Misblog

Michigan Democratic Tea Party is apparently fake—whoo, that's a relief to know!

Wonder how the poser Michigan Democratic Tea Party differs from the Tea Party?

Web: UPI, 'Fake' Tea Party alleged in Michigan

Originally Published March 01, 2010; Last Updated September 03, 2010; Last Republished September 03, 2010:

One of the significant benefits of providing healthcare coverage for all Americans (universality) is that it eliminates the incentives and benefits from cost shifting between populations. There's one population and one pool of costs making cost shifting between populations irrelevant¹.

So, it's hardly surprising that as healthcare moves toward universality (go Mr. President, Senator Reid, and Speaker Pelosi) the focus will switch away from cost shifting² and toward cost reduction.

Two ways too reduce healthcare costs (there are many⁴) is to encourage healthier lifestyles and eliminate all costs that do not contribute to improved health outcomes³.

Our First Lady has already begun tackling the childhood (adult) obesity epidemic. Now our National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is tackling sodium induced hypertension...many more health improvement initiatives, tips and encouragement is likely to follow.

Web:

• UPDATED 09/03/2010 Reuters, U.S. medical programs missing millions of kids: report.

  Millions of our qualified children are not enrolling for heathcare—so enroll them; notify their parents or guardian that they've been enrolled, the scheduled date of their first doctor's appointment, and where they can direct any questions or obtain additional information.

  "...No child should have to skip a doctor's appointment or go without the medicine they need because their family can't pay,"--Reuters quoting U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius--

  Our policymakers must directly provide universal healthcare for every citizen and qualified resident, in addition to our children.

  The convoluted framework and patchwork of plans may eventually result in universal healthcare, but the resultant path is not obvious or direct.

• UPDATED 04/08/2010 UPI, Poor more likely to die post-heart surgery.

• NAS, Strategies Needed to Curb Hypertension in U.S.

  "Public health officials need to craft policies that support healthier eating, lowered sodium consumption, and increased physical activity to cut the nation's high rate of hypertension, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine."--NAS--

  • NAS, A Population-Based Policy and Systems Change Approach to Prevent and Control Hypertension
• Reuters, Industry crackdown on salt could save U.S. billions
• WH, Presidential Memorandum -- Establishing a Task Force on Childhood Obesity

-----notes-----

1. Of course this is exactly why those currently benefiting from healthcare cost shifting so vehemently oppose universal healthcare. They'll phrase it many different ways but the bottom line is that universality precludes the benefit from cost shifting.

Those interested in thinking about such things might want to inquire; too what extent any free market economy can be explained using simple cost shifting concepts and to what extent, if any, healthcare for our citizens should be the object or target of cost shifting.

2. The methods of shifting costs are limited only by the imagination. Some of the more common methods used are: initial or retroactive coverage denial; claims denial; patient dumping; improper billing of Medicare or Medicaid; increased insurance premiums; high deductibles; issuing an inadequate or useless insurance policy...

3. Another benefit of providing universality is that the single pool of costs is more visible and amenable to analysis.

Analysis that will make it possible and more efficient to reduce costs while improving healthcare outcomes—expenditures not improving outcomes can be highlighted for further investigation, analysis, or research.

4. UPDATED 03/03/2010 The costs of treating illness caused by food contamination is in the billions of dollars according to a recent PEW study (Reuters, Foodborne illness costs U.S. $152 billion annually).

One can readily envision our universal healthcare system using modern analytical tools to pinpointing in near real-time a foodborne illness outbreak, complete with the pathogens genome.

Better yet, over time, suggest corrective actions to our food processing and delivery systems to eliminate a similar future outbreak—saving billions.

Originally Published September 03, 2009; Last Updated September 02, 2010; Last Republished September 02, 2010:

The site New Threads (新语丝 Xin Yu Si), run by a Chinese citizen living in California has been blocked by China’s CCP—it’s a site dedicated to disclosing academic misconduct (e.g. plagiarism, cheating, research fraud etc.).

Only one problem, it’s very popular within China—so popular its editor, Fang Zhouzi (pen name), has become an influential intellectual¹ within China.

Web:

• UPDATED 09/02/2010 NYT, China Will Require ID for Cellphone Numbers; Noncompliance Means No Service.

  The authoritarian and coercive Chinese Communist Party (CCP) imitates the West in citing SPAM and pornography—this time as justification for requiring registration of cell phone SIMs.

  Hey CCP, be sure and let us how the SIM control program goes in limiting SPAM and pornography!

• UPDATED 12/10/2009 UPIAsia, China tightens Internet controls.
• UPDATED 11/07/2009 UPIAsia, Chinese officials ban Internet cafés.
• UPIAsia, An unlikely victim of China's censorship.

-----notes-----

1. According to a recent book edited by Obrien, Kevin J. Popular Protest in China, Harvard University Press 2008 pg 134 a Chinese newspaper has named him one of China’s 50 most influential intellectuals.

Originally Published January 22, 2008; Last Updated September 02, 2010; Last Republished September 02, 2010:

Sleeping is a skill most of us lack, according to sleep researchers; but we can learn.

Res:

• UPDATED 01/30/2010 CDC, Sleep and Sleep Disorders: A Public Health Challenge. It's more than a "challenge"; it's a societal hazard and impediment to optimal functioning.

