Friday, December 31, 2010
How accurate
The U.S. has returned to deriding “trickle-down” economics.
Traditional peasant societies believe in only a limited amount of good. The more your neighbor earns, the less someone else gets. Profits are seen as a sort of theft; they must be either hidden or redistributed. Envy, rather than admiration of success, reigns.
In contrast, Western civilization began with a very different, ancient Greek idea of an autonomous citizen, not an indentured serf or subsistence peasant. The small, independent landowner — if he was left to his own talents, and if his success was protected by, and from, government — would create new sources of wealth for everyone. The resulting greater bounty for the poor soon trumped their old jealousy of the better-off.
Citizens of ancient Greece and Italy soon proved more prosperous and free than either the tribal folk to the north and west or the imperial subjects to the south and east. The success of later Western civilization in general, and America in particular, is a testament to this legacy of the freedom of the individual in the widest political and economic sense.
We seem to be forgetting that lately — though Mao Zedong’s redistributive failures in China, or present-day bankrupt Greece, should warn us about what happens when government tries to enforce an equality of result rather than equality of opportunity.
Even after the failure of statism at the end of the Cold War, the disasters of socialism in Venezuela and Cuba, and the recent financial meltdowns in the European Union, America is returning to a peasant mentality of a limited good that redistributes wealth rather than creates it. Candidate Obama’s “spread the wealth” slip to Joe the Plumber simply was upgraded to President Obama’s “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.”
The more his administration castigates insurers, businesses, and doctors; raises taxes on the upper income brackets; and imposes additional regulations, the more those who create wealth are deciding to sit out, neither hiring nor lending. The result is that traditional self-interested profit-makers are locking up trillions of dollars in unspent cash rather than using it to take risks, since they will likely either lose money due to new red tape or see much of their profit confiscated through higher taxes.
No wonder that in such a climate of fear and suspicion, unemployment remains near 10 percent. Deficits chronically exceed $1 trillion per annum. And now the poverty rate has hit a historic high. We are all getting poorer in hopes that a few won’t get richer.
The public is seldom told that 1 percent of taxpayers already pay 40 percent of the income taxes collected, while 40 percent of income earners are exempt from federal income tax — or that present entitlements like Medicare and Social Security are financially unsustainable. Instead, they hear more often that those who manage to make above $250,000 per year have obligations to the rest of us to give back about 60 percent of what they earn in higher health-care and income taxes — together with payroll and rising state income taxes, and along with increased capital-gains and inheritance taxes.
That limited-good mindset expects that businesses will agree that they now make enough money and so have no need to pursue any more profits at the expense of others. Therefore, they will gladly still hire the unemployed and buy new equipment — as they pay higher health-care or income taxes to a government that knows far better how to redistribute their income to the more needy or deserving.
This peasant approach to commerce also assumes that businesses either cannot understand administration signals or can do nothing about them. So who cares that in the Chrysler bankruptcy settlement, the government quite arbitrarily put the unions in front of the legally entitled lenders?
Health insurers should not mind that Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius just warned them to keep their profits down and their mouths shut — or face exclusion from health-care markets.
I suppose that no corporation should worry that the government arbitrarily announced — without benefit of a law or court ruling — that it wanted BP to put up $20 billion in cleanup costs for the Gulf spill.
What optimistic Americans used to call a rising tide that lifts all boats is now once again derided as trickle-down economics. In other words, a newly peasant-minded America is willing to become collectively poorer so that some will not become wealthier.
The present economy suggests that it is surely getting its wish.
A State Department/Obama decision I fully concur with.
Hugo Chavez
Venezuelans fret over prices after devaluation
* Second currency devaluation in 12 months
* Chavez risks political hit from poor voters
By Daniel Wallis and Deisy Buitrago
CARACAS, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Venezuelans worried on Friday that a second devaluation of their currency in 12 months would make life even harder as the socialist government of President Hugo Chavez struggled to turn the economy around.
Already suffering one of the world's highest inflation rates and the only major Latin American economy still in recession after the global financial crisis, they fear the New Year devaluation could hit their livelihoods more.
