As previously noted, this election is about whether the voters want change or more of the same. In making that decision, perhaps they should consider the following headlines and blurbs from today's Washington Post:
Explosions Rip Through Egyptian Resorts
A massive explosion tore off the front of a seaside hotel in the Egyptian resort of Taba late Thursday, killing at least 35 people and injuring more than 100 in what Israeli officials said appeared to be a terrorist attack aimed at visiting Israeli tourists.
Separate insurgent attacks have killed two U.S. soldiers since Wednesday morning, the military announced Thursday.Also, two rockets hit the Ishtar Sheraton Hotel Thursday evening, a hotel in central Baghdad that houses many contractors and journalists. No casualties were reported, but the attack started a fire in the building, shattered windows and caused damage outside.
AT&T Corp. is cutting 7,400 more jobs and slashing the book value of its assets by $11.4 billion, drastic moves prompted by the company's plan to retreat from the traditional consumer telephone business following a lost court battle.The company announced Thursday that it now plans to shrink its work force by a fifth, or about 12,320 jobs, during 2004 - up from a previous target of about 4,900 jobs.
Oil prices scaled new heights at $53 for U.S. crude Thursday on concerns over tight winter heating fuel supplies and an unexpected strike at Nigerian oil terminals.U.S. light crude set a record at $53 a barrel -- marking a surge of $20, or more than 60 percent, this year -- before settling at $52.67 for a gain of 65 cents. London crude also struck a new peak, at $49.20 a barrel, before ending at $48.90 a barrel, up 91 cents.
"Where it ends, who knows?" said Jan Stuart, an analyst with Fimat USA. "What's going to happen when the winter hits? I'd say we have a better than fifty-fifty chance of hitting $60 by year end."
House and Senate negotiators agreed yesterday on an ambitious corporate tax bill that would shower billions of dollars in tax breaks on beneficiaries from old-line manufacturers to Alaskan whalers to gamblers from overseas -- and includes a controversial $10 billion buyout of the nation's tobacco farmers.
Bank of America said Thursday it will cut about 4,500 jobs, or about 2.5 percent of its work force, beginning this month as a result of its merger with FleetBoston Financial Corp.
Tens of thousands of people may have been seriously harmed by the painkiller Vioxx, and many more may be at risk from taking other popular drugs of the same class, known as COX-2 inhibitors, two experts wrote in papers released yesterday by the New England Journal of Medicine.Cleveland Clinic researcher Eric J. Topol wrote that the recently terminated study that led to the recall of Vioxx last week indicates that "it is possible that there are tens of thousands of patients who have had major adverse events attributable to" the drug. In an interview, he estimated the number of people who have had heart problems and strokes as a result of taking Vioxx to be 30,000 to 100,000.
Of course, on the more of the same front we have Furcal Lifts Braves With Home Run.