More Lazy Servicemen

Fresh off accusing the Air Force of wasting time playing basketball while people die, Krugman is now going off on those slackers in the Navy.

Each day since Katrina brings more evidence of the lethal ineptitude of federal officials. I'm not letting state and local officials off the hook, but federal officials had access to resources that could have made all the difference, but were never mobilized.

Here's one of many examples: The Chicago Tribune reports that the U.S.S. Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday - without patients.

This gives the false impression that the Bataan was "never mobilized" to help the relief efforts. Now I don't claim to know specifically the status of their hospital beds, but the Bataan was mobilized on the 30th and has been operating in support of the relief since then. I guess Krugman just figures the Navy and Marine Corp are just lazy and spending their time watching pre-season football or something.

USS BATAAN, Gulf of Mexico (NNS) -- The multipurpose amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) was tasked Aug. 30 to assist with Hurricane Katrina disaster relief efforts.

Two MH-60 search and rescue helicopters from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HC) 28, based out of Norfolk, Va., launched at 5 p.m. CST Aug. 30 to assist in the search and rescue efforts that are currently ongoing in and around the New Orleans area.

At 6:30 p.m. CST, two MH-53 helicopters from Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron (HM) 15, based out of Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, also flew off Bataan to assist with efforts in the New Orleans area.

Bataan is currently underway in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 100 miles South of New Orleans. The ship’s involvement in humanitarian assistance operations is an effort by the Department of Defense in support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

UPDATE: Powerline has more to say on this.

Paul Krugman Discovers Basketball-gate

Once more descending into a parody of himself, Paul Krugman has now found the smoking gun behind Bush's ineptitude, Air Force personnel playing basketball.

Even military resources in the right place weren't ordered into action. "On Wednesday," said an editorial in The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss., "reporters listening to horrific stories of death and survival at the Biloxi Junior High School shelter looked north across Irish Hill Road and saw Air Force personnel playing basketball and performing calisthenics. Playing basketball and performing calisthenics!"

Of course what he doesn't mention is that the Air Force Base in question, Keesler Air Force Base, is a training base, and may not even have the capability of taking any meaningful action, short of giving flight lessons to New Orleans' refugees, and in fact was heavily damaged by the hurricane. In fact looking up the base's home page brings up the following:

Keesler Air Force base has survived a direct hit by a Hurricane Katrina a Category 4 hurricane. Initial assessment shows extensive damage to our industrial and housing areas. We are deploying assessment crews and are in contact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and with commanders of many military bases who have offered assistance. The damage is severe enough that we are unable to leave our shelters until Thursday at the earliest in order to assure our recovery teams have cleared debris and made it safe for us and our families to return home.

Furthermore Krugman laments the fact that the National Guard cannot respond because "... many members of the National Guard and much of its equipment - including high-water vehicles - are in Iraq. "

Completely losing all sense of proportion, especially for an economist, Krugman fails to mention how much equipment "much" is. If you look at the actual quote from the officer.

Dozens of high water vehicles, humvees, refuelers and generators are now abroad, and in the event of a major natural disaster that, could be a problem.

Considering there are over 10,000 guardsmen involved already, with tens of thousands more on the way, I think it is safe to say that they will bring more than "dozens" of vehicles.

Furthermore the officer in question continues:

Col. Schneider says the state has enough equipment to get by, and if Louisiana were to get hit by a major hurricane, the neighboring states of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida have all agreed to help."

As Governor Bush did for Ivan, after they were hit so many times, he just maxed all of his resources out, he reached out to Louisiana and we sent 200 national guardsmen to help support in recovery efforts," Col. Schneider said.

Now my heart goes out to the people of Louisiana and Mississippi, and you could always make the case that we need to prepare for disasters like this better. We all need to chip in to help them. But hysterics and wild exaggerations do not help.

This helps.

Katrina Relief

Instapundit has an extensive roundup of charities and fundraisers for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Mark Steyn is donating the proceeds from all the copies of his book sold today to Mercy Corps. I just might have to get a copy. Check it out.

Why Do Our Public Schools Suck?

As I continue my "higher education week", well, I couldn't say it better myself.

There is widespread agreement that America has the best universities in the world. Foreign students enroll by the hundreds of thousands, and American college professors dominate the Nobel Prize lists.

