:: blame the extended gestation.... ::

:: Friday, January 16, 2004 ::

Schools back in action so i'm busy as all get out. I'm up to my neck in Kant, Schopenhauer, and computationalism...

:: Jim Nichols 1/16/2004 12:40:00 AM [+] ::
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Say it with me: "No bond without tax hike" sacbee.com -- Daniel Weintraub -- Daniel Weintraub: Californians oppose the governor's bond measure:

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faces an uphill battle to win voter approval of the first phase of his fiscal recovery plan March 2. But if he is willing to place his personal and political credibility on the line, he can probably pull it off.

A new poll released today shows that voters are inclined to oppose Proposition 57, Schwarzenegger's proposal for a $15 billion bond to refinance the state's accumulated debt and ease the transition back toward a balanced budget"

:: Jim Nichols 1/16/2004 12:35:00 AM [+] ::
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CJR Campaign Desk

:: Jim Nichols 1/16/2004 12:27:00 AM [+] ::
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Georgia unemployment claims jump in December - 2004-01-15 - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

"The Georgia Department of Labor said the number of workers filing a first-time unemployment benefit claim surged in December 2003. "

Jim Nichols
testing
Jim Nichols
testing again
Jim Nichols
and one last time
Jim Nichols

:: Jim Nichols 1/15/2004 07:59:00 PM [+] ::
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ARC: 2003 metro population up, but smallest recent single-year increase - 2004-01-15 - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

"The Atlanta Regional Commission estimates that the April 1, 2003 population in the 10-county Atlanta region was 3,669,300 -- nearly 240,000 more than counted in the 2000 Census, and 57,700 higher than ARC's 2002 estimate. "

:: Jim Nichols 1/15/2004 07:58:00 PM [+] ::
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Intelligence: Hussein Warned Iraqis to Beware Outside Fighters, Document Says:

"Saddam Hussein warned his Iraqi supporters to be wary of joining forces with foreign Arab fighters entering Iraq to battle American troops, according to a document found with the former Iraqi leader when he was captured, Bush administration officials said Tuesday."

:: Jim Nichols 1/15/2004 12:22:00 AM [+] ::
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Yahoo! News - Franken Signs Deal With Progressive Media:

"They haven't got a name or a launch date yet, but the entrepreneurs who dream of launching a liberal radio network have just landed themselves a lead man: Comedian and best-selling author Al Franken. "

I don't know if Liberal talk radio is going to work...

:: Jim Nichols 1/13/2004 10:51:00 PM [+] ::
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Wow i'm about to hit 500...

that means somebody out there actually reads...

...what they get from it is another story.

:: Jim Nichols 1/13/2004 05:45:00 PM [+] ::
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California Nurses Association will audit hospitals - 2004-01-13 - San Francisco Business Times:

"The Oakland-based California Nurses Association, which represents 55,000 registered nurses in the state, said Tuesday it will start auditing hospitals to find out if they're meeting new staffing requirements. The union said it will publish the results after its research is done on Jan. 30.

A new state law requiring minimum ratios of patients to nurses in California hospitals went into effect Jan. 1."

:: Jim Nichols 1/13/2004 05:44:00 PM [+] ::
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H-P to move manufacturing jobs to Singapore - 2004-01-13 - San Francisco Business Times:

"Hewlett-Packard Co. will spend more than $1 billion in Singapore in the next five years, according to a published report, and will move some high-end server and printer making jobs there from the United States. "

I don't really have a big problem with outsourcing to other countries, moving jobs to the most cost effective areas; it seems like xenophobic knee-jerking to me--they need jobs just like anyone else. But I do have a problem that what is not inclued in the cost are some kind of safety-net for workers who lose those jobs.

:: Jim Nichols 1/13/2004 05:42:00 PM [+] ::
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Marginal Revolution: Should you have your kids during an economic boom?:

"Children who are born during economic booms live longer than their counterparts born during leaner times. "

:: Jim Nichols 1/12/2004 06:01:00 PM [+] ::
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Crooked Timber: Could blogging damage your career?:

"IA cites a member of a job search committee:

I’ll be interviewing people at MLA, and, trust me, we’ve ‘Googled’ every job candidate to establish whether they are a good ‘fit’ for our institution. Watch what you say."

I was thinking the other day about the fact that some day this blog is going to bite me on the ass. Then again fuck it; I don't want a job like that. (Then again in 10 years with lots of bills i'm pretty sure i'll take whatever job I can get.)

