creating unspecified new ‘jobs’ (archives):
- Congress voted to let Bush shift $3.5 B to his campaign, oops, to 'Iraq security' (j.A1) - whatever that is (another slush fund for Cheney's buds?)
- is Halliburton's KBR a hot deal? parent says plenty of companies want to acquire distressed unit despite low profits, raft of govt investigations & other legal problems, topped by persisten political notoriety over its 'rebuilding' contracts in Iraq (j.C1)
- Pentagon spends without bids: study by Ctr for Public Integrity finds (t.C1) - nooo kidding
- Democrats seek fix for federal contract system (j.A8) - ohoh
vs. doom du jour tm for lack of TIMEsizing - in WSJ (j) and NYT (t) -
DOWNsizings - today's total, 1785 +?? jobcuts that made it into j (WSJ) or t (NYT):
- 985 jobcuts by Continental tires (j.C6, t.C4)
- 500 cuts by Agere Systems Inc. (j.C6)
- 250 cuts by Belo Corp., Dallas publisher (j.B11, t.C8)
- 50 more cuts by Computer Associates International (t.C1>7)
- unspecified cuts as CVS closes 160 stores (j.C6, t.C4)
- unspecified Montreal job loss as Expos leave for DC (t.C15)
DOWNsizing overviews noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT or (g) Boston Globe (archives):
- oil at $50 could bring sharp pinch - signs in US suggest companies, municipalities may curb jobs & services (j.A2)
- confidence of consumers shows a drop - job worries given most of blame (t.C11)
DOWNsizing results = bankruptcies noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT (archives):
Netexit Inc. et al., in Chapter 11 jointly in Del. (j.B9, t.C5)
DOWNsizing results = eroding retirement (archives):
IBM makes deal in move to partially settle big pension-plan lawsuit - agreed to pay $320m to thousands of older current & former employees who would lose benefits (t.A1, j.A1>3)
DOWNsizing results = prisons noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT (archives):
- mandatory sentences loom as issue - ahead of Supreme Court session that might change or even strike down current federal sentencing guidelines, all 3 branches of gov't jockey over control of system (j.A4)
- 'her West Virginia home', not Connecticut, as she requested - Martha Stewart is assigned to 'prison' built like college campus with lots of room & greenery & no barbed wire - Alderson gaol nicknamed 'Camp Cupcake' - Martha is prisoner No. 55170-054 (t.C1, j.C1>6, 10/09 t.B1>3)
headlines from HELL in (Wall St. Journal) j & (New York Times) t & (Bos.Globe) g (archives):
- global warming to worsen hurricanes - stronger wetter storms in computer simulations (t.A18)
- George Bush is still misleading with "Saddam was tied to 9/11", "Iraq had WMDs", "we're winning in Iraq" (t.A19) - repeat lies often & loud enough & truth fades
- with Bush advancing, Missouri may be a battleground all but conquered (t.A21) - well well, now even the "Show Me" state has become a "Sucker Me" state
- Edwards notes that Cheney himself warned of getting 'bogged down' in Iraq (t.A20) - tho Cheney may personally have been looking forward to the profits that would garner him
- House votes to repeal ban on handguns in DC - House Republicans forced a 250-171 vote to overturn Washington's 27-yr-old handgun ban, ignoring city officials' pleas (j.A1) - at least this would make our 'representatives' just as vulnerable as all the rest of us
- Washingtonians awoke Wednesday to see 178-ft blimp floating in highly restricted airspace above White House, Capitol & Pentagon in this fortified city (t.A16) = the cherry on the sundae of a militarily isolated & insulated fort presuming to represent a democracy?
- new services make it easier to hide who's behind websites (j.A1) - Cheney started a trend?
- Delaware's secrecy laws are prompting requests by Russian & Eastern European prosecutors for US help in fraud probes (j.A1) - another dramatization of how we're allowing Bush to turn USA into USSR's successor as the 'Evil Empire'
- is three the new two? - more families are deciding so when it comes to having kids (j.A1>D1) - "let's see how fast we can totally overpopulate & exhaust US ecosystem"
9/29/2004 wednesday
- please excuse delay while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- we have 730 textfiles: #visitors yesterday 9/28/tue: '216' sysfail (9/30/03/t: 928; 10/01/02/t: 739) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing news (click here for DETAILS):
- union employees at BMW in Leipzig win job security by shrinking & stretching worktime, not workforce
- Salvation Army in N.H. cuts hours, not jobs
- plus 16 other worktime-related items from yesterday's GoogleNews
- Boston-MA area workaholics who want to kick the habit - try *Workaholics Anonymous on Thurs.eves at 7:30 pm, 1st Baptist Church, 5 Magazine St, Central Sq, Cambridge
+ random glimmers of hope indexed to today's (j) Wall St Journal or (t) NYTimes (archives):
- CEO Gerald Grinstein will not draw a salary for the rest of the year to help Delta Airlines avoid bankruptcy (t.C4) - the less $concentration, the more $circulation
- rethinking free trade: Robert Kuttner - the dean of US economists, Paul Samuelson, challenges the basis of America's outsourcing doctrine, 'free trade' (g.A15) - compare our reference to 9/9 t.C1: 'an elder challenges outsourcing's orthodoxy'
- why we must not re-elect pResident Bush: full 2-page ad by George Soros in today's Wall Street Journal (j.A10-11) - compare: anti-Bush billionaire plans to give more (t.A20)
- 'CIA’s insurgency' - large swaths of CIA oppose US 'anti-terror' policy toward Iraq (j.A18)
- new voices join political fray on war, stem cells, gay unions - RealVoices.org, Scientists and Engineers for Change... (j.B3)
- Protestant divestment - Presbyterian Church USA's general assembly in Richmond VA this summer decided to explore selective divestment from companies doing business in Israel - some Jewish organizations are trying to stop movement from spreading (t.A20) - so it must be effective, & therefore the only effective strategy so far to switch America's racist pitbull troublemaker in Mideast over to non-violent Gandhian tactics
- Blair offers an apology, of sorts, over Iraq - says evidence for taking Britain to war in Iraq turned out to be wrong - but says world a better place with Saddam in prison, not in power (t.A10) - despite replacing former-US-pet dictator with chaos? - world would be better place with Bush and Blair in prison, not in power, for unprovoked first-strike, instead of provoked last-resort, war - but Brits are in no position to criticize us over Bush till they get rid of Blair
- Boston-area readers who want real news - try 90.3 FM 12-1pm Mon-Sat and 6-10am Sunday for "Radio Free America for Americans" dba *Democracy Now
vs. doom du jour tm for lack of TIMEsizing - in WSJ (j) and NYT (t) -
DOWNsizings - today's total, 1750 +?? jobcuts that made it into j (WSJ) or t (NYT):
- 1000 jobcuts by Motorola (j.C5, t.C6)
- 750 cuts (5%) Computer Associates International (j.B2)
- unspecified cuts by Cardinal Health (t.C4)
DOWNsizing overviews noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT or (g) Boston Globe (archives):
- oil at $50 could bring sharp pinch - signs in US suggest companies, municipalities may curb jobs & services (j.A2)
- confidence of consumers shows a drop - job worries given most of the blame (t.C11)
DOWNsizing results = bankruptcies noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT (archives):
HLM Design (USA/of North America/Architecture Engineering & Planning) Inc., in Chapter 11 jointly (j.C11)
DOWNsizing results = eroding retirement (archives):
more are eligible for heart device - accused of rationing care, Medicare expands the use of implanted defibrillators (j.D4)
headlines from HELL in (Wall St. Journal) j & (New York Times) t & (Bos.Globe) g (archives):
- oil producers' instability pushes crude over $50 (j.A3) - as oil flirts with $50/bbl, gas prices start to climb again (t.A1)
- having it all in America: Derrick Jackson - have our leaders sent our soldiers halfway round world to die for our cars? (g.A15) - if so, it's working in reverse, so really to die for their profits?
