Beckham Injured....again

Beckham could miss 6 weeks with sprained knee Associated Press LOS ANGELES -- David Beckham could miss the rest of the Los Angeles Galaxy's season after being diagnosed with a sprained right knee Thursday. (ESPN)

OK, so sports news normally does not even catch my interest, but this one did, and I certainly hope the LA Galaxy has a hefty insurance policy on this guy.

He may be a good soccer player. Frankly, soccer is just not a sport I follow much. I used to play it, I understand the fascination it has for people but it just does not rock my socks. I put it on par with cricket for entertainment value. I would rather watch golf or NASCAR and would prefer to watch neither. But I do not understand why the Galaxy, with so many really talented players available both in the United States and abroad would even take a flier on a player with the injury record and flat out poor reviews for the way his personality affects the clubs he has been associated with.

Until he married a Spice Girl, he was just another player. Now he has wrenched his knee and even he is saying it might be time to hang it up. OK, he is said he is going "...rest,' and get it right and don't come back until it's right." Sure sounds like that is it for him.

And So It Begins

Bush to outline aid to mortgage holders By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Offering federal help for strapped mortgage holders, President Bush is proposing to aid hundreds of thousands of borrowers hard hit by the housing slump. (Yahoo News)

And so begins the great bail-out of 2007. Rather than proper and efficient standards (or perhaps ethics and morals on the part of the lenders) up front to prevent this from happening in the first place, the government is going to have to step in and bail out literally millions of people at a cost yet to be determined at a time when the Federal Government is already over extended for monetary resources. It just seems so petty to say I told you so, but can someone explain why are the taxpayers stuck holding the bag for this one too?

GAO Report on Iraq. Well, it is still there.

Little progress seen on Iraq goals By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - The Iraqi government has failed to meet the vast majority of political and military goals laid out by lawmakers to assess President Bush's Iraq war strategy, congressional auditors have determined. (Yahoo News)

And is the next news flash going to read something like, President Bush surprised by announcement? Or US troops fail to contain violence in Baghdad?

Is it now time to face the reality that there is nothing to be gained in this quagmire? There was nothing there to begin with, and it has cost the United States dearly and more importantly, will continue to be a stain on the American fabric for decades to come in ways that will make Vietnam seem like a border skirmish. And a minor one at that.

You're Fired. No I'm Not.

Rhee Seeks Authority to Terminate Employees: Planned Legislation Is Aimed at Reorganizing the D.C. School System's Central Command By David Nakamura Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, August 29, 2007; Page A01 D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is preparing plans to fire up to several hundred employees over the coming year, part of a major restructuring of the school system's central office aimed at streamlining operations, District government sources said. (WashingtonPost)

This is only the latest in articles about the power of unions, the screwy rules related to hiring and firing in the government, both at the District level as well as the Federal level and the realities of the commercial world.

First, let me start by saying that, in general, I feel unions have long outlived their usefulness and it is articles like this that really drive that point home. Further, let me say that I understand why the federal regulations about hiring, firing and promotion exist, but that they too are archaic and can only lead to more and more federal bloat, wastefulness and eventually the disillusionment most people feel when dealing with federal agencies. Finally, I am and have been a government contractor and while I am not always happy with the way things work, there is also not a whole lot I can do and I do get a paycheque for doing my job. So, with all that up front, let us look at this from the article:

...Rhee has begun drafting legislation that would ask the D.C. Council to suspend personnel laws so that the chancellor would have the authority to terminate employees without having to reassign them to other jobs...she wants to bring in new upper-level managers and downsize the central administration by as much as 30 to 40 percent.

Typically, central office employees who are removed from a position have the contractual right to be placed in a lower-ranking position in the system while maintaining their salary. These rights have hampered superintendents who have sought in the past to downsize the school administration and remove poorly performing employees.

This is not the first time someone has attempted to clean house, either at the DC School Board or in the Federal Government. The Department of Homeland (In)security, when it was formed, tried to get Congress to allow it to move to a pay for performance basis system. This move was blocked at every turn by the various labor unions that represent hundreds of thousands of workers. One worker was quoted as saying something to the effect of "what would I do if every day I went to work not knowing if it was my last?"

Right about now, your blood should be boiling, especially if you are, or have been the victim of a reduction in forces, or laid-off or had your job outsourced. For the majority of workers in the United States today, going to work and no knowing that you will have a job the following day is the status quo. It is normal, and expected and if you are not in that category, you are living on a cloud. Further, we know that we have to perform to a certain level or we will not be paid or receive and increase in our pay. That is what pay for performance is all about and why it is so critical that the government be able to do it. How many federal employees would not have a job today if they had to justify their existence? As any contractor will tell you there are some good people working in federal service today, but there are also a lot of people that would not have a job otherwise and are incapable of doing the job they have now. In the private sector, these "poor performers" would be show the door. In the federal sector, they are promoted, traded, pawned off, but still draw a paycheque from our tax dollars.

