GOP Spending Spree--Even Bill Clinton and a Democratic Congress didn't spend like this.

Wall St Journal ^ | 1-20-04

[Landru]

"We are self employed...aha!!!! Yes we are. And anyone who is self employed will axiomatically pay more attention to what is going on than a middle management executive at Proctor & Gamble...or a gubmint employee."

Well lookit there, you understood [me] rather easily & with a minimum amount of gobbledegook doublespeak, too.
Whadda ya know.

That's my "litmus", i-a; &, it works everytime for seperating the wheat from the chaff.

...or goofballs from taxpayers.

[Piranha]

When you go into business, you try and figure out what the market demand for your product or service will be. Your analysis should include actual and potential competition.

If the US imports harmonicas from China, it may not make sense to make them here.

Fortunately, there are lots of products and services that have to be provided locally, and there are lots of products and services that can be made in the US and exported abroad.

[international american]

"Fortunately, there are lots of products and services that have to be provided locally,"

Less and less.......I travel all over Asia(Malaysia, China,Indonesia,Singapore) and I see the writing on the wall.
Fresh bread and veggies must be made here.....everything else is up for grabs. Hewlett Packard now manufactures everything in Malaysia. Compaq uses all CSR's in India, at slave labor rates compared to here. In Jakarta, they use armed guards to watch the IT slave labor(American companies in Jakarta 1000 per employee, and the thugs keep 3/4 of their salaries). I reported this to the Dept. of Labor 2 years ago...nothing has been done about it!

[Piranha]

I think this is a shame and a scandal.

I wonder why the media have paid attention to this issue in the textile industry, while they have ignored it in the high-tech sector.

I wonder who the congressman is at HP's headquarters. Maybe he's putting pressure on Labor.

[international american]

"When you go into business, you try and figure out what the market demand for your product or service will be. Your analysis should include actual and potential competition."

This is rudimentary due diligence. If you hometown turns completely foreign in 10 years, I guess you gotta move or fold.

And If 10 years ago, you got a BSEE degree, and are now unemployable, because we imported 900,000 foreign engineers who will work for 1/3rd prevailing wages, what do you do....bake bread?

[international american]

"I wonder why the media have paid attention to this issue in the textile industry, while they have ignored it in the high-tech sector."

They only go to Asia to pick up young whores in Bangkok.
Most Americans are not world traveled....the extent of our sending well paying jobs overseas would curdle your milk.

[international american]

"I wonder who the congressman is at HP's headquarters. Maybe he's putting pressure on Labor."

Yeah, if you fire them all, and send their jobs to Bejing,
and Jakarta............yeah, that puts pressure on em alright:)

[SW6906]

According to opensecrets.org, HP gives 50% to DemocRATS and 49% to Republicans. Further, they give 51% to PACs and 49% to individuals. Further searching that I don't have time to do right now might reveal who gets HP money.

Bottom line: it looks like HP plays both sides and they both protect it......

[FrankR]

"GOP Spending Spree--Even Bill Clinton and a Democratic Congress didn't spend like this."

While clinton was busy chasing interns, the Taliban and Saddam went crazy building up their terrorist regimes...clinton caught bin laden, but was too busy playing gigalo to do anything about him.

So, in comes Bush, inherits clinton's mess, 9/11, bin laden, and saddam. Well, DUH...it costs a little more to clean all that up...like having to rebuild and refurbish the military that clinton gutted. With clinton's military - that he so loathed - mechanics were having to canabalize parts so the planes could fly.

Now, if I was a tinhorn dictator, so pressed by my "religion" to destroy the American infidels, I think I'd start the build up around the time we had a person like clinton in the White House...as while the terrorist were building up resources, clinton was dismantling ours.

Someone recently used the term "passive agressive" to describe liberals...well it works for tinhorn dictators too, they flex most of their muscle when their opponents are weak, and/or off guard. Gutting the military, as clinton did, put us in a weak position, and left us off guard. So...9/11 happened. The taliban knew if they were ever going to hit, that was the right time.

Whether you like the war, or not, NO ONE is in a position to say how far this terrorist thing may escalate before it ends...if it ever does.

To paraphrase and old saying, "Talk is cheap, but it takes money to fight a war".

[international american]

"I wonder why the media have paid attention to this issue in the textile industry, while they have ignored it in the high-tech sector."
The "big three" are outsourcing just like all other big US
companies. Do you realize that a brand new 4 bedroom 2 bat house with a 2 car garage in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is 40-45000 with a 200 per month payment? A pack of Dunhills is $1.20.....7 dollars here. They pay middle management execs 1200-1400 a month there...what I paid for my apartment !

[familyofman]

The current GOP can not in any way shape or form be considered "fiscal conservatives". Pandering to every special interest group makes them closer to fiscal whores. The tax cuts can also be put in the category of pander/pork since they're meant to appease fiscal conservatives.

This admin & congress are worse than a joke - they are actually dangerous in fiscal matters.

[international american]

"The tax cuts can also be put in the category of pander/pork since they're meant to appease fiscal conservatives."
They throw us a bone.....and take all the meat:)

[Piranha]

I know that in many industries there is robust employment for skilled labor. There are machine shops all over the country, for example, and nobody has ever consolidated them. Medical device companies hire unskilled technicians, engineers, regulatory experts, clinical workers and others. I go to trade shows that have hundreds of exhibitors each, and most of exhibiting companies seem to be American companies that have American manufacturing facilities.

I agree that in many cases the unskilled (and increasingly semi-skilled and even skilled) labor is being out-sourced abroad. I think that there have got to be postitions that will continue to be filled in the US, either because the companies aren't big enough to outsource economically or because there are special skills that can be filled best by people in particular locations (for example, where a large company is located you often find laid-off workers starting new companies that use the skills that they developed in the big companies).

People used to say that merger and acquisition activity was going to eliminate the "mom and pop" facilities, but they keep coming. Also, many times larger companies will spin off divisions to private investors or management.

[StoneColdGOP]

I know, I'd hate to leave California, because I love it here, but it's not what it used to be, especially around L.A.

And if Bush follows through with all this madness about amnesty, he deserves to lose re-election.

[international american]

Everything looks ok today I am speaking of 10-20 years down the road if the trend is not reversed....and I see no signs of it being reversed. There will always be mom and pop businesses.....In California they are increasingly in another language....whole cities in another language.

[international american]

It is not just in LA. Whole cities in the burbs resemble a foreign country.