[NYCFarmboy]

The following is a transcript of President Bush's weekly radio address:






Good morning. The past few weeks have confirmed that America's economy is strong, and growing stronger. The nation's unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent in January, the fourth consecutive monthly decline, and we added 112,000 new jobs, the largest single month increase since December of 2000. Overall, the nation has added 366,000 jobs in the past five months.


There's more evidence of a strengthening economy. Manufacturers report new orders. GDP rose at a 6.1 percent in the second half of 2003, the fastest pace in nearly 20 years. Inflation remains low, and our nation's home ownership rate just reached an all-time high. For the first time in our history, more than half of minority households own their own homes.


All of these are signs that our economic recovery is becoming a lasting expansion. Yet many of the new jobs being created require workers to learn new skills, and we can make sure that more Americans are prepared for these new opportunities.


Our efforts begin in our elementary schools, where students learn the basic skills that carry them through life. With the No Child Left Behind Act, we have raised standards, and we're making sure children learn the basics. Now we need to stay the course of reform, because the No Child Left Behind Act is opening the door of opportunity for all of America's children.


We must also help high school students to prepare for the new jobs our economy is creating. I've asked Congress to pass my Jobs for the 21st Century proposal — a plan that would help students who fall behind in reading and math — expand advanced placement programs in low-income schools, and provide larger Pell grants for students who prepare for college with demanding courses in high school.


We also recognize that many workers change jobs in the middle of their careers, and they often get the training they need at community colleges. I have asked Congress to provide $250 million to community colleges to help Americans get the skills they need for high-growth fields. Over the last several weeks, I have met with men and women who are studying at these colleges, and are on their way to better careers.


In Toledo, Ohio, I met with Mike Potter. After getting laid off in March, 2003, Mike enrolled at Owens Community College's Integrated Systems Technology program, which is supported by a Department of Labor grant. Mike got a new job soon, and is earning more than he did before. Here is what Mike told me: "People don't want to see a person with just one skill anymore. They want several skills."







My administration is committed to helping more people like Mike learn the skills they need. And we will continue pursuing a pro-growth economic agenda, so that every person who wants to work can find a job.


We'll help create more jobs in America by making tax relief permanent; by enforcing spending discipline and reducing the deficit; by enacting common sense reforms to our regulatory and legal systems; by taking steps to make health care more affordable and accessible; by passing a national energy policy; and by opening up more foreign markets for trade. Taking these steps will add momentum to our nation's economic expansion and extend jobs and prosperity to more Americans.


I'm optimistic about our future, and one reason is because of America's workers and entrepreneurs. They are talented and hardworking, and they carry with them the spirit that has always made America a place of hope and opportunity.


Thank you for listening.

[BRussell]

There's such a disconnect between what he says and reality.

Yeah, all those jobs. We've gained a couple hundred thousand jobs in the last several months - but they're coming in much less than he forecast. Less and slower than they should in a normal cyclical recovery. And how many millions have we lost overall? I think it's still around 2 million jobs lost since he took office.

And then, it's spend spend spend. And tax cuts made permanent. And to top it all off: reduce the deficit!

It's just a game to him. "What can I say to get re-elected. How can I best distort truth in my favor. The American public are dumb and gullible enough that they don't care about truth, only spin." What a disastrous presidency.

[gadster]

Gosh. I feel all warm and gooey inside after reading that. I can't wait to see it on the TV. I might even pleasure myself whilst watching it.

[Lerkfish]

Originally posted by BRussell:
There's such a disconnect between what he says and reality.

werd.

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally posted by BRussell:
There's such a disconnect between what he says and reality.

Yeah, all those jobs. We've gained a couple hundred thousand jobs in the last several months - but they're coming in much less than he forecast. Less and slower than they should in a normal cyclical recovery. And how many millions have we lost overall? I think it's still around 2 million jobs lost since he took office.

And then, it's spend spend spend. And tax cuts made permanent. And to top it all off: reduce the deficit!

It's just a game to him. "What can I say to get re-elected. How can I best distort truth in my favor. The American public are dumb and gullible enough that they don't care about truth, only spin." What a disastrous presidency.

yeah and 9/11 never happened either.

[FeLiZeCaT]

My understanding of the content of that transcript is largely influenced by an an article from Tom Frank, Director of a Chicago magazine called "The Baffler". The article I read was in French, from "Le Monde Diplomatique" and should be translated in English in about a month at their website (http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr).

It is entitled "Cette Amérique qui vote Georges W. Bush" (This America voting for Georges W. Bush).

It basically talks about how populist all presidential candidates became startiing from Nixon, with a general put down of the rich and especially the intellectuals and their fancies (piercing, capuccinos, imported cars, etc.).

He also explained how the French discredited themselves, as well as the rest of the UN in the eye of a large part of the US electorate qualified as "populist" at the time of the negociations reagrding the invasion of Iraq.

He also adds that the left in the US does not understand how the populist part of the population is not interested in the fine argumentations of the intellectual, but rather, they care far more ofr the symbols that make America.

A very interesting read.

So regarding this morning's blurb from the US president, I think this speech reflects that:

"Success All Over."

"We are not done."

"Mike this has been saved, and I will save you too."

"Everything is fine."


Not different than many Political Leader of this planet though.

