The Second Banana

Some people are destined to be the star, some the second banana. True, some second bananas become stars, but, I think, this does not happen very often. Take, for example, the Inspector Morse series on PBS. John Thaw was clearly the star, Kevin Whately the number two man.

Trying to capitalize on the series despite Thaw's death, NPR has launched a series based on the Whately character, Lewis. They've run two shows thus far, the second was worse than the first which, itself , was pretty bad. The only right thing about the shows seems to be the current second banana, whose name I have yet to figure out. I don't think the fault is mainly Whately's. The scripts have been rather unbelievable, the dialogue sketchy and the film shots nonsensical. I think most of the blame should be placed with the director, although, with the exception of the second banana, the acting is also not first rate.

I doubt that I'll waste my time on episode 3.

Tom Friedman has it right

I don't normally read his column, but I did read today's and think he summarizes our problems pretty well:

My fellow Americans: We are a country in debt and in decline — not terminal, not irreversible, but in decline. Our political system seems incapable of producing long-range answers to big problems or big opportunities. We are the ones who need a better-functioning democracy — more than the Iraqis and Afghans. We are the ones in need of nation-building. It is our political system that is not working.

I continue to be appalled at the gap between what is clearly going to be the next great global industry — renewable energy and clean power — and the inability of Congress and the administration to put in place the bold policies we need to ensure that America leads that industry.

“America and its political leaders, after two decades of failing to come together to solve big problems, seem to have lost faith in their ability to do so,” Wall Street Journal columnist Gerald Seib noted last week. “A political system that expects failure doesn’t try very hard to produce anything else.”

We used to try harder and do better. After Sputnik, we came together as a nation and responded with a technology, infrastructure and education surge, notes Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International. After the 1973 oil crisis, we came together and made dramatic improvements in energy efficiency. After Social Security became imperiled in the early 1980s, we came together and fixed it for that moment. “But today,” added Hormats, “the political system seems incapable of producing a critical mass to support any kind of serious long-term reform.”

If the old saying — that “as General Motors goes, so goes America” — is true, then folks, we’re in a lot of trouble. General Motors’s stock-market value now stands at just $6.47 billion, compared with Toyota’s $162.6 billion. On top of it, G.M. shares sank to a 34-year low last week.

That’s us. We’re at a 34-year low. And digging out of this hole is what the next election has to be about and is going to be about — even if it is interrupted by a terrorist attack or an outbreak of war or peace in Iraq. We need nation-building at home, and we cannot wait another year to get started. Vote for the candidate who you think will do that best. Nothing else matters.

What a difference 42 months make

In December 2004 President Bush awarded the Medal of Freedom to Tommy Franks and L. Paul Bremer. This week the Army will publish "On Point II: Transition to the New Campaign", which is a history focusing on the 18 months after "Mission Accomplished". Neither Franks nor Bremer look good in the history.

Franks acted as though the post-war period would be brief and we would be welcomed; ergo, there was little need to have a plan for the post-war period. He got rid of General McKiernan, who had been a prime mover in the winning campaign, and replaced him with General Sanchez of Abu Ghraib fame. This despite the pleas of the vice chief of Army staff not to replace an experienced headquarters staff with neophytes.

Of course, Bremer may have made the most serious mistake of all by disbanding the Iraqi army and ridding the government of any Baathists.

I'm surprised Brownie didn't get a medal for his work in New Orleans, another masterfully planned operation of our leaders.

Reconciliation among Iraqis?

This article certainly does not bode well for reconciliation if the subject is a typical leader of the Sons of Iraq.

The state is in charge of birthday parties

In Sweden you have to invite everyone in your child's class to his birthday party if your child passes out the invitations at school. It turns out the 8-year-old was not invited to a classmate's party and had fallen out with another classmate. So the two were not invited. In the eyes of the school this is discrimination and they can't allow that.

Does the state control who can come to my house?

The Competitive CEO

Henry Banta asks "Why hasn't competition come to CEOs?" in the current Nieman Watchdog. He documents the usual - CEO pay is now almost 400 times that of the average worker - but also brings up some new issues.

Banta's bete noir arises from a comparison of income growth for the top 1% of the population versus everybody else. He refers to a study by Bebchuk and Grinstein that I've referred to previously that showed executive pay just about doubling from 1993 to 2003 when measured as a percent of earnings. He also refers to a study by Piketty and Saez that focused more on the comparison between the top 1% and the other 99% of the population. This latter study showed that the income of the top 1% increased by 11% in the period 2002- 2006, while the rest of us saw a growth of less than 1%. Looking at a somewhat longer time scale - 1970 to 2006 - the top 1% saw their share of salaries and wages go from 5.1% to 12%.

Banta ask why? If competitive forces were so strong in explaining a growing economy, why didn't CEO compensation grow more slowly? If CEOs were worth so much, then why were the rest of us worth so little? If CEOs in the U.S. are worth so much, why are the CEOs of Japan and Europe not worth as much?

I ask where were the boards of directors in all this? Probably enjoying their six-figure board fee plus options plus perks.

DOD is one place to save our money

It seems that the GAO is continually pointing out areas where the Defense Department is wasting our money. Supplying aid to help Pakistan combat terrorism is the latest. They've given $5.56 billion to Pakistan over the last five years. Pakistan has been remiss in defining what was done for this money, proving that what they claimed to do was actually done and providing documentation that the bills were valid. Yet, until 2006 they had no problem writing the checks. It was then that the Office of Defense Representative to Pakistan, without the direction or approval of DOD, started checking things. In their latest round of checking they disallowed 22% of the bills that were presented.

A Workable Plan for Withdrawal?

Last year Jim McGovern, Congressman from Massachusetts, formed the Task Force for a Responsible Withdrawal from Iraq Organizing Committee. The task force has issued their report, which is quite brief but also sensible. Here is the report.

