Confirmed: We Pay More In Taxes to Get Less from the Gov't

From the NY Times today:

Region Gets Less Federal Money for Taxes Paid, a Study Finds
By Ronald Smothers

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. Oct. 28 - If the tristate region seceded and established itself as a separate country, it would replace the United States as the second-wealthiest nation in the world behind Luxembourg in terms of per capita income, according to a new study by Rutgers University.

Given their wealth and the nation's progressive tax system, taxpayers in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey pay a disproportionately high share of the nation's federal income and employment taxes, the study found. Those states rank 49th, 40th and 50th, respectively, in the amount of federal aid they receive per tax dollar, according to the study.

With 10.8 percent of the nation's population, the tristate region had 13.1 percent of the nation's personal income in 2003, and was responsible for 15.8 percent of the income and employment taxes collected by the federal government.

In New Jersey, the gap between what was sent to Washington in tax dollars and what came back to the state in federal assistance was $26 billion, an amount greater than the state's 2003-2004 budget. New Mexico, on the other hand, got $2.08 in aid for every dollar of federal income tax its residents paid.

James Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and principal author of the study, said the figures underscore the responsibility that comes with affluence in a system of progressive taxation.

"To the degree that the money is going for valid public policy purposes, it is fine," he said. "But if it goes for subsidies and unfair tax breaks for cowboy capitalists in other states, then it is not fair."

The study,"Tri-State Affluence: Losing by Winning," was the first, Mr. Hughes said, to view the three states as a group in analyzing the return they get for federal tax dollars. Similar studies for New York were done in the 1970's as the city grappled with a fiscal crisis and sought a rationale for increased federal aid.

Joseph Seneca, a faculty member at the school and a co-author of the study, said the region has been the nation's richest since the 19th century, and had "reinvented itself" as manufacturing declined to become a hub for service and financial businesses, which boomed in the 1990's.

In the study, Connecticut ranked first in per capita income in 2003 at $43,173, New Jersey second at $40,427 and New York fifth at $36,574. The national average is $31,632.

In terms of median household income, New Jersey led the nation with $58,588 annually, 34 percent above the national average. Connecticut ranked third with $56,803, while New York was 17th with $46,195.

The study found that those higher incomes were not consistently spread throughout each state, but concentrated in a "wealth belt" made up of eight counties, including Manhattan, whose greater concentration of wealthy individuals outpaced all of the other counties in the nation in per capita income at $84,591.

The higher incomes were concentrated in Fairfield County in Connecticut; Somerset, Hunterdon, Morris and Bergen Counties in New Jersey; and Manhattan and Nassau and Westchester Counties in New York.

The wealthier areas of all three states were disproportionately dependent on the high salaries of the financial sector, said Mr. Hughes, and consequently were more sensitive to the volatile boom and bust cycles in the stock market. One consequence, he said, was that soaring tax receipts in the 1990's during the economic boom financed an expansion of government functions that became "embedded" in state spending.

With the downturn in the economy and the stock market in particular between 2000 and 2003, this level of spending became harder to sustain.

Fake Soldiers in New Bush Ad

I found this little item on Daily Kos through Wonkette. Basically, the Bush team used a little photo-editting magic to add some troops to a campaign spot. I wonder if it can duplicate actual troops too because that is something we really need...

Statement of the Day - 10/27/04

"Those guys suck so bad that its like total suck." - Chris, in reference to a workplace annoyance.

I am the ostrich

I've basically been depressed by the upcoming election and the incredible Yankee debacle that I witnessed last week so I haven't been posting. I'm still catching up on the sleep I missed by watching all of those 9 hour baseball games and I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea that Boston is up 2 - 0 in the World Series. I'm also trying to wrap my head around the idea that GWB might actually win again and that about 50% of the country actually likes him and/or his job performance well enough to vote for him again. As Madeline Albright said on the Daily Show last night, "Voting for him legitimizes what happened in 2000."The latest news from Reuters puts GWB up by 3 points. What the fuck gives? Seriously, I'm acting like the current administration because I have just stopped reading my usual news sources and have buried my head in the proverbial sand because I just don't like anything that the newspapers are publishing. Not to say that I'm turning into a GWB myself, I will pay attention to reality again soon, I'm just waiting for election night and for the World Series to end. God helps us on November 3rd if Boston has won the World Series and GWB is our president for another 4 years. I might just take off from work for the rest of the week and drink Jim Beam all...day...long...

NeuCom: The Not-So-Daily Show

Crossfire had Jon Stewart on last week while his TDS was running re-runs for the week. They expected him to come on the show and add some comic relief while plugging "America (The Book). Boy did they get more than they bargained for.

Of course, as a result, the blogs of the world are on fire criticizing him as a hidden leftist (insert "commie pinko" if you so desire) who disguises himself as a centrist / apolitical comedian. This is because it was Tucker Carlson (from the right) that took most of his flak. However, if you really watch it, Stewart is indicting neither the left not right, but (rightfully so) the media for just being so damn stupid.

