The little guy gets a boost

Two people who owned a small amount of Viacom stock got fed up with the compensation received by Viacom's top people in 2004 and decided to sue. They sued the company alleging that the directors did not exercise their fiduciary obligation when they approved what the plaintiffs claim was excessive compensation to the top three executives. The executives were paid $160,000,000 in salary, bonus and options in a year when the company lost $18 billion and the stock price dropped by almost 20%. Sounds excessive to me.

Naturally, Viacom and its high-priced legal help asked the court to dismiss the case. But the judge said no, there was sufficient evidence to support the plaintiff's case. The evidence spoke to the independence of the company's directors. Viacom claimed that seven of twelve directors were independent; the judge thought otherwise. This will be a very interesting case to watch.

A miracle?

Apparently, if you're disabled, you can buy World Cup tickets at a discount. So, three guys from Argentina did so and rolled their wheelchairs into the stadium. Soccer fans, especially those from Latin America, get very excited during a game. One of the 'disabled' fans got so excited that he kept jumping up. A seatmate of the jumper thought a miracle had occurred. Of course, you know what really happened: the three guys were frauds, they were not disabled.

I guess it was inevitable

CA has joined the ranks of companies with stock options problems. Apparently, they established a pool of options without specifying the recipients of such options for, in some cases, two years. In the '90s CA stock was on an upward slope, so when the recipients received their options they had already made money on them. This practice will cost them anywhere from $40,000,000 to $120,000,000 in restated expenses.

At the same time CA announced that they had nor properly accounted for revenue related to subscription pricing for software over a couple of years. This minor error will increase 2005 revenue by $40,000,000, but decrease revenues over the next five years by the same amount.

The last time I looked at CA was last week relative to their payment of 'blackmail'. Executives have been convicted of fraud. They back-dated options. They have trouble keeping their books straight. What's next?

The Graham Appeal

Based on newspaper reports it looks as though William Graham will appeal the decision of the Appellate Tax Board (ATB) in favor of West Tisbury. However, he is taking a large risk in doing so as 90% of the decisions of the ATB are upheld. One that was not was that of the West Tisbury assessors versus the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank; the court ruled against the Town. I think that the two cases are different. Graham claims his assessment is wrong, the Land Bank claimed that were not subject to the Town's property tax. Two very different issues.

If he does appeal, it will cost the Town and we taxpayers still more than the $200,000 we've already spent on this. It will help enrich the lawyers.

The Word 'SWIFT' Turns on the GOP

First, there was the furor about the Swift boats and Kerry, accompanied, of course, with lies and accusations of treachery and treason. Now, we have the GOP House and the right-wing flacks assailing the NY Times for 'revealing' one of our weapons in the 'war on terror'.

Never mind that other newspapers, including the LA Times and Wall Street Journal, also revealed this weapon; the angry patriots like to focus on one person or organization, preferably a powerful liberal one.

Never mind that this weapon was revealed by the administration long before the media did.

It's the word 'Swift' that's important. It's the word that signals that treason is afoot and the protectors of this nation must act.

He couldn't see the light

and no wonder.

No more military tribunals?

It was a close vote (5-3-1) but the Supreme Court did the right thing and ruled that the military tribunals of the detainees at Guantanamo are illegal.

Where is Judd Gregg's Head?

Judd Gregg is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. Whether he knows anything about budgets, economics or accounting is unknown to me. His filing of the "Stop Over-Spending Act of 2006", or as he likes to say S.O.S., leads me to believe he knows jack about any of those subjects.

I know that the federal government is not a business, but in virtually all economic endeavors of man there are costs and, hopefully, revenues. Gregg's bill totally removes revenues from the economic equation. He is quite happy to remove any consideration of repealing the tax cuts when considering the nation's budget, despite the fact that, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the cuts to just the wealthiest 1% will total nearly $1 trillion over the next decade.

While our current deficit is largely due to the inability of our leaders to say no and the wars, usually deficits occur when the economy is weak. Yet, Gregg's bill calls for the largest budget cuts to occur when the economy is weakest.

Gregg stands up for our troops. No cuts will be made in our defense. His S.O.S. affects only entitlement programs. Cuts will only be made in such frills as Medicare, Medicaid, veteran's benefits (oh, veterans don't fight our wars, do they?), military retirements (those nasty soldiers, again), Head Start, WIC, NIH, clean water programs - you know, all those things that are vital to our neediest citizens, as well as we average Joes.

Gregg believes in presidential power. His bill calls for a line item veto which allows the president to stop the spending of funds for up to 90 days, which 90 days could occur near the end of a fiscal year thus preventing appropriated funds being spent even if the Congress has overridden the president's veto.

I know where Gregg's head is. The name of one of his fellow sponsors, Crapo, reminds me.

Some sensible words about the Constitution

J.D. Henderson, military man, has some substantive comments about the attempts of the Senate to amend our Constitution to prohibit desecration of the flag. How many senators have actually fought to defend this country?

The PR Battle Was Lost..

but the Town of West Tisbury won the Appellate Tax Board (ATB) battle in the Graham case. Of the seven properties in dispute, the ATB decided that the Town was wrong in their assessment of two. However, overall the ATB agreed with the Town. The Town assessed the properties at $51,116,700, the ATB at $50,588,200, a difference of 1%. Graham's value was $20,240,000.

