Clamantis, damn it, clamantis!

All right, I found another one. Actually, there are several.

This article, from the Jacksonville Florida Times-Union, reports on a trip taken by some Congressmen to South Korea, which may have been financed in a shady manner.

This is nothing new. It's not even worth reporting (Congressmen accept gifts and travel illegally? Oh no! I never would have believed it!), except that it has specific numbers, and numbers are fun. This article says that Rep. Ander Crenshaw and his wife travelled to South Korea a few years ago and spent... well, wait.

They went on a three-day trip to South Korea. While there, Crenshaw visited U.S. troops, placed a wreath at the 39th parallel (what exactly is that going to do for inter-Korean relations I wonder?), might have done some window-shopping, and did not play golf. And yet, he managed to rack up expenses totalling... wait...

$27,640!

I just wanted to put that on its own line. The man and his wife went out there for three days and didn't even do any shopping, and managed to spend 27 large of somebody else's money!

I'll grant that it's easier to spend somebody else's money than your own, but this is absurd. I figured, maybe it's just really expensive over there. So I sat down with Orbitz and planned myself a three-day trip to Seoul and Pusan, South Korea. Forthwith:

Two adults (Crenshaw took his wife, so I'm taking, uh... I'll get back to you) fly to Seoul, South Korea, from Jacksonville, Florida (in Crenshaw's district). They depart on 10 May (a Tuesday, several weeks in advance so the airfares won't be jacked up) and return on 12 May. Congressmen are busy, so I'll take the shortest available flight. In Seoul we'll rent a nice car and drive up to Panmunjom to place a wreath, then back to Seoul to spend the night in a high quality though not posh hotel. The following day we'll drive to Pusan for a day of window shopping and no golf, but we'll drive back in the evening to stay another night in Seoul. We fly out the next afternoon after visiting Osan Air Base to talk to the troops. We will eat at the nicest restaurants in town because we're not too sure about Korean food.

Flight for two, round trip, Jacksonville International Airport to Seoul Metropolitan Airport, shortest flight:
Delta/Air Tran, $1356 per person, including all taxes and fees ($2,712 total).

Rental car, full size, auto and air, unlimited mileage, pickup and dropoff at the airport, two days+: Avis, $225 plus insurance and gasoline. ($2,937 total).

Hotel, two nights, two people, one room:
Seoul Ritz-Carlton, $249/night. ($3,435 total).

Meals:
A full meal at Nolboojip, a high-quality country-style Korean restaurant in Seoul, will run about 10,000 won per person; that's about nine bucks. Round up (Congressmen have expensive tastes) to $15 a person for each meal, and assume three lunches, two dinners, and two breakfasts, gives us 7 meals at $15, or $105 per person, for a total of $210 for meals. ($3,645 total).

Round of beers at the officer's club at Osan: $200 ($3,845 total).

Wreath for 39th Parallel: $45 ($3,890 total).

Cheap souvenirs at airport: $30 ($4,020 total).

Okay, so that's airfare, a car, hotel, meals, and some incidentals, and I'm only coming up with four grand here. How in the HELL did Crenshaw and the wife manage to spend $23,000 on incidentals?

If you ask me, the scandal here isn't who paid for it, but that it had to be paid for at all. $27,640 for a three-day trip to ANYWHERE is absolutely ridiculous, especially considering that no shopping was done and no golf was played.

And we wonder why Congress and the President can't balance a budget.

Vox clamantis in deserto

I'm feeling very lazy and uninspired today. Work kept me busy most of this week but today was not a particular winner and... well, anyway. Here's something to ponder until I'm more energetic.

This article from the Myrtle Beach Sun News discusses Lindsey Graham's recent statements about Social Security. It makes for a worthwhile read, though I'll doubt anything worthwhile will come from it. Like so many rational people in this country, the Sun News' editorial writer here is just a voice shouting in the wilderness. But he's right. What will become of us? Why are we unable to face the future? Does democracy always inevitably look for the simplest path rather than the right one? Was Jefferson right when he spoke of refreshing the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants--and whom, exactly, was he referring to?

I don't know. I do know that I'm extremely hungry right now yet have nothing in the house I particularly want to eat. I have no desire to cook, no desire to exercise, no desire to write, and no desire to get up off this damned velco chair and actually DO something. I feel like I sit down for 14 hours a day and lie down for much of the remainder, and I'm so sick of it but so unable to do anything about it.

But I have St. John's Wort! Apparently that's all I need, or at least so goes the medical opinion I got this afternoon. We'll see. Anyway, enjoy pondering the editorial. Consider taking action. I'll consider it, too, but I doubt I actually will. Maybe in 2013, if the government has become insolvent.

Or maybe I will flee to Grenada.

Why Western countries can't ignore Grenada

See? See? When the good guys (i.e. The West, and if you don't think the Western countries are the good guys why are you reading this blog?) ignore a terrific but hard-hit little place like Grenada, the Naughty Countries swoop in. We already know from history that Grenada is a little suggestible. Now this.

The last thing Keith Mitchell and the Grenadian people need is charity from the likes of China and Venezuela, but what choice do they have? Way to drop the ball, so-called "civilized" western democracies...

Ambition sans wisdom

Florida Democratic Party Chairman Scott Maddox, as I predicted a few weeks ago, is about to enter the Democratic primary for governor.

