See you in two weeks

I'm taking some time off and will resume posting in early December.

Are we being served?

I've said several times that it's not just the executive branch of our government that is falling down on the job, the legislative branch is also earning an F grade. Today's Boston Globe reports on the considerable decline in the number of Congressional hearings. Not only are there fewer hearings, but those that are held are on such trivial issues as steroids in baseball rather than something more substantive such as, for example, the situation at Guantanamo.

This is just another sign of the crappy times in which we live.

Another Gross-up Example

Another American icon, Georgia Pacific, will likely be sold to Koch Industries. The CEO of Georgia-Pacific will receive 1% of the acquisition price. You may think that 1% is not much, but we're talking a $13.2 billion acquisition here. So, the CEO gets $130 million in addition to his 'regular' retirement pension of $1.4 million annually.

Fair to the shareholders? Will the company also 'gross up' the 1%?

A small step toward sanity?

The Senate is proposing that executives pay a reasonable rate for their private use of corporate jets. (See this for a few egregious uses of the company plane.) Under this proposal, executives would pay significantly more in taxes for their personal use of a corporate asset. For example, under present rules an executive who travels 2,000 miles on the corporate jet to golf would have about $1500 added to his taxable income. If the proposed revision becomes law, that number would go to $30,000.

Let's see more of these kinds of laws that bring some common sense to the executive pay arena.

Where did all the dung go?

Thirty years ago the tilapia in Lake Edward in Congo were happy. And those who fished for them were also happy as they'd bring in about 500 fish a night. Hippos were the prime source of this happiness; each day they would dump more than 575,000 pounds of natural fertilizer in the lake. This fed phytoplankton which were eaten by worms and larvae, which, in turn, were eaten by the fish. The chain was completed when the fish became part of man's food supply.

Thirty years ago there were more than 9000 hippos who basked in Lake Edward every day. In 1986 civil war came to the Congo. Today there are less than 700 hippos left from the herd that fertilized the lake. Most of them have been killed by soldiers - rebel and government. Fertilizer production has decreased by more than 90%. The typical fish catch has decreased from 500 to 30 and the tilapia are smaller. The likelihood of famine increases with each hippo killed.

A different war

While in his latest Atlantic Monthly article about Iraq, “Why Iraq Has No Army”, James Fallows does not expend many words comparing our Iraq experience with a few of our previous military adventures, his comments about these previous experiences caught my eye.

For example, with Vietnam we actually trained some of our people in the Vietnamese language for four to six months. In the house-to-house conflicts of Iraq very, very few of our troops speak the language or have interpreters directly available to them.In World War II our military had Japanese language schools all over the country.

After two-plus years in Iraq we still are having problems supplying our troops with all the equipment they need. One of the major reasons we won WWII was because of our ability to quickly and efficiently supply almost all of the Allied troops.

I know it’s the 21^st century and the age of a volunteer army. But, when my brothers were drafted in WWII, they were gone until the Summer of 1945. Now, we transfer soldiers out after a year or less, no matter what our needs are. (See this post.) This idea of a limited stay violates all the advice of experts in counterterrorism: that the establishment of long term personal relationships is absolutely required to defeat insurgents.

As a child, I was quite aware that this country was at war as were all of my friends, not only because of the news but also because, in our own way, we all sacrificed. I can still recall Bush’s strategy as to what we could do to fight today's war on terrorism: shop.

Somewhat of a surprise

The Chief Astronomer of the Vatican says that intelligent design is not science and should not be taught in science classes.

Recruiting the Volunteer Army

Overall, the military has been having a hard time meeting their recruiting goals. However, the problem may be worse than portrayed, as a recent GAO study shows that in some areas recruitment is better than expected, while in the more vital areas such as Special Forces, intelligence specialists and, most importantly, translators recruiting results are worse than expected. In fact, about 40% of the ‘specialties' openings were not filled. Yet, by focusing on overall results, the question arises as to whether the Pentagon has given Congress a complete picture of its capabilities in the current wars.

Also, the pressures on the recruiters have led to enlistment bonuses being offered to those who signed up for jobs which were already fully manned and even over-staffed.

The Gross-Up

Twenty years ago Congress tried to exert some control over the amount of money that an executive could take from a company in which there has been a "change in control", i.e., they tried to limit the size of "golden parachutes". They established a 20% excise tax on the parachute if it exceeded the executive's average annual pay over the most recent five years.

