The Good News Gazette: Issue 5
Well, I have searched the News and Observer in vain for good news over the past two days. I'm certain there was some over that period but none of it was, apparently, worth printing.
Oops! Wait! There is some good news for crack convicts. They may get their sentences reduced by two years if a proposal being weighed by the US Sentencing Commission is adopted. So, 2 years times the 19,500 crack convicts in prison comes to 39,000 convict years and, at a cost of $25,000 per convict per year, that comes to a total savings of nearly $1B (as in Billion) dollars.
Now, that's some good news!
Trouble is, you see, these future savings are already gobbled up by the War in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the staff of Congress's Joint Economic Committee, the conflict could cost us as much as $1.5T (as in Trillion), some $0.7T more than budgeted and/or spent to date.
With these numbers, the total cost our our little venture in Iraq and Afghanistan would come to $20,000 per American family of four, or $5000 per person.
Amazingly, even after all that, Osama bin Laden is still alive and making videos, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel for a unified Iraqi government, much less a stable mid-eastern oil patch.
Where is Saddam Hussein when you really need him, folks?
As the Israelis say, "Better to have an enemy you know than one you don't".
Or, perhaps even more to the point as Alexander Pope wrote so many years ago, "For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread."
Ain't that the truth, Dubya?
Oops! Wait! There is some good news for crack convicts. They may get their sentences reduced by two years if a proposal being weighed by the US Sentencing Commission is adopted. So, 2 years times the 19,500 crack convicts in prison comes to 39,000 convict years and, at a cost of $25,000 per convict per year, that comes to a total savings of nearly $1B (as in Billion) dollars.
Now, that's some good news!
Trouble is, you see, these future savings are already gobbled up by the War in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the staff of Congress's Joint Economic Committee, the conflict could cost us as much as $1.5T (as in Trillion), some $0.7T more than budgeted and/or spent to date.
With these numbers, the total cost our our little venture in Iraq and Afghanistan would come to $20,000 per American family of four, or $5000 per person.
Amazingly, even after all that, Osama bin Laden is still alive and making videos, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel for a unified Iraqi government, much less a stable mid-eastern oil patch.
Where is Saddam Hussein when you really need him, folks?
As the Israelis say, "Better to have an enemy you know than one you don't".
Or, perhaps even more to the point as Alexander Pope wrote so many years ago, "For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread."
Ain't that the truth, Dubya?
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