Syria Cracks Open Its Frail Economy

Syria is accelerating its economic opening – boosting U.S. hopes that its tight relationship with Iran might be weakened.

For decades, Syria has been defined by its rigid socialist economy and its military ties to Iran against Israel and the West. Trade sanctions have taken a heavy toll: More than half the 16 jets in Syria's state airline can't fly for lack of spare parts.

The Baath Socialists were connected with the Baath Party of Iraq.

But President Bashar Assad – heir to his family's political dynasty – has started unshackling the economy by permitting private banks and insurers to open shop and by letting Syrians hold foreign currency without risk of being tossed in jail. In March, he opened Syria's first stock exchange. Nearby are a Ford showroom and a KFC restaurant.

A socialist dynasty; interesting term.

President Assad's changes face pushback at home. Top members of Syria's ruling Baath Party say he is betraying the socialist agenda of his father, Hafez Assad, who served as president for three decades before his death in 2000. Liberal economists, meanwhile, say he isn't going far enough.

Sounds familiar.

Summers Calls Obama Defender of Free Markets

President Barack Obama's chief economist on Friday defended White House economic policies against criticism that they amounted to "a kind of back-door socialism."

Utter nonsense. The same geniuses, or of the same political party, criticized FDR similarly, and look how far FDR's socialism went: it left capitalism vibrant, so that the Republicans could destroy it. See Reagan, Ronald; Bush, George W.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, the chamber's second-ranking Republican, on Friday likened the president's economic policies to those of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

"It is stunning to see someone in the position of Larry Summers having to defend the president's commitment to free-market capitalism," Mr. Cantor said in an interview. "By giving this speech, this administration has signaled perhaps we are losing that America we all know."

Cantor is an utter idiot. Putin isn't a socialist; Russia's communism is done. Putin administers a sort of state capitalism, or corporatism. Cantor is simply using the name Putin to elicit a particular response. Schmuck.

‘Socialism!’ Boo, Hiss, Repeat

TALKS THE TALK Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, is one of the detractors of “socialism.”



Conservatives might be seeking a spiritual leader, organizing principle and fresh identity, but they at least seem to have settled on a favorite rhetorical ogre: socialism.

Rush Limbaugh seems to be their leader these days, and liberals could hardly be happier.

As in, Democrats are intent on forcing socialism on the “U.S.S.A” (as the bumper sticker says, under the words “Comrade Obama”).

Union of Soviet Socialist Americas? Perhaps they meant Union of American Socialist Republics? UASR?

It seems that “socialist” has supplanted “liberal” as the go-to slur among much of a conservative world confronting a one-two-three punch of bank bailouts, budget blowouts and stimulus bills. Right-leaning bloggers and talk radio hosts are wearing out the brickbat. “Earlier this week, we heard the world’s best salesman of socialism address the nation,” Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, said on Friday, referring, naturally, to a certain socialist in chief.

Socialism? These folks don't even know their history. Echoes of Herbert Hoover's credo of leave the system alone and it will right itself. What they want is for Ronald Reagan to come back and rescue them from the hell of oblivion.

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas decried the creation of “socialist republics” in the United States. “Lenin and Stalin would love this stuff,” Mr. Huckabee said, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference here over the weekend, a kind of Woodstock for young conservatives.

Another dolt. Stalin and Lenin and Obama in one breath? What an ass.

The contemporary era of socialist demonizing dates to the general election campaign between Mr. Obama and John McCain. Mr. McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, repeatedly accused Mr. Obama of wanting to “spread the wealth,” an offshoot of Mr. Obama’s caught-on-tape exchange with an Ohio plumber (i.e. “Joe the,” last seen signing copies of his new book at CPAC). “Socialism” became a star of subsequent McCain and Palin rallies in the same way that a dead bull is the star of a bullfight — an object of slings, spears and overall bloodlust.

A dead bull; apt metaphor.