Executive talent being in such short supply (yeah, right), some companies wanted to assure that their executives were 'fairly' ( the executives define fair) compensated if the company was sold. So, they generously offered to pay the tax for these departing executives, i.e., they increase or "gross-up" the amount of money paid so that the tax due is included.

Who really winds up paying the executive's taxes? The shareholders, as usual.

Really eliminating a boondoggle?

So our legislators have told Alaska that they cannot build the two 'bridges to nowhere' with the $442 million of our money embedded in the transportation bill. They can just use it in any other way they see fit. This still does not change the fact that Alaska is getting more transportation money per capita than just about any other state. All that our legislators have done is made it seem as less of a waste of our money.

What the f@#$ is going on?

It's really too bad that the on-line Wall Street Journal requires you to join (unless of course you take advantage of their introductory offer) as Tuesday's Journal had a fascinating article about David, an Army foreign-area officer.

David is a West Point graduate who has become an expert in the ways, customs and, most important, the language of Arabs. He spent two years in Yemen, where he was able to meet people who wouldn't step foot into the US Embassy and establish close relationships with these people.

In May 2004 he was transferred to Mosul to help build relationships with Iraqis who could be considered trustworthy. By all accounts he has performed superbly in a variety of tasks from reconaissance to nation-building. The chief of staff for the general in charge of the northern third of Iraq says of David and other foreign-area officers, "We ought to have one of these guys assigned to every commander in Iraq." Yet, David and his colleagues are being transferred out of Iraq. When David leaves Mosul, the Embassy there will have exactly zero people who speak Arabic or who can be considered a Middle East expert. Does that make any sense? Particularly when we have made so many mistakes in Iraq because we don't understand the culture or speak the language.

Is it only me?

The media have been trumpeting the fact that the Senate has passed a bill requiring a quarterly report from the administration on the status of things in Iraq. Yet, I've seen nothing on what this report should cover. I find that strange. My experience says that this report will cover whatever the administration wants it to cover. As to whether it will, in Drucker's words, have "specific, measurable goals" is another matter.

And, of course, the House still has to pass this. What are the odds of that happening?

You have to wonder whether this is all posturing for 2006.

A few of Peter Drucker's best ideas

Successful enterprises create the conditions to allow employees to do their best work.

Organizations should articulate a clear purpose, with specific, measurable goals.

Managers must ask the unanswered questions and consider ignored issues.

Updates to previous posts

Saddam and his co-defendants had 1500 lawyers, 1100 of which have opted out of the case.

The Pentagon has admitted using white phosphorus to more than light the battlefield in Fallujah; it was used as a weapon.

Blue-Gene/L, IBM's and the world's fastest computer, is not only more than twice as fast as its predecessor but uses only about one-fifth the power as well.

A Disengagement Strategy?

from the Army War College, no less. The Strategic Studies Institute, housed at the War College, has an interesting article about a disengagement strategy re Iraq in this month's newsletter. The article concludes with a series of recommendations, a couple of the more interesting ones are:

• "The military and intelligence leaders must be painfully honest in addressing the question of when Iraqi security forces will be able to function without a coalition troop presence to prop them up.
• The viability of Iraqi units must be measured by a series of tough indicators, including real efforts to measure intangibles like morale and unit cohesion, as well as quantifying training and the distribution of weapons and equipment.
• As a last resort for preventing near-term civil war, the United States may have to swallow the bitter pill of allowing local militias to retain a significant and ongoing role in Iraqi politics....
• The United States needs to deemphasize thetoric that may cause Iraqi citizens to believe their government has been put in place to wage war on US enemies in the Muslim world... If Iraq is the 'central front' in the war on terrorism, then it is part of a campaign that mainstream Muslims view as including Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's actions against the Palestinians and Russian Presdent Vladimir Putin's campaign against Chechnya.
• All future wars should have carefully planned exit strategies based on something other than best case planning...."

History redux?

Are the interrogation methods being used at Guantanamo the same as those used by the Communists? That's what an op-ed in today's NY Times claims. If so, maybe we should think about the goal of a Communist interrogation: breaking one's soul. I would hope that we don't have the same goal.

Wow!

In June IBM announced that Blue Gene/L, its computer that Lawrence Livermore Labs uses to study all sorts of arcane things, could now operate at 136.8 trillion calculations a second. Less than six months later, it's turbocharged the computer so that it now operates at 280.6 trillion calculation per second, or more than double its previous record speed.

