How do we look at each other?

I just came across this on YouTube. MoveOn is one of the co-founders of Avaaz, the group that produced this, but this shouldn't prevent you from looking at this video.

Voting Can Be A Mortal Sin...

...in the eyes of at least two Catholic priests. They urge their parishioners to confess their sin of voting for abortion when they voted for Obama. Is this the 21st century? Is abortion the worst of all possible sins?

The Truth Shall Set You Free

Not if you're a resident of Guantanamo. This summer the courts 'freed' the Uighurs. Earlier this month the Bosnians were 'freed'. 'Freed' means that they were declared not to be terrorists or enemy combatants. It does not mean that they can leave the prison.

Land of the free? Rule of law? Innocent until proven guilty? Rule of habeas corpus? They're all just words in today's America.

Retention Bonus This

You won't believe that AIG is still screwing us. They really have no shame. After we gave them billions of our dollars, they spent money on entertaining themselves. Now, after supposedly agreeing to caps on executive salaries, they have decided that they need to pay bonuses to 130 executives to ensure that they will stay with the company during these trying times. I'm sure many of these 130 are the people who got the company into this mess. If they left, the company would be better off.

I Thought He Was Bigger Than This

Given what he said, I'm surprised that Robert Rubin consented to an interview with the Wall Street Journal. He actually invoked Greenspan as someone whose reputation was unfairly tarnished as Rubin feels his own may be. Why is it so hard for people to admit they screwed up? I can understand why a 30-year-old may plead ignorance or innocence. But Rubin is 70. He was not being paid the big bucks to look the other way. Yet, the mantra is the same: it's the system, not my bank; it's the other guys, not me.

Will Rubin's unwillingness to admit errors - which is the first step in solving problems - be replicated in his followers, Summers and Geithner? Obama's smartest thing may be the appointment of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board whose members will hopefully be adults.

Talk about being tone deaf

General Motors has come under fire for flying their executives by private jet to their begging session before Congress last week. Apparently, they don't like the criticism this has generated and they have asked the FAA to block the public from being able to track its planes. The FAA usually grants these requests. But how can GM be so stupid as to make the request.

The Day of the Locust - 2008

Nathaniel West ended his novel, Day of the Locust, with a riot at a movie premiere, a riot that left several people dead or injured. Today, the shoppers at a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, NY, left only one person dead and three injured. Unlike, West's fictional characters, these were people who actually had a life in Valley Stream and elsewhere. Yet, because of the insanity and greed of some people, the victims' lives were cut short or interrupted.

The shoppers started lining up at 9 p.m. last night. By the time the store opened at 5 a.m. today there were 2,000 of them. They attacked the store and everybody else who was in the way of their getting a bargain. They broke the doors off the hinges and walked right over people who had fallen.

What have we become?

Do you know who I am?

The following by Eileen McAvoy Boylen, a freelance writer, from today's Boston Globe will resonate with a lot of us.

IT SEEMS every celebrity in a holding cell lately plays the "Do you know who I am?" card. Except, of course, former state senator James Marzilli, who knew he was somebody else when he gave police a fake name. But, for every spoiled celebrity brat, there are 10 "civilians" with the same entitled attitude. People who give new meaning to "DYKWIA" syndrome.

It's like an Obama rally at the check-out register and 50 shoppers and one cashier stand between you and your sanity. To be perverse, you start to chant "Yes we can't!" just to pass the time. It seems like three seasons of "America's Got Talent" (and, by the way, it doesn't) before a new cashier appears and says, "I can take the next person in line." You realize you've misplaced your Taser gun as the last person in line sprints for the open register faster than FOX-News chasing Chuck Turner. Clearly, his time is more important than yours. You just didn't know who he was.

You're enjoying a romantic dinner at an upscale eatery when they arrive. Just because their nanny, chef, and sommelier have the night off, why shouldn't they savor a Kobe filet and vat of Chateau Lafite with the little "crumb catchers" in tow? Before you can recommend the funnel cake to your partner, the children start squealing, toppling trays and whacking waitresses with the abandon of Tony Soprano. Is it the parents' fault Abe and Louis's doesn't stock "le petit crayons?" Surely, they can't stay home. If only you knew who they were.

After circling the Back Bay for most of the winter, you finally spot someone returning to her vehicle. You pull up behind her with a friendly wave and flash your directional. That's when the driver dials up "Beauty 911" and attempts an "Ambush Makeover" in the rear-view mirror. Oh, were you waiting? By the time she's finished, even she doesn't know who she is.

