Before the spin starts, if I'm not too late already, the census report is out for 2006. The year 2006 isn't remarkable for economic gains.
Five million more people live in poverty now than in 2000, before the last recession. That recession was the mildest and shortest on record since 1950. That record isn't important to the daily lives of five million people pushed into 6 years of poverty. Poverty pushes records out of the field of vision for those in the dark abyss.
One group did benefit financially compared to 2000. Those making adjusted gross incomes of over $128,000 per year got a really nice bump in take home pay. That take home pay increase isn't given by the Census Bureau. However, from IRS data, the bump was over $11,000 in the last three years ending in 2004.
The Census information makes it clear why 47 million people do not have basic health care.
They need the money to eat. Really, just to buy food.
The Census data can be downloaded in raw information at http://www.census.gov/
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
A million dollars couldn't buy Perdue's Personally Picked Candidate a Senate Seat
Sorry about the very long title. If I were a good writer or a smarter marketeer, the title would always be short. I'd shorten my articles, too.
An article out of Washington shows how little power the GOP now has even in the South.
In the backwoods of the Deep South, the Georgia GOP hand picked their candidate for replacing the deceased Charlie Norwood in a special election.
That hand picked man, the Best of the Best of the Best, super duper intelligent, worldly, powerful, known not as 007 but merely as Jim Whitehead lost.
Jim Whitehead spent about a million dollars raised mostly through the GOP machine of special interests, big donors, and political action committees.
I'd even bet some big name Republicans gave him money from personal campaign funds, an unethical act in my opinion.
Jim Whitehead was whipped at the polls by a man who didn't take the big money, a man who didn't have the endorsement of Perude and the Georgia GOP, and didn't have the blessings of being called to duty by the Norwood family.
It's about time the deep south walked away from the turn coat, former racist Democrats now running the corrupt Republican machine.
The Associated Press story can be accessed from the Gainesville Times at this link.
An article out of Washington shows how little power the GOP now has even in the South.
In the backwoods of the Deep South, the Georgia GOP hand picked their candidate for replacing the deceased Charlie Norwood in a special election.
That hand picked man, the Best of the Best of the Best, super duper intelligent, worldly, powerful, known not as 007 but merely as Jim Whitehead lost.
Jim Whitehead spent about a million dollars raised mostly through the GOP machine of special interests, big donors, and political action committees.
I'd even bet some big name Republicans gave him money from personal campaign funds, an unethical act in my opinion.
Jim Whitehead was whipped at the polls by a man who didn't take the big money, a man who didn't have the endorsement of Perude and the Georgia GOP, and didn't have the blessings of being called to duty by the Norwood family.
It's about time the deep south walked away from the turn coat, former racist Democrats now running the corrupt Republican machine.
The Associated Press story can be accessed from the Gainesville Times at this link.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Bush let Osama bin Laden go ...
From a news story in Australia, not something I would fabricate.
Bin Laden was trapped in Tora Bora and General Franks refused to go into the mountains with the assets he had in Afghanistan.
Why?
“The US military’s most elite commando unit, Delta Force, was transferred from Afghanistan to prepare for Iraq.”
“When General Franks refused to send troops into Tora Bora, he was already in the early stages of planning for the next war in Iraq.”
“The report yesterday said that by early 2002, new aerial drones that might have helped in the search were being diverted for possible use in Iraq.”
Going entirely by this news report from the owners of Fox News, Bush couldn’t have bin Laden and Saddam. Bush chose getting Saddam over getting bin Laden.
And, how does this fit into the premise that Iraq is the cornerstone of our fake war on terror?
US security officials believe al-Qa’ida is planning dramatic strikes on the West comparable to 9/11. “We have very strong indicators that al-Qa’ida is planning to attack the West and is likely to attack, and we are pretty sure about that,” says retired vice admiral John Redd, chief of the National Counter-terrorism Center, which co-ordinates US intelligence in the war on terror.”
Hank Crumpton, who ran the CIA’s early hunt for bin Laden in 2001-02 as deputy chief of the agency’s counter-terrorism base and recently retired as the State Department’s co-ordinator of counter-terrorism, agreed: “It’s bad; it’s going to come.
The King and his court
Having so many 'outside contractors' performing the roles properly assigned to government has killed all hope of peace in Iraq.
What has it done to our country?
A democracy should have private citizens employed by the government not 'outside contractors' in responsible roles. The role of firefighter for example.
If we pay a firefighting company for the number of fires, isn't that an incentive to either set fires or do nothing to prevent fires?
If we pay mercenaries by a body count, isn't that a way of making sure no prisoners are taken and that 'collateral damage' increases?