Anyway, if you can read French... you might find this interesting, or go the the Baffler's website... (http://www.thebaffler.com/index.html)

[itai195]

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
yeah and 9/11 never happened either.

Description of Straw Man


The Straw Man fallacy is committed when a person simply ignores a person's actual position and substitutes a distorted, exaggerated or misrepresented version of that position. This sort of "reasoning" has the following pattern:

• Person A has position X.
• Person B presents position Y (which is a distorted version of X).
• Person B attacks position Y.
• Therefore X is false/incorrect/flawed.

This sort of "reasoning" is fallacious because attacking a distorted version of a position simply does not constitute an attack on the position itself. One might as well expect an attack on a poor drawing of a person to hurt the person.

[Evan_11]

Originally posted by Lerkfish:
werd.

Still unemployed, eh?

[GG Allin]

Originally posted by Evan_11:
Still unemployed, eh?

Still irrelevant, eh?

[Saddam H.]

Originally posted by GG Allin:
Still irrelevant, eh?

Still a 'tard, eh?

[GG Allin]

Originally posted by Saddam H.:
Still a 'tard, eh?

Still an ignorant 3rd grade twit eh? Still littering this forum with your opinions based on TV knowledge, eh? Still living with your mother, eh? Still eating Kraft Macaroni and Cheese dinner off a plastic green plate in your trailer. Still waiting to fix up that '79 Camaro on blocks that your sister's daddy gave you for pullin his AMC Pacer out of the ditch eh? Still watching Jerry Springer, eh?

Give your Mac to someone who can use it. The platform is to small for cheese eating white trash.

[Lerkfish]

um...guys? I've been through 4 threads this morning full of this name-calling stuff from both sides. Its really irrelevant and annoying.

[gadster]

Originally posted by GG Allin:
. . . Still eating Kraft Macaroni and Cheese dinner . . . cheese eating white trash.

Don't be talking trash about cheese around here, pal. Some of my best friends are cheeses. You're just asking for trouble.

[nredman]

Originally posted by GG Allin:
Still an ignorant 3rd grade twit eh? Still littering this forum with your opinions based on TV knowledge, eh? Still living with your mother, eh? Still eating Kraft Macaroni and Cheese dinner off a plastic green plate in your trailer. Still waiting to fix up that '79 Camaro on blocks that your sister's daddy gave you for pullin his AMC Pacer out of the ditch eh? Still watching Jerry Springer, eh?

Give your Mac to someone who can use it. The platform is to small for cheese eating white trash.

*LOL* i don't really like when people bitch at each other but that was pretty funny.

[Mithras]

This is what it's all about:



Bush is back where he was before September 11. The wartime rallying around our president has been frittered away. Naturally enough, Bush, Rove, et al. rather enjoyed the support that September 11 (& the second bump from invading Iraq) provided.

What will Bush & Rove come up with to stop this slide?

[Spliffdaddy]

Nothing.

They'll just wait for the Democrats to choose their (loser) nominee.

[daimoni]

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
yeah and 9/11 never happened either.

Yeah. The mass layoffs that happened at my company right before Christmas were due to 9/11.

Give us a FU-HUCKING BREAK!!!

[roger_ramjet]

Originally posted by BRussell:
... We've gained a couple hundred thousand jobs in the last several months - but they're coming in much less than he forecast. Less and slower than they should in a normal cyclical recovery...

Do you have some stats to back that up?

[daimoni]

Originally posted by roger_ramjet:
Do you have some stats to back that up?

Does the current regime?

[itai195]

Originally posted by roger_ramjet:
Do you have some stats to back that up?

According to a projection by the Council of Economic Advisers, the President’s plan will help the economy to create 1.4 million new jobs by the end of 2004.

Source

Note that this is 1.4 million jobs in addition to the 4.1 million a healthy economy should generate through the end of the year anyway.

[BRussell]

Originally posted by roger_ramjet:
Do you have some stats to back that up?

It seems like you're talking about two things I said: 1. that this recovery has seen slower job growth than other recoveries and 2. that Bush projected more job growth than there has been.

I thought that both were obvious. I've read them both many times. And I thought that since, as Bush is fond of pointing out, the recession started before he took office, and it's been almost four years and 2.4 millions jobs lost since then, that was something everyone agreed.

But anyway here's one figure that shows the jobs recovery compared to other recoveries. The early 1990s were pretty bad, but still not as bad as this.



As for what Bush projected, I found this quote by doing a google news search:

Two years ago, Bush's economic team projected that the nation would add more than 3 million jobs by the end of 2003. Instead, employment has dropped by roughly 2 million since then, bringing total job losses to 2.8 million during the president's three years in office.

There are probably better sources than just a newspaper quote for the second one, but that'll just have to do unless someone else feels like digging into it.

[kvm_mkdb]

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
The following is a transcript of President Bush's weekly radio address:
[SNIP]

Presidente, we cannot afford this right now.

You are making quite a number of enemies, Presidente...

Many people are without work, Presidente...

...our debt grows day by day...

[eklipse]

....I believe some of the people may be calling for an election this year.

[Ayelbourne]

Originally posted by kvm_mkdb:
Presidente, we cannot afford this right now.

You are making quite a number of enemies, Presidente...

Many people are without work, Presidente...

...our debt grows day by day...

"Your popularity is falling, Presidente..."

Viva Tropico!

[lil'babykitten]

Originally posted by Ayelbourne:
Viva Tropico!