“Military power can gain us time…but that is about it,”

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Fascinating look at General John Abizaid, Chief of Centcom, by Greg Jaffe:

In the fall of 2002, the U.S. military set up a task force here on the Horn of Africa to kill any al Qaeda fighters seeking refuge in the region. The base was crawling with elite special-operations teams, and an unmanned Predator plane armed with Hellfire missiles sat ready on the runway.

Today, the base houses 1,800 troops whose mission is to build health clinics, wells and schools in areas where Islamic extremists are active. The idea is to ease some of the suffering that leaves the locals susceptible to the radicals’ message, thus bolstering local governments, which will run the new facilities and get credit for the improvements.

David Hackworth spoke well of Abizaid. Other sites worth checking out include Defense and the National Interest and Tom Barnett’s blog. Barnett posted a few words on Jaffe’s article (more). John Robb is also worth a visit. Centcom website and RSS feed.

Who Knew? Third Coast Surfing in Sheboygan

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AP:

Sheboygan is the Capital of Freshwater Surfing because the county juts out 10 kilometres into Lake Michigan, meaning winds from most directions cause water to swell and form waves. It doesn’t hurt that the Williams brothers constantly hype their Malibu of the Midwest.

“Lake Michigan is an inland ocean, it can create waves in excess of 24 feet (7.3 metres), two and a half stories, several times a year,” said Larry Williams, pointing just down the 10-kilometre stretch of coastline. “North Point is now considered the Mount Everest of freshwater surfing. We had top California surfers come in here and they were backing off on a lot of waves.

“We get more waves than anybody else (on the Great Lakes), more quality waves, bigger waves, because where we’re sitting, from North Point to North Pier, about a mile, it’s really a deep bay and the waves sweep in.”

Surfer Movie Endless Summer II visited Sheboygan some years ago.

Dependency Ratios

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Malcolm Gladwell:

This relation between the number of people who aren’t of working age and the number of people who are is captured in the dependency ratio. In Ireland during the sixties, when contraception was illegal, there were ten people who were too old or too young to work for every fourteen people in a position to earn a paycheck. That meant that the country was spending a large percentage of its resources on caring for the young and the old. Last year, Ireland’s dependency ratio hit an all-time low: for every ten dependents, it had twenty-two people of working age. That change coincides precisely with the country’s extraordinary economic surge.

Kraft Foods (Oscar Meyer Parent) Spinoff?

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Melanie Warner:

Today’s meeting of Altria’s board may bring Kraft — which sells food carrying the Maxwell House, Nabisco and Oscar Mayer labels, among others — one step closer to its goal.

With the last major legal challenge over marketing practices by the tobacco industry having cleared two weeks ago, Altria’s 11-member board is likely to discuss the timing of a much-anticipated and imminent corporate overhaul. But Altria’s board is not expected to announce a Kraft spinoff after the meeting.

Wall Street analysts who follow Altria say they expect the company, which has been planning an overhaul since 2004, to take its time in making a final decision on the timing of what would be one of the largest tax-free corporate spinoffs.

S.2590 – A great Idea: Which Senator is Standing in the Way?

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Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 introduced by Mr. COBURN (for himself, Mr. OBAMA, Mr. CARPER, and Mr. MCCAIN) shall:

SEC. 2. FULL DISCLOSURE OF ENTITIES RECEIVING FEDERAL FUNDING.
(a) In General-
(1) WEBSITE- Effective beginning January 1, 2007 and subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), the Office of Management and Budget shall ensure the existence and operation of a single updated searchable database website accessible by the public at no cost that includes for each entity receiving Federal funding–
(A) the name of the entity;
(B) the amount of any Federal funds that the entity has received in each of the last 10 fiscal years;
(C) an itemized breakdown of each transaction, including funding agency, program source, and a description of the purpose of each funding action;
(D) the location of the entity and primary location of performance, including the city, State, congressional district, and country;
(E) a unique identifier for each such entity and parent entity, should the entity be owned by another entity; and
(F) any other relevant information.
(2) INITIAL DATA- Effective January 1, 2007, the website shall include data for fiscal years 2006 and 2007.
(3) PREVIOUS FISCAL YEARS- Not later than January 1, 2009, information required by this section shall be posted on the website for fiscal years 1999 through 2005.

Evidently, this quite useful initiative has been “put on hold” by a single senator. Here’s a tally of Senators who said that they did not place the hold (a single Senator can evidently place a hold on legislation…). Senator Feingold, to his credit has apparently announced that he was not responsible for the hold. I phoned Senator Kohl’s DC office this morning. A staffer said that she “does not have a statement on this issue”.
I hope all government entities publish a searchable database as envisioned by S.2590. Earmarks, another gross abuse of our system – are just now getting some sunshine.
UPDATE: Paul Kiel says that a Kohl staffer says that he did not place a hold on S.2590.