Talk about a legal team

Did you know that Saddam's legal team consists of 1100 lawyers? That's one thousand one hundred people defending eight people. I wonder how they can get anything done. Maybe that's why they're pulling out of the trial. Of course, having two of your number killed may have some influence on that decision as well.

The Wonderful World of the Large Public Corporation

I've written a fair bit about the compensation of those who run America's large companies. These 'leaders' of the corporate world make more than a decent buck in cash, stock, and perquisites no matter how their companies fare. Gretchen Morgenson in today's NY Times points out that these benefits can also be made even when a company is in bankruptcy.

Her example is Delphi Corporation, the parts business spinoff by GM. Here's a company that has lost more than $6 billion dollars in the past two years, even though it has under-funded its pension plan by $11 billion (that you and I will pick up as taxpayers since the plan will go to the PBGC). Yet, it intends to compensate most of those who have managed the company so poorly with hundreds of millions of dollars should the company make it out of bankruptcy or manage to sell its assets, while at the same time it proposes to cut its employees' pay by two-thirds and screw its retireees.

One particular aspect of the compensation plan filed with the bankruptcy court caught my attention - incentive bonuses. These are calculated not on net earnings, but on earnings less interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and restructuring costs. I've always had a problem with definitions of earnings that don't include all of a company's costs, including interest, taxes and depreciation, but the exclusion of restructuring costs in a situation crying for restructuring boggles the mind. They can spend whatever they want to restructure and pay no penalty for doing so. If the incentive bonuses are earned, they will amount to $21.5 million in the first six months. Toyota, not exactly a loser in the auto world, pays its top thirty-three executives the same amount for a full year.

There's a lot more of this robbery going on but I'm too p.oed. to go on. Where have notions of morality, decency, fairness gone?

The last AT&T president

I'm sure David Dorman is a smart guy. He finished Georgia Tech in three years, was the youngest president of a Bell operating company, was CEO of AT&T before he turned 50. But he had five years to resucitate AT&T and was unable to do so. Yet, when SBC finalizes its purchase of AT&T, Dorman will leave and take with him a severance package estimated at over $30 million.

What did the stockholders get from Dorman's five year reign at AT&T?

Some things take longer than others

The investigation into the CIA leak took 22 months and cost $724,041. Starr's investigation into the Clintons took 49 months and cost $73.5 million. The investigation into Henry Cisneros, former HUD Secretary, has cost less than the Starr investigation, $23.6 vs $73.5 million, but it has taken over 10 years and is not yet finished. In the six months ending in March the people running the Cisneros investigation spent almost a million dollars, Fitzgerald's CIA investigation spent about a tenth of that.

Talk about milking a dead horse! But, hey, it's only taxpayer's money.

Another Good Deal

Now comes the tale of companies backdating stock options. That is, they grant executives an option today but at yesterday's lower price. Not a bad deal for the executives as they are guaranteed to make money. But a bad deal for the stockholders.

Options are supposed to be designed as an incentive. You help the company do well, so the stock goes up and your options are worth more. You help the company do poorly, the stock goes down and your options are worth less. A reasonable deal.

But it's not the way the world works at some companies, Mercury Interactive being one such company. Their CEO and CFO have both left and the company is restating its financial results going back to 2002, all the result of their use of the backdating of options. Other companies are being investigated by the SEC.

The Abstinence-Only Nuts Are At It Again

and I emphasize the word 'only'. It seems that many in the abstinence-only cause (on which we taxpayers spend hundreds of millions annually) would prefer that cervical cancer not be cured via a newly discovered vaccine. Why are so many in this country and in the Muslim world so fearful of sex?

Pinewood Derby 21st Century Style

When my oldest son was a Cub Scout, he participated in the Pinewood Derby, a race in which kids entered cars carved from pine. It may have cost a couple of dollars for the wood, wheels, screws, etc. I think Cub Scout dens today still run these derbies. They are a way of father-son bonding and were fun for both parties.

Now, however, kids - at least 135,000 of them in the US - race in go-karts. No big deal, you say. Before reading today's Journal, I would have agreed with you; in fact, my younger kids drove these karts at amusement parks. However, in 2005 we're talking about a different kind of go-kart. Ones that can get up to 70 mph. Ones where the drivers (as young as 5) wear fireproof suits, helmets and chest protectors, but not seat belts. Most races have an ambulance in attendance to rush the injured kids - oops, I mean drivers - to the hospital when they are injured.

