Bush's Fuzzy math? (Here, kitties!)

[landslide]

Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry (news - web sites) received the endorsement of the 13 million-member AFL-CIO labor coalition on Thursday, a move that could help him rebut rival John Edwards (news - web sites)' challenge on jobs and trade.

"Today we know the time has come to unite behind one man, one leader, one candidate," said John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, an umbrella organization of 64 unions. "Throughout his distinguished political career John Kerry has been a friend of working families."

Outside AFL-CIO headquarters two blocks from the White House and beneath a huge sign reading "America Needs Good Jobs," Kerry vowed to fight for working families and ridiculed President Bush (news - web sites)'s "fuzzy math" on jobs.

He said every year Bush had promised to create jobs and every year he had lost them -- the economy has shed almost 3 million in the private sector since the president took office -- and "now he says he's not in charge of numbers."

White House advisers have distanced themselves from their own forecast that the country would add 2.6 million jobs by the end of the year.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, it just doesn't take a lot of fuzzy math to count to zero," Kerry said. "We're not asking George Bush to count the jobs, we're asking George Bush to create the jobs and fight for working people."

The loss of U.S. jobs to foreign competition has become a focal point in the Democratic race to challenge Bush and looms large in states like Ohio, New York and Georgia, which are among 10 holding contests on March 2.

[landslide]

How can Bush defend his dismal job record?

[The SISU kid]

Troll Alert!!!

Nice knowing you.....

[4CJ]

Goodbye. ZOT!

[Peach]

Ever heard of 9/11?

[Always Right]

LOL, Bush will do just fine. The economy is growing at a huge rate and jobs will follow. Good thing Kerry has his Senate job to fall back on.

[cweese]

...is that you, moby?...

[Paradox]

the 2 or 3 million "lost jobs" is a bogus stat. That was exposed here on FR a long time ago.

And I guess Kerry knows nothing about economics if he expects W to "create" jobs.. thats stupid.

[ambrose]

We've lost jobs because of the Clinton-bin Laden recession.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

Easy. In a Free Market Economy, it isn't the president's job to create jobs.

[snooker]

Bad news for dums

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=530&e=3&u=/ap/20040219/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/wall_street

[freeangel]

Viking Kitties to arms!

[MegaSilver]

landslide
Since Feb 19, 2004

Welcome to FreeRepublic.

[EggsAckley]

Typical troll behavior; post pointless vanity, and then vanish. BuhBye......

[cripplecreek]

MATTHEWS: How about ANWR? You guys want to see ANWR because you want to see guys working in your business. I guess there‘s a lot of Teamsters jobs up there lined up and organized, if you could put a pipeline up to the Alaska wilderness. He is against that.

HOFFA: Well, we talked about that.

He says, look, I am against ANWR, but I am going to put that pipeline in and we‘re going to drill like never before.

[ambrose]

Job Figures, Strong Earnings Boost Dow 67
1 hour, 4 minutes ago

Add Business - AP to My Yahoo!

By MICHAEL J. MARTINEZ, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK - A surprisingly low number of first-time jobless claims and strong earnings from the technology and retail sectors boosted stocks Thursday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average near a 2 1/2-year high.


Unemployment claims fell by a seasonally adjusted 24,000 to 344,000 for the week ending Feb. 14, the lowest level since Jan. 24, giving investors hope that corporate bottom lines were secure enough to prevent more large-scale layoffs.

"This is definitely a welcome sign," said Kevin Caron, market strategist for Ryan, Beck & Co. "It's just one week and one data point, but the overall trend is deceleration in jobless claims and a rise in new jobs, and this fits in with that."

In early afternoon trading, the Dow rose 66.68, or 0.6 percent, to 10,738.67, on pace to beat its previous 2 1/2-year high of 10,737.70, set on Feb. 11.

Broader stock indicators were also higher. The Nasdaq composite index, buoyed by tech stocks, climbed 3.10, or 0.2 percent, at 2,079.57. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 4.43, or 0.4 percent, at 1,156.25.

Investors were also cheered by a larger-than-expected rise in the Index of Leading Economic Indicators (news - web sites), the closely watched forecasting gauge. The index rose 0.5 percent in January, 0.2 percentage point higher than Wall Street estimates.

Technology shares rose on strong earnings from Applied Materials, the chip manufacturing equipment maker, and a bright outlook for Broadcom Corp., which makes microchip for digital television boxes and other consumer items.

Applied Materials jumped 76 cents to $23.07 after swinging to a profit in the fourth quarter, beating Wall Street estimates by 4 cents a share. Broadcom, which adjusted its quarterly revenue estimates upward after Wednesday's session, was up 18 cents at $42.64.

Nextel Communications, considered a prime acquisition target in the wireless industry, shed 77 cents to $27.85 despite posting strong fourth-quarter earnings that beat expectations by 8 cents per share. The company said it plans to remain independent, add customers and expand its network.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. jumped 99 cents to $58.19 after reporting strong fourth-quarter earnings in line with analysts' expectations. Executives also indicated that the first quarter would be stronger than previously expected. Target Corp. also beat Wall Street expectations, but fell 7 cents to $42.22.

Intuit Inc., makers of personal finance software, dropped $3.01 to $46.18 despite a better-than-expected earnings report as the company revised the current quarter's outlook downward.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by nearly 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites), where volume came to 771.31 million shares, compared with 703.86 million at the same point Wednesday.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 0.93, or 0.2 percent, to 592.41.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average finished 0.7 percent higher. In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 closed up 1.6 percent, France's CAC-40 climbed 1.4 percent for the session, and Germany's Xetra DAX was up 1.1 percent in late trading.

[cake_crumb]

Cut me a break. Democrats weren't worried about sending American jobs oversees during the CLintont years. Big labor is PART of that problem: to get richer and more powerful, they vote Democrat, the party most antithetical to business.

[Fury]

I'm amazed at the number of ZOT alerts the past few days. It's not a full moon, but they are out in force.

[Lunatic Fringe]

That 3 million number again! Talk about "fuzzy math"

[WinOne4TheGipper]

Thanks for letting us play with ridicule the troll.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

From the US Department of labor. I know you know who they are zot-boy.

Total employment rose by 496,000 in January after accounting for the adjustment to population controls. (See table A and the note on page 6.) The employment-population ratio--the proportion of the population age 16 and older with jobs--increased to 62.4 percent over the month. (See table A-1.)