The Stern Report on Climate Change

Here's what some economists say about the report.

Why wait for the courts

After all, it's only our money that the Interior Department seems to want to give to Chevron and other oil and natural gas companies.

Last month I wrote about the four cases four separate Interior Dept. auditors had initiated alleging that the department stopped their investigations into oil companies' fraudulent schemes to reduce their royalty payments to the government.

The case has not been decided, yet the appeals board of the Interior Department has ruled that the department should drop its claims to recover what is likely hundreds of millions - possibly billions - of dollars in underpaid royalties to you and me.The same set of facts have been sufficient for states to rake in over $70,000,000 from the companies.

Why the department did not wait for the courts to decide the issue is one question of many.

Stuart Bowen should get a medal

He's the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. On Sunday his office released a couple of reports which, if you read the posting below, have to be inaccurate as he gives an unfavorable picture of what's going on in Iraq.

Report 1 says that more than a half-million weapons intended for the Iraqi security forces cannot be tracked as their serial numbers were not recorded. Report 2 questions whether the Iraqis will ever develop or spend the money to develop the logistical capabilities needed by a modern army. Report 3 urges our "provincial reconstruction teams" to abandon work in six provinces because it's too dangerous.

Is he giving a true picture of what's happening there?

It's the bloggers and other enemies of America...

that are preventing the true picture of the events in Iraq from being made public, or so it would seem the administration believes. Why else would they spend our tax dollars on a new Pentagon group which will counter the inaccurate stories that appear on the web and elsewhere? It's obvious that these stories are planted by insurgents and other enemies of America. So, not only will the Pentagon monitor blogs but they will also use politicians and lobbyists to bring the Pentagon story to America.

The Cigar is out

Red Auerbach, the greatest basketball coach and selector of players, is dead.

Headlines are not always supported by the story

We all know that. An article in yesterday's NY Times was headlined "Ethanol Could Corrode Pumps, Testers Say". Well, the story went on to say that fuel comprising 85% ethanol could corrode pumps designed for fuels with 15% ethanol. Seems pretty obvious to me that almost anything could be damaged if used incorrectly.

Remember Galileo

For millennia we believed that the earth was the center of the universe. Even the scientists and learned people of the time held the belief. Galileo proved them wrong. This week comes confirmation of the fact that everything is a theory waiting to be disproved.

Thirty years ago we sent the Viking landers to Mars. One of the aims of the missions was to prove whether there was life in the soil there. After experimenting with the soil, the conclusion was that since there were no organic molecules found in the soil, there was no life; the assumption being that life in other worlds must be based on life in this world, i.e., it must be made of organic matter.

I don't know why but recently scientists did the same tests on earth that were done on Mars in 1976. They tested soil from Antarctica and a Chilean desert. And, surprise! The experiment said that these earth soils contained no organic molecules. Ergo, life does not exist on the earth! So, somehow the Martian experiments were flawed in some way.

In fairness, one of the three experiments conducted on Mars suggested that there was biological activity, but this was not followed up.

Refco back in the news

Philip Bennett, the Refco CEO, was indicted shortly after the scandal broke last Fall. Now, the CFO, Robert Trosten, has been indicted for being part of a fraudulent scheme. The 37-year-old Mr. Trosten walked away with $48,000,000 when he left Refco.

Bawag PSK, an Austrian bank, was intimately involved in the Refco scandal. Its exact involvement has not been fully explained but it appears to have been the linchpin in making the scheme work for many years. This week saw Viennese prosecutors charge nine people involved with Bawag on various offenses, including embezzlement and fraud.

Ross for Governor

I'm not a member of a political party. It's unlikely that I would join the Green Party. But, I have to tell you, I was impressed with Grace Ross, the Green Party candidate for governor of Massachusetts, when I saw her in a recent debate. Today's Boston Globe had an illuminating article about her.

She really is the star of what is a very dismal field, full of impolite, screaming demagogues who want your vote but, with the exception of Mihos and Ross, won't really tell you in fairly specific terms what they will do to try to fix the problems in the state and why we should believe that their programs will work and they can implement them. Ideas are cheap. It's picking the right ones and making them happen that is tough. With the exception of Ross, these people don't seem to be the types that have original ideas or the talent to pick good ones and make them happen.

