Nationally unemployment for May is 5.6 percent. They same number as May 1996 when Clinton was up for re-election. CNN referred to that number as "low" in 1996 http://www.cnn.com/US/9607/05/jobless/

So why was that number seen as low in 1996 and not now? Has the working population grown that much in the past 8 years? (With population increases there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 million more unemployed people now.)

Or is it because that the unemployment rate was near 4 percent in May of 2000, before Bush was elected? I doubt that. I doubt that many people even think that far back about these things.

Perhaps it is because gasoline prices at an all time high and with income not keeping pace with living expenses we all are poorer in real terms thanks to Bush? How are they supposed to get a satellite dish and TIVO if they can't fill up their SUV with 22 inch wheels, a DVD player and XM satellite radio? (OK, I get cynical on Saturday mornings.)

Perhaps it is because the RNC is spending so much time trying to spin bad news into good, that when good news comes their way, they don't know what to do! Another example of Republican incompetence!!

This has nothing to do with Abu Ghraib. That is a convenient excuse. Daniel Pearl was beheaded too. This is how these people try to send a message.

This is NOT an eye for an eye for Abu Ghraib. Eye for an eye means equal measure. There is a difference between a woman mocking a naked man and videotaping the decapitation of a man while onlookers chant "Allah Akbar" (God is great.)

I have been feeling ashamed and embarassed because of Abu Ghraib. Now I am pissed.

Am I the only one?

Considering the week he had and the pictures from Abu Gharib, I am not surprised.

I am surprised that Bush still leads Kerry 51% - 46% in so called "battleground" states from 2000. Kerry actually dropped two points among likely voters from the previous week. How?

Here's how: These polls are junk. They are an excuse for staffers to spin for their candidate. No need to pay too much attention to polls when we are nearly 6 months from the election.

Speaking of polls, Zogby says the election is Kerry's to lose. Duh!

http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews825.html

Bush is the MOST beatable incumbent in decades. The occupation of Iraq is a mess. The US is becoming to Iraq what the Soviet Union was in Afghanistan in the 1980s with foreign jihadis streaming in to fight the infidels.

Bush's poll numbers should continue to plummet. I take no pleasure in that because it will mean that more Americans have died senselessly in Iraq, the prisoner abuse scandal has brought more shame on our country, and there has not been a credible plan advanced to get us out of this mess.