"I’m a reporter for a local newspaper. The government spending I write about--new lights for the high school football stadium, for example--are microscopic compared to the spending that goes on at the federal level. But the basic principles the city council tries to follow shouldn’t be too different from their peers in Washington, D.C.
At a Board of Education or Parks and Recreation meeting, whenever a budget issue comes up, there seems to be one prevailing rule: How much money a project gets, and how soon, depends on how high it is on the list of priorities..."From YPNation contributor Vinti Singh:... more
Global Poverty can be thought of as a vast desert of despair and hopelessness. That said, foreign aid programs deliver hope and possibility. The Borgen Project lobbies politicians on behalf of the worlds poor so that foreign aid programs have more than enough liquidity to get the task done. http://borgenproject.org/Global Poverty can be thought of as a vast desert of despair and hopelessness. That... more
Global Poverty can be thought of as a vast desert of despair and hopelessness. That said, foreign aid programs deliver hope and possibility. The Borgen Project lobbies politicians on behalf of the worlds poor so that foreign aid programs have more than enough liquidity to get the task done. http://borgenproject.org/Global Poverty can be thought of as a vast desert of despair and hopelessness. That... more
A $680 billion dollar defense spending bill for next year just got a warning from President Obama about the wasteful spending pushed for by both parties in Congress for weapons procurement. Defense contractors are big business, bringing jobs to districts and campaign contributions to politicians. The F-22 Raptor is a marvelous piece of military technology, but the question is how many are enough?
When it comes to air superiority fighters, the US is not in any danger of being overwhelmed by any other country. The US fights major wars as a part of NATO, so talking about one country at a time isn't the most relevant measure, but I'll do it anyway. The US has about 2600 air superiority fighter aircraft, including about 140 F-22s, while China has around 1700 (premiering around 130 Sukhoi SU-27 variants (4.5g)and 150 J-10 variants (4.5g)) and Russia has around 1600 (premiering around 500 Sukhoi SU-35, -30 and -27 variants, (4.5g)). The Russian and Chinese air forces often have serious logistical, maintenance, and operational issues, and both operate in fairly small military alliances. The US Air Force is confident that the F-22 will dominate not only the Sukhoi-27 variants (including SU-30/35 and J-11), but all other fighters currently being designed.
A DERA study in 1994 concluded that the F-22 was about as capable as ten SU-35s, and each SU-35 was as capable as about 3 F-16s. This would imply that 140 F-22s would probably win against 1400 SU-35s, which are the most advanced of the SU-27 variants. Of course, a lot of things have changed since the era of Hootie and the Blowfish, in technology and budgets.
"I will veto any bill that supports acquisition of F-22s beyond the 187 already funded by Congress." said Obama in a letter to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. John McCain, the ranking Republican Senator on the committee, has already voiced his opposition to ordering more F-22s.
The proposed bill funds $1.75 billion for more F-22s, and $439 million for new engines for the next mod of the F-22. $2 billion is small change for the DOD, but not for the Congressmen who want it spent in their districts. Defense Secretary Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman ADM Mullen argue that with the current buildout plans, they're still on track to have twice the modern airpower of China in 2020. Each additional F-22 costs around $140 million, and so far the program has cost the US $65 billion over the years to develop, test, build, and retrofit since the program began in 1986.
The DoD needs as much savings as it can find these days, with two wars on going, and deployments in many other countries, not to mention the general budgetary chaos in Washington.A $680 billion dollar defense spending bill for next year just got a warning from... more
"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders are saying that Iraq's government needs to spend more of its own money on reconstruction now that the United States has spent more than $45 billion. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., says future U.S. reconstruction payments should be in the form of loans, not grants — resurrecting a proposal that died in the Republican-controlled Congress at the start of the war five years ago.
Nelson, a member of the Senate committee that oversees spending legislation, says it's not fair for the United States to pay for reconstruction when Iraq's oil revenue could be $60 billion or more this year because of record prices. Nelson said he planned to offer an amendment to the Iraq spending bill that would require Iraq to pay back future reconstruction aid as well as money approved by Congress but not yet spent."
I don't know about you, but proposing loans sounds to me like another structural adjustment debt disaster waiting to happen. Whenever the next President decides to withdraw combat forces, we should still be helping Iraq fix the infrastructure that we have been responsible for decades for destroying. I assume at that point congressional oversight on wasteful spending and corrupt or inefficient contracting will still be sorely needed."House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders are saying that... more
Washingtonians - and others with big egos - have a portrait fetish that is obscene especially when it involves taxpayers money.
Even half that nealry 50 grand could have been significant funding for the non-profit Native American and environment projects I volunteer for in northern Michigan.
More comment after a few sentences of the article and a look at this portrait:
Portrait Cost Indian Museum $48,500: Senators, Trustees Question Spending By Former Director
By James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writer
W. Richard West Jr., the founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, spent $48,500 in museum funds to commission a portrait of himself.
The portrait of West by New York artist Burton Silverman hangs in the patrons' lounge on the fourth floor of the flagship museum, which is dedicated to the arts and culture of American Indians.
Silverman said West picked him after he saw a portrait Silverman had done of former Smithsonian secretary Robert McCormick Adams.
The Adams portrait, completed about a decade earlier, was smaller and cost about half as much.
Native American on Native American crime - much like black on black crime - is especially insidious because so much good could have been done for First Nations peoples heritage with this wasted and misappropriated money.
It's also a crime against taxpayers and common decency.
Spending $48,500 on a self portrait is among the disgraceful financial crimes of W. Richard West Jr., the founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.
For this crime to occur in the hallowed halls of the Smithsonian shows again thievery knows no class boundaries - and should be treated just as severely as the poor man who sticks a gun into the face of a 7-11 clerk.
The Smithsonian needs to be thoroughly audited from top to bottom as this is at least the second huge scandal to tarnish its once respected reputation.
No doubt it's only the tip of the fiduciary iceberg that's tearing through the Smithsonian's highbrow richly-protected hull.
I do volunteer work for several Native American related non-profits whose budgets are much smaller than even the cost of that disgraceful portrait.
And the suggestion that it could not have been painted by an American Indian artist is as laughable as it is sickening with a hint of racism against one's own culture.
Even the portrait stance is borrowed and unoriginal, as a buttoned-down Mr. West gazes thoughtfully off to the east, his coat hanging on a crooked forefinger and tossed over suspenders with his soft thumb and the remaining fingers forming the "OK" sign.
The Washington ego commands that a portrait much be painted to prove one's importance.
No doubt many law offices, banking institutions and the halls of officialdom are plastered with the self-aggrandizing crafty art.
Prior to the Polaroid, a self-portrait may have been necessary to preserve one's historic legacy but in today's world it's merely a measure of one's self-importance that is more often scoffed at than admired by those it's meant to impress. Perhaps, a modern definition of irony.
Maybe the next exhibit at the Smithsonian will be portraits of former executives doing the proverbial "perp walk" - cuffed and stuffed for perp-etuity. Washingtonians - and others with big egos - have a portrait fetish that is obscene... more