  We have so much to learn about sleep beyond taking a pill and purchasing a $1,000 mattress—one suspects the more we learn about sleep the more societal structural changes will preempt pills and $1,000 mattresses.

  The distributional and optimization¹ aspects of sleep must be studied too—sleep (in)adequacy must not correlate with income or wealth.

  This may be difficult for a society that enables or encourages its members to exchange sleep for income and wealth generation in lieu of technological innovation and substitution.

• UPDATED 01/30/2010 National Sleep Awareness Roundtable (NSART).

• UPDATED 10/29/2009 CDC, Perceived Insufficient Rest or Sleep Among Adults--United States, 2008.

  Kudos to the CDC and Institute of Medicine for formatting this sleep survey data across cohorts for all 50 states—it's required to inform our more mature and balanced policy making.

  Too often our policymakers and special interests, to which our policymakers are often beholden purse narrow simplistic single objective policy with insufficient data to inform the policy. Sometimes the data exist and are intentionally ignored, withheld, or not conveniently formatted for use by our policymakers and the public.

  As a result, our nation's overall gains often prove illusory and ephemeral.

  For example, if exhausting our West Virginians to supply our nation's coal energy produces more costs than gains there is a net overall loss. In the past our policymakers and special interests have intentionally ignore the exhausted West Virginian (in economic speak the exhausted West Virginian is an externality).

• UPDATED 08/18/2009 Sleep Council
• National Sleep Foundation

Web:

• UPDATED 09/02/2010 UPI, Less than 6 hours of sleep can kill you and UPI, Men who don't sleep may die sooner.
• UPDATED 04/26/2010 UPI, Ace those finals: Nap with dreams.
  • CellBiology, Dreaming of a Learning Task Is Associated with Enhanced Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation
• UPDATED 04/11/2010 Reuters, People get hungrier when they're starved for sleep.
• UPDATED 01/30/2010 SciNews, FOR KIDS [and Adults]: Slumber by the numbers.
• UPDATED 01/15/2010 UPI, You can't always catch up from sleep loss.
• UPDATED 08/18/2009 BBC, Drinkers 'ignorant of sleep woes'.
• UPDATED 08/13/2009 NYT, Mutation Tied to Need for Less Sleep Is Discovered.
• UPDATED 07/31/2009 Pew Research Center, Nap Time. Survey of our sleep habits. (see also the National Sleep Foundation)
• UPDATED 01/12/2009 Reuters, Sleepless nights equal more colds in U.S. study

  • UPDATED 01/12/2009 CMU S. Cohen Abstracts, Sleep Habits and Susceptibility to the Common Cold

    "Poorer sleep efficiency and shorter sleep duration in the weeks preceding an exposure to a rhinovirus were associated with lower resistance to illness."--S. Cohen et al., Sleep Habits--

• UPDATED 12/25/2008 NPR, Study: Early To Bed Keeps Heart Healthy

• UPDATED 02/03/2008 US New&World Report, Americans Sleepier Than Ever

  "We work hard, [and] have family responsibilities, so we cheat on the sleep and do it because the consequences are not immediately apparent," Rummo said. "People are aware of the problem, but we don't attend to these preventive things. If there's not a semi-crisis in terms of health, we can neglect it."

  It's time to stop the merry-go round or start it depending on your perspective—if you don't nobody will!

• In Today's World, the Well-Rested Lose Respect

-----notes-----

1. It's useful to note that a national healthcare system will enable us to better capture the data necessary for understanding and optimizing some of these trade-offs.

Originally Published July 25, 2010; Last Updated September 01, 2010; Last Republished September 01, 2010:

Wikileaks, citing increased transparency, reduced corruption, and stronger democracy, has leaked an estimated 92,000 United States military documents (also, War Diary) related to the conduct of the disastrous Afghanistan debacle.

"We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government and stronger democracies,..."-NYT quoting Wikileaks website--

The NYT is reporting that the documents are written in the voice of those fighting the debacle—meaning they may be at variance with the voice of our policymakers.

Wikileaks has been unjustifiably criticized by open society advocates as being too open and transparent (whatever that means)—some illogically referring to Wikileaks as an "enemy of open society".

It seems useful to distinguish between an "enemy of open society" and civil disobedience, which may conflict with the laws of some nations.

Remembering that openness and transparency will always inhibit a nation's ability to conduct wars³; but doesn't this make Wikileaks a friend of all nations and open society, notwithstanding any single nation's declamation¹?

Blog:

• UPDATED 08/22/2010 NYT Bits Blog, Visualizing the Wikileaks War Logs.

  Programmers from Columbia and Princeton apply modern visualization techniques to the Wikileaks, War Diary data, producing a "hotspots geography as a function of time.

• UPDATED 08/19/2010 Wired, Mississippi Lawyer Drawn Into WikiLeaks Intrigue. Post includes text of August 16, 2010 letter from Department of Defense, General Counsel Jeh Charles Johnson.

• UPDATED 08/08/2010 WP PostPartisan Blog, Sorry, Time, Assange is a criminal, not a journalist.

  The question is not why Wikileaks is not clearing their journalism and reporting with the Pentagon, but rather why the Washington Post, New York Times, et al. are clearing their journalism with the Pentagon?

  Is the euphemism "respectable and responsible journalism" simply a proxy for the process of exchanging information and access for prior clearance for of journalism (aka prior restraint)?

