It comes down to 'tone'

When Mass Mutual fired Robert O'Connell as CEO, there were rumors of an affair, nepotism, his management style and his unacceptable use of a shadow account. The matter has been winding its way through the judicial system.

Yesterday, the report which was the basis for O'Connell's firing was released. The investigator who wrote the report did not find evidence of either an affair or nepotism. He did find evidence of financial chicanery.

As to management style, this is what the report said, "The tone set by O’Connell focused almost exclusively on fealty to O’Connell and his chosen acolytes. MassMutual personnel quickly understood that their primary role was to please O’Connell and to permit him to do as he pleased. Any challenge to his dictates was swiftly punished.”

Not exactly a guy you'd like to work for.

Gotta make the numbers

Mark Benjamin has a number of articles in Salon about what appears a deliberate attempt by the military to inflate the number of deployable troops. The latest speaks of injured soldiers being sent to Fort Irwin as a prelude to being shipped out.

Yes, it's natural to assume that a few soldiers would say almost anything to avoid going to war, but it seems that Benjamin has sufficient facts to back up his claim. Some assertions he backs up

soldiers who had been recommended for medical retirement were sent to the training camp
the injured soldiers did not train; they just lived in a big tent
some of the injured were, in fact, sent to Iraq (although the Army says they'll be put in safe non-combat jobs.

It just doesn't sound good.

If you watched "Seinfeld"...

you have to read this. Remember the episode when George decided to do the opposite of what his normal behavior would be? Our Iraq 'strategy' could be interpreted as George's 'opposite' strategy writ large.

A little noise begins

Last week I lamented the fact that the election season in West Tisbury was quite quiet. It's still quiet on the candidate front but has picked up on the issue front.

The Vineyard Gazette began their annual pre-election coverage this week. The West Tisbury Finance Committee's attempt to reduce the budget proposed for the Up-Island Regional School District and the committee's article to withdraw from the regional school district earned a front page slot.

Naturally, the school committee and the school administration opposes the committee's efforts. Their counter to the Finance Committee's arguments is a classic defense of an untenable position:

Question the source of the opposition's numbers
Unfortunately, the source is the school administration's budgets for the past several years

Distort the calculations the opposition made
The committee had asked the school for a level funded budget for the district. The newspaper reported that the committee had now changed their request to a level funded assessment for West Tisbury, which the committee has not done.

Assert that the budget cut will mean cuts in programs.
It's hard to see why programs need to be cut when you have two sections of a grade where, in each section, eleven and twelve kids are being taught by a teacher and an aide.

Avoid responding to the opponent's basic argument
The committee has documented an increase of 42% in district assessments since FY2002, while the number of students has decreased by 25%. The costs of the district are the highest on Martha's Vineyard and among the highest in the state.

Rely on a consultant's study
Unfortunately, the consultant assumes that all school costs are fixed, when, in reality, the largest cost, personnel, is variable.

It will be an interesting ten days to Town Meeting!

A year ahead

The lead story in yesterday's Wall Street Journal was about the economist Alan Blinder, who is raising doubts abut the true costs of globalization. The name rang a bell and, in looking back over some of the things I wrote last year, I came across this, which was a summary of Blinder's article in Foreign Affairs decrying the impact of globalization on education.

Blinder may be overly pessimistic, but then again, he may be correct in believing that we are at the beginning of another industrial revolution. The world has certainly changed dramatically over the past ten years and the rate of change does not appear to be slowing. We would be wise to at least listen to what he is saying.

Is it really a withdrawal?

Kevin Ryan, a retired general, argues that the bills passed by the House and Senate to withdraw our troops from Iraq really will do nothing of the sort.

First, the bills allow the president to waive restrictions against deployment in the cause of 'national security'. Isn't national security Bush's mantra?

The bills also allow troops to stay there to protect our citizens and facilities, to fight international terrorism and to train Iraqi security forces. Ryan estimates that it will take as many troops to accomplish these three tasks as are there now.

I haven't read the bills. It sounds as though Ryan has. If his reading is correct, it's all just more b.s. from our leaders.

Any relation?

The BBC headline says "Record US Trade Deficit in 2006". The Financial Times headline is "Asia States Warned on Danger of Reserves".

The BBC story reports that for the fifth year in a row we have set another record in our trade deficit. It is now forcing us to borrow more than $2 billion a day and it is growing along with our supposed great economy; it's now 6.5% of GDP.

The Financial Times article reports of the urgings of the chief economist of the Asian Development Bank that growing countries that sit on their reserves (by investing in US Treasuries) are setting themselves up for a crash. Countries are urged to retire debt or buy higher-yielding securities.