In September I wrote about parents who give their kids Spark, a caffeine drink, to bolster their athletic prowess, they hope. I found it hard to believe that parents could take such risks with their kid's health. But that risk pales in comparison to the risks in go-kart racing. Before these kids race, the parents sign a waiver that they "fully understand" that the dangers involve "serious bodily injury, including permanent disability, paralysis and death". In 2000 one kid was killed. What rational parent even in the 21st century can allow his child to run these risks?

Not only are the risks substantial, the costs are not for the average worker. Annual costs of $10,000 are not uncommon. One guy bought his 11-year-old son three carts, twenty sets of tires and a 26-foot trailer to haul everything in and he is thinking of buying a tractor-trailer with living space and mechanic's area which can set him back $200,000.

It's a great country, isn't it? You're free to be as stupid and wasteful as you want to be.

Another record

September's trade deficit of $66.1 billion topped the previous record of $60.4 billion set in February. Will we hit $70 billion in this last quarter?

Small Potatoes

Another hedge fund, Groundswell Partners, has gone belly up because of fraud. It's only $43 million that was robbed. In this case, the founder, Mark Conway, said that he created "fictitious brokerage statements, fictitious accounting reports, fictitious audit reports, a fictitious auditor, and fund performance information". Conway has written a number of publications about investing. Perhaps, he'll become a novelist now.

Can a piece of paper change your life?

For years Hernando de Soto, a Peruvian economist, has been arguing that urban poverty can be alleviated by giving the poor property rights. A recent edition of The Wall Street Journal featured an article describing the different outcomes of Argentinian families that occupied what they thought to be public land twenty-five years ago.

It so happened that the land was not public, but was owned by thirteen separate people. The government was able to buy the land from eight of the owners and pass title to that land to those living there. It is still negotiating with the other five.

So, you had a situation where in the beginning everybody was more or less equal - the same background, education, size of lot, type of job, etc. But once some people owned their land, things changed. Those who owned land are now many years later much better off than those who have not yet been able to get title. Not only do they have better houses. They have fewer children and they are better educated. There are fewer teenage pregnancies. They are more optimistic about the future.

The title to their land - a piece of paper - has certainly made a difference in San Francisco Solano.

It's not Night of the Living Dead

but, Lord, this documentary from the Italian network RAI has photographs - of men, women and children with face skin burned off and teeth prominent - that remind me of the ghouls one sees in horror movies. What is truly horrible about this documentary (if it is corect) is that we, the US of A, and are using what in effect are chemical weapons on civilians as well as enemy forces.

This interview with a Pentagon spokesman, the director of the documentary and a soldier who appeared in the documentary is a classic in how to conduct an interview when you don't have a leg to stand on. All would-be flacks should study it.

Is Accounting 101 no longer taught?

You have to wonder about the state of accounting education in this country. Many private sector companies can't seem to close their books or analyze their cash needs or hire competent accountants or perform basic stuff any accountant worth his salt learned in the first year of Accounting. You can argue that these companies are not spending your money. But, these problems have spread to the federal government, which is spending your money. Here's what the GAO has to say about NASA:

• It's been on the GAO high-risk list since 1990.
• It can't properly identify adjustments or correcting entries
• It can't consistently post transactions to the right accounts
• Its financial statements cannot be audited.

And NASA is not alone. These problems "are not uncommon among federal agencies".

What in the Lord's name is going on? How can these agencies waste our money like this?

Day of reckoning closer?

The International Energy Agency (IEA), an energy adviser to 26 wealthy countries, is worried. Will there be enough oil? Can we maintain a reasonably good economy over the long haul? What are we doing to the environment?

In its annual report, the agency feels that we are overly dependent on the Middle East. "95% of the world relies for its economic well-being on five or six countries in the Middle East." They're concerned that the governments there may restrain production in an attempt for even higher prices. 17 of the 20 cutoffs of the oil supply over the past thirty years have been in the Middle East.

Supply is not their only concern. Concern for the environment from carbon emissions has caused the agency to call for greater use of renewable resources and nuclear power.

Not a pleasant prospect.

