Dog Day Carnival

Welcome to the Carnival of the Liberals, a fortnightly collection of the best of liberal blogging. This Carnival differs from others in that it is "the best" - only ten posts are selected out of all the submissions. This time - I attributed it to the weather, though of course it's late winter in some places! - I thought I had 11 submissions - and made the mistake of saying so to Leo when he sent over #11 Tuesday morning. A little joke about "Now I can say I had to winnow them!"

He immediately sent me 20 more (some glitch with the blogcarnival submitter or something) and there they were waiting for me when I got home from work.

So. I did indeed have some winnowing to do.

Actually, of course, I'm not complaining. It's one of the perks of being the host: all those blogs I haven't seen before, and all those posts you don't get see unless you scour the blogosphere. But, still, it's not at all easy. The first cut got me to twenty. That's twice as many as I'm allowed to include. The second cut, which was harder and ended up being mostly which posts made me say "amen!" or smile, got me to twelve - and two of those were by the same blogger, so that made it relatively easy to get to eleven. (No, I'm not going to tell you who; scout around the blogs after you read their carnival entry; they've pretty much all got more good to read than just this one.)

So - it wasn't easy, but I got it done. And - in no particular order - here you go:

The Dog Days Edition (#45) of the Carnival of the Liberals!
	Shaula Evans sent in Ian Welsh's How We Create Our Own Crimes posted at The Agonist, saying, "Large numbers of US local economies are predicated on a prison industry that pays rural whites to incarcerate urban blacks. But the bottom line is, the country makes policy choices that set the crime and incarceration rates -- and makes them higher than any other industrialized country in the world."
	Steve Gimbel presents The Winner in Last Night's Debate? Frank Luntz posted at Philosophers' Playground, saying, "A look at why we should be calling it universal marriage, not gay marriage and why our frontrunners refuse to embrace it."
	omyma presents Infrastructure, Infrastructure... wherefore art thou, Infrastructure? posted at thinkbridge. "When nation-building meant building our nation, not everybody else's ... when "homeland security" meant taking care of what makes a nation secure ... when bridges were symbolic of what made our nation great ..."
	Greta Christina presents Right Wing Hypocrisy, or Why Sex Guilt Fucks Things Up For Everyone posted at The Blowfish Blog, saying, "This piece is about the recent rash of right-wing sex scandals -- but instead of simply commenting on the obvious hypocrisy, it examines the question of why the specific taboo sex acts these people engage in are so often the exact ones they publicly campaign against. (There's also a follow-up .)"
	Mike Haubrich presents Slavery is Murder for Girls posted at Latest entries from Tangled Up in Blue Guy, saying, "The world is still allowing slavery to be a profitable enterprise. Sexual slavery is proving to be a death sentence for young girls from Nepal; and Minnesota has some work to do to stop sexual slavery as well."
	Doctor Biobrain presents Patient Americans posted at And Doctor Biobrain's Response Is..., saying, "My life is depending on you picking my post for this carnival. I'm sure you understand."
	Charles H. Green presents We've All Caught the Detroit Disease posted at Trust Matters, saying, "As the US car industry continues its inexorable decline it's worth looking at why and asking if the rest of the country is also exhibiting the symptoms of the "Detroit Disease".”
	Barry Leiba presents Imperialism, and what we want in a president posted at Staring At Empty Pages. "Perhaps the best way to do something about it is to vote against such imperialism... But it's not clear that Americans voters consider that — at all."
	Barbara presents Don't wanna and no one's gonna make me posted at Barbara's Tchatzkahs. "Bush however, has a tin ear when it comes to criticism of what he's been doing with his Presidency.... Like a kid he doesn't want to relinquish one of his "toys" just yet."
	artThailand presents Is it ok to trash Thaksin now? posted at artThailand. "I am personally drawn to art that carries political and/or social messages. It has always interested me that some of the most powerful art and literature has thrived in times and places of adversity"
And a bonus (I couldn't get down to ten; I'm hoping Leo will just be glad I jumped into the breach) - an old post reworked for your enjoyment:
	Gavin R. Putland presents John W. Howard's Flowchart for Political Success posted at grputland.com. "This chart explains how a never-ending torrent of legislation opposed by every member of the Australian Parliament is being passed with ostensibly bipartisan support."

Whew! That's the Carnival for this fortnight! Next time it will be hosted at Truth in Politics. It's never too early to get your submissions in, either.

Hope you enjoyed this edition, and see you in two weeks!