Walter Rhett
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Articles by Walter Rhett
December 04, 2010
(Writer's note: this post provides multi-faceted background on Zimbabwe, whose President was assessed in the July 2007 final cable of the American ambassador. The post contains the full content of the cable. But is the post multi-faceted background or just meandering summary? Are the facts fair? You...
November 29, 2010
Every policy maker and politician has a story about the economy. The crosstalk of all these stories can be confusing. Sometimes on the same day, are contrasting arguments and articles about the dangers of inflation, deflation, debt, stimulus, deficits, and comparisons to Germany and Japan as harbi...
November 23, 2010
Nobel laureate Paul Krugman says in his New York Times column today that the pending political crisis could deepen if the government makes the wrong policy decisions. He forecasts castrophic damage to families and workers and believes the appropriate analogy is the "blood bath" mentioned by Deficit ...
November 18, 2010
John C. Callhoun was right; democracy can't be done by polls.
November 01, 2010
In a $14 trillion economy, still the world´s largest, just a few days after Ford announced record profits of $1.69 billion for the quarter, and even after Bank of America posted $3.1 billion in profits in Q2 2010, one would think the idea of scary conversations about Republicans returning to power w...
July 29, 2010
It's been raining heavily for two days; it's still 90 degrees, and my favorite jazz station, WSHA, 88.3, out of Raleigh, NC, is streaming good sounds. I'm on my second coffee and thinking heavily about death.
Jack Tatum, who played pro football 9 years for the Oakland Raiders, died Tuesday. I wen...
August 26, 2010
The people vote, the government proscribes.
August 27, 2010
This article begins with a musical interlude; sampled lyrics from "Send in the Clowns:"
Isn't it bliss?
Don't you approve?
One who keeps tearing around,
One who can't move. . .
Don't you love farce?
My fault I fear.
I thought that you'd want what I want.
Sorry, my dear. . .
Maybe next year....
August 13, 2010
In this year's elections, the mainstream is the menace.
July 22, 2010
The saga of Shirley Sherrod and the 24 hour news cycle is one of these Greek styled dramas in which the climax involves the ancient "deus ex machina" device; the ending doesn't grow out of the actual event, but from a contrived, outside insertion, pushing a special agenda. The internet plays the...
July 15, 2010
Why does the biggest science story of the year report so little science?
July 07, 2010
Ballots and bullets are two vastly different ways of looking at democracy.
July 01, 2010
Observations about the confirmation hearings for Elena Kagan.
May 02, 2010
Will the president override posse comitas and use the mility to seal the spill?
May 13, 2010
Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman suggests Republicans are "unserious." I disgree.
April 29, 2010
The resurgence of states rights raises constitutional questions.
April 29, 2010
New e-mail quotes offer a firsthand look at the thoughts and actions of Goldman's insiders.
April 06, 2010
If the current national political litmus test is the healthcare vote, then the most important national social marker for the future success or failure of the emerging generation is the preschool application.
The current generation of five-year olds are not yet touched by daily macro-economic dis...
April 03, 2010
Is Congress' new role to inform and incite?
April 01, 2010
In December 2008, Ford motors put the fabled Volvo brand up for sale. A Chinese auto producer, Geely Automobile Holdings, was eager from the beginning to buy the Volvo brand and its powerful cache.
But for many auto specialists, Geely and Volvo were an odd couple. A once proud European brand kno...
March 28, 2010
What are the effect of harsh words and attitudes in the social discourse?
October 14, 2009
What's the history of the Nobel Peace Prize and the 120 people who have been honored since 1901? Who decides? Here's an in-depth review that views Nobel history and controversy, public and political reaction, and shares the voices of Prize winners and their concerns.
September 14, 2009
Joe Wilson's outburst was not about health care or public discourse. Instead, it's a south Carolina tradition.
August 28, 2009
Observations from a Senate meeting room on the passage of the King Holiday bill.
August 27, 2009
Remembering Kennedy at the passage of the King holiday bill.
August 05, 2009
What Michelangelo could do with a brushstroke, Pat could do with her toe.
July 23, 2009
Jim DeMint leads the resistance to Obama's call for health reform. But at home, in SC, how well has DeMint's politics worked?
July 18, 2009
Which way American foreign policy? An analysis of at two competing models.
July 17, 2009
Tina Brown, the tired and flamed-out gossip columnist, New Yorker editor who was once thrown out of 3 English boarding schools, branched out last week into foreign territory. Publisher of The Daily Beast, a website that combines soft journalism and celebrity gossip, Brown flanked the mainstream and ...
July 01, 2009
Nobel winner and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman bluntly concluded many House members "were not interested in the truth." For their no votes against the Clean Energy bill, Krugman accused them of treason. His column also puts forth evidence for a second count.
July 01, 2009
Lonnie Randolph, state president of South Carolina's NAACP chapters, is just flat wrong when he touted that paying tribute to Confederate soldiers is the same as honoring Hitler. The comparison made great fodder for headlines, and the South's oldest daily, Charleston's Post and Courier, stripped it ...
June 23, 2009
Part two of a series examining new and emerging American political attitudes.
June 22, 2009
Throw the old script away! It is boring and predictable to watch talk shows or listen to politicians. All we hear are one sided messages, delivered by attractive people whose verbal fluency and point-scoring aphorisms substitute for trust, truth and expertise.
As we watch and listen we would...
June 20, 2009
A movement based on unarticulated new principles is shaping the destiny of political power and diaogue in countries from Peru to Iran.
June 16, 2009
Dangers and wonders lie in a world invisible to our lives. Take a peek at the huge impact of the latest in the world of atoms and light particles.