But virtually no one says we have the best K-12 education in the world. To the contrary, many lament the poor showing of American students on international tests. What makes American universities so much better than our primary and secondary schools?

While many factors are at work, much of the explanation can be summarized in two words: "privatization" and "markets." About a third of four-year college students attend private institutions, and the proportion is growing. By contrast, only one-eighth of K-12 kids attend private schools.

Moreover, even public universities are far more independent of the political process than K-12 schools. Public universities have greater ability to hire and fire staff, pay people on the basis of merit, change curricula, and face far less interference from obstructionist labor unions.

Bring in the Apaches

Call me un-politically correct, but anyone who is stupid enough to fire at a helicopter that is busy rescuing people deserves some 20mm fire in their direction. These looters, arsonists, and general criminals are putting the lives and livelihood of the hurricane victims at risk. This is martial law, if they happen to be shot on sight, oh well.

The evacuation of the Superdome was temporarily disrupted Thursday after shots were reported fired at a military helicopter and arson fires broke out outside the arena. No injuries were immediately reported.

An air ambulance service official said that helicopter transfers of the sick and injured were suspended, but the National Guard said Thursday that able-bodied evacuees were still being moved by bus to Houston's Astrodome.

Authorities had said Wednesday that some 25,000 people who had been in the Superdome since Sunday would be taken to the Houston Astrodome. But the unrest had caused some disruptions.
The scene at the Superdome became increasingly chaotic, with thousands of people rushing from hotels and other buildings, hoping to climb onto the buses taking evacuees from the arena, officials said. Paramedics became increasingly alarmed by the sight of people with guns.

Powerline on Poverty

The press has been making a big fuss over the rise in the poverty rate (all Bush's fault obviously), Powerline has an interesting look at this. I am just mad because their charts are better looking than mine. I had better get more practice at Excel....

A Beautiful Mind II: The Revenge of the Economist

I have discussed this issue a couple of times, how my favorite "economist deserving of a thorough Fisking" Paul Krugman used to actually be a respectable economist. I came across this article of his from the 90s while surfing the web today.

So let's continue. Suppose that our economy initially employs 120 million workers, which corresponds more or less to full employment. It takes two person-days to produce either a hot dog or a bun. (Hey, realism is not the point here.) Assuming that the economy produces what consumers want, it must be producing 30 million hot dogs and 30 million buns each day; 60 million workers will be employed in each sector.

Now, suppose that improved technology allows a worker to produce a hot dog in one day rather than two. And suppose that the economy makes use of this increased productivity to increase consumption to 40 million hot dogs with buns a day. This requires some reallocation of labor, with only 40 million workers now producing hot dogs, 80 million producing buns.

Then a famous journalist arrives on the scene. He takes a look at recent history and declares that something terrible has happened: Twenty million hot-dog jobs have been destroyed. When he looks deeper into the matter, he discovers that the output of hot dogs has actually risen 33 percent, yet employment has declined 33 percent. He begins a two-year research project, touring the globe as he talks with executives, government officials, and labor leaders. The picture becomes increasingly clear to him: Supply is growing at a breakneck pace, and there just isn't enough consumer demand to go around. True, jobs are still being created in the bun sector; but soon enough the technological revolution will destroy those jobs too. Global capitalism, in short, is hurtling toward crisis. He writes up his alarming conclusions in a 473-page book; full of startling facts about the changes underway in technology and the global market; larded with phrases in Japanese, German, Chinese, and even Malay; and punctuated with occasional barbed remarks about the blinkered vision of conventional economists. The book is widely acclaimed for its erudition and sophistication, and its author becomes a lion of the talk-show circuit.

Rather cogent and logical stuff. Even a right wing hack like me could agree with that. Unfortunately he has now fallen into Bush hatred driven dementia where facts and logic no longer matter, only his image of paranoid loss and persecution. Maybe Ron Howard will do a movie on him? Come back to the light side Paul. Don't give in to your hatred. I still see the good in you. OK, I am mixing my movie metaphors.

Vets on Campus

As part of my continuing higher education week, I found this an interesting story.

As college students hit campuses across the nation this week, a new generation of young veterans will step off the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan and onto the ideological battlefield of our university campuses. For those on the frontline in the war on terror, the antiwar hostility of liberal professors and campus activists will assuredly prove unsettling.

Just ask Marine sergeant Marco Martinez, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a full-time psychology major at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif.

