B4 The Bell Thursday September 16

[Guest]

No Pee let us list Shrubs accomplishments pls tick them off for me.

Is this good enough?

 

Abortion & Traditional Values

 

Banned Partial Birth Abortion - by far the most significant roll-back of

abortion on demand since Roe v. Wade.

 

Reversed Clinton's move to strike Reagan's anti-abortion Mexico Policy.

 

By Executive Order (EO), reversed Clinton's policy of not requiring

parental consent for abortions under the Medical Privacy Act.

 

By EO, prohibited federal funds for international family planning groups

that provide abortions and related services.

 

Upheld the ban on abortions at military hospitals.

 

Made $33 million available for abstinence education programs in 2004.

Supports the Defense of Marriage Act - and a Constitutional amendment

saying marriage is between one man and one woman.

Requires states to conduct criminal background checks on prospective foster

and adoptive parents.

Requires districts to let students transfer out of dangerous schools.

Requires schools to have a zero-tolerance policy for classroom disruption

(reintroducing discipline into classrooms).

Signed the Teacher Protection Act, which protects teachers from lawsuits

related to student discipline.

Expanded the role of faith-based and community organizations in

after-school programs.

 

Budget, Taxes & Economy

 

Signed two income tax cuts, one of which was the largest dollar-value tax

cut in world history.

Supports permanent elimination of the death tax.

 

Turned around an inherited economy that was in recession, and deeply

shocked as a result of the 9/11 attacks.

Is seeking legislation to amend the Constitution to give the president

line-item veto authority.

In process of permanently eliminating IRS marriage penalty.

 

Increased small business incentives to expand and to hire new people.

 

Initiated discussion on privatizing Social Security and individual

investment accounts.

 

Killed Clinton's "ergonomic" rules that OSHA was about to implement; rules

would have shut down every home business in America.

 

Passed tough new laws to hold corporate criminals to account as a result of

corporate scandals.

 

Reduced taxes on dividends and capital gains.

 

Signed trade promotion authority.

 

Reduced and is working to ultimately eliminate the estate tax for family

farms and ranches.

Fight Europe's ban on importing biotech crops from the United States.

Exempt food from unilateral trade sanctions and embargoes.

Provided $20 million to states to help people with disabilities work from

home.

Created a fund to encourage technologies that help the disabled.

Increased the annual contribution limit on Education IRA's from $500 to

$2,000 per child.

Make permanent the $5,000 adoption tax credit and provide $1 billion over

five years to increase the credit to $10,000.

Grant a complete tax exemption for prepaid or college tuition savings plans.

Reduced H1B visas from a high of 195,000 per year to 66,000 per year.

Character & Conduct as President

 

Changed the tone in the White House, restoring HONOR and DIGNITY to the

presidency.

Has reintroduced the mention of God and faith into public discourse.

Handled himself with enormous courage, dignity, grace, determination, and

leadership in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 hijackings and

anthrax attacks. He almost single-handedly held this country together

during those searing days:

Just three days after the attacks, in his address at the National

Cathedral, the President reassured the nation when he said: "War has been

waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful,

but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and

terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing."

 

 

On Friday, September 14, 2001, President Bush visited Ground Zero. Standing

on a crushed and burned fire engine atop the smoldering pile at Ground

Zero, he put his arm around a retired firefighter who had volunteered to

help, and began speaking to the crowd. Rescue workers shouted that they

could not hear him. Someone handed him a small American flag and bullhorn.

The President spontaneously shouted: "I can hear you. The rest of the world

hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of

us soon." The crowd roared with cheers and chants of "USA! USA! USA!" Then

he raised that American flag and rallied a nation:

 

 

Education & Employment Training

 

Signed the No Child Left Behind Act, delivering the most dramatic education

reforms in a generation (challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations).

The very liberal California Teachers union is currently running radio ads

against the accountability provisions of this Act.

 

Announced "Jobs for the 21st Century," a comprehensive plan to better

prepare workers for jobs in the new millennium by strengthening

post-secondary education and job training, and by improving high school

education.

Is working to provide vouchers to low-income students in persistently

failing schools to help with costs of attending private schools. (Blocked

in the Senate.)

Requires annual reading and math tests in grades three through eight.

Requires states to participate in the National Assessment of Education

Progress, or an equivalent program, to establish a national benchmark for

academic performance.