To make its intentions clear prior to withdrawal, the United States can and should:

• Seek a short-term renewal of the UN mandate instead of a bilateral US-Iraqi security agreement.

• Announce support for a new UN mandate to take effect in 2009 that will legitimate and define international participation in Iraqi reconcili­ation, reconstruction, and humanitarian aid.

• Signal that all of Iraq’s neighbors, including Syria and Iran, will hence forth be treated as partners in promoting stability quickly, carefully, and generously

• Support the establishment of an International Support Group for Iraq

• Inform the Maliki government that the United States will soon announce a timetable for withdrawal and will shift toward a stance that emphasizes neutrality and non-interference in Iraqi politics.

Subsequent to the announcement of a timetable for withdrawal, to promote reconciliation in Iraq the United States can and should:

• Take vigorous diplomatic steps to stem the flow of arms and foreign fighters feeding the civil war and communal violence.

• Assist Iraqi actors and the UN in convening a pan-Iraqi conference on reconciliation, backed by an expanded writ for a UN mission in Iraq. Among other things, that conference should seek an immediate ceasefire and redress of the losses of refugees and internally displaced persons.

On the international level, the United States can and should:

• Immediately re-engage Syria and Iran in non-coercive “give-and-take” diplomacy addressing bilateral issues.

• Engage with Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey seeking their support for peace and economic recovery efforts in Iraq.

• Work within the International Support Group to encourage Iraq’s six neighbors to promote peace and stability in Iraq and the region.

• Strengthen the provisions of the International Compact with Iraq for reparations and debt relief.

With regard to security, the United States can and should:

• Identify likely flashpoints and, when requested by Iraqis, factor them into the planning for transitional US military activities during the period of withdrawal.

• In anticipation that a blue-helmeted peacekeeping force will be needed and requested by Iraq when the US withdraws, support the UN in organizing and funding it.

• Assist the UN and donor states in creating disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programs.

With regard to economic and humanitarian issues, the United States can and should:

• Cease pressure on Iraq to open up its oil sector and other parts of its economy.

• Support the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in better addressing the plight of Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons.

• Give aid to Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon earmarked for the care of Iraqi refugees.

• Support a plan to fund refugee resettlement in third countries.

• Donate to an Iraq Development Fund that bankrolls a labor-intensive public works program and helps to fix the broken food rationing system.

• Help to strengthen Iraqi NGOs, with special attention to women’s groups.

In sum, the United States can and should:

• quickly carry out a full military with­drawal from Iraq,

• carefully pursue diplomatic remedies for the Iraq crisis, and

• generously give to help rebuild Iraq in the long run.

The responsibilities are not America’s alone, but America must lead quickly, carefully, and generously.

A very busy schedule

The new ambassador to Egypt, Margaret Scobey, has been too busy to present her credentials to Hosni Mubarak. She needs to do so in order if she is to follow conventions so that she can preside over the embassy's July 4 celebration. Some of her time has been taken up with the investigation of the death of one of her dogs.

An autopsy showed that the dog was poisoned and Ms Scobey is worried that someone may poison her or other embassy staff. The embassy's security staff is hot on the case and is workng with the Egyptian police on the matter. You'll be relieved to know that the dog was buried in the United States, a Marine detachment saw to that.

Most people in the know suspect that the dog ate poison that was placed in the garden to deter stray cats and dogs from enetering the embassy grounds. The ambassador does not place much credence in that story.

Feingold on FISA

This is an interesting clip reporting some of his objections to the bill. One objection that resonated with me is that calls I make to a son spending his junior year in Italy or a daughter living in London would be recorded.

Take a look at this site for more on why this bill is bad.

Guarding our money

In March I reported on the 21-year-old arms dealer, Efram Diveroli, who had hoodwinked the government about a $300,000,000 contract. Well, yesterday we learned some more about Diveroli:

• He and his company, AEY, was on a State Department watch list for suspicious international arms dealers
• He had previously delivered damaged helmets to Iraq
• He shipped the wrong model of laser pointer and rifle attachments to our embassy in Colombia
• He may still be doing business with the Defense Department; DOD just does not know

Sell That House

We've seen the damage that comes from the belief that everyone should be a homeowner. Now that the sub-prime market has blown up, aggressive home builders have turned once more to seller-financed down payments. The down payment can be as low as 3%, yet the FHA will take the mortgage. And take the mortgage they do; thus far this year 34% of the loans the FHA has made have been for seller-financed properties. This type of loan has grown tremendously since 2000 when less than 2% of the FHA loans went to seller-financed properties. Maybe it's because the buyer has little money in the deal. For example, one guy bought a $189,000 house with $250 down. Whatever it is that makes this a bad loan for the FHA, the default rate within the first two years is better than 15%.

The seller financing does not necessarily come from the seller. There are 'non-profits' whose primary functioning is providing down payments to buyers. The seller reimburses the non-profit. One of the largest non-profits is Nehemiah Corp. of America, which seems to be a conduit to enrich its founders under the guise of helping people.

Government in Exile?

Peter Godwin, an author, has a couple of interesting ideas for the Zimbabwe tragedy.

• The world should not recognize the results of the election.
• Mugabe should not be recognized as president.

Yes, they're symbolic and will very likely not have any effect within the country. But Godwin has a more practical idea based on the economic influence South Africa has on Zimbabwe - start a Tibet-like movement with regard to the FIFA tournament in South Africa in 2010. It is somewhat more practical but not very.

Perhaps a more practical idea is to help Tsvangirai establish a government in exile.

Do we just say we're sorry....

...that we've kept you in prison for six years plus? Huzaita Parhat has been in Guantanamo since 2002, despite the fact that some officials recommended his release in 2003. Yesterday the appeals court ruled that Parhat was not an enemy combatant and he should be released, transferred or given a new hearing.

