"Economic Collapse" or "Investment Opportunity"?

Peter S. Goodman and Louise Story appear in the Gray Lady with Overseas Investors Buy Aggressively in U.S. and I'm immediately wondering what would Naomi Klein have to offer on this news. I continue to be amazed at how her work is influencing my thinking.

Looks like the shoe is on the other foot now in some respects. That "sovereign wealth funds" are saving the day for Wall Street banks seems about par for the course. Market capitalism meets state capitalism? Reckon Joe and Jill Sixpack will hear much about this in the campaigns for the White House and Congress? Unfortunately, I expect neither party to have much to say. Surely the GOP will play their usual "fear the foreign" angles yet I think they'll be talking in code, if not explicitly, of the brown people.

The close from Goodman and Story is as follows:

... But even if political tension increases, so will the flow of foreign money, some analysts say, for the simple reason that businesses need it.

“The forces sucking in this capital are much bigger than the political forces,” said Mr. Garten, the Yale trade expert. “If there is a big controversy, it will be between Washington on the one hand and corporate America on the other. In that contest, the financiers and the businessmen are going to win, as they always do.”

Corporate American is different that Washington? Would that it were. And again I'll remind us that the many multi-nationals we have now truly blur the line between being "American" or "Foreign" owned. What a complicated time we live in. P/W

Here's a great effort for Don Siegelman

Back in the day I'd get regular holiday cards from the Siegelman family and recall Dana, pictured with Lori and Don to the left, as a child. I feel even older than normal seeing this image. She's a lovely young woman. I'm sure her parents are proud of her.

Away from my own son and other loved ones, through my own decision to serve my country, as contrasted with what Don suffered as our country's judicial system was used for seemingly political purposes, I can't help but think about what Don is missing. Again, I wasn't always pleased with "The Don" but from what I've learned the cases seem weak and should have never wound up in court. "Relatively" guilty isn't justice! Don is clearly entitled to be released as his appeals wind their way through our system.

However, resources like this from Friends of Don Siegelman 2007 help me think some measure of justice may come from this mess. I'll hope it arrives sooner rather than later. I saw a Doss Aviation truck out here at Fort Lewis just the other day and got a combination of queasy and angry as I thought of Judge Mark Fuller.

Hang in there Siegelmans! P/W

Highlanders of the Day ~ Al and Tipper Gore

I'd missed Going After Gore by Evgenia Peretz in Vanity Fair. Infantry training at Fort Benning is my excuse. At least I now have some time to start catching up. Yet I truly miss "home" and loved ones back in Alabama. Al Gore's Attack on Reason is on my desk ready to read. Ms. Peretz writes:

Eight years ago, in the bastions of the "liberal media" that were supposed to love Gore—The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, CNN—he was variously described as "repellent," "delusional," a vote-rigger, a man who "lies like a rug," "Pinocchio." Eric Pooley, who covered him for Time magazine, says, "He brought out the creative-writing student in so many reporters.… Everybody kind of let loose on the guy."

How did this happen? Was the right-wing attack machine so effective that it overwhelmed all competing messages? Was Gore's communications team outrageously inept? Were the liberal elite bending over backward to prove they weren't so liberal?

I know Al and Tipper Gore deserved better, as did our nation. Imagine exchanging these two for Dubyah and the Librarian. How different our world might be. This examination is also important for the current campaigns out there. We need to get it right, or at least a reasonable facsimile to right, this time. I'd like to have other options than those candidates we'll likely have to replace Bu$hCo but at least "the folksy Texas rogue" will be back on "the ranch" in Crawford.

To have Al Gore rehabilitated is good. There's a need to make sure Joe and Jill Sixpack learn the truth about the 2000 election, before and after the Florida debacle, but the way Al Gore was treated is foundational in those understandings. Also, to have today's all too corporate and all too consolidated media exposed for their favoring infotainment and "horse race" politics over serious analysis has to be a step in the right direction. P/W

Bu$hCo's Crusade Against Conservatism Continues

Dubyah is pictured on his recent trip to Southwest Asia with a Suadi Prince of some sorts. Getting into the Bu$h Dynasty's relationship with the Saudis is tempting yet I'll push on. If I were handling him I'd have tried to avoid the sword shot yet that's another topic as well. Social graces when with a host might explain. Or Dubyah could just be unaware of the symbolism of this image?