Requires school-by-school accountability report cards.

Established a $2.4 billion fund to help states implement teacher

accountability systems.

Increased funding for the Troops-to-Teachers program, which recruits former

military personnel to to become teachers.

 

Environment & Energy

 

Killed the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty.

Submitted a comprehensive Energy Plan (awaits Congressional action). The

plan works to develop cleaner technology, produce more natural gas here at

home, make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy, improve

national grid, etc.

Established a $10 million grant program to promote private conservation

initiatives.

Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.

 

Changed parts of the Forestry Management Act to allow necessary cleanup of

the national forests in order to reduce fire danger.

 

Part of national forests cleanup: Restricted judicial challenges (based on

the Endangered Species Act and other challenges), and removed the need for

an Environmental Impact Statement before removing fuels/logging to reduce

fire danger.

 

Killed Clinton's CO2 rules that were choking off all of the electricity

surplus to California.

 

Provided matching grants for state programs that help private landowners

protect rare species.

 

Defense & Foreign Policy

 

Successfully executed two wars in the aftermath of 9/11/01: Afghanistan and

Iraq. 50 million people who had lived under tyrannical regimes now live in

freedom.

Saddam Hussein is now in prison. His two murderous sons are dead. All but a

handful of the regime's senior members were killed or captured.

Leader by leader and member by member, al Qaida is being hunted down in

dozens of countries around the world. Of the senior al Qaida leaders,

operational managers, and key facilitators the U.S. Government has been

tracking, nearly two-thirds have been taken into custody or killed. The

detentions or deaths of senior al Qaida leaders, including Khalid Shaykh

Muhammad, the mastermind of 9/11, and Muhammad Atef, Osama bin Laden's

second-in-command until his death in late 2001, have been important in the

War on Terror.

Disarmed Libya of its chemical, nuclear and biological WMD's without bribes

or bloodshed.

 

Continues to execute the War On Terror, getting worldwide cooperation to

track funds/terrorists. Has cut off much of the terrorists' funding, and

captured or killed many key leaders of the al Qaeda network.

 

Initiated a comprehensive review of our military, which was completed just

prior to 9/11/01, and which accurately reported that ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE

capabilities were critical in the 21st Century.

 

Killed the old US/Soviet Union ABM Treaty that was preventing the U.S. from

deploying our ABM defenses.

 

Has been one of the strongest, if not THE strongest friend Israel has ever

hand in the U.S. presidency.

 

Part of the coalition for an Israeli/Palestinian "Roadmap to Peace," along

with Great Britain, Russia and the EU.

 

Pushed through THREE raises for our military. Increased military pay by

more than $1 billion a year.

 

Signed the LARGEST nuclear arms reduction in world history with Russia.

 

Started withdrawing our troops from Bosnia, and has announced withdrawal of

our troops from Germany and the Korean DMZ.

 

Prohibited putting U.S. troops under U.N. command.

Paid back UN dues only in return for reforms and reduction of U.S. share of

the costs.

Earmarked at least 20 percent of the Defense procurement budget for

next-generation weaponry.

Increased defense research and development spending by at least $20 billion

from fiscal 2002 to 2006.

Ordered a comprehensive review of military weapons and strategy.

Ordered a review of overseas deployments.

Ordered renovation of military housing. The military has already upgraded

about 10 percent of its inventory and expects to modernize 76,000

additional homes this year.

Is working to tighten restrictions on military-technology exports.

Brought back our EP-3 intel plane and crew from China without any bribes or

bloodshed.

 

 

Globalization & Internationalism

 

Challenged the United Nations to live up to their responsibilities and not

become another League of Nations (in other words, showed the UN to be

completely irrelevant).

 

Killed U.S. involvement in the International Criminal Court.

 

Told the United Nations we weren't interested in their plans for gun

control (i.e., the International Ban on Small Arms Trafficking Treaty).*

The only President since the founding of the UN to essentially tell that

organization it is irrelevant. He said: "The conduct of the Iraqi regime is

a threat to the authority of the United Nations, and a threat to peace.

Iraq has answered a decade of UN demands with a decade of defiance. All the

world now faces a test, and the United Nations a difficult and defining

moment. Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced, or

cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purpose

of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?" We all know the outcome and the

answer.

Told the Congress and the world, "America will never seek a permission slip

to defend the security of our country."