  Of course the "respectable and responsible" press is not going to tell its readers they provide the Pentagon prior restraint rights. Instead they say they are protecting national security and the Pentagon agrees—enter Wikileaks with a evolving and more transparent model of journalism.

  ...unsurprisingly many are silent, a few are supporting, and a few are critical and complaining...what new model transition is free of these attributes.

  In our early history Federalist and Republican reporters were routinely jailed for little more than calling our president names! Sometimes long periods elapsed before an opposing party pardon arrived or the reporter was otherwise released.

  Fortunately, since then our nascent judiciary has developed more independence, although the Federalist-Republican dichotomy and debate continues unabated today (read the transcript of the recent confirmation hearings of our newest justice).

• UPDATED 07/27/2010 ProPublica, Pentagon Papers Reporter: What the WikiLeaks ‘War Logs’ Tell Us and ProPublica, A Reading List to Put the WikiLeaks ‘War Logs’ in Context and ProPublica, Why WikiLeaks’ ‘War Logs’ Are No Pentagon Papers

  It seems more than a little ironic that those starting, fighting, and perpetuating wars so hastily assert leaks endanger our troops and national security—usually without the slightest proof or attempt at rigorous scientific analysis and testing?

  Proof is usually little more than one or more senior intelligence officers saying, in various forms, "yep it endangers troops and national security".

  How delightful if, when rigorously studied leaks actually enhance our national security and protect our troops, even if from those so hastily warring?

Web:

• UPDATED 08/25/2010 Reuters, WikiLeaks plans to release CIA paper on Wednesday.

• UPDATED 08/21/2010 NYT, Sweden Rescinds Warrant for WikiLeaks Founder. Swedish prosecutors speedily issue and swiftly withdraw a rape and molestation warrant for the high profile Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange.

  The Swedish Prosecution Authority (En) has not yet explained its curious behavior according to BBC, Swedish rape warrant for Wikileaks' Assange cancelled.

  • UPDATED 09/01/2010 NYT, Sweden Reopens Inquiry of WikiLeaks Founder and BBC, Sweden reopens Wikileaks founder rape investigation.
  • UPDATED 08/23/2010 NYT, Plotting Doubted in WikiLeaks Case.
• UPDATED 08/21/2010 CBC, WikiLeaks founder denies sex charges. Nice to read that Wikileaks will remain focused on its important mission of transparency.
  • Wikileaks Blog, Allegations against WikiLeaks founder and spokesperson Julian Assange
  • Wikileaks on Twitter

• UPDATED 08/13/2010 Reuters, Pentagon cautions WikiLeaks over new document dump.

  Another way to look at the "anonymous informant" issue is to ask shouldn't they [presumably Afghani] be openly standing up to the Taliban—saying openly and notoriously:

  hell no you're not going to lead our nation and people by intimidation, force, and oppression!

  If the Afghanis will not stand openly against the Taliban what hope do they have of ever progressing their country. If the Afghanis will not stand openly against the Taliban why should Americans openly stand against the Taliban?

  How does one secretly defeat and eliminate oppression?

• UPDATED 08/08/2010 FoxNews, WikiLeaks Fighting Worldwide to Rewrite Content Protection Laws.
• UPDATED 08/08/2010 Salon, WikiLeaks to publish new documents. Based on an AP interview and article.

• UPDATED 08/07/2010 CSM, Pentagon threatens to 'compel' WikiLeaks to hand over Afghan war data.

  The Pentagon spokesperson's reference to "theft logic" is troublsome.

  "MR. MORRELL: I don’t think we’re negotiating with anybody. I think we’ve made very clear an explicit demand. There wasn’t any offer of anything in exchange. We are asking them to do the right thing. We are asking them to return stolen property and to no longer publish stolen property. That’s what we’re asking."--DoD Transcript, Morrell, August 05, 2010 DoD Press Briefing--

  It turns the nth recipient, reader, or publisher into a criminal—potentially anybody with an Internet connection and the physical ability to click a link or open an email!

• UPDATED 07/29/2010 CSM, WikiLeaks fallout: US, UK, India criticize Pakistan as terror haven.

• UPDATED 07/27/2010 CSM, WikiLeaks shocker? In Kabul, Pakistan support for Taliban is no surprise.

  It's amazing what a little transparency will produce—it's been barely 24 hours and already the press is cutting through nine plus years of bullshit,...umm "progress", stamped secret (or top secret)⁴!

• UPDATED 07/27/2010 NPR Fresh Air, Reporter's View: How The WikiLeaks Story Developed.
• UPDATED 07/27/2010 CMS, Wikileaks reinforces the claim that Pakistan supports the Taliban.
• UPDATED 07/26/2010 Guardian, Afghanistan: The War Logs
  • Guardian, War Log The Glossary
  • Guardian, Interactive Map of 300 War Log Events
  • Guardian, How to read the Afghanistan war logs: video tutorial
• NYT, In Disclosing Secret Documents, WikiLeaks Seeks ‘Transparency’

• UPDATED 07/26/2010 Der Spiegel, Explosive Leaks Provide Image of War from Those Fighting It.