“A woman on campus had apparently learned I might be a Marine. When I told her I was, she said, ‘You’re a disgusting human being, and I hope you rot in hell!’ ”

Indeed, Martinez, who will be the first male in his family to receive a college diploma, says he is receiving more of an education than he bargained for: “There are a lot of people who don’t appreciate military service in college,” Martinez said. “If someone asks me about it, and I think that they’re not too liberal, I might tell them I was in Iraq. But I don’t tell them the full extent of it or anything about the Navy Cross.”

The Trade Deficit

I found this interesting when I was looking at data regarding housing expenditures the other day. Much has been made about the "record trade deficit" recently, and I agree it is a major economic issue, although I don't pretend to know how it will work out. One thing nobody is really pointing out though is this isn't really a result of a lack of competitiveness, in the sense that nobody is buying US goods and services, we are selling record numbers of those. The problem is, we are buying even more foreign goods and services. This is unprecedented, but short of a traumatic currency devaluation, how do you tell US consumers and corporations to quit buying cheap foreign goods? Should you even try?

Anyone got $50,000 I can borrow?

Today is higher education day at the Chief Brief. I am starting grad school in 3 weeks, and am quite shocked by the price of text books. What a scam. In my case easily over $500 a quarter. I saw this article on Poor and Stupid and Marginal Revolution on Kruggy's textbook. All I can say is I am glad I don't have to use it. My faith in academia is restored, at least temporarily. Here is a choice quote.

Sanderson said that the major topics of microeconomics are pretty well agreed upon, and that you probably can’t go too wrong with many textbooks. In this case, though, he said he found Hubbard’s real-world examples to be well-written, and engaging. Still, though Hubbard has “a shorter paper trail” than Krugman, Sanderson is not sure he can be objective enough. One thing is for sure: not everyone is as enthralled with all of Krugman’s writing as Cassing. “[Krugman] writes great economics,” Sanderson said, “but when he writes politics he’s just bad.”

Back to the Future

I saw this on Best of the Web Today. Now maybe I am just a dumb white guy, but I seem to recall a movement over the last 40 years to eliminate the segregation of education in the south. IMHO the biggest thing holding back young blacks in their educational opportunities is not being around whites, it is being around other blacks who do not uphold the value of education as much as whites (or especially Asians) do. But that is just me.

Twenty-seven black freshmen at the University of West Georgia will live together, attend classes together and learn to study together this year as part of the Carrollton school's first learning community for African-American men. It is believed to be the only learning community specifically for black men at a historically white public college or university in Georgia.

Hell Freezes Over

He couldn't quite bring himself to do it in his last column, but Krugman reluctantly manages to bring himself to admit, not one, but two "inaccuracies" in last Friday's column.

Corrections: In my column last Friday, I cited an inaccurate number (given by the Conyers report) for turnout in Ohio's Miami County last year: 98.5 percent. I should have checked the official state site, which reports a reasonable 72.2 percent. Also, the public editor says, rightly, that I should acknowledge initially misstating the results of the 2000 Florida election study by a media consortium led by The Miami Herald. Unlike a more definitive study by a larger consortium that included The New York Times, an analysis that showed Al Gore winning all statewide manual recounts, the earlier study showed him winning two out of three.

Of course you have to ask yourself, what type of an "economist" just takes numbers out of a left wing conspiracy rant without checking them? And now that much of the basis of his argument has proved suspect, will he admit the weakness of the original source, the "very judicious work" called "Steal This Vote". What type of grade would he give one of his students for such shoddy work?

Not to gloat too much, but do you really think he would have ever done this if it weren't for the outrage from the blogosphere?

The 2000 election is still an open sore on the body politic. That was clear from the outraged reaction to my mention last week of what would have happened with a full statewide manual recount of Florida.

Yes, Mr. Krugman, and every time you lie, and then continue to cover it up with obfuscations, we will get outraged again.

UPDATE: And of course the grand conspirator-in-chief of the Krugman Truth Squad, Don Luskin posts on this, and points out that even this unprecedented correction, is not quite what it seems. More on this at the Grand Duchess of the Krugman Truth Squad, Michelle Malkin.

