Friday News Bucket

Posted by CabinGirl | Sep 14, 2007 | 18 |

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
– Anne Bradstreet

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CabinGirl

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CabinGirl on September 14, 2007 at 7:17 am

in Michigan: ABC

Republican State Rep. David Agema from the Grand Rapids area has introduced legislation that would allow teachers and other school administrators to carry a concealed weapon on school grounds.

Agema says he understands this is a controversial piece of legislation. But he says kids need to be kept safe on school grounds…

…At least one Michigan lawmaker says if teachers and administrators were armed or had access to a concealed weapon at school the incidents of school shootings will decline.

And what happens when a fed-up teacher goes on a rampage? I’m imagining our crazy principal from last year with a weapon…
CabinGirl on September 14, 2007 at 7:34 am

IHT

But for longer than most economists would have been willing to predict a decade ago, the world has been a willing partner in American excess – until a new and home-grown financial crisis this summer rattled confidence in the country, the world’s largest economy.

On Thursday, the dollar briefly fell to another low against the euro of $1.3927, as a slow decline that has been under way for months picked up steam this past week.

“This is all pointing to a greatly increased risk of a fast unwinding of the U.S. current account deficit and a serious decline of the dollar,” said Kenneth Rogoff, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and an expert on exchange rates. “We could finally see the big kahuna hit.”

There’s more:

While most economists just a few months ago would have dismissed the prospect of a dollar collapse outright, they now are debating the possibility that something on par with the dollar debacle of the 1970s might just happen again.

When a currency collapses, the central bank can push up interest rates to attract needed investment, but strangle the economy in the process. Alternatively, it can let the currency fall and watch prices of imports – and eventually competing domestic goods – rise sharply.

Double-digit inflation resulted in the 1970s and only a global recession brought it to an end.

Not good.
- ask on September 14, 2007 at 8:38 am
  
  Still ways to go…
  
  The unrest is spreading across the pond:
  
  Shockwaves hit financial markets
  
  News that Northern Rock has had to go to the Bank of England for emergency loan funding sent shockwaves through already nervous financial markets this morning.
  
  By midday the FTSE 100 index extended its fall to 140.4 points, at 6,226.5, as Northern Rock shares, already down by half this year, plunged another 25% to 484.75p, wiping a further £650m off the bank’s market capitalisation.
  
  […]
  
  European share markets were also hit by the fears that banks in Europe, some of which have already run into difficulties related to the slump in the sub-prime lending market in the United States.
  
  US stock futures fell ahead of the opening of the Dow Jones as dealers bet that US investors would take fright at further signs of the sub-prime contagion spreading to Britain.
ask on September 14, 2007 at 9:30 am

Lawyers refile Dubai slavery case

US lawyers have refiled a class-action lawsuit against the deputy ruler of Dubai for allegedly enslaving thousands of young children for camel races.

The case was dismissed by a court in Miami two months ago, but is now being filed in Kentucky, where Sheikh Hamdan al-Maktoum has business interests.

It accuses the sheikh and many unnamed others of abducting and trafficking up to 10,000 boys from Africa and Asia.
dada on September 14, 2007 at 11:24 am

What are the likely costs, in blood and treasure to continue with BushCo™’s Long War©? According to the /Center for American Progress they’re likely to be very high.

Using Gen. Betraeus’ statement that “historically counterinsurgency operations [like Iraq] have gone nine or 10 years” as a guide, they’ve come up with the following estimates

for Treasure:

clik to enlarge

and Blood:

The cost in terms of our troops’ lives is more difficult to calculate. The war in Iraq is dynamic, and projections of future casualties are dependent on U.S. troop levels, tactics, and the strength of the insurgency, among other variables. While we hesitate to calculate this and make no predictions, one must be aware of the possible number of casualties that could occur for the time we remain in Iraq.

If you consider the lowest rate at which our troops were killed (in 2006), we suffered 822 deaths that year. If you consider the highest rate at which our troops were killed (2007 thus far), we suffered just over three deaths per day, which would translate to 1,117 total deaths this year. Thus if we were to remain in Iraq for another 10 years, we could well suffer between 8,220 and 11,167 additional deaths.

The number of wounded would be even greater. If you consider the lowest rate at which our troops have suffered casualties (2005), we suffered just over 16 wounded per day. If you consider the highest rate at which our troops have suffered casualties (2004), we suffered almost 22 wounded per day. Thus if we were to remain in Iraq for another 10 years, we could suffer between 59,500 and 80,000 additional wounded.

LINK

Apparently, this doesn’t bother anyone inside the beltway…least of all chimpy and the neocon chickenhawks. No one they know is dying, or maimed. Chimpy’s still not attended a funeral, after 4 1/2 years.

lt probably won’t register on the msm’s radar either.

Makes The Charge of the Light Brigade appear almost noble.

lTMF’sA
- ask on September 14, 2007 at 11:41 am
  
  Apparently, this doesn’t bother anyone inside the beltway…
  
  Current cost: $450 billion
  Forecast total cost: $1.53 trillion
  
  A lot of this money finds it’s way back inside the beltway. The coffers are bursting – why change course?
  - dada on September 14, 2007 at 12:10 pm
    
    indeed, the cost that caught my attention was this one:
    
    Cost per troop including support & logositics FY06: $782,307
    
    Just as a comparison, let’s use an E-3, with a family, deployed to Iraq as a benchmark. [S]he makes $40,106 per year, with allowances, family separation, immenent danger, and hardship pay, according to NMFA Military Pay 101.
    
