1. White House seeks $7.1B more in disaster funds (j.A3)
2. 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) -

1. 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)
2. 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):

1. UPsizings: • unspecified new jobs as Bank of America, a believer in branches, opens in NYC (t.C1)
2. 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

1. 600 US & German jobcuts as Kodak shuts plant in Coburg, Australia (t.C4)
2. 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)

1. 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)
2. 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)

Petracom (Media) of Joplin/Texarkana/Show Low LLC (j.B7)

1. 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
2. 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)
3. those soaring Medicare premiums - 17% increase announced this week is largest in program's history (t.A26)
4. IBM settles small part of massive lawsuit involving its cash-balance pension plan for $?? (j.A2)

1. new charges raise questions on abuse [ie: torture] at Afghan prisons (t.A1)
2. Guantanamo defense lawyers were barred from seeing clients while the military conducts reviews to confirm 'enemy combatant' status (j.A1)

1. Gen. James Helmly warns of looming shortage of specialists - with fighting in 2 countries, Army Reserve is pressed (t.A12)
2. are we safer now? (t.A5) - dream on
3. 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)
4. Washington wire - 17% higher Medicare premiums: Republicans' only defense is an anti-Kerry offense as Kerry blasts Bush for raising premiums (j.A4)
5. 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)
6. 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)
7. 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
8. 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):

1. Britons working shorter weeks, but average weeks, in the worst possible way = part-time with no benefits
2. Senate follows House in voting to scuttle Bush's highhanded attempt to change US overtime arrangements
3. plus 6 other timesizing items from yesterday's GoogleNews
4. 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

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)

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)

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)

1. 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
2. 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
3. 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'?
4. 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
5. 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):

1. EU axes opt-out from 48-hour workweek max
2. new book 'Bonjour Paresse' (Welcome, Laziness) bolsters French 35-hour workweek as the true French 'cultural uniqueness' (exception culturelle)
3. plus 9 other timesizing items from yesterday's GoogleNews
4. 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

1. 200 jobcuts as Wyeth drugs of Madison NJ closes factory in West Chester PA in Dec. (t.C4)
2. est. 200 jobs up in air as Singapore Airlines plans outsource 100s of IT jobs to save $$ (j.A18)

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)

Corporacion Durango SA de CV insolvent in Mexico (j.C16)

1. 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!
2. carmakers in for a long haul in paying retiree healthcare (t.A1)
3. with thousands of pensions closing & disappearing, how safe is yours? (j.A1>D1)

1. 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?
2. 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
3. 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)
4. 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)
5. 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!
6. 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
7. 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):

1. overwhelming majority of Canadians voice concerns about the long hours truck drivers spend on the road
2. UK unions urge Blair to reject the American long-hours model
3. Public & Commercial Services Union also wants Blair to reverse government plans to raise retirement age from 60 to 65
4. plus 4 other timesizing items from yesterday's GoogleNews
5. 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

Ford's turnaround efforts at Jaguar give UK worries about jobcuts or plant closure (j.A1>B8) - followup: 1150 cuts on 9/20

1. Hollywood Casino Shreveport forced into Chapter 11 (t.C6)
2. Quigley Co. Inc. files for Chapter 11 in NY (j.C5, t.C5)

1. 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)
2. 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)

1. US budget deficit passes $400 billion (j.B4) - thanks to Bush's big government - & then Bush has this kind of gall...
2. 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:

1. 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
2. 'Art of Rest' organization searches for Calif.'s most-overworked woman to award her a weekend retreat
3. Europeans work about 15% fewer hours per year than Americans
4. plus 19 other worktime-related articles - click here for details

1. 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
2. 340 cuts in engineered products & chemical businesses units as Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. reduces costs (9/11 t.B4, 9/12 j.B10)
3. 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)

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)

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!)