- after 9/11, where are the Arabic-speaking translators: letters to editor - no surprise we haven't enough when American schools have been getting rid of their foreign language requirements, says Lisle Merriman of E. Montpelier VT, and when American military has been discharging gay service people who are experts in translating Arabic languages, says Kurt Sauer of Allentown PA (t.A26)
9/28/2004 tuesday
- please excuse delay while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- we have 730 textfiles: #visitors yesterday 9/27/mon: '0' sysfail (9/29/03/m: 908; 9/30/02/m: 808) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing news (click here for DETAILS):
- finally - an articulate attack on "I'm overworked; therefore I'm successful"
- 6 of 9 NW Englanders think UK's workhours are too long, so no need to keep option to work longer than EU's 48-hour workweek maximum
- New Economics Foundation demands 35-hour workweek for UK because Brits work too many hours trying to buy way out of unhappiness that having no personal time imposes - need new measure of progress since GDP growth hasn't made Brits any happier since 1976
- Australian Council of Trade Unions complains of 2-tiered job market, split between well-paid workaholics, & underpaid temps & part-timers
- plus 7 other worktime-related items from yesterday's GoogleNews
- Boston-MA area workaholics who want to kick the habit - try *Workaholics Anonymous on Thurs.eves at 7:30 pm, 1st Baptist Church, 5 Magazine St, Central Sq, Cambridge
+ random glimmers of hope indexed to today's (j) Wall St Journal or (t) NYTimes (archives):
- UPsizings: • unspecified new jobs as Tiffany opens store in Shanghai, its 2d in China (t.C3)
- automakers are accelerating their efforts to improve fuel efficiency of gasoline engines (j.A1)
- reporters put under scrutiny in CIA leak (t.A1) - we do not need complicit reporters covering up for criminal leakers to facilitate more publication of Bush's high-treason leaks, eg: Valerie Plame
- scientists begin campaign to oppose Bush's policies - group Scientists & Engineers for Change will crisscross battleground states arguing that Bush has ignored & misused science (t.A19) - compare: Ted Kennedy denounces Bush policies as endangering the world (t.A18) - then why didn't he lead a campaign to impeach Bush before 9/11 after unilateral Kyoto & test ban etc. repudiations? - by now, Bush vote-manipulation may make it too late
- Massachusetts House to get new leader (t.A16) - thank God we're finally getting rid of Dictator Tom Finneran! - ditto state rep. Vinnie Ciampa, manipulator of ballot boxes (1996, Medford)
- Boston-area readers who want real news - try 90.3 FM 12-1pm Mon-Sat and 6-10am Sunday for "Radio Free America for Americans" dba *Democracy Now
+ clouded hope = makework = PUFFsizings, creating unspecified new ‘jobs’ (archives):
- White House seeks $7.1B more in disaster funds (j.A3)
- fact check - a closer look at Cheney and Halliburton (t.A18)
vs. doom du jour tm for lack of TIMEsizing - in WSJ (j) and NYT (t) -
DOWNsizings - today's total, 1026 jobcuts that made it into j (WSJ) or t (NYT):
- 1000 jobs vanish as Communications Energy & Paperworkers Union members accept early retirement packages from BCE unit Bell Canada (t.W1)
- 26 cuts as Ruminator Books, nee Hungry Mind, closes in St. Paul MN due to mismgmt (j.B4)
DOWNsizing results = bankruptcies noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT (archives):
Kitchen Etc. in Chapter 11 (j.C11)
DOWNsizing results = eroding retirement (archives):
- nursing-home care is outpacing inflation rapidly, MetLife said, with average daily cost of private room @ $192, a 6.1% rise in a year (j.A1>D8)
- improper Medicare limits found - federal investigators said that Bush administration had improperly allowed some private health plans to limit Medicare patients' choice of healthcare providers (t.C1>A17)
headlines from HELL in (Wall St. Journal) j & (New York Times) t & (Bos.Globe) g (archives):
- FBI said to lag on translations of terror tapes - Justice inquiry faults FBI - computer problems & shortage of linguists are cited (t.A1) - terrorist wiretaps have piled up to a 123,000-hour backlog & even 1/3 of Al Qaeda intercepts languish for more than 12 hours because of continued FBI translator shortage: Justice Dept. audit (j.A1) - "safer with Bush"? HA!
- blue chips fall below 10000 (j.C1) - Dow lost 58.70 to 9988.54, first close below 10000 since Aug.17, as oil rose (j.A1) - shares decline broadly (t.C13)
- oil nears $50 as Gulf storms curtail output - Nigeria rebels demand a halt to output there (t.C1, j.C1, A8) - crude oil prices hit a record (t.C13) - settled at new intraday high of $49.75/bbl - plunging US inventories signal price surge may continue (j.A1) - US supply low - efforts to reduce US oil addiction are few (j.A8)
- workers' share of healthcare premiums grew 36% & ranks of uninsured rose sharply in past 4 years: Families USA survey (j.A1)
9/25-27/2004 sat-mon (re fri biz)
- pls. excuse delays while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- #visitors to any of our 730 files, F Sa Su: 844,588,473 - wk's daily avg: 704
-
TIMEsizing awareness = strategic glimmers of hope in weekend's GoogleNews:
- French voters weaken Chirac for weakening the 35-hour workweek
- Heywood Hospital in Gardner MA cuts hours to avoid cutting more jobs
- Joe Tahoe pushes 'Do Nothing Day' on Sep.24 - maybe we could merge with 'Take Back Your Time Day' on Oct.24
- plus 16 other worktime-related articles - click here for details
+
random glimmers of hope indexing (j) Wall St.Journal, (t) NYTimes or (g) Bos.Globe (archives):
- UPsizings: • 300 new jobs as Toyota doubles plant size in Huntsville, Ala. (9/25 t.B4, 9/27 j.A12)
- against the grain - a Chinese appliance maker Haier Group has placed its bet on a counterintuitive strategy: it's bringing [unspecified] jobs to the U.S. (9/27 j.R6)
- California & Russia take steps to combat global warming - Calif. regulators approved Friday the first US rules limiting vehicle emissions of greenhouse gases blamed in global warming - gases linked to warming - toughest rules in nation - plus Moscow takes first formal steps toward ratifying Kyoto Protocol (9/25 t.A1, 9/27 j.A1>2)
- Canada: 5th province, conservative Nova Scotia, allows gay marriage, following Ont., Que., B.C., Man., & Yukon Terr. (9/25 t.A4)
+ clouded hope = makework = PUFFsizings, creating unspecified new ‘jobs’ (archives):
- US Air Force Secy James Roche has come under scrutiny over an email he sent to budget official while seeking to win a contract for Boeing (9/27 j.A1)
- nearing completion, Nagoya's Centrair airport emphasizes competitive edge (9/27 j.R9) - another super-costly artificial-island airport like Kanzai, which sinks 1 ft/yr - when will they ever learn?
vs. doom du jour tm for lack of timesizing, in j, t, & g (Boston Globe):
DOWNsizings - weekend's total = 1,913 jobcuts that made it into j (WSJ) or t (NYT):
- 930 jobcuts as AT&T closes call centers in WV, HI & PR & 'hollows itself out to be bought' (9/25 t.B1) = 400+130+ (5000[8%] - 4600[2/26])
- 686 cuts (3.4%) as UFJ Holdings Inc. pursues combination with Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. (9/27 j.C5) - again the toxic takeover-downsizing connection
- 282 cuts in Lehigh Valley PA as Agere Systems plans to restructure (9/25 t.B4)
- 15 officers & editors cut as Dennis Publishing USA (Maxim & Stuff mags) closes West Coast operations & cuts costs (9/25 t.B4)
DOWNsizing overviews noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT or (g) Boston Globe (archives):
Somerville MA: despite 2 arrests, break-ins still soar - 'it's like it's their job,' said Alderman Mary Heuston, chair of city's Public Safety Committee (9/26 g.City12) - that's ri-i-ight, but if we trimmed our 1940-era workweek & made it easier to find an honest job, things would change
DOWNsizing results = eroding retirement noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT or (g) Boston Globe (archives):
social security lifeline: Lou Glasse of Poughkeepsie NY - women have the most to lose from Bush's plan to privatize S/S into 'personal accounts' - over 40% of single older women rely on S/S for 90% of their income, but women are paid less than men, have more child & elder care responsibilities, & live longer (9/27 t.A30)
DOWNsizing results = prison news (archives):
- the persecuted, in chains: editorial - in jails & prisons across the U.S., 1000s of people are detained who have never been accused of crimes - they are held for months, sometimes years, just because they are foreigners who arrived in the U.S. saying they were fleeing persecution at home (9/25 t.A26)
- head count - the Census counts prisoners as residents of the towns where they're incarcerated - this inflates political clout of rural GOP districts where prisons are built & means that in 48 states where inmates can't vote, they're being 'represented' by legislators who can safely ignore them & whose political fortunes are tied to prison-industrial complex - with national prison population of 1.5m plus 0.7m in local jails, distorted democracy results: Dir. Peter Wagner of Prison Policy Institute (9/26 g.D1)
headlines from HELL (tm) from (j) Wall Street Journal or (t) NY Times or (g) Boston Globe (archives):
- Dow finished week down 237.22 at 10047.24, continuing pattern of weakening rallies followed by slumps (9/27 j.A1)
- oil futures settled Friday at $48.88 a barrel, their highest level since the contract started on the Nymex, amid supply concerns (9/27 j.A1)
- orders for durable goods fell on weak demand for aircraft (9/25 t.B4) - Bush isn't getting enuf shot down in Iraq?
- weaker growth in earnings looms (9/27 j.C4)
- bear with it... - the market is hitting lower lows & lower highs; unless stocks shake off this downward spiral, the bull is gone (9/27 j.A1>C1) - short sellers add to positions on the Nasdaq - bearish bets increased 1.8% in latest reporting period (9/27 j.B8) - though it could be the beginning of a bear market, many analysts instead see 'prolonged correction' (9/27 j.C1) - 'let the word games begin'
- foreign tax havens costly to US, study says - profit-shifting by corporations may be costing the Treasury as much as $20B a year (9/27 t.C2)
- '60 Minutes' delays report questioning reasons for Iraq War - CBS says a report so close to Nov. 2 'would be inappropriate' (9/25 t.A10) - not in a free country...
- targets of violence - Iraqi Christians are fleeing their country, & they're taking their politically moderate, socially liberal, largely pro-Western leanings with them - augurs more-extremist politics (9/27 j.A1>17)
- is there a draft in here, or is it just my email? - rumors that the military draft will return - 2 bills lie dormant in Congress - have been fanned by a storm of emails, plus the occasional gusts from Kerry & Nader (9/27 j.A1>B1)
- climate change: Dan Carsen of Brookline MA - that powerful economic interests are lining up to fight an inadequate baby-step plan to lessen auto greenhouse emission 30% by 2016 shows that our huge global warming exp't will likely proceed unchecked (9/27 t.A30)
weekend roll-up -
5 issues/wk - wk's avg homepage hits/issue: 64
hope of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
•
70 TIMEsizing items
• 4 UPsizings (300+ new jobs)
+ ‘hope’: • 8 makework items
vs. doom of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 7 DOWNsizings, over 2238 jobcuts
• 2 bankruptcies
• 8 eroding-retirement stories
• 1 homelessness story
• 3 prison stories
• 1 suicide story
{{ytd: 1265 timsizg (1636+ new or sav'd jobs)
+ 113 upsizs (109853+ new jobs)
+ 324 makwrk (36803+ 'jobs') =
tot: 148292 = 36% of cuts,
VS.
