by Frank James
A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important, most interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.
Even though the presidential candidates mostly ignore the issue, experts said the U.S. fiscal situation threatens to damage the nation's economy and superpower status, with the looming crisis of having to manage the growing health-care needs of the Baby Boom generation presenting the greatest challenge.
Michael Mukasey's refusal so far to condemn outright as torture the harsh interrogation technique known as waterboarding appeared to threaten his nomination as attorney general although it was unclear whether key Senate Democrats would abandon him.
While Sen. Hillary Clinton has mostly steered clear of the issue of Social Security reform, several other Democratic presidential candidates have offered plans to bolster the program, including raising taxes on the wealthy.
State Department diplomats expressed unhappiness with their bosses' plans to order some of them to serve in Iraq or face being asked to leave the Foreign Service, saying the agency had neither well prepared them for such a risky assignment or properly attended to the psychological and other needs of those U.S. diplomats who returning from Iraq.
Some of the numerous memos sent by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to aides show he was a prickly boss who thought a lot about public relations, for instance, musing on whether the war on terror needed to be renamed to reinvigorate public support for U.S. efforts in Iraq.
Blackwater USA is mounting an aggressive legal and public relations campaign as it tries to salvage its reputation and lucrative government contracts amid the outcry that has arisen over the killings of innocent Iraqi civilians by its private security guards in Iraq.
After apparently waffling on the question of whether she supported giving illegal immigrants drivers licenses, Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign spent Wednesday trying to clarify her position while her fellow Democratic opponents for the nomination, as well as Republicans, tried to use her awkward answer to their advantage.
The Federal Reserve Board cut a key interest rate by a quarter percent, as Wall Street had expected, trying to reduce mortgage crisis drag on the economy. But it indicated that investors shouldn't necessarily expect future rate cuts since the central bank remains concerned about inflation.
A year before the presidential election, nearly three quarters of those polled in a USA Today/Gallup poll expressed dissatisfaction with how things were going in the U.S., setting the stage for a watershed election, if the past is any guide.
The Federal Communications Commission banned exclusive contracts between apartment building owners and cable companies in a bid to create more competition and try and slow and even reverse the cable rate increases of recent years.
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Comments
Swamp non-story: the economic growth rate for the 3rd quarter was at an annual 3.9%, one of the best growth rates in recent history. This is also the 24th consecutive month of growth. That's 6 straight years of growth.
Tax cut boom? Yep. Bush boom? Yep. Will this be reported in the Swamp? Nope. Would it be reported as such in the Swamp if a Democrat were in the White House? Yep.
Posted by: Bruce | November 1, 2007 9:49 AM
Another Swamp non-story: the online magazine "Wired" reports on an investigation which alleges that supporters of Presidential candidate Ron Paul have scammed the online polls, using computer tricks to generate massive numbers of phony emails. See http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/10/paul_bot
Posted by: Bruce | November 1, 2007 9:55 AM
Could it be that the economic growth rate is actually a reflection of the decrease in the value of the dollar?
I mean moving all the decimal points to the right is not exactly a positive thing to do, even if it does make it look like we're getting richer.
Remember the old "Gold Standard" for setting the true value of our currency? How about a new "Black Gold Standard"?
I think the lower value of the dollar is a good thing, for American business, and have always favored lowering its value for this reason. The trade deficit has been a major problem for a long time. However, we must be careful not to translate the lower value of the dollar into economic boom.
Hopefully the reversal of the trade deficit will help us to get out of the incredible debt we have created in the past few years.
Posted by: San Miguel | November 1, 2007 10:27 AM
Brucie??
24 months is 6 years??? What school did you go to?
At Robert Emmet Elementary on Madison Street, we learned that 24 divided by 12 is 2 - not 6.
Must be Republican math.
Posted by: BobinATL | November 1, 2007 11:40 AM
Good catch, Bobin.
One other point, since the expansive growth of the 90's began with a tax increase, would we call that period the "tax increase boom."
I'd be much more willing to hear out this supply-side voodoo if even just once the Kool-Aid drinkers would admit that the largest and broadest period of economic growth occurred after the "largest tax increase in history" as Repubs like to say. Oh, and that the other periods of highest growth since WWII also correspond with the HIGHEST taxation rates.
Things that make you go hmmmm, unless you've already drank too much Kool-Aid.
Posted by: Distrust and Verify | November 1, 2007 12:17 PM