There are those that wonder why the federal government is so big and spends so much money. One is because it has so many people on its payroll that if it were a business would not be there. Two, it has to hire contractors and pay street wages, instead of the grossly deflated GS wages to get projects done that its own people are incapable of. Three, it is very hard to get most agencies to make logical business decisions about equipment, staffing and budgets. The reasons are varied, but come down to the underlying fundamental issues related to the federal employment methodology that "anyone who is a manager can manage any department and does not need specialized knowledge in that group." As a result, the people making technical decisions may not have the first clue about what needs to go into a good technical decision. Similarly, the people making HR decisions may not have any idea about how Human Resources really should work. This is a sad way to run a nation.

Ms. Rhee is doing what any manager, hired to turn an organization around, would be expected to do. Come in, get rid of the dead wood and move the organization forward and she should be given the power and authority to do so. Now if only we could do the same thing at the federal level.

Is Anyone Home at the NAACP?

NAACP Urges NFL to Let Vick Play Again August 22, 2007 - 8:34pm By ERRIN HAINES Associated Press Writer ATLANTA (AP) - An NAACP leader said Michael Vick should be allowed to return to the NFL, preferably the Atlanta Falcons, after serving his sentence for his role in a dogfighting operation. (WTOP)

WHAT!!!?!?!?!?! Where was the NAACP when the Duke lacrosse players were being raked over the coals? Where was the NAACP when Don Imus, who was exercising his first amendment rights was being attacked by the black community.

I am not a fan of Michael Vick. Guilty or not in a court of law, there are enough questionable actions here that the NFL should dump him on the side of the road and forget about him. But to come out in support of him? The NAACP, to this point had my support as an organization that tried to do the right thing. They just stepped in it and the stench will not go away anytime soon!

I Get Some Weird Spam...

Major spam alert...this is just too funny to not post...All spelling and grammar errors are as I received it except the email addresses. If I do not post tomorrow...well, I suspect they got me...or at least my Internet connection! By they way, if you have $6000 spare, I really could use the cash! Snoopes has it too.

This is the only way I could contact you for now,I want you to be very careful about this and keep this secret with you until I make out space for us to see. You have no need of knowing who I am or where I am from.I know this may sound very surprising to you but it's the situation.i have been paid some ransom in advance to terminate you with some reasons listed to me by my employer.It's someone I believe you call a friend, I have followed you closely for a while now and have seen that you are innocent of the accusations he leveled against you. Do not contact the police or try to send a copy of this to them,because if you do, I will know,and might be pushed to do what I have been paid to this is the 1st time I turn out to be a betrayer in my job. I took ; pity on you,that is why I have made up my mind to help you if you are willing to help yourself.

Now listen,I will arrange for us to see face to face,but before that, I need $6000. I will come
to your home or you determine where you wish we meet;I repeat, do not arrange for the cops and if you play hard to get, it will be extended to your family.Do not set any camera to cover us or set up any tape to record our conversation, my employer is in my control now.

Payment details will be provided for you to make a part payment of $3000 first,which will serve as guarantee that you are ready to co-operate,then one of my boys will deliver a copy of the video tape to you that contains his request for me to terminate you(I tape recorded our conversation),which will be enough evidence for you to take any legal action against him.i advice you be fast about this before he employs another person for the job. You will pay the balance of $3000 once you receive the tape.

Warning; do not contact the police, make sure you stay indoors once it is 7.30pm until this whole thing is sorted out,if you neglect any of these warnings, you will have yourself to blame. You do not have much time,so get back to me immediately Note:I will advise you keep this to yourself alone, not even a friend or a family member should know about it because it could be one of them.

contact me for now on this e mail:

Good Luck.

Construction Zones

Can someone please explain to me why every Department of Transportation (or, more correctly, their contractors) have to declare miles of road as an "active construction zone" when 1) it is not and 2) they are only working in less than a 100 feet of space?

On the drive back today, we encountered at least a dozen of these so-called "active construction zones," each more than several miles long, single lane, and slow speed. In each case, there was no work being done (and as near as I could tell there was no work scheduled for this or any other decade, let alone building season), and when there was evidence that work might, at one point in the far past or the near future be done, it was in a space that a man could walk comfortably to the port-a-potty, in other words several dozen yards. A mile, maximum would have sufficed to protect the workers (if there had been any) and not foobar the entire road for miles in each direction. Fortunately, there were only two zones where the traffic came to a screeching, snarled mess, and in both cases it was on the Canadian side of the journey and the work zone was active. It took us a half-an-hour to go a mile or so while everyone stopped to watch the workmen pour concrete...but rubbernecking is a different issue.

Sittin' on the dock of the border....

