Conservative Women’s Group Cites Small Petrodictatorship as Ideal Form of Government

[ensho]

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/02/conservative_womens_group_cites_small_petrodictatorship_as_ideal_form_of_government.php


Jeff Madrick from the Economic Policy Institute has written a book called The Case for Big Government which is dedicated to explaining how an active and capable state sector is a necessary precondition for economic growth. David Kusnets gave it a positive review in The New York Times Book Review. Donna Wiesner Keese, from the Independent Women’s Forum, a conservative anti-feminist group, objected:

Madrick’s statement, quoted by the reviewer, that “there really is no example of small government among rich nations,” is unsupported nonsense. Think Dubai, free and rich.

-snip-

There’s also the question of why you would describe Dubai as “free.” Or, rather, I understand perfectly well why she describes it as “free” — it’s a straightforward consequence of the right-wing’s sick obsession with reducing the level of taxes rich people need to pay as the prime virtue of politics. For from being free, Dubai is ruled by a dictator, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, dignified with royal title in virtue of the fact that he inherited his political power from relatives rather than seizing it of his own accord. The State Department certainly doesn’t seem to think that his subjects, or those of the other UAE component emirates, are all that free:

The government’s respect for human rights remained problematic, and significant human rights problems reported included: no citizens’ right to change the government and no popularly elected representatives of any kind; flogging as judicially sanctioned punishment; arbitrary detention and incommunicado detention, both permitted by law; questionable independence of the judiciary; restrictions on civil liberties- freedom of speech and of the press (including the Internet), and assembly; restrictions on right of association; restrictions on religious freedom; domestic abuse of women, sometimes enabled by police; trafficking in women and children; legal and societal discrimination against women and noncitizens; corruption and lack of government transparency; common abuse of foreign domestic servants; and severe restrictions on and abuses of workers’ rights. <…>

-snip-

Freedom House sticks the UAE with its coveted “not free” tag, owing to its total lack of political freedom and scant respect for human rights. But, hey, the Independent Women’s Forum says we should look to it as a shining example of how small government will bring us prosperity and liberty.
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female neo cons are just as nuts as the males. their 'awareness' was never awakened.

[tanyev]

1. Dubai is having economic troubles, too.

Consider an economy with only one real resource. Proximity to oil wealth. And consider that oil wealth has declined from $150 per barrel to $40 per barrel in just 3 months. Suddenly, Dubai doesn't seem to glitter as brightly.

Land prices have declined and banks in Dubai are trying to hide bad loans and potential huge losses. Prices for condos, and offices have collapsed. Investors who had put money into new properties in Dubai, are having trouble finding buyers at any price.

Banks are nervous. Investors have lost confidence. Projects are quietly pulling back.Vacancy levels in new buildings remain high.
Spending in Dubai is declining. The world's wealthy have lost the most in the global economic debacle, but places like Dubai, are at the highest risk.

Dubai is known as more restrictive on free communication, evesdropping, and monitoring by it's government, than even China. Internet communications are monitored closer than any nation on earth. Dubai is an inconsistent nation and it's economics are as inconsistent as it's "morality" code.

http://bootheglobalperspectives.com/article.asp?id=253

[ensho]

2. the world is going around too fast for the conservative women to follow

thanks for the info