A different kind of tsunami

At least five people were drowned in Gaza yesterday when a cesspool collapsed and unleashed a river of sewage and mud. The problem had been predicted back in 2004. The sewage 'system' was built for 50,000 people; it now 'accommodates' 190,000.

And there may be more tsunamis of sewage as another, larger system seems to be getting ready to erupt.

Another important four letter word

That's FEAR. ZbigniewBrzezinski has a piece in yesterday's Washington Post on how fear has damaged this country. The thing that really got to me is the number of sites that are now included in a national database of possible terrorist targets. Congress began the database in early 2003 with 160 sites. How many do you think there are now, four years later? Would you believe 300,000? Would you believe that terrorists would be interested in the Illinois Apple and Pork Festival? Some genius believes so as it is one of the items in the database.

Here's a quote from the article that tells you how far we have come:

The culture of fear is like a genie that has been let out of its bottle. It acquires a life of its own -- and can become demoralizing. America today is not the self-confident and determined nation that responded to Pearl Harbor; nor is it the America that heard from its leader, at another moment of crisis, the powerful words "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"; nor is it the calm America that waged the Cold War with quiet persistence despite the knowledge that a real war could be initiated abruptly within minutes and prompt the death of 100 million Americans within just a few hours. We are now divided, uncertain and potentially very susceptible to panic in the event of another terrorist act in the United States itself.

The really sad part about all this is that we really are no safer today than we were on September 10, 2001. There have been billions of dollars spent, but just look around you and see what you would destroy if you were a terrorist and how easily you could do it.

Golden Boy continues to lose luster

David Stockman was a Congressman at age 30, the youngest U.S. Budget Director, a multi-millionaire. And then he bought Collins & Aikman, one of the largest players in the auto parts industry. That seemed to be the beginning of what may be his end as a golden boy.

The company filed for bankruptcy two years ago and is being sold off in pieces. Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that it was very likely Stockman would be indicted for improper accounting, fraud and misleading investors. He blames it all on Sarbanes-Oxley. We shall see.

I have to be fair

I've had a few posts about the Morgan Stanley- Perelman affair. None of them praised Morgan Stanley. But, last week the company won the latest round against Perelman when the appeals court ruled Perelman had not established a value to ascribe to his Sunbeam shares. Now, Perelman will take it to another court.

Stay tuned.

In Minnesota?

It's not rare to find that your cab driver has a hard time with English, particularly if you're coming from an airport. However, it is rare, at least in my experience, to have a cab driver refuse to take you if you are carrying liquor. Yet, that is what is happening at the Minneapolis airport, where three-fourths of the cab drivers are Muslim. While the Koran prohibits drinking alcohol, but not transporting it, these drivers want to go beyond the Koran - and beyond the laws of our country.

Then, there are the Muslim clerks at Target stores in the Minneapolis area. They will not scan pork products; the customer or another clerk must do it. Again, the Koran allows people to touch, but not eat, pork. Why Target keeps these people on is beyond me. I'm sure there are aspects of the job that some non-Muslim clerks hate. Would they get fired if they said their religion barred them from doing that part of the job?

Something doesn't make sense here. If you are so upset about coming near alcohol or pork, then find a job where you can avoid them.

How not to do a cost-benefit analysis

This GAO report could be a primer in what not to do when comparing costs and benefits. It is a report on the efforts of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to upgrade their supply of radiation detection monitors as part of the effort to protect us against the smuggling of nuclear material.

DHS has decided to upgrade the current generation of monitors and has sponsored R&D and testing activities to develop a new monitor. One problem is the estimated cost of the new monitors - six times that of the current monitors. So, the question DHS was asked to answer was: is the increased cost worth it?

Problem 1 - They had tested the new monitors a couple of years ago. But, in doing this analysis they decided not to use the results of these tests. They just assumed that the new monitors would detect highly enriched uranium 95% of the time. This assumption is just that - an assumption. It has yet to be proven.

Problem 2 - They tested the current monitors using data from tests conducted in 2004. These tests were unreliable, or so said the people who conducted the tests in 2004.

Problem 3 - DHS tested only for highly enriched uranium. There are several other materials that are as dangerous as uranium.

Problem 4 - The price of the current monitors is $55,000. DHS assumed a price of $131,000 in their analysis.

Problem 5 - The new monitors will reduce unnecessary secondary inspections, or so it is thought. However, the monetary value of this feature is unknown as they don't know the cost of these secondary inspections.

Problem 6 - There was no attempt to estimate life cycle costs.

Makes you feel good. Doesn't it?

Surprisingly quiet

I'm talking about the political scene in West Tisbury. I had expected to at least see some signs on people's lawns and an ad or two in the newspaper. But, here we are a little more than two weeks until election day and nada. I had expected some activity but this is ridiculous. I guess the candidates have made a decision that campaigning is not necessary. Perhaps, the League of Women Voters Candidates' Night on Friday might stir some action.

