigners to pay for their consumption. Consuming accumulated wealth makes a country poorer, not richer.

Americans are constantly reassured that America is the leader in advanced technology and intellectual property and doesn't need jobs making clothes or even semiconductors. McMillion puts the lie to this reassurance. During Bush's presidency, the US has lost its trade surplus in manufactured Advanced Technology Products (ATP). The US trade deficit in ATP now exceeds the US surplus in Intellectual Property licenses and fees. The US no longer earns enough from high tech to cover any part of its import bill for oil, autos, or clothing.

This is an astonishing development. The US "superpower" is dependent on China for advanced technology products and is dependent on Asia to finance its massive deficits and foreign wars. In view of the rapid collapse of US economic potential, my prediction in January 2004 that the US would be a third world economy in 20 years was optimistic. Another five years like the last, and little will be left. America's capacity to export manufactured goods has been so reduced that some economists say that there is no exchange rate at which the US can balance its trade.

McMillion reports that median household income has fallen for a record fifth year in succession. Growth in consumer spending has resulted from households spending their savings and equity in their homes. In 2005 for the first time since the Great Depression in the 1930s, American consumers spent more than they earned, and the government budget deficit was larger than all business savings combined. American households are paying a record share of their disposable income to service their debts.

With America hemorrhaging red ink in every direction, how much longer can the dollar hold on to its role as world reserve currency?

The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is the cradle of the propaganda that globalization is win-win for all concerned. Free trader Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley reports that the mood at the recently concluded Davos meeting was different, because the predicted "wins" for the industrialized world have not made an appearance.

Roach writes that "job creation and real wages in the mature, industrialized economies have seriously lagged historical norms. It is now commonplace for recoveries in the developed world to be either jobless or wageless--or both."

Roach is the first free trade economist to admit that the disruptive technology of the Internet has dashed the globalization hopes. It was supposed to work like this: The first world would lose market share in tradable manufactured goods and make up the job and economic loss with highly-educated knowledge workers. The "win-win" was supposed to be cheaper manufactured goods for the first world and more and better jobs for the third world.

It did not work out this way, Roach writes, because the Internet allowed job outsourcing to quickly migrate from call centers and data processing to the upper end of the value chain, displacing first world employees in "software programming, engineering, design, and the medical profession, as well as a broad array of professionals in the legal, accounting, actuarial, consulting, and financial services industries."

This is what I have been writing for years, while the economics profession adopted a position of total denial. The first world gainers from globalization are the corporate executives, who gain millions of dollars in bonuses by arbitraging labor and substituting cheaper foreign labor for first world labor. For the past decade free market economists have served as apologists for corporate interests that are dismantling the ladders of upward mobility in the US and creating what McMillion writes is the worst income inequality on record.

Globalization is wiping out the American middle class and terminating jobs for university graduates, who now serve as temps, waitresses and bartenders. But the whores among economists and the evil men and women in the Bush administration still sing globalization's praises.

The state of the nation has never been worse. The Great Depression was an accident caused by the incompetence of the Federal Reserve, which was still new at its job. The new American job depression is the result of free trade ideology. The new job depression is creating a reserve army of the unemployed to serve as desperate recruits for neoconservative military adventures. Perhaps that explains the Bush administration's enthusiasm for globalization.

_____

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: [email protected]






http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060203/nyf073.html?.v=35

eg420ne Reviewed by eg420ne on 02-06-2006. The True State Of The Union The True State Of The Union More Deception From The Bush White House By Paul Craig Roberts 2-6-6 Gentle reader, if you prefer comforting lies to harsh truths, don't read this column. The state of the union is disastrous. By its naked aggression, bullying, illegal spying on Americans, and illegal torture and detentions, the Bush administration has demonstrated American contempt for the Geneva Convention, for human life and dignity, and for the civil liberties of its own Rating: 5

[eg420ne]

I guess everythings find since the republican are in control..Cant forget about that national debt $8,208,255,966,738.69 and counting...How much is the U.S. spending for its war in Iraq & Afghanistan?....I know some1 can put me back in my place and say everythings fine in America, just go back to sleep & obey....