365 dnsz (411496+ cuts)
+ 148 bkrp ($416m+) +31 homlss +142 jail +19 deth }}
9/24/2004 friday
- please excuse delay while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- we have 730 textfiles: #visitors yesterday 9/23/thurs: 553 (9/25/03/th: 873; 9/26/02/th: 773 ) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing news (click here for DETAILS):
- in 1922, Ford cut its workweek from 6 days to 5 - in 1923, US Steel cuts its workday from 12 hours to 8
- faced with budget cuts, Becky Kelley of Georgia's state Parks Division is trying to cut hours, not a whole park
- European Trade Union Confederation fights EU's new attempt to water down its own 48-hour workweek maximum (including overtime)
- plus 6 other worktime-related items from yesterday's GoogleNews
- Boston-MA area workaholics who want to kick the habit - try *Workaholics Anonymous on Thurs.eves at 7:30 pm, 1st Baptist Church, 5 Magazine St, Central Sq, Cambridge
+ random glimmers of hope indexed to today's (j) Wall St Journal or (t) NYTimes (archives):
- UPsizings: • unspecified new jobs as Bank of America, a believer in branches, opens in NYC (t.C1)
- Boston-area readers who want real news - try 90.3 FM 12-1pm Mon-Sat and 6-10am Sunday for "Radio Free America for Americans" dba *Democracy Now
+ clouded hope = makework = PUFFsizings,
creating unspecified new ‘jobs’ (archives):
Halliburton said it is restructuring its Kellogg Brown & Root [KBR] subsidiary & would consider selling or spinning it off (j.A1)
vs. doom du jour tm for lack of TIMEsizing - in WSJ (j) and NYT (t) -
DOWNsizings - today's total, 55 jobcuts that made it into j (WSJ) or t (NYT):
13% workforce cut (another 55 jobs lost) as Walt Disney's Miramax Films and their co-chairs Harvey & Bob Weinstein clash with the new corporate parent, instead of just cutting 13% of its workweek (five 7-hour days for everyone, including execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone together working, earning and viewing 87% as many films as before (j.B4)
DOWNsizing overviews noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT or (g) Boston Globe (archives):
jobless claims up by 14,000 in August (t.C2)
DOWNsizing results = eroding retirement (archives):
UAL (United Airlines) reiterates pensions are at risk - provides an idea of worker pension losses - just 44% of pilots can expect to receive full benefits, 62% of mechanics - employee T-shirt: 'pensions are promises that cannot be broken' (j.B2, t.C3)
& headlines from HELL in (Wall St. Journal) j & (New York Times) t & (Bos.Globe) g (archives):
- key indicators of economy fell in August (0.3%) for third month (j.B2)
- Dow industrials slid 70.28 points to 10038.90 as oil prices rose for a sixth straight day (j.A1) - tough 10000 liftoff - cf: as 'bull market' nears a birthday, few seem ready to celebrate (t.C1)
- US Army National Guard to miss recruiting goal by 5,000 recruits - first time in 10 years (t.A16)
- Antarctic researchers report in the journal Science that the ice cap's glaciers are now thinning twice as fast as in the 1990s & raising the sea level (j.A1)
9/23/2004 thursday
- please excuse delay while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- we have 730 textfiles: #visitors yesterday 9/22/wed: 883 (9/24/03/w: 892; 9/25/02/w: 756 ) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing news (click here for DETAILS):
- relengthening workweeks in Europe has not yet proceeded far enough to clobber Euro stocks via consumer-base puncture
- 75% of full-time US employees work more than 40 hours a week: BLS
- the bombardment of America's 1940-era workweek by automation is constantly increasing hidden unemployment, now at least 13.8% including welfare, disability, homelessness & incarceration
- plus 10 other worktime-related items from yesterday's GoogleNews
- Boston-MA area workaholics who want to kick the habit - try *Workaholics Anonymous on Thurs.eves at 7:30 pm, 1st Baptist Church, 5 Magazine St, Central Sq, Cambridge
+ random glimmers of hope indexed to today's (j) Wall St Journal or (t) NYTimes (archives):
- European press criticizes Bush address to UN as a denial of a worsening situation in Iraq (t.A6) - at least In Europe there's still media honesty - & notice how gutless NY Times editors report on Europeans doing it instead of doing it themselves
- prince of tides - British are soon going to cut their 7000 Iraq troops by a third (t.A27)
- New Jersey bars state contacts for political donors = last act of gay Gov. Jas. McGreevey in state rattled by corruption scandals (t.A1)
- American Amicable Life Insurance to refund money to soldiers it sold its overpriced policies (t.C1)
- economy is electoral curveball - recent bright signs may benefit Bush but they're erratic, while dark jobs&income issues help Kerry & they're lasting (j.A4)
- Boston-area readers who want real news - try 90.3 FM 12-1pm Mon-Sat and 6-10am Sunday for "Radio Free America for Americans" dba *Democracy Now
+ clouded hope = makework = PUFFsizings,
creating unspecified new ‘jobs’ (archives):
- pork: former Rep. Joe Scarborough on editorial page - 10 years ago, Republican congressional candidates like me were running as DC outsiders, promising to balance the budget & pay off the federal debt - we campaigned against the Imperial Congress & promised Americans that if we got elected, we would be different ... - we lied (j.A14)
- £3.4B ($6.1B) British Energy bailout by UK govt approved by EC if BE splits up nuke, non-nuke & sales units, & limits pricing & investment (t.W1)
vs. doom du jour tm for lack of TIMEsizing - in WSJ (j) and NYT (t) -
DOWNsizings - today's total, 160 jobcuts that made it into j (WSJ) or t (NYT):
160 jobs lost as Plexus Corp. closes plant in Bothell WA (t.C3)
DOWNsizing overviews noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT or (g) Boston Globe (archives):
for jobs, Brazilians forsake their cities - work is plentiful in the countryside (t.W1) - you mean out there beside the slave labor in rural Brazil?
DOWNsizing results = bankruptcies noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT (archives):
at giant baker of Twinkies & Wonderbread, freshness project takes sour turn - Interstate Bakeries' drive to extend shelf life has problems; now, a Chapter 11 filing (j.A1, t.C5)
DOWNsizing results = eroding retirement (archives):
- Kerry maintains domestic focus, turning to Social Security & Medicare (t.A23)
- how not to save Social Security: editorial - Bush wants to privatize in 'personal accounts' - Kerry said in his acceptance speech, 'I will not privatize Social Security' - Bush is wrong & Kerry is right (t.A26) - look not only at the erratic behavior of the stock markets, but also at the betrayal of retirees by private corporations
& headlines from HELL in (Wall St. Journal) j & (New York Times) t & (Bos.Globe) g (archives):
- worldwide investment fell in 2003 (j.A13) - so much for the idea that greater concentration of money makes for more investment & more jobs - in fact, money gets trapped at the top & marginalism prevails - who's doing OK? compare: to have & have not - luxury retailers have escaped the belt-tightening - so whey is Joe 6-Pack in so much less of a spending mood than Joe Millionaire (j.C1) - maybe cuz it's not about mood - it's about not having spending money
- stocks tumble, bonds rally, over economy - blue chips drop 135.75 points amid high crude-oil prices (j.C1) - China is joining global hunt for oil & coming up dry (j.C1) - contrast: Europe stocks glow amid gloom (j.C16)
- Bush & Musharraf confer (t.A16) - our dictator, & his dictator - compare: neither candidate has made the sale yet, but 55% now say we're worse off than 4 years ago, compared to 35% who said that then (j.A15)
- editorial: the UN? who cares ... our skepticism has turned, at last, to indifference (j.A14) - well, says the rest of the world, 'the US? who cares ... our skepticism turns at last to indifference' - the rest of the world moves ahead without US/us
- draft of House intelligence bill vastly expands US police power (j.A4) - opponents say Republicans plan sequel to Patriot Act with further cuts in civil liberties (t.A18)
- study finds accelerating decline in corporate taxes (t.C3) - notice spread of meanness & fraud since 3rd Corporate Regime started in 1980 at start of The Me Decade (1st, 1865-1901; 2nd, 1920-1932; source, Charles Derber's Regime Change Begins at Home)
- automakers attack proposal to address global warming (t.C3) - contrast: China setting its first rules on vehicle fuel economy - standards for SUVs & minivans that are much tougher than those in the US (t.W7)
- deal clinched in Congress to keep taxcuts for 5 years without trying to pay for them, widening deficit by $145B (t.A1)
- medical debts are rising for many of the 57m Americans who suffer chronic illnesses, even those with insurance (j.A1>D2)
- 2 studies find laws on felons present in all but 2 states forbid many black men to vote - 1 in every 7 black men in Atlanta, 1 in every 4 in Providence (t.A21)
- dollars for dictators - more IMF 'paper gold' for Iran, Zimbabwe, Syria... (j.A14) = time to dismantle the IMF
- airport security may soon find out limits of passenger modesty with tests planned of an Xray device that sees thru clothing (j.A1>D3)
9/22/2004 wednesday
- please excuse delay while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- we have 729 textfiles: #visitors yesterday 9/21/tue: 829 (9/23/03/t: 979; 9/24/02/t: 696 ) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing news (click here for DETAILS):
- Madrid thinktank Fundacion Independiente is leading campaign to shorten Spain's workday
- only 20% of the total Dutch workforce have 40-hour workweeks, while slightly more than 40% work part time
- Le Monde gives journalists 11 weeks of annual paid vacation
- on Wed. the EU will address the violations of its working time directive, especially in UK
- plus 18 other worktime-related items from yesterday's GoogleNews
- Boston-MA area workaholics who want to kick the habit - try *Workaholics Anonymous on Thurs.eves at 7:30 pm, 1st Baptist Church, 5 Magazine St, Central Sq, Cambridge
+ random glimmers of hope indexed to today's (j) Wall St Journal or (t) NYTimes (archives):
- UPsizings: • unspecified new jobs as UPS plans to expand its express delivery service in India this year by raising cities served from 13 to 24 (j.A12)
- US states lead renewable energy push (j.A8) - though businesses aim to avoid global-warming mandates (j.A8)
- Fed raises short-term rates by ¼-point to 1.75%, 3rd time in 3 months (t.C1) - good: that may cool economy & get rid of Bush - compare: growing signs of a slowing on Wall Street (t.C1) & fight for US Senate has tightened - in some races, Democrats run more strongly than expected (j.A4)
- Japan, Germany, India & Brazil pledged to work together to expand the UN Security Council & get seats on it (j.A1) - good: the counterbalance to Bush's aggression grows apace
- Boston-area readers who want real news - try 90.3 FM 12-1pm Mon-Sat and 6-10am Sunday for "Radio Free America for Americans" dba *Democracy Now
vs. doom du jour tm for lack of TIMEsizing - in WSJ (j) and NYT (t) -
DOWNsizing overviews noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT or (g) Boston Globe (archives):
Spain moves to curb outflow of jobs with tax breaks (j.A18)
DOWNsizing results = eroding retirement (archives):
- US House of Reps backs bid to bar fed.gov't from intervening on IBM's behalf in massive pension lawsuit (j.A14) - like giant corporation's need more taxpayer help!