It kept coming back to "do shows like crossfire asks the tough questions," but I think the point Stewart was trying to make was that, regardless of the questions asked, no one presses on the answers anymore. The hard question can be asked but when it is skirted or responded to with campaign talking point fluff no one ever presses the guest / spinner (see also Chris Matthew's grilling of Republican S. Carolin Senate candidate Jim DeMint this Sunday - here is someone who actually WON'T let the squirmer off the hook. Too bad it's just the S.C. Senate race and a rare moment). In all honesty, Sterwart looked a bit haggard, which is probably why he was off his game, but also why he was so brutally pissed and honest to begin with that we get this golden TV moment.

Highlights include when Jon Stewart tells Tucker Carlson that he won't "be his monkey" and when he calls Carlson a dick on live TV.

Thanks to Stewart for another shining moment of public service, and I am sorry he is getting skewered for taking off the satire suit for a moment and making a real point on the state of affairs in the modern American political machine. I am also sorry that the most lucid popular voice in American politics has a lead-in show where puppets make prank phone calls.

The link again:

http://www.ifilm.com/filmdetail?ifilmid=2652831&htv=12&htv=12&htv=12

I was also lucky enough to see Jon Stewart's follow-up on TDS last night (now that they are back), although I did not at the time have any idea what he was referring to. He was pretty brutal there as well, and I am trying to find a link.

NYC Walking Tours

This weekend my friend Erik wanted me to join him on a Haunted Pub Crawl around the West Village run by Street Smarts NY. I love learning about interesting historical tidbits and I don't mind walking so it sounded like a good idea - the only problem was that my apartment was trashed due to a fall cleaning exercise (is there such a thing?) and I passed. However, the month is young and there are still many fun walks to take all around NYC. I might go for a walk - I'll willing to spend $10 to see if it's cool or not. Anyone interested in joining?

Magic Hat #9 Bottle Caps

I've been watching a lot of sports on TV this past week: 3 Yankee games and counting and the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets this afternoon. Sports plus TV equals Jeff drinking beer and the latest sixer I bought was Magic Hat #9, a terrific microbrew out of the Green Mountain State of Vermont. The beer is good, the web site is pretty nifty and the bottle caps have some very amusing messages on them. Here are the top 3 that I've read:

3) Take a Day to roll in the Hay
2) Don't Climb a Ladder with a Full Bladder
1) To conceal a Fart is an age-old Art

I wonder if "He who Smelt it Dealt it" is on a beer that I have not yet opened...

Words of the Day

I found these words on an index card while cleaning this past weekend. I finally looked them up and I've posted both the words and their meanings:

Perspicacity: Acuteness of perception, discernment, or understanding.

Occidentals: Natives or inhabitants of an Occidental country; a westerner.

Syllogism: A form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion; for example, All humans are mortal, the major premise, I am a human, the minor premise, therefore, I am mortal, the conclusion.; reasoning from the general to the specific

Engender: To bring into existence; give rise to: “Every cloud engenders not a storm” (Shakespeare); to procreate; propagate.

Newsweek's Interview with John Stewart

This was in the October 18th, 2004 edition of Newsweek:

NW: Thanks for taking the time. I know you're busy these days.
JS: I'm just sitting here playing minsweeper
NW: I don't kow if you read the reviews -
JS: I can't read. I did the book phonetically.
NW: Anyway, The New York Times suggested that perhaps your book should be nominated for a history Pulitzer.
JS: Hmm. Is that a cash prize?
NW: What's your political leaning? I heard your nickname is Lefty.
JS: Lefty? I didn't realize that. That's actually a testicular condition. I do write left-handed.
NW: Do you find it hard to be light-hearted sometimes?
JS: Absolutely. Many days start with a soul-crushing analysis of the state of the world. Then the entire digestive process of the show is to try and turn whimpers into laughter.
NS: How do you see the election shaping up?
JS: Any pundit asked what's going to happen should answer the same way: "I have no fucking idea." They don't, you don't I don't.
NS: From a purely comic perspective, do you want four more years of Bush.
JS: From a purely comic perspective, you'd want Mr. T to be president. That would be truly fun. But no, I don't cheer for the demise and erosion of the world purely for my own professional standing. I can write jokes about anything.

NeuCom: Magic Keyboard

I have been having some bad problems with my nect and shoulders as of late. After seeing numerous professionals it seems the root cause is my failed attemp at ergonomics.

You see, in order to fend off carpel-tunnel (sp?) I have always sat with my chair raised very high, my knees at right angles and my feet firmly on the ground, my posture straight and my arms and hands agnled comfortably to my desk / keyboard. This means that I sit, all in all, very high up in relation to my desk. Unfortunately, since I work 100% on a laptop, it means that I have had my head pitched down at a 20 degree angle to see my screen for the past four years. My attempts to save my wrist have fucked my neck.

The solution, which I talked my bosses into, is to put my laptop on top of 3 ream of paper to eye level. This also makes it very hard to type. While it would be preferable just to use this as an excuse to never do work again, I had to wind up stealing USB keyboards from whatever location I was sitting at. As a portable consultant, however, I needed a portable solution.

Here is where Think Outside's portable bluetooth wireless keyboard comes in.

The company covered my bluetooth transmitter, the keyboard, and (soon, just to free up one USB port) a wireless mouse. I freaked out a coworker by walking with my keyboard into his office and IMing him while standing right next to him. I am using it right now. So cool!

