"..greatest spin job I have ever seen..."

[kentuck]

Paraphrasing Donald Trump on the Imus show this AM. Coming from someone that knows spin farely well, I would assume, this is really saying something. He said that they have spinned their opponent, a war hero, as a traitor, and at the same time, have spun George Bush as some type of military hero.... He also said that the price of concrete, for new buildings, has almost doubled in price and was hard to find since most of it is now going to Iraq to rebuild that place...

[goclark]

1. I heard Trump too

He didn't say that he would vote for Bush.
Said he like some of his tax policies
But he pounded Bush on the war.
Said this war was wrong.

[LuminousX]

2. I don't care for Trump, but I read Art of the Deal

and he comes off as someone with a sense of noblesse oblige. He is at least aware of the advantages he has had in life and recognizes not everyone has similar chances that he had.

[JI7]

9. Trump endorsed Kerry a while ago, he supported Gore also

he has never liked bush personally. not that he knows bush, but he just never liked bush the person and found him to be a fraud .

[PROGRESSIVE1]

17. Do you have concrete evidence of this?

[molly]

3. He's supposed to be on Hardball

discussing who he will support. I may not be home in time.

[Truth is True]

4. I thought concrete was going to China?

I read that about two weeks ago, but don't have a link. China is doing some really big projects, and sucking up a lot of the concrete in the world.

:shrug:

[NewYorkerfromMass]

6. Steel is the big problem, not concrete

although concrete tends to be full of steel reinforcing when built.

[Truth is True]

7. Didn't find original link

But found another story:

http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~2382497,00.html

"In the last couple of years, the Chinese economy has picked up tremendously, and a lot of the cement that would have come from the Pacific Rim is being used in China," Morman said.

[PA Democrat]

14. I would think China before Iraq, also

I don't thinks there's a whole heck of a lot of reconstruction going on in Iraq right now given the issue of security.

[Texas_Dem]

5. Talked to a contractor

who was bidding on a house and he was lamenting about the price of lumber, etc. His supplier told him about a government contract with the lumber mills that sends materials to Iraq first and what is left over is sold here.

Don't have any info on this other than an anecdotal story. Anyone know some specifics?

[bigtree]

11. anecdotal reports

The limited number of barges and shipping lines to bring the imported cement to US shores is adding to the problem. The demand for rebuilding in Iraq, and building projects from Hong Kong to Singapore, have significantly diverted supply ships to those countries. The supplies that are making it to US ports have been bottlenecked by transportation woes, observers say.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0817/p03s02-usec.htm



Demand for KingdomSaudi's Cement to Increase
Arab News - 16/08/2003

DAMMAM, 16 August 2003 — The reconstruction of Iraq has made cement the most sought-after construction commodity there, and contractors are turning to Saudi Arabia to meet their requirements. According to cement industry sources, there have been several queries from contractors as well as middlemen, and currently the initial requirement in Iraq is about 20 million tons, which is equal to the combined cement production of all the eight factories in the Kingdom

>>>The reconstruction in Iraq provides a challenge to the cement industry in the GCC. He said it was unlikely that Saudi Arabia would be able to sell cement for Iraqi reconstruction in the immediate future. But he did not rule out future sales. "The reconstruction in Iraq is a long drawn-out process, and demand for cement is going to persist for a long time. The Saudi cement factories will be able to meet the Iraqi demand once they expanded their production capacity," he added.

http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?storyid=26392


We got the Iraqi cement factory running. We wanted to spend $23 million


U.S. Army engineers who came to survey the damage proposed rebuilding the plant into a shining showcase for the best in modern technology. They suggested buying a fleet of earth-moving equipment and importing machinery from Europe, estimating it would take $23 million and up to a year to complete the job.

The Iraqis had more modest ambitions — they just wanted to get the factory running again, even at minimal capacity. With the help of $10,000 from the U.S. military, and $240,000 left over in factory bank accounts, they used scrap electronics, tore up one production line to get parts for the other, and fixed the plant in three months. It was not the state-of-the-art facility that the Americans envisioned, but it got the job done.

The difference between the “American way” and the “Iraqi way” of building things is at the heart of an ongoing debate about how much reconstruction money is really needed and how it should be doled out. As Congress debated $18 billion to rebuild Iraq, the cement factory became a symbol of the tension between the two approaches.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3403655

[tomfodw]

13. Geez, ya think...

...we could start making concrete and steel again here? I know it's more expensive than shipping it in from other countries, but it can't be more expensive than not having any, can it?

[MsTryska]

15. hmm....

this seems too much like right, and halliburton won't be able to get a chunk, therefore...sorry that's just not gonna work. ;)

[newyawker99]

16. Hi MsTryska!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[MsTryska]

18. Thanks newyawker99! 'preciate it. (nt)

[KoKo]

19. Thanks for the three links on this.. keep hearing about construction

supply problems, but here in boom area of NC they are tearing up new stores (less than 5 years old in some cases) in shopping centers and replacing them other stores custom built for a new franchise. The rubble is carted off to who knows where?

Having read there were supply problems in China, I had thoughts that we were shipping the "scrap" over there for $$$'s while the Shopping Center Barons take a big deduction for depreciation. :shrug:

[On the Road]

8. I'm Not a Fan of Trump Personally

but I would have considered voting for him had he run on the Reform Pary ticket last time. His platform would have included:

-Universal health care
-Improved trade agreements
-and a one-time 14% tax on personal assets of over $10 million to retire the national debt.

[bigtree]

10. The concrete thing is real

Builders in the U.S. are paying through the nose for concrete that is routinely late and often unavailable on demand. Completely at the mercy of the suppliers who are juggling a sressed supply.

Other strains:

Prices rise, construction interrupted by cement shortage

Friday, June 25, 2004
By Becky Pallack / Arizona Daily Star

A cement shortage sent some construction workers home for part of the week as contractors braced for more bad news about price increases.

The national demand for cement grew more than 12 percent in the first quarter of the year, and demand is even higher in Arizona, said Ed Sullivan, chief economist for the Portland Cement Association, a trade group. Arizona last week joined California, Nevada, Florida and other states in the Southeast in short supply. The group regularly surveys its state members to find out who has difficulty getting cement.

A strong demand for housing, coupled with a "tremendous" downturn in Mexican cement imports has negatively impacted the Arizona market, Sullivan said. A $57 anti-dumping duty is applied to each ton of cement that crosses the border, but the fee is subject to review this September by the U.S. Commerce Department. Many companies can't afford to offset their cement supplies with imports from Mexico because of the high duty fee.

Local suppliers, home builders and pool makers are feeling the pressure of the shortage.

[NewJeffCT]

12. Not just concrete

Not just concrete – this applies to wood as well. In the summer of 2003, my wife and I were negotiating building a new house with a very reputable builder in a nice neighborhood in a nice small town here in Connecticut. The price was at the top of our budget – around $350,000 when all was said and done – not counting appliances, blinds, etc. for the new house. We could afford more than that, but wanted to be safe and not have too much of a mortgage payment in case one of us was out of work for a while.

But, right before we got in to sign the papers, the builder told us that because all the wood is being shipped to Iraq, the price here in the US had skyrocketed and they were forced to raise their prices by about 10% of the final cost – or $35,000.

Too much for us. So, we had to wait a little longer for a new home, and we ended up in a nice neighborhood in a nice small town, but I am not so sure about the folks that built our house in regards to quality.