1. how trustworthy are American media? - 2 Tribune papers revise circulation figures again = Newsday & Hoy (9/11 t.B2)
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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
5. 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
6. 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
7. '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

1. 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'
2. 1200 Ill. cuts as Mitsubishi Motors ends 2nd shift at its only US plant next week (t.C3) - compare Ford yesterday
3. 1000 cuts as Monsanto Co. of St. Louis MO restructures (j.A6)
4. 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
5. 500 as Oneida Ltd. closes factory in Sherrill NY (t.C3)
6. est. 200 as Federal Bureau of Prisons responds to 2005 budget pressures (j.A4)

USGEN New England Inc. files Chapter 11 in Maryland (j.B7)

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)

1. economists trim growth estimates for jobs, economy (j.A2)
2. healthcare costs for companies, employees surge (j.A2)
3. 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
4. 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)
5. 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):

1. Taiwan labor groups petition for better conditions to prevent 'karoshi' or death from overwork
2. Carolina Parenting Inc. recognizes 40 N.C. firms such as High Point Regional Health System for family-friendly practices like job sharing
3. Center for New American Dream says more US employers are offering job sharing
4. plus 4 other timesizing items from yesterday's GoogleNews
5. 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

1. 7000 jobcuts as Delta unveils its 'turnaround' plan (j.A3, t.C1)
2. 129 cuts as Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. shrinks inner tube production in Clarksdale, Miss. due to declining demand (t.C4)

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

1. Franks Nursery & Crafts Inc. files Chap. 11 again; this time, liquidation, owing $16m (t.C4)
2. family biz Pioneer Super Market in L.A. fails due to exhorbitant Calif. workers' comp (t.C9)

1. Pentagon officials are 'hurrying' to correct conditions in Iraqi prisons (t.A14) - isn't 'hurry' what got us into this? - contrast:
2. 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 into...

1. Greenspan is more optimistic about inflation than growth (j.A2) - he should be; the only thing between us & deflation is oil prices
2. Bush's big domestic spending agenda may crimp plans to curb deficit (j.A2) - no kidding - Republicans have become the liberals, Democrats have become the conservatives!
3. Fed survey shows slower retail & home sales + consumers more than doubled pace of borrowing thru charge cards & instalment loans in July, adding $11B to non-mtg debt (t.C4)
4. Baghdad-area deaths said to top 10,000 - 'during Saddam's days, killings were silent; now the killing is done openly & loudly': Ghali Karim Hassan, who lost his son Ghaidan last April (g.A26) - under Saddam, at least US soldier Richard Murphy's Iraqi translator Akhram felt safe in the streets - now he doesn't (Bill Moyers' NOW 9/17) - wake-up conclusion: Iraq is not better off now than under Saddam, & neither is USA safer
5. Russia's top general, Vladimir Ustinov, asserted a right to strike pre-emptively anywhere in the world after the Beslan massacre (j.A1, g.A1) - great, now we've got TWO loose cannons, Bush & Putin, shooting first, asking questions later - ah, doesn't this put us back where we started 50 years ago?
6. citing war's costs, Kerry goes after Bush - new offensive's theme is that outlays for Iraq are forcing cutbacks in social programs at home - '$200B so far for Iraq but we can't afford afterschool programs' (j.A4) - Kerry says Bush broke his word to go to war in Iraq only as last resort & with broad alliance - calls Bush's course 'catastrophic choice' (t.A29)
7. Bush now backs budget powers in new national intelligence director, a sharp shift from his earlier position (t.A1) = another Bush flipflop?
8. 'Cheney spits toads': Maureen Dowd (t.A35) = Cheney delivers disgraceful campaign speech, breaching unspoken barrier to say if Kerry's elected, we'll be in danger of getting hit by terrorists again, as if this isn't true no matter who is elected: editorial (t.A34) - it would be hard for anyone to put us in more danger than Bush the last 4 years

9/08/2004 wednesday
- please excuse delay while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- we have 724 textfiles: #visitors yesterday 9/07/tue: 693 (9/9/03/t: 874; 9/10/02/t: 750 -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing news (click here for DETAILS):

1. current maximum workweek is 37.5 hours but employees wouldn't mind cutting to 36 in Rehoboth RI town offices
2. UK recruitment firm Portfolio Payroll urges companies to make sure their staff is not overworked
3. plus 16 other timesizing items from yesterday's GoogleNews
4. 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