Word of the Day

Schadenfreude: Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.

Example: When I [Lloyd Grove of the NY Daily News] suggested to Franken that I didn't believe him [regarding that he had "no comment" about O'Reilly's recent legal woes] and that he must be having his own little schadenfreude festival he conceded: "Well, if this is true, there'll be enough schadenfreude to fuel ... uh, no comment, no comment!"

Words of the Day courtesy of the NY Times Circuits Section

ADMIRONISHMENT: "No one does weird quite as well as Japanese game designers and animators, who come up with concepts so bizarre that one feels a mix of admiration and astonishment, best expressed as admironishment." - Charles Herold, author of the Game Theory article "Touches of Weird, Done Best in Japan"

SPOOFPROOF: "Nothing is spoofproof," said Timothy L. Murray, the chief operating officer of Cross Match Technologies, which has supplied scanners used at 115 airports and 15 seaports. "So there's a market niche that cares an awful lot about whether the thing on the reader is alive." - Ian Austin, author of the What's Next article "Is It Really You? A Scanner Delves Beneath Fingerprints"

Interview with Burt Rutan, developer of SpaceShipOne

I've grabbed from Space.com this interview with Burt Rutan, aerospace maverick and winner of the X Prize. He's been in the papers a lot in recent years (feel free to read the article from Wired back in July, 2003 which is especially good). This new article, basically an interview with Burt, is incrediblity enlightening and if you have any interest in being a civilian astronaut in your lifetime, read it! Also, it's amazing how much he looks like a grizzled Wolverine - if Logan ever had a father, Burt would be my first choice to play him in the fourth or fifth X-Men movie (see below).

Thursday, October 14, 2004

MOJAVE, California -- Nobody can claim that Burt Rutan, the innovative aerospace designer, doesn't have his head in the clouds - and his eyes focused on the stars.

Fresh from success of nudging the piloted SpaceShipOne's nose to record-setting heights and capturing the $10 million Ansari X Prize, Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites have clearly set their sights on far loftier goals.

One gets the feeling that in restricted niches of the Mojave Spaceport here, work is already underway on bigger and better spaceships. Asked directly about that prospect, Rutan is quick with a "no comment" that comes wrapped in a guarded smile.

"You think this is cool?" Rutan asked, pointing to the freshly flown SpaceShipOne. "Wait 'til you see SpaceShipTwo ... it is erotic," he added, alluding to the smooth lines of a craft that would seem tangible and touchable - not a minds-eye image of vaporware.

In an exclusive interview with SPACE.com the day after his design won the X Prize, Rutan discussed his passion for making the space frontier accessible to the public.

Simplicity of design

Standing in Scaled Composite's hangar alongside his creation, Rutan examined the spacecraft. It looks fresh and ready for flight; no worse the wear from its high-speed, back-to-back suborbital jaunts.

"Any damage is actually kind of hard to find," Rutan said. A slight charring in a couple of spots on the vessel is all that's visible. "You're hard pressed to find anything else."

Thermal protection is not an issue for suborbital space tourism, Rutan said. "We got to 3.3 Mach number, but we only go there momentarily. We don't sit there for about an hour like the SR-71 does," recounting the abilities of the super-fast military reconnaissance aircraft.

Looking into the hybrid rocket motor area of SpaceShipOne, Rutan underscores the simplicity of the power plant's design.

"The fewer things you have that can leak or can fail in a rocket motor the fewer problems you have," is a Rutan rule of thumb.

Similarly, there's the plumbing of the craft, pneumatic cylinders and valves to control the large movable tail section rather than using electrical systems. Like your garden hose under pressure, a turn of the valve and water is definitely going to come out, Rutan said. "It's just that reliable."

Tomorrowland upbringing

On any number of topics -- be it NASA (news - web sites), large aerospace contractors, or inept television reporters -- Rutan has an opinion, mischievously taking out a handmade ear from his shirt pocket and casually slipping it on.

Wording on the false ear speaks volumes: "Bull**** Deflector".

Time traveling back to when he was 12 years of age, Rutan recalls a seminal moment that triggered his yearning about space travel.

In 1955, Walt Disney took television viewers into Tomorrowland - a series of Disneyland presentations that included rocket genius Wernher von Braun detailing space travel in matter-of-fact prose. Those TV shows also talked about floating in weightlessness, lunar exploration, as well as the potential for life on Mars.

"It influenced my life like you wouldn't believe," Rutan recalled. Those television airings came before Sputnik in 1957, the selection of America's first astronaut corps, and the flight of the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin - the first human into Earth orbit.

"And we're sitting there amazed throughout the 1960s. We were amazed because our country was going from Walt Disney and von Braun talking about it - all the way to a plan to land a man on the Moon - Wow!"

The right to dream

But as a kid back then, Rutan continued, the right to dream of going to the Moon or into space was reserved for only "professional astronauts" - an enormously dangerous and expensive undertaking.

Over the decades, Rutan said, despite the promise of the Space Shuttle to lower costs of getting to space, a kid's hope of personal access to space in their lifetime remained in limbo.