I accept that many on the right claim Shrub is hardly a "conservative". He was however packaged and propped up around the construct I'd counter. Whatever he and the balance of Bu$hCo stands for, and I think it is/was mostly all about Corporatism on steroids, with "movement conservatism" being what Rove and other early enablers were geared for, with neo-Conservatives via the Cheney cabal and ... surely at the table, this proposed economic stimulus package, the details still being murky, flowing out of the White House seems hardly conservative.

Now I don't think it Keynesian, as apparently does the WSJ, mostly as that idea don't seem to jive with me when we live in such a globalized world. Plenty of people I'm reading worry that our consumer-oriented society is just going to spend the money with China and then Uncle Sam will turn around and have to borrow more from there and other unsavory sources as we continue to grow the deficit. Peter Navarro has raised several concerns about China in his recent book and elsewhere yet today's San Francisco Chronicle piece examines this in relation to the stimulus package and I'm interested in what the Professor offers up.

My bottom line is that structural responses to what ails us, and much does folks, rather than a simple solution like Bu$h Stimulus 2.0, are necessary. Those few true Progressives up in DC might not be able to get what we need now yet I'll hope they'll be talking and writing and ... I'll not count on the media doing their part yet we'll want to seek out voices and words that speak truth and then promote them with vigor.

As we do this, destroying the false promises of "conservatism" is a bonus. I'm all about keeping government efficient and trimming waste yet as a Progressive the idea of good government is perfectly palatable. We can't however hope to have an effective system when we are so cash strapped as to not be able to meet needs. Bu$hCo's reckless spending and war making, plus the policies of his GOP Rubber Stamp Congress, has made it all the more difficult for those that will follow to be effective leaders. We've got a long row to hoe as a nation and world in getting past this President and the last thirty plus years of "conservatism". Is this period of probable crisis not an ideal time to start the work? P/W

Outlander of the Day ~ Ted Sampley

Ted Sampley is pictured over to the left in the middle. He's fussing with a protester at Walter Reed some years back. I personally don't think it poor form to be at a place such as this to show a form of support for the troops by questioning Bu$hCo policies yet I digress. He's been back in the news going after St. John McCain. I'm pleased McCain is fighting back. If only he'd done that against the dirty tricks of Bu$hCo's Karl Rove back in 2000 then perhaps we could have avoided the Reign of Error.

J.C. Christian gave me the heads up on Sampley. He's a "professional veteran" and potter. SourceWatch serves up more. Some odd products and downright racist images indeed appear via his website yet I'll avoid a link. Some years back Sampley even went after Daddy Bu$h? Better look out Ted given what happened to Saddam after he offended Dubyah by his half-baked threats to kill Bu$h the Elder. P/W

HuffPo's 23/6 gives us Will Durst, Lee Stranahan ...

Lee Stranahan's work above is wicked but Will Durst's Balkanizing Reagan is just as tasty. Tip fo the tam to Arian for bringing us 23/6. P/W

Highlander of the Day ~ CA 30th's Henry Waxman

Representative Waxman is the type of smart, assertive Democratic that I'd love to clone. The "Scariest guy in Washington" label might apply for the GOP and their enablers. Congressman Waxman and his able staff are trying their best to avoid having the Bu$hCo White House wiggle off the hook in the missing e-mail scandal by their blend of delaying, distracting, and denying. Then again, Tony Fratto, Dana Perino, and Fred Fielding at the White House as of late can't seem to get their stories straight. Also, AP's Pete Yost is reporting on the clear connection with certain periods and the emails that are MIA. Finally, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is also on the case. Keep up the good work folks! P/W

Outlander of the Day ~ Mobile's Mike Dean

Mobile County District Three Commissioner Mike Dean reacted to news of Dr. Ben George's Lee-Moses-Dixon Vindicator Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Saraland erecting a huge CSA Battle Flag off 1-10 in a manner that I found bothersome. An active Southern Baptist at First Baptist Tillman's Corner and a strong Republican, am I expecting more from Mr. Dean than I should? Roy Hoffman reported:

Mike Dean, Mobile County commissioner for District 3, which includes the Confederate flag site, said, "I think people feel different ways about that flag. This is America, and everyone's got a view they want to represent. It's on private property."