It's not only the executive branch...

that is responsible for the decline of our government. I've long contended that the quality of our legislators is insufficient for a world leader. It was better in the 20th century.

There is an excellent article by Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann in this issue of Foreign Affairs that documents the failure of Congress to work for the country and perhaps a failure to work at all. This is the shortest congressional session in decades; they've been in session less than 100 days. The work is so scant that votes are held after 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday and before noon on Thursday of the weeks in which they are in session.

One of the legislators' primary responsibilities is oversight. The number of such hearings was 37 in 2003-4, as compared to 135 ten years earlier. The Senate Armed Services Committee held zero hearings on Afghanistan in 2003-4; the House held one. A small percentage (less than 15%) were on the wars we have been engaged in.

We've been inundated with horror stories about the Department of Homeland Security. Yet, the only real issue for Congress in this massive reorganization was whether the workers would lose civil service benefits. No thought as to how the reorganization would be or was being implemented.

Bush has issued over 700 signing statements. Not a word from Congress until the Boston Globe broke the story.

Whether Clinton misused his Christmas mailing list took 140 hours of testimony at Congressional hearings. Abu Ghraib was granted 12 hours.

Bush has acted like a king and Congress has been silent.

What are we paying these clowns for? Throw them all out come November 7!

Should I or shouldn't I?

It's too bad that Bloomberg Markets doesn't offer any free articles, as CJRDaily lauds the magazine for an article on the misuse of tax-free public bonds. The CJR article is not as clear as it could be since CJR does not give enough information, but apparently there are secret agreements which pay the marketers of these bonds if none of the money raised is actually used to, for example, build a housing project. Maybe I'll break down and subscribe to Bloomberg Markets.

The real reason

It's been generally reported that the reason why Iraq reconstruction costs have been so out of whack was because of the need for increased security. Now the latest report by the Special IG says the main reason is that the government ordered the contractors to Iraq and let them sit around doing nothing for months.

Reminds me of the gang that couldn't shoot straight.

Setting a good example

His 6-year-old son was not getting enough playing time on the football team. So, this good and kindly father started a fight with the coach and then pulled a gun on him.

Injection or Intravenous

One of the drugs used extensively in kidney dialysis treatment is Epogen. It strengthens the red blood cells. Most clinics administer the drug intravenously. The patient is already being treated this way. Why go through the trouble and aggravation of administering via an injection which may cause an infection? As someone who hates being injected, I can sympathize with this point of view. However, as a taxpayer, I'm not so sure, since Epogen is the drug on which Medicare spends the most money.

Injections require less Epogen. Thus, the final bill for the session is less. However, revenue from Epogen accounts for 20% of the clinic's revenue. So, using less Epogen means less revenue. How much less? Estimates are almost a half billion less annually. That's a good piece of change.

Bombs in Lebanon

Last week Israel admitted to using phosphorus bombs in its battle with Hezbollah. They also used cluster bombs; the UN and others think 4,000,000 cluster bombs were used.

The Israelis claim that the phosphorus bombs were used according to international law. But during the war many Lebanese civilians had symptoms associated with this type of bomb, which the Red Cross and other organizations wish to ban.

Cluster bombs are particularly dangerous as they can be mistaken for batteries or other objects. Kids are most likely to make that mistake. The UN estimates that there are 1,000,000 cluster bombs that did not detonate on impact and could blow up should they be handled by non-experts.

Reactivated options

My recent post on William McGuire's difficulties with backdating options mentioned the reactivation and re-pricing of 'suspended' options from which he made $250,000,000. Well, it's possible that this might be the event that sinks him in more ways than a forced retirement.

The lawyers that investigated the backdating situation concluded that it was not clear that the board was properly informed about the effects and implications of the suspension and reactivation. Had the options not been suspended but cancelled, the all important quarterly numbers would have been worse.

Grasso loses round 1

Richard Grasso, former head of the New York Stock Exchange, has been battling to keep the $187,500,000 pay package awarded by the Exchange board of directors. The controversy that erupted when the size of the package became known in the press forced Grasso to resign in 2003. Eliot Spitzer, New York's attoney general and current gubernatorial candidate, brought suit against Grasso to have him return a lot of the money.