But the greatest danger is shifting loyalty from service to a fellow citizen to merely obeying supervisors, contractual terms, and stockholder demands.
We can not expect 'outside actors' to be loyal to a democratic government system.
For the editorial by James Carroll, click here.
What has it done to our country?
A democracy should have private citizens employed by the government not 'outside contractors' in responsible roles. The role of firefighter for example.
If we pay a firefighting company for the number of fires, isn't that an incentive to either set fires or do nothing to prevent fires?
If we pay mercenaries by a body count, isn't that a way of making sure no prisoners are taken and that 'collateral damage' increases?
But the greatest danger is shifting loyalty from service to a fellow citizen to merely obeying supervisors, contractual terms, and stockholder demands.
We can not expect 'outside actors' to be loyal to a democratic government system.
For the editorial by James Carroll, click here.
The National Intelligence Estimate
There is this thing called the National Intelligence Estimate or NIE. The NIE has been getting a lot of press since 9/11. Without the horrid events of 9/11, most of us would not have ever cared about or known about any NIE.
The NIE should be a compilation of information from all the executive branch intelligence gathering organizations. Intelligence gathering needs that extra bit of emphasis. For each bit of information gathered, we can assume other bits escape our gathering methods. Our methods can be compared to dipping a small net in the ocean while keeping our feet dry. Even if we board a huge ship, our toes and feet remain dry while dipping the nets. Our nets are designed with technology as the main seine, not with human input from diplomats, agents, and professional analysts given priority.
With that technological priority, we might get a good statistical sampling but we have missed huge upheavals like the fall of the Soviet Empire, the invasion of Kuwait, and Osama's plan to use planes as human guided missiles.
So this intelligence estimate is very imperfect. It should be viewed only as a tool to test the performance of our intelligence gathering ability and how well we analyze raw data.
As we are bombarded with the various types of spin being placed on the NIE's information, we should take great care and caution ourselves that information from human beings is fallible.
Humans make huge mistakes. Governments make huge mistakes. Blaming those mistakes on a few just compounds the mistake. Mistakes like using estimates as facts compound past mistakes and perpetuate poor reasoning.
From the NIE:
"Where population displacements have led to significant sectarian separation," the NIE states, "conflict levels have diminished to some extent because warring communities find it more difficult to penetrate communal enclaves." [Does that mean the statistics support the troops escalations or that mixed society has failed since the invasion?]
The broad compromises needed for reconciliation [in Irag] "are unlikely to emerge unless there is a fundamental shift in the factors driving Iraqi political and security developments." Analysts offered no cause to believe that fundamental shift will occur. [Does that sound very much like we need more time for diplomacy to work? Or, send more troops now?]
For one opinion on how we are fighting for a military solution dependent upon a political solution, click this link for the Jay Bookman column in the AJC.
The NIE should be a compilation of information from all the executive branch intelligence gathering organizations. Intelligence gathering needs that extra bit of emphasis. For each bit of information gathered, we can assume other bits escape our gathering methods. Our methods can be compared to dipping a small net in the ocean while keeping our feet dry. Even if we board a huge ship, our toes and feet remain dry while dipping the nets. Our nets are designed with technology as the main seine, not with human input from diplomats, agents, and professional analysts given priority.
With that technological priority, we might get a good statistical sampling but we have missed huge upheavals like the fall of the Soviet Empire, the invasion of Kuwait, and Osama's plan to use planes as human guided missiles.
So this intelligence estimate is very imperfect. It should be viewed only as a tool to test the performance of our intelligence gathering ability and how well we analyze raw data.
As we are bombarded with the various types of spin being placed on the NIE's information, we should take great care and caution ourselves that information from human beings is fallible.
Humans make huge mistakes. Governments make huge mistakes. Blaming those mistakes on a few just compounds the mistake. Mistakes like using estimates as facts compound past mistakes and perpetuate poor reasoning.
From the NIE:
"Where population displacements have led to significant sectarian separation," the NIE states, "conflict levels have diminished to some extent because warring communities find it more difficult to penetrate communal enclaves." [Does that mean the statistics support the troops escalations or that mixed society has failed since the invasion?]
The broad compromises needed for reconciliation [in Irag] "are unlikely to emerge unless there is a fundamental shift in the factors driving Iraqi political and security developments." Analysts offered no cause to believe that fundamental shift will occur. [Does that sound very much like we need more time for diplomacy to work? Or, send more troops now?]
For one opinion on how we are fighting for a military solution dependent upon a political solution, click this link for the Jay Bookman column in the AJC.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