"It is a blow against the pockets of the workers, against the poorest people," said Robinson Calua, a 50-year-old security guard in downtown Caracas.
Officials say the devaluation announced on Thursday will increase spending and boost growth in South America's biggest oil producer, while easing the pressure on foreign reserves and freeing up dollars for imports.
The move scrapped the lowest rate of a complex, multitiered forex system that few Venezuelans or outsiders properly understood and even taxed the brains of Wall Street experts.
With a handful of different exchange rates for everything from medicines to factory machinery, not to mention an active currency black market, analysts said the structure encouraged corruption and inefficiency and was prone to collapse.
The elimination of the strongest rate of 2.6 bolivars to the dollar should improve the government's balance sheet and could please bondholders, but will make goods like medicines and some food items more expensive.
In the near future, that is likely to feed an inflation rate that the central bank estimates was 26.9 percent in 2010.
Chavez, who has inherited Fidel Castro's mantle as Latin America's leading critic of the United States during his nearly 12 years in power, has increased his government's role in the economy through regulations and a wave of nationalizations.
He has accelerated efforts to entrench his self-styled "21st century socialism" in recent weeks, and apparently chose to order the devaluation as soon as possible before seeking re-election at the next presidential poll in December 2012.
That way, his government takes any economic pain and inflationary pressure -- and possible social consequences -- in 2011 and hopes to have more funds for the election campaign.
It is a gamble, though, because the firebrand president draws his core support from Venezuela's sprawling barrios and poor rural areas, where any price rises will be felt most.
A legislative vote in September showed the electorate split down the middle, but the charismatic Chavez remains by far the country's single most popular politician.
The outgoing parliament gave Chavez special decree powers for the next 18 months, which he says he will soon use to increase the country's sales tax from its current 12 percent.
FAR CRY FROM OIL BOOM DAYS
Jenny Diaz, a 39-year-old administrative assistant, was told about the devaluation while she was lining up to buy a new washing machine before any sales tax hike came into effect.
"Food is going to become more expensive, but our salaries will remain the same," she told Reuters with a sigh.
Network engineer Bernardo Lugo, 40, said the devaluation was irresponsible and showed the government needed cash.
"They have already set up the machine to print money." he said. "This is going increase inflation in the short term."
The move could help Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA, which previously had to sell nearly 30 percent of its revenue at the old rate of 2.6 bolivars to the dollar. It will now be able to book it all at 4.3 bolivars.
The devaluation had been widely forecast by Wall Street analysts, who said it was overdue but perhaps did not go far enough. Most said they expected the authorities in Caracas to take more currency measures going forward.
Daniel Kerner of the Eurasia Group think-tank said that unlike January's major formal devaluation, the latest change did not do much to alter the overall economic picture.
"Foreign exchange shortages will likely remain problematic, and the government will continue to rely on debt issuance to finance spending and address forex shortages," he said.
Venezuela's currency has a unstable history. Financial turmoil in the 1990s led to rapid loss in value, with bands, fixed rates and a free float all failing to stop the decline.
It is a far cry from the oil boom days of the 1970s, when the country was nicknamed "Saudi Venezuela" and the bolivar was one of the region's strongest currencies, letting middle-class Venezuelans enjoy lots of foreign travel and cheap shopping.
Some Venezuelans became known, one joke went, for always saying "Dame dos!" (Give me two!) when stocking up at expensive Miami malls during a period that many still remember fondly.
The devaluation should help fatten the state's coffers and that should cheer bondholders -- though Venezuelan debt trades more on global oil prices and investor appetite for risk.
From Jan. 1, dollars will be available at the official rates of 4.3 bolivars for some preferential goods and 5.3 to the dollar via the central bank's SITME exchange system.
