Baring a major gaff by the opposing team, today's bombshell job report has exposed once and for all the fraudulent claim that the U.S. economy is in recovery. Wall Streeters headed for the bomb shelters this morning after learning that U.S. employers were only able to add a paltry 32,000 workers to payrolls in July — just a bit short of the 215,000 to 240,000 the administration had projected would be created last month.

As you try to grapple with the significance of these numbers keep in mind that the economy has to create 150,000 new jobs each month just to keep up with natural population growth. And, if you want to keep the economy from slumping into recession employers have to create 200,000 new jobs each and every month.

posted by John 10:39 PM

What is Wrong with This Picture?

Oil prices at an all-time high, no jobs created last month, stock market's going south, Americans continuing to die in a senseless and unnecessary war, and Shrub's numbers hold firm. Who can explain it?

posted by Jerry Bowles 1:28 PM

Slime Boat Vet Recants

Well, that's one.

posted by Jerry Bowles 10:40 AM

The Slime Boat Vets' Moneyman

Just when you think it impossible for politics to sink any deeper into the gutter, along comes something so slimy and execrable that it establishes a new bottom. Such is the clumsy attempt at character assassination by a group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which is running an ad in several battleground states claiming that John Kerry is "unfit to be commander-in-chief" because he lied about his actions while commander of assault boats in Viet Nam, some 40 years ago.

The ad begins with each of the “witnesses” claiming to have served with Kerry during the war. None of them were actually on a boat commanded by Kerry and their claims to have “served” with him are true only in the sense that they served in the same Navy as he did at the same time. As a matter of fact, so did I--serve in the same Navy at the same time, that is--but I don’t remember seeing Kerry or any of these clowns either. In the ad, they made a series of outrageous claims—not supported by concurrent documentation or the testimony of the men who actually did serve on Kerry’s craft—that challenge Kerry’s and other eyewitness accounts and, in fact, accuse Kerry of faking war wounds and killing a naked, injured man.

There hasn't been anything quite this loathsome since JFK's goons started a whisper campaign that Hubert Humphrey was gay in the West Virginia primary back in 1960.

It will surprise no one to learn that the moneyman behind Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is Bob Perry, CEO of Perry Homes, one of the largest builders in Texas, who has long supported the John Birch wing of conservatism. Of the $158,750 raised so far by the Slime Boat Vets, Perry gave $100,000, on June 30, 2004.

In 1981, along with fellow Texas millionaires Nelson Bunker Hunt, Herbert Hunt, and T. Cullen Davis, Perry was a founding member (and treasurer) of the Council for National Policy, a right wing strategy group designed to rival the Council on Foreign Relations which, the CNP's founders believed, was “soft on communism” and just not quite as Christian as it ought to be. Tim LaHaye was also among the organizers. This is before he made about a billion dollars writing the Left Behind science fiction novels which evangelicals consume as literal truth by the truckload. The CNP’s membership ranks include all the power players of the Christian right, embracing such upstanding Americans as Oliver North and Reverend Moon and Randall Terry.

In the 2002 election cycle, Perry and his wife, Doylene, donated $905,000 to Republican candidates and causes in Texas, $200,000 in Louisiana, and $50,000 in Arkansas. I would not be a bit surprised if it turns out that Perry Homes sells houses in the latter two states, as well as Texas. Perry has regularly been among the top donors to the Republican Majority Issues Committee, a group allied with House Majority Whip Tom DeLay. He was the top individual contributor to Texas governor Rick Perry (no relation), who took office when George W. Bush became president and was elected to a four year term in 2002.

Perry has also been one of the biggest supporters of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, one of the state's largest special interest groups, which works to protect hard-working businesspeople (like, say, homebuilder Bob Perry) from disgruntled buyers and their evil lawyers.

In fact, Perry hates lawyers and lawsuits (and, apparently, customers) so much that he spent hundred of thousands of dollars and seven years fighting--all the way to the Texas Supreme Court--a lawsuit brought by a couple who bought one of his houses that had a faulty foundation rather than settle for $2800. He even tried, unsuccessfully, to get a bill passed that would have exempted him from coughing up. Apparently, he'd rather spend his vast fortune smearing political candidates he disagrees with. Careful, Bob. Shit sticks.

posted by Jerry Bowles 7:18 AM

Round up the usual suspects

Here we are just three months from Election Day and the White House needs to remind us that they're making a credible effort to find the anthrax perps. Funny how the New York Times article fails to mention that the anthrax envelopes were sent only to Democrats on the Hill. Maybe that news wasn't fit to print.

posted by Groom 5:42 AM

Chronicles of Wingnut Hypocrisy, Chapter #5,487

Seems the same group that tried to get the FEC to ban TV ads for "Fahrenheit 9/11" on the grounds that it violated campaign finance laws is now seeking an exemption from the same rules so it can advertise a book called . . . (wait for it) . . . "The Many Faces of John Kerry: Why This Massachusetts Liberal is Wrong for America.''

Yes, they have no shame. But they're counting on you having no memory.

posted by Michael 2:28 AM

 
 

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