 

Government Reform

 

Improved government efficiency by putting hundreds of thousands of jobs put

up for bid. This weakens public-sector unions and cuts undeserved pay raises.

 

Initiated review of all federal agencies with the goal of eliminating

federal jobs (completed September 2003) in an effort to reduce the size of

the federal government while increasing private sector jobs.

 

Led the most extensive reorganization the Federal bureaucracy in over 50

years: After 9/11, condensed 20+ overlapping agencies and their

intelligence sectors into one agency, the Department of Homeland Security.*

Ordered each agency to draft a five-year plan to restructure itself, with

fewer managers.

Converted federal service contracts to performance-based contracts wherever

possible so that the contractor has measurable performance goals.

 

Health

 

Strengthen the National Health Service Corps to put more physicians in the

neediest areas, and make its scholarship funds tax-free.

Double the research budget of the National Institutes of Health.

Signed Medicare Reform, which includes:

A 10-year privatization option.

Prescription drug benefits: Prior to this reform, Medicare paid for

extended hospital stays for ulcer surgery, for example, at a cost of about

$28,000 per patient. Yet Medicare would not pay for the drugs that

eliminate the cause of most ulcers, drugs that cost about $500 a year. Now,

drug coverage under Medicare will allow seniors to replace more expensive

surgeries and hospitalizations with less expensive prescription medicine.

 

More health care choices: As President Bush stated, ".when seniors have the

ability to make choices, health care plans within Medicare will have to

compete for their business by offering higher quality service [at lower

cost]. For the seniors of America, more choices and more control will mean

better health care. These are the kinds of health care options we give to

the members of Congress and federal employees. What's good for members of

Congress is also good for seniors.

 

New Health Savings Accounts: Effective January 1, 2004, Americans can set

aside up to $4,500 every year, tax free, to save for medical expenses.

Depending on your tax bracket, that means you'll save between 10 to 35

percent on any costs covered by money in your account. Every year, the

money not spent would stay in the account and gain interest tax-free, just

like an IRA. These accounts will be good for small business owners, and

employees. More businesses can focus on covering workers for major medical

problems, such as hospitalization for an injury or illness. At the same

time, employees and their families will use these accounts to cover doctors

visits, or lab tests, or other smaller costs. Some employers will

contribute to employee health accounts. This will help more American

families get the health care they need at the price they can afford.

 

Homeland Security, Border Enforcement & Immigration

 

*See Government Reform above. Under President Bush's leadership, America

has made an unprecedented commitment to homeland security.

Has CONSTRUCTION in process on the first 10 ABM silos in Alaska so that

America will have a defense against North Korean nukes. Has ordered

national and theater ballistic missile defenses to be deployed by 2004.

 

Announced a 9.7% increase in government-wide homeland security funding in

his FY 2005 budget, nearly tripling the FY 2001 levels (excluding the

Department of Defense and Project BioShield).

Before DHS was created, there were inspectors from three different agencies

of the Federal Government and Border Patrol officers protecting our

borders. Through DHS, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) now

consolidates all border activities into a single agency to create "one face

at the border." This not only better secures the borders of the United

States, but it also eliminates many of the inefficiencies that occurred

under the old system. With over 18,000 CBP inspectors and 11,000 Border

Patrol agents, CBP has 29,000 uniformed officers on our borders.

The Border Patrol is continuing installation of monitoring devices along

the borders to detect illegal activity.

 

Launched Operation Tarmac to investigate businesses and workers in the

secure areas of domestic airports and ensure immigration law compliance.

Since 9/11, DHS has audited 3,640 businesses, examined 259,037 employee

records, arrested 1,030 unauthorized workers, and participated in the

criminal indictment of 774 individuals.

Since September 11, 2001, the Coast Guard has conducted more than 124,000

port security patrols, 13,000 air patrols, boarded more than 92,000

vessels, interdicted over 14,000 individuals attempting to enter the United

States illegally, and created and maintained more than 90 Maritime Security

Zones.

 

Announced the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), an

internet-based system that is improving America's ability to track and

monitor foreign students and exchange visitors. Over 870,000 students are

registered in SEVIS. Of 285 completed field investigations, 71 aliens were

arrested.

 

This week, the US-VISIT program began to digitally collect biometric

identifiers to record the entry and exit of aliens who travel into the U.S

on a visa. Together with the standard information, this new program will

confirm compliance with visa and immigration policies.

