If you were paying attention back in November you answered $401 billion as approved in the Defense Authorization Bill.
Robert Higgs would like us to think a little more inclusively. He argues that the true cost for fiscal year 2004 is closer to $754 billion.
Via Damn Foreigner.
The Corporate Crime Reporter has ranked the 50 states by their rate of corruption.
Then there is the state wannabe The District of Columbia
We calculated the District�s corruption rate as 79.33. This is more than ten times what Mississippi�s corruption rate is……
But we didn�t include the District in the list for one obvious reason � the District is the seat of the federal government, and because of this, there are more criminal prosecutions for public corruption than anywhere else in the country.
It can be said that the District is the most corrupt political entity in the nation � but that�s only because it�s the seat of an apparently actively corrupt federal government � with 453 public corruption convictions over a ten-year period.
Even though there are some deficiencies in the data (noted in the full PDF report) this is an interesting indicator of the quality of government officials.
Via A List a Day.
More often then not folks renting cars are in a hurry. For instance, your plane just landed and your luggage is waiting, etc., so you do not read all that fine print in the contract and, of course, the fine customer service rep working with you has likely been trained to only say things that might maximize revenue. What happens next?
Well, Dan Gillmor tells us
about a man who was charged more than $3,000 for a car rental because he took the car out of state without realizing that would violate his contract. How did Payless, the rental company, know? It was using satellite-assisted tracking equipment to spy on the customer.
The original article is here.
The charge of $1/mile for driving outside the state of origin is surely excessive. I do not even understand the logic of the charge. And it is not nationally common. Example, fly into Cincinnati I mean Kentucky to go to Cincinnati. I have done this quite a few times and not been charged anything extra.
Sure, the guy should have read the contract. But I argue that failure to disclose and explain potential extra charges in big print on the front page may be deceptive given the context of the typical rental transaction.
And, the Oregon proposal (mentioned in the comments) to use GPS to calculate your driving miles as a basis for taxes is just broken before it gets out the door.
The Angry Bear takes leave of his normal home to take a walk on The American Street and deliver this piece on comparative fiscal responsibility and the revenue impacts of bush’s tax cut.
The results do not look good for the current administration especially when joined with Kash’s piece previewing the budget for the next 5 years.
Countering views anyone?
Number 5 on Alternet’s list of the Top Ten Drug Stories of 2003 is this:
5) The FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Report reveals that police arrested an estimated 697,082 persons for marijuana violations in 2002, or nearly half of all drug arrests in the United States. This amounts to one marijuana-related arrest every 45 seconds.
The total number of marijuana arrests far exceeded the total number of arrests for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
Hmmm, I know this math isn’t perfect but with a swag: decriminalize marijuana use and sales and then lay off 1/3 of local, state and federal law enforcement employees.
Or, put them to work doing something that actually helps to protect our lives and property.
Additional fringe benefits: reduced load in judicial system and increased housing available in the prison system.