GovernmentExecutive.com

The big finish turns out to be about...finishing. You know, in Iraq and stuff. Makes sense, I guess.

And, cue the post-speech sucking up. He's actually signing autographs. And he just climbed over a whole row of people to kiss Mary Bono. He better hope Laura wasn't looking. I'm telling you, if you turn off CSPAN when the speech ends, you miss some of the best stuff.

By the way, here's the final CSPAN count: 51 minutes, 7 seconds, 61 interruptions.

Well, that's it for another year. It's been fun. I'll be back with regular old blogging tomorrow.

"These gains are evidence of a quiet transformation – a revolution of conscience, in which a rising generation is finding that a life of personal responsibility is a life of fulfillment. Government has played a role. Wise policies such as welfare reform, drug education, and support for abstinence and adoption have made a difference in the character of our country. And everyone here tonight, Democrat and Republican, has a right to be proud of this record."

Wow, nice things about Democrats and government in the same sentence! I guess he's serious about this setting a more civil tone thing.

Did he just say he wants to build cars that run on grass?

Ooh, a shout-out to the Program Assessment Rating Tool. The folks over at OMB must be so proud.

The baby boomer joke about him and Clinton fell flat. This just isn't a forum for comedy.

Ouch! A Dem standing O for the "Congress did not act last year on my proposal to save Social Security" line. At that point, you knew that whatever sentence he said next was going to get the full GOP off its feet.

He really is setting some kind of record for thanking the troops. No matter what the subject, he always ends up there.

HIV/AIDS, infants with malaria, refugees fleeing genocide, young girls sold into slavery, poverty, corruption, terrorism, organized crime, human trafficking, and the drug trade: These are apparently subjects that no one wants to stand and cheer about, even in the context of eliminating them. But another shout-out to the military gets them off their feet.

"Hindsight alone is not wisdom. And second-guessing is not a strategy." Zing!

Arlen Specter is staring weirdly at Elizabeth Dole, while he slow-claps. Just had to note that.

The standing O's are gradually becoming partisan. By my count, less than half of Democrats stood for the notion that we're winning the war on terror.

First shout-out to Osama--but the president's apparently on a last-name basis with him now. Second standing O of the night, for "fighting to keep our freedom." Can't really sit down for that one.

Pretty tepid applause for the stock "State of our Union is strong" line. And virtually none for the pledge to raise the level of discourse. Hmmm...

Man, the president knows how to work a room. Firm handshakes, jokes, kisses for the ladies--he's got the whole package. Breyer got a nice greeting, so his night's back on track.

Mike Chertoff just went over and joined the throngs who are warmly congratulating Samuel Alito, then blew off Steven Breyer entirely. Nice "whatever" look on Breyer's face.

Man, it takes an awful lot of senators to escort the president onto the floor. Don't you think he could find his own way by now? The first lady is looking classy, as always.

Here come the big guns. Supreme Court gets a huge ovation. Looks like they don't have a quorum, though. Now it's on to the Cabinet. Apparently Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson has drawn the short straw and has to stay home, so that he can take over the presidency in a worst-case scenario. Notice that it's never the Secretary of State or Defense who gets that assignment? It's almost a de facto recognition that your job is just not that important.

CNN is reporting that antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan has been arrested on the House floor after trying to unfurl a banner in her seat. She is now officially the political Zelig--or Forrest Gump.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hilary Rodham Clinton has made her way onto the floor. CSPAN is lingering on John Kerry as he works the room. He appears to have brought along a book to read. Probably a good way to kill time during standing ovations from the other side of the aisle.

OK, I'm here, and ready to go. I've vowed to abstain from the State of the Union drinking game, so I'll be at my sharpest. Already, I can see the members of the congressional suckup brigade jockeying for position on the aisles to try to garner one of those coveted presidential handshakes. We're just minutes away!

Can't wait to get my take on the State of the Union address? If so, you may need to get some help. But in the meantime, tune in tonight, when I'll be blogging the address live from in front of the TV in my kitchen.

Here's how deeply the federal government is involved with Choicepoint, the massive data warehousing firm that gathers and sells information about Americans: The Federal Trade Commission, whose investigation of alleged privacy breaches by the company led to a $15 million settlement last week, awarded the company a $23,000 contract last year to provide information for a study of credit scores, AP reports.