Eliminated INS bureaucratic redundancies and lack of accountability.

Split the Immigration and Naturalization Service into two agencies: one to

protect the border and interior, the other to deal with naturalization.

Signed the workplace verification bill to prevent hiring of illegal aliens.

Established a six-month deadline for processing immigration applications.

Information regarding nearly 100% of all containerized cargo is carefully

screened by DHS before it arrives in the United States. Higher risk

shipments are physically inspected for terrorist weapons and contraband

prior to being released from the port of entry. Advanced technologies are

being deployed to identify warning signs of chemical, biological, or

radiological attacks. Since September 11, 2001, hundreds of thousands of

first responders across America have been trained to recognize and respond

to the effects of a WMD attack.

Judiciary & Tort Reform

 

Is urging federal liability reform to eliminate frivolous lawsuits.

 

Killed the liberal ABA's unconstitutional role in vetting federal judges.

The Senate is supposed to advise and consent, not the ABA.

 

Is nominating strong, conservative judges to the judiciary.

 

Supports class action reform bill which limits lawyer fees so that more

settlement money goes to victims.

Politics

 

 

His leadership resulted in Republican gains in the House and Senate,

solidifying Republican control of both houses of Congress and the presidency.

 

Signed an EO enforcing the Supreme Court's Beck decision regarding union

dues being used for political campaigns against individual's wishes.

 

Second Amendment

 

Ordered Attorney General Ashcroft to formally notify the Supreme Court that

the OFFICIAL U.S. government position on the 2nd Amendment is that it

supports INDIVIDUAL rights to own firearms, and is NOT a Leftist-imagined

"collective" right.

Signed TWO bills into law that arm our pilots with handguns in the cockpit.

 

Currently pushing for full immunity from lawsuits for our national gun

manufacturers.

 

Traditional Values, Compassion & Volunteerism

 

Endorses and promotes "The Responsibility Era." President Bush often speaks

of the necessity of personal responsibility and civic volunteerism. He

said, "In a compassionate society, people respect one another and take

responsibility for the decisions they make in life. My hope is to change

the culture from one that has said, if it feels good, do it; if you've got

a problem, blame somebody else - to one in which every single American

understands that he or she is responsible for the decisions that you make;

you're responsible for loving your children with all your heart and all

your soul; you're responsible for being involved with the quality of the

education of your children; you're responsible for making sure the

community in which you live is safe; you're responsible for loving your

neighbor, just like you would like to be loved yourself."

 

Started the USA Freedom Corps, the most comprehensive clearinghouse of

volunteer opportunities ever offered. For the first time in history,

Americans can enter geographic information about where they want to get

involved, such as state or zip code, as well as areas of interest ranging

from education to the environment, and they can access volunteer

opportunities offered by more than 50,000 organizations across the country

and around the world.

 

Established the The White House Office and the Centers for the Faith-Based

and Community Initiative - located in seven Federal agencies. The

faith-based initiative supports the essential work of these important

organizations. The goal is to make sure that grassroots leaders can compete

on an equal footing for federal dollars, receive greater private support,

and face fewer bureaucratic barriers. Work focuses on at-risk youth,

ex-offenders, the homeless and hungry, substance abusers, those with

HIV/AIDS, and welfare-to-work families.

 

The White House released a guidebook fully describing the Administration's

belief that faith-based groups have a Constitutionally-protected right to

maintain their religious identity through hiring - even when Federal funds

are involved.

Issued an EO implementing the Supreme Court's Olmstead ruling, which

requires moving disabled people from institutions to community-based

facilities when possible.

Increased funding for low-interest loan programs to help people with

disabilities purchase devices to assist them.

Revised the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 8 rent

subsidies to disabled people, permitting them to use up to a year's worth

of vouchers to finance down payments on homes. HUD has started pilot

programs in 11 states.

Committed US funds to purchase medicine for millions of men, women and

children now suffering with AIDS in Africa.

 

Heeding the words of our own Declaration of Independence, the president

laid out the non-negotiable demands of human dignity for all people

everywhere. On January 29, 2002, he said, "No nation owns these

aspirations, and no nation is exempt from them. We have no intention of

imposing our culture. But America will always stand firm for the

non-negotiable demands of human dignity." As stated by the President, they

are a virtual manifesto of conservative principles:

Equal Justice

[lineup32]

[

pee brain: Everett Wa was a gas station 25 years ago. BA built a big assemby plant and in came the strip malls and housing dev. Another overbuilt out, way out location.