"Look at the progress in 25 years of trying to replace the mistake of the shuttle. It's more expensive, not less, a horrible mistake," Rutan said. "They knew it right away. And they've spent billions - arguably nearly $100 billion over all these years trying to sort out how to correct that mistake - trying to solve the problem of access to space. The problem is - it's the government trying to do it."

Forecast of things to come

The flights of SpaceShipOne, Rutan said, permit a forecast of things to come.

"I predict in five or six years, the average kid is no longer just hoping and dreaming that he'll go to space. He knows he will. He'll at least take one of these suborbital flights that are flying every other day or every day here at Mojave," Rutan stated. While initially expensive, flights into space will drop in price over time, he added.

"And I predict that within 10 years from now, maybe 12 years, kids will know that they will go to orbit in their lifetime. They will know they will - not just dream and hope," Rutan explained.

IBM mentality

Turning his attention to the larger aerospace firms like Boeing and Lockheed Martin that offer pricey lines of boosters, Rutan offers free advice.

"They are thinking SpaceShipOne is a toy," Rutan said. That assumption is akin to the mentality of IBM in 1975. At that time, they believed people aren't going to have cheap computers. Computers are main frames and they have to be complex and very specialized. That was the view of IBM, he pointed out.

"IBM didn't know in 1975 that they were going to build $700 dollar computers for people and that they were going to build them by the tens of thousands. But then came Apple," Rutan said, "and they had to."

That being the case, Rutan made another prediction: "Lockheed and Boeing will be making very low-cost access to space hardware within 20 years. They just don't know it yet - because they're going to have to."

Thousands of probes

Rutan said that an upshot of public space travel is the creation of far less expensive boosters in order to satisfy growing numbers of customers.

That development -- coupled with advances in computers and sensors - will enable thousands of probes to be launched that flood the solar system 25 years from now, Rutan said.

"You'll be able to do a lot more exploration if you send thousands. And it'll be cheap because the boosters were developed because people can't afford to spend too much to get into orbit," Rutan concluded.

"I could be wrong - but these are the things that keep me up nights."

Bush's Notes From the Last Debate

For all those who were wondering what Bush was writing down during the second debate last week, wonder no longer. The notes were smuggled out, scanned and put online. You can view them here.

Thanks go to Phyllis for sending this to me.

The NY Times Real Estate Section Is Stalking Me!

As my wife so accutely pointed out today, the NY Times Real Estate section has been mirroring our life for the past few months. Actually, its consistantly about a week or two behind actual events. Here's how:

First, a little background. Jessie and I are currently looking at apartments to buy. When we first started looking, we thought that we would buy an apartment in Harlem because its up-and-coming and the prices are so much cheaper than the rest of Manhattan. A week or two after we began looking in earnest, the Times printed an article on August 29th entitled "In East Harlem, Developers Find The Next Frontier." We laughed and also were a tad dismayed; what if everyone adopted the same strategy as we had based on this article and whatever deals remained would be quickly snapped up?

After looking in Harlem for only a little bit, we found what we thought was the ideal apartment - a 3 bed room 1000 sq ft apartment on 119th and Madison. It was bigger and more expensive than we wanted and needed but as an investment, we thought that it was a "can't miss" proposition. We bid on it the next day and although our bid was accepted, the seller later that week made up (or at least we strongly suspect made up) some story about a higher bid coming in after ours was accepted and said that we could still have the apartment but that we needed to match the higher asking price. We declined and walked away from the deal because it was just too much. The very next weekend, on September 26th, the Times published an article entitled "3-Bedrooms Soar as New York Nests" which featured the apartment we walked away from as the only 3 bedroom apartment that is available in Manhattan for less than $500,000. Jessie and I laughed and said, "I guess that apartment is going to be even more popular now." In fact, it wasn't sold and its now off the market. We both think that the seller was fucking about and just wanted to see how much he/she could get for it. If the price was high enough, he/she would sell. I guess the price isn't high enough yet.

We continued to look for an apartment, working on our own and with the aid of our broker. We have a very ambivalent feeling towards him because while we like him, we don't love him and often feel that we are finding more and better apartments to look at than he is finding for us. True to form about a week or two after we started to feel this way, the Times wrote an article on October 3rd entitled Your Broker as Your Friend, or Maybe Not.

After looking at a number of different apartments over a few weekends, we found one that we liked alot and placed a bid on it. Ours was one of five bids but after a day's worth of negotiations, it was the winning bid. The apartment is an awesome loft space one block from Washington Square Park in the heart of NYU's campus. Its basically a big white box which needs some work so we would put in a new bathroom, new kitchen, new closets and even build a nice second level because it has 13 foot ceilings and we can - we saw another apartment in the same building that did this already and we were really looking forward to this design project. However, when talking about the building to our friend Keri she said, "Aren't you going to be living above a restaurant?" We didn't know - the entrance was on a side street and we hadn't been back since the open house. So, Jessie did some recon on her way to work and sure enough, the ground floor has a mexican cantina, a coffee shop and a caterer. The apartment we "won" was on the second floor. So, once again we walked away from an apartment, although this time rather reluctantly. Sure enough, this past weekend the NY Times followed our lead with an article on October 10th entitled Rushing to Buy Can Bring Regrets on Moving Day". This is now just plain weird.