  "Intelligence agents are constantly gathering statements from local informants, whose eagerness to please the Americans often surpasses their reliability."--Der Spiegel--²

-----notes-----

1. See LAT, White House decries WikiLeaks' release of Afghan war documents

"In a statement, President Obama's national security advisor, Marine Gen. James L. Jones, deplored the "disclosure of classified information" that he said could put the lives of Americans and U.S. partners at risk and threaten the nation's security."--LAT--

UPDATED 07/25/2010 Also, NYT War Blog, "[General Jone's] Thoughts on Wikileaks"

UPDATED 07/27/2010 It is worth noting that the Obama administration, while increasing transparency in some areas, is regressive on leak prosecutions, surpassing all his predecessors (NYT, Obama Takes a Hard Line Against Leaks to Press).

2. Here is how a reminder from a White House email posted to the NYT War Blog and quoting the Guardian puts it:

"...A retired senior American officer said ground-level reports were considered to be a mixture of 'rumours, bullshit and second-hand information' and were weeded out as they passed up the chain of command. 'As someone who had to sift through thousands of these reports, I can say that the chances of finding any real information are pretty slim,'..."--NYT War Blog Poster--

3. UPDATED 07/27/2010 Those knowledgeable about American secrecy know that even widely known secrets are usually kept, except by agents, when good reason exists for doing so.

A corollary of this is when war secrets begin leaking to a significant degree it's a very strong signal that the war(s) has/have ended.

Leaders wanting to remain leaders will understand these signals and end the war(s); others may temporarily seek to escalate or prosecute the war(s); or attempt to plug leaks and prosecute leakers; or otherwise try and continue warring.

UPDATED 07/27/2010 There is another related corollary to the keeping secrets when good reason exists for doing so. When you classify everything secret nothing is secret (Washington Post’s excellent series Top Secret America). Stated differently our intelligence community has been behaving, for so long, like a terrified toddler whose mother has told him he will be safe if only he can stamp secret on everything...the mother soon hides the stamp and begins trying alternatives.

4. UPDATED 07/27/2010 It's not surprising that Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) wants to see more leakers in orange jumpsuits:

"The damage to our national security caused by leaks like this won't stop until we see more perpetrators in orange jumpsuits,"--CNN quoting Senator Kit Bond's July 27, 2010 statement--

He has repeatedly voted to sustain the disastrous Afghanistan debacle.

Rather than change his vote and stop the disastrous Afghanistan debacle, he Senator Bond proposes "orange jumpsuits"—it's unclear whether he's referring to Guantanamo "orange jumpsuits"?

UPDATED 07/29/2010 Jim Lehrer talks to Republican Senator Kit Bond (R-MO), and Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) [Bond's "orange jumpsuit" sound bite is again repeated at 4:55 into the interview]:

Originally Published August 01, 2010; Last Updated September 02, 2010; Last Republished August 31, 2010:

Mr. President, stop the war speeches and follow the Dutch!

You can chase, capture, or kill terrorists² for the remainder of your presidency, if you must, without either the Iraq or Afghanistan debacles¹.

Blog:

• UPDATED 08/31/2010 LAT, President Obama's Oval Office speech on Iraq -- text.

  Mr. President there are no more pages to turn or chapters to write read—it's time to close the book on both the disastrous Iraq and Afghanistan debacles—it's writers and rewriters have failed miserably; the editor can't save it; we can only hope it remains a rare book galley copy, read only by King Bush the Idiot, neoconservatives, and all any future American leaders inclined toward warring or ignorant-arrogance.

  Bring all our Iraq and Afghanistan troops home, immediately.

  Focus on restructuring and rebuilding our nation and strengthening its comparative and competitive advantages well into this century. We must not continue to foolishly seek a comparative or competitive advantage in warring.

  Our nation is great because its early leaders understood that warring does not lead to prosperity—leaders that had just bankrupted our confederated colonies fighting a war!

  Thankfully, the Dutch lent us some money (today the lenders are primarily China and Japan and we're not quite bankrupt) and our early leaders diplomatically danced between the warring nations of France and Britain.

Web:

• UPDATED 09/02/2010 NYT, Names of the Dead (icasualties.org, Names of U.S. Deaths in Afghanistan).

  The number of our troops being killed each month in the disastrous Afghanistan debacle is escalating: Jan(30), Feb(32), Mar(26), Apr(20), May(34), Jun(60), Jul(65), Aug(56), Sep(03) (icasualties.org, U.S. Deaths Afghanistan)

• UPDATED 08/03/2010 NYT, Lawyers Seeking Terror Suspect’s Case Sue U.S. and WP, Civil rights groups sue Treasury over targeting of terror suspects for killing ²
• NYT, Names of the [Afghanistan War] Dead
• NYT, In Speech on Iraq, Obama Reaffirms Drawdown

-----notes-----

1. Unfortunately Pakistan is quickly devolving in to a debacle, too. (UPDATED 08/03/2010 Xinhua, War against Taliban being lost, says Pakistani president and CSM, Pakistan's Zardari says 'losing war' against Taliban ahead of David Cameron meeting)

2. You'll want to make sure that you do not continue pursuing the lawless strategies of your predecessor, King Bush the Idiot, or establish a personal presidency (as opposed to a constitutional presidency).

• UPDATED 08/15/2010 NYT, Secret Assault on Terrorism Widens on Two Continents

Your rhetoric, secrecy, and opaqueness are not substitutes for: closing the Guantanamo Interrogation and Torture Center; eliminating all Kangaroo Kommissions; using Treasury and Special Forces "Joint Effect Priority Lists" (aka capture or kill lists) instead of the rule of law and due process. Particularly when applied to American citizens!

