Sunday, January 27, 2008

Why the right loves a disaster-link

Excellent op-ed in the L.A. Times today by Naomi Klein who you may recognize as the author of "The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism", note the link to the article above.
The book was published in September of last year and now resides high on my must read list.
Her op-ed piece starts as a critique of some of the wackier rightwing ideas about "economic stimulus" that are floating around in the wake of the recognition (shock!) that the U.S. is deep in a recession. In describing these schemes she just happens to to present the thesis of her book.

A crisis hits, panic spreads and the ideologues fill the breach, rapidly reengineering societies in the interests of large corporate players. It's a maneuver I call "disaster capitalism."
That's the gist of it, a kind of opportunism that brings about changes which would otherwise be enormously unpopular. She cites several disasters that made such changes possible; 9-11, Iraq, Katrina.

Every crisis is an opportunity; someone will exploit it. The question we face is this: Will the current turmoil become an excuse to transfer yet more public wealth into private hands, to wipe out the last vestiges of the welfare state, all in the name of economic growth? Or will this latest failure of unfettered markets be the catalyst that is needed to revive a spirit of public interest, to get serious about the pressing crises of our time, from gaping inequality to global warming to failing infrastructure?
A good question, I recommend this article and if that proves interesting check out this video.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Additions to the Blogroll

Today there are two new links in the Blogroll to the right. You'll see Crooks and Liars, which is John Amato's excellent video blog, there's always some great stuff there if you have the bandwidth or the patience to wait for downloads you'll see some great topical video.
Also, and I can't believe I haven't added this yet, you'll find The Conscience of a Liberal, Paul Krugman's blog, hosted by the N.Y. Times. Professor Krugman writes a column for the Times that I read religiously but that wasn't really enough for me, so I was elated when he started his blog a few months back. Enjoy!

Monday, January 21, 2008

Sunday, January 20, 2008

naught ocho

Welcome to 2008, lets hope it goes better than 2007, I've already noticed that today starts the final year of Bush's reign of error. On a somewhat depressing note it's a leap year, so there will be an extra day.
If nothing else the year should be interesting if only for the elections, presidential and the lesser offices. People are talking about change, let's see if it happens.
I hope to do some blogging about politics in the coming months, the Democratic National Convention will be right here in Denver and that may give me the opportunity to log some fairly interesting posts. In addition I plan to continue with the usual fare that has made me a legend in my own mind, because I ain't tired of it yet.
So drop by anytime at all.