Parhat is a Uighur, which I had never heard of. He's from the western part of China and apparently the Uighurs have a beef against China so he's afraid to go back there as he may be tortured. It took nine months for us to find a place that would take five other Uighurs who were released earlier.

Another life ruined.

Who is the law for?

Last week it was an attempt to be tried under Shar’ia law. This week it looks as though Blackwater is trying to get around the law that prohibits anybody but government agencies from owning or possessing automatic weapons.

It seems that in 2005 the company bought 34 automatic weapons, including 17 AK-47s for the sheriff of Camden County in North Carolina. The county is not exactly a hotbed of crime. It’s small – 9,271 residents. And in thee past 10 years has had two murders, three robberies and seven rapes.

The guns are registered to the sheriff, but the AK-47s are stored at Blackwater facilities. Federal law declares it illegal for a person to receive or possess an automatic weapon that is not registered to that person in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.

Other than shooting practice rounds at Blackwater facilities, the sheriff’s people have never used the weapons. Nor are any of his men qualified to do so. And, the sheriff said that the need for automatic weapons is “very minimal”. But Blackwater has used the weapons in their training courses.

Is Blackwater violating the law? Does the law mean anything to this company?

How much power will the FISA court have?

Our leaders are touting the wonders of the FISA Amendments Act as passed by the House of Representatives. They feel it is a good compromise. However, it does not appear as though the amendments wil strengthen the FISA court, to wit:

• the court will not know who is being tapped and why
• you can be tapped for seven days before the court is informed and then, even if the tapping is not authorized by the court, it can be continued during an appeal process. Any 'information' gleaned during this period can be used against you.
• only members of the judiciary and intelligence committees of the House and Senate will have access to any reports.

The only part Obama does not like is that phone companies are off the hook for any surveillance done previously. Apparently, he accepts any violations of our constitution since we face 'grave threats'.

Evil wins in Zimbabwe

Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition in Zimbabwe, has decided to pull out of the election. Who can blame him? Who has helped him and his fellow Zimbabweans? Who has even spoken out against the travesty that is today's Zimbabwe?

The world let the madmen of Burma prevent help from being given to their own people. Now we let a devil kill and maim people so that he can stay in power. I wonder if this is how some people felt when Hitler invaded Poland.

Obama and McCain - flip-flop, flip-flop

This is today's column by Joan Vennochi of the Boston Globe. It sums up my feelings about the people who want to lead this country. Both will do or say anything to win. That is not the kind of leader we need today.

THERE IS no "straight talk." There isn't "a different kind of politics." There are just two men who really want to be president.

In their zeal to win the White House, Barack Obama and John McCain already own enough flip-flops to hang out comfortably in Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville," right next to John Kerry and Mitt Romney.

Obama, a longtime advocate for public financing, just announced that he would opt out of the public financing system for the general election. In a statement of breathtaking chutzpah, Obama blamed his decision on Republicans. Meanwhile, he's the one with the fund-raising advantage, including pivotal backing from MoveOn.org, which isn't bound by public spending limits and is already running an anti-McCain ad.

The Democrat who promises change is demonstrating the capacity to embrace an age-old political premise: cave, when necessary.

Obama did it most famously with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. He was against cutting the controversial minister loose until he was for it. He was also against wearing a flag pin as a knee-jerk symbol of patriotism until he put one on as a knee-jerk symbol of patriotism.

Striking at the heart of Obama's message of inclusion, campaign volunteers last week barred two Muslim women from sitting behind the podium at an Obama rally in Detroit. They apparently wanted to prevent the women's headscarves from appearing in photographs with the candidate.The campaign apologized for the volunteers' actions, saying "This is of course not the policy of the campaign. It is offensive and counter to Obama's commitment to bring Americans together."

On foreign policy, Obama went from stating that he would meet, without preconditions, with the president of Iran, to saying he would meet "with the appropriate Iranian leaders at a time and place of my choosing - if and only if - it can advance the interests of the United States."

On personnel, Obama put James A. Johnson, chairman of the Federal National Mortgage Association, in charge of vetting potential running mates. Then he quickly dropped him in the aftermath of news reports that Johnson received favorable deals on loans from the same mortgage lender that Obama criticized.

For Obama, it all adds up to politics as very usual. But, McCain's flip-flops represent an even bigger affront to the straight talk he promises voters.

As a presidential candidate, McCain now opposes his own immigration plan. He backs the Bush tax cuts he once opposed with contempt. While McCain presents himself as a maverick feared by lobbyists and special interests, his campaign has many ties to both and includes staffers who were once lobbyists.

Last week, the Republican called for lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling, a dramatic contrast with his strong support for upholding the moratorium during his 2000 bid for the Republican nomination.

A former prisoner of war, who suffered torture in Vietnam, McCain has called for the US detention center in Guantanamo Bay to be closed and for torture to be banned. Last week, he criticized the US Supreme Court for "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country" after the court ruled that detainees should be allowed to challenge their detentions in US courts.

McCain has also been trying to distance himself even further from an earlier comment that it "would be fine with me" if the US military stayed in Iraq "for a hundred years," a remark he qualified at the time with the condition that Americans were not being injured or killed.

Meanwhile, McCain is blasting Obama for opting out of public financing. But as Media Matters for America reports, McCain is being asked by federal elections officials to show that he did not use the promise of public money to obtain a $4 million loan to kickstart his once faltering presidential campaign. Doing so would be disingenuous from a candidate who is routinely described as a champion of campaign finance reform.

Perhaps its best to get past the marketing slogans, sooner rather that later. Let voters strip illusion from reality in this campaign.

As they are swiftly finding out, principle is the first casualty in the war to be president.

