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Anne is reading …

Lips Are Sealed

Things got pretty darn heated between Ron Paul and CNN’s Gloria Borger this week, when she pressed the Republican presidential candidate over his old, inflammatory newsletters. “I didn’t write them, I didn’t read them at the time, and I disavow them. That’s it,” Paul snapped, before walking off the set.

Is this how Paul expects to answer questions in the White House Briefing Room? Does libertarian Ron Paul believe in free speech or not?

At the Atlantic, The Story Behind Ron Paul’s Racist Newsletters

The Christian Science Monitor writes Racist newsletters put Ron Paul on the defensive for first time

Salon’s Alex Pareene sums up Paul’s brand of libertarianism this way:

Ron Paul’s libertarianism has plenty of room for nativism and racism because so much of it does sound like a Pat Buchanan-style call for America to return to a golden age of white privilege. Paul isn’t a futurist … He’s a goldbug. He’s a deeply religious anti-abortion small-town country doctor who basically wants the government to operate as it did in 1837.

More reading: Angry White Man The New Republic

More DFR

German vs American Workers

American workers are told that they need to get real, that they are “an unsustainable relic in the face of a hyper-competitive, globalized marketplace”, writes Remapping Debate, picked up by Forbes.com.

In 2010, over 5.5 million cars were produced in Germany, twice the 2.7 million built in the United States. Average compensation (a figure including wages and employer-paid benefits) for autoworkers in Germany was 48.97 Euros per hour ($67.14 US), while compensation for auto work in the United States averaged $33.77 per hour, or about half as much as in Germany, all according to 2007 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For Germany-based auto producers, the U.S. is a low-wage country.

The German constitution actually provides for “works councils” in every factory, guaranteeing that management and employees work together on matters like shop floor conditions, assembly lines and work life. This mandated alliance fosters cooperation, rather than antagonism.

Occupation in Italy

In Rome alone there are 33 ‘centri sociali’. After this fall’s riots in Rome, the government and media has turned on the centers — which are dependent on private citizens for funding — calling them anarchist breeding grounds. Good takes a look at This Homegrown Youth Movement Is Occupying Italy.