The WAWG Blog

A study was documented, back in 1999, on the ‘criminal’ backgrounds for numerous members of Congress.   According to America’s Criminal Class: The Congress of the United States, the sources for this study were “public records, past newspaper articles, civil court cases and criminal records of both current and recent members of the United States Congress (since 1992).”  

With the arrest of Tom Delay today, this information seems worth another review.

The following from Random Ramblings – Just like you and me! seems to be a summary that research, but it’s somewhat inaccurate and out of context.   The items in () are from the original study .

36(29) have been accused of spousal abuse
7(7) have been arrested for fraud
19(19) have been accused of writing bad checks
117(117) have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
3(3) have done time (arrested) for assault
71(71) cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
14(14) have been arrested on drug-related charges
8(8) have been arrested for shoplifting
21(21) currently are defendants in lawsuits. and
84(27) have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

One item from the original study that was not included in this list was:

53 were denied government security clearances.

Since information from the internet should always be suspect, I wondered how meaningful these numbers were – assuming they are fact to start with.   They are for a select group from society, but how does this group compare to society as a whole?

As to the spousal abuse arrests, Violence Against Women in the United States had this to say about spousal abuse: “BATTERING . Although only 572,000 reports of assault by intimates are officially reported to federal officials each year, the most conservative estimates indicate two to four million women of all races and classes are battered each year.   At least 170,000 of those violent incidents are serious enough to require hospitalization, emergency room care or a doctor’s attention.” Keep in mind that these numbers do not represent arrests made and the number of related arrests are probably smaller.

If you take the above range of values for assaults and relate it to the July 2005 USA population of 295,734,134, you get an abuse rate ranging from 0.02% to 1.35% of the population.   Using the Congressional abuse number of 29, you get an abuse rate of 6.7% for member of Congress – assuming that it’s 29 out of 535 Congressman.   This is 5 time the worst case for society.   Should we be concerned?

Since the original Capital Blue Hill study did not give the number of Congressman they researched to find the 29 abusers, how many Congressmen would they have research to find these 29 just to match the societal rate above?   Somewhere between 2148 and 145,000.   That doesn’t seem very likely, but 29 still seems worse than society at large.

Also, comparing the original article to the short summary above, you find that the 71 with bad credit applies to some group of 117 Congressmen – not all 535.   But that is still 61%!!

Well, regardless of the study results, the out of context summary, and the fact that the study results can’t be easily compared to society, they still are of concern.

According to RollingStone.com: Bush’s Most Radical Plan Yet, President Bush proposed the creation of a Sunset Commission that would add another 8 appointees to the thousands he has already appointed.   This new commission will decide what federal agencies should be eliminated for ‘not producing results’ and only an act of Congress can cancel a majority decision of the commission.   That may sound good, but who will these 8 cronies be – those with MBAs?   And what results will they be looking for – those that benefit citizens or those that adversely affect their business friends?

This proposal was hidden in this year’s 2,000 page federal spending plan from the President. If enacted, how would the President apply the Peter Principle this time?   What would happen to the EPA, OSHA, and/or FEMA?   Should that kind of power be placed within the Executive Branch?   Should Congress let this commission undo the work of previous Congresses?   Is there a Constitutional issue concerning Separation of Powers?   Even if there is, who will be on the Supreme Court when this proposal becomes law and then is contested?

But why worry about some small proposal that few know of and those that were aware of initially have since forgotten?   Well, that was at the start of 2005.   What’s happened since?

On July 14, 2005, the Federal Agency Performance Review and Sunset Act was submitted for review to the House Committee on Government Reform.   Debate was held on September 25, 2005.

An article from the Associated Press on October 16, 2005, discusses some of the latest contributors to the losses in union membership: competition in a global economy, deregulation, powerful corporations like WalMart, disagreements between unions, declaration of corporate bankruptcies, and job outsourcing.   (The article did not mention the lack of interest or concerns by workers as contributors.)   This loss of membership is detailed in Labor Market Reporter: US Trade Union Membership: 1900-1999.   As a percentage of the workforce, union membership peaked around 1960 and has declined to one fourth of that.

