Saturday, September 18, 2010

It's Always Worse in Tight Times

The Washington Post reports that the poor are increasingly with us but the political class is largely unconcerned.
The reluctance of political leaders on both sides of the aisle to directly confront the fact that growing numbers of Americans are slipping into poverty reflects a stubborn reality about the poor: They are not much of a political constituency.

"...poor people don't vote in great numbers. And they certainly aren't going to be making campaign contributions. That definitely puts them behind many other people and interests when decisions are being made around here."

Among those who do pay attention is Washington Congressman Jim McDermott. He must not be part of the political class. Good on him.

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Friday, September 17, 2010

Denial in Real Time

"There's no danger," said Michel Montini, a hotel operator and mountain guide. "There never was any danger. Peillex's pocket of water is a pocket of hot air."

Unlike climate change skeptics, most of whom will not actually experience the disasters they deny, Mr. Montini may actually live to see (and perhaps be killed by) that pocket of hot air.

Nature bats last.

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Party World

Foreign Policy reports about Tea Parties around the world. The most surprising? The Billionaire Communists in China. Imagine, the party of Mao and Marx, now spawning a nest of Friedmanites.

China long ago ceased to be Communist in anything but name so it's not surprising that capitalist-libertarian ideas have space in Chinese civic dialogue. As a rule, I think dialogue and ideas are good. I'm less sanguine about capitalism. China, the other hand, is less inclined toward ideas and dialogue but far more enthusiastic about capitalism.

So far, it's working. For some.

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Sunday, September 12, 2010

More One Party News

This time from Bad Attitudes:
Regardless of party or ideology, every President has tried to accumulate power. As our economic system concentrates wealth, the political system designed by the founders tends to concentrate power.

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A Life Worth Noting

Ronald W. Walters

...who leaves us with this thought,
"If George Bush had been as criticized and interrogated as much as Obama, perhaps the edifice of problems that now challenge the very viability of America might have been stopped."

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