The activity seems to be on the issue front. The Space Needs committee has issued their report and will hold a final forum on April 4. The Community Preservation Committee will hold a forum this Wednesday. The Finance Committee will present its recommendations on Saturday. People are passing out pamphlets touting the virtues of an article which limits the number of elective offices someone can hold.

Everyone, including me, thinks that the Space Needs Committee has done a great job. They've put in a lot of work. They've actually had a plan and they executed it. People have had ample time to review the committee's work. Now comes the hard part - presenting their recommendations and convincing Town Meeting to support them. The issue, as always, is do we want to spend more money renovating the existing Town hall or do we want to give up the ghost and build a new building in what has become the town business center. From a financial point of view the answer to me is obvious.

Despite all the investigations that have been done as to the condition of the Town Hall, no one can predict with sufficient degree of certainty that some major problem is not lurking there. Proponents of renovation argue for preserving history. While the building has been there for over a hundred years, it's only been a Town Hall for thirty or so of those years. I think it's time to acknowledge that, in the 21st century, the center of the Town has moved and build a new building for less money than renovating Town Hall.

The Community Preservation Committee has not had the opportunity to spend much money in this its first year. For some unknown reason West Tisbury received very few proposals and the committee is only recommending that the Town spend about $125,000 of CPA funds now. This wasn't the case in Oak Bluffs where they had applications for twice as much money as the Town had in CPA funds.

And, finally I come to Article 45 which seeks to limit the number of elective offices that can be held by one person. A similar article was rejected last year, but the proponents have modified that article and are trying again. Their basic argument is that the article will encourage more people to run for office. Well, the article is based on one that has been available in Chilmark for twenty years. Are there more contests for office in Chilmark than in other Island towns? No. Last Fall there were two vacancies for the Up-Island School committee. Did we have more than two people running for these offices? No.

The real problem with this article is that it is aimed at one person. The article does not say that someone can only hold one elective office. It specifically names offices, some of which this person holds. I just don't think that is fair.

Are we going too far?

My father immigrated from Italy to the US when he was 16, back at the start of the 20th century. English was his language although he never lost his ability to speak his native tongue. His view was that we were living in America and should speak the language. Italian was only spoken at our house when my grandmother came. My kids learned foreign languages, but their education was conducted in English although some of their classmates had recently immigrated here. One of my sons spent a year in Florence. Classes were conducted in Italian only.

Today I learned of a school system in Western Massachusetts which has, in my opinion, gone overboard in welcoming today's immigrants. At least in the fourth grade of one school in this town, there are two teachers - teachers, not aides. One conducts her class in English, the other conducts her class - it's the same class in the same room - in Spanish. Usually, they are teaching the exact same thing.

What a waste of money! More importantly, what does this say about our country and its future? There are many reasons why some countries succeed and others do not. I believe that having a common language is one hallmark of those countries that succeed. I was always struck by the biblical story of the Tower of Babel. The tower was never built because people could not understand each other. At least one town in Western Massachusetts is moving in that direction.

The wonderful world of DC

Have I got a job for you! Or, if you really must get into that hearing, I can get you in. All you have to do is sign up with Linestanding.com. I kid you not. This group offers 'high quality' line standing services for a fee of $36 an hour with a two hour minimum. The bizarre part is they've been doing this for more than twenty years.

It's all about being seen by the politicos as most of these hearings are available via CSPAN.

Time is limited so let's focus on the really important

like whether eight US attorneys lost their job because of politics. Let's spend our money and time investigating this. It's much more important than coming up with ideas to try to solve some minor problems like energy, Iraq, our place in the world, global warming, the waste of money by DOD, the impact of the rise of China and India, our debt, the future of social security, etc., etc.

I guess we get the leaders we deserve.

Sound is everywhere

There can be a different sound generated depending upon which soap you use.

Playing hide and seek

Is the 'surge' working? The numbers of incidents in Baghdad are down. But are the insurgents just playing a waiting game? Methinks they are. When the surge ends, as it will, the slaughter will continue.

The Second Coming

This morning's church service included a recitation of Yeats' poem, "The Second Coming". I hadn't heard it for years, but it is as relevant today as when it was written in another time of madness. Here it is.

THE SECOND COMING

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Matching actions and words

This GAO report brings home once more that in a hell of a lot of ways we don't do as we say. This report reminds us that the Defense Department's Quadrennial Review calls for us to be ready to respond to and mitigate the effects of WMD attacks here and abroad. In fact, DOD has doubled its investment in chemical and biological defenses since 2001 and has plans to spend even more money.