Ford Motor May Eliminate 25,000 Jobs to Stem Losses (Update4)
Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co. will eliminate 25,000 or more jobs in the next four years as the world's third-biggest automaker seeks to stem North American losses, according to people familiar with the reorganization.

Chief Executive Officer William Clay Ford Jr. will announce the job cuts, equivalent to about 20 percent of the company's automotive workforce in North America, on Jan. 23 as part of a plan called ``Way Forward.'' Bill Ford said this month the plan would include job reductions without specifying how many. The loss of 25,000 jobs would be the biggest such reduction at Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford since 2002.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...top_world_news

Kraft Foods Inc., the nation's largest food manufacturer, said Monday it would eliminate 8,000 more jobs, or about 8 percent of its work force, and close up to 20 production plants as it broadens an ongoing restructuring effort.

Kraft said the cuts would save an additional $700 million in annual costs, atop a targeted $450 million in savings it already had hoped to achieve through a restructuring that began in January 2004.

Northfield-based Kraft already had announced closures of 19 production facilities and the elimination of 5,500 jobs. Kraft said Monday that those efforts are on track, but it is expanding the restructuring plans to include more cuts.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060130/...DltBHNlYwM3MTY

Dell to Hire 5,000 People in India By RAJESH MAHAPATRA, Associated Press Writer
Mon Jan 30, 6:00 AM ET

Computer maker Dell Inc. said Monday it planned to add 5,000 jobs in India over the next two years, bringing its work force in the country to 15,000.

Dell is also looking to set up a manufacturing center in India, a move that could help boost the sale of Dell computers here, President and CEO Kevin Rollins told reporters after a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Round Rock, Texas-based company will hire 700 to 1,000 workers for a new call center in Gurgaon, a satellite town of the capital, New Delhi, Rollins said. The new call center, the company's fourth in India, will open in April, he said.

The other new hires will staff call centers in the cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad in southern India and Mohali in the northern state of Punjab. Also this year, the company plans to double the staff at its product testing center in Bangalore, which currently employs 300 engineers, Rollins said.

During his previous visit to India in April last year, Rollins had said Dell would make India a hub for its software development and back-office work
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060130/..._te/india_dell

GM Working to Achieve $4B in 2006 Savings
GM Working to Achieve $4B in Savings in 2006 As Co. Implements Turnaround Plan, CEO Says
The Associated Press
DETROIT - General Motors Corp. expects to achieve about $4 billion in savings this year as the world's largest automaker implements its North American turnaround plan, CEO Rick Wagoner said Friday.

In a statement preceding a conference call with analysts, Wagoner said the company is working to implement its previously announced plan to reduce structural costs by $6 billion a year by the end of 2006 and reduce material costs by $1 billion.

GM expects to realize $4 billion in savings this year as the initiatives are implemented.

The company's U.S. sales fell 4 percent in 2005, and GM lost billions of dollars in its North American operations. The company is scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings Jan. 26.

"We continue to explore ways to strengthen our liquidity, and we know the most obvious way is to get our North American automotive operations back to generating positive cash flow," Wagoner said in the statement Friday. "And we will continue to pursue other opportunities as well.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=1502031

http://wakeupfromyourslumber.blogspo...468729378.html

[eg420ne]

We are all trying to decipher last weekâ??s State of the Union. We are a nation, it seems, where the enemy lives and thrives among us. Something must be done. But what?

