Posts from — May 2008

On April 26^th I reported on claims by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that MAC-V MNF-I would be showing the media proof of Iranian involvement in attacks on US troops.

Today CTuttle at Main and Central asks: Where’s The Beef? Apparently what they thought were Iranian weapons and munitions turned out not to be, but the media hasn’t bothered to point out this glaring problem. The claims by the administration about Iran have once again been shown to be wrong.

When does the media start reporting that no one in the Hedgemony can be trusted to tell the truth about the Middle East? They lied about Iraq, and now they are lying about Iran. They are involving career military officers in their lies, so there is literally no one left that can be trusted to tell the American people the truth.

The Associated Press reports on a very quiet neighbor: Woman’s dead body lies in flat for 35 years

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Governments have changed. War erupted and ended. Neighbors had children, and then grandchildren. But Hedviga Golik never left her tiny apartment in Croatia’s capital — until her mummified body was carried out this week, 35 years after she died.

Police said Friday that no one ever reported Golik missing and no one has come to claim her body.

Residents of her loft building in downtown Zagreb had broken into Golik’s flat after deciding that the apartment should belong to them, and not to her. Startled by the remains in bed, they called police.

Forensics experts said Golik likely died in 1973, about the time a neighbor last saw her. Expert Davor Strinovic said she seemed to have died of natural causes, but “it’s almost impossible to say for certain” after so much time.

Given the general lack of housing in the Eastern Bloc, and the bureaucracy of the former Yugoslavia, it’s amazing that no one noticed. It’s possible that people assumed she went to Germany to work, as there were a lot of Serbian and Croatian “guest workers” at the time, but you would have thought someone would have checked on the apartment.

So, yesterday and today have been a constant stream of thunderstorms, tornado watches, flash flood watches, which makes the power grid iffy.

The first thing yesterday morning was a leaking water line in my neighbor’s front yard that somehow [OK, when you work from home, you get “elected” for this kind of thing] became my problem. I have it patched, but they no longer sell the real solution to the problem because it “didn’t move”. I have that on hold until there’s a sufficient break in the weather [or the temporary fix fails].

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The Associated Press reports that the IRS says up to 350,000 tax rebate checks wrong

WASHINGTON – Up to 350,000 households aren’t getting the $300 per child owed them as part of their economic stimulus rebate payments, the Internal Revenue Service said Thursday.

The tax agency says taxpayer human error and computer glitches were responsible for the problem affecting a tiny percentage of the 130 million taxpayers expected to benefit from the refunds the government began sending out last month.
…

He said the problem on the child payments was traced to taxpayers failing to check a box on their paper tax returns and to two computer software systems, less than 1 percent of those in use, that weren’t capturing the information needed to trigger the payment.

So, they are processing tax returns with software that doesn’t check to see if the number of exemptions claimed and the deduction taken for those exemptions match. It would be interesting to know which box wasn’t “checked”, because the number of children is just that, a number, not a box, and it is normal for the IRS to compare the exemptions claimed on the tax form with the number claimed for withholding purposes.

It is becoming a truism that the government plus a computer equals FUBAR.

Bridget Kendall, diplomatic correspondent for BBC News, deals directly with the Two disasters, contrasting reactions. Her basic conclusion is that the Chinese government is more concerned with the people in the affected area, while the Burmese government is more concerned with itself.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has flown to south-western Sichuan Province, joining Premier Wen Jiabao, who has been in the area since the earthquake struck.

The Premier “said the focus remained on getting to survivors.

‘Saving lives is still our top priority, as long as hope of survival still exists,’ he said.”

The Chinese are giving press conferences, allowing foreign journalists and experts in the area to help with the effort. Despite being in a much better position to do the job than Burma, China is accepting aid from anyone who offers.

As the BBC notes Burma storm aid frustrations grow. Governments really are talking openly about ways to force the junta to allow outsiders to help the victims of the cyclone.

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Borrring

[yaawwwnnn]

[Editor: Ms Gruntled is not very happy “babysitting” Wonder, a neighbor’s cat. While she doesn’t generally approve of frivolity, annoying Wonder by dragging on his leash has a certain appeal, but only if he wants to move.]

Friday Ark

The Associated Press is reporting that CBS to purchase CNet for about $1.75 billion

NEW YORK – CBS Corp. agreed to buy online technology news and entertainment company CNet Networks Inc. for about $1.75 billion, expanding its access to the burgeoning Internet advertising market.
…

CBS said it will combine CNet’s sites with its own online properties, including CBS.com, CBSSports.com and CBSNews.com.