Move over, James Frey. The Justice Department announced yesterday that David Race Bannon, who claims to have worked for Interpol as a “hit man,” was arrested on Friday in Boulder, Colo., and charged with criminal impersonation. Bannon is the author of Race Against Evil: The Secret Missions of the Interpol Agent Who Tracked the World’s Most Sinister Criminals. Bannon has used his alleged background as an Interpol agent to charge more than $3,000 for training courses on human trafficking. But his credentials are "bogus," the Colorado Bureau of Investigation says.

John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, was over at our offices today for a luncheon session with reporters and editors. And, as usual, he was pulling no punches. Some examples:

• On his recent visits to Customs and Border Protection offices: "I have never seen morale at a federal agency so bad."




• On the Pentagon's National Security Personnel System: "A disaster for the civil service."




• On Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England's claim that the department had colloborated with unions to arrange a delay in NSPS: "I'll tell ya, I almost puked."




• On whistleblower protection: "To blow a whistle in the federal government, you've got to be out of your mind."




• On the merit principles that are supposed to govern federal hiring and performance evaluation: "You couldn't litigate anything off them. They're wishy-washy and all over the place."

The Pentagon initially opposed efforts to reimburse troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for the cost of body armor and other gear they had purchased themselves. Defense officials told Congress that the program would be a budget-buster, but legislators went ahead with it anyway. And now, the New York Times reports, fewer than 70 military personnel have actually requested reimbursement for protective gear. The Army, with 30 of those requests, has paid out only $22,000 in claims.

Federal prosecutors continue to play hardball with former OMB procurement chief in pursuing their charges that he lied and obstructed an investigation into superlobbyist Jack Abramoff. In court papers filed Friday, the government said that in November 2003, Safavian tipped off Abramoff that GSA was about to suspend the federal contracts of one of his clients, Tyco International. Not only that, Safavian told Abramoff what kind of strategy Tyco should use to appeal the suspension decision, prosecutors say. Safavian's lawyer fired back in the Washington Post Saturday, calling the government's filing "trash-talk trial tactics...designed to muddy David's reputation."

Lately, NASA's human space flight activities have taken a back seat to news about the agency's effort to capture comet dust and launch a probe to Pluto. That may be just as well, because some of the astronaut-related activities are, well, a little strange. Here's NASA's update on an upcoming spacewalk by International Space Station inhabitants Bill McArthur and Valery Tokarev:

During the walk, the crew will release the unusual SuitSat satellite. It's an old Russian Orlan spacesuit outfitted with amateur radio equipment. It will fly freely for several weeks of scientific research and amateur radio tracking. Eventually, SuitSat will burn up in the atmosphere.

The Base Realignment and Closure Commission has finished its work of deciding which military facilities to close, but it doesn't want to go out of business itself just yet. AP reports that the commission is pushing to spend another year on the job, to look into the issue of whether Congress should create a new organization to oversee the closure process.

The conventional wisdom is that National Guard and Reserve troops lose money when they leave their civilian jobs to report for military duty. It turns out that for most of them, that's not the case, according to a new RAND Corp. study.

Both my wife and I, along with so many other Americans, are seeking to drop a few pounds as the New Year gets into full swing. I see no reason why she needs to, but unfortunately, empirical evidence suggests that I do. She's teaming up with a friend and going to Weight Watchers meetings, I'm flying solo and trying to use will power alone. We'll see who has has more success. Either way, an Agricultural Research Service study suggests that I'm more likely to end up stressed out and stupid.

Richard Barr, who works for the Homeland Security Department in Washington, raises some good points about my item on the Census Bureau employee who challenged his firing for downloading child pornography on his work computer:

My reading of the article, coupled with my knowledge of the system, was that the employee was out the door and off the payroll shortly after his offense was discovered. The balance of the five years was an appeal of that decision in an attempt to have the employee reinstated. If the firing had been improper, the employee would have been on the street without pay or benefits for five years trying to right the wrong. Significantly, most agencies offer the targeted employee an opportunity to resign and depart with clean references for prospective private sector employers. Guilty employees usually take that option, while those who believe themselves wrongly terminated are pretty much out of luck getting any job that includes a reference check. For the innocent folks (perhaps 16% of the total fired according to one study) five years waiting for vindication is a hell of a long time, and many of them wind up resigning as well.