Now we are thinking about simply renting for another year or two instead of buying because the market is so inflated. If the Times writes about this as an emerging trend, I'm going to crap myself and seek a restraining order.

Bob Dylan Quotes from his memoir

"Folk songs are evasive." They offer "the truth about life, and life is more or less a lie, but then again that's exactly the way we ant it to be." Their lesson? "If you told the truth, that was all well and good and if you told the un-truth, well, that's still well and good. Folk songs taught me that."

"The sociologiest were saying that TV had deadly intentions and was destroying the minds and imaginations of the young - that their attention spans were being dragged down. Maybe that's true but the three minute song also did the same thing."

The Civil War was when "America was put on the cross, died and was resurrected...would be the all-encompassing template behind everything that I would write."

The Promise of the First Amendment

A very important legal motion was made last week. A NY Times reporter was ordered sent to prison in contempt of court because she would not give up a source. This case, and the story behind it, has been in the news for quite some time. The short of it is that Bob Novak outed a CIA agent and the government is trying to find who was at fault. This makes sense - people might have died because of this lapse in judgement and it is 100% against the law to divulge this type of national security secret. However, the manner in which the government goes about finding who was at fault in interesting as well. Here is the Op-Ed response to this legal judgement, from the publisher of the NY Times himself:

The Promise of the First Amendment
By ARTHUR OCHS SULZBERGER JR., chairman and publisher, and RUSSELL T. LEWIS, chief executive, The New York Times

ast Thursday, a federal district judge ordered a New York Times reporter, Judy Miller, sent to prison. Her crime was doing her job as the founders of this nation intended. Here's what happened and why it should concern you.

On July 6, 2003, Joseph C. Wilson IV - formerly a career foreign service officer, a chargé d'affaires in Baghdad and an ambassador - wrote an article published on this page under the headline, "What I Didn't Find in Africa." The article served to undercut the Bush administration's claims surrounding Saddam Hussein's nuclear capacity.

Eight days later, Robert Novak, a syndicated columnist, wrote an article in which he identified Ambassador Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as an "operative on weapons of mass destruction" for the C.I.A. "Two senior administration officials told me," Mr. Novak wrote, that it was Ms. Plame who "suggested sending Wilson" to investigate claims that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium ore from Niger. After Mr. Novak's report, several other journalists wrote stories in which they said they received similar information about Ms. Plame from confidential government sources, in what many have concluded was an effort to punish Mr. Wilson for speaking out against the administration by exposing his wife as a C.I.A. operative. The record is clear, however, that Judy Miller is not one of those journalists who reported this information.

Because the government officials who revealed Valerie Plame's status as a C.I.A. operative to the press might have committed a crime in doing so, the Justice Department opened a federal criminal investigation to find whoever was responsible.

During the course of this investigation, the details of which have been kept secret, several journalists have been subpoenaed to provide information about the source of the leak and threatened with jail if they failed to comply.

On Aug. 12, Ms. Miller received a subpoena in which she was required to provide information about conversations she might have had with a government official in which the identity and C.I.A. connection of Mr. Wilson's wife might have been mentioned. She received this subpoena even though she had never published anything concerning Mr. Wilson or his wife. This is not the only recent case in which the government has subpoenaed information concerning Ms. Miller's sources. On July 12, the same prosecutor sought to have Ms. Miller and another Times correspondent, Philip Shenon, identify another source. Curiously, this separate investigation concerns articles on Islamic charities and their possible financial support for terrorism that were published nearly three years ago. As part of this effort to uncover the reporters' confidential sources, the prosecutor has gone to the phone company to obtain records of their phone calls.

So, unless an appeals court reverses last week's contempt conviction, Judy Miller will soon be sent to prison. And, if the government succeeds in obtaining the phone records of Ms. Miller and Mr. Shenon, many of their sources - even those having nothing to do with these two government investigations - will become known.

Why does all of this matter? The possibility of being forced to leave one's family and sent to jail simply for doing your job is an appalling prospect for any journalist - indeed, any citizen. But as concerned as we are with our colleague's loss of liberty, there are even bigger issues at stake for us all.

The press simply cannot perform its intended role if its sources of information - particularly information about the government - are cut off. Yes, the press is far from perfect. We are human and make mistakes. But, the authors of our Constitution and its First Amendment understood all of that and for good reason prescribed that journalists should function as a "fourth estate." As Justice Potter Stewart put it, the primary purpose of the constitutional guarantee of a free press was "to create a fourth institution outside the government as an additional check on the three official branches."

The founders of our democracy understood that our government was also a human institution that was capable of mistakes and misdeeds. That is why they constructed a First Amendment that would give the press the ability to investigate problems in the official branches of our government and make them known to the public. In this way, the press was sensibly put in a position to help hold government accountable to its citizens.

An essential tool that the press must have if it is to perform its job is the ability to gather and receive information in confidence from those who would face reprisals for bringing important information about our government into the light of day for all of us to examine. Without an enforceable promise of confidentiality, sources would quickly dry up and the press would be left largely with only official government pronouncements to report.

