Daily Kos: State of the Nation

Daily Kos: State of the Nation: "Alito is, put an imprecise word on it, nuts. Against women, against civil rights, against everyday people -- everybody. So far out of the mainstream that you can't even see him from there. Bush is electing to replace Sandra Day O'Connor's seat with someone for whom womens' rights began and ended with the Nineteenth Amendment. And we might even want to ask him to clarify his views on that.

They're shoving him up to pay his respects to Rosa Parks today -- someone who fought against the very laws that Alito himself continues to attempt to defend, in whatever drips and trickles he can manage in the cases that come his way.

Bush continues to cement his position as the worst president in modern history. Completely unable to govern, he merely campaigns, weaving from one issue to the next in a desperate attempt to deflect attention from the criminality -- from Enron to Libby -- of his closest supporters, and the ongoing fiascos of his economic and foreign policy adventures."

High Gas Prices: Blessing in Disguise?: The Future for Investors - Yahoo! Finance

High Gas Prices: Blessing in Disguise?: The Future for Investors - Yahoo! Finance: "The shock from higher oil prices will ultimately benefit the economy. The earlier we confront the reality of a diminishing supply of oil the better off we will be. As a result of the first oil crisis in the 1970s, we developed new technologies that allowed us to reduce the amount of energy we needed to produce one dollar of GDP by 50 percent."

High Gas Prices: Blessing in Disguise?: The Future for Investors - Yahoo! Finance

High Gas Prices: Blessing in Disguise?: The Future for Investors - Yahoo! Finance: "But I don't believe the whole energy sector will collapse. When the tech sector was the best performer in 1999 and 2000, its valuations became exorbitantly high (two-to-three times greater than market multiples). Energy is not even close to this. Based on current earnings estimates, the price-to-earnings ratio (or 'P/E ratio,' a critical valuation factor) of the energy sector is now about 11, the lowest of all 10 economy-wide sectors and far below the 17 P/E ratio for the market. And these earnings estimates of oil firms are based on oil falling back to the $50, which is a very conservative price. So it's quite possible for earnings to surprise on the upside."

High Gas Prices: Blessing in Disguise?: The Future for Investors - Yahoo! Finance

High Gas Prices: Blessing in Disguise?: The Future for Investors - Yahoo! Finance: "Hubbert's Peak

An early warning about oil scarcity was given nearly a half century ago by Marion King Hubbert, a Shell geologist who predicted in 1956 that U.S. oil production would peak in the early 1970s.

His theory was dubbed 'Hubbert's Peak' and was dismissed by many experts inside and outside the oil industry. But Hubbert was right. Oil production in the U.S. has declined nearly 50 percent since 1970, and after Katrina production slipped to a 62-year low.

The question facing us today is when will world oil production experience Hubbert's Peak? The answer depends on whom you ask. On the downward slope of Hubbert's Peak is Matthew Simmons, an investment banker, Texas energy expert, and author of 'Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy.' Simmons argues passionately that the world's oil will soon be pumped dry. He argues that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil supplier, faces declining oil output and overstates their reserves.

On the upward slope of Hubbert's Peak is Daniel Yergin, Chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book 'The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power.' Yergin thinks that supplies are plentiful, alternative energy sources will be found, and we will soon "

The House's Abuse of Patriotism - New York Times

The House's Abuse of Patriotism - New York Times: "There are now 20 terrorism-related crimes eligible for capital punishment, and the House measure would add 41 more. These would make it easier for prosecutors to win a death sentence in cases where a defendant had no intent to kill - for example, if a defendant gave financial support to an umbrella organization without realizing that some of its adherents might eventually commit violence.

Any move to weaken the American jury system in the name of fighting terrorism is particularly egregious. But the House voted to allow a federal trial to have fewer than 12 jurors if the judge finds 'good cause' to do so, even if the defense objects. Under current law, a life sentence is automatically ordered when juries become hung on deciding the capital punishment question. But the House would have a prosecutor try again - a license for jury-shopping for death - even though federal juries already exclude opponents of capital punishment."

Ending the Fraudulence - New York Times

Ending the Fraudulence - New York Times: "The point is that this administration's political triumphs have never been based on its real-world achievements, which are few and far between. The administration has, instead, built its power on myths: the myth of presidential leadership, the ugly myth that the administration is patriotic while its critics are not. Take away those myths, and the administration has nothing left.

Well, Katrina ended the leadership myth, which was already fading as the war dragged on. There was a time when a photo of Mr. Bush looking out the window of Air Force One on 9/11 became an iconic image of leadership. Now, a similar image of Mr. Bush looking out at a flooded New Orleans has become an iconic image of his lack of connection. Pundits may try to resurrect Mr. Bush's reputation, but his cult of personality is dead - and the inscription on the tombstone reads, 'Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.'"

