Couldn’t Help But Notice (110807)

If it can’t make it there, it won’t make it anywhere — Tuesday, voters in the People’s Republic of Oregon rejected (HT Michelle Malkin), and by a 60-40 margin, a “Healthy Kids Program,” which would have raised tobacco taxes 84.5 cents a pack to provide universal healthcare for children. Supporters of the defeated Measure 50 are whining about how tobacco companies outspent them. Boo freakin’ hoo.

The result is as close as we’ll get to proving that the NPR and CBS polls rushed out a few weeks ago in an attempt to cause an override President Bush’s veto of legislation that would have greatly expanded the State Children’s Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP) were so much Bull-SCHIP. Arguing that the universal nature of Oregon’s initiative went further than SCHIP doesn’t explain a 64-point swing from the NPR poll’s 44-point in-favor margin (70-26) to Measure 50’s 20-point defeat.

I should stay on universal health care long enough to remind readers that uber-liberal Oregon also voted down statewide universal health care in 2002 — by a margin of 79-21 (scroll down to Measure 23 at link).

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported third-quarter productivity results yesterday that were so good, even the Associated Press’s resident gloom-and-doom artist went positive for a bit:

Worker productivity surged in the summer at the fastest pace in four years while wage pressures eased.

The Labor Department reported that productivity—the amount of output per hour of work—jumped at an annual rate of 4.9 percent in the July-September quarter. That was double the 2.2 percent rise in the second quarter and represented the fastest surge in worker efficiency since 2003.

At the same time, wage pressures eased with unit labor costs dropping at an annual rate of 0.2 percent, the best showing in more than a year.

Both outcomes were far better than had been expected …..

The slight drop in wage pressures was especially welcome after hefty increases over the past four quarters. Rising wages are good for workers but if they are not accompanied by strong productivity gains, they raise concerns among Fed policymakers about inflation.

But alas, Crutsinger reverted to form within a few paragraphs. Digest all the bolded words, and you can almost see him rooting for a recession:

Analysts said that the improvement in productivity probably will not last, given the expectations that output growth will slow sharply in the current quarter and into next year as the economy battles against a steep slump in housing and a severe credit crunch.

As I noted Monday, “things are so bad” that the Institute for Supply Management’s October reports on manufacturing and non-manufacturing both came in with readings of expansion that were, on a weighted-average basis, better than September.

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This is good news, but not as good as prolifers would like to believe:

New Jersey Rejects Stem-Cell Bonds in ‘Big Defeat’

New Jersey voters rejected a $450 million bond measure to fund stem-cell research in a defeat for Democratic Governor Jon Corzine, who backed the proposal with his own money.

The ballot question was defeated by 53 percent to 47 percent, according to the state elections division. The measure would have authorized New Jersey to borrow as much as $45 million annually for 10 years to fund scientists’ work in the field.

Corzine said low election turnout, about a quarter of eligible voters, and backlash over the state’s fiscal position contributed to the question’s rejection.

Somewhat unfortunately, as Corzine noted, this defeat was more about voter backlash against the Garden State’s tax-and-spend political culture than it is about any sort of voter recognition that embryonic stem-cell research destroys human life. In mid-2006, a brief government shutdown ended with (what else?) yet another tax increase and 10% spending hike.

Consistent with the years-old pattern of disgraceful media coverage in this area, Bloomberg’s report avoided using the word “embryonic” until the thirteenth paragraph, when that’s what the entire measure was about.