This case has been the cause celebre in the Town, on the Island and in the world of assessors. In the assessors' world it is renowned because of its being the longest trial in ATB history. The Island laughed at the West Tisbury 'follies". In West Tisbury it caused a lot of bitterness and accusations of misbehavior; I suspect that much of the Town's concern about the issue could have been allayed had the assessors not adopted a policy of silence about the case.

The case has had some benefits to the Town. It stimulated people enough to run for office. It revealed an outdated policy re legal costs, which policy has been changed. Was it worth the $200,000+ of legal bills?

The question now is whether Graham will appeal the decision.

Time to accept reality

This month's issue of Foreign Affairs features a "round table" on Iraq. The participants use an article - "Seeing Baghdad, Thinking Saigon" - in the March issue of the magazine as a starting point. As with any group of 'experts' on Iraq, there is little consensus except that things are going to hell in a handbasket.

I was surprised to see that Les Gelb, former Congressman and former head of the Council on Foreign Relations, espousing the federalization approach that I wrote about last year. It made sense to me then and it makes sense to me today. The approach is to divide the country up into three regions - Sunni, Shiite, Kurd - and a small efficient federal government that controls the oil revenues. It was an idea floated originally in 2003 when Bremer took control. He didn't like it, but, then, this was not his only mistake.

Recall #1

Boston Scientific has issued a recall for 23,000 pacemakers and defibrillators made by Guidant, which it now owns. Although the company has said that at most two or three of the devices may be faulty, they are also warning another 27,000 users of these products to see their doctor. While they have little choice, Boston Scientific seems to be more forthcoming about potential problems than Guidant was.

More bullshit

The Senate is debating an amendment to the Constitution to prohibit desecration of the flag. The question is whether they will waste more time and our dollars on this ridiculous amendment (to the Constitution, no less) than they did on gay marriage or Terri Schiavo.

How do you define asshole?

My kids were deprived...

at least as measured by what today's parents do for, or at least spend on, their kids. Yesterday's NY Times had two stories on today's parents that made me ask what kind of kids are being raised today.

One story talked about kids soccer. My kids were on a traveling team; but most of the traveling was in the Greater Boston area. Once a year we went to Canada because the coach knew someone there. They learned the game by playing and every so often having a coach who knew what the game was about. This is a far cry from today. Kids barely out of diapers go to goalie clinics. Travel is to Europe. We paid maybe $100 a year for jerseys, balls, referees, etc. If the league had a budget of $10,000, I'd be surprised. Can you guess what the annual budget of the Fairfield (CT) United Soccer Association is? $392,000 in dues in 2004, according to tax returns.

The other Times article talked about parents who believe that their child has the potential to be a professional athlete. So, some pay for professional coaches, private trainers, athletic testing, baseball camps, tournaments and travel with elite teams — not to mention travel costs for the entire family to watch the games. Thus far, in one case, the son, at 16, is starting catcher on the high school team. I wonder what his grades are and what he does for fun.

All this money is being spent despite the fact that very few players in sports - other than the big attractions of football and basketball - get full scholarships. Much more common are partial scholarships of as little as $1,000. How many college players make the pros?

Only a very, very few kids will become professional athletes. All will become citizens. Will they be ready to ensure that America remains a world leader? What will they invent? How many books will they read? Will they become leaders in their town? What kind of parents will they be? Will they be good people? What will their legacy be?

Is the Globe coming back?

The Boston Globe of the 1960s and 1970s under the editorship of Tom Winship was a must read not only for Bostonians, but also for those wanting to know what was going on in the world. Since Winship retired, the paper has gone downhill; after the obituaries, there is very little of value in the newspaper. Or, at least that was the case until this past couple of months. Thus far this year I've referenced it nine times in these pages.

This tenth reference is to an article by Bryan Bender on the growth of the Pentagon bureaucracy. In October 2003 General Abizaid, our top guy in the Middle East, asked Wolfowitz, then deputy secretary of defense, to create a "mini-Manhattan project" to address the growing IED problem in Iraq. Well, this mini-Manhattan project is becoming a full-blown Manhattan project. What started out as a 12-person group is now an in-house group of 300 plus thousands of contract workers (the administration's favorite method of 'controlling' defense costs) and has cost us $6 billion thus far.

Okay, maybe twelve people could not handle the job (although my predeliction for small teams of very good people lead me to believe otherwise), but it seems that this growing department can't either, as Abizaid and other military types say that the equipment developed by the contractors hired by the Joint IED Defeat Organization is ineffective at curbing attacks by homemade bombs. The 'homemade' is important as those are the types of devices the insurgents are using. Further, the Abizaid report says that the Organization "has given little attention to effects of IEDs on the Iraqi Security Forces, the civilian population and the Iraqi infrastructure. Protecting the population is one of the key precepts of counterinsurgency."

More of our money wasted with little benefit to our troops or the Iraqis. Sound familiar?

A Sensible Idea

Miriam Pemberton and Lawrence Korb at Foreign Policy in Focus have a rather simple idea with regards to the fiscal side of our defense budget. Do not call it a 'defense' budget; it's really a security budget that should look at our offensive (mainly the military), defensive (homeland security) and prevention (primarily international affairs) efforts as a unit.