:: Jim Nichols 1/12/2004 05:56:00 PM [+] ::
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Philosophy Talk

This can't last long...

:: Jim Nichols 1/12/2004 05:53:00 PM [+] ::
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Political front line, at front door | csmonitor.com:

"this year, candidates are drawing unprecedented numbers of volunteers from all over the country willing to skip work, brave 20-hour road trips, or sleep in a crowded bunkhouse that's 100 snowy yards from the toilets and showers."

The question is can the nominee get all these people back out there under one banner? If so Dem's win...

:: Jim Nichols 1/12/2004 05:49:00 PM [+] ::
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tonypierce.com + busblog:

"i mean i remember back in school, if a person lied about something dumb like who they liked or something, that wasnt a big deal. but if someone lied about something that, i dont know, ended in hundreds and hundreds of american military men and women dying and the country going into billions of dollars in debt - even more debt than before... well, if someone had done that in school, theyd definitely be sent to the principals office."

:: Jim Nichols 1/12/2004 05:43:00 PM [+] ::
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AP Wire | 01/12/2004 | Open government measure finally reaches Calif. ballot:

"A long-stalled constitutional amendment to bolster public access to government meetings and records was placed on California's November ballot Monday by lawmakers after twice bogging down in the state Assembly."

:: Jim Nichols 1/12/2004 05:00:00 PM [+] ::
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Pardon me while I stop laughing--Extremist??

GOP rivals all say they'll beat Boxer / 2-term senator's voting record of liberal 'extremism' criticized:

"The three leading Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate held competing news conferences Thursday to tackle what each says is the main issue of 2004 campaign -- ousting 'extremist' and 'ideologue' incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer. "

:: Jim Nichols 1/12/2004 04:46:00 PM [+] ::
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Biotech gathering steam / Industry more hopeful than last year as S.F. conference meets:

"A comeback year of rising stock prices, drug success stories and favorable government trends is creating an upbeat mood for the 22nd annual biotechnology conference starting today in San Francisco. "

:: Jim Nichols 1/12/2004 04:34:00 PM [+] ::
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RNC wants officials to ban partisan `soft money' spending by outside groups in presidential race:

"The Republican National Committee wants federal election officials to block partisan interest groups from spending big corporate, union and personal donations on get-out-the-vote drives in the presidential race. "

This just in the RNC doesn't want people to vote.

:: Jim Nichols 1/12/2004 04:28:00 PM [+] ::
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Karl Polanyi and the writing of The Great Transformation

After years of relative obscurity, Karl Polanyi’s 1944 book, The Great Transformation, is increasingly recognized as one of the major works of twentieth-century social science. It is an indispensable reference in current debates about globalization and it has achieved the status of a canonical work for economic sociology and international political economy. Even in the ¢eld of economics that long ignored Polanyi’s powerful critique of market self-regulation,his ideas have gained renewed consideration and respect.

:: Jim Nichols 1/12/2004 04:11:00 PM [+] ::
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"I.M.F. Says Rise in U.S. Debts Is Threat to World’s Economy
Elizabeth Becker and Edmund L. Andrews
New York Times, January 8, 2004, Page A1

"With its rising budget deficit and ballooning trade imbalance, the United States is running up a foreign debt of such record-breaking proportions that it threatens the financial stability of the global economy, according to a report released Wednesday by the International Monetary Fund. "

From Economic Reporting Review by Dean Baker:

"This article reports on a new study by the I.M.F., which warns that the U.S. budget and current account deficits could create serious instability in the world economy if they are not soon brought under control. At one point it refers to a projection that shows the size of the long-term U.S. budget deficit as $47 trillion. This figure is reported as being “nearly 500 percent of the current gross domestic product in the coming decades.”

The $47 trillion figure is the present discounted value of future deficits. It is nearly 500 percent of this year’s gross domestic product, but it would be more reasonable to compare it to the present discounted value of future GDP. This deficit is equal to approximately 6.5 percent of the present discounted value of future GDP, which implies that a tax increase equal to 6.5 percent of GDP would leave the budget in balance. Such a tax increase would leave tax rates in the U.S. somewhat lower than the average for rich countries.