It's bad enough being held up by gas prices. It's worse when a member of "Beef Jerky Anonymous" abandons his Mercedes at the pump to get his fix inside. Apparently the world-class wheels of a high-quality German-engineered vehicle can't navigate those tight spaces near the door. (However, if one were so inclined, the tires do deflate pretty handily.)

Worst of all is when people think "handicapped" refers to intelligence and park in spaces meant for those with limited mobility. But, face it. Some people are just more important than you are.

A perfect summer day on Cape Cod. You're enjoying a near-empty beach where miles of white sand separate you from the nearest person. Until some moron who thinks it's overpopulated like China plunks her ample behind between you and the water, blocking your previously unobstructed view with a beach tent and boom box the size of Home Depot. (And you wish it were China because she'd only have one child instead of the four shrieking hooligans now inhabiting your little ecosphere.) But, if you knew who she was, you wouldn't expect her to schlep another 10 yards to pitch camp. Heaven forbid.

Those of us without servants clean up after our dogs. But, many sidewalks and public parks look, and smell, like, well, poop. There are a variety of clever devices out there, one to suit even the most discerning little "scooper." But, truly entitled dog owners believe "Rover rooting" is beneath them. So, it's beneath everyone else instead.

Perhaps the most pervasive manifestation of "DYKWIA syndrome" is cellphone usage. While waiting at the dentist, are you really so important that you must answer immediately? In the 30 seconds required to step outside, would you halt air traffic or lose your place on the heart-transplant list?

What do you get when you cross an inconsiderate driver with an inconsiderate cellphone user? You get the worst manifestation of DYKWIA syndrome known to mankind: a call so important, the driver can't even wave when you let them go first.

Do you know who you are?

Deja Vue in Spades

Read this article by Robert Fisk. He was in Afghanistan when the Russians were there. The parallels between the Russians' experience of 1980 and ours of the 21st century are mindboggling.

Giving Thanks

Making Sacrifices

That word - sacrifice - is not in the lexicon of the leaders of our auto industry (or that part of the auto industry that needs and wants our help) at least as it applies to their own private finances. The head of Ford made over $21 million last year, the company lost $2.72 billion. The head of GM made over $15 million while GM lost $38.7 billion. Surprisingly, only the CEO of Chrysler, Bob Nardelli of Home Depot notoriety, comes out looking good on this question as Cerberus pays him.

As further evidence of the world in which these guys live, they all went to Washington in their private jets. Talk about being aware of impressions!

Another Step

The Iraqi Parliament has approved the latest version of the agreements to get us out of Iraq. True, approval of the Presidential Council is required. True, there will be a referendum in July of next year. True, the Sunnis' approval is somewhat tentative. But, if all these steps pass and we agree, then the deal is that we will be out of the cities by July 1 and out of the country by NewYear's Day of 2012. In the meantime, the Iraqis will have oversight of our troops. Whether this is the same agreement Bush is prepared to sign is unclear.

Protecting Secrets

For the third week international reporters are prohibited from entering Gaza; the Israeli government says it's too dangerous for the reporters. Apparently, Israeli reporters are more wimpy than international ones as they have been barred from Gaza for two years. Yet, the Israeli government claims that they honor and respect freedom of the press. Right!

So Far, So Good

They may not be the new, untested people some might have expected from Obama's mantra of change. But his economic team certainly looks like a very strong and capable team. His decision to create an Economic Recovery Advisory Board, led by Paul Volcker, was the capstone of a week that gave us some insight into what the new government might do. And it looks like it may do quite well indeed. Of course, how many of us will be around when it gets done is a big question. We are in very deep watwer.

A Girl Has to Eat

Hilltop Steak House is a landmark restaurant in the Greater Boston area. It's not the best restaurant, but it has always been able to keep many customers happy; at one time it was considered to be the top-grossing privately owned restaurant in the country with sales of $26,000,000+.

As part of the deal the founder made when he sold out in 1988, he and his guests would always be able to get the best service available with minimum waiting time and would eat and drink for free. Well, as it will happen to all of us, the founder died in 2003. His heirs decided to sell the land on which the restaurant sat. The new owners said that this abrogated the "free meal" deal. The widow and her family said it did not and proceeded to sue. The appellate court ruled in the buyer's favor, but in today's litigious times that means little if there are deep enough pockets.