UPDATE 2: Well I was so stunned by Krugman's reticent correction that I didn't even really pay attention to the content of his new column. Econopundit makes a rather good point:

It's also true that the unemployment rate looks fairly low by historical standards. But other measures of the job situation, like the average of weekly hours worked (which remains low), and the average duration of unemployment (which remains high), suggest that the demand for labor is still weak compared with the supply. (emphasis added)

I'm sort of impatient with this because the BLS directly measures the demand side of the labor market in several ways. Paul: instead of measuring demand for labor by inference and guesswork, you can simply check the numbers and see what they are.

Looking at Krugman's words I would have to agree with his assertion that the average of weekly hours worked is down (although in France he claims that is a good thing) but what about the average duration of unemployment? Well once again, let's go to our friends at the BLS:

Currently in July 2005 we are at 17.6 weeks, down from a cylical high of 20.2 weeks in February of 2004. What if we compare it to the last economic cycle, the dotcom boom that Krugman called a "miracle". Well the recession ended 15 quarters ago, so let's go 45 months into the Clinton expansion, or December of 1994, what number do we find (drum roll please) 17.8! Or .2 weeks higher than we have now. Once again Krugman finds that everything is relative. If it is happens under a Democrat it is good, if it happens under a Republican, it is bad.

Who are we fighting?

"The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win. Get it, Mr. Bush?"

-Michael Moore-

"But now that we have decimated the country, the borders are open, freedom fighters from other countries are going in, and have created more terrorism by going to an Islamic country, devastating the country and killing innocent people in that country."

-Cindy Sheehan-

Amjad and more than a dozen other children from east Baghdad's al-Khalij neighborhood made up the majority of the 27 people killed when a suicide bomber drove into a crowd that had gathered around U.S. soldiers who were handing out candy and small toys, police said. The attack also killed one soldier, according to the U.S. military, and wounded at least 50 people.

The Washington Post

I Must Be Playing the Wrong Games

I saw this earlier on Drudge:

CANTON, Ohio -- There are 490 female students at Timken High School, and 65 are pregnant, according to a recent report in the Canton Repository.

The article reported that some would say that movies, TV, videogames, lazy parents and lax discipline may all be to blame.

School officials are not sure what has caused so many pregnancies, but in response to them, the school is launching a three-prong educational program to address pregnancy, prevention and parenting.

Things have really changed since I was in high school, back then teenagers who played video games extensively were less likely to have the opportunity to be involved in a pregnancy. Apparently now it is a cause.

Now Why Can't This Economist Write for the NY Times?

Steven Levitt, who like a famous economist I have mentioned before here is also a John Bates Clark medal winner, has been burning up the bestsellers lists with his book Freakonomics. He also has a blog. He even allows comments on it, and unlike Brad DeLong he doesn't even appear to delete and alter comments from people who disagree with him.

In any case he has a rather good post rebutting a NY Times Magazine article titled "Peak Oil" which is basically predicting the end of oil supplies. His post is rather logical, full of economic principles, and completely devoid of ad hominem attacks on his opponents, paranoid conspiracy theories, or irrelevant screeds against President Bush. All of which will immediately disqualify him for a job writing a permanent column for the Times.

What changed his mind over the weekend?

You would think Paul Krugman could at least keep his story straight over the weekend. From last Friday:

Two different news media consortiums reviewed Florida's ballots; both found that a full manual recount would have given the election to Mr. Gore.

But by Sunday night:

The second is what would have happened if there had been a full, statewide manual recount - as there should have been. The probable answer is that Al Gore would have won, by a tiny margin.

First of all, what is the basis of his "should have"? Sorry Paul, the Supreme Court, Florida election law, and even the requests of Al Gore and his lawyers overrule your John Bates Clark medal and oversized ego. But most of all, how did he manage to change from a definite statement "a full manual recount would have given the election to Mr. Gore" to the much more indefinite "the probable answer is" in just two days? Did he perhaps realize that he wouldn't be able to get away with fudging the truth from his first column? Who knows, possibly by Friday he will downgrade it to "maybe"?

There are many more problems with this article, but I don't feel like addressing them. This man is giving me a headache, I'll leave it to other bloggers.

Children Say the Cutest Things

I was at a public event today that the Guard was supporting, just standing there, in uniform, talking to an old NCO friend of mine. I hadn't seen him in a while since he had been in Afghanistan. This young couple walked by with the cutest little girl, about 3 or 4 years of age. They stopped, the mother pointed at us, leaned down to the girl and told her "Thank them for making us safe". The child took a few hesitant steps towards us, looked up at us kind of shyly and repeated her moms words, "Thank you for making us safe".