Look, I'm as big a fan of Wonkette as the next guy. But now the gloves are off. Check out this section of an introductory post from guest blogger Ezra Klein of the American Prospect on the site yesterday:

While you don’t have to respect me, ... if you’re not nice, I’m going to put you in the car, drive to the desert, and drop you off with only a back issue of Government Executive and a cap from the Abramoff collection to keep you warm. So be good.

Here's one of those, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" stories. A Nashville-based company ran the following classifed ads across the country:

*ANNOUNCEMENT* HIRING for 2005 POSTAL POSITIONS $17.50-$59.00 Plus+ hour. Full benefits. Paid Training Vacations. No Experience Necessary. Green Card OK CALL 1-866-329-0801

I didn't know until I read in the New York Times today that at yesterday's Senate hearing on coal mining accidents in West Virginia, the acting head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, David Dye, actually walked out after testifying for an hour. He said he had pressing business to attend to. An obviously irritated Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who chaired the hearing and tried to get Dye to stay for another hour, ominously said, "We'll find a way to take appropriate note of" the early exit.

In what universe does a political official agree to come to a hearing knowing that he's going to ditch legislators after only an hour? It's not like they grilled him all day. If there was something so pressing that it really was impossible for him to stay, couldn't that have been conveyed to staff to avoid a public discussion that embarasses the official in question, the agency, and the Bush administration? Unless Dye was deliberately trying to send the message that the administration simply wasn't interested in cooperating with the committee's efforts, this just doesn't make sense. Update: Washington Post's Ruth Marcus argues today that deliberately sending a message of contempt was exactly what the administration had in mind.

Patrick Chisholm, writing in the Christian Science Monitor this week, picks up on a theme that I've been pushing for some time now: that the era of big government is not only far from over, but the size and authority of the federal government continues to expand at a rapid pace. Of course, as Chisholm notes, most of this big scary federal establishment is simply engaged in the process of taking money from one group of Americans and issuing checks to others:

In the early 1960s, transfer payments (entitlements and welfare) constituted less than a third of the federal government's budget. Now they constitute almost 60 percent of the budget, or about $1.4 trillion per year. Measured according to this, the US government's main function now is redistribution: taking money from one segment of the population and giving it to another segment. In a few decades, transfer payments are expected to make up more than 75 percent of federal government spending.

Interesting fact about the dogs the Army uses to search for contraband and explosives: They are given official military ranks that are always one level higher than their handlers. That way, if a handler ever abuses a dog, he or she is subject to discipline under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

In general, I have limited sympathy for federal managers who say dealing with problem employees requires too much time and effort. It's not an easy process in the private sector, either, and part of being a good manager is keeping good records, making your case, and sticking to your guns throughout the disciplinary process. But then I see cases like this one in which it took more than five years to fire a Census Bureau employee who downloaded child pornography on his work computer, and it gives me pause.

It looks like the Defense Department's goal of getting a clean audit opinion on its annual financial statement is stretching even further into the future. The department had hoped to hit the target in fiscal 2007, but late last year told lawmakers that's not going to happen. So how far off is the goal? At a luncheon session with Government Executive reporters Friday, Francis E. "Gene" Reardon, deputy inspector general for auditing at the Pentagon, said eight to 10 years from now is more realistic. The problem isn't a lack of commitment to address the issue, he said, but that few people have understood just how deeply rooted DoD's financial problems are. When it comes to cleaning things up, "if you want the whole shebang, I think it's way out there," Reardon said.

Study: Most College Students Lack Skills Really? Not even nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, or computer hacking skills?

Here's a Washington Post story worth noting, if for no other reason than you're not going to see it on "20/20," "60 Minutes," or some "Fleecing of America"-like segment on the nightly news: Patient satisfaction rates are much higher at Veterans Affairs hospitals than at private facilities--for the sixth consecutive year.

The Federal Trade Commission wants you to know something: That e-mail that's been circulating saying you have to register your cell phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry, or you'll soon be receiving telemarketing calls? Urban legend.