I wonder whether the legal fees will be less or more than the free meals the family has not had over ythe past few years.

Wasserman says it all

Where were they for the past 8 years?

My Congressman, William Delahunt, has an op-ed in today's Boston Globe. He's pushing for congressional approval of the withdrawal agreement with Iraq. Delahunt and our other representatives don't really know what the agreement says unless they can read Arabic as Bush has not released an English language version of the agreement.

I really don't understand why Delahunt is complaining now. Why has he been so silent about the attacks that have been made against our freedoms for the past eight years? This mess is as much the fault of Congress as it is that of the other branches of our government.

Back to the Salt Mines

Travel by air has to be a vision of hell for we sinners. It doesn't matter the airline - you, along with 500 other sinners, are stuffed into what the airline calls a seat, they serve something barely edible, the airline personnel apparently have private incomes as they don't seem overly interested in serving the passenger, they torture you with movies you avoid on the ground. However, it does improve your health, as you usually have to walk a mile or so between gates and alcoholic drinks are free on the plane.

The trip was good, although I was surprised that a sail down the "Beautiful Blue Danube" was, in fact, nowhere near as beautiful or interesting as trips down the Rhine and the Rhone. The image that most struck me did not take place on the river. At a Boston Pops-like concert in Vienna a pretty good soprano performed an Austrian folk song while dressed as a peasant. She sang a story no one in the hall knew. It must have been an odd story as the last few lines were delivered in the same strong voice while she was standing on her head. I've never seen something like that at Symphony Hall in Boston.

Another strong impression - we here in the U.S. are very lucky in an economic sense. Prague apparently does not have enough money to clean the statues on the famed Charles Bridge and at other tourist attractions. I don't think that there are too many countries that display statues so black you would think they had been painted that color instead of having faded with the years. The economic struggle in Budapest and Bratislava was not as evident, but it was still palpable. Things seemed good in Vienna and Salzburg.

I also saw a phenomenon that I had seen only once before. When you drive from Vermont into Canada, the landscape changes almost instantly; within a mile the tall trees are gone, things look darker and drearier. A reverse situation occurs when going from the Czech Republic to Austria. It's really amazing to me. I could understand if the changes took place over a few miles, but it is noticeable almost as soon as you cross the border.

And what can I say about the language? Whether written or spoken it's beyond me. You see a lot of the letters K and Z . We played a game of Scrabble on the boat; aficionados will be surprised to see 2 Ks, Z with a value of 3 and Y 10, and two forms of U, one with a value of 6, the other 1.

Overall, it was a good trip even though we had snow that last two days. Budapest and Vienna are beautiful cities. In Salzburg we ate in a building that was a monastery in 803 and had been a restaurant for a couple of hundred years. It was really a vacation from the world. But you never escape reality and still remain what passes for sane.

So, it's back to the real world and renewed contemplation of the catastrophes in which we are embedded.

Arriverdici

We're off to Prague and then will waltz down the Blue Danube. Maybe the world will be a little better off when we get back before Thanksgiving.

What's wrong with this?

Karl Denninger of The Market Ticker has some advice for Mr. Obama:

1. You will send up a bill that enacts a full repeal Gramm-Leach-Bliley. This was the law that repealed the Glass-Steagall act (the majority of it, anyway.)
2. You will send up a bill that reinstates the leverage limit of 12:1 that used to apply to investment banks (the dropping of which is the proximate cause of this mess, and which Henry Paulson was directly responsible for through his lobbying and requests) and apply it to all institutions doing business in The United States.
3. You will send up a bill that repeals the 2005 "Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention" act - an act you voted no on originally. This one should be a no-brainer, since you didn't support it originally.
4. You will send up a bill that repeals the TARP/EESA, and will vow to do everything in your power to stop the expenditure of any further funds under the existing law, and you will direct Treasury on January 20th to reverse the tax changes that granted $150 billion in "preferences" without a vote of Congress or even public notice.
5. You will send up a bill that requires the SEC, OTS, and OCC to compel all assets and liabilities to be consolidated upon a firm's balance sheet and directs that all marking methods, formulas and variables along with each asset held be disclosed accurately for every firm that operates in the United States.
6. You will direct The Federal Reserve by executive order to comply with the FOIA filed by Bloomberg and disclose, immediately and forever into the future, all loans issued, to whom, the specifics of the collateral pledged, and the discount or "haircut" applied. Such information will be published via The Web at the point of issuance of Fed Credit and all actions taken by The Federal Reserve or any of its district banks shall be undertaken in the full sunshine of the public view. If The Fed should refuse, you will pledge to send up to Congress a bill to repeal The Federal Reserve Act of 1913, and replace The Federal Reserve system entirely with an entity that will under penalty of federal law operate 100% "in the sunshine."

