Boost Administrative Capacity?--Never Happen

From a Wonkblog post interview on the social security disability insurance program :

" The disability programs could always be run better, and one shortcoming of the “This American Life” story is that there was little discussion of the nuts and bolts of this. For example, it would be wise to make more investments in the administrative capacity of the Social Security Administration so that they could do more reviews, check up on people with continuing disabilities and see if they’re still eligible." [emphasis added]

I daresay we will never see mainstream media urging more dollars for greater administrative capacity on the part of the government. [Yes, I'm feeling cynical today.]

Trucks: Different Cultures, Different Countries

A cousin observed she didn't see many trucks in Ireland (apropos of the recent snow storm). Just for the hell of it I checked: 

In 2009 we had 134,880,000 cars, and 110,561,000 trucks in the US (US Census), or 45 percent of our vehicles were trucks.  In Britain there were 28,813,000 cars and 3,767,000 trucks, or 11.5 percent were trucks.

I Love People Who Act Like Bigshots

Politico reports on a Congressman's kerfuffle with the Park Service. 

One of My Pet Ideas Is the Weakness of Government

I'll throw out an example:  A map of English counties (before 1974 reorg?)

A map of French departments (colors indicate population density)

If I understand correctly, the French department and the English county are the first administrative subdivision below the country (yes, I realize England isn't a country, but the same would apply if I showed a map of British counties). Compare these, with their relatively equal proportions, with a map of the US at the same level of administration:

Iraq: Were We Lied To?

The trigger for this is a recent discussion over on Ta-Nehesi Coates blog looking back at the decision to invade Iraq.  Most of the comments trend liberal, which is usually okay because that's what I am.  But some of them assert the administration lied us into the war, which troubles me.

Yes, there was exaggeration and probably the occasional lie, but I don't believe there were many conscious lies.  What was going on was people believed what they wanted to believe was true; they deluded themselves and then they deluded the rest of us.

I won't support my position by rehashing the events in 2002/3; that's tedious.  I would point to a parallel I see in more recent events:

It seems apparent that the Romney campaign and many media figures on the right fully believed that Romney was going to win the election.  They told us so repeatedly.  In my surfing I'd hit Fox News and see Pat Caddell et. al. confidently predicting victory.  After election day I don't recall anyone saying: "I knew all along Romney was doomed to defeat, but I lied to our audience just to keep spirits up."   Now there's no reason for a pundit to make a prediction he knows to be false and which will be proved to be false within a week or a month. That wouldn't be rational. [ed.--who says people are rational?]

So I can only conclude they were self-deluded, just as I think GWB and Cheney et.al. were back in 2003.

Maybe the Best Place to Work Shouldn't Be?

Government Executive has a piece on the 12 best small federal agencies to work at.  Topping the list is:

In 2012, the Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation topped the very small agency list with a Best Places to Work job satisfaction and commitment score of 90.1 on a scale of 100. Its mission is to assist Hopi and Navajo Indians impacted by the relocation that Congress mandated in 1974 for members of the tribes who were living on each other’s land.

 Now I applaud their accomplishment in being the best place to work in the government.  But the thought does pass through my mind: there's 39 years between the Congressional mandate and now.  While I understand relocating people is a long process, shouldn't it have been finished maybe 10 years ago?

30 Gigs of Email?

I can't believe that, but apparently Ezra Klein has almost 30 gigs, because that's all Google would sell him space for.  See this Drum commentary, which quotes Klein.

Banks and the Agriculture Committee

Here's a Salon article on how the banking industry loves the Agriculture Committees.  Why?  Because they oversee "derivative trading", which farmers know as "commodity futures".  Hat Tip Wonkblog.

FSA Makes Progress

I commend the MIDAS people for displaying metrics on their posts (i.e., how many visits the page has seen and how many today).  This update from the manager is an example.

Nostalgia Day

John Fea labels this image: "Prehistoric Googling".