[depends]

You will get what you wish for.? And every single one of us will pay a terrible, horrible price for the rest of our lives.

I think Shrub is peaking too early.

depends: what happening trading wise with you and mr. market meter. i always enjoyed your trading post. 6 long 3 short etc.

lineup32 - don't try to pick tops.

[Pee Brain]

GALLUP SHOWS BUSH BLOWOUT: 14 POINT LEAD OVER KERRY

 

good night

 

from drudgereport.com

[brian4]

Well Sleddy-lets just deal with a few first of all I am pro-life so we agree on that-BUT-Shrub has lied to the American people, created the biggest deficit in the History of the world (from a surplus). Involved them in a war with no end which they are losing, and has done squat on making America energy reliant-look at the price per barrel it has more than doubled under the idiot prince-his pay-offs to the drug Companies has sent thousands of Americans up here to to buy their drugs at a price they can afford. 40 Million Muricans have no , zero, zilch medical coverage under Bush and the economy is Bird Gravel and he is asking for 4 more years-Puhleeze!

[brian4]

Pee if Bush gets back in you will see an exodus from America that will rival that of Haiti or Cuba and by the way Sled your contribution to AIDS in Africa is a 10th of what others are giving compared to their GDP. As to Kyoto we in Canada are cutting emissions to meet the protocol as is Europe you are NOT because of your blind belief that pollution doesn't matter!

[mirac]

This is for Traderfromhell:

 

Dodging the draft will be more

difficult than those from the Vietnam era. College and Canada

will not be options. In December, 2001, Canada and the U.S.

signed a "smart border declaration," which could be used to keep

would-be draft dodgers in. Signed by Canada's minister of

foreign affairs, John Manley, and U.S. Homeland Security

director, Tom Ridge, the declaration involves a 30 point plan

which implements, among other things, a "pre-clearance

agreement" of people entering and departing each country.

Reforms aimed at making the draft more equitable along gender

and class lines also eliminates higher education as a shelter.

Underclassmen would only be able to postpone service until the

end of their current semester. Seniors would have until the end

of the academic year.

 

 

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=55305

[brian4]

As was posted earlier Kofi Annans pronoucement that the the iraq war is an illegal war means anyone seeking refugee status in a western or european democracy will probably get it!

[BeerMarket]

more Bush family values:

Florida Bears Brunt as Ivan Slams U.S. Gulf Coast

[Jeb] Bush said initial reports from the barrier islands were "heart-breaking." From the air, a Reuters photographer saw once-sturdy condominiums on Pensacola Beach that had been ripped apart and sucked empty. Roads and parking lots had vanished under white sand.

 

"Entire houses were taken off their foundations and disappeared because of the storm surge. These are newly built, luxury homes that don't exist now," Bush said.

they're luxury I tell ya, luxury! oh the horror. the horror.

[wonmug]

...

Don't worry man. Your guy is going to remain in charge. They are in total control.  This election is a sham. 

 

You will get what you wish for.  And every single one of us will pay a terrible, horrible price for the rest of our lives.

 

(my bolding)

Doc-

with the greatest respect for your take on our current/ future political situation- I have to disagree with this expression?

Yes, to a large degree, much of our election process is a sham, starting with the Electoral College thru the unremitting trivialization & bias by the media, to the contortions of the most basic facts about the conduct of this administration. As a resident of Florida, I?m sure you are aware more than I of the machinations past & present regarding disenfranchisment of voters. I don?t dispute this is a dark, depressing time.

 

At times it seems hopeless. I look at what I have done in the last 10-15 years to try to prevent what we see happening now to our country, and I am sad to say, I slept. I gave into cynicism & nihilism- it was an easy path for me. Being confrontational & vocal is uncomfortable. In short, I have been lazy, politically; I acquiesced, I (mostly) gave my silent assent as democracy here slowly eroded. I do not assert that all of my generation, or that anyone reading this other than myself, has followed this course- I am only referring to myself.

 

But I think to feel that this election is a total sham, that all of it is a fraud, and that we are powerless to affect the fate of our country- for me that is tossing in the towel w/o a fight- that falsely excuses me from the effort to fight for change. Even if ?they are in total control? I will not stand quietly waiting by a railroad siding for the cattle car? I will take one of them with me, somehow.