I know she was just the messenger, but they couldn't have picked a sweeter messenger. Thank you.

A little while later a retired Brigadier General shook my hand and gave me a coin, which was nice, but I will take the thanks of a little girl and her mom over that any day.

Kaus Rebuttal Rebuttal

As pointed out on Instapundit, Mickey Kaus comes to Krugman's defense, pointing out correctly that he stated a "full manual recount". This is true and is somewhat of a defense to Krugman's statement, which is why I pointed that out in my original post on this subject, although some bloggers missed this subtlety. Kaus doesn't mention my comments, either because he didn't notice my humble blog, or because I was right and thus he had nothing to rebut. Krugman's comments are still in the wide scope of things misleading though, because Krugman does not point out that only under certain scenarios and intepretations is this true, and that Gore would not have won the election under ANY recount process which was being conducted at the time.

Remember, Krugman is not arguing merely that this was a close and poorly conducted election, which nobody would debate, but rather that this was a stolen election on behalf of Bush. He is relying on the (apparently correct) assumption that most readers would not notice the subtlety of his wording and assume that he is saying that it is proven that the Supreme Court stopping the recount somehow gave Bush the election. The weakness of his article is not based on one big lie, but rather than a whole bunch of half truths, innuendos and omissions. Much like a Michael Moore film, he weaves a bunch of items together, which although they may have some loose basis in reality, together form a completely misleading conclusion. It is not a coincidence that Moore in Fahrenheit 9/11, a film that Krugman praised as "performing a public service", also attacked Katherine Harris in a similar manner, also inaccurately represented the "felon purge" and falsely claimed "under every scenario Gore won the election." a claim even more misleading than Krugman's precisely worded one.

Ironically, Krugman also had this to say about Fahrenheit 9/11:

There has been much tut-tutting by pundits who complain that the movie, though it has yet to be caught in any major factual errors, uses association and innuendo to create false impressions.

Aside from the fact that it actually has been caught in major factual errors, Krugman seems to have learned from the master.

UPDATE: Richard Bennett (no relation) looks into the statements of the "judicious" journalist who started this whole thing. Apparently he doesn't know the difference between "under some circumstances" and "every time" either. Powerline does its usual excellent work, as well as pointing to a very detailed breakdown on this in the American Thinker. I am thinking I might be going too easy on both Krugman and Kaus. I can't help it, I am just too nice of a guy.

Military Strategy Courtesy of the Seattle Times

I first saw this on the Best of the Web, since I haven't had a chance to read the paper today.

America's purpose in Iraq is over. The soldiers should be brought home. It can be done, as has been proven in Vietnam, Somalia and other places. When and how it is done is not Sheehan's call to make, nor should it be.

Considering both Vietnam and Somalia were political embarassments, if not military defeats, why exactly did they choose them as examples of "bringing the soldiers home"? They couldn't pick Kuwait, Japan or Germany as examples? Yes, we are still there in some form, but only after we defeated the enemy. What is next, using Grozny or Operation Market Garden as examples of how military offensives "can be done"?

Air America: The Enron of the Airwaves

I don't really have anything to add to this, I just wanted to use the title. The National Review Online has been particularly good today.

Until a few weeks ago, the biggest worry for executives at Air America was what to do about the liberal radio network's alarmingly low ratings. Launched amid much hype on March 31, 2004, Air America, with Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, Randi Rhodes, and a host of other anti-Bush personalities at the microphone, has, with the exception of a few cities, had great difficulty finding an audience. Even in New York, where the network's true-blue message should be welcome, its daily average ratings are actually lower than those of the Caribbean talk-and-music station it replaced a year and a half ago.

That would be bad enough. But now Air America finds itself fielding questions not only about its ratings but about its connection to a Bronx-based children's charity known as the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club. In early July, a little-noticed local online journal, the Gotham Gazette, reported that New York City's Department of Investigation (DOI) was looking into the diversion of "hundreds of thousands of dollars" from the Gloria Wise club to Air America. The first figure was around $450,000, but it now appears that $875,000 was transferred from the taxpayer-and-contribution-supported Gloria Wise club to the struggling radio network.