According to another report from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, “In 2004, 12.5 percent of wage and salary workers were union members, down from 12.9 percent in 2003, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.   The union membership rate has steadily declined from a high of 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available.”

SourceWatch provides a summary of the Pentagon Channel and states that is has been broadcasting since May 2004.   It is provided to the members of the US Armed Forces and their families via American Forces Radio and Television Service overseas.   However, it is available to all statewide cable and satellite providers and via the Pentagon Channel website.   SourceWatch also stated that Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Allison Barber oversees the Pentagon Channel.

About a year later, Professor Ralph J. Begleiter, from the Department of Communications at the University of Delaware, told The Chistian Science Monitor that the on-air staffers for the Pentagon Channel are not journalists – they are salesmen.

More recently Allison Barber, performing other Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense duties, was video taped preparing 10 members of our military for a teleconference with President Bush.   Here is a portion of the rehearsal as reported in Newsday.com: A role rehearsal –

“OK, so let’s just walk through this,” said Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Allison Barber, coaching the soldiers in Tikrit before the conference.

“Capt. Kennedy, you answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?”

“Capt. Smith,” Kennedy said.

“Capt. Smith, you take the mike and you hand it to whom?” she asked.

“Capt. Kennedy,” the soldier replied.

“If the question comes up about partnering – how often do we train with the Iraqi military – who does he go to?” Barber asked.

“That’s going to go to Capt. Pratt,” one soldier said.

The above preparation process by Ms. Barber for a video/televised event leads me to this question.   If Ms. Barber is a leader by example and others at the Pentagon Channel report to her, is the Pentagon Channel’s presence in the public domain the first step at media control by the US government?

In The Peter Principle and the Neocon Coup, dated 11/2004, Robert Scheer discusses several examples of President Bush’s implementation of the Peter Principle, or promoting individuals after years of stellar performance at one career to their highest level of incompetence in a new career. He also points out that these high ranking incompetents are now in control of the most powerful military in the world. “With the ravaging of the CIA and the ousting of Powell–instead of the more-deserving Rumsfeld–the coup of the neoconservatives is complete. They have achieved a remarkable political victory by failing upward.”

The fulfillment of the Peter Principle by President Bush has grown since the above article was published a year ago. One example is Michael Brown, a former commissioner of an Arabian horse association who stepped down last month as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Now, with the nomination of Harriet Miers, the Peter Principle is about to spread incompetence to the highest judiciary.

The OpinionJournal – Extra had this to say about the application of the Peter Principle to the Supreme Court, “To be qualified, a Supreme Court justice must have more than credentials; she must have a well-considered “judicial philosophy,” by which is meant an internalized view of the Constitution and the role of a justice that will guide her through the constitutional minefield that the Supreme Court must navigate. Nothing in Harriet Miers’s professional background called upon her to develop considered views on the extent of congressional powers, the separation of powers, the role of judicial precedent, the importance of states in the federal system, or the need for judges to protect both the enumerated and unenumerated rights retained by the people.”

What is even scarier is that according to Bloomberg.com: Top Worldwide, the application of this principle may have spread farther and deeper in to the government than anyone realizes. “Federal jobs available to political appointees rose 15 percent to 4,496 last year from 2000, according to the 2004 edition of the “Plum Book,” which is published by Congress after each presidential election to list positions up for grabs. Those jobs declined 5 percent during President Bill Clinton’s second term, a comparison of the 2000 and 1996 Plum Books shows.” This article also contains more current information on the success of Bush’s application of the Peter Principle.

The experts on global warming have built their charts based on empirical data from the deep snows of Antarctica. A lot of work goes into gathering and displaying these data and it gets published in places most citizens don’t read or see. The published information can get very detailed and hard to follow and may lead to skepticism. Well here is something that might be a little more understandable.

There probably aren’t many people that have not heard about the recent hurricanes, their strength, and the horrific disasters that followed landfall. Most probably know from their local weather person, that hurricanes get their strength from the waters they form over and eventually die after they hit land. Most probably know that the storms are named from an alphabetical list that changes each year. What most probably don’t know is how the number of named storms has changed over the recent past. The chart below provides a view of that change – and it is quite dramatic.

Click on image for full size display

Is our world getting warmer or not?

The graphic above was researched and developed by Jim Vogas, a coauthor for this blog.