A quarter of a century ago, a New York Times reporter, Myron Farber, was ordered to jail, also for doing his job and refusing to give up confidential information. He served 40 days in a New Jersey prison cell. In response to this injustice, the New Jersey Legislature strengthened its "shield law," which recognizes and serves to protect a journalist's need to protect sources and information. Although the federal government has no shield law, the vast majority of states, as well as the District of Columbia, have by now put in place legal protections for reporters. While many of these laws are regarded as providing an "absolute privilege" for journalists, others set out a strict test that the government must meet before it can have a reporter thrown into jail. Perhaps it is a function of the age we live in or perhaps it is something more insidious, but the incidence of reporters being threatened with jail by the federal government is on the rise.

To reverse this trend, to give meaning to the guarantees of the First Amendment and to thereby strengthen our democracy, it is now time for Congress to follow the lead of the states and enact a federal shield law for journalists. Without one, reporters like Judy Miller may be imprisoned. More important, the public will be in the dark about the actions of its elected and appointed government officials. That is not what our nation's founders had in mind.

In Honor of Jacob Cohen, aka Rodney Dangerfield

To honor the life of Jacob Cohen, aka Rodney Dangerfield, I have compiled for your faithful reader some of his best one liners:

I come from a stupid family. During the civil war my great uncle fought for the west!

My father was stupid. He worked in a bank and they caught him stealing pens.

When I was born..the doctor came out to the waiting room and said to my father.. "I'm very sorry. We did everything we could..but he pulled through."

My mother had morning sickness after I was born.

My mother never breast fed me. She told me that she only liked me as a friend.

My father carries around the picture of the kid who came with his wallet.

I could tell that my parents hated me. My bath toys were a toaster and a radio.

I worked in pet store and people kept asking how big I'd get.

One year they wanted to make me poster boy..for birth control.

I remember the time I was kidnapped and they sent back a piece of my finger to my father. He said he wanted more proof!

My uncle's dying wish was to have me sitting on his lap. He was in the electric chair.

I stuck my head out the window and got arrested for mooning!

Once when I was lost.. I saw a policeman and asked him to help me find my parents. I said to him.."Do you think we'll ever find them." He said.."I don't know kid.. there are so many places they can hide."

I remember I was so depressed I was going to jump out a window on the tenth floor.. so they sent a priest up to talk to me. He said.."On your mark..."

On Halloween..the parents send their kids out looking like me.

Last year.. one kid tried to rip my face off!

Now it's different.. when I answer the door the kids hand me candy.

When my old man wanted sex.. my mother would show him a picture of me.

I had a lot of pimples too. One day I fell asleep in a library. I woke up and a blind man was reading my face.

My wife made me join a bridge club. I jump off next tuesday.

One time I went to a hotel. I asked the bellhop to handle my bag. He felt up my wife!

For two hours..some guy followed me around with a pooper scooper.

I met the surgeon general. He offered me a cigarette!

A travel agent offered me a 21 day special. He told me I would fly from New York to London. Then from Tokyo back to New York.I asked him.. "How am I supposed to get from London to Tokyo?" He told me.."That is why we give you 21 days."

Another travel agent told me I could spend 7 nights in Hawaii. No days.. just nights.

My problem is that I appeal to everyone that can do me absolutly no good.

They say.."Love thy neighbor as thy self." What am I supposed to do? Jerk him off too?

At christmas time I sat on santa's lap. His fly was open. Boy..what a present he gave me!

My sex life is terrible. My wife put a mirror over the dogs bed.

Actually she did put the mirror over our bed. She says she likes to watch herself laugh.

I'm a bad lover. Once I caught a peeping tom booing me.

My wife only has sex with me for a purpose. Last night she used me to time an egg.

I asked my wife if she would put out the garbage. She said.."Why should I.. you never put out for me."

I asked her if she enjoys a cigarette after sex.She said.."No.. one drag is enough."

A girl phoned me and said.."Come on over there's nobody home." I went over. Nobody was home!

A hooker once told me she had a headache.

I went to a massage parlor. It was self service.

If it weren't for pick-pocketers i'd have no sex life at all.

I was making love to this girl and she started crying. I said.."Are you going to hate yourself in the morning?" She said.. "No.. I hate myself now."

She was no bargain either. She showed up with pigtails under her arms.

She was fat and ugly. She was so fat that...

- She got on the scale and a card came out saying.. "One at a time."

- Her bath tub has stretch marks.

- Her belly button makes an echo.

- She has a dress with a sign on the back saying.. "Caution wide load."

- When guys have sex with her they ask for directions.

- One day I ran into her with my car. She asked me why I didn't ride around her. I told her that I didn't think I had enough gas.

- Her bikini is made out of two bed sheets.

- When guys eat her out they ask for provisions for the trip.

She was so ugly that...

- She was known as a two bagger. That's when a girl is so ugly that you put a bag over your head in case the bag over her head breaks.

- I bent down to pet her cat only to find that it was the hair on her legs.

- I took her to a dog show and she won first prize.

- They use her in prisons to cure sex offenders.

- I took her to the top of the Empire State building and planes started to attack her.

- The last time I saw a mouth like hers it had a hook on the end of it.

I was tired one night and I went to the bar to have a few drinks. The bartender asked me.. "What'll you have?" I said.."surprise me." He showed me a naked picture of my wife.

During sex my wife always wants to talk to me. Just the other night she called me from a hotel.