- Lucent plans to make more cuts to its retiree healthcare benefits, a move that will hurt 1000s of former employees (j.A1>26, t.C4) - note America's rising broadbased attack on CONTRACTS, on various excuses: pension contracts, healthcare contracts, international contracts (testban, Kyoto, World Court, Geneva Accords, UN Charter...) - this is what is bringing America down from within
& headlines from HELL in (Wall St. Journal) j & (New York Times) t & (Bos.Globe) g (archives):
- bears growl on NYSE - short interest nudged 1% higher = 2nd consecutive monthly rise (j.C1>15)
- US home construction picks up pace (j.A6) - why bad? economic growth should not depend on population growth in a finite biosphere - meanwhile...
- Bush is seeking cuts in rent subsidies for poor families (t.A1)
- retailers are estimating that holiday-seasons sales will rise 4.5% over year-earlier (j.A1) - don't they mean "wishing" - obviously the poorer poor aren't gonna buy stuff
- newly obtained CIA review is critical of prewar Iraq analysis (j.A18)
- Bush told the UN that Iraq & Afghanistan are the world's fight too (j.A1) - well, maybe Afghanistan, but don't expect others to pay for Bush's colossally costly Iraq mistake
- how are we to pay for all this? - pity the kids (j.A28) - but good this is starting to appear on WSJ editorial page, - Bush better cut the wars, not the seniors, or he's history - fighting 19 guys with boxcutters does not take $1 billion a week
- Bush plans to sell Israel bombs including bunker busters that could be sued to threaten Iran nuclear facilities (j.A1) - 3 birds with 1 stone: keepin' our arms mfrs happy, keepin' the Middle East boiling, & by keepin' Arabs (whose language is also Semitic) & Jews killin' each other, Bush can be anti-Semitic on a broader front while Israelis think he backs 'em
- lease obligations at companies nationwide don't show up on corporate balance sheets, thanks to accounting rules (j.A1) = systemic fraud
9/21/2004 tuesday
- please excuse delay while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- we have 729 textfiles: #visitors yesterday 9/20/mon: 756 (9/22/03/m: 971; 9/23/02/m: 770 ) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing news (click here for DETAILS):
- tens of thousands strike in Rotterdam & Hague to contest rightwing plan to introduce longer workweek
- UK media takes its leisure time seriously
- plus 5 other worktime-related items from yesterday's GoogleNews
- Boston-MA area workaholics who want to kick the habit - try *Workaholics Anonymous on Thurs.eves at 7:30 pm, 1st Baptist Church, 5 Magazine St, Central Sq, Cambridge
+ random glimmers of hope indexed to today's (j) Wall St Journal or (t) NYTimes (archives):
- U.S. judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly orders FEC to tighten election rules - campaign money at issue (t.A1) - the Federal Election Commission's [FEC's] mockery of its own law: editorial - scathing new court decision pinions FEC for what its has long been = chief writer & enabler of election law loopholes that invite big-money corruption of the political process (t.A34)
- in harshest critique yet, Kerry attacks Bush over war in Iraq (t.A1, j.A1) - finally, Kerry takes a stand (t.A35) - talking sense, at last, on Iraq (t.A34)
- what's news online - Kerry continues to lead in a majority of battleground states (j.D3)
- Boston-area readers who want real news - try 90.3 FM 12-1pm Mon-Sat and 6-10am Sunday for "Radio Free America for Americans" dba *Democracy Now
+ clouded hope = makework = PUFFsizings, creating unspecified new ‘jobs’ (archives):
- US Senate unanimously passes 3d of 13 spending bills needed to finance the government in the fiscal year that begins Oct.1 = $10 billion to finance military construction [where?] for 2005 (t.A20) - Dave Barry's defn of the Senate: "white male millionaires working for you"
- US Army renews contract for continued translation services in Iraq, worth up to $400m for 1 year, with defense company Titan Corp., whose employees were implicated in a prisoner-abuse scandal (j.B6)
- US Air Force gave $170m contract for surveillance aircraft to Northrop Grumman Corp. of L.A. (t.C4) - ever wonder where our economic "growth" is coming from?
vs. doom du jour tm for lack of TIMEsizing - in WSJ (j) and NYT (t) -
simulated growth thru takeovers = appetizers for DOWNsizing - (mega & banking archives):
- Rogers Wireless Communications to buy Microcell Telecommunications in Canada for C$1.4B or US$1.08B (j.B9)
- after takeovers, the next steps, cumulatively lethal, usually involve consolidation & downsizing
DOWNsizings - today's total, 110 jobcuts that made it into j (WSJ) or t (NYT):
110 cuts as Peoples Energy natural gas in Chicago lowers earnings forecast (t.C4)
DOWNsizing overviews noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT or (g) Boston Globe (archives):
- where do the jobs come from? Bush says he loves small business - small-biz owners tend to support him but are not yet giving him what he needs most: surge in jobs (t.E1)
- the jungle - 9/30/01 Mary Gilleece of Cambridge MA lost her DB admin job; 9/30/03 she lost similar job at small Newton college - now she's "living on fumes" (j.B10) - is this a confident consumer ... or another de-activated one?
DOWNsizing results = bankruptcies noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT (archives):
RC Diocese of Tucson becomes 2nd to file for Chapter 11 after Diocese of Portland OR from debt fueled by sex-abuse settlements (j.A1, t.A16)
DOWNsizing results = eroding retirement (archives):
- Medicare, now & in the future: 5 letters to editor (t.A34) - future? what future?
- Delta & pilots reach pact in early retirement dispute - tentative deal leaves pension plan intact for NEXT 4 MONTHS! (t.C4) - whoopeedoo - then do they issue harikari swords?
