When Capitalists Were Capitalists

“Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate.”

- Andrew Mellon's advice to Herbert Hoover on how to solve the banking crisis.

Bush Closes Libraries

I am shocked, shocked! by this. Well, not really. Wonder how his ex-librarian wife feels about it.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0811-02.htm

Perry Anderson on the Middle East

Perry Anderson is one of the more intelligent leftists writing on world politics these days. He's also a fairly elegant stylist. This essay from the New Left Review pretty much tells you all you need to know about the Iraq War (although it gets a bit fuzzy at the end).

http://www.newleftreview.org/A2695

Slouching Toward Bethlehem

A gaunt character walks into my cafe wearing what seems to be a bird’s nest on his otherwise bald head. But no, it’s just his hair, disguised as a crown of thorns. He’s wearing a baggy white ‘Obama ’08’ t-shirt and baggy white pants, tucked into riding boots. If that’s a typical Obama supporter, than it’s gonna be McCain in a landslide.

Cold War Blues

A great article from the AP about a South Korean woman who was executed for collaborating with North Koreans by way of torture and phony evidence. Her American lover, and father of her child, stayed silent through the whole process.

http://www.cleveland.com/world/index.ssf/2008/08/the_myth_of_miss_kimadv172390.html

The article also points out that 75% of South Koreans supported communism before the U.S. invasion. The worst enemy of real communists, alas, wasn't the U.S. but Stalin and Mao.

Globalism Gets Naked

It seems that the American hospitals are air-lifting desperately sick illegals back to their home countries to avoid further costs. Actually hiring air-buses to take them. The practice is so bizarre, yet predictable and indicative, that it deserves a read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/us/03deport.html?hp

Judges and Politics

Its a common perception to see the judiciary as somehow operating 'above' politics. Yet legal decisions always have a political component, which becomes more evident in times of crisis. The decision today, for example, by the Turkish Consititutional Court not to ban the ruling Islamist party is particularly naked example of this.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/world/europe/31turkey.html?hp

However, it happens all the time in the U.S. A perfect historic example is how the Supreme Court during FDR's administration cleared most of the obstacles to the New Deal, even though the justices - mostly conservatives appointed by Republican presidents - contradicted earlier rulings they'd made.