well, it looks like we've done our job.


and if all is not well there in the newly rennovated neighborhood:

we will kill whoever stands in the way of our vision of peace.

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Sounds like a great and long-overdue plan to me! :p

Mike

__________________
_____
1979 300 SD
350,000 miles
_____
1982 300D-gone---sold to a buddy
_____
1985 300TD
270,000 miles
_____
1994 E320
not my favorite, but the wife wanted it

www.myspace.com/mikemover
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Anybody know what the job numbers are currently? Probably better would be employed/total since that should be unbiased by population changes (wouldn't be fair to use gross numbers now, would it?).

It'd be interesting to see job ratio on a graph over time with some GDP data. Anybody?

I'm betting the job slide began befor 9/11 and then dropped quickly perhaps a month or more after 9/11. I understand its been picking up now for about a year. When will it interesect the previous max ratio?

Bloomberg is a pretty good source of unbiased jobdata:

6/21/04

GDP Growth

Even with the recent surge in jobs, the economy has had a net loss of 1.5 million jobs during Bush's term, including 2.9 million manufacturing jobs, which typically pay more than the service jobs that account for most of the positions now being added.

In his weekly radio address on Saturday, Bush said the U.S. economy has ``defied gloomy predictions of pessimists,'' and was ``healthy, vibrant and growing.'' The president said ``many' of the jobs being added are ``in industries that pay above-average wages, such as construction and education and manufacturing.''

The nation's gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services, expanded 5 percent in the 12 months ended in March, the most since 1984. GDP grew by 4.4 percent in the first quarter, up from 4.1 percent in last year's fourth quarter.

Full article is at:

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=anZ.kYpKOIzw&refer=top_world_news

those krazy kids threw them the keys this AM.

smartest move ive seen them make in quite a while!

kudos to the planners and decision makers on this one.

Let's hope now they declare victory, and get out. We'll have a nice parade. Bush can give a speech in his flight suit, and victory will be ours.

I think it was probably a good move. No point in waiting around for an arbitrary date set a long time ago. Now we hold our breath and hope for the best.

From what I hear unfortunately though the Kurds aren't happy.

Very smart move, politically and logistically.

A big, lavish, planned-out and media-saturated ceremony on the 30th would have been an irresistable target for terrorists.

This way, they have given the appearance that the new government is up and running early, and they "pulled one over" on the radicals while they were at it! Bravo.

Mike

__________________
_____
1979 300 SD
350,000 miles
_____
1982 300D-gone---sold to a buddy
_____
1985 300TD
270,000 miles
_____
1994 E320
not my favorite, but the wife wanted it

www.myspace.com/mikemover
www.myspace.com/openskystudio
www.myspace.com/speedxband
www.myspace.com/openskyseparators
www.myspace.com/doubledrivemusic

I think the place will come apart in no time flat. The only way to keep it together is to resort to Saddams methods, which they will do shortly - marshal law, beheadings, mass arrests. Its not really a country and thats the only way it can be controlled. The Kurds are not Arabs, and they have created a small Kurdistan. Why would they want to be a minority in some arbitrary country?
We should have taken advantage of the Kurdish situation from day one. We could easliy make Kurdistan into another Israel just by recognizing it as a free country. We could base troops there for the best reason in the world- their people would want us there. After that let the rest of the country sort itself out, and what ever comes out of it, we could have kept our eye on it from Kurdistan, without soldiers dying every day.

Come on! Do you really think the new government is going to start beheading people? That is the most fallacious statement I have seen you make on this board! The new government cannot afford to be seen as having a heavy hand. On the other hand, it can go in and waste these terrorist cells with the impunity of a local government cleaning house. It wont be easy, but politically it will work better than us doing it all.

By the way it is MARTIAL law, although I guess it could be carried out by MARSHALLS

By the way..... the banner "Mission Accomplished" was a Navy banner for the ship, it was not intended to mean that we were finished by any means in Iraq. The ship was headed to its home port. The mission assigned to them was accomplished, and thusly they were headed home.

Not so sure why this little event raises the ire of so many of you guys on that side of the debate, guess the great photo op and the fact that Wubbya can still fly and fit into a flight suit pisses y'all off......................

Pardon the mis-spelling. The new government of Iraq has already stated that they will return to the chopping off of hands and beheadings of captured "terrorists" as part of a martial law plan. Its been pretty widely reported on the news. When asked about, the new PM said that this is their law and their way of handling things, which is true of Arab countries.

The new government has to face suicide bombers, insurgents from three different factions and religous fanatics. How they would do this with a "soft hand" rather than a heavy hand needs to be explained to me. Americans couldn't do it without torture and killings, how the heck are they going to be any different.

Jake, you listening to to much AM radio. The initial story from the administration was that "the Navy did it". That story has since been retracted and they have admitted it was all done out of Karl Rove's office, and all the Navy did was hang the stupid thing up. Rove is even on record saying he regrets doing it entirely now:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4760238/

By the way - I'm not pissed off - the whole flight suit thing is turning into a political windfall for the Democrats, and every time it is mentioned it reinforces a conception that Bush suffers from poor judgement. His declaration of "mission accomplished" at what was essentially the start of the real war in Iraq shows a guy not in touch with reality.