You appear to have gotten lost in your own rhetoric or otherwise lost your bearing; (CCR, Rights Groups File Lawsuit To Allow Challenge To Targeted Killing Without Due Process.)

• UPDATED 08/31/2010 CCR, ACLU v. OFAC & Al-Aulaqi v. Obama

Originally Published November 03, 2009; Last Updated August 30, 2010; Last Republished August 30, 2010:

The Republican Party's platform is adrift in stormy seas without anchors, running lights, flotation devices, emergency beacons, communications, compass, sextant, maps and charts, or a captain.

At the platform's helm is flat-earth-faithful Sarah Palin and congresswoman Virginia Foxx¹ (R-NC-5)—crewing are entertainers Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck.

The helm is frantically screaming into gale stern winds, "we're heading off the earth's edge"; drop the mainsails—the crew is yelling, "what's a mainsail".

Blog:

• UPDATED 08/30/2010 MSNBC, GOP watch: Beck blasts Obama over his religion.

  The flat-earth-faithful continue their efforts to terrorize terrify America and Americans—their recent National Mall efforts bring to mind a conversation between Christ and the prostitute in Philip Pullman's recent book, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ²:

  "...'No', said Christ, 'There are some who live by every rule and cling tightly to their rectitude because they fear being swept away by a tempest of passion, and there are other who cling to the rules because they fear that there is no passion there at all, and that if they let go they would simply remain where they are, foolish and unmoved; and they could bear that least of all. Living a life of iron control lets them pretend to themselves that only by the mightiest effort of will can they hold great passions at bay. I am one of those. I know it and I can do nothing about it.'..."--Good Man Jesus--

Web: UPI, GOP Rep.: Dem bill scarier than terrorists

-----notes-----

1. North Carolina's fifth congressional district representative thinks providing healthcare for all Americans negates American freedoms?

Additionally, she is more fearful of our lower house (wonder why she's a member?) and its healthcare legislation than terrorists in any country. She urges others to adopt, embrace, and spread her fear.

Wonder how many terrorists the congresswoman has met or confronted; how may visits she's made to, say, Pakistan's Swat Valley; Ok, how about just met a Pakistani?

Wonder what the loudmouth congresswoman calls the healthcare system that provides healthcare to our brave North Carolina warriors and their families? Warriors who are actually pursuing and confronting real "kill-you-dead-in-a-heartbeat" terrorists.

North Carolinians killed in Afghanistan or Pakistan (from icasualties.org):

1. 10/16/2009, Green, Anthony G., U.S. Army National Guard
2. 10/2/2009, Newton Jr., Alan H., U.S. Army Reserve
3. 8/18/2009, Walker, Morris Lewis, U.S. Army
4. 8/8/2009, Smith, Tara Jean, U.S. Army
5. 8/2/2009, Luce Jr., Ronald George, U.S. Army National Guard
6. 8/1/2009, Jones, Richard Kelvin, U.S. Army
7. 7/8/2009, Hager, Roger Gary Michael, U.S. Marine
8. 7/6/2009, Garner,Mark A., U.S. Army
9. 1/8/2009, Parsons, Jason R., U.S. Army
10. 1/6/2009, Cassada, Jessie A., U.S. Marine
11. 10/2/2008, von Zerneck, Jason E., U.S. Air National Guard
12. 9/11/2008, Murdock, Michael W., U.S. Army
13. 8/30/2008, arris, Joshua, U.S. Navy
14. 7/13/2008, Rainey, Pruitt A., U.S. Army
15. 3/19/2008, Robinson, Antione V., U.S. Army
16. 12/12/2007, Blaney, Joshua C., U.S. Army
17. 9/29/2007, Tellier, Zachary D., U.S. Army
18. 8/20/2007, Libby, George V., U.S. Army
19. 7/5/2007, Honaker, Christopher S., U.S. Army
20. 5/30/2007, Bagwell, Charlie L., U.S. Army
21. 5/14/2007, Bauguess Jr., Larry J.,U.S. Army
22. 10/28/2006, Chay, Kyu H., U.S. Army
23. 5/5/2006, Timmons Jr., David N., U.S. Army
24. 3/12/2006, Ray, Joseph R., U.S. Army Reserve
25. 3/12/2006, Akins, Kevin D., U.S. Army Reserve
26. 3/12/2006, Hiett, Anton J., U.S. Army Reserve
27. 4/6/2005, Spivey, Michael K., U.S. Army
28. 4/6/2005, Woodard, Romanes L., U.S. Army
29. 3/28/2004, Jallah, Jr., Dennis, U.S. Army
30. 10/25/2003, Carlson, William, CIA

2. Pullman's The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ is part of Canongate's myth series. The series enables contemporary writers to reexamine well-worn myths using imaginative thought and a provocative pen—Pullman does not disappoint.

• Telegraph, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman: review
• NYT Book Review, In the Name of the Father, the Sons . . .
• WP Book Review, 'The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ,'

Members of a Saudi Arabia family are suspected of torturing Sri Lankan maid L.T. Ariyawathi. Reports indicate she entered Saudi Arabia under an employment contract between Diamond Star Recruitment Bureau (Saudi Arabia) and New Diamond Star Manpower (Sir Lanka).