One option for the government could be to let the SITME rate weaken. All eyes are now on what further fiscal steps Chavez will take using his decree powers. (Editing byAndrew Cawthorne and W Simon )
“The historical experience of socialist countries has sadly demonstrated that collectivism does not do away with alienation but rather increases it, adding to it a lack of basic necessities and economic inefficiency.” – Pope John Paul II
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Let's not forget the ethanol disaster
Manmade famine in America
Thomas LifsonFresno is the agricultural capital of America. More food per acre in more variety can be grown in the fertile Central Valley surrounding this community than on any other land in America - perhaps in the world.Yet far from being a paradise, Fresno is starting to resemble Zimbabwe or 1930s Ukraine, a victim of a famine machine that is entirely man-made, not by red communists this time, but by greens.State and federal officials, driven by the agenda of environmental extremists, have made it extremely difficult for the valley's farms, introducing costly environmental regulations and cutting off critical water supplies to save the Delta smelt, a bait fish. It's all driving the economy to collapse.In the southwest part of the Central Valley, water allotments as low as 10% of normal have created a visible dust bowl. The knock-on effect can be seen in cities like Fresno, where November's unemployment among the packers, cannery workers and professional fields that make agriculture productive stands at 16.9%.
So bad is the economy, due to federal water restrictions, that almost a quarter of local families are going hungry in Fresno:
Local newspapers and Fresno County officials are trying to rally Facebook users to vote for Fresno in a corporate contest sponsored by Wal-Mart for $1 million in charity food donations for the hungry. Fresno, a city of 505,000, has taken the national lead because 24.1% of Fresno's families are going hungry.
Why not Chavez has such a group and aren't we following his lead?
Marxist Senators vow to Create Official Dictatorship
TSA, Youth Corps Now Officially part of Obama Gestapo
By Sher Zieve Thursday, December 30, 2010The problem with believing one is “safe” from the growing and increasingly ravenous Obama & Co Police State if one embraces—or pretends to embrace—the anti-God/anti-American Leftist viewpoint, is that the belief itself is fallacious. If you espouse these beliefs as your own, the Marxist/Leninist crocodiles currently occupying the power seats (that’s power over We-the-People) in Washington D.C. may eat you last. But, do not be fooled—they will eat you. It is within their innate, immutable and distinct nature to do so.
Now comes the enforcement arms of the Obama regime’s control over us all. The Obama Gestapo is taking many forms. One of these forms manifests itself in the militaristically marching students in the “Obama Youth Corps.” In The Obama Youth Corps Parts 1 and 2 (see references below), Obama is interviewed regarding “his” corps of mobilized youth. In the interview, Obama says it’s a “war.” A war against whom? In the same interview, Obama encourages these mobilized and militaristic youth to join FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). FEMA? FEMA was never before a militant organization but, was created and then used to address helping people in times of disasters. No more. From Obama’s own mouth, it will now be used to fight some strange and dark Obama war. And why were FEMA camps across the country recently refurbished and military Ads placed for people to guard whomever is going to be placed in them? Again, Obama is at war against whom?
In one of Obama’s advertisements to inveigle our nation’s young people into joining his “cause,” the words “I am change. I’ve been around since the beginning of time” occur at least twice. Considering Obama’s early training and the communist and/or prurient natures of most of his unelected Czars, these words are very important. The very first messenger of change was Lucifer who persuaded Adam and Eve to “change” from obeying God to following his ‘logical’ instructions—a decision that ultimately placed mankind into the precarious position it now finds itself. Obama’s mentor and guide in both ideology and community organizing, Saul Alinsky, dedicated his book “Rules for Radicals” to Lucifer. Or, as the Rolling Stones wrote in their cut “Sympathy for the Devil”: “I stuck around St. Petersburg, when I saw it was a time for a change. Killed the Czar and his ministers, Anastasia screamed in vain. Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name. But, what’s confusing you is just the nature of my game.” Within the past 2 years, millions of US citizens woke up and are no longer confused by the nature of Obama & Co’s game. Change certainly has been around since the beginning of time. Are you still wondering against whom Obama is waging his war? It certainly isn’t against any real terrorists.
As we have seen recently, Obama & Co is now openly, without trying to hide its intent, using the misnamed “Transportation Security Administration” to intimidate and force non-Muslim/non-minority US citizen-travelers into getting used to being completely oppressed via sexual groping techniques; techniques that are also being regularly used on young children to prepare them, while they’re still young, for a lifetime of being submissive to all government totalitarian demands.
