Linx

Some links from around the blogosphere:

The Washington Post talks about the economy doing well in Europe, despite what some conservative pundits might tell you. Paul Krugman also defends Europe. Demosthenes adds: The only advantage for America “principally consists of increased compensation to the already fantastically wealthy and slightly greater pay for those with no time to enjoy it.” (via)

National Guard troops that just spent nearly two years in Iraq are denied education benefits in “A Shameful Way To Support The Troops.” Seems you need to serve 730 days overseas to get those benefits, and these troops only spent 729 days overseas. Could it be that the Pentagon rotated these troops home to avoid having to pay for the education benefits? I sure hope not, but I suspect that is the case.

Locally, Stlo7 at Rochester Turning shows the heights that citizen journalism can rise to. He covers the recent “theft” of state money allocated to school districts by the Monroe (NY) county government. He shows by videos taken at the County Legislature meeting how thuggish and anti-democratic the Republicans have been in how they brought this issue to a vote. But wait, he’s not done, he’s everywhere, covering protests at local Congressmen’s offices, where citizens are trying to get their Republican Congressmen to vote to overturn the veto of the SCHIP Children’s Health bill. Here is a page of many of his contributions to citizen journalism.

Mahablog looks at criticism of what a liberal government would be like, written by a conservative. Many of the supposed horrors that this conservative envisions have already come to pass at the hands of the Bush “administration”. Says Maha: “... much of it — the gutting of the military, runaway national debt, free speech restrictions, rising crime rates, escalating global conflict, a deteriorating economy — is happening now.” (via)

Finally, anyone who has ever been approached to join a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) or Direct Marketing company should read these comments at Water Buffalo Press. What is apparent to me is that these are simply disguised pyramid schemes, where the people who enter early make money off the effort of the people who enter later. (Note: I am not a lawyer, I have no idea what the legal definition of a pyramid scheme is, all I know is that it sure looks like one based upon my knowledge of what a pyramid scheme is.) Locally, a company that I call NEGATIVEfiveLINX fits that description. Of course, that’s not their real name, I put the word Negative in front of their name because I believe that the typical investor’s earnings will be negative, and this is backed up by statistics actually provided by the MLM company.