The Sir Lankan government has necessarily but insufficiently "strongly urged" Saudi authorities to conduct an investigation.

International authorities must conduct an independent or joint investigation of all the circumstances and facts surrounding the housemaid's employment (including the both employment bureaus) for the purpose of determining if the incident should be handled as a case of human trafficking resulting in torture.

Web:

• CNN, Arrests made in maid's nail torture, Sri Lankan officials say
  

Blog:

• NYT Lede, Saudi Employers Hammered Nails Into Maid’s Body, Sri Lanka Says

Originally Published December 23, 2009; Last Updated August 31, 2010; Last Republished August 27, 2010:

Wonder when our cannibal capitalists and their patrons1 are going to acknowledge that an "invisible hand" does not mean "sleight of hand" and apologize for the harm they've caused? Fortunately, hubris and lack of humility are not weaponry—on the other hand weaponry's harm is relatively local. A "sleight of hand", in the absence of acknowledgment and apology generally invites a reactive "heavy hand".

Res:

• UPDATED 06/01/2010 Worldcat, Freefall

  Freefall by Joseph Stiglitz candidly captures our financial system meltdown and bailout response for our future generations' reading pleasure (not a bad read for the current generation either).

  "...Capitalism can't work if private rewards are unrelated to social returns...."--Joseph Stiglitz, Freefall--

  "...We [Greenwald and Stiglitz] showed that whenever there is imperfect information, asymmetric information, which is essentially always, then the reason that the invisible hand often seems invisible is that it’s not there. That is to say, the economy, that this assumption that the markets are efficient is just not true....--Stiglitz--"

  Future generations are unlikely to look proudly on the period between 1990-2010 when our cannibal capitalists cannibalized (some might say collapsed) our financial system thereby jeopardizing our future and global growth and stability.

• UPDATED 02/20/2010 FRB St. Louis, Financial Crisis Timeline

• UPDATED 01/13/2010 The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

  Hopefully, the FCIC will make collateral recommendations for mitigating or obviating each risk it recommends that our banks henceforth reject—the risks and collateral problems don't just disappear because we prohibit our banks from accepting or exploiting those risks.

Blog:

• UPDATED 08/27/2010 ProPublica, Banks’ Self-Dealing Super-Charged Financial Crisis. It's exciting to read articles that causes you to wonder whether journalists are reviving journalism (includes a link to a good simplified explanation of CDOs, below video).

  Could it be:

  When investors began refusing the CDOs containing the riskiest tranches our cannibal capitalists (not to be confused with capitalists) began recursively off-loading those tranches to worthless toxic CDOs, thereby concentrating and not diversifying risk?

  When the worthless or toxic (risk nobody will purchase regardless of price) CDOs began negatively impacting the cannibal capitalists' balance sheet they engaged "repo activity" to strategically disguise the impact?

  Finally moving the worthless or toxic CDOs onto the books of our Treasury and Federal Reserve at 100 cents on the dollar in the form of a bailout?

  Say it isn't so!

• UPDATED 07/09/2010 ProPublica, Identifying Suspicious Short Selling, But Not Who’s Behind the Trades.

  Investigative journalist Karen Weise begins drilling down into the mechanics of the previously unregulated and opaque “private” hedge funds (only lightly regulated by the latest legislation).

  The good news is that these opaque "private" hedge funds are slowly being nudged out of the shadows....

• UPDATED 07/02/2010 ProPublica, Treasury’s ‘Point Man’ on AIG Bailout That Benefited Goldman, Owned Goldman Stock.

  "...Mr. Jester, according to several people with knowledge of his financial holdings, still owned Goldman stock while overseeing Treasury's response to the A.I.G. crisis...."

• UPDATED 05/13/2010 ProPublica, Bank Investigations Cheat Sheet.
• UPDATED 04/14/2010 ProPublica, Behind the Financial Reform Push, Worries of Warring Regulators.

• UPDATED 04/09/2010 ProPublica, The Magnetar Trade: How One Hedge Fund Helped Keep the Bubble Going.

  • UPDATED 04/17/2010 ProPublica, Other Major Banks Did Deals Similar to Goldman’s.

  • UPDATED 04/17/2010 ProPublica, Your Magnetar Questions, Answered. Investigative journalists are beginning to uncover the real people hurt by the cannibal capitalists, (not to be confused with capitalists) like George Laufenberg a carpenter and manager of a union retirement fund.

    Laufenberg bought a AAA rated asset for 100% on the dollar which was later sold as a toxic junk asset for 1.3% on the dollar! The same kind, if not the exact toxic junk asset that our Federal Reserve and Treasury (i.e. taxpayer), as part of the bailout has purchased, too.

    How many years do you suppose the effects on the carpenters' pension fund will be rippling across the lives of Americans?

• UPDATED 04/09/2010 ProPublica, More on Lehman and Repo 105: The Auditors Attempt to Explain.
  • UPDATED 07/12/2010 ProPublica, BofA on Accounting Maneuvers: Our Statement Stands (If Read Carefully)

  Repo 105 is the financial services sector’s version of the manufacturing sector's version of shipping product to itself.

  The manufacturer ships incomplete "in-process hardware" (i.e a box of incomplete parts) and books the revenue at the price of a completed and delivered end-product.