1. 31% plant workforce cut (800 jobs lost) as Ford Motor overreacts to declining SUV sales by ending 2nd shift at suburban St.Louis plant & declining them even further, instead of just cutting 31% of the plant's workweek (to four 7-hour days for everyone, including execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone together working, earning and buying 69% as many vehicles as before (j.A10)
2. 275 Zurich jobcuts as Swiss Life Holding shrinks (j.A10)

Kentucky: about 600 felons who've lost their voting rights must write letter by Oct.4 to state seeking permission to reregister to vote - Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R) believes they should explain why they deserve to regain voting rights (t.A17) - & not why they deserved to lose them? = Republicans make voting in America harder & harder (ideal in future after plenty of on-the-job training & shorter-hour full-time jobs? vote denied only to non-self-supporting)

1. Bush fell short on duty at Guard - records show pledges unmet (g.A1) - missing in action - Bush walked away from the Air National Guard (t.A27)
2. U.S. conceding rebels control regions of Iraq - Pentagon is not certain when central areas can be secured (t.A1)
3. military toll tops 1,000 - Iraq clashes kill 8 more US troops (g.A1, t.A1, j.A1)
4. Bush's budget promise questioned - even if US saved billions by withdrawing from Iraq & Afghanistan, budget deficit still could hardly be reduced by half within 5 years (t.C1) - CBO deficit analysis & Bush differ (t.A1)
5. personal finance - private banks' class system for the upper class - firms create tiers of service to court super-wealthy (j.A1>D1) - "no class system in America"??

9/07/2004 tuesday
- please excuse delay while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- we have 724 textfiles: #visitors yesterday 9/06/mon: 598 (9/08/03/m: 815; 9/9/02/m: 681 -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing news (click here for DETAILS):

1. Wall Street Journal has 2nd thoughts about Bush's wonderful new overtime changes
2. Ontario union supporters want labour law changes, like tossing the 60-hour workweek
3. plus 13 other timesizing items from yesterday's GoogleNews
4. 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

5000 jobcuts as Alitalia tells unions of layoff plan (t.C1, j.A11) - followup: down to 2500 layoffs, by accord struck at 5:40 am 9/16 (9/17 t.W1), then back up to 3700 layoffs (9/21 j.B6)...

1. weekly jobless claims hit 5-month high in Hurricane Charley's wake - up 19,000 to 362,000 in week ending Aug.28, highest since Apr.10 (j.A2)
2. jobs story - 'increasingly difficult to keep mfg jobs in parts of US where unions & govt impose high costs that make operations uncompetitive' (j.A10) - but lower job quality will lower consumer quality & quantity - need company-specific tariffs based on how much employment they contribute to maintaining US consumer base - no contribution, no access - &/or based on whether they pay offshore employees, say, 80% of US employees' pay

Hollinger report says Lord Black hid inflated mgmt fees in Barbados (j.A3)

1. Medicare premium to climb 17.4% (j.A8) - even more than the 17% published Saturday
2. endangered nest egg: Lecturer Joseph J. Stern of Harvard's Kennedy School of Gov't - so the cat is finally out of the bag - Bush's acceptance speech included 'strengthening' SocSec with 'personal accts' = privatization, to provide nest egg that gov't can never take away - 'dummy that I am, I thot the gov't had already made that pledge to older Americans about the SocSec fund & their current SocSec benefits' (t.A26)
3. sunny San Diego finds itself being viewed as a kind of Enron-by-the-Sea - cityworker pension trustee Diann Shipione noticed city's prospectus for new bond issue didn't mention unfunded $1.15B pension liability plus $1B liability for employee healthcare benefits (t.A13)

1. Onco Investment Co. files Chapter 11 jointly in Del. (j.C13, t.C2)
2. Gividi USA Inc. files Chapter 11 in Del. (j.C12)

fighting the AIDS epidemic by issuing condoms in the prisons: editorial - denial only helps to spread AIDS on the outside (t.A26)

