My Beauty Best Teacher

Victor Davis Hanson wrote an article last week that was powerful and insightful called America in Decline? I have pondered on it over the last couple days, and think that the most important piece of the article was the reasons why America is declining and whether or not this will continue. Read the whole article, but here is the part to ponder the most:

Consider the following areas in which America is said to be in trouble, but in fact could easily surmount the present difficulties.

Debt. In 1999 Americans worried about the specter of paying off the debt and transmogrifying to creditor status. There are trillions of dollars produced annually in this country; it is a matter of redirecting the economy from consumption to savings, and to wealth creation from redistribution. The years 2004-2005 seemed bountiful when the federal budget was a mere $2.3 trillion. Go back to those spending levels and the administration could more or less balance the budget. If we had a leader willing to cut expenditures and ignore the furor, we could pile up surpluses rather quickly. The present fiscal policy is a choice to embrace redistribution and decline, not a result of innate unproductivity, resource depletion, strikes, and factional strife.

Energy. Known reserves of natural gas just keep getting larger. The amount of oil in the Dakotas, in Texas, in Alaska, and offshore climbs too, even as cars are getting more efficient and new hybrids become more practical. There is enough natural gas (and its derivatives) to quite easily power a quarter of our fleet for a century or more. Should Americans have a president who wished to drill, utilize natural gas as a transportation fuel, and downplay subsidizing "millions of green jobs," the nation could do wonders on the energy front. Each barrel produced here rather than imported from Saudi Arabia means more money, more jobs, and enhanced national security. Asking other governments to pump more oil, whether Brazil or Saudi Arabia, even as we insist that drilling and supply have no effect on prices, shows that Americans prefer to become more indebted and dependent. Again, that is a choice, not a fate.

National security. Despite all the talk of al Qaeda, the Bush anti-terrorism protocols—derided and then embraced and expanded by Obama—coupled with the terrible toll we took on Islamists in Anbar, Iraq, and in Afghanistan, have meant that radical Islam is far weaker than it was in 2001, and we far stronger. Osama bin Laden is now dead; and his organization in disarray. We are still spending less than 5 percent of GDP on defense. If we were to develop a strategic, consistent policy of bestowing our alliances and friendship on those who shared either our values or our notion of security, we could easily regain our strategic preeminence, rather than "leading from behind."

Immigration. Close the border, before addressing other immigration issues. We should institutionalize employer fines, finish the fence—and predicate legal entry into the US not on race, nearness to the border, or the number of relatives in America, but on skills and capital. America would experience a renaissance if it were to end 500,000 illegal entries and replace them with 250,000 legal entries based on education and expertise, not national origin, proximity, or family connection. Immigration could be one of our greatest strengths, rather than a continual effort to bolster political constituencies. Apparently, self-supporting, highly educated, confident immigrants from all regions of the globe are not this administration’s natural constituents, and therefore of no value politically.

Entitlements. Whether we adopt the Simpson-Bowles commission’s analysis, raise the retirement age, or follow Rep. Paul Ryan’s recommendations, there is a little discussed truth: with reasonable reforms, we can make Social Security solvent and still support retired citizens in finer fashion than was true ten years ago. Borrowing to spend is a mood, a state of mind, not a death sentence.

Victor Davis Hanson may be an expert with a slew of degrees and be a member of the Hoover institution, but you don't have be a genius to see his point- that policies that liberals, Democrats, progressives, 'moderate' Republicans, and others are pushing on debt, energy, national security, immigration, and entitlements are bad DECISIONS- they are policies that are based on false assumptions regarding human nature and the role or abilities of government and they are policies based on theories of economics (Keynesian) or the environment (AGW) that are unproven at best and dangerous at worst.

But these policies had real effects, bad effects that have weakened our nation and moved us closer to tyranny and father from liberty and freedom. The road to bad policies are always paved with good intentions, so those who are pushing these policies are not bad people and those who are opposing these policies are not necessarily good people- but the point remains that society is not advanced when power and authority and responsibility is moved away from people to a far-distant bureaucrat who is given wealth and sustenance by taking it from the labor of others through taxes or fees or whatever.

But these policies can be reversed by other policies, policies that emphasize life, liberty, and the protection of property. These sort of policies are usually pushed for by Republicans, particularly libertarian and conservative members of the Republican Party, who are aided and supported by other Republicans and moderate or conservative Democrats. It is to the Tea Party or right wing of the Republican Party that our nation must look to for leadership, to their policies, however imperfect they are, to overturn the bad policies of the past.