DOWNsizing results = homelessness in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT (archives):
homeless men shunted into NYC shelter troubled by e.g. broken elevators & physically abusive employees (t.A1)
DOWNsizing results = prisons noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT (archives):
Dept. of Interior's inspector general calls jails run by Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs a 'national disgrace' that has resulted in 22 deaths, 236 suicide attempts, & 631 escapes in past 3 years (j.A10)
DOWNsizing results = suicides - lack of work-life balance kills (archives):
on a bridge in Nanjing, China, the suicidal meet a staying hand - suicide is now the leading cause of death for Chinese aged 15-34, eg: desperate (ie: unemployed) migrant workers (t.A4)
& headlines from HELL in (Wall St. Journal) j & (New York Times) t & (Bos.Globe) g (archives):
- U.S. cities are mired in fiscal woes - study finds a dim outlook, as costs outstrip revenue while state aid dries up (j.A6) - & as Bush redirects federal aid from states & cities to corporations & the super-rich
- as prices soar, doomsayers provoke debate on oil's future [so anyone who wants to talk about oil's future is slammed as a 'doomsayer' AND 30 years out of date...] - in a 1970s echo, Dr. Colin Campbell warns supply is drying up, but industry isn't worried [of course not, industry only looks 3 months ahead] - charges of 'Malthusian bias' from oil-industry consultant Michael Lynch, whom Campbell compares to a 'faith healer' (j.A1)
- how taxcuts [boomerang & actually] feed the beast - thanks to Bush, big government is back (t.A35)
- the last pre-election deception - can Bush keep Iraq disaster under wraps for a few more weeks? maybe, if the media keep playing along (t.A35)
9/18-20/2004 sat-mon (re fri biz)
- pls. excuse delays while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- #visitors to any of our 729 files, F Sa Su: 703,439,511 - wk's daily avg: 689
-
TIMEsizing awareness = strategic glimmers of hope in weekend's GoogleNews:
- cutting hours creates jobs in northern England
- cutting hours saves jobs in California
- plus 23 other worktime-related articles - click here for details
+ clouded hope = makework = PUFFsizings, creating unspecified new ‘jobs’ (archives):
- highway robbery: editorial - McCain's hint about dropping support for Congress's porky highway bill could mean lights out for it this year - the country should be so lucky (9/20 j.A20)
- tax break brings economic development, & fraud to Virgin Islands (9/18 t.A12)
vs. doom du jour tm for lack of timesizing, in j, t, & g (Boston Globe):
DOWNsizings - weekend's total, 1250 +?? jobcuts that made it into j (WSJ) or t (NYT):
- 1150 UK jobcuts at Jaguar as Ford 'takes hard [or suicidal?] line' & shuts down auto assembly at Coventry plant 'to stanch losses in Europe' (9/20 j.A1>B4) - dream on, market cutter
- 100 jobcuts as Nestle closes its 20+-year-old R&D center in New Milford CT & moves jobs to Ohio & Switzerland (9/18 t.B4)
- unspecified jobs lost as Japan shuts all 4 private-banking branches of Citibank/Japan, citing serious violations of banking laws (9/18 t.B1)
DOWNsizing overviews noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT or (g) Boston Globe (archives):
- key election states hit by job loss with only 7 weeks to go - rich in electoral votes, less so in paychecks - Ohio has 20 votes but lost 11,800 jobs in Aug. & has 40,000 less than began a year ago - Missouri lost 5500 jobs in Aug. & about 24000 since June - Michigan lost 21000 since June & 45000 over past year - overall, nation added 1.7m jobs over past year but still 900,000 less than when Bush took office (9/18 t.B1>A9, 9/20 A2)
- difficult choices at airline unions - workers who lost jobs divide on givebacks (9/20 t.A1)
DOWNsizing results = hyperconcentrated, uncirculating income in the top brackets:
Coca-Cola Co. CEO's pay may hit $15m, tied to performance incentives (9/20 j.C7) - funny how massively inefficient 'monetary incentives' are for top executives
DOWNsizing results = eroding retirement noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT or (g) Boston Globe (archives):
Social Security poses hurdles for pResident (9/18 t.A1) - only if he keeps trying to privatize it
DOWNsizing results = bankruptcies (archives) in WSJ (j) and/or NYT (t):
A.B. Dick Co., et al. in Chapter 11 (9/20 j.B6)
DOWNsizing results = prison news (archives):
- how unproven allegations can lengthen time in US prison - stories of 5 convicts show that charges in dispute often add to sentences (9/20 j.A1)
- Trumbull County, Ohio: state opens 4th women's prison in Jan. due to rising drug convictions, reduced probation options & longer sentences - State Dept. of Rehab & Correction predicts women prisoners will increase to 3600 by 2012 = 28% up from 2004 (9/18 t.A9)
headlines from HELL (tm) from (j) Wall Street Journal or (t) NY Times or (g) Boston Globe (archives):
- in wake of Beslan, Putin says pre-emptive strikes, maybe abroad, are near (9/20 j.A1) - thank Bush for opening this can of worms
- Kerry says Bush plans huge call-up after election (9/18 g.A1)
- what does Sen. Zell Miller mean, asks Robert Embry of Baltimore, when he chastises Dems for 'shameful, manic obsession with bringing down commander-in-chief' - does he want to abolish elections during undeclared 'war on terror'? or permit them only as long as there's just one candidate? (9/20 j.A21) - strategy of Perpetual War would keep Bush in power forever - how did we get so many authority-dazzled democracy-dissing morons in Congress at once?
- not your typical recovery - growth is subdued [or merely a mirage defined into the GDP] and deflation may be as big a threat as inflation (9/19 g.E1)
- current consumer confidence levels slip in mid-Sept. (9/20 j.A2)
- crude oil soars to almost $3/bbl on storm-related shutdowns = 4-week high (9/18 t.B4)
- hurricane Ivan leaves a host of cleanup challenges - Gov. Jeb Bush said, "I don't know quite why we've had this run of storms" (9/18 g.A2) - could it possibly be related to Jeb's election fraud in 2000 & 2002 & his planned election fraud this Nov.?
- on a waiting list for the American dream (aren't we all... but this is about...) - immigrants waiting for free or low-cost English classes - more than 3500 adult immigrants are on such lists in Boston alone (9/19 g.A1) - what kind of country is it that neither requires people to learn its language before immigration nor teaches it after? (A: one looking to sink into tribalism?)
- China approves marketing of Bayer's impotence drug Levitra (9/20 j.C7) - why would a country so overpopulated as to limit families to one child want to approve an impotence drug, instead of just easing adoption?
weekend roll-up -
5 issues/wk - wk's avg homepage hits/issue: 75
hope of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
•
61 TIMEsizing items
• 2 UPsizings (3550+ new jobs)
+ 'hope': • 10 makework items
vs. doom of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 10 DOWNsizings, over 3110 jobcuts
• 5 bankruptcies
• 11 eroding-retirement stories
• 5 prison stories
{{ytd: 1195 timsizg (1636+ new or sav'd jobs)
+ 109 upsizs (109553+ new jobs)
+ 316 makwrk (36803+ 'jobs') =
tot: 147992 = 36% of cuts,
VS.
358 dnsz (409358+ cuts)
+ 146 bkrp ($416m+) +30 homlss +139 jail +18 deth }}
9/17/2004 friday
- please excuse delay while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- we have 729 textfiles: #visitors yesterday 9/16/thurs: 783 (9/18/03/th: 923; 9/19/02/th: 704 ) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing news (click here for DETAILS):
- finally a commentator on Europe who recognizes that longer workweeks is going to mean even fewer employees & consumers, & slower growth
- 5 stories on Canada's National Hockey League lockout triggering staff workweek reductions to delay or reduce layoffs
- plus 4 other worktime-related items from yesterday's GoogleNews
- Boston-MA area workaholics who want to kick the habit - try *Workaholics Anonymous on Thurs.eves at 7:30 pm, 1st Baptist Church, 5 Magazine St, Central Sq, Cambridge
+ random glimmers of hope indexed to today's (j) Wall St Journal or (t) NYTimes (archives):
- UPsizings: • 1000 new jobs as Eurostar Diamond Traders of Belgium builds diamond cutting & polishing factory in Gaborone, Botswana (t.W1)
• 550 new jobs as Lev Leviev recently opened same kind of factory in Namibia (j.W1)
- dead GI's mother is arrested at Laura Bush speech (t.A14) - Sue Niederer interrupted speech with shouted question, "Why don't your children serve?" - Sue is a hero - & now the Bushes will make her suffer (more) for it in our vanishing 'Land of the Free'
- in address to National Guard, Kerry points out Bush's own ignored intelligence estimate gives bleak picture of Iraq & contradicts bright picture from Bush’s 'fantasy world of spin' (t.A1)
- Bush says Kerry is pushing nationalized healthcare (t.A13) - that is GREAT news!
- Canada agrees to increase spending on its healthcare - adding $14B to $60B program that covers all Canadians (t.A6, j.A13) = 14 weeks of costs for unnecessary Iraq war stuck onto U.S. taxpayers, totaling $200B so far as of 9/9
- Canada: 4th province, Manitoba, legalizes gay marriage, joining Ont., Que., B.C. & Yukon Territory (t.A8) - the rest of the world moves on toward quality, not quantity, of human life, while Bush & Ashcroft shove the U.S. back to the Inquisition
- Boston-area readers who want real news - try 90.3 FM 12-1pm Mon-Sat and 6-10am Sunday for "Radio Free America for Americans" dba *Democracy Now
+ clouded hope = makework = PUFFsizings, creating unspecified new ‘jobs’ (archives):
- the U.S. faces friction with allies over accounting for how the coalition authority that ran Iraq until the June 'transfer of sovereignty' spent $8.8B, largely Iraqi oil money, $1.9B of it (22%) in its final days (j.A1>4)
- Washington wire - Cheney received $2m in deferred compensation while his old firm Halliburton won Iraq contracts (j.A4)
- Medicare pays private health plans more than it would cost to care for the same patients in the traditional Medicare program (t.C1>A12)
vs. doom du jour tm for lack of TIMEsizing - in WSJ (j) and NYT (t) -
DOWNsizings - today's total, 830 jobcuts that made it into j (WSJ) or t (NYT):
- 600 US & German jobcuts as Kodak shuts plant in Coburg, Australia (t.C4)
- 2% workforce cut (230 jobs lost) as Hillenbrand Industries hospital beds & coffins [we are not making this up!] lowers earnings forecast, instead of just cutting 2% of its workweek (11 minutes a day for everyone, including execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone together working, earning and flying 98% as much as before (t.C4)
DOWNsizing overviews noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT or (g) Boston Globe (archives):
- GE is in talks to sell its offshoring operations in India for up to $1B in a move to capitalize on the outsourcing wave (j.A1)
- Washington wire - outsourcing jobs - AFL-CIO starts website to trace by name & zipcode about 200,000 US companies & subsidiaries that have sent jobs abroad - will have job-loss analyses specific to several battleground states, including OH, WS, MO (j.A4)