I'd like to go ahead and be the first person to blame Maddox personally for the fact that Florida's next governor will have an (R) after his name. Late entrants to a race with quality candidates already in have to enter the race under the assumption that the two existing candidates are not very good. In this case, since it's the state party chairman, he's saying that two of the state's elected members of his party aren't good candidates. Yet he himself has never been elected to any post bigger than Mayor of Tallahassee--which is an extremely democratic city anyway.

Why does Scott think he's a better candidate than Rod Smith and Jim Davis? And can he seriously defend that position without tearing Smith and Davis apart in a divisive primary? No, not really. Whether Maddox gets the party nomination or not, he'll do enough damage to the eventual nominee to ensure that the GOP candidate (none of the three current candidates are weak) gets a win.

Grenada

I'm a big fan of the little island of Grenada. I've never actually been there, but I definitely intend to go as soon as I can. It's a developing economy, but unlike many Caribbean economies it isn't hampered by banking problems and overpopulation, and doesn't have the drug trafficking issues of, say, St. Vincent. And the agricultural economy is somewhat more diversified than many other islands.

But, Grenada was completely destroyed by Hurricane Ivan; some 90% of the island's structures were damaged in the hurricane, along with much of the agricultural and economic infrastructure. Of course a lot of people have donated money to the rebuilding, but coming as it did in the midst of a busy hurricane season Grenada hasn't seen anything like the outpouring of support that went to the tsunami area.

Occasionally I feel like people have completely forgotten Grenada, but that hasn't happened, at least not entirely. UMCOR and the Red Cross are still there, and a number of other charities; Caribbean Travel has an umbrella site for donations.

The article linked to above, though, is of interest to me for geopolitical reasons. In the aftermath of the tsunami, the Paris Club offered to freeze the foreign debt of all affected nations. Only Sri Lanka, Seychelles, and Indonesia have actually taken the offer (others are concerned about the affect on their credit rating), but it interests me to note that this offer was not extended to Grenada.

Don't get me wrong, the tsunami was a terrible tragedy. But 90% of Sri Lanka was unaffected. Still, the country was offered debt relief so that it could spend all its current budget on rebuilding. Good move by the Paris Club, but doesn't it seem like relief is yet more desperately needed by a country that saw 90% destruction? I would think so.

OxFam and Action Aid, among others, have urged the Paris Club and other donor nations to offer actual relief, rather than just freezing payments. Debt relief is a contentious issue and, living in a country that's deeper in debt than any other, it's hard for me to say we should forgive other nations' debt. On the other hand, we're America. We can handle our finances just fine, thank you very much. But these developing countries need every boost we can give them; many of them pay more for debt service each year than their entire GDP. It would be nice if the large creditor nations gave more than cursory thought to the idea.

I'd start with Grenada.

Politics of Personal Idiocy update

Well, never let it be said that I didn't admit when I was wrong. It looks like Nathan Taylor, the student who was accused of embezzling funds from the Young Republicans national convention, was innocent after all. Good for him.

It's still not the politics of personal destruction, not when the accusers genuinely believed he'd been misusing funds and even were under the impression that he hadn't even had the authority to spend money on the convention's behalf. What it is, is bad communication.

Well, bad communication, and that annoying tendency of most people in this country to immediately jump to conclusions.

Mr. Taylor says he's soured on politics and no longer wants to pursue it. I feel the same way, after running a campaign in 2000. I can't blame Mr. Taylor for coming to that conclusion; unfortunately, all decent people eventually come to the same conclusion.

The blog donors

C|Net has an article today about the FEC's coming decision to start regulating bloggers when they write about politics; specifically, the argument goes that a link within a blog to a candidate's website should count as some sort of in-kind donation. Apparently bloggers don't count as the press; on the other hand, if you don't link to a candidate's campaign site, presumably you're in the clear.

I suppose the fact of the regulation isn't what bothers me as much as the idea that someone somewhere in the FEC is going to be spending government money trying to find every instance of a blogger's linking to a campaign site, and then somehow determining the net monetary value of that link, and requiring the campaign to note that donation. This could be interesting if, for example, I link to a comment on the website of a candidate with whom I disagree. Something smells here.

Chiles away

Bud Chiles, son of the late governor Lawton Chiles, who had been running for governor and had planned to walk across the state like his old man did, has dropped out of the governor's race. It turns out that, though he's lived in the Orlando area since about 2000 or so, he doesn't meet the state constitution's residency requirement. To run for governor, you must have been a state resident for at least seven consecutive years. Prior to his return, Chiles had lived overseas managing an international relief charity.

Chiles has actual executive managerial experience, a good name, and seems like a decent fellow; though I don't know his politics he probably would have been a good participant in the primaries and possibly a good general election candidate and governor. Instead he'll probably bide his time, running against Mel Martinez or an incumbent GOP governor in 2010, though he might surprise (Ric Keller, are you watching your back?).

Unfortunately, now that the Dem governor's primary is down to two big names and no 800-lb gorilla, the party will have little sway in keeping others out. Castor, Deutsch, Jones, Penelas, Campbell, Maddox... we'll probably see any or all of them throw their hat in the ring in the next few weeks. As much as I enjoy watching a good free-for-all, unless cooler heads prevail the Dems will manage to lose the governor's race before the first votes are in.

Utter disaster

Casual readers of this blog will little grasp the importance of the following email I received today, but then this post isn't really for casual readers. I sent an email to my functional at AFPC on Monday afternoon requesting release to pursue a legal education. The response follows:


Lt Smith,
I can't support release.

Maj Armstrong