Scientists say they are observing increases in the windspeed and the duration of hurricanes — though not necessarily the total number of storms

This blog attempts to track a set of 14 characteristics (categories) that are applicable to political/economic systems of a given nation.   These characteristics are Religion and state separation Power of corporations protected, Rampant cronyism and corruption, Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts, Fraudulent elections, Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause, Disdain for the importance of human rights, Power of labor suppressed or eliminated, Mass media control, The supremacy of the military/avid militarism, Obsession with national security, Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism, Obsession with crime and Punishment, and Rampant sexism.   Each of these phrases is set up as category.  

Any or several of these could apply to a given nation and time.   The more categories that apply and the more the categories move in the worsening direction, the more the citizens of that nation should worry about the future of that nation and their futures. The WAWG Index is an attempt to measure the trend of these characteristics.

These characteristics are defined here and from two other perspectives:

Laurence W. Britt, Facism Anyone?

Eco – “Eternal Fascism: 14 Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt”

Andy is educated and trained as an engineer.   He grew up as a republican in the 60’s.   Back then, the Democrats controlled Texas.   Now the Republicans control all branches of Texas government.   As the power has shifted from the Democrats to the Republicans, he left the ranks of the Republican Party.   He believes that going to extremes in not the answer.   So much so, that as an engineer he helped his coworkers unionize to counter the excesses of the caviler management he used to work for.  

He spent six years in the US Navy with four years on an aircraft carrier.   He has worked in the aerospace industry for over 25 years.   He also manages a web site about women pilots from WWII.

This index attempts to ‘measure’ the extent to which the list of 14 characteristics monitored by this blog apply to the United States over time.   The index will be determined monthly as a percent change from the previous month.   Once sufficient data have been collected, the index will be displayed as a graph or chart.  As activities related to the 14 characteristics increase, the index will rise.   As characteristic activities decrease, the index will drop.  The search criteria include key words for each characteristic and are limited to entries from the previous 12 months and those which include ‘.org’ in the URL.

Because consumers don’t like paying higher prices for gasoline? Because consumers don’t want to give up their SUVs and Hummers? Because the supply is shrinking and demand is rising and consumers are in denial? What about taxing Apple Computer’s excess profits on their new iPod nano? What about the excess profits some of those SUV drivers are making on the real estate they are ‘flipping.’

“Market research firm iSuppli says that Apple’s margins on the iPod nano could be as high as 50 percent, making the extremely thin player as profitable as earlier models of the iPod. ”

“Real estate prices have risen dramatically in recent years, with annual appreciations of 20 to 30 percent in some areas. The study shows that flippers obtained returns far in excess of those strong gains — above 100 percent per year in many cases.” .

Why is it that only big oil is subject to this tax? What about the dairy products we all buy? If supply dries up due to some mad cow epidemic, won’t prices and profits increase? If profits don’t rise, how will the farmers be able buy new cows to make the dairy products we need to get the prices back down by increasing the supply?

The difference with oil is that supply is difficult to increase. Even OPEC is near it’s maximum output. So who can solve the problem? How about the consumer giving up gas guzzlers? How about new technologies like hybrids? Maybe the oil companies, who need to stay in business long term, are working on the next fuel source? But won’t they need profits to pay for changing the way they do business from selling oil to selling ???? Maybe in the short term, oil companies could use ‘excess’ profits to build some new refineries to make more gasoline? So profits would be used to increase supply or just turned over to the Fed Gov to be wasted on some pork somewhere.

“The ceiling will be maintained the same and we will offer the market what Opec can produce,” said Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez.

Click on the image for full view.

“Will the world ever physically run out of crude oil? No, but only because it will eventually become very expensive in absence of lower-cost alternatives. When will worldwide production of conventionally reservoired crude oil peak? That will in part depend on the rate of demand growth, which is subject to reduction via both technological advancements in petroleum product usage such as hybrid-powered automobiles and the substitution of new energy source technologies such as hydrogen-fed fuel cells where the hydrogen is obtained, for example, from natural gas, other hydrogen-rich organic compounds, or electrolysis of water. ”

Yes, a lot of small businesses and low income families are severely affected by the cost, but who should they be angry with?