Four quickhits that deserve mention
There is an extremely interesting editorial critique of Condolezza Rice and her out of date foreign policy interpretation in the WaPo today by Sebastian Mallaby. Not sure I agree with it 100%, but extremely thought provoking.
Yesterday it came out that Halliburton subsidiary KBR knowingly supplied contaminated water to Camp Junction City, Ramadi, Iraq for at least a year. The water intakes were placed too close downstream to sewage flows.
And if you want to flip out over a presentation democrats as tax and spend communists, take a look at this "commentary" praising democrats' success in the CSM piece titled, "Triumph of the Redistributionist Left." I was grinding my teeth.
Lastly, UPI has an update of the Metalstorm, inc, new gun technologies making their way through the Pentagon evaluation process. Somewhere out there on the internets, I have seen video of a large boxy prototype, it looked like an AA gun, but the thing fired 16,000 rounds per minute. There new promotional materials say they are working on a version that can fire 240,000 rounds per minute. Now if we just had the robot army to carry it around.
Yesterday it came out that Halliburton subsidiary KBR knowingly supplied contaminated water to Camp Junction City, Ramadi, Iraq for at least a year. The water intakes were placed too close downstream to sewage flows.
And if you want to flip out over a presentation democrats as tax and spend communists, take a look at this "commentary" praising democrats' success in the CSM piece titled, "Triumph of the Redistributionist Left." I was grinding my teeth.
Lastly, UPI has an update of the Metalstorm, inc, new gun technologies making their way through the Pentagon evaluation process. Somewhere out there on the internets, I have seen video of a large boxy prototype, it looked like an AA gun, but the thing fired 16,000 rounds per minute. There new promotional materials say they are working on a version that can fire 240,000 rounds per minute. Now if we just had the robot army to carry it around.
posted by mikevotes at
8:15 AM
4 Comments:
You were right about grinding your teeth while reading "Triumph of the Redistributionist Left." What a one-sided look at entitlements in this country.
This quote is so slanted: Our system of government is highly responsive to vocal groups that lobby for subsidies, government programs, and other special favors. Since the costs are spread out among all taxpayers while the benefits are concentrated among smaller segments of the population (such as retirees, in the case of Social Security and Medicare), the taxpayers have much less of an incentive to lobby against the measure while the beneficiaries have a huge incentive to lobby for it. Whenever those subsidies are threatened, the lobbies launch their barrages of politically effective complaints.
They point to the small segments of the population as social security or Medicare recipients, but fail to mention the corporate welfare recipients or the rich people who gain favorable tax and inheritance law legislation.
I'm all for a redistribution of wealth in this country. We can't proudly call ourselves a great nation when we have people starving, living without adequate health insurance, and busting their asses 40 hours a week for minimum wage. How does that honor the hard work and dedication of Americans? We should all be recipients of a fair share of the pie, and fair is not living at poverty levels while the rich hoard their money.
By
Kathy, at 12:48 PM
Yeah, It just flipped me out from the normally so centrist CSM.
And, honestly, I'm not against libertarian ideals, BUT, the system right now is sloped so heavily towards the wealth centers, look at how the tax laws are structured or the numbers on "corporate welfare" for instance.
Plus, I feel very strongly that it is in the long term economic interests of this country to bring people into the middle class. Our economy is disproportionately consumer based, thus, (longer conversation) we do better with five families buying Cheddar than one buying Gruyere.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 1:01 PM
Re: Triumph of the Redistributionist Left. I'm fascinated by what Americans see as the "left' and its relationship to communism or even socialism. John Kenneth Galbraith is no doubt regarded as a red ragger in his own country. Left of the Democrats perhaps, liberal perhaps, in it’s truest sense but hardly socialist. And if he can't make it in that country of opportunity, who can?.
To put that 'liberal' into context, liberal economics essential seeks to ensure a productive workforce, hence a productive economy - nothing more nor less. Oddly enough, neo-liberal economics is full blown laissez fair or 'market rules' economy. Most Western power parties tend to subscribe to this socially deficient model.
But nothing seems particularly pure and ‘market economies’ still tend to grow big governments for some strange reason. Perhaps that reflects the number of people willing to buy a piece of the government action, or simply the creation of greater power through greater numbers.
One thing seems certain: Old concepts of left and right do not fit the US political model particularly well.
By
Cartledge, at 5:05 PM
This article used left as a perjorative term for folks who believe in social programs. But you're right, in the TV age, many of the desriptive terms have lost their moorings in the spin.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 6:14 PM
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