GLOBALIZE THIS!

Thursday, September 16, 2004

HAPPY 5765!

Next year under a Democratic administration...or in Jerusalem. Whatever, I'm not too picky.

¶ 9/16/2004 09:50:36 PM

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Wednesday, September 15, 2004

BUSH SKIRTED GUARD DUTY, END OF STORY

The former secretary to Bush's squadron commander in the Texas Air National Guard told the NYT that memos aired on CBS:

"We did discuss Bush's conduct and it was a problem [Lt. Col. Jerry B.] Killian was concerned about...I think he was writing the memos so there would be some record that he was aware of what was going on and what he had done."

¶ 9/15/2004 11:38:50 AM

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SOUL BROTHERS IN ARMS

"I looked the man in the eye. I was able to get a sense of his soul."

Now Bush's soul mate is capitalizing on a terrorist attack (which actually didn't even happen in Russia, it happened in Ossetia, a distinct national-ethnic group squeezed between the Chechens, Georgians, and Abkhazians) to roll back the tide of democracy. From today's FT:

Putin, citing the need for the reforms to beat terrorism, has said he will nominate regional governors himself in the future and proposed changes to the electoral system that will effectively stop the rise of a strong parliamentary opposition.

Sounds familiar.

¶ 9/15/2004 11:12:09 AM

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Tuesday, September 14, 2004

THE BENEVOLENCE OF CHINA AND JAPAN, PART II

Here is the corollary picture to this earlier post on Treasury's inability to sell bonds to the private market.

Rob Scott of EPI explains how foreign governments are now financing a whopping 2/3 of the US trade deficit. Why might foreign governments in Japan and China loan us this much money? Hell, they have to do something with the dollars they are earning by flooding the US market with their exports. So why not loan it back to us so we can buy more of their stuff?...and the circle of life continues.

¶ 9/14/2004 09:39:53 PM

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Monday, September 13, 2004

ROBERT NOVAK CAN SHAMPOO MY CROTCH

From CNN on Saturday, Robert Novak epitomizes hypocricy:

I could never tell a lie...only national security secrets.

NOVAK: The -- Margaret, I believe -- I don't know of anybody who changed their opinion. "The Boston Globe" got a new expert who said the thing probably is authentic. In the same story, they went back to the expert that "The Washington Post" had used. He said it isn't authentic. I think it's going to be very interesting to find out if these are forged or phony documents. That's -- as a journalist, I think that's a very interesting story.

I'd like CBS, at this point, to say where they got these documents from. They didn't get them from a CIA agent. I don't believe there was any laws involved. I don't think we'll have a special prosecutor, if they tell. I think they should say where they got these documents because I thought it was a very poor job of reporting by CBS. Why did CBS not go to the -- to Killian's family and get -- and ask them about it, as ABC did, and got these quotes, and they said they think they're phony documents -- I thought -- I thought that the "60 Minutes" thing by Dan Rather was a -- was a campaign operation, rather than an attempt to get to the bottom of the truth.

HUNT: Robert Novak, you're saying CBS should reveal its source?

NOVAK: Yes.

HUNT: You do? You think reports ought to reveal sources?

NOVAK: No, no. Wait a minute.

HUNT: I'm just asking.

NOVAK: I'm just saying in that case.

HUNT: Oh.

NOVAK: I think -- I think it's very important. If this is a phony document, the American -- the people should know about it.

HUNT: So in some cases, reporters ought to reveal sources.

NOVAK: Yes.

HUNT: But not in all cases.

NOVAK: That's right.

HUNT: OK.
....

What is that saying about, "he who lives in a glass house..."

¶ 9/13/2004 05:07:35 PM

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Sunday, September 12, 2004

CHINA'S (AND OUR) SOCIAL REVOLUTION CONTINUES

From the NYT's Week in Review section, China's poor, rural migrant workers swarm to the cities:

its scale already dwarfs the migrations that reshaped America and the modern Western world. China, by official count, has 114 million migrant workers who have left rural areas, temporarily or for good, to work in cities, and that doesn't include tens of millions of family members who moved with them. Government experts predict the number will rise to 300 million by 2020, eventually to 500 million. Today, Shanghai alone has three million migrant workers; by comparison, the entire Irish migration to America from 1820 to 1930 is thought to have involved perhaps 4.5 million people.

"This is the largest movement in human history," said Cheng Li, a government professor at Hamilton College, in Clinton, N.Y., who specializes in China. "It is far bigger, and the speed is unprecedented."

For now, the government is encouraging migration to promote its immediate goal of providing cheap factory and construction labor and its long-term goal of urbanization. Every wealthy modern nation has had to shift from a rural-based economy to an urban one in order to prosper. China is trying to make this transition - which involves a fifth of the world's population - in record time. How well, or poorly, the government handles this migration will determine whether these workers help create a middle-class society or just form a permanent underclass in a country that has already become sharply divided between rich and poor.

¶ 9/12/2004 01:44:43 PM

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