who will tell mr friedman
COMMENTATY 
A reply to Thomas L. Friedman's Who will tell the people?.
Kennedy Airport is an interesting thing Mr Friedman brought up. So it is degrading because of Iraq/Bush and not because it is managed by the port authority of NewYork/New Jersey. Not because of the Democratic city council of NYC, not because of the Democratic controlled legislatures of New York and New Jersey, nor their Democrat governors, not because of the Labor Unions of New York City. And the election of Barrack Obama a politician from the notorious Chicago Political Machine will fix all this?!
Great powers are defined by the size and growth potential of their economies, not by their lavish tax payer spending on "infrastructure" and "science research." (Castro and Chavez tried/trying that socialist approach) And the U.S. military is funded on just a fraction of total GDP and yet it surpasses the rest of the world combined. The US already spends more on infrastructure via discretionary spending than it does on military.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:U.S._Federal_Spending_-_FY_2006.png
Friedman is just reciting the stereotypical Liberal Anti-American Mantra. The last time I checked people are lining up around the world to live here and very few Americans are leaving! That measure is not measured by Friedman, nor does he point out that other countries peg their currency to the US dollar to artificially boost their exports to us. They do this by buying US Treasuries, which leads to the so called foreign debt.
Notice how big Purposes is identified by Friedman as important in addition to big profits in the last paragraph and how that undercuts his opening. In the opening he decries international Nation Building and implies the losses to the treasury to pay for Iraq. Then he cites a German Rail station midway. This is logically incoherent. If the US did not occupy Germany after ww2, if the US did not force elections on the defeated third reicht, if the US did not invest in European Defense during the Cold war, would that pristine rail-station be there today? If we pull out of Iraq now how would they get that pristine rail station that Mr Friedman thinks defines national greatness? (A logical argument could have been made before the war - Given that the war did happen what is best to do now) Also how is spreading Democracy not a big Purpose. That would seem to be more important than human cloning of stem cells or what ever Mr Friedman fears is being exiled to Asia and India.
One last note from the text: "the Asian values of our parents’ generation — work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means — have given way to subprime values: You can have the American dream — a house — with no money down and no payments for two years.”
Any simple analysis reveals that the Republican message is work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means. It is the Democrats who say “You can have the American dream — a house — with no money down and no payments for two years.” with their refusal to increase personal responsibility through reform welfare, social security, health-care. It is Democrats who tell voters they can have it all and they will only tax the Rich.
Yet Mr. Friedman has declared who he is going to vote for.
Kennedy Airport is an interesting thing Mr Friedman brought up. So it is degrading because of Iraq/Bush and not because it is managed by the port authority of NewYork/New Jersey. Not because of the Democratic city council of NYC, not because of the Democratic controlled legislatures of New York and New Jersey, nor their Democrat governors, not because of the Labor Unions of New York City. And the election of Barrack Obama a politician from the notorious Chicago Political Machine will fix all this?!
Great powers are defined by the size and growth potential of their economies, not by their lavish tax payer spending on "infrastructure" and "science research." (Castro and Chavez tried/trying that socialist approach) And the U.S. military is funded on just a fraction of total GDP and yet it surpasses the rest of the world combined. The US already spends more on infrastructure via discretionary spending than it does on military.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:U.S._Federal_Spending_-_FY_2006.png
Friedman is just reciting the stereotypical Liberal Anti-American Mantra. The last time I checked people are lining up around the world to live here and very few Americans are leaving! That measure is not measured by Friedman, nor does he point out that other countries peg their currency to the US dollar to artificially boost their exports to us. They do this by buying US Treasuries, which leads to the so called foreign debt.
Notice how big Purposes is identified by Friedman as important in addition to big profits in the last paragraph and how that undercuts his opening. In the opening he decries international Nation Building and implies the losses to the treasury to pay for Iraq. Then he cites a German Rail station midway. This is logically incoherent. If the US did not occupy Germany after ww2, if the US did not force elections on the defeated third reicht, if the US did not invest in European Defense during the Cold war, would that pristine rail-station be there today? If we pull out of Iraq now how would they get that pristine rail station that Mr Friedman thinks defines national greatness? (A logical argument could have been made before the war - Given that the war did happen what is best to do now) Also how is spreading Democracy not a big Purpose. That would seem to be more important than human cloning of stem cells or what ever Mr Friedman fears is being exiled to Asia and India.
One last note from the text: "the Asian values of our parents’ generation — work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means — have given way to subprime values: You can have the American dream — a house — with no money down and no payments for two years.”
Any simple analysis reveals that the Republican message is work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means. It is the Democrats who say “You can have the American dream — a house — with no money down and no payments for two years.” with their refusal to increase personal responsibility through reform welfare, social security, health-care. It is Democrats who tell voters they can have it all and they will only tax the Rich.
Yet Mr. Friedman has declared who he is going to vote for.
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