The legal battle has gone back and forth. Last week a state judge ruled that Grasso will have to give some of the money back because he did not tell his board the truth about the compensation package. How much he'll have to return will be decided within the month, but it looks like it will be close to $100,000,000.

Of course, Grasso will appeal.

It's the water, stupid

Add a water shortage to China's problems. Overall, the per-capita availability of water is one-fourth of the world average; it's worse in Beijing, with one-thirtieth of the world's per-capita available water. About one in four Chinese do not have access to clean drinking water.

One way the government is trying to solve the problem is by diverting water from the wet south to the arid north. But there is a lot of controversy both within and without the government as to the merits of this strategy. Not only do some scientists claim that the project would cause more damage than benefits, but it will also displace 200,000 people.

Advising Iraq

From the Wall Street Journal of October 18:

"In my 28 years of military service I have never seen such an appalling approach to training", Lt. Colonel Nick Demas.

"By the time the training was finished, soldiers were demoralized, motivation was non-existent and the team motto came from the Jo Dee Messina lyric, 'my give-a-damn'sbeen busted'", Lt. Colonel James Goodwillie.

The training both refer to is that given the soldiers who are charged with getting the Iraqi army to 'stand up as we stand down'. Finally, after more than two years of senior officers complaining and the difficulties experienced in getting the Iraqis to stand up, the Army has decided to do something about training the advisers. No more will the advisers be untrained, inexperienced troops. Now, three years and more into this war the Army says it will do better.

Some people are slow learners. Usually it does not result in unnecessary deaths.

From the Vineyard Gazette of October 20, 2006

In His Own Words: Gerry E. Studds (1937-2006)

What follows are excerpts from the remarks made by Congressman Studds when he traveled to the Vineyard in January of 1995 to announce that after twelve straight terms, he would not seek re-election to the tenth congressional district.

*

I chose to discuss my plans here on Martha's Vineyard because, in a way, this is where that special trust I mentioned earlier began - in that first Open Meeting in 1973.

That is how you and I have always done our business - together, without fanfare, taking time to ask and explain and maybe even argue a little, and then rolling up our sleeves to get back to work.

That first trip home was a three-day swing through the Islands. In case your grandparents failed to mention it, we returned home that winter day feeling pretty good. In losing the 1970 election by the thinnest of margins, we had failed to carry a single town on either Nantucket or the Vineyard; in fact, we had won a total of one town in all of the Cape and Islands.

Then came the electoral earthquake of 1972. Not only did we win, again by a handful of votes, but we astonished everyone by taking Provincetown, Truro and West Tisbury!

I think it's fair to observe that times have changed.

What has not changed are the bedrock principles of wisdom, honesty and friendship on this Island, personified for me by two people who are not with us today: Betty Bryant, who could drown you in Portuguese guilt if you spent less than 20 of any 24 hours improving the lives of others - because she never had such days; and Gratia Harrington, proud Yankee daughter of an Island sea captain, whose strength, dignity and wit reserved her a front-row-center seat at every one of our Vineyard Open Meetings, well past her 100th birthday . . .

From the Irish moss gathered off Cohasset and Scituate ledges as a boy and the lobster traps I pull these days in Provincetown Harbor, to the marine environmental notches on our proud legislative belt, nearly everything of consequence that you and I care about derives from a deep love and respect for the ocean . . .

Not everyone, however, shares our devotion to salt water.

You may have noticed, for example, that the new majority has not only eliminated the congressional committee that makes ocean policy, but also targeted the federal agency that administers it.

This kind of "reform" will undermine everything from Pacific tsunami warnings to the million-dollar-a-year whale-watching industry on Stellwagen Bank . . .

This district is a microcosm of the nation - rich in human resources and rich in human problems. We are cities and suburbs, countrysides and islands – we are a living reminder of the origins of us all, with a substantial and continuing immigration of new Americans, whether they arrive speaking Portuguese or Vietnamese.

Never has an elected representative been so blessed by the beauty of his district and by the decency and common sense of his constituents. You have stood with me in times of triumph and in times of extraordinary personal challenge. For that I am profoundly grateful.

In turn, you and I both owe another debt of thanks to a small number of remarkable people whose labor, by definition, goes unnoticed and unheralded. The truth, however, is that so very much of the real work is done by - and the real credit for the considerable success we have enjoyed belongs to - the members of my staff.

