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Jimmy Carter aspired to make Government "competent and compassionate," responsive to the American people and their expectations. His achievements were notable, but in an era of rising energy costs, mounting inflation, and continuing tensions, it was impossible for his administration to meet these high expectations. Carter, who has rarely used his full name--James Earl Carter, Jr.--was born October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia. Peanut farming, talk of politics, and devotion to the Baptist faith were mainstays of his upbringing. Upon graduation in 1946 from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Carter married Rosalynn Smith. The Carters have three sons,...

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 23 2005 Five years after the controversial 2000 presidential election, ex-President Jimmy Carter now says he's certain Al Gore defeated George W. Bush. "Well I would say that in the year 2000, the country failed abysmally in the presidential election process," Carter told a panel Monday at American University in Washington, D.C. "There's no doubt in my mind that Al Gore was elected president." Those in attendance broke out in applause for that statement. "[Gore] received the most votes nationwide, and in my opinion, he also received the most votes in Florida," Carter continued. "And the decision was...

Ronald Reagan won because he won the only debate. He won it not because of Carter's debate performance ("I had a discussion with my daughter, Amy, the other day, before I came here, to ask her what the most important issue was. She said she thought nuclear weaponry ... "), but only because Reagan had Carter's briefing book. And Reagan had it because this columnist gave it to him.

Watching the Economy Crumble Paul Craig Roberts Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2005 The United States continues its descent into the Third World, but you would never know it from news reports of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' July payroll jobs release. The media give a bare-bones jobs report that is misleading. The public heard that 207,000 jobs were created in July. If not a reassuring figure, at least it is not a disturbing one. On the surface, things look to be pretty much OK. It is when you look into the composition of these jobs that the concern arises. Of the...

The United States continues its descent into the Third World, but you would never know it from news reports of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' July payroll jobs release. The media give a bare-bones jobs report that is misleading. The public heard that 207,000 jobs were created in July. If not a reassuring figure, at least it is not a disturbing one. On the surface, things look to be pretty much OK. It is when you look into the composition of these jobs that the concern arises. Of the new jobs, 26,000 (about 13 percent) are tax-supported government jobs. That...

ATLANTA - Former President Jimmy Carter on Tuesday called for the United States to shut down its Guantanamo Bay prison to demonstrate the country's commitment to protecting human rights. "Despite President George W. Bush's bold reminder that America is determined to promote freedom and democracy around the world, the U.S. continues to suffer terrible embarrassment and a blow to our reputation as a champion of human rights because of reports concerning abuses of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo," Carter said in a news conference following the close of a two-day human rights conference at his Atlanta center. In addition...

<p>Former President Jimmy Carter has been linked with a key figure in the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal by the group leading the nationwide effort to evict the United Nations from American soil and halt U.S. funding of the U.N.</p>

Good evening. I want to have a frank talk with you tonight about our most serious domestic problem. That problem is inflation. Inflation can threaten all the economic gains we've made, and it can stand in the way of what we want to achieve in the future. This has been a long-time threat. For the last 10 years, the annual inflation rate in the United States has averaged 6-1/2 percent. And during the 3 years before my inauguration, it had increased to an average of eight percent. Inflation has, therefore, been a serious problem for me ever since I became...

I ran into a relative at a wedding this weekend. We hadn't seen each other since the last family wedding, three years ago. I asked how her daughter was doing, and this story came pouring out. Her daughter's husband was laid off in July from a company where he had worked for 28 years. He will miss out on his pension and faces job-hunting now at age 52. His wife is working 50 hours a week and fears making any missteps at her job because she is now carrying the family's health insurance. He's depressed and is a scatterbrained substitute...

96,000 jobs were created in September. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.4% Upward revisions Details to come...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Oct 7 - A new report found that layoffs reached an eight-month high in September, while new hiring rose only slightly. Employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said companies announced 107,863 layoffs in September, 45 percent more than in August. The figure was the largest since January, when employers laid off 117,556 workers. Meanwhile, employers hired only 16,166 new workers, compared with 132,105 in August. The computer, transportation, telecommunications and consumer products industries were particularly hard hit by the cuts. "Historically, the period from September 1 through December 31...

