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Bribe Diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula
Tweet Share on Facebook August 19, 2008 Comment (8)So why did the North Korean government refuse to attend the inauguration in February of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, the conservative who swept into the Blue House in a landslide election, ending a decade of opposition control? At the time, a good many international observers tut-tutted that the fault was President Lee's. He was too closely allied with America, they said, and his stubborn insistence on square dealings with the North had driven the regime away.
Now it turns out the North Korean regime skipped the celebrations because it was insulted it didnt receive a" special" invitation.
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The New York Times Has a 'Crazy Idea'
Tweet Share on Facebook August 19, 2008 Comment (2)The New York Times yesterday jumped on the evil-corporations bandwagon: "Here is a crazy idea to address the United States' gaping fiscal deficit: persuade corporate America to start paying taxes."
The Times is referring to a recent study by the Government Accounting Office that found some two thirds of U.S. businesses—including a quarter of large corporations—did not pay yearly taxes from 1998 to 2005. This blog addressed some of those reasons when the report came out last week. While there are no doubt some out-and-out cheats, there are also a lot of reasonable explanations for this tax-receipt shortfall.
The biggest reason for the disparity, however, lies not with corporations, but with lawmakers.
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John Bolton Strikes Again
Tweet Share on Facebook August 18, 2008 Comment (2)In a no-nonsense op-ed in Saturday's London Telegraph, John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, nails on the head the West's failure to respond to Moscow's aggression in Georgia.
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Putin for Amerika!
Tweet Share on Facebook August 14, 2008 Comment (7)The Nation has one of those pieces where the writer is so busy connecting the dots he finally wanders straight into Loony Land. Corrupt lobbyists, neocon cabals, October Surprises, hungry American imperialism—the only conspiracy element missing is Lee Harvey Oswald.
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Bolivia Vs. Bolivia
Tweet Share on Facebook August 14, 2008 Comment (8)Bolivia's opposition governors are continuing talks with President Evo Morales in an attempt to resolve the country's political deadlock, but this is pageantry. The governors aren't fooled. Morales has made it clear he hopes to centralize political and economic authority under radical socialist rule, and key to that plan is acquiring the power and wealth of Bolivia's eastern prefects.
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The Devil Went Down to Georgia
Tweet Share on Facebook August 13, 2008 Comment (5)It turns out John McCain's chief foreign-policy adviser has made a bundle representing Georgia, and this means McCain is corrupt.
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Peretz Does Darfur
Tweet Share on Facebook August 13, 2008 Comment (1)For a chuckle, check out Marty Peretz’s post from Monday titled: “Not ‘Never Again!’ But ‘Yes, Again and Again and Again’.” That, gentle reader, is the sound of The New Republic editor-in-chief’s self love.
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Feeding Poor Governance
Tweet Share on Facebook August 12, 2008 Comment (8)The World Food Programme has just announced a $214-million package aimed at relieving people in 16 countries severely affected by a drastic rise in global food prices. Feeding those in need is both a moral and geo-political necessity—empty stomachs, after all, lead to mass migration, abandoned livelihoods and unrest.
But WFP’s effort is hardly a durable solution.
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Dorgan Grabs His Pitchfork!
Tweet Share on Facebook August 12, 2008 Comment (1)A new study from Congress indicates that two-thirds of corporations doing business in the United States did not pay taxes from 1998 to 2005. This has Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) in a tizzy.
"It's shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country," Dorgan vented. "The tax system that allows this wholesale tax avoidance is an embarrassment and unfair to hard-working Americans who pay their fair share of taxes. We need to plug these tax loopholes and put these corporations back on the tax rolls." He added: "It's time for the big corporations to pay their fair share."
This is fine, rabble-rousing stuff that has almost nothing to do with the study.
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Who's Your Daddy?
Tweet Share on Facebook August 11, 2008 Comment (2)Yesterday Robert Gordon, the attorney for John Edwards' videographic vixen Rielle Hunter, issued a response to media howls for a paternity test. Edwards, you'll recall, has admitted to having an affair with Hunter, but claims the child was actually fathered by one of his aides. Both Hunter and the aide, Andrew Young, have allegedly come into a lot of cash from a generous Edwards campaign supporter. And Edwards himself was so overjoyed that his mistress had a baby (not his) that he flew clear across the country to pay a middle-of-the-night visit to her Beverly Hills hotel room so he could cuddle Hunter's (not his) baby.
