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Still Looking for Some Good News...
Location: Blogs Russ Henke |
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| Posted by: Russ Henke |
5/20/2007 12:32 PM |
Here are some more headlines from May 16 - 20:
Because the US Army is so over-stretched today, more
than 25,000 US National Guard troops are now serving
in Iraq. Nearly 5,000 are also in Afghanistan and 6,000
more are stationed along the Mexican border. Because
of equipment left behind in Iraq and Afghanistan,
domestically-based Guard units have only 40% of
the equipment they need for disaster response.
Nearly 90% of stateside Guard units are rated
less than fully ready (for domestic duty)
because of equipment and training shortfalls.
Scientists working with the US Defense Department
have found evidence that a low-level exposure to
sarin nerve gas — the kind experienced by more
than 100,000 American troops in the Persian Gulf
war of 1991 — could have caused lasting brain
deficits in former service members.
AAA asked the US Senate on May 15 to investigate
why oil companies are making huge profits at a
time when “glitches” at gas refineries are said
to have caused pump prices to soar.
Telemarketing fraud, once limited to small-time
thieves, has become a global criminal enterprise
preying upon millions of elderly Americans and
other Americans every year. Vast databases of
names and personal information, sold to thieves
by large publicly traded companies, have put
almost anyone within reach of fraudulent
telemarketers. And major US banks have made
it possible for criminals to dip into victims’
accounts without victims’ authorization.
There were 107 food imports from China that
the Food and Drug Administration detained at
US ports just in April 2007, along with more
than 1,000 shipments of tainted Chinese
dietary supplements, toxic Chinese cosmetics
and counterfeit Chinese medicines. For years,
US inspection records show, China has flooded
the US with foods unfit for human consumption.
And for years, US FDA inspectors have simply
returned to Chinese importers the small
portion of those products they caught --
many of which turned up at US borders again,
making a second or third attempt at entry.
US Commerce Department data showed US housing
starts fell to their lowest level in 17 years
during April 2007.
While Wall Street often has an appetite for
economic data as it tries to determine where
the economy is headed, it sometimes looks
past bad economic news. In a potentially
worrisome sign, requests for new US
construction permits fell 8.9% in April, the
biggest drop since a 24% plunge in
February 1990.
It is tempting to look at the dissolution of
the ill-starred union of Daimler-Benz and
Chrysler and chalk it up to an irreconcilable
clash of cultures and question the very
tenability of trans-Atlantic mergers. But
that would be the wrong lesson. An over-
reliance on large gas guzzlers certainly
hurt. And the Mercedes-Benz elites never
embraced the mass-market Chrysler
sufficiently to truly integrate it. Still,
those problems might have been solved. What
seemed intractable was the tremendous drag
of Chrysler’s legacy costs. The pension and
health-care commitments for employees and
retirees come to a whopping $18 billion.
A universal US health care program would
help.
A senior lobbyist at the National Association
of Manufacturers nominated by Bush to lead the
US Consumer Product Safety Commission will
receive a $150,000 departing payment from
the association when he takes his new
government job, which involves enforcing
consumer laws against members of the very
same association.
But, hey, there is some good news this week:
- Alberto Gonzales is on the ropes.
- Paul Wolfowitz will soon be out of a job.
- Jerry Falwell is out of a job.
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