As reported over the weekend in the NYT, an audit finds that the US Agency for International Development (AID) has been using funny math to hide huge cost overruns for Iraqi reconstruction projects. “The agency hid construction overruns by listing them as overhead or administrative costs, according to the audit…[for one new power station]the project’s overhead, a figure that normally runs to a maximum of 30 percent, was a stunning 418 percent.“
Author: KcM
Summer Hours.
Yes, yes, quiet again here at GitM (and at Revise & Dissent, where I’ve been even more negligent about posting.) There’s been quite a bit of traveling on this end — a visit to my my sister‘s summer pad in Cambridge, an HVL wedding in New Hampshire (Congrats!), and, currently, a few days’ retreat on the Jersey shore. And, I’ve been busier than usual with work-related matters, since – as most all grad students out there know — summer is more often than not the fend-for-yourself lean season of our profession-to-be. At any rate, updates may continue to be sparse around here for the next few weeks…apologies in advance. And, for those few of you still dropping by, I’ll try to keep at least a few scintillating links on the front page through the remainder of the summer…I promise!
Heading for Compass.
Chris Weitz’s film version of The Golden Compass closes in on its Mrs. Coulter: Nicole Kidman.
Ye men of blood.
Online of late is the new trailer for Martin Scorsese’s The Departed (a.k.a. the remake of Infernal Affairs, with Tony Leung and Andy Lau), starring Leonardo diCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin. I liked the original quite a bit, but I get the sense from this preview that this version may be marred somewhat by the usual late-era Nicholson grandstanding.
Dream a little Dream.
“‘The Republicans say the economy is great for everyone,’ Clinton said. ‘They’ve done nothing about these costs that are eating away at the paychecks of hard-working Americans. Democrats will work to get health-care costs down, to get college tuitions under control, to address the rising costs of gas prices, to cut middle-class taxes and reward companies that create jobs here at home.‘” With November in the not-too-distant future (and 2008 only a step beyond), Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton announces the American Dream Initiative, a.k.a. the DLC centrists’ stab at a Contract with America-type campaign agenda: “The centerpiece proposal would provide additional support for college costs, with the goal of increasing the number of college graduates by 1 million a year by 2015…Other ideas include requirements for employers to establish retirement accounts for all workers and a refundable tax credit for savers; ‘baby bonds’ that would create a government-funded savings account of $500 for every child born in the United States; a refundable tax credit to help provide the down payment on housing; universal health care for children; and benefits for small businesses to lower the cost of providing health insurance to workers.” This all sounds good, if a bit classically Clintonesque. OK, the name is goofy (as was Hillary’s “It’s the American Dream, stupid.“), and IMHO there needs to be more here regarding both campaign finance and lobbying reform. But, still, there’s very little of the usual protective camouflage-y cruft that usually accompanies anything put out by the DLC, so that’s a good start. Let’s see where it goes.
What happens in Vegas | Nothing could be finer.
Ethanol and granite, meet poker and palmettos. After months of wrangling, the Dems announce that Nevada and South Carolina will be pushed forward into Iowa/New Hampshire territory come the 2008 primaries. “Harold Ickes — a committee member and confidante of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y., a potential 2008 candidate — spoke in opposition to a Palmetto State primary out of concern that it would be a walkover for former senator John Edwards (N.C.) should he choose to run.” (Interestingly enough, this article also notes that Rep. Jim Clyburn, the congressman from my hometown of Florence, SC, is now the third-ranking Dem in the House. Nicely done.)
The Round Mound is Sound.
“The word conservative means discriminatory practically. It’s a form of political discrimination. What do the Republicans run on? Against gay marriage and for a war that makes no sense. A war that was based on faulty intelligence. That’s all they ever talk about. That and immigration. Another discriminatory argument for political gain.” Basketball legend Charles Barkley sets the story straight about his political affiliation: “I was a Republican – until they lost their minds.” (Via Now This.)
Comic, Comic, Comic, Comic, Comic, Chameleon.
As most of y’all likely already know, this past weekend was Comic-Con 2006 in San Diego, which means an exceedingly large amount of news in the fanboy department. To wit:
He is Legend.
“When you thought it had to be over, that your nerves couldn’t stand any more, that was when Matheson turned on the afterburners. He wouldn’t quit. He was relentless. The baroque intonations of Lovecraft, the perfervid prose of the pulps, the sexual innuendoes, were all absent. You were faced with so much pure drive that only rereadings showed Matheson’s wit, cleverness, and control.” By way of Ed Rants, Stephen King pays tribute to Richard Matheson’s I am Legend, soon to be a Will Smith/Johnny Depp movie near you.
A gal walks into a bar…
Best of luck to all the local folks sitting down for the first installment of the 2-day New York Bar exam this morning (including one of my favorite people these days.) While I’m loath to concur with anybody from the von Mises Institute, I’ve always been inclined to agree with this article, which points out that, much like the AMA over on the doctor side, the primary purpose of bar organizations ever since the progressive era has been to create arbitrary barriers to entry and thus raise the salaries of practicing lawyers, to say nothing of the cost of both law school and legal services. Having now witnessed the bar-prep experience from some remove, I have to say that my suspicions about the somewhat shady nature of the whole enterprise have been sharpened, what with the seeming Bar/Bri monopoly on prep courses and what appears to be the test’s extreme emphasis on rinkydink legal minutiae that could very easily be looked up when (or if, so much of it being archaic and obsolete — dueling, anyone?) it ever became necessary. All that being said, the bar is obviously aptly named, so here’s hoping any and all GitM readers/lawyers-to-be in the NY area hurdle it with maximum dexterity and minimum fuss over the next two days. 🙂