We tolerate too many tax evaders

Some Medicare providers are not paying their taxes. This year the GAO reports that 27,000 providers did not pay payroll or income taxes of more than $2 billion. Things are getting worse here in that last year the numbers were 21,000 and $1 billion.

Despite the magnitude of the revenue loss, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are loath to use the clout of the Federal Payment Levy Program to collect our money. This program allows the IRS to withhold our money that is paid to tax evaders. The GAO has been after CMS since 2001 to adopt the program.

God appointed me

That's what Robert Mugabe said. Here's what God appointed him to do.

Was North Korea the canary in the mine shaft?

John Feffer of Foreign Policy in Focus argues that it was. The North Korean canary was warning us about the interconnectedness of rising energy prices, diminishing food supplies and the problems of climate change.

The world’s contempt for North Korea’s government caused us to overlook the fact that North Korea had a highly mechanized agriculture system. However, the system was dependent on cheap energy. When China and Russia stopped subsidizing North Korea’s energy supply, things started to go badly as the country could not afford to buy much of the world’s oil when the prices started to go up.

Then, there is the question of arable land. As with most of the world, about 14% of the country’s land can grow food. The North Koreans used fertilizer and pesticides to boost production, as do we. Eventually, this took a toll on the soil, so they started cutting down trees. The rains came and disaster struck, disaster that the government could not cope with.

All this happened in the 20^th century. Now at the start of the 21^st century, oil is at $140 a barrel, food prices have jumped and we’re using 20% of our arable land to produce fuel which causes as much pollution as oil and will soon probably cost as much as oil and the weather is not getting better – drought in Australia, floods in China, tornados in the MidWest, earthquakes scattered over the globe. And the rising affluence of China and India means that more meat is eaten there, which translates into a need for more grain to feed the cattle.

Feffer argues that our trade policy exacerbates the problem for developing and third world countries. By conditioning aid on buying American local economies don’t get all the benefits they could. Nor are we being very smart by cutting our budget for agricultural research by 75%. In addition, he feels we need to do more for small farmers.

He reminds us that in many cases we tend to assume that resources are unlimited. Clearly, this is not the case. For example, the world loses productive land at an astonishing rate – one hectare per 7.67 seconds (though the exactitude of this number raises many questions in my mind about how it was calculated).

We are in a very tough situation. How many of our leaders recognize this?

To test or not to test

I haven't been paying much attention to the Korean protests about beef imported from the U.S. Apparently, they are concerned about the possibility of mad cow disease.

If you believe a scientist from Consumers Union, the USDA could solve the problem pretty quickly by allowing beef companies to test each of the cows that are slaughtered. The USDA feels that the test that would be used is worthless, although USDA uses the test itself. One company, Creekstone Farms, wanted to test each of its cows; USDA said no. The agency apparently feels that testing 1 in 1000 is adequate. Part of the agency's reasoning is that testing of all cows would increase the price of beef. Of course, testing 1 in 1000 may lead to some getting mad cow disease, which I guess is not a concern of USDA.

Making a Pact for a Difficult Life?

Gloucester is a rather sleepy town. It's a nice, seaside place where most news reported to the outside world is focused on the sea. So, it's a surprise to me that Gloucester would be the focus of an article in Time, and in an article not focused on fishing or the sea.

Apparently, the number of girls who became pregnant while attending the local high school is up sharply; in fact, the number, 17, is more than four times the number getting pregnant in a normal year.

Some feel that the girls entered into a pact to become pregnant. Kids do odd things. Why these girls would do something that will effect the rest of their lives is beyond me.

An Interesting Defense

A plane owned by an American company, under contract to the U.S. government, carrying U.S. soldiers crashed in Afghanistan in 2004. The National Transportation Safety Board, a U.S. agency, has blamed the airline for its “failure to require its flight crews to file and fly a defined route,” and for not providing oversight to make sure its crews followed company policies and Pentagon and FAA safety regulations.

The airline, Presidential Airways, is being sued by the widows of the soldiers who died in the crash. The airline argues, that since the crash occurred in Afghanistan, the case should be tried under Shari'a law. The defense is especially interesting since the airways is owned by the infamous Blackwater Group. I suppose one should be grateful that the company finally admits that they are subject to some laws, even though they are not the laws of their country and customer. Why don't they subject the Blackwater people who killed and maimed people in Iraq to the same law?

Talk about sleaze.

Oh, the Charlotte News and Observer, which broke the story, is a McClatchy newspaper.

Life in Harare

The BBC is running the diary of a 28-year-old woman trying to live and work in today's Zimbabwe. It's worth reading.

Shades of Chicago Elections

A small town in Romania elected a dead man as mayor. True, he died after voting began, but most of the voters knew that.

When are we going to impeach them?

From an article on a report for the Physicians for Human Rights as reported by McClatchy (who else?):

"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes," Major General Antonio Taguba wrote. "The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."

Taguba led the investigation into Abu Ghraib.

And he's a Republican

"The guidance that was provided during this period of time, I think will go down in history as some of the most irresponsible and short-sighted legal analysis ever provided to our nation's military and intelligence communities ."

Sen Lindsey Graham

There is no end to degradation

The election campaign in Zimbabwe continues to be an example of human degradation and evil. Thus far, at least 100 have been killed, 200 are missing and who knows how many have been beaten or jailed.

Many have had their ID card destroyed so they cannot vote. Election officials have been replaced with state workers and soldiers.

But the economy keeps cruising along. A teacher's monthly salary is Z$40 billion, but it costs Z$2 billion to buy cooking oil.

What are our leaders saying about this? What is the world doing? What manner of people are these?

An American Madrassa

That’s what Guantanamo became. It turned common criminals and innocent people into terrorists. Even the former commanding officer at Gitmo believed that militant leaders were calling the shots among the detainees. Pakistan intelligence, after interviewing 35 detainees released from Gitmo concluded that they had "extreme feelings of resentment and hatred against USA." Our own DOD officials agreed that Gitmo was a training school for terrorists.