Denninger argues that we have to accept reality and live within our means. He can go off the deep end but he's right on with this article.

Tempest in a Teapot?

Or something more serious? Over the past year or so the Wall Street Journal has been writing about executives who have falsified their academic credentials. Today alone there are three separate articles. Most of the boastful executives claim that they have graduated from college. However, the liars only attended a particular college, they did not graduate. What does this say about them and about us?

The claimants have obviously lied about what they and our world consider an important matter. Is the lying brought about by insecurities?

One thing it says about us is that we value formal credentials too much. The assumption by most large organizations is that a college graduate has more to offer than the man on the street. In many cases this is true. But, I'm sure that you've met many people about whom you've wondered how they ever got out of high school, let alone college. You've also met many graduates of top colleges who should be working in a menial job, not pulling down bug bucks simply because he went to Harvard.

Evaluating a job applicant for what she or he can do is not easy. But to rely too much on what one sees on a resume is asking for trouble.

There will only be bank holding companies

CIT is the latest to apply to change its status to that of a bank holding company.

Now it's GE

You, in the person of the FDIC, have just provided insurance for $139 billion of GE's debt. Who has insured your debt?

Germany says no to GM

Why can't we? Opel, a branch of GM, asked Chancellor Merkel to push the European Investment Bank for a loan of $51 billion to German car makers. Plus they wanted government to offer car loans and buy old cars. It does not look like Merkel will do much for Opel.

Nobel Economists Speak....

for what it's worth. Der Spiegel asked five Nobel economists - Edmund Phelps, Robert Lucas, Reinhard Selten, Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Samuelson - to speak on the current situation. All argue for change, as if you didn't know. Most say better regulation is needed. Stiglitz emphasizes our global interconnectedness. Phelps wants to return to a day when banks invested in businesses.

The Old Ways Are Dead

Tim Duy takes Paulson to task for claiming things won't really get better until housing perks up. Duy argues that the economy based on continually increasing consumer spending has been shown to be a dead end. In his view, reducing mortgage payments will only work if the mortgagors are, in fact, creditworthy.

Return to growth can only come to pass with an economy that actually builds things, like infrastructure or invests in things like healthcare and education.

Veterans Day, Armistice Day, Remembrance Day

Whatever you call it, R.J. at Sparrowchat has some comments about the day - and the world - that you should read.

Pelosi and Reid have drunk the Kool-Aid.

Now Pelosi has urged that the upcoming session of the Congress consider bailing out GM and other U.S. auto companies and has directed Mr. Frank to devise the legislation so that it limits executive pay, ensures independent oversight and protects the taxpayer. She does not ask who the executives will be.

She, Reid, Frank and our other leaders should read Paul Ingrassia's Op-ed in yesterday's WSJ. Ingassisa has covered the auto industry for decades and covered it well. He knows where a lot of bodies are buried. He advocates a clean sweep of management plus a revision of union rules. He does not feel that the bailout of GM and co. should be led by the same people who brought it to its current state.

Where is China Spending Its Stimulus Payments

Housing, infrastructure, agriculture, health care and social welfare. Rather a contrast to what we are spending $700 billion on. Granted China is still a developing country and our economy is more complex than China's, but are we doing that great with regards to housing, infrastructure, agriculture, health care and social welfare?

It's Been Two Years

In mid-November of 2006 the head of the GAO, David Walker, sent a 'note' to Congress offering three sets of recommendations for the consideration of the new Congress. Now that the 110th Congress is just about over, look the recommendations over and see how well our leaders have done. I can't see that they have implemented any of the recommendations. How do these guys spend their time doing the nation's business? Throw the rascals out!