It is their contention that we spend too much money on defense as compared to the other components of our security; their estimate is 8 to 1 in favor of defense. In their opinion we could and should abandon military programs that no longer are relevant to the threats of today and tomorrow and put that money into defensive and prevention efforts. An obvious example: kill the missile defense system and put the money into port security.

How the world has changed

When I was very young, by and large, Americans who publicly supported Russia were fairly well educated and believers in Communism. Few earned any money from their support. In fact, many suffered economically.

Today's Wall Street Journal has a front page story on those Americans who publicly support Russia today. Today's supporters are paid by Russian emigres with ties to the motherland. They're not paid much, $20 for participating in a demonstration. As a result, the supporters tend to be the homeless, the drug addicts, those who are down and out. They are hired to appear in 'protest' demonstrations, usually against Chechnya, which are filmed by Russian TV for showing back home.

#1000

This is my one-thousandth post since I began this blog in early September 2004. I never thought that I’d still be at it almost two years later. But here I am.

I’m amazed that I’ve written about 100,000 words - enough for a couple of novels (if I could write fiction) - in that time. I suppose that if my interests were focused on one subject, I could convert this into a book. However, those of you who have been fairly steady readers know that my interests are fairly broad. I’ve covered a range of subjects with particular interest in the changes being wrought in a world that will soon have more than one superpower.

My wife complains that my postings are too negative. I think they reflect the thoughts of a man who grew up in a country and at a time when we were justly looked upon as the leader of the free world. Sure, we were not perfect; we made many mistakes. But, when you compare that world to this, you have to feel that there is something seriously wrong today. I won’t list the un-American, irrational, amoral, stupid things that we do; regular readers know what I mean. I found a lot to agree with in this anonymous comment from Economists View.

I’ve met (virtually, that is) some interesting people via this blog and have learned a little. To keep up with them I’ve been forced to read more and think more about this world in which we live. That effort alone has made writing this blog worthwhile. And, let’s face it, a blog feeds one’s ego. I’ve gotten people upset. I’ve received praise. I’ve been quoted in the Financial Times and broadcast on the local NPR station.

I hope you enjoy reading these posts and learn a little yourself. It’s a great big world out there. We can help each other understand it a little bit better. Peace!

After you've gone

You remember the words of the old song:

After you've gone, and left me cryin'
After you've gone, there's no denyin'
You'll feel blue
You'll feel sad
You'll miss the dearest pal that you've ever had.

Well, I don't think the words will describe many ex-CEOs of public companies. They won't feel blue. They won't feel sad. They won't miss the dearest pal they've ever had. That's because of their outsize pensions. At a time when the pensions of the average Joe are being cut, the pensions of CEOs are going through the roof along with the outrageous annual compensation paid to these people. For example, at BellSouth, employee pension contributions are down 3% since 2000; executive pension contributions are up 89% in the same period.

Consider that at the average public company 8% of the pension fund is reserved for the executives. At AFLAC 58% of the pension fund is reserved for the top dogs. Do you think that 58% of AFLAC's labor force are executives? Most executives get a pension of anywhere from 60% to 100% of their annual compensation; the average Joe is lucky if he gets 25%, that is if he gets any pension at all.

Not only are these executives being given an enormous pension, the stockholders are bearing the brunt of the cost because these pensions are unfunded; whereas, the pensions of the workers are funded and, as a result, are earning money for the company. At AT&T the pension plan for 1,000 or so executives generated almost half of the company's pension expense resulting in a charge of over $100,000,000 against 2005 profits. The other half of the pension plan, which is funded, covers 189,000 regular employees.

When are compensation committees going to work for the stockholders?

This is the year to get married..

at least in China. That's because this is a rare lunar year; it has two Springs and is longer than the usual 385 day lunar year. Plus, this year, the year of the dog, is seen as being good for marriage and next year, the year of the pig, is one which smiles on newborns.

So, many Chinese are getting married in 2006. Marriage registrations have doubled. Couples line up at registry offices at 5:30 a.m. to beat the rush. Parents gather in parks to advertise the marriage charms of their children. Disc jockeys and photographers are in short supply. The price of roses has gone up by 38%. More advertising is being placed for diapers and baby foods. People postponed marriages scheduled for last year.

Submitting to blackmail

The former Computer Associates, now known as CA, always had a somewhat shady reputation in the software business. And the trials and convictions of their executives supported this reputation. Now with the guilty plea of Tom Bennett, a former senior VP, we learn that the company paid to keep a conspirator from another company from talking with investigators. CA bought the guy's stock, paid off a loan and gave him a $3,700,000 consulting contract.

A new Morgan Stanley?

You have to admit the company seems a lot healthier than it did a year ago: revenue and earnings are both up sharply; the company is doing much better than most brokerage firms. And, they're getting ready to try to overthrow the Perleman judgment. They have a new legal team; the appeal will be heard by a three judge panel, rather than the judge who awarded Perelman punitive damages of $1.58 billion.

I guess the stockholders are happy that Mack is in charge.

You gotta give the enemy a face

That's what the US seems to be trying to do in their nomination of Abu Ayyub al Masri as the successor to al-Zarqawi. Or, so argues Loretta Napoleoni in the Foreign Policy blog.