It is also important to note that approximately three quarters of this projected deficit is attributable to rising private sector health care costs, which affect the federal budget through Medicare, Medicaid, and other government health care programs. If the U.S. found a way to successfully contain its health care costs -- as has every other industrialized nation then most of the projected $47 trillion deficit would be eliminated "

:: Jim Nichols 1/12/2004 01:19:00 PM [+] ::
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Angry, and on Message:

"Tonight, at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, a panel of celebrity judges including Michael Moore, Al Franken, James Carville, and R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe will pick the winning entry in MoveOn.org's 'Bush in 30 Seconds' political advertisement contest. The winner - the spot that 'best explains what this President and his policies are really about.' - will air in swing states during the week of President Bush's State of the Union address on Jan. 20. "

:: Jim Nichols 1/12/2004 01:10:00 PM [+] ::
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Op-Ed Contributor: The Vital Republican Center:

"It doesn't seem to matter to conservatives that moderates share their views on the vast majority of those bedrock principles that have always been the foundation of Republicanism: smaller government, the power of free markets, a strong national defense. Because we disagree on a few issues, most notably a woman's right to choose, many conservatives act as if they wish we moderates would just disappear."

You know, people like Christie Todd Whitman and her ilk--both Republican and Democrat--who go on and on about the postive aspects of moderate political belief sound like complete morons. If it were simply a question of the superior nature of moderate politics the political climate would have changed ages ago. The problem is political districts are written up by state legislatures not bi-partisan commisions; meaning districts are drawn up that create picking grounds for (insert your political leaning). Thats why districts have become less and less competitive. It has nothing to do with some absurd idea that we're becoming more political (fewer people are voting than ever before) or that there is some huge cultural split (people are becoming far more globalized and cosmopolitan). Its voting districts pure and simple... Whitman can whine on and on about the benifits of being moderate; but no one is gonna listen to her until districts are drawn more competitive.

:: Jim Nichols 1/12/2004 08:13:00 AM [+] ::
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Can you spell 'Draft' boys and girls?

Study Published by Army Criticizes War on Terror's Scope (washingtonpost.com):

"A scathing new report published by the Army War College broadly criticizes the Bush administration's handling of the war on terrorism, accusing it of taking a detour into an 'unnecessary' war in Iraq and pursuing an 'unrealistic' quest against terrorism that may lead to U.S. wars with states that pose no serious threat. "

The report, by Jeffrey Record, a visiting professor at the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, warns that as a result of those mistakes, the Army is "near the breaking point."

:: Jim Nichols 1/12/2004 08:13:00 AM [+] ::
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tonypierce.com + busblog:
"and she rang the little bell and miss gwen stefani appeared with a cloud of smoke behind door number three

and we all danced.

i danced the best

there were judges."

:: Jim Nichols 1/12/2004 08:01:00 AM [+] ::
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GeorgeWBush.com :: Official Blog :: "All signs point to a continued economic recovery in 2004"
All signs? I don't call 1000 jobs in December a sign of economic recovery.

:: Jim Nichols 1/11/2004 04:18:00 PM [+] ::
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sacbee.com -- 24-Hour News: Top Stories -- Bush to announce manned missions to Mars, moon

Bush thinks Americans need some grand narrative to get behind and cheer on. I got an idea, how about Universal Health Care, improving education; jesus I could think of a zillion things. He gives us Mars. I say give us real leadership.

:: Jim Nichols 1/11/2004 03:26:00 PM [+] ::
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Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Ideas / Friedrich the Great:

"Dismissed by critics as a free-market extremist, economist Friedrich Hayek is gaining new attention as a forerunner of cognitive psychology, information theory, even postmodernism. A reintroduction to one of the most important thinkers you've barely heard of."

:: Jim Nichols 1/11/2004 03:18:00 PM [+] ::
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Its time to raise taxes Gov.

sacbee.com -- Opinion -- Mark Paul: Only taxes hurt? Think again:

"Schwarzenegger describes our plight as being in 'a spending crisis.' But had he phrased that differently, saying 'we have a crisis of too-lavish public services,' I doubt many Californians would have agreed. With school funding lagging the national average, congestion growing, colleges turning away students and the number of families without health coverage rising, the case that California has too many public goods is hard to make, except perhaps for prisons.

The budget issue, Levy says, is really an investment decision. It's about where we best use 1 percent of California's output: on the private consumption we least value or on the highest-priority public goods."

:: Jim Nichols 1/11/2004 01:38:00 PM [+] ::
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