Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for July 2009

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Lend a hand

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Nice Deb has the photo that Thomas Lifson posted,

Sergeant Crowley, the sole class act in this trio, helps the handicapped Professor Gates down the stairs, while Barack Obama, heedless of the infirmities of his friend and fellow victim of self-defined racial profiling, strides ahead on his own. So who is compassionate? And who is so self-involved and arrogant that he is oblivious?

Lifson finds an analogy to government health care. Go read it.

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Ambushed by Obi’s Sister: 7 things I love

Obi’s Sister ambushed me on Wednesday, and it’s time to take a break from dismal politics, so here we are:

7 Things I Love:
As if you hadn’t guessed yet: 1. Tango. I took up tango last year and have become addicted to the point of obsession. Love the music, love the dance, love the skill necessary to do it well, love the tango dancers.

Here are Santiago Steele and Rachel Greenberg in NYC last year:

I must schedule a couple of lessons with Santiago in the future.

Of course, you can’t tango without 2. Tango shoes – even posted a photo of my favorite tango shoes a while ago.

How does one follow an afternoon of tango? By stopping at Thomas Sweet’s on Nassau Street and enjoying a 3. Thomas Sweet’s sugar free chocolate frozen yogurt topped with salted pecans. Yum. 4. Outdoors on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in July.

Summer foods are also big: 5. Fresh raspberries, alone or with heavy cream (poured on, not whipped), and corn and tomatoes fresh off the stalk and the vine.

I also love 6. going to conferences and meeting people. Just got back on Sunday from BlogHer09 in Chicago where I met with Jane, who also was in BlogHer08 in San Francisco, along with several other friends.

Of course, as soon as I got back to Princeton I went to the Sunday evening milonga.

7. While most people don’t like trains (particularly American trains), I like riding trains. Some people go on retreat, I go on Amtrak.

Tagging:
GM Roper
No Sheeples here
Lady Godiva
Was going to tag Jane and the Anchoress but Obi’s Sister beat me to it.

UPDATE
No Sheeples have spoken!

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Venezuela: Chávez’s War Against Free Speech UPDATED

My latest article, Venezuela: Chávez’s War Against Free Speech, is up at Real Clear World.

While the Venezuelan government tries to monopolize all media, here in the US Disgraced Dinosaur Dan Rather Urges, “Save The Press” through government intervention. Rather sees no contradiction between government-owned media and the concept of freedom of speech.

UPDATE:
Venezuela: ‘Freedom of expression must be limited’

Venezuela’s top prosecutor insisted Thursday that freedom of expression in Venezuela “must be limited” and proposed legislation that would slap additional restrictions on the country’s news media.

The new law would punish the owners of radio stations, television channels and newspapers that have attempted to “cause panic” and “disturb social peace,” Attorney General Luisa Ortega said.

It also would punish media owners who “manipulate the news with the purpose of transmitting a false perception of the facts.”

“Freedom of expression must be limited,” Ortega said.

Ortega urged lawmakers to consider her suggestions as they debate a bill that would punish as-yet-undefined “media crimes.” The National Assembly, which is controlled by allies of President Hugo Chavez, is expected to approve the measure in coming months.

The pressure increases, even before the law comes into effect:

Chavez’s administration is slowly tightening its grip over the news media, raising concerns among watchdog and human rights groups that accuse the government of trying to stifle dissent.

Venezuela’s telecommunications commission notified 50 radio stations earlier this week that their broadcast licenses could be revoked because they failed to update their registrations. Commission chief Diosdado Cabello said a final determination on the licenses will be made following investigations. He said authorities might also seize broadcasting equipment.

Nearly 200 other broadcasters that did not meet a June deadline to register also will be investigated, but have not yet been formally notified, Cabello said.

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Soaked

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Tax Burden of Top 1% Now Exceeds That of Bottom 95%

To put this in perspective, the top 1 percent is comprised of just 1.4 million taxpayers and they pay a larger share of the income tax burden now than the bottom 134 million taxpayers combined.

Additionally,

Some in Washington say the tax system is still not progressive enough. However, the recent IRS data bolsters the findings of an OECD study released last year showing that the U.S.—not France or Sweden—has the most progressive income tax system among OECD nations. We rely more heavily on the top 10 percent of taxpayers than does any nation and our poor people have the lowest tax burden of those in any nation.

And those numbers don’t even begin to include the upcoming healthcare taxes.

By the way, U.S. States Lead the World in High Corporate Taxes, among them New Jersey, which has a combined federal and state corporate tax rate of 41.1%.

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Zelaya will continue to change the Constitution upon his return

Via commenter Einar,

Zelaya dice que cambiará de estrategia pero que seguirá con proyecto para instalar Constituyente (Zelaya says he’ll change strategy but will continue project to install a Constitutent Assembly).

The brief article at Honduras’s Proceso Digital reports that Zelaya declared “in order not to contradict the Arias Plan, we will change strategy but the reform will go on.”

Not surprisingly, Honduran rulers insist Zelaya cannot be president.

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