She has some fairly strong arguments that al Masri is not the successor to Zarqawi. We claim that al Masri is a founding member of Al Qaeda, yet he is not on Egypt's list of wanted jihadists nor did he go to Afghanistan early enough to become a founding member. Napoleoni has additional arguments as to why al Masri could not have been the chosen successor; they sound reasonable to me.

Napoleoni feels that it is more likely that there is a battle for the leadership between Abu Abdul al Ramahdi and Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi. Either one will be better equipped and more tied into Bin Laden than Zarqawi was.

We helped in large measure to make Zarqawi an important player in Iraq. It looks like we are trying to repeat this error.

Animal rights in China

Chinese animal rights activists have a different battle to fight.

It's not an economics blog

but the Blogging of the President has some good, easily understood articles on the economy. Read Ian Welsh on the unemployment rate.

Did they try at all?

Sunday's Boston Globe has another tale of the shame we should feel about what is going on relative to Guantanamo. Despite the Supreme Court ruling that some of the detainees were entitled to at least a hearing in American courts, the government seems to have gone out of its way to deny these people their court-given rights.

The detainees claimed that there were witnesses who could help them prove their innocence. The government was unable to find a single witness; yet the Globe found three, one of whom has been at the National Defense University since 2004, in three days. They also found a witness in Afghanistan; he happened to be the Minister of Energy; another was a prisoner in US custody in Afghanistan.

Just words

An early comment by Stephen Colbert about the use of words by our leaders. As I've been saying for awhile, Orwell predicted this in "1984"

Il Primo Giorno d'Estate

The first day of Summer has turned out to be a wonderful day. A bright sun. A couple of cumulus clouds. Warm enough during the day to work up a slight sweat, but cool enough now so that a blanket is not needed to sleep comfortably.

The first ride on a freight boat, which is open to the sea. The Woods Hole terminal crowded on a Wednesday. Non-scheduled boats being run. Cars with Canadian license plates - and New York and Delaware and Connecticut and Rhode Island and New Jersey and..... You probably have to live on the Vineyard to understand what I'm talking about.

The First Recital

IBM on the Move Again

It seems that every three of four months IBM announces another technical advance. This time it combined with Georgia Tech to produce a silicon-based chip that is 250 times faster than today's chips. It's really good to see us once more advance the world of computers

Simple Common Sense

Hale Stewart in Blogging of the President has a very straighforward explanation of a balanced budget. Good reading.

Another African Genocide

Just as Darfur has finally become 'news', Olara Otunnu, formerly UN under secretary-general, writes of a second genocide in this month's issue of Foreign Policy. Otunni writes of the treatment of the Acholi people in Uganda. He reports of their forced move by the government into concentration camps; there are now about 200 of these camps housing almost 2,000,000 people. Between 1000 and 1500 die each week in these camps, which, according to some NGOs, is triple those of Darfur.

Otunno attributes this treatment of the Acholi to a feeling by the powers-that-be that the Acholi are really not people. The government radio broadcasts programs designed to demonize the Acholi and incite others to kill them; some have been lynched on the streets of Kampala and then set afire.

Apparently, this demonization can be traced back to the wars between Obote, the old despot, and Museveni, the new despot. Some of the battles in this war took place in Acholi territory and, although the Acholi never had an army or militia of its own, Museveni is using them as a scapegoat to solidy his power.

The Acholi are caught between the Lord's Resistance Army, the current rebels, and the government. The fact that the leader of the Resistance, Joseph Kony, is an Acholi does not make life easier for the other Acholi. In reality, the Acholi are caught in the middle of this war and are punished by both sides. The Resistance kidnaps kids and uses them as soldiers; Museveni sees nothing wrong with this and says, "In our culture, children are trained to fight. It is normal." Both groups see nothing wrong with terrorizing and targeting civilians.

But the government has gone further. They claim that they want people to move into the camps for their own protection. True, the Resistance attacks the Acholi, but so does the government. There are reports of government troops bombing villages, strafing from helicopters, destroying homes and crops, poisoning wells - all with the aim of getting people out of their village and into the camps.

And, it is in the camps that the government is at its most diabolical. Soldiers infected with HIV are sent to guard over the camps. The climate among these soldiers is that they demonstrate their manhood by sodomizing as many Acholi as they can, preferably everybody in a family. As a result, the rate of HIV infection in the camps is close to 50%, where nationally it is 6%. Any food grown by the Acholi in the camps is destroyed; starvation is rampant. The UN, WHO, Oxfam, NGOs have all visited the camps and offered to help; none has been accepted.

At the 2005 World Summit the UN agreed that it has "a common duty to protect people when their own government will not". When will it start walking the talk?

The Dumbest Congressman?

You might think so after looking at this video. It's Stephen Colbert interviewing Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia.

A step forward?

It may be a very small step, but Ahmadinejad said the European Union proposal to end Iran's nuclear program is a "step forward.'' Of course, there was the usual bull shit about Iran's rights, etc. But, at least, he didn't torpedo the current situation.

Terrorism Index

Foreign Policy and the Center for American Progress have combined to produce a Terrorism Index similar to the Failed States Index produced by the magazine and the Carnegie Peace people. The Terrorism Index is based on a survey on 100+ 'experts'. I'm normally quite leery of surveys based on experts, but at least this index does weight the answers of liberals and conservatives in an attempt to improve accuracy. Since the index confirms my opinions, it's probably correct. (You buy that and I have a bridge to sell you.)