In case you've missed the daily pronouncements by President Bush, the speeches on the floor of Congress, the steady stream of TV news video from Iraq, the stories in each day's newspapers, the lengthy magazine pieces, the books by current and former players in the national security establishment, and the military's regular briefings, Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has a reminder for you: We're at war.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff wants to clear something up: Mexican military units are not routinely invading the United States.

That's the issue the Food and Drug Administration is struggling with. The National Farmers Union says changing the current definition, which doesn't allow for the use of ultra-filtered milk, could spell big trouble for U.S. dairy producers. I don't know about you, but my definition goes something like this.

When it comes to managing resources and people, the Government Accountability Office is trying to set the pace for the agencies whose work it evaluates. But ask about the agency's ability to keep up the momentum on reform, and you'll get the same answer that agencies often give GAO itself: We need more money. Here's an excerpt from GAO's annual Performance and Accountability Report:

We sincerely strive to lead by example,
and are hopeful that our modest budget
requests supported by our sound
business case and proven performance
results will encourage the Congress to
provide additional resources to us and
other high-performing entities. If the
Congress employs such an approach,
we should be in a good position to
continue to provide a high rate of
return on the resources invested in the
agency. However, employing an
across-the-board cut or other nontargeted
approaches would greatly
impede our ability to do our work and may create perverse incentives for
those agencies that are trying to model
our priorities and practices.

Once again, NASA is showing that the coolest stuff it accomplishes doesn't involve incredibly expensive and extremely dangerous efforts to send humans into space. A University of Washington astronomer called particles captured by NASA's Stardust comet-catcher "absolutely stunning," the Seattle Times reports. Stardust landed Sunday after traveling seven years and nearly 3 billion miles. It passed within 150 miles of the comet Wild-2 to reach out and swipe gas and dust emitted by the comet. In related news, former astronaut Mike Mullane, who has flown on the space shuttle three times, calls it "the most dangerous manned spacecraft ever flown, by anybody."

The National Science Foundation reports that researchers at Yale University and the Organization of European Aluminum Refiners have concluded that even if we recycle copper, zinc and other metals, we won't have enough to meet the world's needs indefinitely. To me, that's just another argument for getting rid of the damn penny.

Yesterday, the Navy announced the construction of the guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale. It's named after Vietnam War hero and onetime Ross Perot running mate Vice Adm. James B. Stockdale, whose opening line in the 1992 vice presidential debate became the stuff of legend.

The Army's test results are in: caffeinated gum is safe--and it really works. The service recently experimented with Stay Alert gum at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Md. The gum contains 100 milligrams of caffeine--as much as in a six-ounce cup of coffee--but is absorbed into the body much more quickly. Here's Dr. Gary Kamimori of the Department of Behavioral Biology at WRAIR on the tests of the gum:

In three studies, using multiple administrations of caffeine with Stay Alert gum, [soldiers] reported that alertness, marksmanship -- both simulated and live fire -- vigilance on observation and reconnaissance tasks and physical performance during simulated operations were either maintained or improved as compared to those soldiers who received a placebo chewing gum.

The gum is now available to all military personnel.

In 1996, when OPM was in the process of privatizing its personnel security investigation function, GAO told the agency about a potential problem: OPM's investigations contractor was conducting background checks on the company's own employees. Ten years later, GAO reports, OPM still hasn't addressed the issue. The agency now says that in March, it will have federal investigators who transferred to the agency from the Defense Department last year begin performing such investigations.

Last week, somebody stole some moon rocks from a car near Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Va. The car belonged to a contractor working as a NASA instructor, according to the Virginian-Pilot. Begging the question: Contractors get to haul around moon rocks in their cars?

Audits have shown that shortcomings in contract administration in the early days of the Iraq reconstruction effort likely led to widespread waste and abuse. Nevertheless, the Wall Street Journal reports today, federal officials haven't made any significant effort to get money back from contractors.

File this under, "I'm not making this up, I read it in USA Today": The Pentagon employs a laughter training specialist, retired Army colonel James "Scotty" Scott--who is certified by the Ohio-based World Laughter Tour--to teach military families to laugh for no reason.

