Links and Minifeatures 2008 01 21 (Monday)

Carnival of Real Estate Recommended: #1 Question You Need to Ask Your New Stager

FYI:
For all you folks who may have linked or submitted to the Carnival of Debt Management in the past, it was brought to my attention that every single one of those carnivals has now been replaced by or redirected to a spam page (and vile lying spam at that). I have therefore removed all past links to the Carnival of Debt Management. This is not the only carnival that particular person runs. If you have past links to other carnivals run by the same person, you may want to see that linking to a spam site isn't hurting your search engine ranking.

"Help Wanted" highlights skills drain in U.S.

Tell people there's no future in an industry enough times, and nobody will train for that industry.

Some 20 percent of small to medium-sized manufacturers -- those with up to 2,000 workers -- cited retaining or training employees as their No. 1 concern, according to a survey by the National Association of Manufacturers. The survey was carried out in 2007 but has not been published yet.

A separate study in 2005, the latest available, said 90 percent of manufacturers are suffering a moderate to severe shortage of qualified workers.

This headline is basically what I was thinking Saturday night:

McCain Gets Rebound Win, But No Clincher, in South Carolina

33-30 over Huckabee, with Fred Thompson 3rd. I'm sad Duncan Hunter dropped out, I'm even sadder that Fred Thompson (my current 1st choice candidate) didn't do better, but at least Huckabee didn't win. I do think Huckabee's campaign is on the verge of losing all credibility, both as far as with voters and as far as ability to win. If he couldn't win South Carolina, where his message could be expected to resonate far better than (for instance) Florida, California, and New York, he's toast. Furthermore, it was a big win for Senator McCain, in that he took on opponents with a more regionally appealing message and won anyway. Fifteen years of trying to repeal the first amendment or not, I could live with John McCain as president. He is able to lead, he is able to compromise, and he has steadfastly maintained a correct stance on the War on Terror, no matter how politically unpopular at the time. I'd much rather have Fred Thompson or Rudy Giuliani, but if the choice on the ballot in November is John McCain or any of the leading Democrats, I'll hold my nose and vote for McCain.

On to Florida, where Rudy Giuliani (my current second choice candidate) has staked his candidacy. Rudy wins Florida, we've got a whole new ballgame. If McCain or Romney wins Florida, chances are that everyone else should depart the race, and I would really rather have McCain, flawed as he is, than Romney. If Romney wins the Republican nomination, it's very possible that I might vote for the Democrat in November. If Huckabee should somehow pull out the nomination, it's all but certain that I would.