BBC reports: A $1.2bn (£590m) contract for training Iraqi police was so badly managed that auditors do not know how the money was spent, the US state department says.The programme was run by a private US company, DynCorp. It insists there has been no intentional fraud.Auditors have stopped trying to audit the programme because all […]
NYT suggests this deficit spending. Veterans today have only the Montgomery G.I. Bill, which requires a service member to pay $100 a month for the first year of his or her enlistment in order to receive a flat payment for college that averages $800 a month. This was a reasonable enlistment incentive for peacetime service, […]
This is an article by the Washington Post: Oil Price Rise causes Global Shift in Wealth. It looks at how different countries are responding based on whether the oil money is flowing in or out. Some countries are spending, but not necessarily to diversify their economies. Some are flexing their muscles now that their financial’s […]
Salon published an essay on restrooms and handwashing, perhaps because AB has persisted in posting on this issue. So far this year Americans have used 1.8 million tons of paper towels and tissue, according to the American Forest & Paper Association, an industry group. There are approximately 3 million hand dryers installed in the country […]
SOFAR: Strategic Outreach to Families of All Reservists The Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Institute of New England (PCFINE), with the support of other psychoanalytic groups throughout the country, has launched a new pro bono program called SOFAR: Strategic Outreach to Families of All Reservists. Through this program, SOFAR coordinates the delivery of psychotherapy and psycho-educational […]
Ecuador’s experiment in private water markets is not ending well. It is a well kept secret that Bechtel won a contract to privatize the water in Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil, just months after the massive citizen protests that threw Bechtel out of Bolivia.In October 2000, a local Bechtel subsidiary, Interagua, signed a 30-year concession contract […]
We have a long history. Why not see what this nation was truly use to before we decide whether the opportunity (chance?) to be employed is good, bad or indifferent? I went to the department of labor site and used their graphing for the following charts.First 1948 to 2007 E/P Ratio. What we see is […]
Small Wars Journal posted a piece by former SERE trainer (hat tip to News Trust and then TPM to get me to Small Wars Journal) …In fact, waterboarding is just the type of torture then Lt. Commander John McCain had to endure at the hands of the North Vietnamese. As a former Master Instructor and […]
I check out Robert Reich’s blog on occasion being that he is a person who was involved in the past. Yesterdays: Over a decade ago when, as Secretary of Labor, I hollered about the scandal of widening inequality in America, I’d get phone calls from Democratic officials who politely asked me to shut up. After […]
The Baltimore Sun and Jay Hancock reports that Greg Mankiw and Paul Krugman agree on the AMT. The vote is tomorrorow. John Berry reports the hedge and possible Bush viewpoint.