DOWNsizing results = bankruptcies noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT (archives):
Petracom (Media) of Joplin/Texarkana/Show Low LLC (j.B7)
DOWNsizing results = eroding retirement (archives):
- study rips San Diego over pension woes, 'sees no wrongdoing' (j.C1) - use of pension money in city budget sows trouble - however risky in concept, the practice is legal & relatively wide-spread (t.C1>4) - in short, private pensions are no safer than Social Security & maybe less safe
- new Medicare data raises Congress' concern - indicates Medicare pays private health plans more than it would cost to care for the same patients in the traditional Medicare program - program not seeing anticipated savings (t.C1>A12)
- those soaring Medicare premiums - 17% increase announced this week is largest in program's history (t.A26)
- IBM settles small part of massive lawsuit involving its cash-balance pension plan for $?? (j.A2)
DOWNsizing results = prisons noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT (archives):
- new charges raise questions on abuse [ie: torture] at Afghan prisons (t.A1)
- Guantanamo defense lawyers were barred from seeing clients while the military conducts reviews to confirm 'enemy combatant' status (j.A1)
& headlines from HELL in (Wall St. Journal) j & (New York Times) t & (Bos.Globe) g (archives):
- Gen. James Helmly warns of looming shortage of specialists - with fighting in 2 countries, Army Reserve is pressed (t.A12)
- are we safer now? (t.A5) - dream on
- NYC faces court challenge to its street arrest policy at the Republican convention - system of mass arrests appears to fail its first major test (t.A18)
- Washington wire - 17% higher Medicare premiums: Republicans' only defense is an anti-Kerry offense as Kerry blasts Bush for raising premiums (j.A4)
- what's news online - the polls on today's political campaigns may be flawed - Al Hunt says definitions of 'likely voters' may exclude too many, a factor favoring Bush (j.B2)
- ahead of the tape - after so many laps around the track, U.S. consumer's legs have got to be feeling mighty heavy by now (j.C1) - consumers play key role in interest-rate raises - the US consumer, always a powerhouse behind US & global growth, assumed heroic stature in recent years, with hefty borrowing, as the superman [Atlas] holding up sagging economy after other 2 major bulwarks, jobs market & business spending, buckled (j.C5)
- in China, labor bears too much litchi fruit (t.A1) - over-production = under-consumption = too little money circulating = too much unemployment = too long working hours per person
- taxing global profits [not]: editorial - new study shows US multinational corporations booked record $149B profits in tax-haven countries in 2002 (t.A26) = 'malefactors of great wealth': Teddy Roosevelt
9/16/2004 thursday
- please excuse delay while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- we have 728 textfiles: #visitors yesterday 9/15/wed: 793 (9/17/03/w: 893; 9/18/02/w: 748 ) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing news (click here for DETAILS):
- Britons working shorter weeks, but average weeks, in the worst possible way = part-time with no benefits
- Senate follows House in voting to scuttle Bush's highhanded attempt to change US overtime arrangements
- plus 6 other timesizing items from yesterday's GoogleNews
- Boston-MA area workaholics who want to kick the habit - try *Workaholics Anonymous on Thurs.eves at 7:30 pm, 1st Baptist Church, 5 Magazine St, Central Sq, Cambridge
+ random glimmers of hope indexed to today's (j) Wall St Journal or (t) NYTimes (archives):
- Kerry attacks Bush on economy - opens broad assault on Bush's credibility, keying on jobs - tagged the record of his rival as the "excuse presidency," saying Bush refuses to take responsibility for economic sluggishness [or any other bad news!] - Kerry demanded to know how Bush intends to get the U.S. out of Iraq & raised questions on the prospects of Jan. elections there (j.A1>4)
- what's news online - a Harris poll finds that, 2 wks after the GOP convention, the presidential race is again in a dead heat (j.B2) - Kerry's starting to do better at channeling the public's huge anger (insight credit to Bob Reich, NPR 9/22)
- the State Dept. added Saudi Arabia for the first time to the list of nations that may face sanctions over religious persecution, a rare rebuke (j.A1) - at last, the Bushes' sheltered cronies feel some heat
- Boston-area readers who want real news - try 90.3 FM 12-1pm Mon-Sat and 6-10am Sunday for "Radio Free America for Americans" dba *Democracy Now
+ clouded hope = makework = PUFFsizings, creating unspecified new ‘jobs’ (archives):
- Senate panel adds over $3B to budget bill (j.A6)
- Iraq's growing instability elicited expressions of unease by senators of both parties at a hearing on Bush's request to shift $3.46B in reconstruction money to security (j.A1) - are more Republican senators catching on to how the neo-cons have conned them?
- southern Belgium - illegal aid to Ryanair from regional gov't estimated at ($4.9m=) 4m euros (t.W1)
vs. doom du jour tm for lack of TIMEsizing - in WSJ (j) and NYT (t) -
DOWNsizings - today's total, 630 jobcuts that made it into j (WSJ) or t (NYT):
630 jobcuts as Fruit of the Loom shuts its last 2 factories in Ireland over next 5 years & moves completely to Morocco - closed 4 other Irish sites since bankruptcy in 2000 (t.C4)
DOWNsizing results = eroding retirement (archives):
they have promises to keep [or break?] - but there are miles to go before pension plans and healthcare benefits will be able to deliver for retirees - keeping pension promises poses challenge (j.A1>2)
DOWNsizing results = prisons noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT (archives):
the Guantanamo prosecutor asked the presiding officer [of ??] to consider quitting, saying he is too close to the Pentagon official who set up the tribunal (j.A1)
& headlines from HELL in (Wall St. Journal) j & (New York Times) t & (Bos.Globe) g (archives):
- world economic growth could cool in 2005 due to higher oil prices & slower growth in US & China (j.A1>15) - probably will cool unless we all get a lot more prisons & wars to count as positives in our lethally flawed GDP excuse-for-a-measure
- major indexes slide on profit warnings & weak economic data (j.C1) - even despite: 'manufacturing output rose 0.5% in August' (j.A1>2) ? - guess they still have to sell it
- US intelligence [=oxymoron?] shows pessimism on Iraq's future - civil war called possible - tone of classified forecast for Bush differs from public statements (t.A1) - classified but still 'described by officials'?
- for China, one party is enough, Communist leader Hu Jintao says (t.C10) - same increasingly in Bush's USA, with Republican-owned Diebold et al. manipulating voting machines
- pre-emptive paranoia: Maureen Dowd - out-sneakied Dems are scared that Karl Rove fed CBS obviously bogus copies of true originals on Bush's AWOL military record to muddy the waters - 'looks like someone may have read the originals & put that together,' said lucid 86-year-old Marian Knox, secretary for Bush Jr.'s squadron commander back in Texas National Guard - she confirmed Bush had disobeyed direct order from Col. Killian to take physical exam, adding that Bush's above-the-rules attitude caused snickers & resentment among fellow officers - the administration has been so dazzling in misleading the public with audacious, mendacious malarkey that Dems fear Bushies are capable of any level of deceit (t.A33) - and they are
9/15/2004 wednesday
- please excuse delay while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- we have 728 textfiles: #visitors yesterday 9/14/tue: 765 (9/16/03/t: 929; 9/17/02/t: 725 ) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing news (click here for DETAILS):
- EU axes opt-out from 48-hour workweek max
- new book 'Bonjour Paresse' (Welcome, Laziness) bolsters French 35-hour workweek as the true French 'cultural uniqueness' (exception culturelle)
- plus 9 other timesizing items from yesterday's GoogleNews
- Boston-MA area workaholics who want to kick the habit - try *Workaholics Anonymous on Thurs.eves at 7:30 pm, 1st Baptist Church, 5 Magazine St, Central Sq, Cambridge
+ random glimmers of hope indexed to today's (j) Wall St Journal or (t) NYTimes (archives):
- Kerry said things are getting worse in Iraq & Bush isn't leveling with Americans - accused Bush of distortions to hide deteriorating situation (j.A1)
- my economic policy: Kerry - cleaning up Bush's fiscal mess will not be easy - let's cut the deficit [over record $400B] & restore economic confidence (j.A20)
- WSJ admits Bush & Kerry have reversed usual party roles: Kerry cautious, Bush risky (j.A4)
- WSJ asks, where's Bush going on taxes? - advises against radical surgery like rumored federal switch from income tax to sales tax (j.A4)
- vote drives gain avid attention of youth in '04 (t.A1)
- Boston-area readers who want real news - try 90.3 FM 12-1pm Mon-Sat and 6-10am Sunday for "Radio Free America for Americans" dba *Democracy Now
+ clouded hope = makework = PUFFsizings, creating unspecified new ‘jobs’ (archives):
- two contractors to work on Army program - General Dynamics & Lockheed Martin will join forces to design $12B Warfighter Information Network-Tactical communications network to link commanders at Pentagon to troops in field (t.C4)
- Uncle Sam Air - Congress's contribution to the (twice) bankrupt US Air - federal Air Transport Stabilization Board is still on the hook for some $650m in loan guarantees it first issued to US Air in early 2003 (j.A20)
vs. doom du jour tm for lack of TIMEsizing - in WSJ (j) and NYT (t) -
DOWNsizings - today's total, 400 jobcuts that made it into j (WSJ) or t (NYT):
- 200 jobcuts as Wyeth drugs of Madison NJ closes factory in West Chester PA in Dec. (t.C4)
- est. 200 jobs up in air as Singapore Airlines plans outsource 100s of IT jobs to save $$ (j.A18)
DOWNsizing overviews noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT or (g) Boston Globe (archives):
boxed out - hundreds of empty big-box stores litter the suburban & rural landscape as chains go out of business or move to even bigger supercenters (j.A1>B1)
DOWNsizing results = bankruptcies noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT (archives):
Corporacion Durango SA de CV insolvent in Mexico (j.C16)
DOWNsizing results = eroding retirement (archives):
- before Social Security, most Americans faced very bleak retirement (j.B1) - & were useless as confident consumers - & after Bush guts Social Security, the same again = perpetual economic depression - but we'll have all those extra millionaires in gated (then fortified) communities!
- carmakers in for a long haul in paying retiree healthcare (t.A1)
- with thousands of pensions closing & disappearing, how safe is yours? (j.A1>D1)
& headlines from HELL in (Wall St. Journal) j & (New York Times) t & (Bos.Globe) g (archives):
- Bush opposes health premium plan to hold down scheduled 17% increase in Medicare premiums next year (t.C1>A18) - planning to vote for Bush? not planning to grow old?