According to the 2006 SOTU, one of these enemies from within is the vibrant national movement for American isolationism, a movement that dominates both political parties at the grass roots. Led by the overwhelmingly popular American Conservative magazine, and fueled by the robust and militant Murray Rothbard/Garet Garret fan club, Bush believes that this resurgence of the Old Right will sweep the 2006 elections. This is an extremely dangerous situation for government, for Bush himself, for the existing Congress (to whom Mr. Bush was speaking) and for the military industrial complex in a time when we "are eating our seed corn," as Paul Craig Roberts explains.

The enemy, beyond the isolationism on the minds and lips of every American, also includes any and all critics of George W. Bush. Dangerously, these critics of Bush are evolving, and may even include new human-animal hybrids. Look, Iâ??m not making this up â?? it was all there.

Osama bin Laden may not be a friend of our way of life, but his most threatening role seems to be that of glory-hungry runner-up to Scooter Libby, current grand champion in the category "Mystical Images in Letters, Worldwide." While the latest Osama tape was indeed poetic and moving, I frankly see no competition for Libbyâ??s stirring "aspens are turning" composition. Like his artful rival, Scooter stands indicted for endangering American national security. Must be that artistic temperament, or perhaps a Straussian gift.

But no, the real problem facing Bush is that so many of us are just not paying attention to the real problems facing Bush! We are concerned about jobs, inflation, government growth, government abuse and infringement of our unalienable freedoms and rights, and government debt. But, as George W. Bush repeatedly repeats over and over, the dangers are none of these things!

Instead, the danger is people in this country talking to each other, promoting dangerous and unstable ideas like peace and isolationism, drawing cartoons, creating websites and blogs that challenge the veracity of the government media machine and expose the lack of constitutionality and rule of law in Washington. Plus, we are host to an underground movement dedicated to the creation of human-animal hybrids, for what purpose the government can only imagine.

Many of you will find this description of the real threats difficult to accept. However, your persistent stubbornness only proves my point that you have been seduced by the enemy, and duped. Allow me to refer you to the logic of former Chairman of the Defense Policy Board Richard Perle, who stated just this week (in a debate over when to invade Iran) that, "If you want to try to wait until the very last minute, you'd better be very confident of your intelligence because if you're not, you won't know when the last minute isâ?¦. And so, ironically, one of the lessons of the inadequate intelligence of Iraq is you'd better be careful how long you choose to wait."

One mustnâ??t think rationally, one must simply follow and comply.

Perleâ??s logic, like Bushâ??s repetitive SOTU this week are very helpful in understanding our current government. But to fully appreciate the SOTU, we must all become junior Straussians, and seek to distinguish the exoteric from the esoteric meaning.

Let us examine what seems to be the most curious idea introduced in the 2006 SOTU â?? human-animal hybrids. Like "aspens turning," the human-animal hybrid will someday have an important historical place in understanding the Bush administration. Exoterically, Bush is mad at the mad scientists, and wishes to see them reined in for the good of the country.

But esoterically, Bush has an entirely different meaning. While the president simultaneously alarms and comforts us common people, in fact he speaks powerfully in code to his real audience â?? those who understand him esoterically.

I invite you to join me in this Straussian excursion. In the final chapter of George Orwellâ??s Animal Farm, we find this paragraph, which has long been recognized as a key to deep understanding of political process:

It was just after the sheep had returned, on a pleasant evening when the animals had finished work and were making their way back to the farm buildings, that the terrified neighing of a horse sounded from the yard. Startled, the animals stopped in their tracks. It was Clover's voice. She neighed again, and all the animals broke into a gallop and rushed into the yard. Then they saw what Clover had seen.

It was a pig walking on his hind legs.

Yes, it was Squealer. A little awkwardly, as though not quite used to supporting his considerable bulk in that position, but with perfect balance, he was strolling across the yard. And a moment later, out from the door of the farmhouse came a long file of pigs, all walking on their hind legs. Some did it better than others, one or two were even a trifle unsteady and looked as though they would have liked the support of a stick, but every one of them made his way right round the yard successfully. And finally there was a tremendous baying of dogs and a shrill crowing from the black cockerel, and out came Napoleon himself, majestically upright, casting haughty glances from side to side, and with his dogs gambolling round him.

