Criticism of recovery.gov

A Facebook friend of mine recently repeated the meme that the Obama administration had spent $19 million on the recovery.gov website, and that the erroneous information that has shown up there is all Obama's fault. He also cited examples from Oklahoma and Arizona of spending attributed to nonexistent congressional districts.

In fact, the data is provided by the states, who actually spend the money, not the feds. The feds just compile the statistics. Now, I grant you that it's not that hard to write software to audit the data for validity, and it should have been done. I also find it extremely humorous that the two states he cited as examples of fishy spending are controlled by the GOP, not by Democrats.

Nobody has spent $19 million yet. The GSA awarded a contract in July for $9.5 million to build a new version of the website, substituting crappy and expensive Microsoft SharePoint for the current open source Drupal-based website. There are options for up to $9 million in additional payments through 2014 for upgrades and ongoing maintenance. I don't know if those amounts include the salaries of the staff who process the data from the states. My friend also claimed that the website could have been provided by GoDaddy for $200 a year. It is not possible to run a website with the volume and interactivity requirements of recovery.gov for $200 a year. However, using open source server software, commodity hardware, and a standard web application framework, it could probably be done very well for less than $1 million, plus annual maintenance.

IMHO as a software professional, the decision to use M$ is stupid and wasteful, but GSA procurement rules favor M$ almost to the exclusion of anything else. It is next to impossible for a federal employee to purchase a Mac or a Linux PC.

The GSA rules and the GSA decision makers predate the Obama administration, so sticking Obama with the blame for this is a stretch, even for my friend. Let's remember that the GSA writes rules subject to legislative oversight. The Dems have only controlled Congress since January, and given all the crises that were inherited after 14 years of Republican misrule in Congress and 8 years in the White House, I somehow doubt that hardware and software purchasing rules have risen to the top of the priority list. I agree, though. These Newt Gingrich-era rules need to be changed, and quickly.

Will the $19 million ultimately be spent? Absolutely. That's how every bureaucracy works. Allocated budget that is unspent is lost. There are no rewards for parsimony in a bureaucracy. That is just as true in corporations, too. Private enterprise does no better than government in this area.

That's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

I wish I was 1/10th as smart as Teddy Roosevelt

During his tenure in the White House, Theodore Roosevelt had shown how powerful that office could be in marshalling reform sentiment. He believed that the president had to be responsive to the will of the people, but that he also had an obligation to lead and not merely follow the mob.

Source: usinfo.org

Rich Germans demand higher taxes

Wealthy people who actually give a damn about their fellow citizens? Unthinkable!

From the BBC

Skydiving

I've tandem-jumped twice, in 2003 and 2007. Both jumps were part of 21st birthday celebration weekends for our daughters Emilie and Katie, and both jumps were in Las Vegas.

The first jump was exhilarating. We jumped from a converted cargo plane that held eight pairs of jumpers. I was the last to go, after my daughters Sara and Emilie and my nephew Chad. The view was fabulous -- we could see the Strip, Lake Mead, and Hoover dam on the way down. I remember standing in front of the door, waiting to go, and looking down 10,000 feet to the desert below. What a rush!

The second jump was terrifying. We jumped from a converted four passenger Cessna that had all the seats removed except for the pilot. We sat on the floor, and when it was time to go, we had to clamber out onto a narrow strut under the wing and stand outside the plane without hanging on to anything until the jump master was ready. My guy was a daredevil, and he executed a barrel roll out of the plane without telling me first. I nearly lost my goggles and glasses, and spent the time in free fall frantically trying to get them back into position. The view was pretty lame, just desert and more desert, as we jumped with a different company from a different airstrip.... Read More

I will jump again when my niece Amanda turns 21 in about six years because her dad is afraid of heights and won't go with her. Probably not before then, since it's a rather expensive hobby and because I don't want to tempt fate too often...

What is it with politicians from South Carolina?