I have written multiple columns on the suppressive Gestapo techniques now being employed by the ObamaGov’s TSA. Recently, however, this Gestapo enforcement arm of the ObamaGov has stepped up its tyrannical activities. TSA agents are now including in their “to-do lists” not only sexual groping and intimidation but the handcuffing and dragging of non-Muslim/non-minority women (who do not submit to having their breasts felt and squeezed) across airport floors—in full view of other passengers. Claire Hirschfield was planning to fly out of Austin, TX airport to visit family at Christmas. Hirschfield has a pacemaker device in her chest for epileptic seizures and had asked for a pat-down rather than going through the X-ray scanner. Concerned about the scanners and the groping and squeezing of her breasts, Hirschfield said she experienced a problem with groping at another airport during Thanksgiving and had explained her situation, days before she planned to fly, to Mike Scott—the ABIA Director of Security. Hirschfield said that Scott told her not to worry and “No such thing will happen to you here in Austin, ma’am.” But, it did—and it was far worse than Hirschfield could have possibly anticipated.
A rape survivor, Hirschfield asked not to have her breasts squeezed and told the female agent “I’m not going to have my breasts felt” to which the agent replied “Yes you are!” Hirschfield asked to speak with Security Director Scott and was denied. She then told the TSA agents (who were then joined by 3 police officers due to Hirschfield’s non-compliance with the Obama/Napolitano “required” TSA sexual gropings) that she was an American citizen, had paid for her flight and was entitled to take it. The police then told her that SHE was breaking the law—for not complying with the commanded TSA sexual gropings—, threw her to the floor, dragged her across the airport, threw her into a wheelchair and told her she would be taken to jail. Hirschfield began to experience an epileptic seizure and was, subsequently, taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital. She has also been banned from the airport. Good-bye 4th Amendment. It was nice knowing you.
Note: No major US ObamaMedia sources reported on this story. But, the rest-of-the-world media has picked it up. Still wonder against whom the ObamaWar is being waged? It’s against We-the-People…but, only one segment of that group. Has the African Marxist Oligarchy now fully arrived and settled down in the USA? One thing that is certain is that we are now living under the dictatorial Obama Police State and each and every day it becomes worse, more pronounced and more suppressive. The American Stalin is alive and well, living in Washington D.C.
Oh…and by the way…to add insults to the injuries already visited upon the American people, Marxist Party Senate leader Harry Reid, with the urging and support of labor unions and other assorted anti-US groups, has decided to—once again—change the Senate rules to disallow Republicans the filibuster and to bypass and overrule the American voters—once again. One way or another the Marxist Party leaders plan to install a full and working dictatorship that the American people will not be able to change. Still wondering against whom Obama is waging his war? I didn’t think so.
The Obama Youth Corps Wave p1:
The Obama Youth Corps Wave p2
Obama Nation- Youth Brigade TV Advertisement:
Woman arrested after refusing US airport pat-down:
TSA: Disabled Woman Thrown to Floor, Arrested for Refusing Breast Pat Down Search:
Ohio Mom (Erin Chase) Claims Sexual Assault By TSA Agent During Patdown:
TSA Agents and 12 Cops Handcuff and Terrorize Woman Airport Passenger:
Reid’s Rules Scheme To Rewrite Defeat:
Inside the delusional mind of a State Department fool
New Chance for Diplomacy in Korea
Charlie Brown the Peanuts character also repeatedly trusted Lucy to hold the football for him to kick and it never worked out for him. See what making nice to North Korea all these years has gotten us, nada, nothing but an aggressive nuclear armed enemy with missiles that can now reach parts of America.
Cuba
HAVANA (AP) - The cost of cleanliness will rise in Cuba after its cash-strapped, communist government announced Wednesday that soap, toothpaste and detergent will be slashed from monthly ration books.
Cuba's official Gazette said that effective Jan. 1, "personal cleanliness products" will join a growing list of products cut from the ration books that islanders have come to rely on for a small but steady supply of basic goods.
Cubans currently pay about 25 centavos, or about a penny, for a rationed bar of soap. They'll soon have to fork out four to six pesos, according to the gazette.