I could not name a single accomplishment over the last two decades that would have come to fruition without the competence, creativity and sweat of these dedicated individuals. They are devoted public servants, who spend inhuman numbers of hours to see that the potential of this region is realized in the federal arena. These are my friends and colleagues, whom it has been a privilege to work beside. They have meant more to the cities and towns of this district than will ever be fully acknowledged.

As I gathered my thoughts to chat with you today, I thought a lot about an Island resident who taught many of us about things of lasting value, Henry Beetle Hough. Because my favorite of his books was Tuesday Will Be Different, I would always ask him whether he was really sure the next one would be different.

As if this surprises anyone, Henry now gets the last word. For me, at least, the first Tuesday of November 1996 will be very different indeed.

For the privilege of being allowed to speak and vote in your name - for the last 23 years and over the next 14 months - I thank you with all my heart.

Hospital Mergers

There is a preliminary agreement for Partners Health Organization, a non-profit group that owns Mass. General Hospital among others, to acquire the hospitals on the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The deal will likely be good for the islands as the quality of medical care should improve.

The deal should be very good for Partners due to the arcana of Medicare reimbursements. Both island hospitals are classified as "critical access" in Medicare terms. They are the only hospitals in the state so classified. For some strange reasons if a state has hospitals in this classification Medicare bases its reimbursement to the other hospitals in the state on a national figure. And, as we well know, Massachusetts is not a cheap state in which to live. By removing these two hospitals from the critical access category, Partners and other hospitals in the state will see their Medicare reimbursements rise. It's expected that they could rise by as much as $250,000,000.

Reporting the news

The Blue Voice has an interesting comparison of the headlines in UK and US media. Time to read 1984 again to see how close we have become to that world?

A cutback in perks?

GE has cut back on the personal airplane benefits it had allowed its vice chairman. Is this a sign that executive perks will become more reasonable in the near future?

Hopeful signs that North Korea will halt testing

at least for a while. Both China and South Korea are reporting positive signs from North Korea. The question is whether a return to the six-party talks will actually result in some progress towards reining in North Korea. They haven't thus far and now that North Korea has been able to defy the world it's unlikely it will be more amenable to the other countries' wishes.

It's not China that's the cause of the rise in oil

Or so argues Paolo Scaroni, chairman of ENI, the Italian energy giant. In his view, China accounts for only 8% of the demand for oil while the US uses 25% and Europe 18%. On a per capita basis Scaroni's numbers are two barrels per year for a Chinaman, twleve for a European and twenty-six for an American.

He assigns our great use of energy to our cars, heating systems and air conditioning. He estimates that, given current usage, there is about seventy more years of oil left in the ground. Like many others with a brain, he believes that more efficient energy use plus conservation is necessary in order for us to survive untl alternative energy sources are developed. This is quite a different view than that held by the heads of many of the major oil companies.

Another one with special ties to God

Rumsfield " leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country," said Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Maybe, we might be better off if the bad Lord spoke to Donald.

From Professor Phelps

The latest winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Edmund Phelps, was quoted in a recent Wall Street Journal, "I have the eccentric view that there's too mich wealth sloshing around the American economy. This wealth has had bad incentive effects on the supply of labor, employee performance and maybe even innovation. We have become wealthy thanks in part to unsustainably low tax rates. From that point of view, it would be a good thing for the federal government to raise taxes and run big surpluses until we have retired the public debt. In the short run the higher tax rates might be unpleasant. But in the long run, with the debt reduced or eliminated, incentives to work or to advance in the world would be enhanced, because after-tax pay rates as a proprtion of wealth would be higher."

You are definitely not it

How many games of 'tag' did you play when you were a kid? Well, in today's world of an Attleboro, MA, grammar school you would not be allowed to play tag at recess as the principal feels it's too risky. The sad thing is that he may be right. We're in an overly litigious society. Here in off-shore America we have parents who bring their lawyer to parent-teacher conferences.

World Food Day...

..was Monday according to the UN. They issued a quiz to test your knowledge of hunger among children. Why don't you try it? Surely, you'll do better than I. I only got six right.

Need a job?

FP Passport has an ad for a job that might be "fun" as well as lucrative.