  When the box of previously shipped parts is delivered back to the manufacturer's plant, the manufacturer completes the "in-process hardware" as a customer "return repair" and books the cost of the “repair” as revenue.

  The really efficient cannibals quickly figure out that it’s unnecessary to actually ship the “in-process hardware” anywhere. Just do the shipping and repair paperwork then book the revenue while the “in-process hardware” is still moving down the manufacturer's assembly line!

  The really really efficient cannibals figure out how to then book the revenue for a third time when the end-product is actually completed and delivered to the customer.

  Query: How many times can the same product be shipped and booked as revenue before the manufacturer’s business is cannibalized? What level of auditing is required to avoid the shipping of product in place?

• UPDATED 04/08/2010 ProPublica, Greenspan’s Fed Didn’t Focus on Enforcement.

• UPDATED 04/06/2010 ProPublica, Preview: Financial Crisis Panel’s Huge Task, Small Budget, Unanswered Questions.

  The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission's budget must be increased by many orders of magnitude—the financial sector must also bear the cost of the inquiry.

• UPDATED 03/11/2010 Reuters, Big majority wants Wall Street regulation.

Web:

• UPDATED 07/22/2010 UPI, Obama signs financial reform bill and UPI, Transcript of Obama remarks on fin reform.

  Kudos to the President et al. on taking the initial steps toward reform and restructure.

  It's not surprising that some financiers cum gamblers and their congressional fixers oppose any financial reforms intended to impede their gambling operations, $1.58B in 'unwarranted' bonuses, and recurring taxpayer bailouts.

  Can't wait to hear their logic (as opposed to sound bite) how restarting their gambling operations, unwarranted bonuses, and taxpayer bailouts benefits our nation?

• UPDATED 07/15/2010 Reuters, Wall Street reform clears Congress. It's a start...
• UPDATED 06/29/2010 Reuters, Crisis panel to examine Goldman, AIG ties.

• UPDATED 06/07/2010 WSJ, Goldman Accused of Stalling by Panel.

  Goldman is using a tactic favored by those subject to oversight and audit—dumping a dump truck load of data on the Commission.

  The Commission's response should be simple and direct—use whatever resources, including time, as required to analyze and understand the first dump truck load, then subpoena a second and third dump truck load of data, if necessary.

  Congress must ensure the Commission has all the resources, including time it requests to ensure every last CDO and trade for the relevant period is understood by the Commission and available to the public.

• UPDATED 05/20/2010 NYT, Senate Passes Financial Overhaul Bill.

  On to reconciling the Senate and House bills before sending it to the President for signature—kudos to Congress and the President for beginning (more is needed) financial reform sooner rather than later.

• UPDATED 05/05/2010 Reuters, Blankfein: Goldman must recognize doubters-reports.

  "We not only have to deal with the doubts, we have to analyze what we did and how we performed that got us into this place,"--Reuters quoting Blankfein--

  Blankfein left out the very important words publicly and transparently analyze and deal with...

• UPDATED 04/24/2010 NYT, Goldman Sachs Messages Show It Thrived as Economy Fell.

  Not only were the cannibal capitalists treating our global financial system like a casino, they appear to have been rigging the bets, if not the entire game.

  Wonder what other mobster-like behavior the ongoing financial system meltdown inquiries, investigations, and prosecutions will discover?

  Those inquiring, investigating, prosecuting, and reforming our financial system must be provided ALL the access, information, and resources, required to ensure another financial meltdown is a low probability event.

• UPDATED 04/19/2010 NYT, A Glare on Goldman, From U.S. and Beyond

• UPDATED 02/06/2010 Reuters, G7 wants banks to pay for rescue, details pending

  What a wonderful idea—what could be more capitalist than saying to our financial institutions, if you recklessly or negligently send a defective or Trojan financial product into the global stream of commerce you will be held accountable.

  Not only for the direct bailout cost but also all the proximate costs of the entire global financial carnage!

  ...and rather than getting all “lawyered up” government’s on behalf of the citizens of each nation can just incrementally recoup the damages—a kind of lawyerless global product liability class action (ironically a judge might not permit such a lawsuit because the carnage is too speculative!).

  Is there difference if a business fails because it lacks liquidity or electricity? Is failure to modify a defective or Trojan financial product really a failure to mitigate damages for which punitive damages should be assessed and added to the other damages?

• UPDATED 02/03/2010 UPI, Obama to Democrats: 'Finish the job'

  "We've got to finish the job" on healthcare and financial regulatory reform, reducing the deficit and other tough issues,...We've got to finish the job even though it's hard."

  In another article the president went on to say:

  "If anybody is searching for a lesson from Massachusetts, I promise you the answer is not to do nothing,"

  We may just have a leader in our White House—go Mr. President.

  Put the cots, catering service, and senate physician on standby, there maybe a couple "real filibusters”!

• UPDATED 01/31/2010 NYT OpEd Paul Volcker, How to Reform Our Financial System . Former Federal Reserve Chairman supports urgent banking reforms consistent (or if you prefer not inconsistent) with the president's current proposal.

  The former chairman argues for spinning-off the bank's high-risk mega gambling operations (hedge funds, private equity funds, and proprietary trading) in to separate entities leaving our banks to focus on traditional banking operations.

  Basically returning to an updated version of the system as it was before McCain et al turned Adam Smith's invisible hand in to their sleight-of-hand. Not surprisingly some of our banks argue for continuing the current commingling or confusing internal walling operations as cover for their high-risk gambling operations.