Did Dean feel that the flag would be bad for local business or generate negative responses?

"It will have no impact," he said. "It's a matter of how people want to look at it. People have the right to feel either way on this issue.

"They're doing something," he said of the SCV group, "to remember heritage."

The battle flag issue remains relevant even on the national stage. The Huckster is making waves in South Carolina over his position on the battle flag. A "heritage" group is even airing ads on his behalf.

My response to my students or others whenever I was asked about displaying the battle flag or other CSA symbols was that I felt uncomfortable in putting out an image that was offensive to a fair number of folks. I used the questions to talk about courtesy and compassion. I at times was able to delve into racism or at least community and cooperation in a diverse society. I also talked often of symbols and how we construct meanings on individual and collective levels. Commissioner Dean could have managed a response that would have likely not cost him much, if any, support and also demonstrated some leadership.

Finally, as I recall my days teaching in two west Georgia counties, I saw those damned Dixie Outfitters types of t-shirts and other Confederate memorabilia on a daily basis. I noted an inverse relationship between kids wearing the battle flag and actually learning some history. The vast majority of my Unreconstructed Rebels were some of the least capable students I've had the opportunity to try to teach. P/W

Highlander of the Day ~ Danny Schechter

I finally got around to watching Danny's WMD - Weapons of Mass Deception recently. Two thumbs way, way up! His and Rory O'Connor's Media Channel and Global Vision are other great resources. Some sharp talent here. Danny's In Debt We Trust is one I'll need to see soon as well. P/W

Being somewhat informed takes time and work.

Ben Hecht said, "Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock." If he was around for 24/7 news coverage I wonder what he might offer up? How we he react to blogs, RSS feeds, PR shops, consolidation of media, today's FCC, movement conservatism, and ... ? I've enjoyed having some time today to scratch around and yet I'd love even more time and resources. How does the average person become even moderately informed? I expect it comes down to the idea that most "citizens" are dreadfully unaware of much that they'd ideally understand. P/W

And we thought things were unraveling back then!

I never did read Paul Krugman's collections of NYT columns put forth in The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century yet Common Dreams serves up his recent Don't Cry for Me, America that likely would suggest our economy is about to get truly unraveled. The money quote is:

The fact is that as America’s financial system has grown ever more complex, it has also outgrown the framework of banking regulations that used to protect us - yet instead of an attempt to update that framework, all we got were paeans to the wonders of free markets.

"The wonders of free markets" indeed. I like the way Krugman briefly touches on what happened in financial meltdowns in various third world countries. Naomi Klein continues to shake me to the core with her Shock Doctrine and darned if I'm not starting to get a whole new perspective. These two smart cookies surely help me to gradually grasp constructs that I'd missed in the past. P/W

Outlanders of the Day ~ Richard Viguerie and ...

How in the world does Philip Rucker cover the scandals of Roger Chapin's various veterans charities and not mention that Richard Viguerie is a movement conservative that also likes some profiteering with his pandering? I was profoundly shocked that his decades of work for the right didn't merit some ink.

Richard Viguerie is known as the "funding father" of the conservative movement with "direct mail" being his foundation. To make some money and get out the message is killing two birds with one stamp. His Conservative HQ also seems worth noting.

Viguerie is part of this wicked web woven on the veterans charities scandals yet he's also helping Ron Paul out. Paul, long against the invasion of Iraq from his libertarian post inside the GOP, getting Viguerie's support, after Richard has pocketed earning via the Vets, seems a touch twisted.

