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HoustonChronicle.com - Bush-Saudi ties deserve hard look

I read the news today. . . .oh, boy!

I don't read the newspaper every day, but I subscribe to the weekend editions of the Austin American-Statesman. Here are a few excerpts from today's edition that caught my attention:

Bush uses recess appointment to put Pickering on court
President's move bypasses Senate Democrats who had blocked judge's nomination to appeals court that serves Texas
By Eunice Moscoso, WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- President Bush appointed U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering to a federal court of appeals Friday, infuriating Senate Democrats who had blocked his nomination for more than two years. Bush elevated Pickering by recess appointment, simply putting him in office while Congress was out of session. Such appointments are valid until the next Congress takes office, in this case January 2005. Then, the Senate must approve him or reject him for a permanent appointment.

* * *

Hubble telescope will be abandoned
Orbiting viewer becomes casualty of NASA's new focus on Bush's Mars vision
Compiled from wire reports

The Hubble Space Telescope, which revolutionized the study of the cosmos and is considered one of the finest scientific instruments ever constructed, will be forced into early retirement, NASA officials said Friday. NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe told telescope managers and engineers that he was scrubbing the final space shuttle flight to install new scientific instruments and replace critical targeting and power components. His announcement came just two days after President Bush ordered the space agency to cut $11 billion from its five-year budget to focus on sending humans to the moon and beyond.

* * *

CBS rejects Super Bowl ads
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

LOS ANGELES - CBS has rejected two Super Bowl advertisements touting vegetarianism and bashing President Bush because they violate its advocacy rules, the network said Friday. The Feb. 1 Super Bowl is in Houston.

The ad prepared by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals asserts that meat-eating causes impotence, using two attractive women and an unlucky pizza deliveryman to make its point. Meanwhile, the liberal online advocacy Web site MoveOn.org sought to place an ad that uses images of children working at adult jobs to criticize the federal budget deficit. The Super Bowl is traditionally the most-watched TV event of the year.

"We do not accept advertising on one side or the other of controversial public issues, partly because we don't think the debate ought to be controlled by people with deep pockets," said Mar-tin Franks, CBS executive vice president.

CBS also covers these issues in a balanced way with its news department, Franks said.

* * *

Foreclosure postings drop from record levels
But number of listings for February auction is still relatively high
By Claudia Grisales, AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Central Texas foreclosure postings have backed off of record levels hit for the January auction but still remain relatively high for the upcoming Feb. 3 auction.

. . .

Foreclosure postings have risen in the past two years as the economy struggled to recover from the 2001 recession. Foreclosure postings are typically the last indicator to show improvement in a recovering economy, Roddy said. Although the economy is strengthening, there are still signs that the recovery remains at its early stage, and job growth is only tenuous at best.

The Labor Department on Jan. 9 reported that only 1,000 new jobs were added in December. The real culprit tied to the high foreclosure listing levels is the lack of jobs, Roddy said.

* * *

Harris nixes Senate bid

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, the Florida election official vilified by Democrats for her role in the 2000 presidential recount, said she will not run for the Senate. The White House reportedly feared that her candidacy would produce big turnout among angry Democrats and hurt President Bush's chances of carrying Florida this year. Harris said she is seeking re-election to the House, but she did not rule out a future Senate bid.

* * *

Scalia, Cheney duck hunt as energy case is pending
Legal experts say trip raises doubts about Scalia's ability to judge the case impartially
By David G. Savage, LOS ANGELES TIMES

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spent part of last week duck hunting at a private camp in south Louisiana just three weeks after the Supreme Court agreed to take up the vice president's appeal in lawsuits over his handling of the administration's energy task force. Though Scalia and Cheney are avid hunters and long-time friends, several experts in legal ethics questioned the timing of their trip and said it raised doubts about Scalia's ability to judge the case impartially.

But Scalia rejected that concern Friday, saying, "I do not think my impartiality could reasonably be questioned."

* * *

Bush's Rx for manufacturing: tax cuts
Despite signs of broad recovery, factory jobs still disappearing
By Marilyn Geewax, WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Hoping to shore up support among blue-collar workers, the Bush administration unveiled plans Friday for strengthening U.S. manufacturing. The initiative stresses President Bush's long-standing goals, such as making tax cuts permanent and enacting litigation reform.

"This is our strategy to remove the barriers that are holding back American manufacturers and costing jobs," said Commerce Secretary Don Evans, who released the report during a visit to Lincoln Electric Holdings Inc., a welding equipment factory near Cleveland.

But even as Evans visited Ohio, a refrigerator manufacturer in Michigan was informing its 2,700 workers that their jobs would be ending by 2005 as production shifts to Mexico. The decision by Electrolux AB to shutter its plant in Greenville, about 30 miles northeast of Grand Rapids, underscored the difficulties facing workers. While much of the economy is perking up, factories continue to shed employees.

Since Bush took office, roughly 2.6 million manufacturing jobs have disappeared. The relentless job losses in key swing states such as Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania have become a political headache for Bush in this election year.

* * *

Editorial
Editorial Board, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Planetary actions. Men are from Mars, women from Venus and the president represents both--as President Bush demonstrated this week.

On Tuesday, the president announced a $1.5 billion plan to promote traditional marriage that, he hopes, will soothe Christian voters who want a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Having taken care of love on this planet, the president then announced Wednesday an ambitious program that would cost billions and billions and billions more to send astronauts to Mars, the planet of war.

Yet another case in which the guy says, "I love you, sweetie," and then spends all his money on a new sports car.

* * *

All of the above quotations are from stories in the Austin American Statesman http://www.statesman.com

The final item of interest was a photo, and I can't reproduce it here. You can see it at the following website, though I don't know for how long: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040108/46/einue.html

The caption reads: "A guard stands at a security gate at the Levi Strauss & Co. plants in San Antonio, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2004. Levi Strauss & Co., whose trademark blue jeans have been an American clothing staple for generations, closed its last two sewing plants in the United States, located in San Antonio, Thursday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)"


These are just a few of the things that mattered to me today. As we go along, I'll try to explain why it matters.

Saturday, January 17, 2004

Okay, I'm new to this, so give me a chance to figure out how it all works.

For the past few years, I've been wanting to share my thoughts and opinions on the "State of the Union." Mostly, though, I figured that few would share my views, so why bother. Now I'm starting to think that I--and others who think like me--may have been silent for too long. So here's my attempt to correct my error.