On debt, energy, national security, immigration, and entitlements, the Democratic Party is pushing for the wrong policies and the Republican Party is pushing for the right (or the less-wrong at least) policies.

Read the whole article- it is very good, and I have only touched on a portion of it.

In light of Sudan's impending partition we take a look Ethiopia's ability to maintain its unity. Aaron Maasho reporting in Reuters:

When Meles Zenawi's rebels closed in on Addis Ababa in the early months of 1991, their biggest threat did not come from Mengistu Haile Mariam's army but from a potential breakup of Ethiopia.The group was about to end centuries of Amhara domination over the country's 70 ethnic groups, but some feared Ethiopia's long marginalised regions might seek to cut loose, as Eritrea eventually did later.Two decades on, Ethiopia remains one nation. Meles, now prime minister, says the country's "balkanisation" was only averted by an ethnicity-based federal system...In a continent where colonial powers arbitrarily drew frontiers indifferent to ethnic divisions, Meles said last month that Ethiopia only survived as a nation by granting autonomy to its provinces -- as well as the right to secede."The successful management of our diversity has become one of the pillars of the ongoing Ethiopian renaissance," he said,

More here

Kaberuka’s revolution at the AFDB
The Folly of African Entrepreneurship-Rejoice Ngwenya
Congo’s New Mobutu-FP
A renaissance in African development?-Africa Report

Chika Unigwe writing in the Guardian:

Image by dan mogford via Flickr

In a society where the pursuit of money takes precedence over everything, one can expect a decline in culture and in the quality of cultural production.Regrettably, this is going on. People are reading, but it's a different sort of literature: self-help books published mainly by evangelical pastors eager to win souls over to the gospel of prosperity. There is art on the street, but it is splashes of paint on trucks and buses, outsized drawings (usually religious, with a blonde Jesus). There is nothing of the grandeur and quality of Ife art in it...Perhaps this is too pessimistic. I was witness in Nigeria to the collective sense of hope in a people who, like the phoenix, keep rising from the ashes. There is a renaissance in Nigerian literature...

More here

In my post Crony Capitalism Booming Under Obama Rule in February of 2010, I wrote:

One of my biggest fears about the Obama administration is not that it is liberal and not that it is communist, but rather that it is the beginning of a renaissance of National Socialism. One of the common misconceptions that people have about National Socialism is that it was against big business, or that big business opposed it. Free markets oppose national socialism, and individuals oppose national socialism, but Big Business, threatened by government, does the logical thing, and joins in. National socialism leads to an alliance of Big Business, which enjoys government protection against challenges to its market share and in exchange transforms itself into a tool of government control over the economy. Top executives and lobbyists do very well under a National Socialist regime, while the people suffer.

At the time, I was responding to a post that I found on powerlineblog called Crony Capitalism, which itself was a response to the article from Michael Barone called: "Under Obama, crony capitalism again rules the day."

That was several months ago now, and with the passage of time, we can re-evaluate my thesis- that the Obama administration is putting place a version of fascism that you can nicely called Crony Capitalism or State Capitalism, whereby the government subverts the free market for the good of the 'state' and makes alliances with Big Business to crush smaller companies through regulation and taxation.

Gregory Scoblete updates the situation with his article Will Free Markets Give Way to State Capitalism:

State capitalism, Bremmer writes, "is a system in which the state dominates markets primarily for political gain." From state-owned corporations operating in strategic industries like natural resources or defense, to enormous sovereign wealth funds in the hands of autocrats with opaque operating principles, state capitalism has enabled the world's autocratic states to reap the benefits of capitalist enterprise while maintaining a vice-grip on political freedom.

In Bremmer's telling, the world's autocratic states learned a valuable lesson from the implosion of the Soviet Union: command economies do not work and when they fail, they can bring down the over-arching political system with them. They also watched the post Soviet experiment in crash liberalization with horror. To protect their hides and preserve their privilege, autocratic rulers in China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere have created a "hybrid" system that leverages many of the tools of capitalism to generate wealth while the heavy hand of the state ensures that wealth is put to the service of the elites and rulers of each country.

Here in America, we have a ruler who wants us to emulate China, Russia, or Saudi Arabia- he wants to create a 'hybrid system' here where the fascist state can leverage capitalism for the good of the all-powerful state through the heavy hand of a tyrannical government. I'd love to sugar coat this, but the evidence is piling up that this is his intention.