Our (big) sister publication, The Atlantic, is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year by reprinting excerpts from articles published in the magazine throughout its history. Here's an excerpt from a piece by Theodore Roosevelt published in 1894, when he was a 35-year-old member of the Civil Service Commission. In it, he offers some advice to the typical college graduate--who, he says, has an obligation to play a role in public life:

Let him beware of associating only with the people of his own caste and of his own little ways of political thought. Let him learn that he must deal with the mass of men; that he must go out and stand shoulder to shoulder with his friends of every rank, and face to face with his foes of every rank, and must bear himself well in the hurly-burly. ...

No man ever really learned from books how to manage a governmental system. Books are admirable adjuncts, and the statesman who has carefully studied them is far more apt to do good work than if he had not; but if he has never done anything but study books he will not be a statesman at all.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia has announced the indictment of a hearing examiner at the city's Bureau of Administrative Adjudication for agreeing to fix parking tickets in exchange for tickets to Phil Collins and Prince concerts. Now, I can almost understand the temptation a low-paid civil servant must have to accept a bribe, but selling out for Phil Collins tickets? That's just wrong.

Now here's a story you don't see every day:
FederalNewsRadio reports that 30-year-old Michael Dovilla, who last week resigned his job at OPM as executive director of the Chief Human Capitol Officers Council, is returning to his home state of Ohio to plot a potential run for Congress against Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

"Pork projects like this make me think we need signs around the Capitol reading: 'Please don’t feed the animals.'"--Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., on a provision in the fiscal 2006 Transportation-Treasury appropriations measure earmarking $250,000 for design and construction of an Africa exhibit at the Glen Oak Zoo in Peoria, Ill.

You might think the core of the Navy's mission is in "blue water, building big things and putting them to sea." But the chief of naval operations, Adm. Mike Mullen, says that's where you're wrong. The Navy's future is in green and brown water, he argues.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has a few choice words for Justice Department immigration judges, who decide whether foreigners should be allowed to stay in the United States: Drop the sarcasm and start treating the aliens who come before you with respect. At the same time, USA Today reports, the Homeland Security Department is nearly tripling the number of teams assigned to hunt down fugitives who judges have ordered must leave the country.

This may explain some of the things you see reported on TV, in newspapers, and on the Web: the University of Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions has found that a little more than 7 percent of American workers drink during the work day, and AP reports that "young, single men are tied most often to workplace-related drinking, especially managers, salespeople, restaurant workers and those in the media."

The National Taxpayer Advocate, Nina Olson, has weighed in with her annual assessment of the IRS' operations. Her verdict: Too much enforcement, too little service to taxpayers. Olson's report notes that the agency "has eliminated TeleFile, significantly reduced the number of returns IRS personnel prepare for taxpayers who seek IRS assistance, reduced the percentage of taxpayer calls IRS telephone assisters answer as compared with FY 2004, and substantially reduced its taxpayer education function for small businesses."

Judge Samuel Alito isn't undergoing your average job interview, so maybe it's not surprising that he's not your average job candidate. He just told Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., that he doesn't know what Supreme Court justices are paid. But Alito is, apparently, like a lot of federal employees when it comes to how he views his current compensation. Asked if he knows in general what federal judges make, he responded, "All too well."

Budget hint-dropping season is underway. And here's a not very subtle one for federal agencies from Treasury Secretary John Snow, courtesy of AP: The president's proposed fiscal 2007 budget, due out early next month, will show the administration "pressing awfully hard to control spending," Snow told reporters. "This will call for sacrifices, no doubt about it."

In today’s Washington Post, Steve Barr highlights a new commentary by Bob Behn, a lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In Behn’s article, which appears in his monthly newsletter on management, he argues, provocatively, for the abolition of annual performance reviews in government, saying they’re a waste of time and have pernicious side effects.

Behn presents the case of “Robert,” a “really obnoxious goof-off” who “doesn’t do any work.” In dealing with such an employee, a government manager has only two choices, he says: Launch an all-out attack, using all of the resources of the personnel system to try to remove him, or shrug off his poor performance and give him satisfactory performance ratings. Behn forgives managers for taking the latter course with Robert, even if they do so for many years running. He says it would be better if there were no annual reviews, so that there wouldn’t be any performance paper trail confronting a manager who came into an office, took one look at Robert, and wanted to get rid of him.