  When the bank's high-risk gambling operations are untangled and spun-off it will be simpler to ensure the high risk gambling operations stand or fall on their own and do not hold our traditional banking or financial system at risk.

• UPDATED 01/13/2010 Reuters, Barons of Wall Street concede failures, defend pay.²

  Hopefully the FCIC will have access, voluntarily or via subpoena and legal process, to all relevant documents, testimony, and persons, notwithstanding any prior SEC or Treasury or other agency agreements.

• UPDATED 01/13/2010 CSM, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission: Top bankers contrite, sort of.

  Commissioner Angelides on JP Morgan Chase et al.'s selling securitized tranches of high-risk mortgages and simultaneously hedging that those tranches will default:

  "It seems like you were selling a car with faulty brakes and then buying an insurance policy on that car"--Angelides--

  Perhaps, but a car with faulty brakes can be turned off and steered to the roadside; or put it in reverse; or preventably crashed without paralyzing or destroying our entire national highway system.

• UPDATED 01/10/2010 NYT, Walk Away From Your Mortgage!.

  Instead of restructuring distorted (some might say fraudulent) primary residence mortgages our cannibal capitalists are telling our homeowners they have a responsibility to make good on their distorted mortgage.

  That's the same thing the cannibal capitalists has told our Treasury when the Treasury was forced to stabilize the financial system and bailout the bankrupt hedge funds—you have an obligation to pay 100% of our bet against homeowners' ability to pay and Treasury is so far doing it.

  How about instead if our cannibal capitalists apologize for their [insert your own words]; restructure (principle and interest) the distorted primary residence mortgages (perhaps all nonspeculative mortgages?) to reflect current economic conditions; and Not pay 100% on the dollar to the hedge funds (CDO) betting against our homeowners' ability to pay!

  Yes, it's "complex" and messy; Yes, our nation's international standing will suffer; Yes, it will take us years to recover; Yes, our free markets (financial or goods) are not always efficient; Yes, we must prohibit gambling with our nation's and children's future; Yes, we must restrain the insatiable cannibal capitalists (it's worth noting the cannibal capitalists' behavior risk taking or incentives for risk taking has changed little since the meltdown) lest they devour our nation, capitalists, others, and themselves.

• UPDATED 12/24/2009 Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won

  “The simultaneous selling of securities to customers and shorting them because they believed they were going to default is the most cynical use of credit information that I have ever seen,”--NYT quoting consultant Sylvain R. Raynes--

  Dig deep enough and you're likely to discover their mother or grandmother was a customer!

-----notes-----

1. In the case of congressional patrons they are also benefactors from those participating in the thinly disguise system of legal bribery called campaign finance.

In the case of the tinker think tanks the patrons on the government side of the revolving door are the benefactors on the tank side of the door.

It's useful to note that the patron-benefactor revolver incentivizes extreme policy by shielding its participants from the effects the extreme policy. Your next job is as a paid lobbyist for those extreme policies while you wait for the revolver to cycle.

2. UPDATED 01/13/2009 Focusing exclusively on bankers may cause you to miss other salaries like Christine M. Oliver, President and CEO of the non-profit Chicago Dwellings Association—compensation-salary in 2008 $685,000 (see Big Salary for Chicago Housing Nonprofit Exec).

Originally Published July 31, 2010; Last Updated August 26, 2010; Last Republished August 26, 2010:

In response to a record number of Army suicides and attempted suicides our Army has compiled and released a detailed report; Army Health Promotion, Risk Reduction, and Suicide Prevention Report 2010:

"In Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 we had 160 active duty suicide deaths, with 239 across the total Army (including Reserve Component). Additionally, there were 146 active duty deaths related to high risk behavior including 74 drug overdoses. This is tragic! Perhaps even more worrying is the fact we had 1,713 known attempted suicides in the same period."--2010 Report, General Peter W. Chiarelli--

The 2010 Report also contains 67 "Conclusions and Recommended Actions" and 29 "Quotes" from various military personnel, including General Chiarelli¹. While current quotes are important let's not forget historical quotes, this one from General Alexander Hamilton in a letter to our third secretary of war:

"Policy, justice, and humanity forbid the abandoning to want and misery men who have spent their best years in the military service of a country, or who, in that service, have contracted infirmities which disqualify them to earn their bread in other modes."--General Alexander Hamilton, September 17, 1799--²

Blog: NPR, Commanders Have Ignored Major Mental Health Issues, Army Report Concludes

Web: UPDATED 08/26/2010 UPI, Pentagon targets service suicides and PR NewsWire, Joint DoD Task Force Releases Report on Preventing Suicide in U.S. Military (download final report here, 5.5M pdf)

-----notes-----

1. General Chiarelli has made clear the report represents the Army's initial efforts to understand and respond to this complex and ongoing tragedy.

2. Papers of Alexander Hamilton, letter to Secretary of War James McHenry, dated September 17, 1799.

Hamilton's letter came amid preparations for war with France and deeply polarized political parties. The Federalist Party was preparing for war and the Republican Party (today’s Democratic Party) embracing France while decrying all things British.

Instructively it was President Adams, a Federalist, who initiated the diplomacy, notwithstanding withering criticism by his party, which reduced the war tensions with France.