The rich are not entitled to be selfish

Liane Ellison Norman writes in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (republished in Capitol Hill Blue):

Democrats must restore and articulate the idea that there is a common good, and that it entails a commonwealth. That is to say, we all benefit when those who have prospered acknowledge that in addition to their hard work, they have benefited from public investments as well as from their origins and luck. The rich are not entitled, therefore, not to contribute to the common good. This understanding involves repeal of the Bush administration’s tax breaks for the richest Americans and a willingness by legislators to forswear pork.

California to execute Nobel Prize nominee

According to a story in the San Jose Mercury News:

Barring an unforeseen reprieve from a legal system that has turned away his every appeal, [Crips gang co-founder Stanley “Tookie”] Williams’ hope for survival depends on clemency from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor will have to weigh Williams’ death sentence for four 1979 murders against his well-publicized renunciation of gang life and his work against gang violence, which has earned him several Nobel Peace Prize nominations.

A disastrous constitution for Iraq?

According to Dr. Hatem Mukhlis, chief executive of the Iraq National Movement (a Sunni party), writing in the International Herald Tribune, “It is extremely unfortunate that so many people were led to believe that the Iraqi constitution would be a panacea. This document, which early returns indicate is likely to be approved by voters, is nothing more or less than a time bomb.” He argues that provincial powers are so great that even the Iraqi army will need permission from a provincial government before entering that province.

Yet another hurricane

According to the Miami Herald, Hurricane Wilma, “the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin, a Category 5 monster with 175 mph winds,” has taken aim at Florida’s lower Gulf coast. The forecast map and computer models show it on a course nicking the northeast corner of the Yucatan peninsula, passing west of, but presumably deluging western Cuba, passing over Florida, and continuing up along the Atlantic seaboard.

Unemployment low, but wages are dropping

Globalization is killing the American worker, as wages drop to $10 per hour. The article leads with an anecdote about Delphi, where union workers are being asked to take a two thirds pay cut.

“How do U.S. firms compete in the global economy?” asked UC Berkeley economist Harley Shaiken. “If the only way to compete is with $10 wages, we have a problem that is much larger than just Delphi. We’re looking at a society where people exit rather than enter the middle class.”

New York Times comes clean on Judy Miller in Plamegate

Salon.com analyzes the report that emerges from The New York Times‘ internal investigative report of Judy Miller (whose account the paper also published). According to the Times, “[A]n examination of Ms. Miller’s decision not to testify, and then to do so, offers fresh information about her role in the [Fitzgerald] investigation and how The New York Times turned her case into a cause.” The story also states:

Neither The Times nor its cause has emerged unbruised. Three courts, including the Supreme Court, declined to back Ms. Miller. Critics said The Times was protecting not a whistle-blower but an administration campaign intended to squelch dissent. The Times’s coverage of itself was under assault: While the editorial page had crusaded on Ms. Miller’s behalf, the news department had more than once been scooped on the paper’s own story, even including the news of Ms. Miller’s release from jail.

Asked what she regretted about The Times’s handling of the matter, Jill Abramson, a managing editor, said: “The entire thing.”