Targets for Near-Term Oversight
1. Reduce the Tax Gap
2. Address Government-wide Acquisition and Contracting Issues
3. Transform the Business Operations of the Department of Defense, Including Addressing All Related “High-Risk” Areas
4. Ensure the Effective Integration and Transformation of the Department of Homeland Security
5. Enhance Information Sharing, Accelerate Transformation, and Improve Oversight Related to the Nation’s Intelligence Agencies
6. Enhance Border Security and Enforcement of Existing Immigration Laws
7. Ensure the Safety and Security of All Modes of Transportation and the Adequacy of Related Funding Mechanisms
8. Strengthen Efforts to Prevent the Proliferation of Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Weapons and Their Delivery Systems (Missiles)
9. Ensure a Successful Transformation of the Nuclear Weapons Complex
10. Enhance Computer Security and Deter Identity Theft
11. Ensure a Cost Effective and Reliable 2010 Censu
12. Transform the Postal Service’s Business Model
13. Ensure Fair Value Collection of Oil Royalties Produced from Federal Lands
14. Ensure the Effectiveness and Coordination of U.S. International Counterterrorism Efforts
15. Review the Effectiveness of Strategies to Ensure Workplace Safety

Policies and Programs That Are in Need of Fundamental Reform and Re-Engineering
1. Review U.S. and Coalition Efforts to Stabilize and Rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan
2. Ensure a Strategic and Integrated Approach to Prepare for, Respond to, Recover, and Rebuild from Catastrophic Event
3. Reform the Tax Code, Including Reviewing the Performance of Tax Preferences
4. Reform Medicare and Medicaid to Improve Their Integrity and Sustainability
5. Ensure the Adequacy of National Energy Supplies and Related Infrastructure
6. Reform Immigration Policy to Ensure Equity and Economic Competitiveness
7. Assess Overall Military Readiness, Transformation Efforts, and Existing Plans to Assure the Sustainability of the All-Volunteer Force
8. Assure the Quality and Competitiveness of the U.S. Education System
9. Strengthen Retirement Security Through Reforming Social Security, Increasing Pension Saving and Promoting Financial Literacy
10. Examine the Costs, Benefits, and Risks of Key Environmental Issues
11. Reform Federal Housing Programs and Related Financing and Regulatory Structure
12. Ensure the Integrity and Equity of Existing Farm Programs
13. Review Federal Efforts to Improve the Image of the United States

Governance Issues That Should be Addressed to Help Ensure an Economical, Efficient, Effective, Ethical, and Equitable Federal Government Capable of Responding to the Various Challenges and Capitalizing on Related Opportunities in the 21st Century
1. Review the Need for Various Budget Controls and Legislative Process Revisions in Light of Current Deficits and Our Long-Range Fiscal Imbalance
2. Pursue the Development of Key National Indicators
3. Review the Impact and Effectiveness of Various Management Reforms Enacted in Recent Years (e.g., GPRA, CFO Act, FFMIA, Clinger-Cohen, etc.
4. Review the Effectiveness of the Federal Audit and Accountability Community, Including the Oversight, Structure, and Division of Responsibility
5. Modernize the Federal Government’s Organizational and Human Capital Models
6. Re-examine the Presidential (Political) Appointment Process
7. Ensure Transparency over Executive Policies and Operations
8. Monitor and Assess Corporate Financial Reporting and Related Standards for Public Companies Accountability

It's Begun

The Iraqi government has taken over another American task - paying the members of the Sons of Iraq. True, only a handful of the Sunnis have been processed and paid, but maybe it will work out.

We're all entitled...

to the government's bailout. That's the feeling among corporate America.

Witness - American Express becomes a bank holding company so that we can support it. Who's the next convert to a bank holding company? GMAC is a likely candidate.

GM is begging to be saved and it looks like our leaders will do so. What about the store down the street that has to close? Who is helping them out? When GM gets our dough, will Wagoner keep his job? Can the government - or anybody - do a worse job running GM? Money is not all these companies need. They need sound managers who are not greedy and who plan for the long haul and they need people wanting and able to buy their products. Was there a bailout for the manufacturers of horse buggies 100 years ago? What will be the result of our investment in GM? Has it reached the end of its road, for everything dies eventually? Are we just postponing the inevitable?

And the losses keep mounting. Fannie Mae $29 billion this quarter, AIG 24.5 billion this quarter. Any bets on how large Freddie Mac's loss will be?

What is going on in England?

Last week the government wanted to gather information about your private doings. Now the government wants to increase censorship. Some secret committee, the Intelligence and Security Committee, wants to make it a crime to report stories the government feels the public should not know about as it will compromise the nation's security.