The problem is that, despite these investments, we still don't have the people and equipment to get the job done. What are we waiting for?

CYA

Remember those letters the FBI sent 'erroneously'? Well, it seems that once FBI lawyers started raising concerns about them, the agents sent new letters asking for information they had obtained previously.

Will you vote for me...

if I say that the use of condoms will not prevent HIV? Will you vote for me if I embrace Jerry Falwell? Will you vote for me if I agree with everything you say? Will you vote for me if my name were John McCain? Do you work the same street of prostitution as I do?

Up the number, reduce the reporting

It used to be that companies had to file a special report if they caused more than 5oo pounds of toxic chemicals to be released in the air every year. Our EPA decided in January that we could not suffer problems if less than 2000 pounds were released in a year. Of course, the EPA did not follow its own rules in changing the number.

The question is - are we better off not knowing whether companies are emitting more than 500 pounds of toxic chemicals every year?

They all look the same

Ten prisoners in a Basra jail executed an ingenuous escape. They swapped clothes with their visitors and walked out the door.

Three on China

The MG is back

Except that it is now coming from China. Next week Nanjing Auto will start making the MG7, a sedan, and the MGTF, a convertible. And MG is not the only well-known Western brand that is now owned by China. Lenovo now makes and markets IBM’s ThinkPad. Other well-known companies that are now owned by Chinese companies include Benelli, the oldest motorcycle company in Italy; Schiess, a 140-year-old German tool maker; furniture companies including Universal, Craftmaster and Legacy Classic; auto parts manufacturers including Schiller, Universal Automotive, Rockford Powertrain. And the list goes on.

It’s all part of a strategy to buy established companies that are down on their luck. It gives the new owners instant brand recognition. Not a bad strategy when you have the foreign exchange needed to execute it.

Another riot in China’s countryside

This was a big one, involving 20,000 people who were upset when a new owner of the bus system doubled the fares. The army and 1000 policemen were needed to quell the disturbance, which was just one of the two hundred or so that occur every day.

Private property in Communist China?

Speculation is rife that China will pass its first law to explicitly protect private property.

Cost vs. Benefit

Frederick Block, a judge in the US District Court, thinks that the cost-benefit ratio engendered by the rise in death penalty prosecutions (they've increased from 18 per year in the 1990s to 40 per year in this century) is not a favorable one.

The prosecutions are costly to the state, as often the defendants have no money and the state has to pay for the prosecution and the defense. In Block's experience a typical death penalty case can cost the state $1,000,000. This comes at a time when the budgets for federal courts has been sharply reduced. In fact, they have been reduced to such a level in NYC that there is no money for marshals to protect jurors in some cases.

The cases take a lot of time to be prepared for both defense and prosecution and, since appeals are virtually guaranteed, can go on for a long time. Naturally, not every prosecution results in a conviction. Of those tried under the federal rules, only 50 have been convicted and, of those, only three have been executed.One judge, a conservative, concluded that, "whatever purposes the death penalty is said to serve.... those purposes are not served by the system as it now operates."

All federal death penalty prosecutions have to be authorized by the Attorney General. Block advises him to be 'more circumspect'.

One way to solve a housing problem

This doesn't sound right, but man - or woman in this case - is a strange beast.

A team approach

Michael Porter, a business guru from Harvard, has an interesting slant on our healthcare crisis. He advocates that doctors work as a team. What this would mean is that instead of a patient seeing doctors seriatim, he would see all doctors at the same time. This system is being used in two of the more prestigious hospitals in the country - Dartmouth's Mary Hitchcock and the Cleveland Clinic - with a certain degree of success.

It's been less than 2 months...

since I wrote these words

A little more than a million minutes. That's 'all' that's left in George Bush's last term as President. Can America and the world make it? You can tolerate incompetence only so long before it will devour you.

Walter Reed, Gonzales, Pace, Cheney. When in the Lord's name will it stop? This has to be the worst presidency ever. How could these people have earned a living all these years? Who would hire them but fellow idiots?

Fiscal Stewardship: A Critical Challenge Facing Our Nation

The title of this document from the GAO says it all.

Here are some words from the preface:

The federal government’s financial condition and fiscal outlook are worse than many may understand. Despite an increase in revenues in fiscal year 2006 of about $255 billion, the federal government reported that its costs exceeded its revenues by $450 billion (i.e., net operating cost) and that its cash outlays exceeded its cash receipts by $248 billion (i.e., unified budget deficit). Further, as of September 30, 2006, the U.S. government reported that it owed (i.e., liabilities) more than it owned (i.e., assets) by almost $9 trillion. In addition, the present value1 of the federal government’s major reported long-term “fiscal exposures”—liabilities (e.g., debt), contingencies (e.g., insurance), and social insurance and other commitments and promises (e.g., Social Security, Medicare)—rose from $20 trillion to about $50 trillion in the last 6 years.