1. Cantor Fitzgerald lawsuit claims Saudi Arabia supported al Qaeda before 9/11 (j.B5) - & the Bush family is sooo close to the Saudi rulers
2. mythic reality: Krugman - war psychology gives us meaning, never mind Iraq is a slow-motion disaster brought on by wishful thinking, cronyism & epic incompetence (t.A27)
3. Bush speech shows US conservatism has a new [or old liberal] playbook - laundry list of policy retreads - budget deficits end days of answering every problem with 'taxcuts' - dropping goal of small gov't - devil in the details, or more accurately, an entire ring of hell (j.A4)
4. back to 'work' for investors - will business investment finally kick in to replace cooling consumer spending? (j.C1)
5. and your 'Orwell du jour' = dollar is on more solid ground after strong U.S. jobs report (j.C5) - apparently they mean payrolls, not jobs, but that could just mean more gouging executives - compare: Japan's data endure bruised image - multiple revisions of GDP (j.A19)
6. four presidents helped pass the assault weapons ban - one pResident is blocking its renewal: stoptheNRA.com (t.A17) - gotta have them assault weapons to hunt them bunnies!

9/04-06/2004 sat-mon (re fri biz)
- pls. excuse delays while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- #visitors to any of our 725 files, F Sa Su: 566,300,440 - wk's daily avg: 536 -
TIMEsizing awareness = strategic glimmers of hope in weekend's GoogleNews:

1. Mass. Council of Churches has joined forces with Boston's Barbara Brandt to push Take Back Your Time Day & 'Four Windows of Time'
2. latest on Europe's workweeks: longest, Spain at 38 hours - shortest, Denmark at 34
3. Bush says if any Americans are silly enough to prefer a country like France with 35-hour workweek & 5 weeks of vacation, here's a travel voucher & good riddance: UK Spoof
4. BMW in Germany is a model timesizer like Nucor and Lincoln Electric in the U.S.
5. plus 82 other Labor Day worktime-related articles (hastily formatted due to quantity)

1. only 144,000 jobs were added in August, a bit of an uptick, but 150,000 a month are needed just to keep up with population growth (9/04 t.B1) - ah, they used to say 200-250k were needed
2. (oops, here it is! -) 'in trying time, scaling down expectations of job growth - lower standards at time of scant expectations' (9/06 t.C1>4)

Continental Air to defer pension contributions this year (9/04 t.B2)

4 US Navy Seals commandos are charged in torture - one Iraqi held at Abu Ghraib died during questioning - another was found dead after blow to head = a rare case of criminal hearings about Special Ops actions - more to come (9/04 t.A5)

1. service sector growth slows to a 2004 low (9/04 t.B4)
2. citing higher costs, US [ie: Bush] plans record 17% rise in Medicare premium (9/04 t.A1) - 'soak the poor'
3. investigators seek lie-detector tests in trying to uncover who leaked name of valuable Detroit terrorist informer, thus jeopardizing his usefulness & possibly his life - big Senate defender of Ashcroft's Justice Dept. Orrin Hatch expresses concern about Dept.'s handling of case (9/04 t.A12) - Bushies just love betraying terrorism-justified confidentiality, cf. CIA agent Valerie Plame, while covering up info the public deserves & needs, eg. Cheney's energy taskforce
4. 9/11 hijackers tied to Saudi government, Sen. Bob Graham says in new book Intelligence Matters - 2 hijackers had support network in US that included Saudi govt agents - Saudi financial support was included in the 27 pages of the 9/11 panel's final report that were blocked from release by the Bush administration (9/05 g.A21) - & Saudi gov't has ties to Bush - so just how badly did Bush & Cheney want & need a 'Pearl Harbor incident'?
5. the candidates' tariff dodge: editorial - of all the hard choices they're avoiding this election year, agricultural subsidies may be the one they're ducking most energetically (9/06 t.A18)
6. hundreds of thou$ands missing in revenue records of culinary charity James Beard Foundation (9/06 t.A1)
7. 2nd hurricane deepens wounds in stricken Florida - total in losses could reach $40B (9/06 t.A1) = God's judgment? - gave'em FOUR years to clean up their election system & they still haven't

1. 1000 US jobcuts as VF Jeanswear moves to production from Texas to Mexico by Dec.31, closing 2 plants & shrinking 2 others (t.C3)
2. 425 more cuts as Continental Airlines plans to save $125m in 2005 (j.A2)
3. 200 as Vaughan Furniture Co. of Galax VA closes plant due to competition from imports (t.C3)
4. unspecified cuts as Payless ShoeSource of Topeka closes stores amid declining sales & earnings (t.C3)
5. unspecified cuts as Viasys Healthcare Inc. medical devices of Conshohocken PA consolidates plants to lower costs (t.C3)