Part of the problem was our continued underestimation of the enemy.

Requests for comment from senior Defense Department officials went unanswered. The Pentagon official in charge of detainee affairs, Sandra Hodgkinson, declined interview requests even after she was given a list of questions.

Read more of Tom Lasseter’s Tuesday article.

The Shoe on the Other Foot

China is getting more vocal in criticizing our economy and our government's management of that economy. Basically, they feel that we've relied too much on the market and have been reluctant to regulate the market.

Makes sense to me.

Another Cost of The War

The Justice Department will be further defining conditions that meet the regulations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Their estimate is that it will cost $23 billion to make these changes, which seem to be aimed at eliminating stairs. One of the reasons for the updating of the act is the number of young people who have been damaged in Iraq.

Is it just PR?

The Taliban engineered a jail break last Friday; 400 escaped from a prison near Kandahar, a supposed stronghold of the Karzai government. Now they seem to be egging on NATO forces.

I'm reminded of the article in Der Spiegel I wrote about last week. Are the Taliban playing their own game?

Gaza Again

Taghreed El-Khodary is a new name to me. But, she works for the NY Times in Gaza and was a recent Neiman fellow. She is not optimistic at all. This, she says, is the worst time ever. There is no leadership, no future.

Prisoner Abuse, Part 2

McClatchy has another article about prisoner abuse, this time at Bagram in Afghanistan. Tom Lasseter, the author, implies that the lead investigator at Bagram went on to use the same techniques at Abu Ghraib. Interestingly, the period of abuse Bagram coincided with the term of the lead investigator, Capt. Carolyn Wood. The abuse seems to have left when she did.

The violence at Bagram may have been worse than at Guantanamo. Lasseter interviewed 41 people who had been detained at Bagram. While 28 were beaten there, only eight of these detainees were beaten at Guantanamo. Two Afghans were beaten to death by guards in December 2002. Yet not one of the higher-ups has had to own up.

Get Married or Else

If you are not married by September 21 and you are an employee of Pars Special Economic and Energy Zone Company, an Iranian petrochemical and gas company, you will be fired. Marriage "is a moral and religious duty."

McClatchy Again

McClatchy has another prize-winning article. This one is about Guantanamo. The author interviewed 66 released detainees, more than 12 Afghan officials and U.S. officials with deep knowledge of the situation. The conclusion is in the title of the article, "America's Prison for Terrorists Often Held The Wrong Men."

Of the 66 detainees interviewed, 34 had a connection to militants, but 23 of these 34 had little information as they were very low level operatives. Seven of the 66 were fairly high up in the hierarchy and likely had valuable information. Some were in their 70s, one was 80.

Former Secretary of the Army, Thomas White, said that, as early as 2002, "it was obvious that at least a third of the population did not belong there." And why should they, as many were there because we offered money for nasty people or people were settling old grudges by accusing their neighbor of chicanery.

Then, there is the whole question of how we treated - and treat - the detainees. The answer in large measure indicates how far we have fallen away from the ideals of this country.

Showing the Cross

South Carolina is the first state to allow license plates espousing Christianity. If 400 people sign up for the plates or someone gives $4,000 to make the plates, South Carolinians can ride around displaying license plates that say "I Believe" and an image of a cross and stained glass window.

The Lieutenant Governor is so eager for these plates that he is willing to up the $4,000 but only if he is repaid.

Jacoby has a point

Every so often I find myself agreeing with Jeff Jacoby, a conservative columnist with the Boston Globe. Here's what he has to say about Zimbabwe.

Mugabe's savage onslaught is likely to achieve its goal. Faced with starvation, dispossession, and threats of revenge, how many Zimbabweans will muster the courage to stand against him?

But why do the rest of us do nothing? Why is the free world so indifferent to the enormities committed by Mugabe and his bullies? Where are the demonstrations outside Zimbabwe's embassies? Where are the international boycotts, the UN resolutions, the presidential and papal condemnations? Where is the International Criminal Court indictment of Mugabe for his long career of murder, torture, and other crimes against humanity?

Let us be honest: If the people of Zimbabwe were being terrorized by a white despot - if it were a white ruling party whose goons were beating them and burning their homes - the whole world would be aroused on their behalf. Surely they deserve no less just because their oppressor is black.

I assume that he agrees with Margaret Albright, a liberal, who had similar comments about Burma. We live in a world where the devil is not punished, the innocent are.

When does a hybrid pay off?

The Wall Street Journal compares hybrids to regular cars on a strictly financial basis. They compare the premium you pay for a hybrid against the gas savings the hybrid achieves. Unsurprisingly, the Prius fares best; you'd have the premium recovered after three years of driving 15,000 miles a year using $4 gas. On the other hand, it would take 98 years to get back the premium on a Lexus (which, by the way, is made by Toyota).

Those Without Sin

What is it that makes us want to so regulate people's conduct that we have put over 2% of the population in the criminal system - in jail, on probation, on parole. There are 7,200,000 in this situation now; there were one-fourth that number in 1980. Has the population quadrupled in that time? Many of those in the system are there because of our stupid "War on Drugs", which seems to be a boondoggle for some, a disaster for the country.

We're spending $45 billion a year on the current system. Sure, there are nasty people who should be locked up. But couldn't some of that $45 billion be used for more productive uses?

Success Breeds Success

That's the hope of our leaders in Iraq. If using the Sunnis as mercenaries has resulted in a decline in violence in Sunni areas, why wouldn't the same thing happen in Shiite areas? Or so the reasoning goes. A program to arm Shiites has begun in Sadr City.