The federal government faces large and growing structural deficits in the future due primarily to known demographic trends and rising health care costs. These structural deficits—which are virtually certain given the design of our current programs and policies—will mean escalating and ultimately unsustainable federal deficits and debt levels. Based on various measures—and using reasonable assumptions—the federal government’s current fiscal policy is unsustainable. Continuing on this imprudent and unsustainable path will gradually erode, if not suddenly damage, our economy, our standard of living, and ultimately our domestic tranquility and national security.

And from the concluding chapter

Although the long-term fiscal outlook is driven by rising health care costs and known demographics, we cannot ignore other government programs and activities. There is a need to engage in a fundamental review, reprioritization, and reengineering of the base of government. Aligning the federal government to meet the challenges and capitalize on the opportunities of the 21st century will require a fundamental review of what the federal government does, how it does it, and how it is financed. Many of the federal government’s current policies, programs, functions, and activities are based on conditions that existed decades ago, are not results-based, and are not well aligned with 21st century realities.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Meeting our nation’s large, growing, and structural fiscal imbalance will require a multipronged approach:

increasing transparency in financial and budget reporting and in budget and legislative processes to highlight our long-term fiscal challenges;

reinstituting and strengthening budget controls for both spending and tax policies to deal with both near-term and longer-term deficits;

strengthening oversight of programs and activities including creating approaches to better facilitate the discussion of integrated solutions to crosscutting issues; and

reengineering and reprioritizing the federal government’s existing programs, policies, and activities to address 21st century challenges and capitalize on related opportunities.

When minus is greater than plus

Never underestimate the imagination of Fortune 2000 CEOs. Brookfield Homes paid its CEO a minus $2,300,000 last year, at least according to its proxy statement. Of course, Mr. Cockwell, the CEO, had no trouble living off a negative income. You see he actually earned about $8,000,000 in 2006. This $8,000,000 of what you and I would call income was offset by a $10,300,000 loss in the value of stock options Mr. Cockwell has been granted. Makes perfect sense to me. Don't you understand the world of high finance? Do whatever it takes to benefit the CEO.

Another example of this world is Toll Brothers. They earned a magnificent minus 22% for shareholders last year, which was worse than the average homebuilder who achieved a sterling minus 14%. For this wonderful performance the CEO was awarded about $20,000,000. Go figure!

21st Century Israeli Government

My recollection of the Israeli government of the 20th century was that, by and large, it was an honest government, perhaps misguided but honest.

Now the media is filled with stories of corruption and other odd doings. The Premier is accused of corruption; his personal secretary faces charges of bribery. The President will be standing trial for rape. And now the Ambassador to San Salvador was found with a ball in his mouth, drunk and naked except for S&M gear.

What would Golda Meir say?

It's a fast-moving world.

A couple of weeks ago I relayed the story about Delta Zeta Sorority throwing uncool and not smashingly pretty girls out of the DePauw chapter. Well, today DePauw threw Delta Zeta off the campus and severed its ties with the sorority. Will other universities follow suit?

The sorority did not help itself by posting disparaging comments on its web sites about the girls dismissed or by refusing to talk to the media.

That makes three

Gen. Kiley, the Army Surgeon General and former commandant at Walter Reed Hospital, was forced into retirement today.

More questioning of our diagnostic society

Earlier this year I wrote about what seems to have become an epidemic of over-diagnosis such that what was considered normal and expected a couple of decades ago is now seen as a precursor of a serious physical illness.

Apparently, mental health professionals also have a problem related to diagnosing patients. This could be called under-diagnosis in that professionals are too quick to assign a cause to a problem, a cause that has a name (such as ADD) and one that can supposedly be treated by drugs. In today's Boston Globe, Stephen Schlein inveighs against the tendency "to slap a diagnosis on someone before we have any real personal in-depth understanding".

He cites two high-profile cases in the Boston area. In one case a child was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 2. In the other, a stabbing is a high school was ascribed to the fact that the stabber had Asperger's Syndrome, which bears no relation to violence. He blames these diagnoses on an 'obsession with diagnostic labels'.

Another sign of a changing global economy

Halliburton is moving its corporate headquarters not to China or India but to Dubai.

Sometimes it does not pay to privatize

Walter Reed Hospital could be one of those 'sometimes'. In 2004 the Army decided that it would not pay to outsource some of the maintenance work. After a protest by IAP Worldwide Services, which is wired into the administration, the Army's auditors ruled that the Army's calculations vis-a-vis outsourcing were flawed. The Army's 'corrected' decision resulted in IAP getting a $120,000,000 contract in January 2006.