A [Republican] deputy assistant attorney general who said he was on his lunch break when an officer found him with a stripper and sex toys in his sport utility vehicle has been fired, his boss said Wednesday.

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

More news you won't see on Fox

What kind of person can equate an attempt to provide health coverage to all Americans with the systematic slaughter of 6 million Jews? I just don't understand...

Matthew Yglesias » Scenes From a Tea Party

What a shocker!

A Republican chicken hawk blocking improved benefits for our deserving veterans. I wonder what Rush Limbaugh will have to say about this?

Take Action: Senator Coburn Blocking Vets' Aid - Will You Stand Up To Him?

More fun and games from South Carolina

Federal judge nixes SC license tag with cross

I'm a Christian, and I don't understand why these so-called Christians don't follow Jesus on this one:

“Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward.” (Matthew 6:5)

The Tragedy of the (Unmanaged) Commons

A Libertarian acquaintance insisted that I read The Tragedy of the Commons by Garrett Hardin. I also read Hardin's later comments about his 1974 essay, in which he said:

"Individualism is cherished because it produces freedom, but the gift is conditional: The more the population exceeds the carrying capacity of the environment, the more freedoms must be given up...Yet the slightest attempt to limit this freedom is promptly denounced with cries of Elitism! Big-Brotherism! Despotism! Fascism! and the like. We are slow to mend our ways because ethicists and philosophers of the past generally did not see that numbers matter."

It's obvious that Hardin was a smart guy who grew wiser with age. However, I suggest libertarians pay attention to everything he said, not just the cherry-picked parts that fit libertarian dogma.

More insanity from South Carolina

Apparently it's now illegal for any Republican to work with Democrats to make the world a better place.

The Associated Press: US Sen. Lindsey Graham censured by SC county GOP

Meet the new boss...

Anybody else who wants to personally oversee the greedy SOBs on Wall Street being drawn and quartered? I happily contributed money to and voted for Obama, but I cannot believe what is going on in his Treasury Department or in our gutless Congress. This interview by Bill Moyers is simply terrifying.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. -- Pete Townshend

Sign waving in Highlands Ranch

I finally had some free time today, so I spent two hours waving Obama signs on Broadway just south of C-470.

My (admittedly) unscientific observations about the folks who responded:

• Among the folks who expressed an opinion, Obama supporters outnumbered McCain supporters by about a 2-1 margin.
• I got three obscene gestures, two from Joe the plumber clones and one from a white-haired guy in a Cadillac Escalade.
• Two guys yelled "Communist" as they drove buy, and one guy in a BMW Z3 tried to tell me that I would regret my choice.
• The Obama supporters seemed quite upbeat, with lots of shouting and cheering. The McCain supporters (with a few exceptions) were pretty subdued.
  

My shoulders are sore from holding my arms up that long, but it was a beautiful afternoon and a lot of fun! Maybe I should have run for HD43 again this year. 2008 might be a pretty good year to be a Democrat in Highlands Ranch!

Curt Dale deserves our pity, not our anger

Submitted to the Highlands Ranch Herald on October 20.

Some of your readers have been pretty vocal recently about how upset they are with columnist Curt Dale. I used to feel that way, too, but now I just feel sorry for him. It must be very scary for folks like Curt nowadays. They have been living inside the house of cards that the GOP leadership, the corporate media, and the right wing noise machine have been building for the past thirty years or so. Now that house is collapsing all around them and they don't know what to do.

Folks like Curt preached the gospel of pre-emptive war, free markets, deregulation, and low income taxes on the rich. Unfortunately for all of us, that gospel has led to a $12 trillion national debt (around $40,000 for every man, woman, and child in the U.S.), nationalization of major U.S. banks, a stock market crash, the worst disparity between rich and poor since the Great Depression, torture of foreign captives in U.S. custody, and over 80% of Americans who say that the U.S. is on the wrong track.