The list of products available with the ration books has shrunk in recent months as the government trimmed items deemed nonessential. Cigarettes, salt, peas and potatoes have been cut. Sugar, beans, meat, rice, eggs, bread and other products remain.
The ration program began in 1962 as a temporary way to guarantee food staples for all Cubans in the face of the United States' then-new embargo. Designed to tide people over, it has long provided a measure of food security in a country where average wages hover around $20 a month.
Authorities say the cuts are necessary to free the state - which pays for or heavily subsidizes education, health care, housing and transportation - from a crushing economic burden.
Other, more drastic cost-cutting measures have also been announced, including the layoffs of about half a million state workers.
Critics contend that by slashing the ration books, the state is breaking with what has been a sacred covenant of the island's 1959 revolution: to provide all Cubans with at least the basics.
Another mark of leftist deconstructionism. Just make everything up as you go along, their motto.
LIBERAL STAR BLOGGER EZRA KLEIN: ‘CONSTITUTION HAS NO BINDING POWER ON ANYTHING’; CONFUSING BECAUSE IT’S OVER 100 YEARS OLD
The union mentality on display.
Is it time to start suing unions?
Sanitation Department's slow snow cleanup was a budget protest
By SALLY GOLDENBERG, LARRY CELONA and JOSH MARGOLIN
These garbage men really stink.
Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts -- a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned.
Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which was over a raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts.
"They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important," said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), who was visited yesterday by a group of guilt-ridden sanitation workers who confessed the shameless plot.
Halloran said he met with three plow workers from the Sanitation Department -- and two Department of Transportation supervisors who were on loan -- at his office after he was flooded with irate calls from constituents.
The snitches "didn't want to be identified because they were afraid of retaliation," Halloran said. "They were told [by supervisors] to take off routes [and] not do the plowing of some of the major arteries in a timely manner. They were told to make the mayor pay for the layoffs, the reductions in rank for the supervisors, shrinking the rolls of the rank-and-file."
New York's Strongest used a variety of tactics to drag out the plowing process -- and pad overtime checks -- which included keeping plows slightly higher than the roadways and skipping over streets along their routes, the sources said.
The snow-removal snitches said they were told to keep their plows off most streets and to wait for orders before attacking the accumulating piles of snow.
They said crews normally would have been more aggressive in com bating a fierce, fast-moving bliz zard like the one that barreled in on Sunday and blew out the next morning.
The workers said the work slowdown was the result of growing hostility between the mayor and the workers responsible for clearing the snow.
In the last two years, the agency's workforce has been slashed by 400 trash haulers and supervisors -- down from 6,300 -- because of the city's budget crisis. And, effective tomorrow, 100 department supervisors are to be demoted and their salaries slashed as an added cost-saving move.
Sources said budget cuts were also at the heart of poor planning for the blizzard last weekend. The city broke from its usual routine and did not call in a full complement on Saturday for snow preparations in order to save on added overtime that would have had to be paid for them to work on Christmas Day.
The result was an absolute collapse of New York's once-vaunted systems of clearing the streets and keeping mass transit moving under the weight of 20 inches of snow.
The Sanitation Department last night denied there was a concerted effort to slow snow removal.
"There are no organized or wildcat actions being taken by the sanitation workers or the supervisors," said spokesman Matthew Lipani.
Joseph Mannion, president of the union that represents agency supervisors, said talk of a slowdown "is hogwash." But he admitted there is "resentment out there" toward Mayor Bloomberg and his administration because of budget cuts.
His counterpart at the rank-and-file's union, Harry Nespoli, has also denied there is a job action, though he admitted his guys are working lucrative 14-hour shifts.
Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser said only: "We would hope this is not the case."
But multiple Sanitation Department sources told The Post yesterday that angry plow drivers have only been clearing streets assigned to them even if that means they have to drive through snowed-in roads with their plows raised.
And they are keeping their plow blades unusually high, making it necessary for them to have to run extra passes, adding time and extra pay.
One mechanic said some drivers are purposely smashing plows and salt spreaders to further stall the cleanup effort.
