Posted on 12/16/2005 7:56:10 AM PST by MNJohnnie
Nov. Consumer Prices Drop Largest in Over Fifty Years
Thursday, December 15, 2005
WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer prices fell 0.6 percent in November, the largest decline in 56 years, as energy prices posted a record 8.0 percent drop in the month, the government said on Thursday. The slide in prices was slightly larger than the 0.4 percent reversal expected by Wall Street and was the biggest decrease in prices since July 1949. Excluding food and energy costs, so-called core inflation rose 0.2 percent in November, in line with market forecasts. Over the past year, consumer prices have climbed 3.5 percent, a slowdown from October's 4.3 percent inflation rate but still above the 12-month increase in average weekly earnings - meaning consumer budgets are not keeping pace with rising prices. Core inflation on a year-on-year basis remained at a relatively tame 2.1 percent in November. The decline in prices in November was driven by sharp decreases in energy costs following a hurricane-related spike in the fall. Gasoline prices dropped 16.0 percent, the largest monthly decline according to records dating back to 1967, while fuel oil costs fell 6.1 percent and natural gas prices fell 0.5 percent.
I sent two yesterday, guess I'll try again.
Call Rush on Barrett Report.
A most excellent summation by Rush of the "enemy within" dilemna facing all of us today.
You got it! "We know who the DemocRATS are. We know who the media are. But the Republicans who throw in with them are even worse." EXACTLY!
They took our money in campaign contributions, and are helping the RATS to destroy our President.
They are invested in our defeat and have aligned themselves with the enemy - all to advance their own personal political agenda. They are clearly revealing themselves to be the enemy within and will reap what they sow - and it will be the exact opposite of what they think.
We have McCain helping the DemocRATS to pass the al Qaida protection act.
They knew he attached that crap to make W look bad as not supporting the troops. They should have had another one done a long time ago. Do they not read everything? Geez, what idiots we have in congress. We've been calling and emailing these clowns for the longest on the insert.
McCain and Miranda
Andy McCarthy
http://www.nationalreview.com/mccarthy/mccarthy200512151421.asp
Lancing the Boil
(Must Read)
Victor Davis Hanson
http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson200512160710.asp
I am disgusted with Congress today. Rush is fired up.
From the Corner:
FILIBUSTER OF PATRIOT ACT "A RETURN TO PRE-9/11 MINDSET"
We can not complain about failures to connect the dots, and then vote to take away the tools necessary to connect them, Cornyn says
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a former Texas Supreme Court justice, made the following statement Friday regarding the filibuster of the PATRIOT Act:
“By choosing to filibuster the Patriot Act, critical law enforcement tools will lapse, investigations into terrorist activities will be halted. The Senate action today will weaken our country by reverting to September 10th tools for our law enforcement agencies.
“We can not complain about failures to connect the dots, and then vote to take away the tools necessary to connect them.
“The vote today was a vote to move back to a pre 9/11 mindset. This vote must be undone. We must give law enforcement the tools they need, with the safeguards we all demand.”
Sen. Cornyn chairs the Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship, and is the only former judge on the committee. He served previously as Texas Supreme Court Justice, Texas Attorney General, and Bexar County District Judge.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/
Extension voted down on the Patriot Act.
EAVESDROPPING INS AND OUTS [Mark R. Levin]
Some brief background: The Foreign Intelligence Security Act permits the government to monitor foreign communications, even if they are with U.S. citizens -- 50 USC 1801, et seq. A FISA warrant is only needed if the subject communications are wholly contained in the United States and involve a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power.
The reason the President probably had to sign an executive order is that the Justice Department office that processes FISA requests, the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR), can take over 6 months to get a standard FISA request approved. It can become extremely bureaucratic, depending on who is handling the request. His executive order is not contrary to FISA if he believed, as he clearly did, that he needed to act quickly. The president has constitutional powers, too.
It's also clear from the Times piece that Rockefeller knew about the government's eavesdropping, as did the FISA court. By the time this story is fully fleshed out, we'll learn that many others knew about it, too. To the best of my knowledge, Rockefeller didn't take any steps to stop the eavesdropping. And he's no friend of this administration. Nor is he above using intelligence for political purposes, as his now infamous memorandum demonstrates.
But these leaks -- about secret prisons in Europe, CIA front companies, and now secret wiretaps, are egregious violations of law and extremely detrimental to our national security. They are far worse than any aspect of the Plame matter. The question is whether our government is capable of tracking down these perpetrators and punishing them, or will we continue to allow the Times and Washington Post determine national security policy. And if these wiretaps are violative of our civil liberties, it's curious that the Times would wait a year to report about it. I cannot remember the last time, or first time, this newspaper reported a leak that was helpful to our war effort.
Posted at 12:06 PM
Amen, as he should be.
Limbaugh: If we are hit again, we will know who to hold responsible.
There's a must-read report, "Freedom From Fear Lifts Sunnis in Iraqi Election," by John Burns in today's NYT.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/international/middleeast/16sunnis.html?ei=5094&en=7be33c83a466e7ce&hp=&ex=1134795600&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1134746271-18vHJVLjsTyBCdfpZFTebg
Here are the last few grafs:
"Before, we had a dictator, and now we have this freedom, this democracy," said Emad Abdul Jabbar, 38, a teacher acting as supervisor at the Ahrar school polling site. "This time, we have a real election, not just the sham elections we had under Saddam, and we Sunnis want to participate in the political process."
A 60-year-old merchant, Abdul Kader al-Saffar, and his wife, Ammal Abdul Razzaq, 40, who voted with their three sons, agreed. "We have found candidates in this election we can trust," Mr. Saffar said, referring to the Iraqi Consensus Front, a moderate Sunni group that had several of its political workers killed during the campaign.
Another thing many Sunnis seemed to agree on was the possibility of a reconciliation between the Americans and the Sunnis, and a distancing of the Sunnis from some of the Al Qaeda-linked insurgent groups. Many were critical of American troops, saying, as Mr. Saleh did, that "they came as liberators, but stayed on as occupiers." But pressed on the question of an American troop withdrawal, most seemed cautious, favoring a gradual drawdown.
"Let's have stability, and then the Americans can go home," said Mr. Sattar, the store owner. Told that this sounded similar to President Bush's formula for a troop withdrawal, he replied: "Then Bush has said it correctly".
That, again, is a Sunni saying that.
Amen again.
I NOW HAVE NO USE FOR THE HOUSE GOP [Jonah Goldberg]
They don't confirm judges (not their fault, just not their job), they don't control spending, and they've dropped the ball on national security. Yes, tax cuts are nice and good, but not atthe price of exploding pork and the sort of nonsense we saw today with the Patriot Act.
The Corner
I have fired off letters to my Senators. I'll be dam*ed before I vote for McCain!!
You're missing radio excellence.
How do you know what I'm listening to? As it turns out I AM listening to Rush right now. Please remove me from your ping list.
I'll be right over...
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