"Windfall" Profits Tax

So far (9:43 MDT, 27 July 2006) a significant majority of respondents in this non-scientific poll want to see a “windfall” profits tax for oil companies. I wonder what the results would be if they would like a “windfall” profits tax on appreciated home values. It’s the same thing, afterall.

Drying Apricots

We have an apricot tree that produced bountifully this year. So did many of our neighbors’ trees. That makes it harder to give them away. Our family prefers dried apricots over eating them straight from the tree so I made a couple of drying racks. I’m drying as many as I can but we still will not be able to harvest all we have.

To make a drying rack I got a 2’ x 2’ piece of pressed board from Home Depot for a dollar. I had old two by fours that I split, lengthwise, and cut them to line the perimeter of the pressed board (secured by screws). Finally I bought mesh screen to place on top of the rack to keep bugs out. I secured one end of the screen to the wooden perimeter using a staple gun. I did not fasten the remaining screen so that I would be able to lift it and access the tray. To keep the screen tight on the edges, I cut the screen larger than the rack. On the end opposite the side I stapled, I fasten a section of wood. I let this piece of wood hang over the edge to draw the screen tight. I also lay sections of two by fours on the remaining two edges to hold the screen in place on the sides.

To dry the apricots, I pick a batch, lightly rinse, and cut each in half. The pit should be easy to remove. I then place the halves in the rack and sprinkle a little “Fruit Fresh” on them. My first batch took three days to dry.

Bilingual Ballots

Generally I don’t see much controversy renewing the voting rights act – except requiring bi-lingual ballots. I thought learning English was a requirement for citizenship. According to Bruce S. Gordon:

“…despite requirements under Section 203 of the VRA, no bilingual assistance was
made available to Vietnamese voters in Harris County, Texas, for the 2003
election.”

Whoa! Houston Texas doesn’t have ballots in Vietnamese. Maybe we should ask the questions "Is this really where we want to go in the United States?"

My Experience with Congressional Earmarks (Part II)

At the Defense Logistics Agency I was given the task to spend $750K on a third party logistics study no one needed. The only basis for the requirement was one line in a congressional conference report. The kicker was the study had to be conducted by a “not-for-profit trucking research agency”. The internet was coming of age and I popped those words into the search engine Lycos. The top result: The American Trucking Association. (Even today, a similar Google search brings up the American Trucking Research Institute – the research arm of the ATA; I do not believe the ATRI was in place in 1996/1997).

I researched the ATA and found among other things, they are a lobbying organization which had made quite a few donations to members of the Armed Services Appropriations Committee (both sides of the aisle).

Shortly after I found out about the ATA, I got a call from someone in the ATA. “Where is our contract?” he asked. I told him I was going to compete it. I was ticked about such a blatant misuse of tax dollars. It turned out that the total amount set aside was $1Million. I only had $750K but another $250K was set aside for a rail security study that the US Transportation Command was to place on contract.

I found the Army Lt Col tasked with spending the $250K. He was livid. Since the requiring language was in a house conference report and not in the actual appropriations bill signed into law by the President technically we were not constrained to spend the money as written in the conference. It wasn’t in the law. He took that position to the staff lawyers, and the issue eventually got to the vice-commander of USTRANSCOM. The vice-commander directed the money be spent according to the “intent” outlined in the conference report. He did not want angry congressmen to hamper other USTRANSOM projects.

I was in a different agency and the USTRANSCOM decision did not affect me, but I was sure the DLA leadership would say the same thing, if I approached them formally. I resolved to do two things. First, stretch the interpretation of the study’s direction to something that would be actually useful. Second, I wasn’t about to sole source this to a lobbyist. They would have to compete for the effort (albeit I was constrained to have the competition among “not-for-profit trucking research institutes”, if others could be found).