Kerry's campaign has invented a new "misery index" that makes Bush's economic record look, well, miserable. Why a new index? Perhaps because the classic "misery index" -- which adds together the unemployment rate and the rate of inflation -- currently is better than it's been in most years since World War II. In fact, it's less than half the miserable level reached in 1980, the last year of the Carter administration, and better than in any of Clinton's first four years: Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Annual Average Unemployment Rate + Percentage Change in Annual Average Consumer Price Index)Analysis The...

The Oddest Couple and Their Hidden Agendas Joan Swirsky Friday, Aug. 13, 2004 The average lifespan for American men is around 74 years, and around 80 for women. So you would think that people like John Kerry and his wife, who have both been on this earth for over 60 years, would have gotten their acts together enough to convey some sense of internal coherence, personae that have at least a smidgen of authenticity. I don’t get either coherence or authenticity from John Kerry or Teresa Heinz Kerry, whether they’re together or apart. What I do get is a hidden...

CLINTON PROTÉGÉ NO STUDENT OF HISTORYKerry Misery Index Turns Clinton Optimists Pessimistic_____________________________________DNC Chief Insists Economy Today As Bad As It Was During DepressionDNC Chairman Said Situation "Is Worse" Than Was Under Herbert Hoover. DEMOCRAT NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN TERRY MCAULIFFE: "I mean, George Bush, as you know, is the first President since Herbert Hoover to lose jobs during his tenure as President." KVI RADIO's KIRBY WILBUR: "Yeah, but, I mean, the Herbert Hoover thing is kind of a false thing, in a sense, because you're trying to bring up images of the Depression where there was 25 percent unemployment and it's...

Bush presidency unbroken series of mistakes: Carter 7/28/2004 BOSTON, Massachusetts, July 27 (AFP) - Former US president Jimmy Carter came out swinging at the Democratic convention Monday, blasting George W. Bush for an "unbroken series of mistakes" he said had squandered the world's goodwill for the United States. Despite pledges to keep the four-day convention free of Bush- bashing, Carter used his opening-night speech to launch a fierce, partisan broadside on the incumbent that Democrats hope to oust in November's election. "Truth is the foundation of our global leadership, but our credibility has been shattered and we are left increasingly...

CARTER'S REMARKS TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION, BOSTON Mon Jul 26 2004 19:45:57 ET My name is Jimmy Carter, and I'm not running for president. But here's what I will be doing: everything I can to put John Kerry in the White House with John Edwards right there beside him. Twenty-eight years ago I was running for president, and I said then, "I want a government as good and as honest and as decent and as competent and as compassionate as are the American people." I say this again tonight, and that is exactly what we will have next January...

To ensure that additional human rights embarrassments will not befall the United States, we must examine well-known, high-level and broad-based U.S. policies that have lowered our nation's commitment to basic human rights. Immediately after Sept. 11, 2001, many traumatized and fearful U.S. citizens accepted Washington's new approach with confidence that our leaders would continue to honor international agreements and human rights standards. But in many nations, defenders of human rights were the first to feel the consequences of these changes, and international humanitarian organizations began expressing deep concern to each other and to high-level U.S. military and government officials about...

Election 2004: Sen. John Kerry released his misery index Monday. It's more a laughable political stunt than a rigorous analysis of economic conditions.The real misery index, the one that is traditionally accepted by economists, is a combination of the unemployment rate (5.7%) and inflation (1.7%), and at 7.4, it is hardly anything to be concerned about.Numbers don't say much without context, though, so try this: The misery index is lower today than its 8.8 average during Bill Clinton's first term. It is also below the post-WWII average of 9.5.Kerry's index, however, is a middle-class misery index based on narrowly focused...

<p>WASHINGTON — Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (search) unveiled his own version of the "misery index" on Monday, claiming Americans are miserable because President Bush has done such a bad job with the U.S. economy.</p> <p>Based on a series of numbers that he says shows the United States is economically worse off than during the term of President Carter, the index eliminates the two statistics that have traditionally been used to measure "economic discomfort" — the inflation and unemployment rates.</p>

BOSTON, April 11 — Despite the growing anxiety of several national Roman Catholic leaders, Senator John Kerry took communion here on Sunday at Easter services at the Paulist Center, a nontraditional church that describes itself as "a worship community of Christians in the Roman Catholic tradition" and which attracts people drawn to its dedication to "family religious education and social justice." Mr. Kerry's decision to receive communion amounts to a challenge to several prominent Catholic bishops, who have become increasingly exasperated with politicians who are Catholic but who deviate from Catholic teaching. Mr. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, supports...