 

I hear so many assert that there is no difference twixt Dems & Reps, either candidate will be equally oppressive, statist, militarist, corrupt; my approach is that one is nearly pitch black, & the other is some shade of gray- or stylishly charcoal if you prefer- but I still see a gap of daylight between, believe that gap matters vitally & the task for me is to cling to that, do what I can to widen it, understanding that I?m not going to see my hopes for the future realized in toto with this election. One has to begin somewhere. Most politicians love an apathetic electorate- less to jam up the sausage-making machine, less pressure to take a stand.

 

Apologies for hijacking your comment to riff off of- it just pushed my button because I saw a process working in myself in those phrases- something I combat within myself.

 

" ??The end may not be here soon, but one day it will end. If our kids come out of this, still hating death, and still loving life, and still desperate to be decent, no matter what price we will have paid in the interim, we will have won. We will have some of the land, not all of it, unfortunately, but we will have all of our souls and that will enough.?

? we ? will still find the strength, the courage, that hallows life. We are still a people that sanctifies life. After all that has been the secret of ? survival, and is it not also the secret of personal survival? To love life, to walk the race if we cannot run it. To crawl when we cannot walk. Zochreinu l'chaim - Let us remember life, ? affirm life and to teach us to make life matter, no matter. ?

 

pollyannishly ,

pj

[Guest Icky Twerp]

Q3Joy

[zensmoke]

Q3Joy

?Warnings are outstripping positive outlooks. Nearly 560 companies have warned their current-quarter earnings would be a disappointment, First Call says. That means there have been two earnings warnings for every positive earnings pre-announcement, the highest ratio at this early point in the quarter in at least a year, First Call says.

 

?Warnings are picking up. Since Sept. 1, there have been 82 earnings warnings about the current quarter or beyond, more than double the 37 during the same period last year, Reuters Estimates says. Among Standard & Poor's 500 companies, there have been 22 warnings, up from just six during the same time last year.

 

The trend confirms what some on Wall Street have been suspecting all year: anal cysts had gone overboard in their optimism, says Joseph Kalinowski, strategist at Grace Financial Group.

 

There was no way some companies could meet the sky-high expectations, no matter what shape the economy is in, he says. That's been a poorly kept secret on Wall Street, which is why the stock market struggled all summer.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/ea...-warnings_x.htm

[zensmoke]

Chip tool orders fall in August

Shipments drop for first time in 14 months

By Chris Kraeuter, CBS.MarketWatch.com

Last Update: 7:19 PM ET Sept. 16, 2004 

 

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Orders for chip-equipment placed with North American manufacturers declined in August and could decline further in coming months, an industry trade group said late Thursday.

 

Shipments declined for the first time since June 2003 and a key industry measurement, known as the book-to-bill ratio, contracted for the fourth month in a row to parity of 1-to-1, according to data collected by Semiconductor Equipment & Materials International.

 

In July, the ratio tightened to 1.04-to-1 and in August 2003, the ratio was 0.92-to-1. The ratio measures the value of orders received against the value of product shipped. A ratio of less than 1.0 indicates fewer orders coming in than being shipped, generally a negative trend.

 

"A number of recent company announcements suggest these levels may continue to soften in the coming months," said Lubab Sheet, research development director with SEMI, according to a statement.

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?...gle&dist=google

[zensmoke]

European chip stocks weaken

Alcatel lower after U.S. buys of over $270 million

 

By Steve Goldstein, CBS MarketWatch.com

Last Update: 3:21 AM ET Sept. 17, 2004 

 

LONDON (CBS.MW) -- European chip stocks were in retreat Friday, as the Nasdaq pared gains late in the session and the North American chip equipment book-to-bill ratio declined in August.

 

Shipments contracted for the fourth month in a row to parity of 1-to-1, according to data collected by Semiconductor Equipment & Materials International. See story on book-to-bill fall.

 

Chip equipment maker ASML (NL:33436: news, chart, profile) (ASML: news, chart, profile) fell 1.4 percent and STMicroelectronics (FR:012970: news, chart, profile) (STM: news, chart, profile), which also was reportedly downgraded, fell 1.3 percent.

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?...D&siteid=google

[zensmoke]

*DJ Smith Barney Downgrades STMicro To Sell From Hold >STM