Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Bush economy a flop...Obama checks Bill out...

From American Progress:

Think Fast...

President Bush's attempt to revive the world's biggest economy "was greeted with heavy skepticism on Tuesday as markets tumbled across the globe." Markets in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Sydney all fell farther in late trading Tuesday than they had all day on Monday.

"The Federal Reserve, confronted with a global stock sell-off fanned by increased fears of a recession, cut a key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point on Tuesday."

Bloomberg writes that President Bush has become a "supplicant" to the Saudis for assistance to overcome a recession. "The Saudi monarchy once depended on the U.S. to protect its reign and its oil from foes like Saddam Hussein. These days, President George W. Bush needs the world's biggest exporter of crude more than it needs him."

"The percent of Army recruits with a high school diploma dropped last year, continuing a trend that has worsened since the start of the Iraq war," according to a new report by the National Priorities Project released Tuesday. In 2007, "nearly 71 percent of Army recruits graduated from high school," falling short of the Army's goal of 90 percent.

"Undocumented immigrants are driving up the number of people without health insurance." The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 59 percent of the nation's undocumented immigrants are uninsured, and they represent about 15% of the nation's 47 million uninsured people.

And finally: During yesterday's CNN Democratic presidential candidate debate, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) was asked about "novelist Toni Morrison's salute to Bill Clinton as 'the first black President.'" Obama replied: "I would have to investigate more Bill's dancing abilities and some of this other stuff before I accurately judged whether he was, in fact, a brother."

Wrap...

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