A short item describing the internal Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) conversations prior to their defeat this past weekend in the largely symbolic Upper House elections. Interesting that Koizumi was encouraging Abe to stay on regardless to see his (Koizumi’s) Postal Privatization agenda through.
History Repeats Itself Pt. 1 — the Clinton-Lewinsky Affair as industrial miminalist theater.
The Yorkshire Ranter offers ‘Scienciness Again’ (and pays the Stiftung a huge complement which we wished we deserve). As You Know Who would say, read the whole thing. Perhaps you, Dear Reader, might contribute to his conversation there.
Nick Gvodsev over at Washington Realist notes that China is spending 9% of GDP on infrastructure, the U.S. less than 1%. Also check out his summary of a roundtable “World Without the West” on the blog.
Jim Henley offers us “Things That Make Me Go Hmmm On My Own Blog” — noting the specious nature of those pining for ‘inclusive bi-partisanship’ by the Warlord and ‘shared sacrifice’, etc.
First it was steel workers, automakers, textile workers, and no one really cared. Then came ‘outsourcing’ and suddenly white collar jobs were gone. Now, NYC mainstream law firms are recruiting overseas. And even design, the last bastion according to economic theory of comparative value, is fleeing. When the teaming Asiatic hordes learn to waste their time out-shilling themselves on YouTube, it will truly be All Over.
Postscript: Nostalgia for the Western-centric era: “A very dishy girl . . . ” Peter Sellers and Britt Ekland get married.
And with David Niven, Jaqueline Bisset and Ursula Andress . . . (great Burt Bacharach score).
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/blogs/wolcott/2007/08/robert-has-a-th.html
Wolcott, as usual, nails it.
If Boeing can’t make it properly (assuming it’s Boeing) – then just give the contract to one of the (presumably dozens) of the other major contractors. There are others, right?
For the Friedman set – the middle class is of little concern – very little. It can go the way of the Model T for all they are concerned. Afterall – Brazil has little middle class, but has fascinating art and cuisine. India is exotic as hell – even though there huge middle class is a small percent of the population. When your part of the bi-coastal elite, the world is but a cornucopia of products and commodities – so why bother with some godforsaken rotarians with their small minded protectionist mindsets and their little brick churches when you can get all that cheap labor from Pueblo and good tortilla too.
Why would Friedman give s*** about SE Michigan? He’s married to a billionaire and he’s independently wealthy writer himself – India has more exotic foods and things, so there you go.
Couldn’t agree more with you Barry. The irony intended in the post is that the bi-coastal set were content to let the American middle class be eviscerated and social mobility for ourselves and children evaporate as long as ‘efficiency’ and as you noted, alleged new opportunities for the destroyed communities could be babbled while the truth effectively marginalized.
Only now when the investment bankers, lawyers, designers, IP-makers (Hollywood) and pundits are also being turned into fungible goods do they — the bicoastal ‘elites’ now raise an alarm. It’s a betrayal of the most fundamental of sort.
Dr Leo Strauss
August 5, 2007 at 07:01
“Barry, I agree with you — perhaps it was inartful phrasing on my part. Believe me, Friedmanisms have no home here.”
I apologize for snapping at you -it’s a sore spot, living as I do in SE Micigan. And in Friedman’s particular case, he (as always) is incredibly dishonest. He was one of the people telling us not to complain; now he’s one of the people who claims that not complaining earlier (although we did) means that we can’t complain now. It’s like me urging you not to complain about something, and then later saying that you’re lack of complaining invalidated your grievance.
NRO Director Kerr said the company not named (but said to be Boeing) would only be allowed to bid on satellite contracts when it could prove that it was able to build things that actually worked . . .
“Kerr said one of the contractors had been put on “a watch list,” and
could only bid on new work if granted a waiver.
He did not name the programs or companies involved, but said he told
the contractor on the list it could be removed only when it showed
that it could build hardware that worked.
Analysts and one official familiar with the issue said Kerr was
referring to a major revamp of the Future Imagery Architecture
program, initially run by Boeing Co, and a Lockheed satellite program
dubbed “Misty.” The official said the company on the watchlist was Boeing.
Boeing declined to comment.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/02/AR2007080202208.html
Barry, I agree with you — perhaps it was inartful phrasing on my part. Believe me, Friedmanisms have no home here.
“First it was steel workers, automakers, textile workers, and no one really cared.”
Anybody who thinks that wasn’t reading (for example) the Detroit News or Free Press for the past thirty years. Or any paper not published within 100 miles of the Atlantic coast.
It pains me to see you believe Friedmanesque lies like that.
What really happened was the everybody was told that they’d get these Kewl white collar ‘symbolic analyst’ jobs.
Then, when it started happening to the guys who had felt immune, we heard a new round of b*tching.
No wonder Japan wants nukes:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070805TDY02003.htm
When the neocons watch their young Republican charges behave in such a manner – they probably twirl their moustaches in quiet satisfaction over the efficacy of their training.
Doc – what to make of the sincere seeming infantilism of the House Republicans – They can’t seem to break the childish “Democrat party” lame insult in their speeches.
Has the Louisville Slugger baseball bat manufacturing moved to China yet? We recall that was in the news a while back.
Ok – there are a few problems with that ‘About’ we just posted – On a scale of 1 to 10 in phraseology ratings (10 being “these are the times that try men’s souls” and 1 being a randomly selected wordy sentence from a Mark Halprin op-ed) we’d only give it a 2.67.
So we’ll try later
We’ll try to think of something, but the eureka moment will come when we are thinking of something else or reading something else that is seemingly unrelated. But everything is related – But here is our rough draft:
‘Explaining and analyzing the current regime in Washinton, its roots in the conservative Movement, and the resulting mutations and reactions that became manifest in the administration and its voting base.’
Good suggestions — maybe we should start a contest to best describe the site in the About space. Winner would get a complimentary SLS Coffee Mug or the like.
We like this current format – it looks good – a good color scheme etc. But we think random quote might be better on the top or near the top of the right of the page – Others may disagree. One other possibility – the “About” description is good, but we think it could be tightened up a bit, but we understand others may disagree.