For some unknown reason, IAP did not begin the work until this January, during which time, the existing maintenance workers began to leave and, naturally, finding replacements was not easy. The brouhaha that has ensued is partly the result of IAP's tardiness in starting the job it worked so hard to get.

The smell of greed and cronyism

Deval Patrick is not getting off to a good start as governor of Massachusetts. He had the state buy him an expensive car, pay for an aide to his wife and now wants to appoint the husband of one of his biggest supporters to a fairly cushy job. Yes, the husband is probably qualified, but he's retired with an $80,000 a year government pension, his wife is a state senator. Talk about living off the state! How much more money does he want?

There is a great need in this country for the talent and experience of retired people. Many of us are trying to meet that need without being compensated or by receiving token compensation. It's not a bad life and there can be a reasonable level of satisfaction in knowing that you are doing your bit to help your fellow man. Why doesn't the judge join us?

All the guilty must be punished

A young Saudi woman was blackmailed into meeting a man who was not a relative. While driving with this guy, they were stopped by a gang. She was raped many times. Naturally, her brother beat her for this crime. And, of course, after convicting the rapists, she was ordered to receive 90 lashes for meeting the non-relative.

What a world!

Perjury or adultery? Which is worse?

Newt Gingrich thinks perjury is, even though there is no proof of the alleged perjury, but he does admit to adultery. He believes in family values, yet has divorced two wives. He's probably a great candidate for president - he lives in a world of his own creation where he is a genius and the rest of us are dumbbells. He'd be a great successor to our current officeholder who is also convinced of his infallibility and moral superiority.

The True Cost of War: A Moral Balance Sheet

From the Unitarian Universalist Association:

One Day in Iraq

To date, more than 3,100 American military members have been killed in Iraq, and another 400 have been killed in Afghanistan. On average, another college-aged soldier (between the ages of 18 and 22) is killed every day.

The money the US spends on average in just one day in Iraq, $259 million, could have provided 22,615 college-aged students with a full year’s tuition or enrolled 35,500 three- and four-year-olds a full year in Head Start pre-school programs.

One Week in Iraq

The toll of the war on Iraqi civilians has been devastating. Estimates of the number of Iraqi dead range up to half a million.

As many as 3.8 million Iraqis have already fled their homes, and an additional 10,500 civilians become refugees on average every week.

The money spent in one week in Iraq could have provided three meals a day for nearly an entire year for 6 million children, the same number that dies from hunger and malnutrition every year.

One Month in Iraq

In addition to the tens of thousands of injuries American service members have sustained in fighting in Iraq, more than 500 have undergone “major amputations” – the loss of arms or legs. In the four years of fighting in Iraq, that totals ten servicemen and women losing a limb every month (or one every three days).

For less than the amount spent in one month in Iraq, New Orleans’ neighborhoods could be completely rebuilt and improved to meet standards that would better protect them against another hurricane.

One Year in Iraq

More than 34,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in Iraq in 2006 alone. That is equivalent to 93 civilians killed every day.

The money spent in Iraq in one year could have paid the health insurance premiums for half of all uninsured Americans, including all uninsured American children.

Four years in Iraq

More than 3,100 American service members have been killed since the invasion, and more than 23,500 soldiers have been wounded. As many as 300,000 veterans have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, two-thirds of whom are not being treated.

What could we have purchased with $400 billion, had our national priorities matched our moral potential?

We could have funded full American compliance in the Kyoto Protocol, which is estimated to cost $75 billion less than what we’ve already spent in Iraq.

We could have purchased life-giving treatment, including costly antiretroviral drugs, for every person in the world infected with HIV/AIDS. For almost six full years.

The Years Ahead

Even if it ends tomorrow, we will be paying for this war for decades to come. When we factor in the future costs of veterans’ medical care, disability payments, and the price of rebuilding our depleted military, the total cost could exceed $1.2 trillion.

Imagine what our world might look like in a few years if we had focused those resources on making the world healthier, wealthier, better educated, and safer.

As Americans, it is our duty to hold ourselves and our government accountable for any decision to spend American lives and money on a futile war. These are moral choices, and they have moral consequences.

© Unitarian Universalist Association, 2007. References and source material are available upon request. This document maybe be reproduced in its entirety and freely distributed. When material is excerpted we ask only that it be attributed to the UUA.

Really an error?

Or an attempt to circumvent the law? The Inspector General of the Justice Department has found problems in the issuance of 7% of a sampling of national security letters. You know those letters by which te FBI can obtain your phone, e-mail and financial records without your knowledge. In the problem cases there was no documentation as to why the records were needed, or no emergency as claimed, or not even an investigation of the person.