Well, giving former militia men weapons and paying them to serve may seem to work today. What happens tomorrow? We've armed 103,000 mercenaries thus far, the overwhelming majority today are Sunnis. How many more will there be tomorrow? Will they work for the good of Iraq or for the good of their brand of religion?

Evil Incarnate

Today's atrocity is the burning of the wife of a local opposition leader. She was burned after they chopped off one hand and both feet. This is the second burning of an opposition leader's wife in the last week.

Oh, the embarassment

Citigroup is closing a hedge fund it bought last July for $800,000,000. The embarrassment arises from the fact that the fund, Old Lane Partners, was founded by the current CEO of Citigroup, Vikram Pandit. He is not returning any of the $165,000,000 he received from the sale of his company.

The Orange Envelope

Someone left a large orange envelope on a train going from London to Surrey. A curious passenger opened the envelope and found two documents labeled "UK Top Secret" and "for UK/US/Canadian/Australian eyes only". The documents discussed the Iraqi security forces and al Qaeda.

Why someone would even be reading such documents on a train baffles me. But what do I know about the world of espionage?

Who gets the food?

Zimbabwe used to be a supplier of food. It no longer is. Last week the government shut down all NGOs because they were giving food as bribes for people to vote for the opposition. Yesterday the government stole a truck loaded with food for school kids and gave the food to their supporters.

Madmen! There is a role for the death penalty in man's affairs.

Till Death Do Us Part

That's not true with many CEOs of large companies. Even after they die, they still get paid. And with more than the company-paid life insurance!

One, the CEO of Shaw Group, will get paid $17,000,000 after he dies. Why? So he won't compete. Lockheed Martin has hired someone who was lucky enough to collect his $1,000,000 death benefit while he was alive. Nabors Industries will pay severance of $263,000,000 to the estate of its CEO when he dies.

Occidental Petroleum is particularly generous to dead executives. They gave Armand Hammer a contract that paid him through reaching the age of 99 whether or not he was actually alive at that time; he died at 92. The estate of the current president, Ray Itani, stands to be given $115,000,000 in long term incentives.

It's the greatest job in the world - CEO of a major public company.

Read more in the WSJ.

High Tech Virginity

A couple of years ago I wrote about the growing number of hymenoplasty operations in this country. Well, it's spreading to the Muslim world. To quote a 23-year-old French woman. "Right now, virginity is more important to me than life." It's becoming big business. You can find a doctor on the web. You can take a medical tour of Tunisia to have it done.

There is currently a furor over the issue in France as in two cases French courts have annulled marriages where the woman is found not to be a virgin. Some idiot groom announced to the guests still at the reception that, after he and his wife had intercourse, she was not a virgin.

How low will we sink?

Articles of Impeachment

These are the articles Kucinich introduced yesterday. For details, see here.

Article I
Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq.

Article II
Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression.

Article III
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War.

Article IV
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat to the United States.

Article V
Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression.

Article VI
Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of HJRes114.

Article VII
Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War.

Article VIII
Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter.

Article IX
Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor

Article X
Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes

Article XI
Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq

Article XII
Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation's Natural Resources

Article XIIII
Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other Countries

Article XIV
Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency

Article XV
Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq

Article XVI
Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US Contractors

Article XVII
Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives

Article XVIII
Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy

Article XIX
Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to "Black Sites" Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture

Article XX
Imprisoning Children

Article XXI
Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government

Article XXII
Creating Secret Laws

Article XXIII
Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act

Article XXIV
Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment

Article XXV
Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens

Article XXVI
Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements

Article XXVII
Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply

Article XXVIII
Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice

Article XXIX
Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Article XXX
Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare

Article XXXI
Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil Emergency

Article XXXII
Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global Climate Change

Article XXXIII
Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.

Article XXXIV
Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001

Article XXXV
Endangering the Health of 911 First Responder

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Communicating from beyond the grave

What is this man doing? He's using his cell phone to access images the dead person made while alive. Or, he could be accessing the eulogy given for the person. This information has been uploaded to the web and the cell phone is used to make the connection between the tombstone and the web. It's only about $2,000.

The Morning News

Bernanke says that the risks of a major downturn "have diminished" over the past month, but inflation is a bigger worry.

China's stock market drops 8.1% today; it's down 45% since October as the overheated market cools down.

The Federal Housing Administration will post a loss of $4.6 billion largely due to poor performance of seller-financed down payment programs and defaults on home loans.

Geithner says we need more regulation.

Every two months

UBS seems to be operating on a two month or so plan. In April, they wrote off $19 billion in crap loans. In January it was $14 billion. In December $10 billion. The Journal reports that they are getting ready to announce another write-down. They still have about $32 billion of crap on their books.

Management must be worried as "senior managers and members of the board, including John Fraser, chairman and chief executive of the asset-management unit, and Raoul Weil, chairman and chief executive of global wealth and business banking, had sold more rights to new shares than they bought or exercised, according to regulatory filings."

Normal in Baghdad

"Car bombs, suicide bombings, assassinations are so common they are the thing of jokes. Yes violence has dropped but it is still here and the most troubling thing is it is normal." Leila Fadel, McClatchy bureau chief in Baghdad.

Another Investment Bank Takes a Huge Hit

This time it's Lehman Brothers with a loss of $2.8 billion this quarter amidst negative (you read that right) of $700,000,000. A lot of this sounds to me like management of the books to minimize the damage. Look for more write-downs as their gross leverage is 25, which is still high.

Words, Words, Words

A Nebraska judge ruled that a rape victim could not use the word "rape" or the words "sexual assault" when testifying against her assailant (oh, sorry, "assailant is also a no-no in this judge's court). The judge felt that the use of such words would prejudice the jury into thinking that the rapist might actually be guilty (rather than presumed innocent) and, thus, he would not be getting a fair trial.

How then does one describe this crime? We had sex?