- CIA unit on bin Laden is understaffed, senior official Michael F. Scheuer, former chief of CIA's bin Laden unit, tells lawmakers - has less staff now than on 9/11/01 despite repeated pleas for reinforcements - no systemic effort to groom Al Qaeda expertise since 9/11 & bin Laden unit stretched so thin it relies on inexperienced officers rotated in & out every 60-90 days (t.A18) - Bush is still playing games instead of lunging after 9/11 terrorists = conspiracy theorists right? - will newly nominated CIA chief Porter Goss succeed in gagging terrifying leaks about Bush incompetence...or complicity? - duty-ducking war-starting bureaucracy-building gov't-inflating deficit-exploding rich-taxcutting seniorcitizen-impoverishing Halliburton-subsidizing Jesus-freak utopian Bush is already scariest president in US history without this
- record deficit for crucial trade figure - current-account deficit in trade & capital-flows with rest of world widened to record $166.18B in Q2 (t.C1, j.A1)
- US retail sales fell 0.3% in August, led by dip in car purchases, confirming that pace of consumer spending slowed in recent months (j.A1>2, t.C9)
- car sales in Europe fell 1.3% in August, hurt by soft German demand (j.A1) - gotta get that 35-hour workweek further down, not back up, & spread the dwindling human work, employ more & reactivate all those insecure consumers!
- trust laws now allow for building family dynasties [- attack on estate taxes continues] - states toss out restrictions on creating perpetual trusts (j.A1>D1) - America continues its trip backwards thru corporate feudalism to Third-World-style tribalism
- NASD discipline of individuals & firms overflows one page despite tiny print (j.B3C>D)
9/14/2004 tuesday
- please excuse delay while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- we have 728 textfiles: #visitors yesterday 9/13/mon: 830 (9/15/03/m: 925; 9/16/02/m: 765 ) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing news (click here for DETAILS):
- overwhelming majority of Canadians voice concerns about the
long hours truck drivers spend on the road
- UK unions urge Blair to reject the American long-hours model
- Public & Commercial Services Union also wants Blair to reverse government plans to raise retirement age from 60 to 65
- plus 4 other timesizing items from yesterday's GoogleNews
- Boston-MA area workaholics who want to kick the habit - try *Workaholics Anonymous on Thurs.eves at 7:30 pm, 1st Baptist Church, 5 Magazine St, Central Sq, Cambridge
+ random glimmers of hope indexed to today's (j) Wall St Journal or (t) NYTimes (archives):
- UPsizings: • 2000 new 'jobs' as NATO sends more troops to Kosovo ahead of elections (t.A11)
• unspecified new jobs as Canon builds ¥35B ($320m) research center at its Tokyo HQ (j.A15)
• ?? new jobs as Suzuki Motor sets up ¥10B ($91½m) diesel-engine plant in India (j.A15)
- Kerry faults Bush for failing to press renewal of automatic weapons ban (t.A19)
- new Vietnam war documentary 'Going Upriver' rebuts Swift Boat Veterans for 'Truth' (t.A19)
- Spanish Prime Minister steers his nation back into Euro fold - Spain, a former Bush ally under unpopular Aznar, now stands with France & Germany thanks to popular PM Zapatero (t.A3)
- Boston-area readers who want real news - try 90.3 FM 12-1pm Mon-Sat and 6-10am Sunday for "Radio Free America for Americans" dba *Democracy Now
vs. doom du jour tm for lack of TIMEsizing - in WSJ (j) and NYT (t) -
potential DOWNsizing noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT or (g) Boston Globe (archives):
Ford's turnaround efforts at Jaguar give UK worries about jobcuts or plant closure (j.A1>B8) - followup: 1150 cuts on 9/20
DOWNsizing results = bankruptcies noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT (archives):
- Hollywood Casino Shreveport forced into Chapter 11 (t.C6)
- Quigley Co. Inc. files for Chapter 11 in NY (j.C5, t.C5)
DOWNsizing results = eroding retirement (archives):
- an outsider has a grim prognosis for Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. [PBGC] - Pres. Douglas J. Elliott of Center on Federal Financial Institutions says agency will go broke in 2020 if current conditions persist (t.C1)
- US Airways asks to skip pension payment (t.C14) - warns a bankruptcy court its survival may require freezing or terminating 2 pension plans covering nearly 25,000 participants, adding to concerns over viability of pensions for airline-industry employees (j.A1>3) - industry's pension maneuvers raise questions about pension law, which enables some employers to withhold pension contributions in good times, hide the actual weakness of their pensions, & then use bankruptcy to shed their pensions altogether (j.A17)
& headlines from HELL in (Wall St. Journal) j & (New York Times) t (Bos.Globe) g (archives):
- US budget deficit passes $400 billion (j.B4) - thanks to Bush's big government - & then Bush has this kind of gall...
- Bush calls Kerry's healthcare proposal a ‘gov't takeover’ (t.A18) - but look who's talking:
- Bush's Supreme Court took over our election in 2000
- & enabled Bush to take over our gov't
- since then, Bush's big gov't has taken over our freedoms with the "Patriot" Act,
- taken over $1B/wk of our money with his costly & unnecessary war on Iraq,
- taken over our tax money when the bill finally arrives from his taxcuts for the rich,
& taken over our Medicare drug payments for the benefit of his buds in the pharma firms - & note headline yesterday: 'healthcare costs for companies, employees surge' - that means us, not the rich who can afford it, & already 45m of us are completely uninsured
9/11-13/2004 sat-mon (re fri biz)
- pls. excuse delays while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- #visitors to any of our 728 files, F Sa Su: 670,527,544 - wk's daily avg: 644
-
TIMEsizing awareness = strategic glimmers of hope in weekend's GoogleNews:
- Brit asks if extending school hours is really the way to help harassed working parents? - 'must children do overtime to pay the household bills?' - asks Big Question: how could we design the economy more efficiently to make a simple family life a real option again (ie: one working parent)? - Big Answer: Timesizing
- 'Art of Rest' organization searches for Calif.'s most-overworked woman to award her a weekend retreat
- Europeans work about 15% fewer hours per year than Americans
- plus 19 other worktime-related articles - click here for details
+
random glimmers of hope indexing (j) Wall St.Journal, (t) NYTimes or (g) Bos.Globe (archives):
- UPsizings, unspecified new jobs...
- as Urban Outfitters Inc. of Philadelphia plans to build 24-27 new stores & expand about 20% a year (9/12 j.B10)
- as Dutch logistics firm TPG NV seeks to expand China operations with E200m ($245m) investment in next 2 years (9/12 j.B10)
- ETOV - turn it around! double entendre from Ben & Jerry (9/12 g.ad insert)
- Boston-area readers who want real news - try "Radio Free America for Americans" dba *Democracy Now on 90.3 FM 12-1pm Mon-Sat and 6-10am Sunday
+ clouded hope = makework = PUFFsizings, creating unspecified new ‘jobs’ (archives):
- Federal Judge Barbara Lynn in Dallas rejects proposed $6m settlement of securities class-action lawsuit against Halliburton as neither fair nor adequate - suit contended faulty 1998-2001 acctg artificially inflated firm's shares (9/11 t.B1>2)
- South Korea to end bailouts of financial firms, e.g., LG Card Co., which received multitrillion-won rescue package earlier this year from creditors led by state-run Korea Development Bank (9/12 j.A18) - if worksharing-nation S. Korea, currently cutting from 44 to 40 hrs/wk, did it right, they wouldn't need this kind of makework
vs. doom du jour tm for lack of timesizing, in j, t, & g (Boston Globe):
DOWNsizings - weekend's total, 1121 jobcuts that made it into j (WSJ) or t (NYT):
- 562 jobcuts (9.4%) as Belden CDT cables closes plants in US & Europe, including Auburn MA; Skelmersdale, England, in wake of July merger with Cable Design Technologies (9/11 t.B4) - again the toxic takeover-downsizing connection
- 340 cuts in engineered products & chemical businesses units as Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. reduces costs (9/11 t.B4, 9/12 j.B10)
- 219 as Eastman Kodak Co. of Rochester NY, world's largest photography firm, closes 5 of 11 overnight foto-finishing labs in France by 12/04 (9/11 t.B4, 9/12 j.B10)
DOWNsizing results = bankruptcies (archives) in WSJ (j) and/or NYT (t):
US Airways, 7th-largest US airline, files for Chapter 11 a second time - only Continental has survived a second trip to bankruptcy court - so currently 2 of biggest US airlines are in bankruptcy, other is United, 2nd-largest (9/12 j.A1, t.A1)
DOWNsizing results = prison news (archives):
most crimes of violence & property hover at 30-year lows - incidences of violent crime reported by victims via Bureau of Justice Statistics dropped by more than half nationwide over past decade (9/12 t.A12) - but that's only because we're keeping the 'at-risk'-for-criminality cohort of the population almost continuously incarcerated because of high recidivism, & 2.2m inmates @ $30k/yr = $66B/yr - definitely cheaper to rehab (& maybe even cheaper to endure the crime!)
