i would say if your only window into music was the radio and tv, then yes hip hop is dead, along with every other popular music genre from rock to metal to indy. i think i has something to do with soul-less corporations that control our media markets that are to lazy to sell good music. people people who are also too lazy to go out and actively find good music to listen to generally are the ones complaining about how their favorite genre sucks these days. i would reel off a list of 20 or so amazingly strong hip hop artists from the past 5 years, but then again i shouldn't have to spoon feed a grown man.

i noted this trend while discussing work with my dad last week. my father works in HR at a french owned auto parts manufacturing plant here in the midwest. it turns out that they are getting more and more work sent their way by bmw for parts that would normally be shipped in from europe for assembly here. turns out now with the weak dollar and increased shipping costs, made in the usa is starting to become competitive again.

from what i've known about peak oil, i've always thought that eventually manufacturing would have to come back to the us due to shipping costs. i always thought it would take longer (like 30-40 years) before area's like the rust belt came back. having watched numerous plant closings throughout my life, its nice to see this trend hopefully start to reverse itself.

jedi says:

Or will developing (or developed) countries like China or Taiwan just "enforce" lower wages in order to remain competitive? In a perfect world, governments would enforce a living wage for its citizens. In this world, we have regimes that can simply instruct its workers to accept less pay.

considering china has more militant labor action and civil protest (read riots) in a week than the US has in a year i doubt any regime can long enforce the sort of labor market that made china what it is today. already companies are leaving china for the cheap labor of vietnam. while for now it might make sense for cheap disposable products to be made in far off factories, the transport costs of heavier more durable products will continue to rise and make local production more and more attractive.

of coarse this assumes people can afford to get to their jobs and that people can afford to buy the products they make.

i have to say i find it amusing every time a liberal reporter runs into heavily armed riot cops and express their discomfort. what do you people expect? you have a meeting of one half of the political system that enabled one of the great humanitarian disasters of the past 25 years all while turning a blind eye to the shredding whats left of our rights. by all rights there should be more than just adoring crowds greeting the dems. having been on the receiving end of state repression while said reporters stood back and took pictures, well i don't find pepper guns to be that scary these days, and i don't really care to hear reporters fret over something they will likely never experience.

she won't be back in alaska running rough shod over the oil industry. she might be getting the teddy rosevelt treatment. and to those who worry about natural gas going to canada's tar sand fields, well 85% of the oil that produces is headed straight to the us, as guaranteed by NAFTA. isn't globalization amazing?

you might want to pick up a copy of the epidemic by robert shaw. its got some hard suggestions about how to get your kid back under control. kind of the anti spock, but in a good way. it will be the last child care book you buy. just keep in mind dicks aren't born they're raised.

but in 2012 as long as his administration isnt a complete disaster, indiana could be a true battleground. my grandparents live in carmel, and while the mccain to obama sign ratio is about 6 to 1, never in my lifetime would i have imagined obama signs anywhere in hamilton county. at the very least here's to tying down mccain in '08, real victory in '12!!

. . . its called lighting a fire under your ass. if you truly are concerned that mccain has even a 5% chance of winning this, take some days off and get your lazy butt over to the nearest swing state and canvas, call, drag voters to early polling, anything. i'll be spending some of my next week in my home state of Indiana in the hopes that even if this republican POS's disgusting theory is true, i will tie down some of mccain's money and resources on a state democrats haven't won in 40 years.

HST once said politics is the art of controlling your environment. if we fail this election, we might as well let them line us up against a wall.

the ball is in our court, time to punch the GOP in the face.

What is it that a bully does when hit in the face? Find the weakest kid in the school yard to pound into submission. As this seems to be the sentiment being expressed in Israel, I can only assume, combined with my personal experiences with zionists (christian and jewish alike) that Israel is a nation of bullies, willing to kick to the ground anyone who attempts to act as any sovereign nation would.

As to the notion that "even the left supports the invasion", well that just goes to show the contradictions of calling ones self a leftist, and a zionist at the same time.