11 Jun 2004
Not Many Jobs Are Sent Abroad, U.S. Report Says

Even the authors admit that this report is seriously flawed:

Officials acknowledged that the numbers clearly undercount the total number of jobs lost offshore. For one thing, the new data covers layoffs only at companies employing at least 50 workers where at least 50 filed for unemployment insurance and the layoffs lasted more than 30 days. Even more important, the report does not account for jobs created by American companies overseas that did not involve a direct layoff in the United States.

If the statistics are that seriously flawed, why release the report? Hmmm, how do you spell "election year"?

A Labor Department report found that a mere 2.5 percent of total longer-term job losses in the first quarter of this year resulted from jobs moving overseas.

(link) [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

I Agree With Me

P.J. O'Rourke is spot on with this rant about conservative talk radio. Here's a teaser:

Last year, on a long car trip, I was listening to Rush Limbaugh shout. I usually agree with Rush Limbaugh; therefore I usually don't listen to him. I listen to NPR: "World to end—poor and minorities hardest hit." I like to argue with the radio. Of course, if I had kept listening to Limbaugh, whose OxyContin addiction was about to be revealed, I could have argued with him about drugs. I don't think drugs are bad. I used to be a hippie. I think drugs are fun. Now I'm a conservative. I think fun is bad. I would agree all the more with Limbaugh if, after he returned from rehab, he'd shouted (as most Americans ought to), "I'm sorry I had fun! I promise not to have any more!"

When was the last time a conservative talk show changed a mind?

(link) [The Atlantic]via MyAppleMenu

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link