In the Independent:

Ever since a pure copper sculpture was found buried in a palm grove near the Nigerian city of Ife, experts from the West have argued that the artefact was a fake that was too sophisticated to have been created by African hands...At the time of discovery, the head was considered too great a masterpiece to have been created by indigenous African artists – a reflection of prevailing attitudes of the early 20th century. Some Europeans even theorised that the work was a remnant from the lost city of Atlantis. A spokeswoman for the British Museum said when the head travelled to the West, it caused a huge stir because "it flew in the face of Western perceptions" (of African heritage and cultural achievements).It is now accepted by the curatorial community that the advanced artistic techniques used to create the sculpture were "more advanced than those of Renaissance Italy, and comparable to those of [the artist] Donatello".

More here

Helen Epstein writing in NYRB:

The Western Renaissance helped to democratize “the word” so that all of us could speak of our own individual struggles, and this added new meaning and urgency to the alleviation of the suffering of others. The problem with foreign aid in Ethiopia is that both the Ethiopian government and its donors see the people of this country not as individuals with distinct needs, talents, and rights but as an undifferentiated mass, to be mobilized, decentralized, vaccinated, given primary education and pit latrines, and freed from the legacy of feudalism, imperialism, and backwardness. It is this rigid focus on the “backward masses,” rather than the unique human person, that typically justifies appalling cruelty in the name of social progress.

More here

One of my biggest fears about the Obama administration is not that it is liberal and not that it is communist, but rather that it is the beginning of a renaissance of National Socialism. One of the common misconceptions that people have about National Socialism is that it was against big business, or that big business opposed it. Free markets oppose national socialism, and individuals oppose national socialism, but Big Business, threatened by government, does the logical thing, and joins in. National socialism leads to an alliance of Big Business, which enjoys government protection against challenges to its market share and in exchange transforms itself into a tool of government control over the economy. Top executives and lobbyists do very well under a National Socialist regime, while the people suffer.

Via Powerlineblog's post Crony Capitalism, 2010 comes this post from Michael Barone called: "Under Obama, crony capitalism again rules the day:"

Last week, amid Washington's blizzards, Obama was asked about the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon and the $9 million bonus for Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein."I know both these guys; they are very savvy businessmen," he said. "I, like most of the American people, don't begrudge people success or wealth." So much for campaign-trail denunciations of "fat cat" bankers and bloated bonuses.

But the savviness that Obama handsomely acknowledged has been evident not only in their business judgment but in their politics. Goldman employee contributions to Democrats in 2008 ranked second only to those employed by the University of California. JPMorgan Chase's employees ranked No. 7. The stereotype of Wall Street being Republican is decades out of date.

Crony capitalism is now the order of the day in the United States. The government and the United Auto Workers own General Motors and Chrysler, which aren't likely to pay back their billions in TARP money any time soon, if ever. Meanwhile the government tells Americans to stop driving Toyotas.

The government was going to remake the health care sector, and so Billy Tauzin and other health care industry lobbyists were busy in the White House cutting deals to keep their clients above water. The government was going to remake the energy sector, and utility CEOs and lobbyists have been busy flaunting their green credentials.

As my Washington Examiner colleague Timothy Carney has been documenting, Big Business has been busy lobbying Big Government for "reforms" that serve big companies' interests. Wal-Mart backs a health care mandate, Philip Morris shapes tobacco regulation, General Electric is setting up a joint venture to trade carbon offsets (wasn't that Enron's line of work back in the day?).

The picture is not pretty. Government's pets or, in the president's words, "savvy businessmen," use government to get policies that will give them competitive advantages and stifle smaller competitors. Pleasing their masters in government is now absorbing the psychic energy of CEOs who used to concentrate on meeting consumers' needs in order to make profits.
This is a scary picture that is being painted- but it is a picture that is getting closer to reality the longer the Obama administration and the Democrats are in office. Republicans aren't perfect, and the GOP made a lot of mistakes in office, but people need to wake up and realize that the 'Third Way' that Obama is forging has already been done before, and its called National Socialism, or Fascism as its variant called in Italy, or Nazism as its variant called in Germany.

I've written about this before, for a while. Please check out my posts A Conservative Teacher: The Third Way: Obama and Fascism or wikipedia description of fascist sounds like someone i know or calling a fascist a fascist or book review: the man who was thursday or barack obama was a member of the new party. My dad might want me to tone down the "Obama is a fascist" rhetoric, but I'm just calling a spade a spade.