One way to keep Uncle Sam's paws off your money

Yesterday, the judge in the Lay-Enron case vacated Lay's conviction because the law says that if you die you did not have the ability to appeal and, thus, use all of your rights. This means that the feds cannot get any of the $41,500,000 they were seeking from Lay's estate.

America the Beautiful

You're picked off the street in Pakistan because your life-long enemy has told the US that you are a member of al-Qaeda. You've spent a year or more in prison at Guantanamo. You don't know what the evidence against you is; it may include hearsay (which not even the great Amercian judge, Judge Judy, allows). You can't invoke the protections of the Geneva Convention although every aspect of your capture and imprisonment has been conducted by the military. You may have been tortured.

Do we really want to be the country that allows this kind of treatment in the 21st century? Are we really any safer because 450 people are imprisoned in Guantanamo?

Afghanistan + 5

It's been just about five years since we decided to oust the Taliban from Afghanistan. I've written a few times this year as to how poorly things are going over there. Stephen Nunes has a more complete summary in Foreign Policy in Focus. Some excerpts from his article:

• According to the UN, Afghan living standards are close to the worst in the world. Life expectancy less than 45, per capita GDP less than $200, 70% illiteracy rate, infant mortality among the highest in the world. Human Rights Watch says, "Violence against women and girls remains rampant." The country really does not have functioning state institutions as Karzai is considered the mayor of Kabul rather than the president of the country.
• Doctors without Borders has left the country although they had been there since the '80s and had stayed through the Soviet war, the civil war and the Taliban. Things are just too unsafe today. Amnesty Internaitional claims, "The government and its international partners remained incapable of providing security to the people of Afghanistan" during the last year. The AP correspondent for Afghanistan for 18 years says that the government is "the biggest collection of mass murderers you'll ever get in one place".
• The resurgence of the opium trade is a primary reason for the country's instability as it provides funds for the war lords and the insurgents.

According to Nunes, we have not made good on our promises to rebuild the country. We've allied ourselves with the war lords and drug sellers. We're bombing the civilian population. We've cut aid by 30% in the last year and a lot of our development money has not gone to the people and areas that need it. We can arrest and hold people without charges.

But Nunes still maintains hope if we change our policies and out words into action.

The English Army view of Dannat's comments

In Sparrow Chat, R. J. Adams, English to the bone, reports on a poll conducted by ARRSE as to the truth of the comments of the British army chief of staff that the British presence "exacerbates the security problems" in Iraq.

There must be a reason

why the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will give Boston substantially less money for security enhancements than it will give Portland, Me. Boston will receive $147,750, Portland $768,750. Boston is the only major port which has LNG tankers enter its harbor.

DHS has some way of ranking risks. For this type of grant, Boston, the eleventh largest container port in the country, has the same rank as Huntington, WV, which is landlocked.

I guess it all make sense to someone.

Buffalo, NY October 12, 2006

Another signing statement

Congress passed a law aimed at strengthening FEMA. One provision of the law requires subsequent chiefs of FEMA to have disaster relief experience. Bush's signing statement says that he doesn't have to. Why didn't he just veto it?

Carter on North Korea

Jimmy Carter has an op-ed about North Korea in today's NY Times. He recounts North Korea's fears of an American strike against their country as told to him in 2002 and laments their response to our actions by re-instituting their nuclear weapons program. However, we still have options, one of which is to implement the September 2005 six-party agreement. As Jim Baker says, "It's not appeasement to talk to your enemies."

What a difference 40 years makes

Now the Justice Department is prosecuting blacks for preventing whites from voting. And it's happening in Mississippi, of all states. It looks as though they are using many of the same techniques as whites did.

An example of what's wrong with our education system

It's possible that California is taking No Child Left Behind - with its mandate to have a "highly qualified" teacher in every class - further than most states. The state is interpreting the law to mean that every teacher must pass a teacher certification course, which, incidentally, the teacher has to pay for; the course tuition could be as much as $15,000. Some experienced teachers are unwilling to take the course or pay the money and are leaving the public school system.

Some of those who have refused to take the course are very experienced teachers who have earned state-wide teacher of the year awards and who are acknowledged as superior teachers by students, parents and administrators. To force these people to pass a teacher certification course is truly stupid, particularly when our education system is not functioning very well in our global world. Their certification is in the students they have taught, not in some regimented course.