A group of investors led by New York hedge fund Jana Partners LLC has been agitating for a shake-up at the company after its shares fell sharply in the past year. Jana Partners has led a proxy fight to get a slate of directors elected to the CNet board.

More media consolidation and a corporation that can’t do standard journalism is now going to control a major technology media outlet. Jana Partners doesn’t know anything except profit. Here’s a hint Jana, everything is in the tank because we have entered a recession. That’s the way markets work.

Better news for China as there’s a break in the weather. From the BBC – China scales up rescue operation

China is mobilising 30,000 extra troops and 90 helicopters to help with the rescue operation after Monday’s devastating earthquake.
…

The Chinese military plans to conduct large-scale airdrops of food, clothing and blankets over the worst-hit areas, including the districts of Beichuan and Wenchuan.

The helicopters are needed because many of the roads in the mountainous area near the epicentre have been badly damaged by the earthquake or have been covered by landslides.

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A warm Gulf Coast welcome to all of the visitors from China and other Asian countries. I hope you are finding the information you are looking for, and wish a speedy recovery for both Sichuan and Burma.

I have been looking around for a personal way to help. Mercy Corps seems to be on the ground in China, and has a four star rating at Charity Navigator. The Western Union Foundation currently has a matching pledge for $250K if they can raise it from private individuals, effectively doubling anything you can afford.

While the need in Burma is probably more widespread, I see no way of being sure that any money you send to aid in that effort will actually get to the victims rather than the government. While the government in China is working hard to provide relief, the government in Burma is hardly working.

Scorpio has a wish list of changes to be made in tax policy and government purchasing to help American workers.

This is how things once worked, specifically in the 1970s and 80s when I was in public service and had purchasing authority. You looked for the best price, but in my jurisdiction we had policy of local purchase or product, then state purchase or product, and US purchase or product, before buying outside the US was considered. What the policy meant is that you bought as close to “home” as possible, even if it cost a little more, to keep the money as close to “home” as possible.

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William K. Wolfrum has a nice comic riff on oil refineries . The oil apologists claim that the evil terrorist environmentalist have been blocking the heroic and patriotic oil companies from building refineries.

WKW notes, quite accurately, that no one has even started the planning process to build a refinery since 1976.  What he doesn’t mention is that when oil companies have merged since 1976 they often shut down existing refineries.  What refineries remain have to run all out to meet normal demand, with no reserve capacity.  Like the electrical generation industry, the oil industry has eliminated extra capacity because the only possible reaction to a shortage is higher prices for what they produce.  If they produce more, the price will drop.  It’s not like there’s any competition.

So, I’m reading this AP story about the discovery of a bust of Caesar by underwater archaeologists in France, and my first thought was “He looks like Tom Brokaw.”

Time to up my caffeine level.

The ground is still shaking in China.

Over at the USGS site you can see the cluster of shocks on the 10° map and list of ‘quakes for the map shows 46 events from the initial 05/12/2008 0628 [UTC] 7.9 event to the most recent 05/14/2008 1227 [UTC] 4.4 aftershock.

The rate is slowing, but the shocks are still in the 4.4 to 5.4 range and the rain continues.

Update: CNN reports China: Troops race to plug quake-damaged dam

SICHUAN PROVINCE, China (CNN) — China’s death toll from a massive earthquake soared by thousands Wednesday as troops rushed to plug “severe cracks” in a dam upriver from one of the hardest hit cities.

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When you look at the report I’m linking to you will see a gray USAF C-130 being unloaded by hand! In a hot LZ, even if you don’t use a parachute to pull it out, the entire load can be pulled off while the aircraft is taxiing, so the crew can turn around and return to the supply base without taking up aircraft parking space at the destination. With an Air Force crew at the destination the aircraft can be unloaded with a forklift and the cargo put directly on the back of trucks for distribution. In Rangoon, they are having to break the pallets while human chains form to unload the cargo by hand. This is stupid, as well as expensive and inefficient.

The BBC reports on the international frustration and the UN calls for Burma aid corridor

The United Nations has called for an air or sea corridor to be opened to channel large amounts of aid to the victims of Cyclone Nargis in Burma.

The UN’s humanitarian agency said there was a risk of a “second catastrophe” unless a massive operation began.

The UN said it had only been able to reach 270,000 of the 1.5m survivors.

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