1. weekly jobless claims hit 5-month high in Hurricane Charley's wake - up 19,000 to 362,000 in week ending Aug.28, highest since Apr.10 (j.A2)
2. jobs story - 'increasingly difficult to keep mfg jobs in parts of US where unions & govt impose high costs that make operations uncompetitive' (j.A10) - but lower job quality will lower consumer quality & quantity - need company-specific tariffs based on how much employment they contribute to maintaining US consumer base - no contribution, no access - &/or based on whether they pay offshore employees, say, 80% of US employees' pay

Hollinger report says Black hid inflated mgmt fees in Barbados (j.A3)

Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan is ringing the alarm bell on what an aging population means for government finances (j.A8)

1. Onco Investment Co. files Chapter 11 jointly in Del. (j.C13, t.C2)
2. Gividi USA Inc. files Chapter 11 in Del. (j.C12)

1. retailers' sales come in weaker than expected - soft results reinforce fears about consumer confidence - discounters saw biggest hit (j.A3)
2. in Bush years, government grows as private sector struggles (t.C1)
3. Washington wire - off camera...in Illinois, Republican candidate Keyes accuses Cheney's daughter of 'selfish hedonism' for being a lesbian (j.A4)
4. aging high court looms large - likely judicial vacancies an issue as election approaches (j.A4)

9/02/2004 thursday
- please excuse delay while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- we have 723 textfiles: #visitors yesterday 9/01/wed: 592 (9/03/2003/w: 873; 9/04/2002/w: 761) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing news (click here for DETAILS):

1. Singapore's Foreign Affairs Ministry cuts from 5½ to 5 day workweek
2. consultant says firms should focus on results, not face time
3. plus 25 other timesizing items from yesterday's GoogleNews

1. unspecified cuts by March as Quantum Corp. diskdrives reduces costs (t.C4)
2. unspecified cuts as Acclaim Entertainment Inc. videogames files for liquidation yesterday (t.C4)

1. jobless figures could emphasize Bush's big weakness - the Republican convention enthusiasm may be dampened (t.P4)
2. immigrants pumping iron (pickax, rake) - forget the star stories, many at New York's day labor markets, just a job would be nice (t.A17)
3. potential cuts: United Airlines likely will 'have to' cut its workforce, as airline executives & directors discuss ways to make further cost reductions (j.A1>2)

1. report slams Conrad Black & David Radler for running a 'corporate kleptocracy' - says ex-officials diverted almost all of Hollinger's $400m in earnings over 7 years (j.A1, t.C1>A1)
2. federal judge Richard Leon ordered release of some $60m in compensation owed to Freddie Mac's former CEO Leland Brendsel, blow to mortgage-company regulator (OFHEO) Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (j.A1>3)

ambitions to 'fix' Social Security present big hurdles for Bush - deficits & toxic [or Godsent!] politics hobble plan to 'offer option' of private accounts - 2 camps within White House (j.A1)

Acclaim Entertainment Inc. videogames files for Chapter 7 liquidation yesterday (j.D13, t.C4)

about 24 GIs to face trial or other punishment in deaths of 2 Afghan prisoners - confirms Afghan complaints of torture (t.A8) - again we scapegoat the peons for armywide evil

1. court says ex-IRS executive, Peter Coons, deserves whistle-blower status - Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in DC that usually hears such matters has rejected 94 out of 95 whistleblower claims; Coons' original lawyer, Mary Dryovage, steered this case instead to 9th Circuit Court by combining it with employment-law claims & was then put under investigation by IRS to prevent her from representing him, so Coons hired another lawyer (t.C4)
2. GM & Ford to cut production - industrywide drop in sales led to bloated inventories (t.C1)
3. Beijing & U.S. are close to pact that could let Westinghouse & other US firms sell nuclear reactors in China (j.A1) - ah, isn't that what we're trying to stop in N.Korea, Iran & other places?
4. US textile & clothing makers will ask govt to impose strict limits on wide array of Chinese garment imports (j.A1) - can we cut the 'free trade' rhetoric now?
5. airlines cut fuel reserves on long hauls - effort to lighten flight loads & lower costs may spur delays (j.D1) - feel safer now?
6. police tactics in NYC mute protesters & their messages (t.A1) - feel freer now?