I also like how Forbes has covered this story. Charitable Taking by William P. Barrett was well written and helped calm me down a touch over former Army General Tommy Franks "earning" 100K from at least one of Chapin's groups. At least General Franks appears to have wiggled away from further involvement. Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Arthur F. (Chip) Diehl III was cashing Chapin checks of Five Grand per month for "consultation and development" as well. I'm hardly a Tommy Franks fan, even naming him as one of my April Fools back in 2006, as he and Rummy and ... helped Bu$hCo goof up pretty much everything they touched in their adventurism in Iraq. He's shown that he is not a complete conservative tool now that he's left the service but his profiteering seems rather shameless. The "paid patriots" movement is another topic for another day perhaps?

Here's hoping the press and politicians will keep pressing for answers as to Chapin and Viguerie and ... yet I do want them to connect the dots and provide better context. P/W

UPDATE ~ January 20, 2008 - I found an email from this joker in my inbox just today. I'd never subscribed to his effort and suppose he vacuumed that address up somehow. I went through the unsubscribe effort yet wanted to drop a nasty comment over his approach in the process. No such luck.

Agreeing with API's Gary Palmer ... Nevermind

I had a bit of a fright in finding and then doing a quick read of Gary Palmer of the Alabama Policy Institute in my hometown Randolph Leader. I've posted on API several times over the years yet their Michael Ciamarra has been a favorite shill to scold. The title Palmer: State's children cheated by unreliable standards had me initially thinking Gary had seen the light over "accountability" measured by high stakes testing. Had he bitten the hands that feed him? Of course not.

Gary is frustrated with some systems fudging the numbers. And he should be. Yet he and his helped bring us No Child Left Behind. Did Gary mention how Bu$hCo's original Department of Education leader Rod Paige had fudged the numbers of the Texas Miracle that got us in this mess? Or dare he mention Paige's profiteering? Nope. Did he offer up that these damnable tests only measure low level learning rather than if a student was taught to think, or marshall evidence, or search for information, or ...? Nope.

The end of the piece had the Alabama Policy Institute identified as "a non-partisan, non-profit research and education organization dedicated to the preservation of free markets, limited government and strong families." Non-partisan? Hardly. Part of the right wing "think tank" or "policy shop" efforts to create seemingly legitimate information and then get the message out to the masses, API is funded by some of the usual suspects like the Bradley money. Note the Jaquelin Hume Foundation as well. They are so "free" market oriented that their Foundation for Teaching Economics will use Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement to then let the markets with their incentive get some credit for ending discrimination. The Hume family also helped take Ronald Reagan from a b-list movie actor to Governor of California and then the White House. Then they helped The Gipper with the Citizens for America outfit that Black Jack Abramoff later was to lead. Nasty bunch with their funneling money to the Contras among their dastardly deeds.

What an opportunity to go after Gary Palmer's API and this radicalism that has become mainstream yet I actually did think for a moment I'd find common cause with Gary. Shame on me. P/W

Another Southern Baptist Nutjob ~ Al Mohler

In line to be President of the Southern Baptist Convention if the Baptists head back to the dark side, and I, like James Evans, hope he's doomed, Al Mohler is finding fault with in-vitro fertilization. Hell, I thought you were frustrated with couples that weren't procreating. Damned if you do and damned if you don't Al? I named him an "Outlander of the Day" back in March for his "is your baby gay" goofiness. I'll certainly not buy his recent book yet I'd like to get a look at his "reasoning". Al is even on the internets and I'm for one hoping we'll hear from him on the 2008 elections. P/W

Outlanders of the Day ~ Mike Huckabee and ...

I previously posted on Huck signing off in 1998 on the wives should submit foolishness of the Southern Baptist Convention yet I note he's now fudging on what that doctrine means. The Huckster and his handlers will try to finesse this really dumb move now but folks like Richard Land and others might be perfectly willing to turn on him if it will stop his populist rhetoric. Some on the right worry Huck will put his Christianity before their Corporatism. P/W

Fumbling Fob's son Tim James to run for Governor of Alabama in 2010

There's Fumbling Fob James right there to the left. As an aside, my father played football for Fob's father down in the Valley before getting old enough to do his part in WWII. I also recall back in sixth grade debating on behalf of Bill Baxley when he and Fob squared off. Fob of course went on to win and I've been bitter ever since. I also recall bumper stickers reminding us of Fob's last day in office during his first term.