White House Ethics, Honesty Questioned

White House Ethics, Honesty Questioned: "White House Ethics, Honesty Questioned
55% in Survey Say Libby Case Signals Broader Problems

By Richard Morin and Claudia Deane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 30, 2005; Page A14

A majority of Americans say the indictment of senior White House aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby signals broader ethical problems in the Bush administration, and nearly half say the overall level of honesty and ethics in the federal government has fallen since President Bush took office, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News survey."

Daily Kos: WaPo: Bush approval falls to 39%; Clinton seen as more ethical

Daily Kos: WaPo: Bush approval falls to 39%; Clinton seen as more ethical: "'In the aftermath of the latest crisis to confront the White House, Bush's overall job approval rating has fallen to 39 percent, the lowest of his presidency in Post-ABC polls. Barely a third of Americans -- 34 percent -- think Bush is doing a good job ensuring high ethics in government, which is slightly lower than President Bill Clinton's standing on this issue when he left office.'

'Taken together, the findings represent a serious blow to a White House already reeling from the politically damaging effects of the slow government response to Hurricane Katrina, the continuing bloodshed in Iraq, the ongoing criticism of its since-repudiated claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and the bungled nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.'

'The ethics findings may be particularly upsetting to a president who came to office in 2000 vowing to restore integrity and honor to a White House that he said had been tainted by the recurring scandals of the Clinton years.'"

For the Thinking Employee, No-Brainer Health Care Is Passé - New York Times

Are such plans bad news for employees? When you consider that 73 percent of Americans incur less than $500 a year in medical expenses, it pays to figure out if you can save some money with lower-premium, high-deductible plans buttressed by a tax-advantaged health savings account.

...

TAXES Not only do you get to save for retirement in a health savings account, doing so also lowers your tax payment. "It's another avenue for tax deferral and wealth accumulation," said Dan Kelly, manager of health savings accounts services at U.S. Bank, which sells the plans to employers and individuals. For example, when you put $2,500 in the account and you face an income tax rate of 25 percent, you have immediately saved $625. The account gives you tax advantages every which way - you put in pretax dollars, it compounds free of taxes, and the accumulation is tax-free when you take it out to pay for medical expenses.

"You get the trifecta," says Dan Perrin, publisher of HSA Insider (www.hsainsider.com), an insurance industry information Web site that includes information on numerous insurers' fees and rates of return. The key is to contribute an amount equal to the deductible. One of the biggest mistakes an employee makes is picking a plan with a low deductible. But pick a plan that has 100 percent coverage above that deductible.

OTHER ACCOUNTS In a perfect world, that one where money grows on trees, you would want to contribute to all the alphanumeric savings vehicles: the health savings account, 401(k) and individual retirement account. If you can't finance all of them, you might consider putting money into the health savings account first because it is the most tax advantaged.

Indeed, if in retirement your bills are small, you can use it for anything else and pay regular income taxes on it as you would a disbursement from your 401(k) account.

Reuters Recommends News Article | Reuters.com

Reuters Recommends News Article | Reuters.com: "MOSCOW (Reuters) - As Russia's economy powers ahead driven by high oil prices, business education is failing to keep pace and employers complain of a chronic shortage of managers trained to international standards.

More than 100 business schools have been established since the collapse of the Soviet Union but many have failed to gain credibility among Russian and international employers, who still prefer foreign-trained managers for top jobs.

A recent study by consultants McKinsey shows how far management training has to go in Russia before it catches up with the West.

Just three Russians out of every 100,000 have a Master of Business Administration (MBA) compared to 20 in Europe and 70 in the United States.

Increasingly in the United States and Western Europe, an MBA degree is seen as indispensable for those seeking success.

'In the 1960s just 10 percent of U.S. executives had an MBA but now 60 percent do. It's considered almost a must for a successful career,' Vitaly Klintsov, a partner at McKinsey, told a recent conference in Moscow organized by the World Economic Forum.

An MBA also allows young business people to catapult themselves into the big-salary league. In the United States and Europe, business students can mor"    

US News Article | Reuters.com

US News Article | Reuters.com: "For example, in 2003 U.S. students placed 24th in an international test that measured the mathematical literacy of 15-year-olds, below many European and Asian countries."

US News Article | Reuters.com

US News Article | Reuters.com: "Other polls show that only around a third of American adults accept the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe, even though the concept is virtually uncontested by scientists worldwide.

'When we ask people what they know about science, just under 20 percent turn out to be scientifically literate,' said Jon Miller, director of the center for biomedical communication at Northwestern University."

US News Article | Reuters.com

US News Article | Reuters.com: "Polls for many years have shown that a majority of Americans are at odds with key scientific theory. For example, as CBS poll this month found that 51 percent of respondents believed humans were created in their present form by God. A further 30 percent said their creation was guided by God. Only 15 percent thought humans evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years."