How does the Bush administration know that Saddam was producing WMD, but seems incapable of finding any? Yet, they did not forsee Saddam stealing One BILLION Dollars ($900M in US currency and $100M in Euros) from an Iraqi bank and why don’t they know where it is? Is it that hard to find three tractor trailers full of cash?
Even Warren Buffet is against the Bush tax cuts!
The second richest man in the world, Mr Buffett, known as the “Sage of Omaha”, criticised plans for tax cuts that he said were designed to fleece the poor and reward the rich.
“I am not for the Bush plan. It screams of injustice. The main beneficiaries will be people like me and Charlie,” he said, referring to the Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman Charlie Munger. Mr Buffett said the tax plan was equivalent to “us giving a lesser percentage of our incomes to Washington than the people working in our shoe factories”.
Congress is so concerned about our well being while flying that it has mandated that the Transportation Security Administration cut 6,000 baggage screener jobs at the nation’s airports. This move definitely shows that Congress is concerned about our safety in the air and at our airports! What next prison work programs at Los Angeles airport so airport staff can take the day off to cut costs!
So far in the last two years we have the largest budget deficits in decades, no money in the budget for reconstruction in Afganistan, budget cuts for health care and education, an expensive war in Iraq to get rid of WMD that haven’t been found, huge tax cuts for the rich, and Bush wants another $500 million in tax cuts for the rich! When will Bush and Congress realize that allowing huge budget deficits with with huge tax cuts end up taxing the states and future generations?!?!?
How much did President Bush’s photo-op on the USS Lincoln cost the US taxpayers? Incidentally, the USS Lincoln arrived in port in San Diego less than 24 hours after his nationally televised speech. Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to have his speech today?
Why Oh Why Can’t We Have a Better Press Corps? Part CCXIV Time to Bang My Head Against the Wall Once Again…
Why, oh why, can’t we get a better class of journalists? Those who write ABC’s The Note claim to be unable to understand Alan Greenspan’s nuanced–and consistent–position on fiscal policy issues. They write, “The Note has no idea what Alan Greenspan thinks about the prospects for growth and about the Bush economy, and that is after reading everything he said, and everything ABOUT what he said…” And those who write ABC’s The Note are close to the cream of the crop.
Brad DeLong explains how the budget (deficit) and tax cuts are currently screwing up the economy and will do so for many years to come.
It’s an Industrial Sealant! No, It’s a Dessert Topping!
Paul Krugman takes aim at the Bush tax cut. The underlying problem is that the Bush administration had no agreement about what its economic plan was. (a) The political shop seems to have demanded a bold policy that would fight the recession and create jobs. (b) The people who actually control things demanded a tax cut for the rich. (c) The economists (chiefly Glenn Hubbard) sought a program to boost economic growth. This “It needs to be an industrial sealant! No, it needs to be a dessert topping!” policy-development process produced (a) an increase in the deficit that is not front-loaded toward today (when a bigger deficit would be good and boost employment) but back-loaded toward the distant future, and as a result the (b) tax cut for the rich that was proposed took the form of (c) proposing to permanently reduce the double taxation of corporate income.
Yesterday was Earth Day. Slashdot had a poll asking the readers what they were doing for Earth Day. One reader explained why Earth Day will have a new name in the near future:
Actually, I hear the US will rename this day Iraq Liberation Day. Instead of removing the dangerous oil from Alaska, we are going to focus on removing it from Iraq first. They have much more of it, so they are more of an at risk population.
In order to destroy all of the oil liberated, the US will sponsor soccer moms to drive their SUVs into a national park to plant seedlings.
Hilarious 
Results of Poll-
If you ever ship an item that you care about via FedEx or UPS, etc. then you should really read this article from a person who used to handle those packages.
This is the best quote from the article:
I worked as a package handler for roughly ten months, and in that time I handled many packages. I couldn’t even hazard a guess at the number, as I moved several thousand some nights. The point being: I’ve seen a lot of packages. From this I’ve learned something: Most people have no idea how to pack cargo. Not only do they not know, they don’t even try. In fact, I believe most of them to be under the delusion that I, the Package Handler who was paid but a pittance for hours of physical labor, was in some way concerned with the welfare of their package(s).
Brad DeLong of the Semi-Daily Journal is asking the same question that I and many others are asking, “Where are Saddam’s WMDs?”
Mr. DeLong states:
Where are Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction?
I was certain–certain–that we had lots of hard intelligence telling us of Saddam’s large quantities of chemical and biological weapons, and his ongoing nuclear program. Otherwise, the decision to invade Iraq made no sense: it might have made sense for an Administration that believed the U.S. had a humanitarian mission to take down cruel and genocidal dictators when it could do so easily, but not for the Bush II Administration that was so certain back in 2001 that it “did not do nation building.”
The Detroit Free Press had an article on bonuses recently given at Kmart to both employees, as well as executives, rewarding them for sticking with the company through its bankruptcy. What is really troubling is the amount that the executives received as a bonus.
Here are the relevant parts of the article:
Chairman Jim Adamson will walk away from Kmart with a $3.6-million bonus when the Troy discounter comes out of bankruptcy by April 30. Adamson has been Kmart’s chairman since shortly before the retailer declared bankruptcy Jan. 22, 2002, and was its chief executive for 10 months.
Julian Day, Kmart’s chief executive since January and its president for just over a year, gets a $1-million bonus. The retailer’s chief restructuring officer, Ron Hutchison, takes home an extra $1 million for his work.