The survey did find a surprising degree of consensus among the experts. Basically, they say things are not going well. In fact, they stink when it comes to the so-called War on Terror; less than 20% of the experts feel that we are winning this war. Things also not much better when considering whether the world is a safer place since 9/11; eighty-six percent say it's more dangerous. Our diplomacy sucks; we need to win hearts and minds, rather than rely on military means to win the war. And our primary bulwark against terrorists, the Department of Homeland Security, is seen more as an impediment to protection; on a score of 0 to 10 in terms of effectiveness, the department achieved a score of 2.9.

What should we do? The experts say: spend more money on the Department of State, wean ourselves from dependence on foreign oil and develop better intelligence capabilities.

A difficult choice

The Department of Education of New York has issued a damning report on the Judge Rotenberg Educational Research Center in Canton, MA. The center is a last stop for students who have not been able to function in the normal school system. Some are autistic, some mentally ill and some are just very, very difficult to control. The school uses a Gradual Electronic Decelerator (GED) as one of its primary treatments for the students. The GED is "a device that produces a temporary, painful (but harmless) skin-sting that is produced by passing electric current through a small area on the surface of the skin for 2 seconds." It is "used only with court approval and parental consent".

Among the charges made in the report are:

• punishment is the main behavior modification technique
• the GED is used for minor issues, such as swearing
• students live in an atmosphere of pervasive fears and anxieties
• regular or special education is limited
• more than two-thirds of the people who directly care for the students at the center have only a high school education
• only six of the 17 mental health clinicians are licensed as psychologists.

A report like this is not new to the Center. It has been enmeshed in controversy practically since its beginning in the 1970s. The Center claims that the GED is better than the alternatives, i.e., psychotropics, warehousing and restraint. And there are many safeguards starting with approval by the parents and the courts. Many parents are very supportive of the Center, feeling that it saved their child's life.

New York gave the Center a good review last September. This current review, which took place in April and May seems to have been prompted by a charge made by the mother of a former student from New York. New York's reason for the change in the tenor of this report is that it was more in-depth and included an unannounced visit to the Center.

Who knows who is right here? Or what you would do if you had a child who could not be helped by the system. What does strike me is the money involved. The cost to send someone to the Center is about $200,000 per year. There are 250 students. That works out to annual revenue of $50,000,000. That's a lot of money.

Kudos to Bush

He's invoked the National Antiquities Act to declare a part of the Hawaian Islands a national monument. This will protect the aquatic life there.

How the Democratic Party Wins Voters - Not!

About a week ago I received an e-mail from Howard Dean. Since I could not recall having registered for such e-mails and, more importantly, having absolutely no desire to receive further e-mails, I pressed the Unsubscribe button. However, unlike the hundreds of Unsubscribe buttons I have activated, I could not unsubscribe until I received an e-mail from the Democrats containing a confirmation number. I felt that this approach was impolitic and a pain in the arse. So, I took the time to write a note explaining that I wanted to be taken off the list.

Well, since I'm writing this, you can guess that I received another e-mail. This time I called the Democratic National Office in D.C. at my expense as they have an 800 number only for contributions. First, I was put on hold. Then, I got an answering machine. Perhaps their Internet people have problems reading English or talking with people. Or, this may be a symptom of some Democrats feeling that they know what is good for me.

Snippets from the Pew Global Attitudes Project

Most of the newspapers I've seen focus on the change in other countries' opinions of the U.S. from 2005 to 2006. I was more intrigued by the change from 2000 to 2006. Only Russia, Pakistan and Nigeria had a more favorable opinion of us in 2006 than they held in 2000.

The percent of people from our allies who held a favorable opinion of us in 2000 has really dropped over the last six years. In Great Britain it went from 83% to 56%, France 62% to 39%, Germany 78% to 37%, Spain 50% to 23%. Those same countries also feel that the Iraq War has made the world a more dangerous place; the percentages of those who feel this way are 60% Britain, 76% France, 66% Germany and 68% Spain.

Sometimes being fat can be a life saver

A 440-pound man was run over by a car and escaped with a dislocated hip and some scratches. True, it was a small car, but you or I may have been killed had we suffered the same accident.

Melvin and Howard Redux

Melvin Dummar, of Melvin and Howard fame, has filed a lawsuit once more seeking his share of the estate of Harold Hughes. Although he lost his first suit almost thirty years ago, he has picked up a witness - the pilot who flew Hughes to the brothel near which Dummar claims to have found Hughes ,- an ex-FBI agent who has done some additional investigation and an aggressive lawyer. His suit is based on the charge that those close to Hughes concealed information as to Hughes' whereabouts on the fateful night. He's hoping for a settlement, despite the fact that the suit asks for $156,000,000 plus interest since 1978 and punitive damages.

Maybe there will eventually be a sequel to the movie.

Blogger featured in WSJ

When I picked up my copy of The Wall Street Journal today, I saw the face of Phillip Carter alongside a front page article about the Army's efforts to assist Iraq in moving to a a more lawful society. I knew that Carter, the person behind Intel Dump, was serving in Iraq, but was surprised to see him featured in the Journal. He's doing good work and excerpts the Journal article here. Read it to see some of the challenges he faces.

