Even though the V.I. Lenin quote, "The capitalists will sell us the rope with which to hang them," is apparently apocryphal, U.S. high tech companies are champing at the bit to sell China technology to harness and suppress the open society of the Internet.
This story probably has real content, rather than being a figment of the reporter's imagination, but I think the Obama effect is probably somewhat overstated. Not everything in the world has to be explained by something coming out of America.
The Democratic side of the aisle will have to clean up its own mess. There aren't enough Republicans in the House to matter. But three indicted Speakers in a row ought to be a wake-up call that there's a systemic problem that makes corruption too easy and tempting.
All the messy reform, that is.
If there's no public option, the option Roy Blunt (R-Status Quo) calls "a non-starter," there's no sense wasting time on a health care bill. Once again, the Republicans are the party of no.
Note to CNN: Blunt is not "heading up health care efforts in the House." He's a Republican in the house which has no filibuster. He doesn't have a leadership role that matters.
Update (6/13): Robert Reich hits this topic in Salon.
Click image for Tony Auth/Philadelpia Inquirer cartoon.
Self-deceit usually takes a while.
Click image for full Doonesbury.
Click image for full Elena Steier cartoon.
There was at least one guy at the Massachusetts Democratic Party with a press credential, and there were TV cameras on the floor, though I didn't pick up who was filming. Today, though, hardly any coverage at all - a feature on the youth convention in the Globe, an unrelated story on Democratic scandals on Beacon Hill that would have tied in naturally to Deval Patrick's speech, a filler story on a moving violation and fender bender by the mayor of Fall River, and an AP file in the Herald limited to slot machines, not even anything sandbagging Robert Haynes's fiery and rambling speech. Maybe there are sound bites on local TV, maybe not.
Moral of the story: If you want coverage in this era of shrinking journalism, you have to cover yourself. Even change agents have to adjust to change.
So far, though, there's nothing on Youtube, nothing on massdems.org, and nothing on devalpatrick.com.
The GOP and their laissez-faire economists really need some way to blame Barney Frank for this:
"I doubt this approach would play well with regulators, investors, rating agencies, etc," [John P. McMurray, chief risk officer of Countrywide Financial] wrote. "To some, this approach might seem like we've simply ceded our risk standards and balance sheet to whoever has the most liberal guidelines."Fortunately for them, they don't care about facts.
Mitch McConnell says the threat of a Republican filibuster against Sonia Sotomayor is just payback.
So he wouldn't mind if the Democrats in the Senate threatened to go nuclear.
Sure he wouldn't.
Without an effective public option, there is no effective health care reform. That's why the Republicans are against it.
So what if gets Sotomayor's ethnic heritage wrong!
Click image for full Clay Bennett/Chattanooga Times Free Press cartoon.
Click image for full Nick Anderson/Houston Chronicle cartoon.
Better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
I don't think Palin could pass Economics 101. She's never heard of Keynesian stimulus. She doesn't know the difference between private debt and public debt. She has no idea of the vicious cycle of contraction that's still a very real danger."Since when can you get out of huge national debt by creating trillions of dollars of new debt?" [Sarah] Palin asked. "It all really is so backwards and skewed as to sound like absolute nonsense when some of this economic policy is explained."
"We need to be aware of the creation of a fearful population, and fearful lawmakers, being led to believe that big government is the answer, to bail out the private sector, because then government gets to get in there and control it," she said. "And mark my words, this is going to be next, I fear, bail out next debt-ridden states. Then government gets to get in there and control the people."
"Some in Washington would approach our economic woes in ways that absolutely defy Economics 101, and they fly in the face of principles, providing opportunity for industrious Americans to succeed or to fail on their own accord," she said. "Those principles it makes you wonder what the heck some in Washington are trying to accomplish here."
Even backing off of the phrase "new racism," Newt's not embarrassed enough to make a sincere apology. He just chose a word that was too strong, no biggie.
Jeff Sessions is making a virtue of the tiny little climb-down Newt did manage by touting Newt's supposedly unusual willingness to admit error.
That's the GOP for you. Throw out the red meat for those in their constituency for whom white privilege isn't large enough, then whisper to the dogs to stop barking.
How many in the glove compartment?
Click image for full Mike Lester cartoon.
... although this one can be useful if it comes with a package.
Click image for full Ted Rall cartoon.
The H-1B visa program has always been about displacing citizen workers for the purpose of lowering their wage growth. When American corporations use the pick-up line that, hey baby, we just want to ensure our competitiveness, what they mean is that they can't compete with low wage countries, so they have to import their workers. Too bad citizens have to go flip burgers.
If you think about motive, this is easier to understand:
The exact size of the H-1B labor force in the U.S. is uncertain because of a lack of accurate data. The U.S. sets a cap of 85,000 H-1B visas annually.If the government really cared, it would make it its business to know this.
All those claims that we invaded Iraq because it was the "central front in the war on terror"? No longer operative.
The Bushists took office with the PNAC plan to remake the Middle East in their hip pocket.