I have two problems with this argument: First, Behn’s case hinges on the notion that there simply aren’t enough hours in the week for managers to do everything they need to do, so they must concentrate on a few “really important and winnable problems.” But if taking on an employee who is not just mediocre, but both obnoxious and a complete slacker, isn’t an important problem, what is? Sure, such cases are never easily winnable in the federal context, but even if a manager can’t take on every employee whose performance isn’t great, he or she must take on the really bad apples.

Second, any system that dramatically reduces the amount of regular, standardized feedback employees receive will be more, not less, open to endless challenges from employees on the grounds of fairness. Behn says that in the absence of performance reviews, managers could put any kind of written material (good and bad, but he concedes that most of it would be good) in employees’ personnel files. Doing that well would be at least as much work as conducting annual performance reviews, wouldn’t it? Behn partly counters that argument by saying that a manager could simply put nothing in a poor performer’s record, and that an “empty file would itself be damning evidence of incompetence.” But the mere absence of commendations in an employee’s file would hardly stand up as grounds for dismissal or discipline, unless an agency is willing to open up every other employee’s file to show how they compare--which seems an unlikely, if not illegal, prospect.

I have great sympathy for managers who have to deal with poor performers, especially in the federal context, where climbing the paperwork mountain can be a truly excruciating exercise. But Behn’s system would provide managers with even greater incentives to do nothing about poor performers. And one of the worst things that can happen to a leader is losing the trust of his or her top performers by failing to do anything about one of their colleagues who clearly isn’t meeting minimal performance standards.

What does it cost to recruit and hire an airport security screener in Topeka, Kan.? According to the Homeland Security inspector general, the answer is $143,432.

I just found out about PostSecret, an "ongoing community art project" where people mail in secrets anonymously on homemade postcards to a blogger, who puts them on the Web. Here's one from someone whose "salary comes from your tax dollars." Looks like she (I'm guessing that it's a "she" because she lists one of her at-work activities as "apply my makeup") isn't being required to work too hard for her share of those dollars. (Thanks, Karen R.)

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, is at it again. This time he wants details of travel by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services employees to "lavish" events sponsored by contractors. From his letter to CMS Administrator Mark McClellan:

Information and documents available to the Committee suggest that the annual Tri-Regional
conference held at the Don CeSar Beach Resort and Spa appeared to be more of a party than a
diligent working meeting. For example, the photos of the conference posted on the Tri-Regional
website: http://www.triregional.com/gallery.asp, suggest a cruise ship atmosphere rather than that
of a government working meeting to improve quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries. The pictures
depict a luxurious resort, lavish dinners, dessert buffets, and Hawaiian dance parties -- all in a
tropical beach locale.

Grassley says the photos make him "wonder whether the federal employees who are supposed to
make sure the contractors are doing the job we pay them to do are instead going to luaus..." So I was expecting some pretty juicy stuff. But I think the photos fall far short of what NFL referees would call "indisputable visual evidence." Sure, it looks like the organizers of the event went with a corporate casual beach theme, but does this really look like a luau to you? Or this? Or this? Seems like your typical government conference to me--albeit it in a very nice location.

Mark V. Rosenker, head of the National Transportation Safety Board, says he wants the consumer electronics industry to help reduce deaths and injuries on roadways by bringing technology to bear on the problem of distracted drivers. That sounds nice, but isn't the consumer electronics industry one of the chief causes of distracted drivers?

The HHS Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry says people should not eat fish or crabs caught in Pearl Harbor due to high levels of PCBs in the bay.

It's an age-old story: News of a tragedy sweeps the nation. The federal government steps in to respond, but its efforts are called into question. And so often, the questions seem to revolve around confused and conflicting missions. Here's USA Today on the announcement that the Mine Safety and Health Administration will conduct an investigation of the West Virginia mine explosion that cost 12 miners their lives:

MSHA not only investigates mine accidents but also inspects mines for safety problems. Having the dual roles of investigator and regulator is difficult, and questions about the effectiveness of the government's inspection practices will inevitably be raised, says Peter Goelz, former executive director of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Attention Julie Myers and Tracy Henke: President Bush may have circumvented the Senate by giving you your jobs at Homeland Security through recess appointments, but senators still have their eyes on you. Here's Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, on the appointments: "I hope that the Homeland Security Committee engages in particularly searching oversight over these officials’ actions while they are in office to ensure that they appropriately discharge their duties."

