I read in the Post-Gazette today that Allegheny County (Pittsburgh, basically) Democrats chose a new Committee head.

 <>Burn named new chairman of Allegheny County Democrats. In a major changing of the guard for Allegheny County Democrats, county Councilman Jim Burn was elected party chairman yesterday./

Since I grew up in Pittsburgh (but have been gone for years) I am curious if anyone has any comments on this.  Is this anything similar to the progressive progress in Philly?
 

Fox Television today announced plans to air a new reality series next season, "Dumpster Diving for the Elderly."  In this new series, elderly people who have "lost" their social security investment accounts will compete to see who can glean the most food and living materials from the dumpsters of famous people.  Fox spokesman Roger Ailes, who has newly taken over the entertainment division, said, "With the prospective passage of the President's Social Security privatization plan, the elderly are going to have to get used to this.  We hope to inspire them, and maybe give them some good "how to" tips."

I have a conservative friend who said to me the other day "The Cold Warriors were proven right," meaning that it was our military might that won the Cold War.  

My theory, based simply on my own observations, is that we did not win the Cold War on the battlefield. While our military contained the Russian communists and kept them from military invasions of most other countries, it was our economic and cultural power that really led to the downfall of Soviet communism.  Our economy produced more and better goods than the Soviets, and, if given a choice, the world would clearly choose our economy over that of communist Russia . Who would choose one of those clunky Russian cars over a Corvette?  In addition, our cultural icons, from Mickey Mouse to Diana Ross to Marilyn Monroe to John Irving to Bobby Orr (and on and on and on) were much, much more attractive than anything coming out of the Soviet block.  Once people inside the Soviet Union had access to what we were really all about, Bhresnev gave way to Gorbachov who gave way to Yeltsin.

This leads to a better way to win "The Global War on Terrorism" than invading Iraq (then Iran, then Syria, etc.)  We can use our military might to contain the terrorists, while we attempt real economic and cultural engagement with the people of the region (and of course, I recognize all of the difficulties, obstacles and complexities of this.)

Anyhow, can anyone help point me to resources that share my view of how we won the Cold War?  I am looking for books, article, authors etc. - anything that can help me to validate and substantiate my view.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

The theoretical underpinnings of the BushCo economy is that the market works and it will mete out punishment for companies who do not perform. This is in contrast to government, where bureaucrats are not responsible to anyone and can simply collect their paychecks while doing nothing.

Then something like Merck comes along and exposes the truth. Left to itself, a capitalistic economy will turn into an oligarchic, crony capitalistic club, where insiders take care of each other, no matter what they do. And right now, this is George Bush's America.