Life is full of surprises

Today's first surprise is the existence within the Pentagon of something called the Defense Business Board, which seems to be a group of people, including non-military people, that I guess have finally decided to speak out against the swollen defense budgets. The board feels that the budget for the Pentagon is not sustainable.

The board finds it hard to see how - when the economy is falling apart - we can increase the armed forces b y 70,000 and continue to countenance such poor performance in building new weapons systems as

• the Army's new combat vehicle system which is budgeted at $160 billion yet seems to be more of a wish than a practicality
• the Navy's development of new ships which are 8 years late in reaching production
• the Air Force's running at 50% over budget for new planes.

Doing God's Work

Six religions share the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. They are all convinced that it was the site of Christ's crucifixion. Today is the Feast of the Cross for Armenian Christians and, as they began their celebration in the church, Greek Orthodox monks tried once more to put the body of one of their dead leaders in the tomb that supposedly held Christ. Need I say both parties felt the other was not acting like a Christian and so they proceeded to have a brawl in the church.

An Iraqi Speaks

From Inside Iraq

November 05, 2008

Obama

I am so happy today. I feel hope in the wind. Obama is the elect president of the U.S of A. Am I happy for Iraq? I don't know. I don't know what will happen and I'm afraid. Will he pull out the troops? Will he care enough to reach a good compromise – fair to the Iraqi people? Or will he have to go overboard in some issues just to prove that he's American? Can he withstand the pressures? But in spite of all my fears, I am so happy for America - You have come such a long way. You had the strength, the will to elect this man of change. And with all my heart I hope he puts America on the path to recovery. To see America again on the pedestal of freedom and democracy, a benign force that heals instead of hurts, unites instead of divides – soon inshalla. I wish to congratulate you all. But to my dear dear friend L – a very special salute indeed.

• Posted by Sahar IIS at 09:31 AM

Where does it stop?

Pelosi and Reid apparently feel that TARP should be used to bail out every industry if that industry has enough political clout. They have asked Paulson to see whether the auto industry can be helped via the TARP bailout.

The Big 3 have been looking for money from anyone with a dollar. No one has seen fit to step forward and sign on the dotted line. Maybe it's because they don;t think it's a good investment. Why is it a good use of taxpayer money?

Market Volatility

The stock market of the past month has had unprecedented volatility. Swings of hundreds of points in less than an hour have not been uncommon. This is not good for one's equilibrium, financial composure or even the economy. It indicates a certain degree of panic and excessive uncertainty. Robert Schwartz of CUNY has an idea to minimize the volatility, but it require companies to be concerned with the long term health and market for its stock.

Schwartz's idea is to have companies reserve a certain amount of cash to minimize the volatility of its stock and to establish 'standardized' highs and lows for its shares. If the stock hits the low, the company would buy a certain number of shares. If the stock hits the high, the company would buy a certain number of shares. The idea is not as far-fetched as you would think. Germany has a similar system.

Water, water everywhere....

and not a drop to drink. Maude Barlow, the UN's first senior adviser on water issues, believes that this may be the case unless we act responsibly soon. Some points to consider:

• Only 3% of the world's water is fresh H20, that is usable to drink or to wash
• Water consumption is doubling every 20 years
• 15% of the world's population does not have water they can safely drink
• 75% of the surface water in India, China or Russia is too polluter to use for anything - washing, drinking, fishing.

It's been 12 years

Yet less than half of the federal agencies charged with following the Federal Finance Management Improvement Act have yet to comply with the law in that they are not meeting accounting or management standards. Which translates to anoother waste of our money.

Get rid of all the rules

When it comes to the environment that seems to be the mantra of the Bush administration in its final days. They seem to be trying to return to the days when no one seemed to have to care about the environment. It doesn't seem to matter as long as someone can make a buck from laxer rules. It could be uranium mining near the Grand Canyon, more mountain tops blown away for mining, the air becoming more polluted, species vanishing quicker. Why care?

Homeland Security On The Job

I really felt safe when I read that the County Veterans Agent was prohibited from getting an official list of veterans or active servicemen. For years the Veterans Agent has sent packages to those serving in the Armed Forces and has helped veterans obtain benefits due them. Now she has to rely on the kindness of strangers to get names and addresses so that she can do her job. If memory serves, the agent did serve time as a terrorist and was also burned at the stake. Thank God, DHS is on the ball.