There will be a rally against Government Motors on Monday, January 11th, to make a peaceful yet clear statement against Government takeover of America. Sorry about the late notice on this, but if you live in the Detroit area and would like to make your views known about all of the endless and unaccountable government bailouts, you have a chance to by showing up on Monday and peacefully protesting.

Since December of 2008, the private company General Motors has so far taken $52.9 billion in taxpayer dollars. The intended purpose of this funding was “to prevent a significant disruption of the American automotive industry,” according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). GM used this money to go bankrupt and shed billions in debt- by that, I mean that banks and investors were forced to take a bath and thousands of people were laid off and hundreds of dealers were forced out of business. This unprecedented distribution of wealth also has resulted in the government owning 61% of GM equity and the labor unions owning a good chunk more.

Nancy Pelosi and other Democrat leaders (possible even President Obama) are coming to Detroit to check on their investment on Monday, and this is a chance for us to tell them what we think of the US government nationalizing private businesses.

The rally is Monday, January 11, 2010, from 9:30am - 12:00pm, at the Marriott Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan. Meet in the lobby of the Marriott at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit and look for the Michigan Tea Party Banner. Someone will be there to greet you. From there we will head over to Cobo hall for a Tea Party Rally. You can park in one of the many lots downtown or at the Cobo Hall lot which is close to the Renaissance Center. Dress warm!

Via the VOA:

Algeria is preparing to host the second Pan-African Culture Festival, and the first in 40 years. The event hopes to draw hundreds of thousands of people to Algiers this July to celebrate Africa's artistic renaissance...[continue reading]

Bande annonce du festival panafricain 2009 version anglaise
by eljazairpanaf

Recently I read The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare (Penguin Classics), by G.K. Chesterton. I've heard a lot about Chesterton, and have always wanted to read some of his stuff, and I would still suggest reading something he has written, but probably not this book to start. Although it is good, the longer the book goes, the less good it gets, and the ending to me felt like I had to read it 10 times just to say 'oh, I get it now, clever'- not the kind of ending that will stand out in your mind. That being said, it was a good book, and had some good parts to it.

The book takes place in 1900 London, and focuses on a policeman who is fighting anarchists. He manages to get himself elected to the anarchists council, where each person is called by a day of the week. Our hero is called Thursday, and he schemes to stop and expose the other anarchists, including the man bad guy, Saturday. Through this surreal plot and the nutty characters, Chesterton comments on moral relativism and nihilism, and this is the best stuff in the book.

The main character, Gabriel Syme, is a guy who I sort of understand. He grew up in a home where 'change' was the mantra of the day, where his parents were beholden to progressive ideas, and where the whole family attempted to portray sophistication and rebellion. And as time went on Syme began to see how revolting this behavior was, how demented and sad these people were, and so he himself revolted to sanity. He ran from change and progressivism to common sense, to law, to gentle and courteous behavior.

I understand Syme- as our society embraces 'change' and values are lost, MTV grows more lewd, Micheal Jackson is a 'hero', not eating meat and smoking drugs is embraced, and our culture becomes more progressive, I personally am increasingly revolted. When I was younger, I was less conservative, I was more moderate- but this revolting behavior of our society is causing me to revolt against it, and to embrace traditional values, to have more common sense, and to be a better person, much like Syme was.

Chesterton, like other great authors like Orwell, understood the way the world works and understood how tyranny and oppression develops. Remember 1984 and Animal Farm- the dangerous characters, those that were bad and evil, were not the uneducated country boys who believed in private ownership and conservative values. The dangerous, evil, and bad characters were the educated, sophisticated, moral relativistic, and value free ones.

So it goes with Chesterton. As Syme talks with a policeman in Chapter 4, the policeman says:

(The anti-anarchist police) deny the snobbish English assumption that the uneducated are the dangerous criminals. We remember the Roman Emperors. We remember the great poisoning princes of the Renaissance. We say that the dangerous criminal is the educated criminal. We say that the most dangerous criminal now is the entirely lawless modern philosopher.

Compared to him, burglars and bigamists are essentially moral men. They accept the essential idea of man; they merely seek it wrongly. Thieves respect property; they merely wish the property become their property that they may more perfectly respect it. But philosophers dislike property as property; they wish to destroy the very idea of personal possession. Bigamists respect marriage, or they would not go through the highly ceremonial and even ritualistic formality of bigamy. But philosophers despise marriage as marriage. Murderers respect human life; they merely wish to attain a greater fullness of human life in themselves by the sacrifice of what seems to them to be lesser lives. But philosophers hate life itself, their own as much as other people's.