Of course, folks like Curt (Sarah Palin, for example) would never admit that there is ever anything wrong with the U.S., at least not long as there is a Republican president. They seemed to think that there was plenty wrong when Bill Clinton was president, and I am sure that they will think there is plenty wrong should Barack Obama become the next president. I feel sorry for folks like Curt, though. It must be pretty painful to have that big log in your eye while you are so busy pointing out flaws in others.

With such a mess in plain sight of everyone, folks like Curt are searching frantically for someone to blame. They blame the Democrats in Congress, even thought the GOP controlled the House and the Senate from 1994 until 2006, when the seeds for much of what is wrong today with our country were sown. They blame Barack Obama, even though George Bush has been the president for most of the last eight years. They blame poor folks and middle class folks who fought to achieve the American dream of home ownership, even while they were being cheated by smiling men in silk suits.

I have never understood why folks like Curt fear people like me so much. I have been married to the same woman for over thirty years. I have three great adult daughters. I had my first paying job at age five and I have been working ever since. I went to college and got a good education. I go to church almost every week. I pay my bills and my taxes. I volunteer in my community and I give to charity. And, yes, I am a life-long Democrat. I suspect it's that last one that folks like Curt don't like. Why is that exactly? We Democrats honor the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We defend the U.S. against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. Folks like Curt do those things, too. So, where does the fear and hatred come from?

Somewhere along the line the GOP elites decided that they could acquire and maintain power by dehumanizing people like me. Once you start seeing people with different beliefs and opinions as less than human, you don't have to feel bad when you treat them with contempt and disrespect and hatred. Once you see someone as less than human, it is easy to believe that they are completely different from you. It is an easy step from there to fear and hatred of someone just because they are "different," and folks like Curt take that step every day. The problem gets worse because, even though Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek, people like me react to being constantly dehumanized. Because we are human, we get frustrated, we get angry, and we learn to fear and hate folks like Curt in return.

Sarah Palin has said that she expects to see Jesus walking on Earth in her lifetime. The problem for her and for folks like Curt is that they won't recognize Him when Jesus finally does show up and reminds them of His words from Matthew 25: "I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me." Yes, I feel sorry for folks like Curt. I sure wouldn't want to one of them and have to answer those charges truthfully. What will they say? They are sorry, but they thought He was talking about tax cuts for the rich and tax breaks for big oil companies? My guess is that argument won't get them very far.

Folks like Curt have been deliberately and systematically led astray by GOP elites who have no qualms about doing whatever it takes to further their own twisted agendas. Folks like Curt are a bit like those brainwashed American soldiers from the movie "The Manchurian Candidate." They have been force fed lies and propaganda for so long that they are quite incapable of recognizing the truth, even when it hits them over the head with a baseball bat. So, my advice to the readers who are angered and offended by Curt Dale is this. Don't attack Curt, because he is just doing what the GOP elites have programmed him to do. He doesn't deserve your anger. He only deserves your pity.

Blaming the Democrats for high gasoline prices

The latest nonsense coming from the GOP is a lame attempt to blame Democrats for high gasoline prices. The GOP controlled the presidency and the congress from 2001 to 2007. What did they do about energy supplies besides give the oil companies more and more tax breaks? And what was the result? Retail gasoline prices tripled. How exactly is that the Democrat's fault? I challenge anyone to name one proposal that Bushco has put forward that will actually make a damned bit of difference. Sadly, there isn't one. The nonsense being spewed about offshore drilling and ANWR won't do anything about retail prices. From this week's Time magazine:

A 2004 study by the government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) found that drilling in ANWR would trim the price of gas by 3.5 cents a gallon by 2027. (If oil prices continue to skyrocket, the savings would be greater, but not by much.) Opening up offshore areas to oil exploration - currently all coastal areas save a section of the Gulf of Mexico are off-limits, thanks to a congressional ban enacted in 1982 and supplemented by an executive order from the first President Bush - might cut the price of gas by 3 to 4 cents a gallon at most, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. And the relief at the pump, such as it is, wouldn't be immediate - it would take several years, at least, for the oil to begin to flow, which is time enough for increased demand from China, India and the rest of the world to outpace those relatively meager savings. "Right now the price of oil is set on the global market," says Kevin Lindemer, executive managing director of the energy markets group for the research firm Global Insight. President Bush's move "would not have an impact."