He carried a whip in his trotter.

This Orwellian text is immediately followed by the deep meaning resident in the Bush SOTU, the one received and acknowledged by the chosen few.

There was a deadly silence. Amazed, terrified, huddling together, the animals watched the long line of pigs march slowly round the yard. It was as though the world had turned upside-down. Then there came a moment when the first shock had worn off and when, in spite of everything-in spite of their terror of the dogs, and of the habit, developed through long years, of never complaining, never criticising, no matter what happened â?? they might have uttered some word of protest. But just at that moment, as though at a signal, all the sheep burst out into a tremendous bleating of-

"Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better!"

I must humbly reveal that I had help in discovering the critical Straussian key. Bob Cesca, in a HuffingtonPost blog, paved the way for my deeper understanding with his exploration of the dangers of the Pigman.

Thank you Bob, and thank you President Bush â?? I must say, since my discovery, I am beginning to feel, oh, I donâ??t know, more equal somehow. How about you?

February 6, 2006

Karen Kwiatkowski, Ph.D. [send her mail], a retired USAF lieutenant colonel, has written on defense issues with a libertarian perspective for militaryweek.com, hosts the call-in radio show American Forum on Saturday nights, and blogs occasionally for Huffingtonpost.com. To receive automatic announcements of new articles and upcoming guests on her American Forum radio program, click here.

[nicholasstanko]

nice.

[bonsaiguy]

FUBAR

[Myth1184]

The wiretaps werent illegal....The wiretaps werent illegal....The wiretaps werent illegal....The wiretaps werent illegal....The wiretaps werent illegal....The wiretaps werent illegal....The wiretaps werent illegal....The wiretaps werent illegal....

[bonsaiguy]

The wiretaps werent illegal....The wiretaps werent illegal....The wiretaps werent illegal....The wiretaps werent illegal....The wiretaps werent illegal....The wiretaps werent illegal....The wiretaps werent illegal....The wiretaps werent illegal....

That has yet to be determined, assuming it will ever be investigated in a rational manner.

[amsterdam]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but outsoursing is the future of the global marketpalce. Companies that dont adapt will crash and burn. And by looking at the economy and marketplace everyday, it is working.(Except Ford)lol

[eg420ne]

Ex-President Carter: Eavesdropping Illegal By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY, Associated Press Writer
Tue Feb 7, 1:12 AM ET



Former President Jimmy Carter criticized the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program Monday and said he believes the president has broken the law.

"Under the Bush administration, there's been a disgraceful and illegal decision â?? we're not going to the let the judges or the Congress or anyone else know that we're spying on the American people," Carter told reporters. "And no one knows how many innocent Americans have had their privacy violated under this secret act."

Carter made the remarks at a union hall near Las Vegas, where his oldest son, Jack Carter, announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate.

The former president also rebuked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for telling Congress that the spying program is authorized under Article 2 of the Constitution and does not violate the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act passed during Carter's administration. Gonzales made the assertions in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which began investigating the eavesdropping program Monday.

"It's a ridiculous argument, not only bad, it's ridiculous. Obviously, the attorney general who said it's all right to torture prisoners and so forth is going to support the person who put him in office. But he's a very partisan attorney general and there's no doubt that he would say that," Carter said. "I hope that eventually the case will go to the Supreme Court. I have no doubt that when it's over, the Supreme Court will rule that Bush has violated the law."

The former president said he would testify before the Judiciary Committee if asked.

"If my voice is important to point of the intent of the law that was passed when I was president, I know all about that because it was one of the most important decisions I had to make."

[CocaCola]

People are gonna to hear of some hole and rant about how Bush was RIGHT to tap people's homes. Loopholes in the system doesn't warrant a spy op on innocent people. But if it isn't happening to you, why would you guys care right?