There are lots of restrictions on what one can do on a military base. Here's a new one: Talk on a cell phone and drive a car at the same time.

It wasn't that long ago that the conventional wisdom was that the federal government was on the way out as a force in society. Here's National Journal columnist Jonathan Rauch, writing in the January 2000 issue of Government Executive:

Washington is about to succumb to old age. But at least its timing isn't bad. Although America's government is decreasingly flexible and adaptive, America's leading problems are increasingly non-governmental. Strangely, government's debilities may have the perverse but useful side benefit of forcing Americans to focus less on Washington at a time when our problems have become singularly unresponsive to Washington solutions.

Then came Sept. 11. And if you thought it would lead to only a temporary expansion of federal power, the new conventional wisdom says you're wrong. Way wrong, according to Newsday columnist James Pinkerton. In a column this week, he foresees a world in which technological advances leading to the development of ever-more-deadly weapons will in turn lead to ever-expanding governmental power:

And what will "give," almost certainly, is freedom. After a sufficient number of tragedies and catastrophes, the survival instinct will assert itself, and the source of the problem will be eliminated, or we will die trying. There's plenty of precedent for such coercive danger-pre-emption: the banning of machine guns, for example, and "cop killer" bullets. Similarly, when home computers have 100 times the power of today's supercomputers - well, then, such futurecomputers won't be allowed in the home.

Thus, the human prospect here on Earth: an all-knowing and all-powerful government.

Newsweek reports this week on the expansion of executive power under the Bush administration. Its story includes an anecdote about James Comey, who, while serving as acting attorney general when John Ashcroft was hospitalized in the spring of 2004, balked at approving the administration's plan to step warrantless eavesdropping on U.S. citizens:

Miffed that Comey, a straitlaced, by-the-book former U.S. attorney from New York, was not a "team player" on this and other issues, President George W. Bush dubbed him with a derisive nickname, "Cuomo," after Mario Cuomo, the New York governor who vacillated over running for president in the 1980s. (The White House denies this; Comey declined to comment.)

If the White House denies Bush ever did this, then how are we to judge whether it actually happened? The story, unfortunately, never tells us. No source is given for the anecdote; the story simply presents it as fact, introducing it by saying "Newsweek has learned" about "ferocious behind-the-scenes infighting" in the administration. The only previous reference to sources for the story refers to one unnamed lawyer said to be "deeply involved" in antiterror efforts, but it's unclear whether he or she passed along the information about Comey and Bush.

I'm not a huge fan of unnamed sources, but I think using them is fine, if it's the only way to get the real story out. But I also think readers get justifiably annoyed when stories don't spell out why sources should be believed--or, as in this case, provide any concrete information about sourcing at all.

Here's quite possibly the most aptly named place in the world: Hit, Iraq.

The Pentagon has announced that U.S. military personnel who worked in support of Hurricane Katrina and Rita relief efforts are eligible to receive the Humanitarian Service Medal and the Armed Forces Service Medal. Defense civilians who responded are eligible for the Armed Forces Civilian Service Medal. Somehow I don't think the folks at FEMA will be following the Pentagon's lead in handing out hardware--even though I'm certain that despite the hits the agency has taken over shortcomings in response efforts, hundreds of employees worked above and beyond the call of duty to assist those affected by the disasters.

The Homeland Security Department is retooling its National Response Plan to try to be better prepared for disasters like Hurricane Katrina in the future, AP reports. But front-line responders say what really matters is the flexibility for government organizations to adapt responses to whatever a particular event demands.
"When you have a disaster, nothing goes by any kind of plan," said Dr. Arthur Wallace, leader of an Oklahoma FEMA medical team that was dispatched too late to get to New Orleans before Katrina hit.

Here are some words to start the year by, courtesy of Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn.:

It is important that we stand up for our principles and debate the issues, but it is also important that we do so in a decent way. We can passionately stand up for what we believe, but we need to do it with an appreciation of each person and respect for the institutions of our government so that it is truly “civil” government.

While the rest of us were celebrating the holidays, the folks over at the Census Bureau were busy counting. And they found 297,821,175 of us. That's the estimated population of the United States as of Jan. 1--up 0.9 percent from New Year’s Day 2005. The census folks say that this month, the United States will register one birth every eight seconds and a death every 12 seconds.