Updating the shroud

We all have strange rituals surrounding the dead. In Madagascar they unearth the dead every ten years or so, put a new shroud on the body and maybe have a party (including dancing with the corpse) before re-burying the body. This practice is very expensive but quite popular. I guess it makes sense in a country where ancestor worship is common.

A cry for attention?

Speculation is growing that the bomb detonated by North Korea was either very tiny by nuclear standards (it was about 3% as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima 61 years ago) or not a nuclear bomb at all. Could it be that they feel actually detonating a bomb is the only way left to bring us to the table?

Foreign Policy in Focus has some interesting comments on the situation.

When is the line between church and state crossed?

The NY Times is running a series on the growing union of church and state. Today’s issue speaks of the church and taxes – avoiding them and benefiting from them.

Churches that are engaged in commercial ventures are able to avoid paying property taxes on the buildings housing these ventures. The churches claim that the ventures benefit the church’s religious mission. But I find it hard to see how some of these ventures are really religious-based. It’s easy to see how they compete with secular ventures as their costs are automatically lower.

Here are some church businesses that are not paying property taxes:

• A fitness center in Minnesota
• A theme park in Florida
• Faculty housing in Alaska for day school teachers
• Regent University in Virginia
• An up-scale retirement community in Indiana
• A parking lot in Pennsylvania
• A transmission tower.

It’s even worse as many of these ventures are financed with tax-exempt bonds. More than $20 billion in tax-exempt bonds have been issued in the past fifteen plus years to benefit religious institutions.

What about that stuff about rendering to God and rendering to Caesar?

Another copycat

I can't believe that shooting up a school is something that is caused by someone trying to emulate a previous school incident. Yet, today there has been another school incident. This time it's Missouri. A 13-yr. old shot an AK-47 into the ceiling. Fortunately, no one was injured.

How many is that? Five in the past month?

Our Congress is not alone in wasting time

The French legislature is debating a bill which would make it a crime to deny that Turks committed genocide against Armenians during the time of the Ottoman Empire, almost 100 years ago. This particular genocide has been debated almost since it happened. Over the past few years the Armenians have managed to get it onto the media's scope. But, seriously, why is France debating the issue now? Could they not spend their time on more contemporary matters whose fate can be decided today rather than argue over something that can't be changed?

Executive Orders for Jesus

The Boston Globe says that, based on its review of over 52,000 USAID contracts and grants, the amount of AID money going to Christian organizations has doubled over the past 5+ years while there has been a growing movement away from the separation of church and state, one of the founding principles of our government. Now almost 20% of USAID money goes to faith-based organizations, many of whom operate as though the health benefits they bring to USAID recipients are intimately connected with the religious services offered to these people in need.

The breach of the wall separating church and state is the result of executive orders issued by Bush, such as:

• It used to be that groups needed to preach religion in one place and operate government programs in another. Not any more.
• It used to be that government funds were not used to pay for employees required to take an oath to one religion. Not any more.
• It used to be that groups were required to inform beneficiaries that attendance at religious services was not a requirement to receive aid. Not any more.

It's not just Iraq

Shoddy reconstruction is taking place in Afghanistan as well, or so says CorpWatch, an organization I'd never heard of. But, the report seems grounded in reality. Here are some of the findings:

"A highway that begins crumbling before it is finished. A school with a collapsed roof. A clinic with faulty plumbing. A farmers’ cooperative that farmers can’t use. Afghan police and military that, after training, are incapable of providing the most basic security. And contractors walking away with millions of dollars in aid money for the work."

Things do move slowly

Since 1995 DOD has been working on a new Defense Travel System. Eleven years later, GAO has yet to agree that the system has been properly defined as to the requirements, adequately system tested or cost-justified.

It's a start

Nothing may come of the Cellulosic Ethanol Summit. But it's a start. DOE is one of the organizations supporting this conference. Now, if they only started putting up some real money, significant progress might be made in weaning us off some of our dependence on oil in the next decade.

"Today's Fiscal Policy Remains Unsustainable"

Those are not my words, although I agree with them. They are the words of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in publishing their latest update of our nation's fiscal situation. Three times a year the GAO updates their long-term fiscal simulations. Their conclusion: "Under any reasonable set of expectations about future spending and revenues, the risks posed to the Nation's future financial condition are too high to be acceptable." We're simply spending too much for the revenue we take in.