He hasn't been blogging very often lately; he has more pressing duties. But he seems to be justifying the praise given him when I first stumbled upon his site. And he's only 30 years old!

It's sickening

McCain's pandering to the right, that is. Read his speech to the Economic Club of New York and tell me whether Bush would have said anything different.

A lack of communication can kill you

Now we learn from a lawyer for the detainees that one of the people who committed suicide at Gauantanamo was scheduled to be released. However, he was not told as we couldn't figure out where to send him.

$173 each

That's how much the world spends on weapons, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The US, at $1.12 trillion, accounts for 48% of the world's weapons cost. In a distant second place is England at 5%.

A Good PR Move?

That's what Colleen Graffy, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, said of the three detainees who committed suicide in their Guantanamo cells. Their lawyers say the suicides were the result of their despair at their situation.

In Graffy's view, there was no reason for the men to kill themselves as a protest, since they could have protested to their lawyers and families. I guess that she would have said the same of the dozens of detainees who have tried to commit suicide over the past few years.

The beginning?

Israel kills seven beachgoers, including some kids. Hamas fires rockets in retaliation. Israel launches an air raid on Gaza. Where does it stop?

June is not busting out all over

The first ten days of June have felt like a return of late winter: tons of rain, periodic gale winds, two blankets at night. The major summery thing has been the return of the defoliating caterpillars we had last Spring and the introduction of a new kind of defoliating caterpillar (forest tent) and the European winter moth.

Thus far, our trees haven't been damaged too much but there are parts of the Vineyard where all the leaves have been eaten and the area has a wintry look. The caterpillars have even attacked the Polly Hill Arboretum so badly that they have resorted to spraying for the first time.

Maybe they think it will go away

First, the VA takes months to report the true number of records lost to what is assumed to be a petty thief. Now the Energy Department waits nine months before announcing that it has been the victim of hackers who have stolen the records of 1500 contractors.

Is there any mention of resignation by those responsible?

Money well spent?

This country spends $60 billion a year on our prison population of 2,200,000. This works out to about $27,000 per inmate. You wonder, had we spent $7,000 a year on some of these inmates when they were kids, whether they would have wound up in jail. You also have to wonder how well our money is being spent as the recidivism rate hasn't budged much in the past twenty-five years; it's still around 67%. Another point to consider is that we are very likely spending more on people who have committed crimes than people who have not.

Are we really a Christian nation?

Trade deficit on an upward swing

The trade deficit through April of this year:
January $68.7 billion
February $65.7 billion
March $61.9 Billion
April $63.4 billion

It's a great economy, right?

Our porous ports and our concerned Senators

Remember a few months back when the Senate was worried that a foreign government was taking over our ports? The Senators acknowledged that security at our ports was weak; only 5% of the containers coming into the country are inspected. Apparently, our port security has magically improved since then as the Senate in its wisdom decided not to pass a bill which would have authorized us to appropriate $648,000,000 to improve our security. Times are tough, after all.

On the same day the Senate decided that we couldn't afford $648,000,000 for our security, a large number - fortunately not a majority - decided that we could afford to pass up $355 billion (over ten years) by eliminating the estate tax.

Make sense to you?

Summing up the feeling of many

The following is an anonymous comment that appeared in Economists View today:

I come from a long line of moderate Democrats, beginning with working class New Dealers, so I'm not exactly unbiased, but after this week in the Senate I was thinking that the dominance of the current Republican party is truly a sign that America's era has passed. Proposing a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT on gay marriage when we have so many crucial issues facing us? REPEALING the estate tax when our national debt threatens national security? While it is true that these measures failed, I would like to see more citizens expressing outrage that these issues were even considered.

Even post-Vietnam, post-Watergate, I could say, without fear of sentimentality, that I truly loved my country.
I grew up in a time of great partisan discord--the Vietnam era. I have several friends who fought in Vietnam, and they still somewhat believe that we could have "won." But I can argue with them, we can present our points, and I can still feel that we all have the best interests of the nation at heart. George Bush, Bill Frist and Ann Coulter--those who dominate our public life now--I have nothing in common with them. They don't care about what happens to our nation. I can say they are traitors to the America I love, but the majority of my fellow Americans do not feel this way. I read all the analyses, so I'm not naive about the current political situation, and I know some history, so I don't idealize the past. But I still have to say I don't really understand why we have the government that we do today--one where I'm not just disagreeing with their positions, the way I did, say, with the Reagan Republicans. I'm just turning away in disgust.
Sorry for the rant.

Will Specter follow through?

Senator Arlen Specter was forceful with regards to what he seems to see as a wrongful assumption of power by the President. On CNN the other night he said, "Bush doesn't have a blank check. He is not the final word. We have a constitution. I intend to press hard, because there are very fundamental values at isue here: civil rights and congressional oversight authority."

Strong words but will he be like McCain and not really follow up?

To the moon or bust

Earlier this year NASA cancelled the Deep Space Climate Observatory, which would have given us needed knowledge about our world. Now they're proposing even more cuts in knowledge-seeking missions so that they can try to fulfill Bush's promise of a return to the moon by 2020. It seems that we are more interested in moon flights than in projects which would help us better understand global warming and make better weather forecasts.

