Consumer confidence fell in October to its lowest level in seven months. The downturn is fueled mostly by soaring energy costs, sluggish hiring, the war in Iraq and an increasingly nasty election. Analysts worry that the downturn in confidence will result in less spending by already debt-laden consumers.
Consumer confidence in hiring is up very slightly, but businesses remain cautious about hiring workers given the record oil prices and the rise in health care costs.
This is not good new… especially here in Oregon where we still face the highest unemployment rate in the nation.
Republicans have called John Kerry unfit for the Commander In Chief job. Today Kerry turned the tables by saying that Dubya failed the “fundamental oblication” of that role — to keep America as safe as possible. Kerry accuses Bush of trying to hide until after the election the news that 380 tons of explosives were snatched from an Iraqi installation in the days following the invasion.
“He has stood in front of the American people day after day, telling us how much progress we are making in Iraq and how much safer we are under his leadership,” Kerry said. “And what did the president have to say about the missing explosives? Not a word.”
“Mr. President, what else are you being silent about? What else are you keeping from the American people?” he asked.
[…]Kerry also called Cheney “out of touch” for describing Iraq as “a remarkable success story” despite the steady diet of bad news — attacks on U.S. troops, the murder of Iraqi policemen, kidnappings and beheadings — that Americans get from television every day.
“They don’t see it, they don’t get it, they can’t fix it,” he said. “I can and I will.”
I dunno. It seems to me like Cheney may be in touch with Dubya’s supporters, who aren’t living in the real world anyway.
Kerry has pledged to spend $60 million more in homeland security over the next 10 years on screening cargo for nuclear materials, creating an integrated terrorist watch list and increasing the number of border patrol agents. I think I’d rather see that money spent here than in Iraq.
In other election news, Republicans are mobilizing thousands of volunteers to challenge voters they believe are not qualified to cast ballots. Democrats are mobilizing to guard against voter intimidation. Both sides are sending out an army of lawyers.
Republican Party chairman Ed Gillespie charged on Sunday that Democratic-backed groups had registered thousands of fraudulent voters.
In Ohio, he said there were “people with fictitious characters being registered to vote, Dick Tracy and Mary Poppins. In New Mexico, we’ve seen 13- and 15-year-olds get registration cards in the mail they didn’t even ask for. In Nevada, we’ve had illegal immigrants being registered.”
That’s not good, obviously. But is it really cleaner than what happened in several states including Oregon, where Republican volunteers were throwing away Democratic registration cards?
And then there are the new electronic voting machines — some of that print paper and some that don’t. And hanging chad in the states that still use punch ballots. And misread marks in the states that use paper ballots.
Dan Seligson, of the nonpartisan election information service electionline.org, said some problems that occurred in Florida in 2000 would not repeat themselves.
“Instead, we could find some new ones. Certainly, every vote will count. Whether it will be counted is another matter,” he said.
Iraq blames US
Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Tuesday that “major neglect” by U.S.-led forces was to blame for the murder of 49 Iraqi army recruits last weekend.
“There was an ugly crime in which a large group of National Guards were martyred,” he told Iraq’s national assembly.
“We believe this issue was the outcome of major neglect by some parts of the multinational (forces).”
Since we’re in this pretty much along, “multinational (forces)” be us.
Allawi has ordered an investigation into the incident. An unnamed senior Iraqi official has said that it appeared that the attack was well-organized and that the insurgents had good intelligence and potentially inside information on why the ambushed Iraqi soldiers were traveling without weapons or armed escort.
A spokesman for the U.S.-led forces in Iraq said that terrorists were to blame, and only they could be held responsible. He pledged cooperation with the investigation.
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