Posted on 08/29/2006 5:13:04 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
by Mark Finkelstein
August 29, 2006 - 07:23
A New York Times editorial and an op-ed piece by one of its house columnists have something interesting in common this morning: stamp-your-feet frustration with the way the world is and an inability to suggest what should be done about it.
In The Falling Paycheck, the Times editorial board complains that real wages aren't keeping up with the economy's continued expansion. "American employees have not shared in the wealth they’ve helped to create," laments the Old Gray Lady. Sure sounds as if the Times subscribes to the 'surplus value' theory of labor. And we all know who came up with that.
The Times then tells us what it considers not to be a solution: "high-end tax cuts." And it condemns the Bush administration for claiming that the problem is "as one of impersonal market forces for which there are no government solutions."
"Those are not the paths out of the predicament," the Times insisted. This put us on tenterhooks, awaiting the shining path out of the problem that the Times was sure to describe. Except that . . . the editorial ends right there.
To be sure, we can imagine what the Times, if prodded, might suggest: raise minimum wages! But how does that help American workers if as a result jobs are driven overseas? Why then - impose tariffs on foreign goods! But can you really impose a tariff on the labor of the man sitting in El Salvador who answered the phone when I called the US Airwasy reservation line yesterday? And even if you could impose tariffs on goods if not services, how much would it help lower-income people to raise prices on many of the products they buy?
All of which left the Times spinning in impotent fury.
Over at his corner of the opinion page, the object of columnist Thomas Frank's ire is the way Republicans and the right have sought to decrease the flow of funding to the Democrats. In the subscription-required 'Defunders of Liberty,' [haha, we get it - defunders not defenders], Frank begins by condemning how 20+ years ago, Jack Abramoff, then a college Republican leader, declared that he wanted to remove Dems permanently from power. Youthful enthusiams aside, isn't that the goal of any political party - to win every election? When the Dems ruled the Congressional roost for 40 years, did any of their leaders ever say "I think we'll just lay down in November. It's really the GOP's turn"?
According to Frank "Abramoff and his clean-cut campus radicals pushed their own defund the left' campaign with characteristic élan, declaring war on Ralph Nader’s Public Interest Research Groups, or PIRG, environmental and consumer activist outfits that were funded by student activity fees on some campuses."
Maybe so. Was that wrong? Did conservatives not have the right to complain at the way a disproportionate share of student activity fees went to fund leftist politics? Even Frank doesn't claim otherwise. So what's his point?
Frank similarly decries current paycheck protection and school voucher campaigns, which which he describes as "megaton devices to vaporize the flow of funds from labor unions to Democratic candidates." What he surely intended as criticism actually comes across as unintentional candor as to the way the Dems divert union dues and public school funding to their political purposes.
But once again, Frank is unable to say what is wrong, much less illegal, with the right's efforts in this regard. Is this not the simply the exercise of their constitutional right to petition for redress of grievances? Finally, Frank is upset about the 'K Street Project,' the way in which Republican congressional leaders encouraged lobbying firms to hire . . . Republicans. When Dems were in charge, does anyone doubt things worked the same way?
Frank reached an unintentionally comic climax with this paragraph:
"What is most ingenious about all this is not so much its destructiveness but the way it appeals to mainstream notions of fairness."
Darn those ingenious Republicans, appealing to "mainstream notions of fairness"! How unfair! Note also the elitism inherent in Frank's use of 'mainstream.' Those vulgar plebes [which the patrician Dems are trying to help despite themselves] - so dumb they believe in fairness!
On both sides of the opinion page, liberals twist in impotent rage at the way things are. Stop the world - the Times wants to get off.
NY Times/NewsBusters feet-stamping ping to Today show list.
What to do about it???
First step.... get rid of all bird cage liner.
All liberals should show their patriotism by buying NYT stock, it makes a great Christmas present and if you get the paper certificates you can always use them to start fires in an emergency.
"awaiting the shining path" - Wasn't that the name of a Communist Terrorist Group?
Hi BTS: My home-town Gannett paper actually does serve very nicely as bird-cage liner for Tukki, my little lovebird!
Glad you picked up on that! Yes - in Peru.
Apparently the GOP has no interest in winning the Florida Senate seat this year... :-)
LOL
But I thought the economy retracted the moment W signed that much too small tax refund bill?
It's actually a pathetic, thinly-veiled plea for Marxist-socialism...
This is another hilarious pinko rant from the NY Times. You have a great way with words glgb, and Rush needs to read this, so please send it to him.
I love RobfromGa's chart of the Time's stock. Let's all do our part by spreading this good news (the link to this thread) to everyone we know!
He had to be punished!
Rush discussed this article on his program yesterday.
Thanks, DK. No need to send to Rush - he reads NewsBusters regularly and often discusses our items. Rush 24/7 subscribers will find links to several NewsBusters items every day on Rush's Stack of Stuff page - almost always including one or more of my own. Just yesterday, Rush's monologue linked to one of my recent NB items.
The NY Times clled me last night about subscribing to their national edition.
I said who? The caller said the NY Times. I laughed and asked him if he would cut out the crossword every day and send it to me. He laughed also.
Needlessto say, I didn't subscribe.
LOVE your tag line!
You must've run across some of these FT'ers! An interesting bunch to say the least.
Love Birds do better in pairs. Get your friend a friend.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.