Passing Notes...

.
.
.
The above map shows the number of agricultural subsidies that go to New York City residents! The larger circles indicate recipients who earn more than $250,000/year in farm subsidies.
.
As Yuval Levin noted recently in NRO (http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjA0MzEzZWU3MGM1ZjZmZTAxNjg0ZTQyNTcyMWU4ZjQ=);
.
.
“The farm bill passed by House Democrats in July would continue giving millionaires farm subsidies (setting the income threshold for payments at $1 million a year, and keeping loopholes in place that allow some making much more to qualify). The Bush administration has proposed sharply reducing the income threshold to $200,000 a year and ending many of those loopholes. That would reduce the number of subsidy recipients by less than 40,000 (of the current million or so recipients)—though I suppose it might put some rooftop gardens on Park Avenue out of commission.”
.
.....
.
Not only was Norm a no-show (AGAIN) at his latest hearing, the State of North Carolina is now investigating a major Democratic Fund Raiser to determine whether the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) violated the state's ban on corporate donations.
.
At issue: Did the money that the group routed to North Carolina come only from individuals or did it include corporate money, in violation of North Carolina law?
.
Michael Sargeant, the campaign committee's executive director, said the organization "segregates the funds it raises into different accounts." By doing so, it claims that it makes sure that corporate and individual contributions aren't mixed and that state laws such as North Carolina's — and similar laws in some two dozen states — are followed.
.
However, Kim Strach, the deputy director of the board, said it wasn't enough for a group to "segregate" donations. The checks must be made out to the state committee, Strach said. Otherwise, the money is considered to have been raised by the DLCC, which accepts prohibited corporate money.
.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/election2008/story/19441.html
.
.
The Clinton’s main fund raiser, Hsu, who pleaded no contest in 1991 to a felony count of grand theft, admitting he'd defrauded investors of $1 million after falsely claiming to have contracts to purchase and sell Latex gloves. He was facing up to three years in prison when he skipped town before his 1992 sentencing date, is a wanted man again after skipping bail on another court hearing yesterday (Wednesday, September 5th, 2007.
.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070905/ap_on_el_pr/democratic_fundraiser
.
.....
.
As the world lurches Right, it leaves America’s misguided Left behind.
.
Once hailed as beacons of “how Leftist policies can work,” France and Germany have moved toward more open, Americanist economies with the election of Angela Merckel in Germany and Nikolas Sarkozy in France.
.
In America, Liberal opposition to increased entitlement spending has been few and far between, such as in 2005, liberal Washington Post columnist Sebastian Mallaby, criticizing the opposition of many Democrats to the possibility of investing in private Social Security accounts by saying that "a party that refuses to acknowledge the urgency of entitlement reform is a party of ostriches."
.
As a result, America’s Left remains intractable and stuck in a Cold War time warp – “Capitalism is the enemy and the command economy CAN work!”
.
Meanwhile just as Venezuela earns record proceeds from oil exports, consumers face shortages of meat, flour and cooking oil. Annual inflation has risen to 16 percent, the highest in Latin America, as President Chavez tripled government spending in four years. Exxon Mobil Corp. and Conoco-Phillips are pulling out after Chavez demanded they cede control of joint venture projects.The currency, the Bolivar, has tumbled 30 percent this year to 4,850 per dollar on the black market, the only place it trades freely because of government controls on foreign exchange. That's less than half the official rate of 2,150 set in 2005. Chavez may have to devalue the Bolivar to reduce the gap and increase oil proceeds that make up half the state's revenue.
.
It’s not just oil giants that are abandoning Venezuela, other producers are leaving the country in droves. “It's like our director of marketing, our director of sales, our director of manufacturing is President Chavez,” said Edgar Contreras, who runs international operations at Molinos Nacionales CA, a Caracas-based food manufacturer that employs 1,500 people. “We can't go on like this.”
.
Contreras called the government-set prices on many products “fantasy prices” that are below production costs. Items including milk, chicken, coffee and flour have disappeared from store shelves in Caracas at times this year because companies refused to sell at a loss.
.
It appears that Hugo Chavez isn’t going to prove socialist policies can work any more than Stalin, Mao or any of the other previous socialists have.
.
Meanwhile, here in the U.S. MoveOn is going after Democrats for the sin of honesty.
.
Washington Congressman Brian Baird has come under fire from MoveOn for daring to tell the simple truth that he recently saw progress on the ground, despite having initially opposed the surge and having opposed the war in the first place. After a recent trip to Iraq, Mr. Baird said: "One of the things that gets very little attention is that virtually every other country I visited says it would be a mistake to pull out now."
.
Disappointing?
.
Perhaps America’s Left should get used to disappointment.