INDICATORS

Percentage of Republicans and Democrats, respectively, in October 1994
who said they were excited to vote that year: 45, 30. Percentage who say
that about the 2006 midterm election: 30, 46 - Harper's Index via Wash
Times

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THE TEN FASTEST GROWING counties in the country for housing starts,
according to the Census Bureau, include 4 in Florida, and one each in
Arizona, Washington, Virginia, Utah, Illinois, and Texas.

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PROGRESS REPORT - For every $1 spent last year releasing declassified
materials, $134 was spent creating new secrets, nearly 10 times the rate
seen during the last years of Bill Clinton's presidency. In addition, 17
percent of the Defense Department's $315.5 billion budget in the 2006
fiscal year was designated for classified programs and "funding for
classified acquisition programs has increased at a substantially faster
rate than has funding for acquisition programs overall, which has grown
by about 60 percent in real terms." One of the most notorious examples
of the administration's secrecy is the President's use of signing
statements to circumvent congressional legislation. In the first 211
years of the Constitution, "presidents had issued fewer than 600 signing
statements that took issue with the bills they signed." In contrast,
with more than two years remaining in his presidency, President Bush has
already issued "132 signing statements challenging over 810 federal
laws."

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WASHINGTON POST - For the first time since 1998, the number of children
younger than 18 without health coverage ticked upward last year by
361,000, along with the overall increase in the ranks of the uninsured,
according to census figures released last week. Of the nation's nearly
74 million children, about 8.3 million, or 11.2 percent, lacked coverage
in 2005, up from 10.8 percent the year before.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/09/06
number_of_uninsured_children_rises?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+National+News

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WORDS
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We encourage everyone to pack gel-filled bras in their checked baggage.
- TSA security advisory

You know, when you have resentment and anger, that breeds hatred. That
breeds recruiting grounds for people to become a suicider. Imagine the
mentality of somebody willing to kill for an ideology that just doesn't
-- is not hopeful, and yet I believe a lot of it has to do with the fact
that parts of the world breed resentment. -- George Bush apparently
criticizing his own foreign policy

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AMERICANS THINK MORE HIGHLY OF WAL-MART THAN OF LABOR UNIONS

RASMUSSEN - Fifty-eight percent of Americans have at least a somewhat
favorable opinion of labor unions while 33% disagree and have an
unfavorable view. . . By way of comparison, 69% of Americans have a
favorable opinion of a company the unions love to hate-Walmart.
Twenty-nine percent have an unfavorable opinion of the retail giant.
Forty-eight percent (48%) have a favorable opinion of General Motors
while 21% hold the opposite view. The volunteer Minutemen who organized
patrols of the Mexican border are viewed favorably by 54% and
unfavorably by 22%.

Fifty-three percent (53%) of men have a favorable opinion of labor
unions along with 61% of women. White Americans are less likely to have
a favorable opinion of unions than others. Thirty-and-forty-somethings
have less favorable views than those under 30 and over 50.

This year, 38% of Americans say they celebrate Labor Day as a time to
honor the contributions of workers in society. Forty-five percent
celebrate the holiday as the unofficial end of summer.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2006/August/laborUnions.htm

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AMERICAN FAMILIES WORKING 500 HOURS MORE ANNUALLY THAN 30 YEARS AGO

ROBERT KUTTNER, BOSTON GLOBE - Labor was created by the machinists
union in New York in 1882 as a "workingmen's holiday." Unions all over
America adopted the idea. By 1894, Congress passed legislation making
Labor Day an official holiday. The day also celebrated the act of
organizing, politically and in the workplace, to improve livelihoods and
lives. Today, the politics have largely been leached out of it. Labor
Day is a long weekend that marks summer's end. And that extra day of
rest is needed more than ever. Government statistics show that the
typical family works about 500 more hours a year than families did 30
years ago, because it takes two incomes to make it. Even so, family
incomes are failing to keep pace with the cost of living.

This past week, these items have been in the news:

- The Census Bureau reported that median incomes for working-age
families were down again, for the fifth straight year. Real median
income for households under age 65 is down by 5.4 percent since 2000,
even though the economy has grown every year. All of that gain has gone
to upper-bracket people and corporate profits.

- The Pew Research Center released an extensive survey on public
attitudes about the economy. Pew reported, "The public thinks that
workers were better off a generation ago on every key dimension of
worker life -- be it wages, benefits, retirement plans, on-the-job
stress, the loyalty they are shown by employers." And, statistically,
the public is right.

- The Globe recently reported that chief executives of nonprofit
hospitals now routinely make more than $1 million. University presidents
are not far behind.

- The Economic Policy Institute (on whose board I serve) has released
its annual, encyclopedic report, "The State of Working America." Among
its findings: . . . Employer-provided health coverage declined from 69
percent in 1979 to 56 percent in 2004. The top 1 percent's share of
interest, dividends, and capital gains has risen from 37.8 percent in
1979 to 57.5 percent in 2003.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/09/02/
another_year_another_wage_loss/


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BRITISH, FRENCH AND SPANISH SEE U.S. AS BIGGEST THREAT TO GLOBAL
STABILITY

[Poll of Europeans by Harris Interactive published in the Financial
Times]

- 30 per cent of respondents believe the U.S. is the greatest threat to
global stability. Iran is second on the list with 23 per cent, followed
by China with 15 per cent, Iraq with 14 per cent, North Korea with eight
per cent, and Russia with two per cent.

- In Spain, 44 per cent of respondents place the U.S. as the main
perceived threat. 36 per cent of respondents in Britain and 28 per cent
of respondents in France feel the same way.

- In Italy, Iran was the first country on the list with 31 per cent. The
U.S. and Iran are tied with 24 per cent in Germany's sample.

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/13028