Until two years ago, NASA was willing to spend good money on its earth science program. With the recent cuts to this program, the Space Studies Board has concluded that the program is neither robust nor sustainable. Still we spend money on stupid earmarks and attempts to control people's behavior. And money we do spend on worthwhile projects is often not managed properly. It's a wonderful world.

Who would believe this?

From today's NY Times:

The president of Texas Southern University, Priscilla Slade, was fired after she failed to attend a hearing she had requested to appeal her April dismissal. Regents at the university, in Houston, voted unanimously to fire her after two audits alleged that Dr. Slade had spent $650,000 of university funds on personal expenses. A Harris County grand jury is also investigating the expenditures. Dr. Slade's lawyer said the dismissal would be challenged in a lawsuit.

Managing Our Money

The Army has begun development of “Warrior”, an unmanned aircraft system. It is part of a plan by the Department of Defense to spend $20 billion dollars over the next five years on such systems. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reviewed the Warrior program and found some problems.

Basically, the GAO found that the technology being used in the program is not as proven as one would prefer and the schedule is overly optimistic. With regards to the technology, it has not been fully integrated into an unarmed aircraft before. The schedule calls for only thirty-two months between award of the development and demonstration contract to a production decision. Such a tight schedule is hoping that the technology works and that the design will not undergo changes.

I don’t think ‘hope’ is how we want the government to manage projects using our money.

Jazz at the Senior Center

I've attended a jazz seminar at the Tisbury Senior Center for the past few weeks. The seminar leader, Les Stark, has a collection of over 400 albums, some of which go back to the 1920s. He's had a good mix of songs, ranging from the very well-known to the somewhat obscure.

I was surprised that the first session drew thirty people, much more than the typical ten or so at many Senior Center seminars I've attended. The second session drew about forty and today the attendance topped fifty. I suspect today's crowd came to hear swing. And swing we old people did. Jack Burton and Carol Carrick and others even danced to a few numbers.

This seminar has been a trip down memory lane for me. Many of the songs trigger memories of listening to Symphony Sid on an obscure Boston radio station after I came home from class. Others remind me of wonderful summer days and nights spent at the early Newport Jazz Festival.

Should the state pay for a prisoner’s operation?

Robert Kosilek is serving a life sentence for murdering his wife. He claims to be suffering from gender identity disorder and, unless he receives a sex change operation, may commit suicide. He has sued the Commonwealth of Massachusetts seeking the funds to pay for the operation.

The medical care required for our aging prison population is another problem we face, particularly as we have few compunctions about putting people in jail. (We have the highest percentage of our population living in jails of any developed nation.) Does the state – i.e., you and me - pay for major operations, such as cancer? Would it pay for liposuction if the inmate claimed his weight was causing him too much grief? Should it pay for a sex change operation?

You have to admire their persistence

Republicans in Congress are once more trying to cut the budget of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This time they are seeking a budget reduction of $115,000,000, almost a fourth of the total or less than half of the money wasted on the abstinence program. They failed because 87 of their fellows joined the opposition after there was a groundswell from PBS viewers opposing the previous cuts. I suspect that we'll need another uprising to convince these guys.

History is written by the victor

In today's LA Times, Jonathan Zimmerman, an NYU historian, quotes from Florida's newly passed Education Omnibus Bill, "The history of the United States shall be taught as genuine history and shall not follow the revisionist or postmodernist viewpoints of relative truth. American history shall be viewed as factual, not as constructed."

I guess the author of the bill and those who approved it believe that history just comes about magically, sort of the hand of God thing. No human is involved. They don't believe that people actually write history books. How in a sane universe could such a stupid statement be made part of a state's laws?

There are other old people in the world

As anyone who spends any time at all looking at the demographics of aging in America knows, the percentage of old people in the US in increasing and will continue to increase into the future if the population projections come true.

Expectations by the UN are that the percent of people over 60 in the US will increase from 16.7% in 2005 to 26.4% in 2050. But there are countries in worse shape: Japan’s over-60 population will increase from 26.3% to 41.7%; Germany’s from 25.1% to 35%; England from 21.2% to 29.4%; Russia from 17.1% to 31.1%; China from 10.9% to 31%; India from 7.9% to 20.7%

So, if these numbers bear out, we will have a smaller percent of older folks in 2050 than every other major economic power except India. On a relative basis, we may not be as bad off as you’d think just looking at our numbers.

Taking steps

I've said elsewhere that it looks as though China is willing to acknowledge problems, which is the first step towards resolving the problem. They have just issued a policy paper with regard to their water problems. In this paper they acknowledge that they have problems; in one major river, only 22% of the water is considered drinkable. Their solution is a generalization - they will take "the most stringent measures to dispel potential risks of pollution" - but at least they are willing to publicly acknowledge the problem.

Mario settles a second suit

Mario Gabelli has settled his fraud suit for $100,000,000. This is his second settlement of that size in two months. Last month he settled with an initial investor in his holding company. This case was a disagreement as to the fair value of the holding company and, naturally, the investor's stake in it. Yesterday he settled fraud charges I wrote about last week.

Be careful today

I'm sure that you're aware that today is June 6, 2006. Be careful. According to some people, certain numbers are especially meaningful for Satan; 666, today's date, is one of them. Some Dutch evangelicals are doing something about it; they are praying. I wonder if the distributors of "The Omen", a movie being released today, made a contribution to the evangelical cause.

