Trifecta

A trifecta this morning of three of my favorite op-ed writers.  Bob Herbert on the economic pain facing American families as "rampant joblessness and skyrocketing medical costs are among the biggest factors tearing at the very fabric of American economic life," Eugene Robinson on the Afghan Papers showing us a "long-running, morally ambiguous conflict that has virtually no chance of ending well," and Leonard Pitts on the "conservative outrage machine" that exists to maintain "a state of perpetual apoplexy on the political right by feeding it a never-ending stream of perceived sins against conservative orthodoxy."  Preach, brethren.

Top Secret America

The Washington Post today blanketed the front page with this lede:

“The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.”

The story, first of a three-part series on Top Secret America, resulted from a two-year investigation.  It found that there are approximately 1,300 government organizations and 1,900 private companies, employing an estimated 850,000 people in 10,000 locations, working on programs involving homeland security, counterterrorism and intelligence.  And as you might imagine, it results in duplication and waste, with no coordination and no one able to even be aware of all the activities. The Post has created a web page with interactive maps, graphics, and database of information it gathered.

A retired Army general asked to review the programs last year for the Defense Department was quoted in the article as concluding: “Because it lacks a synchronizing process, it inevitably results in message dissonance, reduced effectiveness and waste. We consequently can’t effectively assess whether it is making us more safe.”

So, we’re spending an unknown amount of money on an unknown number of programs that collectively aren’t making us any more secure. Seems to me that if we’re interested in cutting big government, this would be a very good place to start.

Real situation

The mood I'm in after reading the news -

Check out the real situation:
Nation war against nation.
Where did it all begin?
When will it end?
Well, it seems like: total destruction the only solution,
And there ain't no use: no one can stop them now.
Ain't no use: nobody can stop them now.

Guns into plowshares

In 1997, a sculpture created by Mennonite artist Esther Augsberger, with the support and assistance of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, was dedicated in the city's Judiciary Square.  Intended as a statement against gun violence, it consisted of 3,000 disabled handguns welded onto a  piece of metal shaped as a plowshare.  The piece stood there until a few years ago when it was suddenly moved to a city lot, lying on its side behind a chain fence.  Who moved it and why? No one seems to know.

The failing fourth estate

How did a Rolling Stone journalist scoop the major media on Gen. McChrystal?  Ken Connor at the Center for Just Society has it right; they're too closely tied to the people they cover. And that should make us suspicious of what they do or don't report.

What price do the American people pay for the symbiotic relationship between the media and Washington? Quite simply, we can’t trust that the primary sources of information used to form our political opinions are accurate, objective, or complete. Compromised news is no news at all. This is problematic, particularly because Americans’ most cherished civil liberty – the franchise – is often heavily influenced by the media’s portrayal of the candidates and the issues. The American people must, therefore, adopt a high index of suspicion of the news we read and watch, and take pains to get “the whole story” before we draw any conclusions.

A king & a kingdom

Pondering Independence Day, Derek Webb's "A King & A Kingdom" comes to mind:

my first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man
my first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
it's to a king and a kingdom

Evangelicals and alcohol

The May monthly survey of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Evangelicals asked, “Do you socially drink alcohol?”  60 percent said “no” and 40 percent said “yes.” The times certainly are changing.

Honoring the forgotten

Three baseball fans are on a mission to find the unmarked graves of former Negro League players and honor them with a headstone.

“These were great ballplayers who don’t deserve to be forgotten, but they have been,” said Dr. Jeremy Krock, a 52-year-old anesthesiologist from Peoria, Ill., who began the effort seven years ago. “A lot of these guys, by the time Jackie Robinson made it, they were way past their prime. It was too late for them. And not having a marker on their grave for people to remember them only made it worse.”