My marriage is on the rocks again. Yeah..my wife just broke up with her boyfriend.

One day..as I came home early from work..I saw a guy jogging naked. I said to the guy.."Hey buddy..why are you doing that for?" He said.. "Because you came home early."

I went to look for a used car. I found my wife's dress in the back seat!

Once in a restuarant I made a toast to her.."The best woman a man ever had." The waiter joined me.

Its been a rough day. I got up this morning..put on a shirt and a button fell off. I picked up my briefcase and the handle came off. I'm afraid to go to the bathroom!

I had a problem. I tried group sex. Now I have a new problem...I don't know who to thank!

My friends and I played a new version of Russian roulette. We passed around six girls and one of them had VD.

I went to see my doctor.. you know him.. Doctor Vidi-boom-ba? Yeah..I told him once.. "Doctor.. every morning when I get up and look in the mirror..I feel like throwing up; what's wrong with me?" He said.."I don't know but your eyesight is perfect."

I remember when I swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills. He told me to have a few drinks and get some rest.

I told him I think my wife has VD. He gave himself a shot of penicillin.

I told my dentist my teeth are going yellow. He told me to wear a brown necktie.

He found a new way to cover up his bad breath...he holds up his arms.

Why every time he smokes..he blows onion rings.

My physchiatrist told me I'm going crazy. I told him.. "If you don't mind I'd like a second opion. "He said.."Alright..you're ugly too."

I was so ugly..my mother used to feed me with a sling shot!

When I was born the doctor took one look at my face...turned me over and said.. "Look...twins!"

And we were poor too. Why if I wasn't born a boy..I'd have nothing to play with!

Underfunding Leave No Child Behind

The Bush Administration has passed legislation called the Leave No Child Behind Act which creates federal standards on education policy and results. While good in name, it is in fact leaving more children behind than before it was passed because it has been incredibly and woefully underfunded. Standards are in place that most states of no hope of living up to. Money that was promised has not and almost will not appear. Here is a run-down of what the NY tri-state area didn't get and what the 3 "crucial" swing states didn't get:

NY TRI-STATE AREA:
New York did not get $966 million in public school funding last year promised by Congress and the President, including $664 million for extra academic support for low-income students, $73 million for critical after-school programs, and $24 million to raise teacher quality.

New Jersey did not get $209 million in public school funding last year promised by Congress and the President, including $122 million for extra academic support for low-income students, $15 million for critical after-school programs, and $7 million to raise teacher quality.

Connecticut did not get $80 million in public school funding last year promised by Congress and the President, including $47 million for extra academic support for low-income students, $6 million for critical after-school programs, and $3 million to raise teacher quality.

SWING STATES:
Florida did not get $500 million in public school funding last year promised by Congress and the President, including $313 million for extra academic support for low-income students, $35 million for critical after-school programs, and $17 million to raise teacher quality.

Ohio did not get $310 million in public school funding last year promised by Congress and the President, including $196 million for extra academic support for low-income students, $23 million for critical after-school programs, and $12 million to raise teacher quality.

Pennsylvania did not get $337 million in public school funding last year promised by Congress and the President, including $217 million for extra academic support for low-income students, $25 million for critical after-school programs, and $12 million to raise teacher quality.

Thanks go to the Committee on Education and the Workforce for providing the stats.

Homage to the X Prize

SpaceShipOne soared into space today, the second time in less than a week, and won the X Prize which worth if you were wondering a cool 10 million dollars. Here is how Google honored the winners, who will usher in a new age of space tourism:

The ultimate goal of the Burt Ratan crew is to bring the cost of a space flight for passengers down to the price of a low-cost car. I would gladly sell my Yugo to experience weightlessness. Richard Branson is already on the SpaceShipOne bandwagon - he's licensed the technology to create Virgin Galactic, a company that will sell flights on a more consumer friendly version of Scaled Composite's prize winning spacecraft. Branson says he's naming the first plane the V.S.S. Enterprise. Talk about an homage. I hear they are only accepting applications from pilots named either Sulu or Checkov...

Scrabble is a Religion

I watched an intesting flash movie just now. I found a link to it in a post at Screenhead, the latest Nick Denton micropublishing vehicle. This post was about a newly launched web site called Vid Lit which "offers a different kind of Flash, with the emphasis on storytelling, and images as more of an incidental device. Feels like This American Life, but with pictures. Entry 'Craziest' by Liz Dubelman offers up the idea of the word game Scrabble as a religion. Like the Da Vinci Code, only mildly less insane."

After watching the flash video, I checked my Amazon Wish List and unfortunately, although I added Word Freak:Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players a while ago, it is still on it. I really want to read it though so if you want to buy it for me, I'll promise to write a book review.

This post goes out to Jay, Keri, Eric, Michelle and Erik - scrabble nuts, every last one.