"That is a disgrace. I had to walk three miles because the buses can't move," said salesman Yuri Vesslin, 38, of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg -- quickly becoming the public face of failure this week -- spent a second consecutive day yesterday defending himself to critics of his administration's handling of the storm.
He took reporters to The Bronx to explain that the city is coming back to life and to tout his administration's efforts.
"Can't work much harder," Bloomberg said.
But Hizzoner admitted, "We didn't do as good a job as we want to do or as the city has a right to expect."
Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty promised that every street will have been plowed by 7 this morning, but then he offered this hedge: "Will somebody find a street that I missed? Maybe."
Bloomberg and Doherty also offered a series of excuses for the failed response to the blizzard. They blamed residents for shoveling snow into streets that had already been plowed and for tying up 911 with non-emergency calls.
"This was a failure in the operations and ultimately, as the mayor tells us very often, the buck stops with him," said Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-SI).
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Top Busybodies of 2010
It was a nefarious year for nettlesome busybodies employed by the Nanny State. Here are the top power-grabbers of 2010 — those who just can’t leave us alone:
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg
Two feet of snow paralyzed trains, buses, snowplows, and emergency vehicles in the Big Apple this week. Perhaps if Bloomberg — the nation’s top self-appointed municipal food cop — spent more of his time on core government responsibilities instead of waging incessant war on taxpayers’ salt, soda, trans-fat, and sugar intakes, his battered bailiwick would have been better equipped to weather the storm.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood
He proposed meddling mileage taxes, mused about a system to track drivers’ routes, lobbied for high-speed-rail boondoggles, and promoted a “livability initiative” to limit suburban growth and force suburb-dwellers into public transportation. Then America’s driving czar floated a plan to disable cell phones in automobiles. LaHood backed off that creepy crusade, but he is still intent on waging war against drivers who choose to use cell phones, entertainment systems, and GPS devices on the road. Just last week, the unstoppable control freak proposed a new rule banning truck and bus drivers from any use of cell phones while driving — including emergency calls on hands-free devices. His anti-car agenda is stuck in overdrive.
The city of Cleveland
The green police in this Midwestern metropolis made headlines in February with an intrusive plan to roll out snooping trash cans — “smart” rubbish bins bugged with electronic identification chips and bar codes to monitor residents’ recycling habits. Violators could be fined $100. Federal stimulus money has gone to fund a similar program in Dayton, Ohio. The technology originated in Germany, was adopted by eco-authoritarians in England (where at least 500,000 trash cans now have snitch chips embedded in them), and has spread across Europe. Welcome to the age of Bin Brother.
The city of San Francisco
The board of supervisors recently took the “happy” out of McDonald’s Happy Meals by forbidding all restaurants to offer toys with children’s meals that exceed limits on calories, fat, salt, and sugar. Even the mayor of the People’s Republic of San Francisco opposes this latest food-control scheme. But the bossy City by the Bay continues to assault consumer freedom with bans on everything from plastic bags to pet sales to soda pop. This summer, Mayor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order banning Coke, Pepsi, and Fanta Orange drinks from vending machines on city property. The decree dictates that “ample choices” of water, “soy milk, rice milk, and other similar dairy or non-dairy milk” must instead be offered. It’s not clear how vendors will be able to circumvent the city’s hostility toward plastic bottles. Maybe beverages will be served straight out of those noxiously trendy reusable cloth bags?
The rest here:
We are born equal. What we do from there defines our inequalities.
How Not to Help Blacks Find Employment
By Robert WeissbergJust following Congress' example
Democrat or Despotic Latin American Thug
At Christmas, most Venezuelans put politics aside to occupy themselves with whiskey-laden celebrations, heart-stopping firecrackers and visits to far-flung relatives. So few were surprised when President Hugo Chávez chose that annual party time to push through a law that allows him to rule by decree for 18 months, effectively superseding the new, less friendly National Assembly poised to take office on Jan. 5. Most Venezuelans were just too busy enjoying themselves to object — for the moment.
For good measure or bad, the President's supporters have also rushed through a stack of last-minute laws that regulate the Internet, prohibit nongovernmental organizations from receiving foreign funding, prevent lawmakers from voting against their political party and make it easier for the government to intervene in banks.
