9/11 Problems--Communications

Those who read the report of the 9/11 commission know one of the problems in NYC was the first responders had different communications technology.  It's been a while since then, and one would have thought we'd be well on the way to fixing such problems.

One would have thought, but one would have been wrong.  See this Government Executive discussion.

Reinventing the Wheel

Federal Computer Week had a post on a site which: "allows aid organizations to post their needs and connect with would-be donors to get help in categories such as food, fuel, medical, telecom, and transport." 

Reminds me of the "Hay Net" site the FSA web manager put up a number of years ago.

One problem with smart people, we all think we are the first one to have an idea and/or we can implement things better than anyone else.

Mathias Dies, and the Moderate Republican Party Is Reborn?

Charles (Mac) Mathias died.  He was a moderate/liberal Republican from the 1960's to 1980's (that is, "liberal" socially, fiscally more conservative).

Meanwhile, it seems to me that wing of the party is being reborn.  Just yesterday, VP Biden's son decided not to run in Delaware, meaning a moderate Republican is likely to win that seat.  In Illinois a Republican who supports abortion is a likely candidate and possible winner for Obama's old seat.  We already know about Maine, and Scot Brown in MA is pro-abortion. 

So, if the Dems have a bad year this fall, we could wake up and find a group of moderate Republicans in the Senate.  You heard it here first.

Time Flies When You're Talking Farm Programs

Seems like just the other day GW was vetoing the farm bill. And now it's time for House Ag to start the groundwork for the next one.  Chris Clayton reports on Representative Peterson's plans.  Apparently he'd like to insure "cost of production".  I wonder how that would work--I once looked at an ERS analysis of cost of production for cotton and found there was a very wide range.  So a payment which would work for farmer A would leave farmer B facing a loss, and presumably going out of business sometime down the line.

Anyhow, it should be interesting, it always is.

IRS and Taxes

The Times had an article on having the IRS fill out 1040's, something which California has experimented with. Supposedly the problem is that IRS doesn't get W2 data from employers in time to do this. And Matt Yglesias also has a post that touches on the same subject.

Seems to me if people can figure out how to do electronic interchange of data so that a bill can be paid directly from one's checking account, then they ought to be able to figure out how to dump data from corporations into the IRS the same day they print W-2's.  And then IRS ought to be able to put up a simple 1040 with the available data and all the payers from last year (i.e., savings accounts, brokerage accounts).  Needless to say the people like H&RBlock and Intuit don't like the idea. 

This reminds me of something the head of the Sherman County ASCS Office told me 18 years ago.  Someone had left ASCS and set up a consulting firm to help farmers with (evading) payment limitation rules. Mike S. wanted ASCS to change and simplify and automate so that the firm would go out of business.  Unfortunately that's not going to happen.  Neither is IRS going to give taxpayers a strawman 1040.

School Lunches

I usually quarrel, or at least quibble with the stuff I find on Grist. But there's a series on school lunches in the District of Columbia, which is interesting.  I don't necessarily agree with everything, but he acknowledges some of the trade-offs involved. (There's 6 parts, and here's the links to:
  first, second, and third posts. fourth

Elect a Grain of Sand to Congress

That's right, in some cases your elected representative acts exactly like a grain of sand in a sandpile.  Proven by the scientists--see this Technology Review article. Of course, your Congressperson has better hair than a grain of sand.

Everybody Gets a Fair Shot?

That's from Ed Rogers in today's Post, in a collection of opinions about the Supreme Court's decision that corporations and other associations have free speech in election:

As long as we limit the party's donors and restrict how campaigns can raise and spend their money, we dilute an important connection between the governed and government. We should remove the limits and disclose everything. That way everyone gets a fair shot.

I like transparency so my first, knee jerk reaction was:  hey, this sounds good. Then I thought: is it fair if some have more money than others. Personally I think, along with Kevin Drum, let associations and nonprofits operate freely with full disclosure, but keep profit-making corporations on the sidelines. 

British Bureaucrats Are Different

The first two paragraphs from the Guardian:

David Cameron would retain Gordon Brown's top civil servant as his right-hand man in Downing Street if the Tories won the general election – as part of plans aimed at ensuring a quick, efficient transition to a Conservative government.
The Tory leader, who is desperate to avoid squandering his first term in office, intends to reappoint Sir Gus O'Donnell – the mandarin who has been more closely associated with Brown than any other in Whitehall – as cabinet secretary for his entire first term in office. Senior Tory sources confirmed that Cameron would be "very happy" to retain O'Donnell in the post as head of the home civil service, and would rely on him heavily if and when the Tories return to government after 13 years out of office.

Turns out Sir Gus was John Major's press secretary, but rose to the top under Labor.  Imagine this happening in the U.S.--I can't either.

Crop Insurance and Disaster--Sen. Lincoln

Chris Clayton posts on the proposals to cut federal reimbursement of crop insurance companies by $4 billion over the next 5 years.  He includes this:

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Committee Ranking Member Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., along with 24 other senators sent a letter to USDA's Risk Management Agency on Wednesday asking the department to "refrain from making deep cuts to the federal crop insurance program," citing that a vibrant crop-insurance industry is vital to the agricultural economy.

I don't exactly qualify as unbiased, but there's an interesting contrast here.  Sen. Lincoln has been pushing for special disaster assistance for her farmers because of losses this year. Part of the reason help is needed is farmers have settled for cheap CAT insurance coverage, and have failed to buy the higher priced policies from the private companies. That seems to indicate some problems somewhere in the crop insurance system.  And her proposal for disaster aid is one way to undercut crop insurance: presumably if farmers knew disaster aid was not available, they'd be more willing to buy crop insurance.  So Lincoln (like others) is talking out of both sides of her mouth: on the one hand it's important to have a good crop insurance system and have farmers buy policies; on the other we must help those who don't buy full coverage.  The poor taxpayer ends up paying both ways.