The common criminal is a bad man, but at least he is, as it were, a conditional good man. He says that if only a certain obstacle be removed- say a wealthy uncle- he is then prepared to accept the universe and praise God. He is a reformer, but not an anarchist. He wishes to cleanse the edifice, but not to destroy it. But the evil philosopher is not trying to alter things, but to annihilate them.

Yes, the modern world has retained all of those parts of police work which are really oppressive and ignominious, the harrying of the poor, the spying upon the unfortunate. It has given up its more dignified work, the punishment of powerful traitors in the State and powerful heresiarchs in the Church.

This is a vast philosophic movement, consisting of an outer and inner ring. The outer ring- the main mass of their supporters- are merely anarchists; that is, men who believe that rules and formulas have destroyed human happiness. They believe that all the evil results of human crime are the results of the system that has called it a punishment. They do not believe that the crime creates the punishment. They believe that the punishment has created the crime. These people talk about 'a happy time coming,' 'the paradise of the future,' 'mankind freed from the bondage of vice and the bondage of virtue,' and so on.

And so also the men of the inner circle speak. But in their mouths these happy phrases have a horrible meaning. They are under no illusions; they are too intellectual to think that man upon this earth can ever be quite free of original sin and the struggle. And they mean death. When they say that mankind shall be free at last, they mean that mankind shall commit suicide. When they talk of a paradise without right or wrong, they mean the grave. They have but two objects, to destroy first humanity and then themselves.

I realize that is a long passage, but it was one of the most meaningful in the book, because it conveys that the enemy is indeed a terrible thing, and not because they wear a black mask or have a golden gun, but because of what they themselves believe. As you read that passage, perhaps you understand why Chesterton is so highly regarded- did you get a sense that he was describing someone in our political system?

Chesterton might have called them anarchists or philosophers, and later they might go by other names like fascist or communist, but to me, their ideas about economic suicide for no reason, their dislike of labeling things right and wrong, and their views on life and mark them as the modern Democratic Party. And at the center of the inner circle there is a man who speaks to applauding crowds and says pleasing phrases, but he is under no illusions, and his actions have terrible consequences for our great nation.

Buy the book here and learn more about the left-wing movements...

In Bookforum James Gibbons writes:

Are we in the midst of an “African literary renaissance,” as Rob Spillman (author of God and Soldiers) contends, an el boom from the other side of the Atlantic? Perhaps, but the surge of African writing is tellingly different from the Latin American explosion of the ’60s. Besides being identified with magic realism (though not all its writers practiced it), the literature of the Latin American boom was already formed within the region’s own institutions and coteries before being packaged in translation and exported. The new African writing is emphatically not homegrown. Forged in the crucible of globalization, it is a literature largely of displacement and exile.

More here
via 3quarksdaily

An architect of Singapore's astounding economic growth-via Ethan Zuckerman
Investing and empowering farmers-Guardian
Nurturing an industrial renaissance in Ghana.
Africa,Business destination-TIME
Favoring poor governments over poor people-Aidwatch

Obama's Aunt Still Living in US and Defended by Democratic Donor Attorney From the "what ever happened to" file is this update on Zeituni Onyango (more commonly known by President of the United States Obama as Aunt Zeituni). You might remember her- I wrote about her in this post.

Onyango arrived from Kenya on a valid visa in 2000 and later applied for political asylum. Asylum seekers must show they face persecution at home. She did not, and so her request was rejected, and in 2004 she was ordered to leave the country. She defied this court order, and decided to break the law and live in this country illegally.

Somehow she was given a place to live in Boston (paid for by taxpayers) and lived there in poverty for several years in spite of having very wealthy relatives who were too greedy go give her any money (Barack Obama). Not much is known about her during this time period.

Several days before the election, the Times of London did research that American media outlets are unwilling to do and discovered her and broke the story. Afterwards, there was an intense investigation by the government into why this story was revealed, and she fled to Cleveland to avoid the spotlight.

After the election of her nephew, we next see Aunt Zeituni in Washington DC, partying it up and living the high life at Obama's inauguration bash. No expense was spared to give her the time of her life and let her enjoy the luxurious Renaissance Mayflower Hotel. Not sure who paid for this.

So what is Auti Zeituni up to now? Zeituni Onyango recently said goodbye to her Cleveland cousins and went back to Boston, where she has been winning court battles that could allow her to stay in America. She is being represented by Cleveland lawyer Margaret Wong and now says that the attention she has received will cause her harm if she were to be deported now, and so she should be allowed asylum. I am willing to bet a million dollars she gets it eventually.