    That leaves a whopping $742,201 per troop for the likes of KBR, etal.
    
    So, yeah…from that standpoint, what’s not to like about staying the course?
    
    lTMF’sA
    - ask on September 14, 2007 at 1:37 pm
      
      That’s funny, dada.
      Last night, I was doing some mental gymnastics; how much of the dough ends up with the contractors?
      
      – if the average soldier&officer in Iraq costs $75,000/year (maybe a bit on the generous side) x 160,000 soldiers – results in an annual staff cost of $12 billion, or an even $1 billion per month. If annual total cost is $200 billion, it means that 94% of the cost of war goes to contractors and suppliers. That jives very well with your figures.
      - CabinGirl on September 14, 2007 at 1:50 pm
        
        When it’s broken out the way you and dada have done, it’s even more staggering. Can you imagine the outcry if the MSM started hammering those numbers home, day after day, night after night? And if they also put those numbers in perspective with the types of domestic programs we could have spent the money on?
        
        What an effed up world we live in.
      - CabinGirl on September 14, 2007 at 1:52 pm
        
        The Dems should make these numbers a huge part of their argument for leaving Iraq, and hammer on the huge amount of money going to the contractors coffers, while the soldiers come home in pieces to little or no veterans’ services.
      - ask on September 14, 2007 at 2:11 pm
        
        Well, maybe BooMan will pick up on it and add some real figures and substance to the front page.
        We’re off for the Berkshires in a few.
      - CabinGirl on September 14, 2007 at 2:27 pm
        
        Have a nice time!
      - dada on September 14, 2007 at 2:33 pm
        
        amen to that, cg.
        
        ‘support the troops’…when you can get numbers like these in a 2 min. google search, and break it down into easily understood, demonstrable facts that this is a/ welfare program/ for the military industrial complex…AKA: contractors…and politically well connected BushCo™ cronies, even the kool aid kids are going to get it.
        
        as is said: Everyone is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts.
        
        it ought to be part of every democratic press release and statement/speech re: the continuation of this sordid affair.
        
        never happen.
        
        bring them home NOW! and lTMF’sA
Man Eegee on September 14, 2007 at 2:20 pm

Sometimes I feel homeless in my own ancestral land.

State Treasurer Dean Martin is asking the Arizona Board of Regents to investigate whether Arizona State University can legally use private scholarship money to help about 200 undocumented immigrants.

In a letter to the regents, Martin said the scholarships probably violated Proposition 300, a ballot measure he sponsored as a legislator and that voters passed in November. The law requires students in the country illegally to pay out-of-state tuition at state universities. It also prohibits using public money to help students afford the higher tuition. – linkage (emphasis mine)
- CabinGirl on September 14, 2007 at 2:24 pm
  
  That is so screwed up. Are these students suppposed to declare that they’re in the country illegally so that they can then be charged the higher tuition rate before they are arrested and thrown in places like Hutto?
  
  And as always, why are we trying to punish people for wanting something better for themselves, and working towards it?
  - Man Eegee on September 14, 2007 at 2:47 pm
    
    oh, it’s even worse than that. every single person that attends college in AZ must show proof of citizenship now, and if they are not able to do so, even if they’ve lived in Arizona for their entire lives, must pay out of state tuition.
    
    The Minutemen-wing of the GOP is in charge of our state legislature, as you can tell. If they are unable to get stuff pushed through the leg, they move it to ballot initiatives where the unthinking masses will do anything to screw the “illegals”.
Man Eegee on September 14, 2007 at 3:14 pm

Tucson Unified School District offered a measly 1.5% increase to teachers this year, which has caused a major sh*tstorm. There have been protests by and beyond the union. Today there was a sickout:

Forty percent of the teachers in Tucson Unified School District called in sick Friday, forcing closure of at least six high schools, district officials said.

Six high schools – University, Rincon, Tucson, Catalina, Palo Verde and Pueblo – will dismiss school between 11:15 and 11:30 a.m. because of lack of personnel, said TUSD spokeswoman Chyrl Hill Lander.

A total of 1,440 teachers called in sick Friday as pay-raise negotiations continue. – linkage
- chocolate ink on September 14, 2007 at 3:42 pm
  
  I didn’t understand it in my 20’s and some 30 years later I still don’t understand it…why teachers-most teachers get paid so little for what they do. Our kids spend 8 hours a day with teachers for at least 12 years of their lives, being shaped by the education system and individual teachers. Isn’t it it worth it to make sure that we have the ‘best and the brightest’ teachers to teach our kids?
  
  Wouldn’t it be nice to see a stadium full of people cheering on a education contest in geography or history with our kids and getting a superbowl ring for excellence in intellectual skills….or humanitarian work.
  
  I hope the teacher in the Tuscon district will get what they want and no doubt deserve.

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