9/01/2004 wednesday
- please excuse delay while we play post-vacation catch-up -
- we have 724 textfiles: #visitors yesterday 8/31/tue: 588 (9/02/2003/tue: 814; 9/03/2002/tue: 761) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing news (click here for DETAILS):

1. Australian state of Victoria tightens overtime laws
2. slaves have an unlimited workweek & there are more of them today than at the height of the trans-Atlantic trade
3. plus 8 other timesizing items from yesterday's GoogleNews

90 jobcuts as Dutch food company Wessanen NV, despite E11.8m ($14.2m) profit, plans overhaul to reduce number of products (j.C15)

1. consumer confidence slid last month, the Conference Board said - driving the decline was the perception of a stalled job market (j.A1>2)
2. U.S., losing trade cases, faces millions in penalties - with swing-state voters anxious about jobs, Congress refuses to ease U.S. strictures (t.C9) - free trade yields to fair trade to save jobs
3. once again, high domestic labor costs require us to outsource the production of this week's comic = Jeff Meddick's 'Monty' cartoon (g.F9)

1. report slams Conrad Black & David Radler for running a 'corporate kleptocracy' - says ex-officials diverted almost all of Hollinger's $400m in earnings over 7 years (j.A1, t.C1>A1)
2. federal judge Richard Leon ordered release of some $60m in compensation owed to Freddie Mac's former CEO Leland Brendsel, blow to mortgage-company regulator (OFHEO) Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (j.A1>3)

US Airways sets talks with pilots on further cuts to pension plan (t.C1)

1. Arkansas: state releases 569 inmates early who were within 90 days of parole - despite additional space for 716 prisoners in last year, almost 900 prisoners in city & county jails await transfer to state custody - prison officials said mandatory sentences for drug offenders would continue to swell inmate population (t.A15)
2. North Carolina: additional charge of 'maltreatment & cruelty' requested in Iraqi-prisoner-abuse hearing to determine if Pfc. Lynndie England should be court-martialed (t.A15) = continuing game of 'scapegoat the peons'

1. the US [ie: Wolfowitz] is circulating a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for Syria to withdraw immediately from Lebanon (j.A1) - here we go again!
2. Republican convention theme of fear plays key role in election & may favor Bush (j.A6) - Republicans are spreading fear more effectively than Osama
3. demonstrators stage acts of protest throughout NY City - hundreds arrested (g.A31) - Tiananmen in America
4. Bush's ruinous economic plans for Americans' health, Social Security, energy, taxes & deficit - more of the same in a 2d term would make things even worse (g.A19)
5. Bush's Justice Dept. asked a judge to void the convictions in a Detroit terrorism case it once trumpeted, conceding prosecutorial misconduct (j.A1) - another Bush flipflop
6. pResident flipflop: op ed by Derrick Jackson (g.A19) - 'of course you can win the war on terror' vs. 'I don't think you can win it': Danziger cartoon (g.A19) - in retreat, Bush says U.S. will win war on terrorism - 'Bush flipflops on winning the war on terror': email to reporters from Kerry campaign (t.P4)
7. drop in consumer confidence unexpectedly steep to 98.2 in August from 105.7 in July (t.C2) - contrast yesterday: 'report shows more spending by consumers'
8. dollar slips on data (consumer confidence & mfg) indicating weakness in U.S. economy (j.C4)
9. firms are increasingly adopting 2-tier systems that give new workers lower pay & benefits in an effort to cut labor costs (j.A1)
10. U.S. loses trade cases & faces penalties (t.C1) - 'free trade' US-style?
11. Ford's European head gave the staff of a Land Rover plant in Britain a week to develop a plan to boost quality & profits (j.A1>2) - or else what? - & isn't that his job?
12. heavyweight Hollinger board, light on supervision - 'it is difficult to imagine a more flagrant abdication of duty,' a panel says (t.C1>6) - no need to imagine, just look at our rubberstamp Congress, or at Enron, Tyco, Adelphia, WorldCom, Global Crossing...

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