Of course, the FBI says that the problems were real errors, not anything deliberate like violating the law.

The Tax Man Never Rests

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is suing my friend, Comcast, for $250,000,000. The Commonwealth alleges that in 1996 - eleven years ago - when Continental Cablevision was sold to US West the deal was structured to avoid capital gains taxes in Massachusetts. Comcast eventually bought enough companies so that in 2002 it inherited the remains of Continental Cablevision.

While I have no fondness for Comcast, it seems that the Commonwealth is really stretching here.

Iran beats U.S.

I'm talking about a popularity poll the BBC conducts every few years. And, by 'beating', I mean that Iran has taken over our spot as the least popular of thirty-three countries in which the poll was taken. Other countries doing poorly in this popularity contest are Russia and China. Japan and Europe top the polls.

Who owns presidential papers?

In 1978 the Presidential Records Act said the American people did. In 2001 Bush issued a directive which restricted the dissemination of presidential papers. In fact, this directive has been so effective that historians now have to wait much, much longer - six, eight and more years - to get access to the papers. Access gives us a view of what has really gone on behind closed doors, which knowledge clearly can alter our view of past presidents but may also change the way we look at candidates. Vide - knowing the health problems of Kennedy, Wilson, Roosevelt may have an effect on whom we vote for in 2008.

We shoot, they poison

'They' being Russia. Today comes word of another poisoning in Russia. This time it does not appear to have political overtones. First thoughts are that a mother and daughter were poisoned to cover up a jewel theft. Sounds odd to me, but maybe that was the case.

True or false

Iran claims that we have denied visas to a group of women who wish to attend the UN conference on the Status of Women. With the state of relations between the two countries, one thinks this might be true. But, then again, it may not.

Was it the cell phones or the grades

In Italy a father, grandfather and friend of a student beat up the principal of the local school. It's uncertain as to whether they were upset by the student's low grades or the fact that the principal had banned cell phones in the school.

See, there are stupid parents all over the globe.

Another Russian journalist passes on

There have been 42 Russian journalists that have died in mysterious circumstances since 1992. Last Friday another one died after 'falling' from a window in his apartment building. He was investigating sales of weapons to Iran and Syria.

War can make you horny

The number of Israeli women in the fifth to seventh month of pregnancy is 35% greater now thanit was last year at this time. When was the war with Hezbollah?

There were also Israeli baby booms after the 1967 and 1973 wars.

Spin is all around us

Paul Krugman claims that the spending at the VA is not what we've been told; i.e., it's not up 83% since Bush took over. Economist's View has an excerpt from Krugman's argument. The shame at Walter Reed and possibly other hospitals seems to bear out his argument.

You can read Krugman's original column here.

Plant a tree or.....

turn on the electric power. The mayor of Iraq thinks the US should plant fewer trees and should build up the power plants so that residents of Baghdad can have more than two hours of electricity a day. Apparently, reaching a goal of constant power is quite difficult; the U.S. estimates that it won't happen until 2013.

Some numbers

In 1991, when the state was in a recession, 17,000 mortgages went to foreclosure. In 2006 that number went to 19,487. The Boston Globe blames it on subprime mortgages. I think that they don't have the full story.

Not only subprime

There has been a fair amount of press about the day of reckoning for subprime mortgage loans. Now in this wonderful economy we have it appears that the problem is moving towards prime mortgage loans.

Delinquencies on prime mortgages are almost double this year when compared to last year at Countrywide Financial, one of the largest mortgage lenders in the country. At American Home Mortgage Investor bad mortgage loans have gone from .43% last year to 8.13% this year.

Pop goes the commercial

Many commercials now feature popular songs of a few years ago. The other day some former British star - maybe someone from The Who - was saying that he makes a lot more money now from having his music played as part of an ad than he ever did when he was a big star. I guess advertisers feel it's easier to use an existing song than trying to create a new one to help get their message across.

It's reached a point that even the music of minor pop stars is being featured in commercials. Just a few minutes ago, I heard the beginnings of a song by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. I thought that my wife had put on the CD a friend had given us after reading one of my posts. But, no, it was being played as part of a Kellogg's commercial.

When I was traveling around the country selling software, I was always impressed by the talent that would be playing in the lounges of hotels. It was just amazing. Every so often you'd hear someone who, had the luck been with her, would have been a big star. I think that Kamakawiwo'ole was one of those people. Yes, he was very big in Hawaii, but now that he is dead he is finally becoming known around the world.

More fallout re the Litvinenko case

Earlier this week, Paul Joyal, sometimes described as an expert on Russian intelligence matters, appeared on Dateline and accused the Russian government of being intimately involved in the Litvinenko slaying. On Thursday, Mr. Joyal was shot several times near his home in D.C.