Wrecking the environment will at best cut gas prices by seven cents a gallon in 20 years. So, explain to me how that solves our problems, and how exactly the Democrats caused this mess in the first place. I'm pretty good at arithmetic but I can't figure that one out.

My conclusion is that those preaching this nonsense are shills for big oil, liars, or idiots. In any event, they should do us a favor and shut the hell up.

McCain - "I hated the gooks."

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

On his campaign bus recently, Sen. John McCain told reporters, "I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live." Although McCain said he was referring only to his prison guards, there are many reasons why his use of the word "gook" is offensive and alarming.

It is offensive because by using a racial epithet that has historically been used to demean all Asians to describe his captors, McCain failed to make a distinction between his torturers and an entire racial group.

It is alarming because a major candidate for president publicly used a racial epithet, refused to apologize for doing so and remains a legitimate contender.

This quote is actually from 2000, not 2008 as I originally thought, although that doesn't make it any less offensive. I have to say I'm not surprised, though, after running across this gem:

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno." -- John McCain, GOP fund-raiser, Washington D.C., June 1998

I guess only a real commander in chief can make fun of a defenseless teenage girl while begging fat cats for money.

Some have claimed that the term "gook" is innocent, that it comes from the Hangul language and means "people." Well, not that Wikipedia is the final word on all things, but:

Gook: (U.S. military slang) a derogatory term for foreigners, especially south-east Asians.75 The etymology of this racial slur is shrouded in mystery, disagreement, and controversy.76 The Oxford English Dictionary admits that its origin is "unknown".77

• According to Random House Unabridged Dictionary, "a native of Southeast Asia or the South Pacific, esp. when a member of an enemy military force. any dark-skinned foreigner, esp. one from the Middle East." 78
• According to Princeton University Dictionary, it described as "a disparaging term for an Asian person (especially for North Vietnamese soldiers in the Vietnam War)." 78
• According to Online Etymology Dictionary, "1899, U.S. military slang for 'Filipino' during the insurrection there, probably from a native word, or imitative of the babbling sound of their language to American ears (cf. barbarian). The term goo-goo eyes 'soft, seductive eyes' was in vogue c.1900 and may have contributed to this somehow. Extended over time to 'Nicaraguan,' 'any Pacific Islander' (World War II), 'Korean' (1950s), 'Vietnamese' and 'any Asian' (1960s)." 78
• According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, "Used as a disparaging term for a person of East Asian birth or descent. Perhaps alteration of earlier goo-goo, native inhabitant of the Philippines, Pacific islander." 78

I'm sorry, but there is no way to spin this as anything other than a blatantly racist remark, used deliberately and with full knowledge of its connotations, and with absolutely no coverage in the so-called liberal media.

Disgusting.

Edwards rising in Iowa

Happy new year! I am spending a few days in frigid Iowa to celebrate Christmas with the relatives. John Edwards came through my hometown today for an appearance at the local VFW post, so I took my mom to see him.

I have to say that I did not see the "angry" man that the corporate media keeps harping on. Edwards was very personable, and he spoke mostly about the need to rein in corporations, provide health care coverage for everyone, and about getting American troops out of Iraq as soon as possible.

I counted over 200 attendees at the event, nearly all supportive. A few folks that I spoke with said that this was the biggest turnout they had seen for any candidate so far, and some had seen everybody except Kucinich and Gravel. A Lee Enterprises newspapers poll has John Edwards and Barack Obama tied at 29 percent each, Hillary Clinton at 28 percent, and the remaining 19 percent of Democrats still undecided. Edwards has come up five percent in the last couple of weeks.

My hometown usually goes with the winner, so I am predicting that Edwards will be the surprise victor in the Iowa caucuses.