Some leaks are more important than others

Patrick Fitzgerald investigated the circumstances surrounding the outing of one CIA agent. There is supposedly another investigation into the leaking of secret intelligence - that we had broken a crucial Iranian code - to a foreign power, Iran.

The Fitzgerald investigation is over. The other investigation has supposedly been ongoing for seventeen months. No grand jury has been convened in the matter. Federal prosecutors and the Justice Department have evinced little interest. It remains in the hands of the FBI. Yet, the effects of this second leak dwarf the outing of Valerie Plame. Is the lack of progress and interest due to the fact that Ahmad Chalabi is involved? He is accused of obtaining the leaked information and passing it to Iran, who were his allies in opposing Saddam.

He was the guy who told us of the existence of WMD and that we would be treated as liberators. He's also been convicted of embezzling $288 million from a bank he ran in Jordan.

He'll be meeting with Rice and Snow this week because he has somehow wormed his way back into power in Iraq.

Games Nobel Prize Winners Play

In an interview in The Wall Street Journal, Thomas Schelling, game theorist and co-winner of this year's Nobel Prize in Economics, asserts that "terrorism is an almost miniscule problem." He points out that more people die from car accidents in three-and-a-half weeks in this country than died in the World Trade Center disaster. Also, when terrorism is compared with the common ways of dying (accidents, drowning, heart attacks, etc.), it is down near the bottom.

Clearly, he has a point. But the physical deaths caused by terrorists are only one element of the costs. Injuries add to the physical costs as does the destruction of buildings and other propety. Then, there is the psychological cost; people all over the globe are terrified about terrorism and their fear is not without costs. Most people believe that accidents or failing health happens to other people (until it happens to you) and act that way. Unfortunately, if you're living in Baghdad or Tel Aviv or Gaza, you find it hard to believe that bad things always happen to the other guy. You know that today there is a good chance that it may happen to you.

Did you get your letter yet?

Your National Security Letter, that is. Oops, I forgot that if you did get such a letter, you could not tell me, not today, not ever. In fact, you may not even know that you are the subject of such a letter.

What is a National Security Letter you ask? It's a letter that, under the activities approved by the Patriot Act, the FBI issues to collect private details about anybody, even if that person is not suspected of anything. It does not allow the Feds to eavesdrop or read your e-mail. But it does allow them to trace your activities so that they could learn where you work, how you spend your money, where and with whom you live now and in the past, what you buy on-line, how much you gamble, whether you use a pawn shop, what you invest in, what you search for and read on the web, who calls or e-mails you whether at home or work.

It's not a big deal for the FBI to 'authorize' the issuance of such a letter; they're doing it at the rate of 30,000+ a year now; pre 9/11 they may have issued 300 a year. They don't need a judge or grand jury to isue the letter; they simply ask their boss. And, once the information is obtained it need not be destroyed at the conclusion of an investigation, but the information discovered can be shared with "state, local and tribal governments" and for "appropriate private sector entities", which remain undefined.

Of course, this tool in the 'war on terror' is a valuable one. Problem is no one knows. No one in Justice, the FBI, Congress or the White House audits the use of these letters to determine their value in the 'war on terror' or any other criminal investigation.

Is this the kind of government we want?

Yoo's Arguments Go Up In Smoke

In the current issue of the New York Review of Books David Cole, a Georgetown professor, demolishes the arguments of John Yoo, the former Justice Department lawyer whose bizarre interpretation of the constitution has damaged us so much both internationally and domestically.

Yoo is the writer of memos that say that the President is above the law when it comes to his role as Commander-in-Chief. Treaties don't count. Congress does not have the power to declare war, nor does it have any say when it comes to foreign affairs. Torture is okay. Violation of the Geneva Convention is permissible. Sending captured enemies to undemocratic countries is fine.

The question is: have these claims and their implementation helped or harmed us in this 'war on terror'? The answer is obvious to anyone who has had their eyes and ears open these past two-and-a-half years.

It boggles the mind

Scientists at IBM have figured out a way to slow light down. We may have to re-learn that light does not always travel at 186,282,000 miles a second. Or, at least it does not do so when IBM wants to store it in a silicon chip on an experimental basis. Practical applications are a long way off, but if it proves practical in the manufacturing world, we'll have faster computers and faster web processing.

Incidentally, the head researcher on this project is Yurii Vlasov. Will tighter immigration standards result in discoveries of this magnitude being made other than in the US of A?

This is November in New England?