An interesting idea

Most economists and sensible thinkers are convinced that the economy needs a substantial stimulus. Dean Baker has an interesting twist on this - let's spend money on helping the poor, improving the infrastructure, supporting the states but let's also do something about health care, like extend it and start moving towards a single payer system.

It's 24 years later...

but it stills smacks of '1984'. The English government has set plans in motion to spy on its people who use the internet. It hopes to collect information on every e-mail and web visit its citizens make. Is fear now a defining characteristic of a democracy?

A Surprise

With all the hoopla about voting and people being charged up about the contest, we still had 62.5% of those eligible actually voting. This is less than the high water mark of 63.8% set in the Kennedy-Nixon contest. I can understand people being fed up with our government, but to not take the opportunity to effect some change, however modest, is defeatist.

Palin in 2012?

I don't understand how any rational person could think that Palin should be a candidate for president in 2012. In fact, if her knowledge of the world is typical of that of other governors, we will have an even harder time digging out of this mess. In this interview with Fox no less, the Fox correspondent claims that Palin does not know that Africa is a continent and could not name the three countries of Nafta. Even more surprising since she has been in politics for a fair number of years, she did not prepare for the Couric interview.

Thanks, Steve Schmidt

In the last few days three events - McCain's SNL appearance, Dowd's Sunday column contrasting McCain before and after drinking the poison offered by Steve Schmidt, his campaign manager, and McCain's concession speech - prompt me to thank Mr. Schmidt for making it a heck of a lot easier to see how closely a McCain presidency would resemble a GW Bush presidency.

Had Mr. Schmidt not run the campaign, voters would have had to analyze and evaluate McCain's proposals as to what is good for this country. By following Schmidt's advice, McCain adopted the Bush traits that have made his administration such a disaster for this country and the world. One could readily see that under McCain we'd have different faces but essentially the same low calibre people running the government, we'd rather use inflammatory rhetoric than really solve problems, we'd have an overweening pride and confidence in our own opinions whether or not these opinions were tempered by reality and we'd be so confident of the ultimate worth of our plan that we would never really measure its success as we know we are doing God's work and that is always good.

So, thank you, Stephen Schmidt, you made my job and that of millions of other voters a lot easier.

Words from Joe Galloway

These Republicans arrived with a strange combination of contempt for government and hunger for its power, and during their time in the saddle they've done everything they could to destroy the government and the Constitution that our forefathers so carefully constructed to check and balance any self-anointed monarchs' ability to do evil or accumulate dangerous and excessive power.

Where were we the people while this evil was being unleashed on us? Remember the fable of the grasshopper and the ant? We were, with the encouragement of our president, busy playing grasshopper. In the wake of the 9-11 attacks, our president urged us to go to the shopping mall. Go be grasshoppers. Consume everything, save nothing, live like there’s no tomorrow, like winter will never come.

Guess what? Winter has arrived.

In the name of national security, of homeland security, our right to privacy has been whittled away, legally and illegally. Big Brother has been listening, but only for our own good.

With the arrogance common to those who are ignorant of both history and the world, these people threw away our standing in that world, declaring that everyone must either be with us or against us. We hardly noticed as the world paid attention to what we did, not what we said, and then quietly chose the latter option.

In pursuit of our newfound civic duty as consumers, we hardly noticed that nearly everything we bought was marked "Made in China."

Made in China and bought on credit, our credit and our country's. Made in China and made with lead paint and poisonous plastics that threatened the lives of our children and killed our dogs, substances that escaped notice until far too late because the rabid deregulators had pulled our watchdogs' teeth.

They demanded unfettered capitalism, and in the hands of the Wall Street robber barons that was turned into pure evil, pure greed and pure folly. Now millions of Americans are losing their homes in the mortgage meltdown, and millions more have seen their life savings, their 401ks and IRAs, their hopes of a comfortable retirement, blow away like so many leaves on a cruel Texas norther.

They played on our fears like a mighty Wurlitzer Organ, frightening us with lies into an unnecessary war in Iraq. Frightening us into re-electing George Bush, even after we knew that he was anything but presidential, anything but intelligent, anything but a worthy, effective leader.

They frightened us so badly that we voluntarily surrendered the precious rights that a million American soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and others bought for us with their lives during two centuries of freedom and democracy.

