I am very, very sorry that it took me so long to pull this together. Many thanks to Anthony at Things You Don’t Talk About in Polite Company for the name, and many thanks to those who emailed. Newish bloggers, I’m going to do this again in two or three weeks, and I’d love to hear from you about your best posts. Opinions expressed are not necessarily mine.
Mark Thoma at Economist’s View has a terrific basic-principles primer about The Need for Social Insurance.
Charles Norman Todd at Freiheit und Wissen compares the Bush administration’s treatment of two different Latin American governments in Guatemala and Venezuela: Two Models for U.S. Diplomacy. He also edits the Carnival of the Un-Capitalists:
Our Carnival is not meant to be anti-capitalist. Rather, we are just trying to gather the best economic posts from the left on issues ranging from globalization and neoliberalism, to income disparity, free-trade, corporate malfeasance, etc, and so on.
Patrick Smith at Tiberius and Gaius Speaking… is likely to get some angry comments about Is the Republican Party truly fascist?
Wufnik at Bazzfazz is an American ex-pat in the London. He’s got an interesting post on Team Horowitz’s take on European anti-Americanism:
American xenophobia.
Delicious Pundit has a nice metaphor going on in The martini of public policy.
Nick at News From Beyond The North Wind writes about Cumbrian company towns in These Preterite Shoes.
Chase McInerney at Cutting to the Chase is a freelance journalist in Oklahoma; he writes In Defense of Newsweek.
{ 7 comments }
rd 06.02.05 at 1:56 am
Ah yes, viva Chavez. Perhaps his tendency to flirt with FARC guerillas dedicated to toppling Columbian democracy via bombing, kidnapping and drug sales has sparked some of the dastardly “double standards” by administration. The flip side of the contretemps following the abduction of a FARC leader in Caracas by bounty hunters working for Columbia was of course that the said leader was at the time living happily almost in the open in Chavez’ capital city. Chavez of course denies any support for FARC, but at the same time is always careful to declare himself “neutral” in the conflict. “Neutral” that is between the democratically elected government of his neigbour and a criminal enterprise that kills and kidnaps with a little Marxist sloganeering on top as a screen. But hey, he’s talking about land redistribution! Forward international left! Follow the caudillo to justice!
dave heasman 06.02.05 at 7:05 am
Wufnik at Bazzfazz, http://bazzfazz.blogspot.com,
has a pretty good blog that could do with some traffic and some comments. The post Ted links to is from last October and refers to the “Carol Gould nine-days-wonder”.
Robin Green 06.02.05 at 7:33 am
“Neutral†that is between the democratically elected government of his neigbour and a criminal enterprise that kills and kidnaps with a little Marxist sloganeering on top as a screen.
I think it is worth noting that the “democratically elected government” of Colombia – backed heavily by the US – also kids, kidnaps and tortures dissidents.
José del Solar 06.02.05 at 5:30 pm
rd:
That ‘democratically elected government’ of Colombia that you mentioned has actively worked together with right-wing paramilitary groups that are as bloodthirsty as the FARC. The same paramilitaries, by the way, that were caught buying weapons from American soldiers a couple of weeks ago.
There is absolutely no proof whatsoever that Chavez has helped the FARC in any way, Rodrigo Granda notwithstanding. The only similarity between the FARC and his government is the fact that they both belong to the left ideologically, but there’s an abyss of difference between them. Somehow I don’t see you making a big fuss about American support for Karimov’s government in Uzbekistan and the fact that Bush’s government added insult to injury by implying that the 500 shot protestors in Uzbekistan two weeks ago were terrorists.
Alvaro Uribe, Colombia’s current President, worked for infamous drug trafficker Pablo Escobar in the past. I don’t think Chavez is personally tainted by any association towards such a shady character, unless you are willing to place Escobar and Fidel Castro at the same level (which you probably will).
By the way, Chavez’s government has’t killed, kidnapped or tortured any dissident. Unless you consider abusive police behavior and extrajudicial killings (widespread all around Latin America) to be the direct work of the government.
José del Solar 06.02.05 at 5:35 pm
As a part-Venezuelan, I would only add that it’s safe to say that there’s probably more freedom of expression and dissidence in Venezuela now than in any other time since 1958(when dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez, darling of the US, was deposed). The reason why you probably haven’t heard of the widespread political persecution of dissidents in Venezuela before Chavez is the fact that the media wouldn’t report it, leftist activists being inimical to the big media owners in Venezuela and the West.
coturnix 06.03.05 at 10:04 am
You may want to see this:
http://ideaconsultants.blogspot.com/2005/06/blog-carnivals-and-future-of.html
Dustin Ridgeway 06.03.05 at 11:54 am
As someone who has never voted for a Republican and most likely never will, I would like to say that the “Is the Republican Party fascist?” entry above, is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read. I would hope such dissolute entries are not par for the course, among a weblog supposed to be frequented by academics.
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