Chávez says the decree powers are necessary to assist the victims of heavy rains that have provoked flooding and mudslides, killing more than 30 and leaving some 130,000 homeless. Those displaced have been temporarily sheltered in hotels, a shopping mall Chávez expropriated last year and even the presidential palace. After visiting those affected on Christmas Eve, Chávez made his first use of the powers on Sunday to create a $2.3 billion fund for reconstruction efforts. He scoffed at critics who allege he will use his decree powers to slide the country toward dictatorship, saying, "There will be democracy, democracy and more democracy."
Still, as he signed the so-called Enabling Law on Dec. 17, Chávez threw a gibe at opposition lawmakers who gained 67 of the National Assembly's 165 seats in September — a minority, but still a dramatic shift from the rubber-stamp legislature he has enjoyed for the past five years. "Let's see how they're going to make their laws now," Chávez crowed.
(Read "Are Basque terrorists being trained in Venezuela?")
It's not the first time Chávez has taken steps to challenge those who oppose him. After an opposition leader was elected mayor of Caracas last year, the National Assembly passed a law largely removing his power and creating a position above him for an official appointed directly by the President. While Chávez has vehemently denied accusations of foul play, critics have also accused his government of using politically charged corruption probes to disable his opponents and laws to limit the power of opposition governors. "It's the way he's acted in the past when he's suffered a setback," says Michael Shifter, president of the Washington-based think tank Inter-American Dialogue. "Chávez obviously doesn't like to be challenged politically."
(See how Chávez's opposition is getting its act together.)
Whether or not Chávez decides to use his newfound authority to limit dissent in the lead-up to the 2012 presidential elections, he has now been given the option. Steve Ellner, a political-science professor at the Universidad de Oriente and author of Rethinking Venezuelan Politics: Class, Conflict, and the Chávez Phenomenon, says Chávez is moving ahead with his political program regardless of a recently strengthened opposition. "Chávez doesn't slow down, he doesn't take backward steps," Ellner says. "The guiding principle of the Chavistas in power is, Democracy is about majority rule. And so whoever's in power doesn't have to make concessions."
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Why are we beginning to look more and more like a totalitarian centrally planned state: Progressives want it that way
Feed Me, Obama, Feed Me: The Plan for Food Dependency
By John GriffingThe unintended consequences of irrational do-gooderism.
The section of D.C. across the Anacostia River is home to the biggest percentage of single-parent households, with 65 percent of family households run by women and 9 percent run by men. The remaining one-quarter of the roughly 32,000 family households are run by married couples, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
A family household is one in which the head of the house is caring for another family member or adopted member. Experts say in most cases that family member is a child.
Other areas in which more than half of families are run by single parents include the remainder of Southeast D.C. and most of Northeast D.C. and areas in Prince George's near the Capital Beltway. In Langley Park, single-father households actually outnumber single-mother households by a 4-3 ratio.
That these areas have a high minority population, particularly among blacks and Hispanics, is not a coincidence, said Ron Haskins, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
"About 70 percent of black kids are born outside marriage, and then you have those born in a marriage, about half of them end in divorce," he said. "And first-generation Hispanics have a relatively low divorce rate ... but once you get into the second generation that disappears."
Haskins said many factors contribute to the high concentration of single-parent households among those minority groups, but "the bottom line is I don't think anyone really understands why."
Children who do grow up with one parent are more likely to repeat that pattern as adults, he said. But it doesn't always start out that way -- in fact, a recent study Haskins co-authored shows that most of those children are born into households with both parents present.
"But as time goes by [the parents] are more likely to separate," Haskins said. "They gradually lose contact with the father ... and it's the transitions and all the turmoil associated with the transition that really has an impact on the child."
While kids tend to fare slightly better with mom than with dad, Haskins said the distinction is difficult to make because the way most dads end up with their kids is by fighting for custody in what is usually a nasty divorce.
Dads in well-to-do Laytonsville have done that at a fairly high rate. More than half of Laytonsville children live with both parents, but of the remainder, 30 percent live with their fathers while 13 percent live with their mothers.