Tom Friedman Goes on PBS to Once Again Explore His Extreme Envy of Red China

NewsBusters.org ^ | September 09, 2011 | Tim Graham

[SanFranDan]

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is asked to appear in all the liberal salons, including the rarefied air of the Charlie Rose show on PBS in the late hours, where few Republicans appear. On Wednesday (after his appearance on CNN), he and his co-author Michael Mandelbaum (a foreign policy adviser to Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign) came to promote their new book That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back.

Rose and Friedman once again discussed how inferior American politics is to communist China, which naturally knows how to get things done...with such authoritarian panache. Friedman talked up how we feel weak, like when we couldn't have a Minnesota Vikings game when the Metrodome roof collapsed. We'd say "if this were China, they would have walked to the game in the snow, and doing calculus along the way."

CHARLIE ROSE: Another point about this around the corner is you went to China in 2010 to one of these World Economic Forum conferences in China. And you`re in this magnificent place and you think, God, they`ve got all this stuff and then you had what thought?

THOMAS FRIEDMAN: Well, then I come home and Michael and I live in Bethesda, Maryland and we take the subway to work both of us often and go to the subway and the escalators there had been broken or in repair for six months each one with 21 stairs. And I was struck that it was stuck too but China had built this convention center in 8.5 months --

[Ozone34]

"Rose and Friedman once again discussed how inferior American politics is to communist China..."

I was so disoriented reading this. The first thing to come to mind was "Milton & Rose would never say such a thing!"

[ken21]

>>>how inferior American politics is to communist China,

you wonder how such pukes live with themselves.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

They don’t. Self flagellation. And take everyone down with them.

[Ozone34]

Seriously, Tom & Charlie, please check this out:

"The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers" by Richard McGregor

[HereInTheHeartland]

“And I was struck that it was stuck too but China had built this convention center in 8.5 months —”

And they used toxic sulfur emitting Chinese drywall. And it will probably collapse in the first storm.
Yes we want to imitate China. Not...

[hinckley buzzard]

Maybe boychick Tommy Friedman should visit Auschwitz to study the efficiency of the German industrial model.

[Ozone34]

I have a civic duty to recommend these reviews of Thomas Friedman's recent literary contributions by the ever restrained and thoughtful critic, Matt Taibbi:

Flathead - The peculiar genius of Thomas L. Friedman.

Flat N All That - MATT TAIBBI takes on porn-stached New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s greenish ways.

[Daaave]

CHARLIE ROSE: Another point about this around the corner is you went to China in 2010 to one of these World Economic Forum conferences in China.

THOMAS FRIEDMAN: Well, then I come home and Michael and I live in Bethesda, Maryland and we take the subway to work both of us often and go to the subway and the escalators there had been broken or in repair for six months each one with 21 stairs. And I was struck that it was stuck too but China had built this convention center in 8.5 months

July 29, 2011 by Daniel Yun
The bullet train crash is now seen as a fateful metaphor of bullet speed progress at the expense of safety and transparency.

Weibo has heightened China’s embarrassment with comparison of safety records in Japan and Europe, where bullet train fatalities are all but non-existent.

Too bad Friedman and Rose wasn't on this train. They seem to admire the way that the Chinese do stuff. Maybe next time.

[Daaave]

The link for the above story and quotes. danielyunhx.wordpress.com

[Last Dakotan]

...and the escalators there had been broken or in repair for six months each one with 21 stairs.

An East coast problem. Here in the Midwest we fix things as they should be. The larger the city - the longer things stay broke.

[BBell]

Well we did build The Pentagon in 16 months. But that was a different America. In 10 years we still have not managed to rebuild the Twin Towers.

IN regard to China, I seriously doubt the Chinese would bankroll generations of an underclass of breeding welfare layabouts.

[wjcsux]

I suggest that if this A-hole loves the ChiComs so much, he ought to re-locate there!

[personalaccts]

I guess after Rick Santelli slammed his a$$ on CNBC public TV will treat him better

[6SJ7]

Thomas Friedman fawning over a fascist state like China is reminisant of the “progressives” back in the 30’s fawning over Hitler’s efficiency. The bottom line is people such as Friedman want that power and can see themselves wielding power over others. Their hubris prevents them from imagining being instead on the receiving end of a dictate; just one of the “little people”.

[maggief]

Friedman's mansion:

[ponder life]

Friedman shouldn't compare China and the US when he wants to speak of how efficient China is. Rather, he should compare China to other developing nations. That would be a better comparison. And in that regard, China build circles around other developing nations.

The US and other developed nations, because infrastructure is well developed, have the luxury of haggling over public hearings, environmental studies, etc. If all of a sudden, for example, half of America's airports were destroyed, I believe Americans would plow through airport projects and quickly rebuild; expedite environmental studies, ignore the trouble makers at public hearings, and remove the red tape. There probably wouldn't even be public hearings, just public notices that an army of construction workers and all their equipment are going to show up in the area.

[Cronos]

Friedman compares communist China building a building by edict to a subway repair?