Summer Camp

I just saw a face on Friendster that I haven't seen in decades. I know her first name is Audrey because Friendster told me her first name is Audrey but I don't know her last name. Her profile doesn't list it and I cannot for the life of me remember what it is or was (maybe she's married now). I think it's one syllable. In fact, I wouldn't have remembered her first name either if it wasn't provided to me, which is sad because a long time ago she was a very important friend of mine. I remember she said one of the nicest things to me at one of my worst pre-teen and/or teenage moments, period. I had just asked someone out, that person said no and I was crushed, very unhappy and extremely angry. Right outside the back door of the canteen in Camp Lohikan's rec hall, as it was slightly drizzling she said, while wearing a grey hooded zippered sweatshirt,
"One day, you are going to make a great husband." It sounds like such a simple statement but to a deeply depressed 14 year old, it was incredibly profound and it made all the difference in the world. Obviously it had an impact on me because, all these years later, I still vividly remember it. When others rejected me later on in life I would go back to her words to brush off the hurt - this is true, not some concocted memory. Look at me about 13 years later - I have made someone a great husband. And I have a great wife too. Interesting how some things work out like that.

Man, not knowing her last name is really going to bug me. I had a big crush on her for a while too. I remember the first time I saw her I wanted, needed, to know her name. So, one day when I was waling down the big hill to the lake and she was in front of me, when she dropped her activity card, I picked it up to learn who she was and what bunk she was in. I thought that was a pretty sly move. Maybe that is why I remember that moment. I was 12 at the time.

At camp, we were very good friends. In fact, she was one of my best and truest female friends summer after summer. My crush on her was always there though, sometimes subtle and deep in the background, sometimes more pronounced though I don't think she ever knew until I told her. I finally got up the nerve to ask her out once during the 4 summers we spent together. I thought I remembered exactly the "when" and "where" but the when is now fuzzy to me, because I thought it was during my last summer there, right before I left to go on a 3 day, 2 night hiking excursion through the Catskill Mountains. That can't be right though because I was dating someone at the time (who I promptly broke up with when I returned from that trip - another story in itself). So, it must have been earlier in the summer, probably when I was striking out left and right with women. Regardless of when it was I remember where it was: by the pool, on the hill, close to the road. I said that if I didn't ask her, I would always regret it and that I had to know how she felt about me. Her answer should be obvious - she said no in case it wasn't to you. What the hell was her name?!

Memories to me are funny little things. They are mental snapshots of events that like regular photos fade over time. Different details fade faster than others though. I remember so many faces; I can immediately pull up some many images in my mind when thinking about camp but the names almost all escape me.

Here are some names that I don't want to forget: Dave Lampert, David Lyon, Scott Gausling (who turned me onto both rock and rap), Doug Jenson (and his afternoon tea service), Ian Brassett (who turned me into a Man U supporter because he supported Arsenal and I wanted to annoy him), Marc Blum (who still has a pair of fatigues that I want back, though I saw him in a mosh pit in 1995 where he told me "they are now shorts!"), Michael Endes, Jeff Beitler, Todd and Adam Shapiro, Dave Sereata (sic), Greg Lyons, Richard Johnson (his dad was supposedly Dennis Johnson of the Celtics, not sure if that is true), Melanie Talesnick, Lindsey Melnick, Holly Something (Orians! - added 5/9/06), VJ Fallabella, Evan Ruane, JB Something, Rob Melnick (who, rumor had it, played with GI Joes naked on his bed), Tiny Something (his name wasn't even Tiny, that was his nickname because he was so huge).

Man oh man, I can't remember anyone's name. The names above represent maybe 5% of the people I knew. I even went to the camp website just now - I have gotten that nostalgic. I even posted something on the camp message board. I may have to go to the Poconos this weekend now.

When I remember more names, I'll add them as comments.

OR I'll just add them to the post! The second I left work I remembered Audrey's last name - Kessler! It just popped into my head as I headed east along 41st St towards the subway. In fact, I remembered that Audrey isn't even the girl I was thinking of - Audrey is the girl I was thinking of's younger sister who also attended Camp Lohikan! So, if you reread this post, please substitute Eden for Audrey. I mean, how can you forget a name like Eden? Well, I did, at least for a little bit. This investigation explains Audrey's age being 23 (her sister Eden, my friend, is 26 and only one year younger) and why she looks like the girl I was thinking of but sort of not really. I am no longer annoyed. Happy Friday.

'06 UPDATE: I met both of them at a camp reunion in the summer of '05. I joked about this post and found out that they hadn't read it (though many others had - see my Summer Camp II post). I got to share the story above with them and it really made them smile. Then, afterwards Eden emailed me to say that she had read the post and that it really, really made her smile. What a great full circle moment. Ka is truly a wheel.

Entrepreneurship: Jamaican Style

....and I'm not talking about marijuana either. Hurricane Ivan decimated the island's power grid and hundreds of thousands of people are still without power. As many of the island's inhabitants rely on cell phones to communicate, some enterprising souls have turned their cars into mobile money making machines.

The photo below shows a car charging cell phone batteries from its own car battery. The owner of the car is selling this service for $50 a charge - see sign on the windshield. Yes, I know the sign is sort of illegible but trust me, it was $50. I received this photo from a woman I work with who has family in Jamaica. Her relative brings 4-5 of his neighbors' cell phones to work with him everyday to charge for free - each week he charges around 20 - 25 phones. Just looking at the photo, I see that there is about $500 - $1000 sitting on that car's hood.

No matter what the occasion or circumstance, some people will always go out of their way to help and others will find a way to make money. Oh the humanity!