Fob was back in the saddle in 1994, finally able to admit he was a Republican. Fob was a total nut job. Chain gangs, picking fights with civil libertarians, threatening to call out the National Guard to defend Roy Moore's Ten Commandments, ... Fob's bride Bobbie was likewise geared oddly. When you come across as extreme in Alabama for your "Christianity" you know you're extreme.

Apparently young Tim is going after the Roy Moore vote come 2010. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree also in Tim's hostility to teachers. He thinks adding 20% to the Education Trust Fund wouldn't make a difference in test scores. I'll avoid going after the idea that test scores measure learning. So having the ability to cut class sizes wouldn't influence results? His plan for controlling government by cutting off the money shows how he's bent. Again, how can a person get elected to make government work when they think government is the problem? P/W

Highlanders of the Day ~ Olivia Murphy and family

Olivia Murphy and her twin Isabella are pictured to the left. Their parents allowed research to proceed while Olivia was being treated for childhood Leukaemia. "Olivia's blood stem cells carried a second defect, a missing gene, that switched the cells from a "pre-leukaemia" state into full-blown leukaemia." Because of the Murphy's, gift screening, and perhaps even preventative treatments, can be attempted. There's more work for certain yet this is a major step. This fine British family is surely due our thanks. P/W

If AWOL it's because I'm drinking liberally

I may try to attend DL up at Tacoma's Meconi's Pub tomorrow so perhaps no or light posting. Starts at 1900 and runs until ... Meconi's looks like lovely place to toss back a pint or two or ... yet I've a five mile run on Thursday morn. P/W

UPDATE - Evening of January 17, 2008 - Indeed I did make the scene last night. I met some super nice folks and tossed down a few pints of Jolly Roger Christmas Ale from Maritime Pacific Brewing Company. I'll certainly return and look forward to attending the Olympia Drinking Liberally as well.

Mike Huckabee - Knows God ... and Chuck Norris

Amend our Constitution to bring to God's standards? Huh? A tip of the tam to David Edwards and Muriel Kane for the story. P/W

Outlanders of the Day - Mobile Press-Register

To the left you'll see David Brennan of White Hat Management. He's been to Alabama before in fact and that's where he first put on the "good guy" label. Perhaps they've had enough of him up in Cleveland? As an invitation of sorts maybe to folks like "the man in the white hat", today's Mobile Press-Register, likely the most conservative of Alabama's right leaning papers owned by the Newhouse family, offered an editorial seeking school vouchers as a "reform".

They write, "Instead of limiting their ambition to expanding the highly successful pre-K program, Gov. Riley and school reform advocates also should aim to bring the preschool model to the K-12 system."

I'm somewhat lost. Why? I suspect somebody got a press release and ran with the BS. Or maybe they feel obligated to run with some wingnut wish list ideas at least every few days?

The MPR folks ask if "the excellence of pre-K" programs in Alabama is from "competition and parental choice" provided by a blend of "federal Head Start centers, public schools, private child-care centers and churches" where "parents can choose the program, public or private, they think is best for their children". I'm not so sure the National Institute for Early Education Research, an organization they've actually mentioned in their writing, goes so far as to suggest the blend is nearly so "choice" oriented. Their report is here.

Rethinking Schools is a good place to start on understanding vouchers. EdWeek also has some good material. I've previously posted on Bu$hCo's DOE trying to bury research that suggests public schools do as good or perhaps even better than "charter" schools once poverty is accounted for. I've railed against "accountability" here and NCLB here.

The MPR Editorial ending is "A more entrepreneurial approach could lift the K-12 schools to the heights already achieved by the state's innovative preschool program.." yet they haven't convinced me of squat from either their confusing "writing". They've bent, broken, twisted ... much and yet I fear some will buy into the argument. Where is the solid research that shows "Milwaukee and Cleveland are proving that competition can work in K-12 education"? I'd love you to explain.

Finally, I'm truly in a lather about privatizing and neo-liberalism and Friedmanism and ... from reading Naomi Klein as of late. I'm angry as I've been in some time and yet I'm thrilled to have a new understanding. More to learn and then to apply. So look out MPR, I'm getting schooled up. P/W