They used fear to violate international law, to torture and imprison thousands of suspected enemies without charges or trials. They used fear and invoked national security to suspend the right of habeas corpus, the foundation of our freedoms.

For these and far too many other sins and transgressions to list in so short a space as this, we the people have every right, and perhaps a duty, to cast them aside, and with them their only hope of avoiding justice and judgment — John McCain, who voted with them 90 percent of the time.

We're right to toss them all aside, and to hope and pray that it's not too late to start repairing the damage they've done to a nation that once was the last, best hope of mankind.

Now what?

It's almost over. Tons of money, years of punditry, lies galore. Another presidential campaign will end here in Massachusetts in a little over an hour. Some have argued that the 21-month campaign was a good thing; it gave us a chance to see the candidates in the heat of battle. I think it gave the media something to write about and fattened the coffers of some consultants and ad men. It did nothing for the citizens of this country. It did even less for the citizens of Illinois and Arizona who lost half of their representation in the Senate. This is not a smart way to elect our leaders.

Neither McCain nor Obama will be able to do half of what they claimed as their program. We'll still have the same hacks in Congress. We will have to pay more in taxes. The likelihood of getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan in 2009 is very low no matter who wins. Clean coal will not ward off nasty climate change. We will not have better and more affordable health care. The budget of the Defense Department will not be cut to any significant degree.

There is a small hope that if Obama wins he will replace the incompetents that are now in the administrative side of our tripartite government. And that may be enough of a first step back to a country that does more than preach to others, a country that does not live in fear, a country that leads by example, a country that recognizes how small and interconnected this world has become, a country that more often than not does the right thing for itself and for the world.

Why you should run for Congress

Mike forwarded me an article from Sunday's Boston Globe which talks about the pension plan for our leaders in Congress. First of all, it's a defined-benefit plan, which means that the pension is not based on how well their investment does; their benefits are guaranteed. A typical annual pension is on the order of $120,000. How does this compare with your pension, even if the market comes back fast? And Congressmen are entitled to a full pension at age 62 after just five years of service. What was your pension after five years service?

What's wrong with this picture?

It will get worse

Although auto sales are way down for October, things will get worse for the U.S. auto makers. GM and Chrysler were the hardest hit of all manufacturers. GM's sales were down 45% from October 2007, Chrysler was down 35% and Ford suffered a 30% decline.

GM was unable to convince the Treasury to 'loan' it $10 billion. Now the Big 3 are waiting on the Energy Department to 'loan' them $25 billion to develop more fuel-efficient vehicles. Why do we taxpayers have to finance something that smart companies financed on their own?

A growth market?

In 1990 there were three suicide attacks in the world; they occurred in Lebanon and Sri Lanka. In 2006, there were 353 suicide attacks in the world; they occurred in fifteen countries. See Foreign Policy for more details.

It's pretty good

They believe in the power of the computer

An Oxford don, Dr Peter Millican, has created a computer application that he feels can detect plagiarism. Mr. Chris Cannon, an unbiased Republican congressman from Utah with a strong interest in cybernetics, has apparently been on a crusade to prove that the computer can detect plagiarism. He decided to test Dr. Millican's software. By chance he happened to have electronic copies of a book by someone named Obama and another by a Mr. Ayers which he thought would be a suitable test for Dr. Millican.

Now you have to know that Mr. Cannon is shy and also has trouble speaking the language used in England. So, he asked his brother-in-law, Robert Fox, an English-speaking California businessman, to contact Dr. Millican to determine whether the good doctor would wish to test his computer program on the two books Mr. Cannon happened to have. If Dr. Millicam agreed, then the Americans would pay him $10,000.

Being a smart person, the good doctor made a fast pass through the two books to judge whether they were likely candidates for his software. He found that they did not appear to be but he was willing to take the Americans $10,000 if they wished him to conduct a full test provided, however, that the results would be made public. Cannon declined the offer because, on further reflection, he was not interested in making an issue of Obama’s memoir “even if it were scientifically proven” to be someone else’s work.

Believing in the movies

Something is wrong with the Communist Party in St. Petersburg. They think James Bond really exists and that he is "the killer of hundreds of Soviet people and their allies." And they were not ashamed of broadcasting their ignorance to the world. Apparently the fact that a Ukrainian woman is one of the 'Bond Girls' in the latest movie was the trigger that led them to issue a statement denouncing the woman and the Bond movies.