It's 60 degrees here and sunny and it's November 5. It's been like this most of the week and is forecast to continue for at least another week. We really need it, as the weather to this point in the year has been abysmal.

But, we also need it to counter the string of bad news lately: nine days of riots in France with no end in sight, protests in Argentina, people freezing in Pakistan, the escalating insurgency in Iraq, the shame of Guantanamo and other secret prisons, Katrina and its aftermath, the limited water and gasoline in Florida after Wilma, the vitriol invoked by the Alito nomination etc., etc.

We all have our own little quirks

You've got to have a certain weird sense of humor to appreciate this.

I picked up the above bit from this blog, The Kackistocrat's Handbook for the Recently Deceased.

Give me your tired and your poor

Okay, it's not the 20th century anymore and Ellis Island is a park, not a port of entry to this country. But, building a fence from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants? You gotta be kidding.

Except that Duncan Hunter, California Congressman, is not kidding. He wants to have us pay an unknown amount to build a 2,000 mile fence in order to keep out illegal immigrants. Perhaps he should also build a fence on our Northern borders from whence came Mohammad Atta.

This reminds me of what Russia did in Berlin. Will Hunter name his construction the Mexico Wall?

Another weapon in the war on terror

In today's Washington Post Dana Priest has a lengthy article about another questionable artifact in the war on terror: CIA secret prisons.

According to Priest, the CIA has made deals with foreign countries, many in Eastern Europe, whereby the CIA can stash people in prisons for perhaps the rest of their lives and, while they are in prison, treat them in any way they feel like whether or not such treatment violates the laws of the host country, the US or the international community.

Okay, maybe they've got some really bad guys in these jails. But, there are several concerns as to the wisdom of this program, particularly as to whether it will come to haunt us. For example, does any of the following square with our proclamations of freedom and justice:

• The only members of Congress who know about the program are the chair and vice-chair of the House and Senate intelligence committees. Not even the members of these committees know.
• Should the existence of the program become known, the US would be open to legal challenges even in those countries which house the prisons.
• It is illegal for us to hold prisoners in such isolation in the US. So, we do our dirty work outside of the range of US law.
• We and most other countries have signed the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Yet, the CIA interrogators in these prisons are allowed to use methods forbidden by this UN treaty.
• This policy was established based on a presidential 'finding' that gave the CIA broad powers in the war on terror. However, such findings must not break US law.

Will this article lead to anything beyond outrage and the feeling of "I told you so" among Muslims?

Only 1 Criterion?

Is a Supreme Court nominee's view of abortion the only thing that matters? That's certainly the impression I get from scanning the media on both sides of Alito. What about the questions of competence and relevant experience? Are they not more important than whether one is for or against abortion? After all, there are a heck of lot of issues that will or should be facing the Supreme Court over the next twenty or so years. Here are a few examples that I can think of at 7 in the morning of an unseasonably warm November day.

• Does the fact that Congress has not declared war in fifty years mean that they have abdicated their constitutional power to do so?
• Are Americans more evil than other nations? If not, why are so many of our fellow citizens in jail? Do we try to control people's lives too much? And why are the majority of the inmates black or Hispanic or from the inner city? Are they more prone to criminality than white people or those who live in the suburbs? Or, just maybe the odds are stacked against them from birth?
• Does allocating $200,000,000 to abstinence programs violate the separation of church and state? What about making these programs a condition of our foreign aid?
• Does a failure to prosecute higher-ups in the Abu Gharaib scandal give these people more rights than the soldiers who have been convicted?
• Does the Patriot Act abrogate any of our inherent rights to privacy?
• Does concocting false reasons for going to war violate any oaths of office?
• Is the government's failure to act in times of emergency a violation of people's rights?
• Should the executives of companies that fail to adequately fund their pension liabilities be held personally accountable? Or should the burden of paying the pensions fall to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (aka you and me)?
• Should those who send our soldiers into battle without proper equipment be prosecuted?
• Can a President be prosecuted for fiscal irresponsibility?
• Is there some minimal measure of competence that presidential nominees must meet?
• Should those who run our education system be brought up on charges of dereliction of duty?
• What are the legal ramifications of stem cell research, cloning, nanotechnology?
• Should the government pay people to fully convert to HDTV?
• Have we lived up to the treaties we have signed?

And the list could go on and on. We're living in parlous times. But we allow our leaders to spend their time focusing on the non-essential.