Was the Russian government trying to silence Joyal?
Update: The police and a former KGB associate of Joyal think it was a street crime and not something engineered by Russia.

Ho Hum

The Town of Oak Bluffs here on the Vineyard is in the news again. The Town Counsel and a special labor lawyer have issued a letter condemning some of the personnel practices of the former Town Administrator.

The administrator apparently loved personal service contracts. So, supposedly on behalf of the Town, she signed a number of them; in fact, she signed so many that no other town in the state has more personal service contracts with their employees. The lawyers says she did not have the authority to do so.

Nor did the administrator have the authority to award the bonuses the Town paid to some employees. Nor did she have the right to have the Town pay different portions of health insurance for different employees.

By the way, the administrator is a lawyer. She is also a candidate for Selectman. Will she withdraw from the race?

Innocent but

The Catholic Church continues its bizarre ways in matters where priests accused of sexual deviance are found innocent. Rev. Thomas Curran is the latest to be declared innocent but. In the church's words, "Father Curran's ministry will be restricted to sacramental celebrations with members of his family."

There is something the church is not telling. They would rather continue to tarnish Fr. Curran's reputation than reveal why his ministry is effectively ended.

It's important who tells the story and where they are based.

Two years ago Mark Benjamin of Salon wrote about the crappy conditions at Walter Reed and he has continued to write about them. His words appear to have fallen on deaf ears. It was not until the Washington Post, the newspaper of the politicians in Washington, started talking about Walter Reed that the s**t hit the fan. Who do you think will get the Pulitzer for this story?

Yesterday's Wapo article spoke of the brass ignoring the problem for years. And it's not only the military that has ignored the problem. Our Congress has as well.

It was refreshing to see Gates take action. He got rid of the Secretary of the Army and the general in charge of Walter Reed today. Tomorrow it may be the Army's Surgeon General.

Entering a hot market.

The market is the Middle East. The product is weapons. The supplier is Russia. Consider that Russia has recently sold weapons to Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, U.A.E., Iran and Jordan. Consider also that they have forgiven billions in debt. They're even trading with Israel, not weapons but gas (almost $2 billion worth).

Powered by oil and gas, the Russian economy has grown from $250 billion GDP in 2000 to a trillion dollars GDP last year. This growth - not much of which has filtered down to the man on the street - has made Russia more aggressive in political ways as well.

90% Market Share

Any business would kill for such a market share. One organization has done it fairly consistently for many years. And, they've done it at low costs. They sell a product whose middlemen and users bear a lot of the cost and bear it willingly. This year's production is up 25%. It seems as though there is no limit to the size of this market.

The market is opium and the manufacturer is Afghanistan.

They've just disappeared

Honeybees, that is. They just up and left their hives. The hives appear normal; they contain the usual honey, pollen and larvae. All that's missing are the bees. There are not even any dead bees in the hives. This is not a problem only for beekeepers as many industries rely on bees pollinating plants, for example the $2 billion almond industry can't exist without bees pollinating almonds. There is no end to the mysteries of the universe.

History is written by the victors

The Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, now claims that there were no women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army. One of his early statements as Prime Minister acknowledged what most historians, including some Japanese historians, acknowledge as fact. Fourteen years ago the Japanese government, itself, acknowledged that women had been forced into brothels used by the military. Some say as many as 200,000 women lived in these brothels.

Abe's grandfather was a powerful person in wartime Japan. I wonder if Abe is trying to protect his grandfather's reputation as well as appeal to his own conservative base.

Sometimes you do need a license

That is if you want to call yourself a psychologist in Massachusetts. You can have all the degrees and experience in psychology in the world but in this state you need a license. The Judge Rotenberg Education Center did not follow this practice so they will have to return some of the fees they earned for services given by their psychologists. It may be as much as $800,000, which, based on the Center's revenues, is chickenfeed.

Over the past five years the Center has received more than $2,000,000 from the state for the services of their psychologists. If they were not licensed in Massachusetts, the state would have paid the Center less money for the same services.

Wishing does not make it so

Now comes the tale of North Korea's nuclear activities. Back in 2002 our government, based on 'intelligence', concluded that North Korea was working on building a bomb using enriched uranium (the bomb they detonated in October was plutonium). Therefore, we stopped shipping oil there and North Korea responded by throwing out the weapons inspectors and, apparently, working on a plutonium bomb.

On Tuesday it was said by an intelligence official that the information garnered by the CIA could be interpreted in differing ways. Yet, we acted as though there was only one interpretation and went down the hardass road. Kind of how we acted with regard to the 'intelligence' on Iraq. Maybe this was another reason for Tenet being awarded the Medal of Freedom.