Of course, today, June 6, is also the anniversary of D-Day. How do the evangelicals feel about that?

The First Suit

The father of a marine whose funeral was desecrated by the idiots from the Westboro church in Kansas is suing the church for violation of privacy. Let's hope he wins and the damages are enough to drive them out of business.

God Loves Baseball

Or at least some of our major league teams. The leaders of the Colorado Rockies attribute their success - which appears to be only in their eyes - to God's will. The Atlanta Braves and the Arizona Diamondbacks hold Faith Days, to which they hope the Christian faithful will come.

"At one of the Faith Days in Atlanta, the team will sell special vouchers. After the game, the stands will be cleared and then only those with the specially purchased vouchers will be re-admitted. Those lucky chosen "will be treated to an hour and a half of Christian music and a testimonial from the ace pitcher John Smoltz." Smoltz is the player who in 2004 opined on gay marriage to the Associated Press, saying, "What's next? Marrying an animal?" Good times for the whole family."

What madness has seized these idiots?

Truth, Propaganda or Fiction?

The Guardian makes some strong claims about the conduct of our soldiers and their leaders. They cite the investigations of supposed killings of civilians at Haditha, Balad and Baghad as the tip of an iceberg which is the result of a failure of command to prevent the rise of a culture of casual violence, revenge and prejudice.

Signing Statements Redux

Fortunately, this is an issue that won't die. Now, the ABA has decided to research whether President Bush has exceeded his constitutional authority in reserving the right to ignore more than 750 laws that have been enacted since he took office. They've appointed a bi-partisan panel of well-respected attorneys to look into the matter. The panel will report back to the ABA in August.

A "people-friendly force"

That's what the Afghans will get when NATO takes over from the U.S. in July. Or, so says British Lt. General David Richards, the fellow leading the troops. He is quoted as saying "I will use military power not necessarily just to defeat the Taleban but just as importantly to secure the future of their villages and their localities."

Sounds good. Let's see what happens.

Small steps

China has taken another step in protecting intellectual property. A Beijing court overruled China's patent review board and decided that Pfizer does have a valid patent on Viagra. Recently, the government required computer companies to ship the operating system with the computer, thus making it more difficult for some pirates. In December a judge ruled in favor of Starbuck's in a dispute over the name.

All good signs.

Another similarity to Vietnam?

The BBC is reporting about Army deserters moving to Canada, which saw an influx of draft evaders during the Vietnam War. True, the number of 200 is much, much less than the thousands who moved north thirty-five years ago. But, the fact that reporting by a major news orgainzation has begun is significant.

The same report quotes the Pentagon as admitting that there have been 8,000 (.24%) desertions during our current war. Again, a lot less on both a percentage and absolute number basis than Vietnam, which saw 55,000 (3.4%) deserters. However, we must remember that we're comparing a volunteer army versus a conscripted army. Also, you should be aware that there were only 40,000 deserters in WWII when the number of troops was in the millions.

What will the vote be next year

At least 30% of the Home Depot shareholders refused to vote for 10 of the 11 directors nominated. With most companies, it's less than 10% who withhold their votes. Will the company's behavior at this year's meeting push the number beyond 50% next year? If I were a stockholder, I would certainly not vote for any of these people who did not show up at this year's annual meeting.

You won't believe this #2

Go read this posting on The Blue Voice.

Mario wants to settle

Lawyers for Mario Gabelli have begun talking with the Justice Department about settling the case against him for fraud in seeking and obtaining cellphone spectrum licenses from the FCC. Apparently, they no longer think that the government's conduct has been outrageous. Perhaps, they don't think their case is very strong. Whatever the reason, they are supposedly willing to settle for over $100,000,000.

Deal? What deal?

So the compensation committee tells the CEO what the goals are for him to achieve his performance bonus. The CEO agrees. Deal, right? Not for Las Vegas Sands Corporation. Due to an "improper interpretation" of the contract of Sheldon Adelson, the CEO, he received about $1,000,000 more than he earned under his bonus agreement. Did he give it back? You know the answer. Did the board ask him to give it back? Same answer. How well did the stockholders do? Their investment was down 18% in 2005. Furthermore, because the bonus was not earned according to the terms of the plan, it could not be treated as a deduction for income tax purposes. Who pays for that? The stockholder.

But Las Vegas Sands is not alone in paying a performance bonus to the CEO whether he earned it or not. Halliburton, Assurant, Big Lots and News Corp. also believe in being charitable towards the CEO.

Assurant, an insurance company, based its bonus on earnings that excluded hurricane losses, which is sort of the business they're in - insuring against hurricane losses. Assurant is really a very charitable company; they paid a bonus for complying with Sarbanes-Oxley. Gee, maybe he should have received a bonus for showing up at work every day. At Halliburton, they just about did, when they paid $5,500,000 in bonuses to everyone connected with settling an absestos case, which, to me, seems like a regular part of the job.

The compensation committee of Big Lots believes that their executives' compensation is below average. Ergo, they deserve a bonus. Who cares whether the company did poorly or the stock went nowhere last year?

The deal that Peter Chernin, COO of News Corp. has pays him a performance bonus even if earnings fall; in that case, he'd only get something over three million.