headlines from HELL (tm) from (j) Wall Street Journal or (t) NY Times or (g) Boston Globe (archives):
- how trustworthy are American media? - 2 Tribune papers revise circulation figures again = Newsday & Hoy (9/11 t.B2)
- Bush stepping up attacks as Kerry weighs response (9/11 t.A1) - hooboy ... where's Howard Dean when we really need him? - but this time the Dems could run an ape with laryngitis & we'd vote for it
- framing the debate: it's all GOP - by adopting the Republicans' language, Democrats adopt & reinforce Republican ideas: Prof. George Lakoff of UCal/Berkeley (9/12 g.D12) - Lakoff is Phil's old linguistics prof from Urbana & Harvard '68
- study finds US companies shifting profits overseas - results are cumulating in tax havens where little business is done (9/12 t.C2) = another dimension of the diminishing marginal utility of hyperconcentrated money
- a spate of profit warnings lends support to bear-market forecasts (9/12 j.A1) - investors' view of the world seems to be downright gloomy - investors fret...safer investments are popular, and many people retreat to cash (9/12 j.A1>C1) = depression M.O.: lots of money but not in play
- Riggs Bank is sued for contributing to 9/11 attacks through negligence by allegedly letting funds be sent to terrorists - suit filed by owner & leaseholder of World Trade Center on behalf of 9/11 victims & families - funds were forwarded from Saudi Embassy accounts to two 9/11 hijackers (9/12 j.A1>B3) = tie to Saudi leaders, thence not far to Bushes
- 'paper trail - costcutters target printers' - 'pre-emptive strike - FCC tries to stop cellphone spam before it booms' (9/12 j.R1) - note WSJ's trivialization of portentous phrases
weekend roll-up -
5 issues/wk - wk's avg homepage hits/issue: 53
hope of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
•
71 TIMEsizing items
• 2 UPsizings (?? new jobs)
+ 'hope': • 8 makework items
vs. doom of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 14 DOWNsizings, 37,975 jobcuts
• 6 bankruptcies
• 3 eroding-retirement stories
• 6 prison stories
{{ytd: 1134 timsizg (1636+ new or sav'd jobs)
+ 106 upsizs (106003+ new jobs)
+ 306 makwrk (36803+ 'jobs') =
tot: 144442 = 36% of cuts,
VS.
350 dnsz (406248+ cuts)
+ 141 bkrp ($416m+) +30 homlss +134 jail +18 deth }}
9/10/2004 friday
- please excuse delay while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- we have 728 textfiles: #visitors yesterday 9/9/thu: 738 (9/11/03/þ: 867; 9/12/02/þ: 664 -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing news (click here for DETAILS):
- timesizing Nucor alone among US steel makers raises its profit estimate in third quarter
- US House votes 223-193 with 22 Republicans to bar new regulations on overtime pay - Bush threatens to veto
- since 1970, hours per worker in EU dropped 17%, more than five times the rate in the US: OECD
- plus 6 other timesizing items from yesterday's GoogleNews
- Boston-MA area workaholics who want to kick the habit - try *Workaholics Anonymous on Thurs.eves at 7:30 pm, 1st Baptist Church, 5 Magazine St, Central Sq, Cambridge
+ random glimmers of hope indexed to today's (j) Wall St Journal or (t) NYTimes (archives):
- Washington wire - Kerry's complaints that Iraq costs shortchange domestic needs put new pressure on White House strategy (j.A4)
- Bush's military service draws fire (j.A6)
- Democrat John Rockefeller IV of Senate Intelligence Committee lodges complaints with CIA over leaks from Bush camp 'for partisan purposes,' sending message to gov't officials that leaks 'receive blessing from very top' - administration officials provided a 'torrent' of classified info to Washington Post's Bob Woodward for his 2002 book, 'Bush at War' (t.A14) - & that's without even mentioning Valerie Plame or valuable Detroit terrorist informer
- Costa Rica drops out of the 'coalition of the willing' in Iraq (t.A12)
- Boston-area readers who want real news - try 90.3 FM 12-1pm Mon-Sat and 6-10am Sunday for "Radio Free America for Americans" dba *Democracy Now
+ clouded hope = makework = PUFFsizings, creating unspecified new ‘jobs’ (archives):
Texas firms tied to Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, rake in the bucks, especially Olsen & Shuvalov @ $28m - total of $33m in contracts with Bush campaign (16% of its total spending) is open window on how political business [alias corruption] is conducted (j.A4)
vs. doom du jour tm for lack of TIMEsizing - in WSJ (j) and NYT (t) -
DOWNsizings - today's total, 23,650 jobcuts that made it into j (WSJ) or t (NYT):
- 20,000 jobcuts by 12/2006 as EDS consolidates data centers & automates service operations (j.A1>B4, t.C5) = another rebuttal for 'technology creates more jobs than it destroys'
- 1200 Ill. cuts as Mitsubishi Motors ends 2nd shift at its only US plant next week (t.C3) - compare Ford yesterday
- 1000 cuts as Monsanto Co. of St. Louis MO restructures (j.A6)
- 7% workforce cut (750 jobs lost) as Alaska Air Group of Seattle saves money & scuttles consumers, instead of just cutting 7% of its workweek (34 minutes a day for everyone, including execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone together working, earning and flying 93% as much as before (j.A7, t.C3) - cf. 150 cut on 8/21-23/2004
- 500 as Oneida Ltd. closes factory in Sherrill NY (t.C3)
- est. 200 as Federal Bureau of Prisons responds to 2005 budget pressures (j.A4)
DOWNsizing results = bankruptcies noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT (archives):
USGEN New England Inc. files Chapter 11 in Maryland (j.B7)
DOWNsizing results = prisons noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT (archives):
no accountability on Abu Ghraib: editorial - after months of Senate hearings & 8 Pentagon investigations [& ?? million$], Bush has no intention of holding any top officials, eg: Rumsfeld, accountable for the torture (t.A26)
& lastly, headlines from HELL in (Wall St. Journal) j & (New York Times) t (Bos.Globe) g (archives):
- economists trim growth estimates for jobs, economy (j.A2)
- healthcare costs for companies, employees surge (j.A2)
- in tape, top aide to bin Laden vows new strikes at US (t.A1) - & meanwhile, Bush-Cheney have US bogged down in irrelevant Iraq, hemorrhaging money to their croneys
- US Army says CIA hid up to 100 more Iraqi prisoners than it admitted - Red Cross was not informed - 2 generals, Gen. Paul Kern & Maj.Gen. George Fay, tell Congress of 'ghost detainees' (t.A1)
- odds of bird-flu pandemic rise as first Thai death is confirmed (j.A2)
9/9/2004 thursday
- please excuse delay while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- we have 724 textfiles: #visitors yesterday 9/08/wed: 760 (9/10/03/w: 923; 9/11/02/w: 716 -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing news (click here for DETAILS):
- Taiwan labor groups petition for better conditions to prevent 'karoshi' or death from overwork
- Carolina Parenting Inc. recognizes 40 N.C. firms such as High Point Regional Health System for family-friendly practices like job sharing
- Center for New American Dream says more US employers are offering job sharing
- plus 4 other timesizing items from yesterday's GoogleNews
- Boston-MA area workaholics who want to kick the habit - try *Workaholics Anonymous on Thurs.eves at 7:30 pm, 1st Baptist Church, 5 Magazine St, Central Sq, Cambridge
+ random glimmers of hope indexed to today's (j) Wall St Journal or (t) NYTimes (archives):
- an elder challenges outsourcing's orthodoxy - is all trade [ie: free trade] good for the economy? perhaps not, says respected economist Paul A. Samuelson (t.C1) = 'Mr. Principles Textbook'
- Bushmaster settled a suit by Washington-area sniper victims, reportedly the first time a gunmaker paid damages in a negligent-distribution case (j.A1) - the first of many, God willing!
- a third federal judge rules the late-abortion ban is unconstitutional (j.A1)
- Europe rejects looser labels for genetically altered food (t.W1)
- science du jour - UCLA team hopeful in its effort to recreate primal life - Dr. James Lake builds computer model of original merger of 2 prokaryotes into 1 eukaryotic cell (t.A25) - B.U.>UMass/Amherst cell pioneer Lynn Margolis must be stoked!
- Boston-area readers who want real news - try 90.3 FM 12-1pm Mon-Sat and 6-10am Sunday for "Radio Free America for Americans" dba *Democracy Now
+ clouded hope = makework = PUFFsizings, creating unspecified new ‘jobs’ (archives):
Senate challenges & ignores Bush on his threat to veto their block on handing some Homeland Security Dept. jobs to private companies (t.A25)
vs. doom du jour tm for lack of TIMEsizing - in WSJ (j) and NYT (t) -
DOWNsizings - today's total, 7129 jobcuts that made it into j (WSJ) or t (NYT):
- 7000 jobcuts as Delta unveils its 'turnaround' plan (j.A3, t.C1)
- 129 cuts as Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. shrinks inner tube production in Clarksdale, Miss. due to declining demand (t.C4)
potential DOWNsizing noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT or (g) Boston Globe (archives):
VW threat underscores Europe's woes - executives threaten unions with 30,000 jobcuts unless wage freeze & other concessions (j.A3) - sounds a lot different from 1994 when VolksWagen cut from 35 to 28.8 hours a week to save its HQ town of Wolfsburg
DOWNsizing results = bankruptcies noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT (archives):
- Franks Nursery & Crafts Inc. files Chap. 11 again; this time, liquidation, owing $16m (t.C4)
- family biz Pioneer Super Market in L.A. fails due to exhorbitant Calif. workers' comp (t.C9)
DOWNsizing results = prisons noted in (j) WSJ or (t) NYT (archives):
- Pentagon officials are 'hurrying' to correct conditions in Iraqi prisons (t.A14) - isn't 'hurry' what got us into this? - contrast:
- a Pentagon review panel found for the first time a Guantanamo detainee was wrongly classifeid 'enemy combatant' & ordered him sent home (j.A1) - but gee, Bush had to swell the figures so we'd think he was doing something, right? - & now one very angry Arab returns home - guess what he'll get in
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