Thursday's News from the Wall Street Journal

Despite a 200+ rise in the Dow on Thursday, Friday's Journal reported a few negatives:

• IndyMac Bancorp is trying to sell $540,000,000 in real estate loans at an average price of cents on the dollar and a low price of twenty cents.
• Key Bank and Wachovia are trying to unload $1.2 billion of real estate loans
• Home builders are starting to fall behind on their payments to the banks as the value of their collateral plummets.
• Four banks have failed thus far in 2008. That's more than in the past three years combined.
• Since March, five more savings and loans are being watched by the Office of Thrift Supervision.
• 6.35% of mortgages are at least 30 days late.
• Net household wealth fell by 2.9% in the first quarter.
• The number of foreclosures on prime adjustable rate mortgages rose to 117,000 in the first quarter.
• 10% of the homes built after 2000 are vacant.

One More Level of Oversight

The problem is that it’s another fox guarding the fox who is guarding the chicken coop. The Department of Defense, in its superior wisdom, has contracted with Serco, a British-American company, to perform DOD’s oversight function of contractors in Iraq. Serco is responsible for "analyzing performance contractors' costs," "working with the Army to measure contractor performance" and "recommending process improvements."

How this will affect GAO’s auditing is a question, as everything between the government and the contractors (Fluor, KBR and DynCorp) goes between Serco and the GAO. When GAO decides to audit one of the contractors, Serco gets the documents from the contractor, summarizes them and then gives them to the GAO. The GAO has previously said that such a situation creates the “potential for conflicts of interest". I’m sure that Serco will be a good overseer of our money.

Bush III

John Podesta and James Kvaal document the similarities between McCain and Bush II. They differ only in that McCain puts me to sleep faster and he is a more obvious panderer than Bush.

Another Nasty Attempt to Prevent Us from Doing Our Job

110 countries met in Dublin last month to negotiate the end of cluster weapons, which contain many smaller weapons that are exploded in mid-air and fall to earth over a wide area. They kill and maim those – men, women, children – who come in contact with them. And it is civilians that are the prime casualty of these weapons. The nations meeting in Dublin signed a treaty to prohibit the use, production, and export of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians; the treaty also calls for the destruction of stockpiles and provides assistance to victims and affected communities.

The country that makes and has the largest number of these weapons is the U.S. We were not in Dublin. Nor were China, Russia, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, or India. All other major NATO countries signed the treaty.

Comparing Hoover and Bush 2

The Center for American Progress seems to be stretching it by imputing more to a comparison of the economic results of Bush and Hoover than the facts, to date, warrant. Naturally, there are a fair number of similarities between the economic world each will leave behind, but I don't think that GDP will fall by 25% under Bush as it did under Hoover. Nor will the unemployment rate top 24%. But, hey, who knows where the fallout from Friday's triple header of the highest oil price ever, the highest unemployment rate in 22 years and a 395 point drop in the Dow will lead.

There were some depressing facts in the report:

• Bush has the lowest rate, 0.7%, of annual job creation since the Hoover days. His father holds the second lowest rate.
• Bush is the only presidency in which the average income of the wealthiest went up, while that of the average Joe went down.
• The average income of the top 10% wealthiest today is eight times that of the bottom 90%; from 1942 to 1987, it was 5 to 1.

I wonder what the per-capita debt was in 1932 compared to today's.

Bringing Democracy to Iraq

Apparently, there are negotiations between the U.S. and Iraq relative to an agreement to end the war, allow us to declare victory and leave. However, as has been true for at least the past seven years if not longer, words have whatever meaning our leaders want to ascribe to them. If this agreement is signed, we have the right to occupy fifty permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest anybody we want, be immune from Iraq’s laws, control airspace below 29,000 feet and basically do whatever the hell we want. Of course, this is necessary for the war on terror to succeed.

Detention

Apparently, Mugabe likes the idea, at least until he decides to beat and kill you. Anyway, yesterday, he had the temerity to 'detain' British and American diplomats who visited some of the people who have been beaten by Mugabe's thugs. His people slashed the tires of the car in which the diplomats were riding and kept them in a police station for hours. This follows the detention earlier this week of Tsvangirai, the opposition leader.

Suspension is another word he likes. The field work of all relief organizations and NGOs was suspended yesterday.

Let's see. There's Burma, Zimbabwe, some of the Stans. How many more nuts are leaders of their country? The end days?

Racing to the Moon

China is engaged in another competition with the U.S. - space. Last year they were the first nation to shoot down a space satellite. Now they are expected to visit the moon before our next trip. True, it won't be as advanced as ours, their trip will be comparable to the Apollo trip of 40 years ago. But, the psychological benefits will be huge as they will be only the second nation to step foot on the moon.

Things are Getting Better

Iraq Today reports that today in Baghdad

• 10 decomposed bodies were found
• a truck bomb killed 5
• a suicide bomber killed 5
• a car bomb killed 13
• a senior Interior Ministry officer was killed
• a police Colonel was killed
• 5 mortar shells killed an unknown number
• a car bomb killed 3 cops
• 4 bodies were found.

And in Latifiyah (which is always in the news, right) 12 bodies were found in one grave and 55 in another.

There was carnage all over the country and in Afghanistan as well. This is what victory is like. Right?

Afghanistan. an Unwinnable War?

Every so often you have to look at media produced outside of our little world. So it is that I came across this article about Afghanistan by Ulrich Fichtner in Der Spiegel. First of all, it’s written really well, a cut above the typical U.S. periodical. It is not an upbeat article. The basic point is that things are terrible there and we in the West are not getting the real story.

I learned more about Karzai from this one article than from many articles I’ve read in the past few years. One gets the impression that Afghans do not think highly of him. While they call him the mayor of Kabul, Fichtner describes him as a royal leader who asks his people to do the impossible. And he is the leader of a government which has many corrupt politicians.