One thing that is not mentioned by either the Cleveland Times or Michelle Malkin is that Margaret Wong is politically connected and has donated thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates over the years. She was likely picked because of her political connections to the Obama's aunt's lawyer, and is using her connections within the Democrat party to circumvent the normal course of law and win special corrupt favors from our government. If you would like to see the amount that Wong has given to the Democrats, click on this link to OpenSecrets.org and see for yourself. Search all cycles, Wong, Ohio, and you'll see a lengthy list of donations by Margaret Wong to Democrat candidates.

Interestingly enough, according to the Cleveland Times Obama's aunt came to see Margaret Wong "one day in early November." Could this have been on November 1, 5, 8, or 13? On those days, Ms. Wong made donations to Democrat candidates of significant amounts. Perhaps Ms. Wong was invited to the inauguration after her generous donation to the Democratic Party in December? Interesting. Don't believe me that there are connections between donating to the Democratic Party and winning favors from the Obama government? Sort the data by date and you'll see a highly coincidental timeline. Or talk to Chrysler dealerships about the importance of making donations to the thugs running our government now.

From Powell's:

In Something Torn and New, Ngugi explores Africas historical, economic, and cultural fragmentation by slavery, colonialism, and globalization. Throughout this tragic history, a constant and irrepressible force was Europhonism: the replacement of native names, languages, and identities with European ones. The result was the dismemberment of African memory.
Seeking to remember language in order to revitalize it, Ngugis quest is for wholeness. Wide-ranging, erudite, and hopeful, Something Torn and New is a cri de coeur to save Africas cultural future...[continue reading]

via Africa's Turn

In Democratic Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm's speech, she touted that Michigan is growing and that there is opportunity here in our state. As evidence of this, she pointed to Motown Motion Picture Studios LLC as an example of how the government can help create new industry and business in a state. Although having a movie studio in the area would be really cool, and I love the fact that jobs and opportunity is being created, let's look a little bit more at the details of the deal, reported on by WWJ news:

Motown Motion Pictures LLC – The new business venture, which will be both a film studio and a production services company, plans to invest approximately $70 million in a 600,000-square-foot development with nine sound stages in Pontiac. The project is expected to create 5,139 new jobs, including 3,600 directly by the company. The MEGA board Tuesday approved a state tax credit valued at $101 million over 12 years to help bring the project to Michigan. In addition, Infrastructure Development Film and Digital Media incentives totaling $12.9 million have been approved to help support the project. Job training assistance through the MEDC and Renaissance Zone designation by the city of Pontiac are also under consideration.

Let's do a little math- 5,139 jobs created at the cost to taxpayers of 113.9 million dollars. That is $22,163 a job. That's about $127 a person- not much, but if you let every person in our state keep that money and spend it on goods and services or invest it, it would multiply many times over, and create more jobs and economic benefits than some pie in the ski scheme like this one. For those trying to do more research on this, according to the Oakland Press, here are some more details:

"It’s good news — it’s going to be 3,600 jobs,” Republican Oakland Couny Executive Patterson said Tuesday. The local investors in the new studio are Oakland County developers A. Alfred Taubman, Gary Sakwa of Grand Sakwa Properties in Farmington Hills and Linden Nelson of Nelson Ventures in Birmingham. They’re teaming up with Raleigh Studios of Hollywood, Calif., and Endeavor Talent Agency of Beverly Hills, Calif.

Notice how the number of jobs this is going to bring to Michigan has dropped considerably now, and that several major players who are receiving this funding from Michigan citizens are from California. This company will likely receive the full amount of funding- but I wonder if taxpayers will receive anywhere near the full benefit from this venture.

I hope that you will check out this At-Large City Council Candidates Forum which is being sponsored by the Coalition to Save Our Neighborhood Schools (CSONS), Jobs With Justice, DC Library Renaissance Project, Empower DC, Fair Budget Coalition and the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. WPFW will be broadcasting live ! Find out where at-large city council candidates stand on:

The Issues
Preserving Public Property
Affordable Housing
Homeless Services
Gentrification
Public Schools
Good Jobs for DC residents

Wednesday, October 29, 2008
True Reformer Building
1200 U St., NW
6:30 - 8:30pm
(U St/Cardozo Metro on Green Line, Accessible location)
Come tell Candidates Invest in Human Needs First if they want your Vote!

All Candidates for City-Council At-Large have been invited
RSVP to Empower DC
(202) 234-9119 (Posted by The Washington Teacher !)