Blog hopping

I've been way remiss lately in reading the blogs but since I'm on vacation and can't go anywhere, at least I have time to take the cyber tour. Lot of good blogging going on out there.

Stone Soup points us to an interview with David Cay Johnston in Mother Jones where he speaks about the CEO culture and our tax system. This is an interesting factoid.

"Sixty-one percent of large corporations paid no federal income taxes for the five-year period from 1996 to 2000," according to Johnston.

And he nails my basic premise on taxing the rich here.

The important issues are the principles they figured out in [ancient] Athens - that the greater the economic gain that you derive from living in a society, the greater the burden of the taxes you should bear. Because if not for that society you could not become wealthy.

Kathy also has a great post on how WalMart compromises national security in the name of profits. They lobby against everything from secure cargo containers to better oversight of shipping practices.

ExPat Brian posts a link to an interesting site that tracks earthquake activity. Fascinating how they cluster along certain lines. I assume it's the teutonic plates.

Mikevotes delivers as usual with a lot of stuff including Fred Kaplan at Slate on Rummy's unpopularity within the high circles of the Pentagon. This is the money quote.

It is startling to hear, in private conversations, how widely and deeply the U.S. officer corps despises this secretary of defense. The joke in some Pentagon circles is that if Rumsfeld were meeting with the service chiefs and commanders and a group of terrorists barged into the room and kidnapped him, not a single general would lift a finger to help him.

Could a little internal coup do us some good? Fred seems to think so. I tend to agree.

Mike also links to Condi's hypocritical freedom and democracy rhetoric.

Yesterday, Condi Rice stood next to Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo -- a man who has made Parade’s “Annual List of the World’s 10 Worst Dictators” four years running -- and called him “a good friend.”

Then, with Obiang at her side, she proceed to threaten Iran, calling on the U.N. Security Council to take “strong steps” against it.

...Obiang took power in this tiny West African nation by overthrowing his uncle more than 25 years ago. According to a United Nations inspector, torture “is the normal means of investigation” in Equatorial Guinea. There is no freedom of speech, and there are no bookstores or newsstands. The one private radio station is owned by Obiang’s son. Since major oil reserves were discovered in Equatorial Guinea in 1995, Obiang has deposited more than $700 million into special accounts in U.S. banks. Meanwhile, most of his people live on less than $1 a day.

Unsurprising the White House would consider the tyrant a friend but wouldn't you think they could have chosen a better venue for Condi's empty proclamations? It's so callous. Don't these people have any human impulses?