One measure of how far we have come is that a comment from the retiring head of the NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Dan McNeil, that 400,000 troops are needed there has gone unreported here. Shinseki must be laughing.

Things are not getting better there. In 2007 1,479 bombs exploded along Afghan roads, five times the number in 2004. There were ten times the number of attacks and forty times the number of suicide bombings. In Helmand the governor reports that half of the districts in the province are not in his control, they are controlled by the Taliban or drug lords. And drugs are becoming more and more important, 93% of the heroin trade comes from here and production is up 17% this year. 10% of the population is engaged in the drug trade, including members of the police. Why not? They can make $4,700 per hectare with opium and $300 with wheat.

Some criminals are arrested and sentenced to long terms. The problem is Afghanistan does not really have a judicial system, so that people are released the day after they have been sentenced. But what should one expect when half of the prosecutors have not studied law.

Fichtner argues that this is a new type of international war. Many powers are involved – China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Dubai, NATO. What would a loss mean to the future of NATO and the UN?

The Taliban has learned that they cannot go toe-to-toe with NATO. So, they play a game where they are in charge.

Fichtner writes of the province of Bamyam which is virtually unlivable, although it is home to 90,000. It’s in the mountains, so you can’t farm, even if you could the temperature is too cold. The province is inaccessible in winter and for some period in summer. The wealthy own a single mule. Don’t get really sick here or the chances are almost 100% that you can’t be treated.

It’s a country we can’t understand. They’ve been at war for decades. Do we have any real hope there?

Immigration Is Vital

That's the argument Dowell Myers makes in the Summer issue of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank's newsletter. His point is simple but worth re-stating:

Demographics show that we'll be in deep water relatively soon. Now there are 240 old folks (those 65 and over) for every 1,000 working-age adult (25 to 64). Over the next twenty years the ratio will grow to 411 to 1,000. Who will be available to do the work? Who will be able to buy the houses we old folks will be trying to sell at the price we want?

Myers believes that is the immigrants that will provide the workforce and the money to buy the houses. He contends that you can't judge the value of immigration properly unless you take a longer view, 30 years or more. Those who immigrated to California in the 1970s have imporved their English dramatically and 64.6% of them own their own home.

45 Years Ago Next Week

On June 10, 1963, President Kennedy gave the commencement address at American University. It is a different century but much of the speech is especially relevant to day. Here are some excerpts.

I have, therefore, chosen this time and this place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived--yet it is the most important topic on earth: world peace.

What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children--not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women--not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.
……………………..........................................................................................................................................

I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war--and frequently the words of the pursuer fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent task.

Some say that it is useless to speak of world peace or world law or world disarmament--and that it will be useless until the leaders of the Soviet Union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do it. But I also believe that we must reexamine our own attitude--as individuals and as a Nation--for our attitude is as essential as theirs. And every graduate of this school, every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war and wishes to bring peace, should begin by looking inward--by examining his own attitude toward the possibilities of peace, toward the Soviet Union, toward the course of the cold war and toward freedom and peace here at home.

……………………..........................................................................................................................................

Let us focus instead on a more practical, more attainable peace-- based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions--on a series of concrete actions and effective agreements which are in the interest of all concerned. There is no single, simple key to this peace--no grand or magic formula to be adopted by one or two powers. Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process--a way of solving problems.

……………………..........................................................................................................................................

No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue. As Americans, we find communism profoundly repugnant as a negation of personal freedom and dignity. But we can still hail the Russian people for their many achievements--in science and space, in economic and industrial growth, in culture and in acts of courage.

……………………..........................................................................................................................................

So, let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

……………………..........................................................................................................................................

This will require a new effort to achieve world law--a new context for world discussions. It will require increased understanding between the Soviets and ourselves. And increased understanding will require increased contact and communication. One step in this direction is the proposed arrangement for a direct line between Moscow and Washington, to avoid on each side the dangerous delays, misunderstandings, and misreadings of the other's actions which might occur at a time of crisis.
……………………..........................................................................................................................................

Finally, my fellow Americans, let us examine our attitude toward peace and freedom here at home. The quality and spirit of our own society must justify and support our efforts abroad. We must show it in the dedication of our own lives--as many of you who are graduating today will have a unique opportunity to do, by serving without pay in the Peace Corps abroad or in the proposed National Service Corps here at home.

But wherever we are, we must all, in our daily lives, live up to the age-old faith that peace and freedom walk together. In too many of our cities today, the peace is not secure because the freedom is incomplete.

……………………..........................................................................................................................................
All this is not unrelated to world peace. "When a man's ways please the Lord," the Scriptures tell us, "he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." And is not peace, in the last analysis, basically a matter of human rights--the right to live out our lives without fear of devastation--the right to breathe air as nature provided it--the right of future generations to a healthy existence?

Supporting the Troops

Principles for Fiscal Responsibility

The New America Foundation, which seems to be a middle-of-the-road group, has published a pamphlet championing some basic principles to restore fiscal sanity to our government. The principles are:

1. Admit That We Face Serious Fiscal Problems
2. Elevate the Issue of Fiscal Responsibility
3. Commit to Reducing the Deficit
4. Suggest Solutions to Fix Social Security
5. Suggest Ways to Address Rising Health Care Spending
6. Suggest Solutions to Outstanding Tax Issues
7. Plan to Reform the Budget Process
8. Use Honest Numbers
9. Offset the Cost of New Policies
10. Do Not Perpetuate Budget Myths
11. Do Not Attack Someone Else’s Plan (Unless You Put Forward an Alternative)
12. The Media Should Do Their Job

A Walk Down Memory Lane

The Center for American Progress has assembled a timeline of quotes with regard to Iraq by Mr. Bush and his associates. Don't read it unless you want to be disheartened.