Unless we do something soon, the steps needed to fix the problem will be of such a magnitude that I'm glad I won't be around. However, my kids and grandkids will. My parents left me a reasonably decent economy; I'd like to do the same for my descendants. But, given our present leaders, it's unlikely they will have the courage to face reality and make the changes necessary, such as restoring tax cuts, eliminating stupid spending and investing intelligently in education.

"Drifting sideways"

That's what John Warner says about Iraq after his latest visit there. He sees the Iraqi government as ineffective both in stemming the violence and restoring the infrastructure. He's talking about setting a deadline for the US.

You have to pass the test to get a cat

If you've always wanted a cat but were allergic to them, you can now realize your dream. That is if you have $4000 and pass the interview given by the company that has bred hypoallergenic cats. And your spot on the waiting list has come up.

The next life will be better

Catholics have their heaven. Muslims have their virgins. And, now I learn that Chinese bachelors find a wife in the afterlife.

Some Chinese believe that they have an obligation to meet the needs of their dead ancestors. Some may need money, so the survivors bury 'monopoly money' with the corpse. Others may need a car, hence a paper model of a Lincoln. Bachelors need a wife. The family seeks out the body of a dead woman, usually buys it from her family, and buries it next to their son. If they can't find or afford one (they can cost as much as four years' income), they make one of straw.

We are strange creatures. Are we not? But we're all looking for a better life in the next world, whether or not it exists.

We need term limits

The Foley scandal has several parts, most of which have been discussed in the media. But one that I have not seen is the arrogance caused by one party - it makes no difference which one - has been in power too long. If there had been a change in power, Foley would have likely done the same things but it would not have been covered up so readily. As I've said more than once, the overriding issue we face is the quality of our leaders.

If not last year, maybe this year

The Pentagon budget for last year included $20,000,000 to commemorate our success in Afghanistan and Iraq with a celebration in Washington. Since success has not yet come, the money is now part of this year's budget.

In the spirit of supporting our troops the Senate approved this money unanimously and the House overwhelmingly approved it. Now, the Democrats ask us to forget that approval as they lambast the appropriation.

When will we once more have decent representatives in Washington and elsewhere?

Taking steps nationally

China's State Environmental Protection Administration has released a report claiming that pollution lowers their GDP by about 3%. They are using the "green GDP" method of deducting costs associated with pollution from the normal definition of GDP. Not all economists agree and the calculation is really only approximate, but it is another attempt of the central government to do something about its pollution problem.

UN Resolution 1267

The UN way of punishing terrorists or those thought to be terrorists by their government - The government submits a name to the 1267 subcommittee. The subcommittee passes the name and supporting details to the members of the Security Council. If there is no objection within five days, the name is added to the list of 1267 terrorists. Simple, right?

Note that the person accused of being a terrorist has had no opportunity to comment on the charge. Once 'convicted', the person's assets are frozen and they cannot travel internationally. So, if a government doesn't like someone, they can very easily get him placed on the 1267 list.

Fair? I think not.

More on lead poisoning in China

Saturday's Wall Street Journal had more data on the lead poisoning in the village of Xinsi. Xinsi is a remote village in which a lead smelting plant was built in 1996. The central government has started trying to reduce pollution but they are stymied by local officials who agree to the construction of factories in a bid to improve the local economy, which improvement means a better job and more money for the local officials.

The factory was allowed to be built very close to a school, despite its constant emitting of noxious fumes. When the factory installed emission controls, they shut them down at night although the factory was emitting the stuff they were trying to control. Even after the factory was ordered to close, it kept going in secret.

Whew!

I don't watch Keith Olbermann but his comments re the Clinton Fox interview and the current administration are certainly not the typical TV pablum.

Atonement?

While driving back from New York on I95 today, I saw one of those highway signs whereby a company claims to be responsible for keeping a stretch of highway clean. The sponsor was Gabelli Funds. I don't know how long it's been there, but it did stand out in my mind.

How many of them are there?

Mark Foley is only the latest example of those who do not practice what they preach. And, often, these people are put in charge of protecting people from the depredations of sick people. Beware the crusader of all types - be he or she Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Hindi, Confucian, Shinto, whatever. THey are all convinced of our evil, seldom of their own.