So, it is Saturday morning and regular readers will note that I almost never post anything on the weekend. Today is special. I am on the road back from Canada, about to make the crossing at Fort Erie in to Buffalo, New York. And yes, I am driving. I am about to enter the "no man's land" that is the border area between Canada and the United States of America. It is 12:14. Why all this detail? Well, for those who missed the memo, entering the United States is no longer the speedy procedure it used to be. In fact, from where I am sitting, there is over 4 KM of backed up, unmoving traffic that would make rush hour in Washington, DC seem like a speedy affair. Did I mention this is Saturday?

By comparison, traffic is flowing quickly and efficiently from the US into Canada, including the payment of a $3.00 toll charge for using the bridge over the Niagara River. So what is the delay? Well, I am not really sure. There are two lanes into the US, compared with one into Canada, so it is not an issue of lanes available. There seems to be a steady stream of cars coming into Canada and at least four inspectors open. Delays on the Canadian side seem to be no more than a couple of minutes. Is it the shear volume of people wanting to get into the United States? Complex border entry issues? Lack of "official documentation?" I do not know. In the last five minutes we have gone six car lengths. A couple of dozen metres.

I mentioned there were three lanes over the bridge, two into the US and one into Canada? There are no less than four lanes of traffic merging into those two (unmoving) lanes and a guy from Customs walking along telling people to drive on the shoulder, completely ignoring the fact that he is creating more lanes that have to merge into the limited capacity of the bridge. In this case, three lanes into one where we are situated and two lanes into one from the duty-free entrance.

More than 10 minutes has passed, we have gone less than three-tenths of a mile.

We can see the abutment of the bridge. All the lane markings have disappeared and the great three-lane-into-one-merge has begun. Bets on how often an accident occurs here? Elapsed time, 15 minutes. Distance traveled. 4/10ths of a mile. By the way, the "zipper" theory of merging, so heavily endorsed in Washington by those who really do not know any better does not hold up when thirty cars are all trying to merge into the space of one car. This is not funny. If we were moving any faster than my late great-grandmother with her walker used to move, I would be very concerned for the health of my automobile. Total elapsed time, 20 minutes. Total distance traveled, 1/2 of one mile.

We are in the queue for the last of the merges. Three lanes into two. Trucks, buses, RVs, minivans, cars. Everyone has to play nice if we are going to get onto the bridge and the trucks are supposed to stay in the far lane.

12:36: We are on the bridge.

12:38: I expect there will be DHS agents waiting on the US side of the border. There is a car in front of us with Iowa plates on it and they are taking pictures out the window. Surely that is illegal on several levels. Taking pictures at a border crossing, of a bridge. Hey, I am just hoping it does not fall into the river. Posted speed limit, 50 km/h. Actual speed of motion....well, zero, with occasional gasps to 1 km/h.

12:41: Still in Canada. Border in sight, 1/2 mile.

12:43: At this rate, they will have to install restrooms on the bridge....

12:44: We are astride the border, or possibly on the US side. They have taken down the flags that used to indicate where it actually was. Probably for National Security reasons.

12:46: I can see Customs and Immigration. They are no less than 10 deep at each check point. At least there are 20 check points open.

12:50: The delay seems to be caused by the crossing. Average time is upwards of three minutes a vehicle. Still ten cars from the gate. At least this time we did not have to pay a toll. They are pushing the new border crossing certification cards (Nexus) not to be confused with the law database (lexus-nexus).

13:03: We are next.

13:05: We are underway, headed south. I do not know why it took so long for such a short interrogation, but that is what happened. Next stop, Washington, DC.

Here's Hoping the Stove Overheats

When you are spending $50 a plate for dinner, even if that is $50 Canadian, you expect a certain level of quality, taste, service, and amenities. You expect, for example, that the wine list would be more than basic wines that could be procured at Costco or the local grocery store and you certainly do not expect the wine to be marked up over three times its retail value. You do expect some level of thought to go into the wines chosen by the sommelier. And if the house brews its own, you would expect it to have a passable nose and taste.

What is sad, is that I had dinner the other night at a restaurant that is not only supposed to be one of the finest in Ontario, but is owned and operated by a Canadian chef who has a TV show up here, cook books etc. Think a Canadian Emeril or Bobby Flay. Sadly, someone was not minding the store last night. In fact, if I had been a food critic, which I think I am becoming, I would have ruined them with a review. The coconut shrimp where bland and no better than any I have had at Outback. In fact, the ones at Outback had more flavor. My wife had a soup that was apparently good, but flat, needing salt. The steak was not exactly top quality even though it was listed as a AAA steak (top choice up here). It was not tough but it was not exactly melt in my mouth. The potatoes were tasty though.

In the end, the bill was a little less than $100. The food was not remarkable, the service was OK, summer help really and she did her best, but even after I sent back the wine, a manager never showed up. After I said the shrimp were only OK, while she seemed dissatisfied, again there was no manager. I certainly would not eat there again. I certainly would not recommend that you eat there. In the end, I can only hope that the owner comes back and improves his food, or closes up shop before more people are defrauded of their hard earned money.

A Brief View From The North, eh?

Conrad Black , People doing "too much by plane," Pickton Trial , Dave Williams (not the hockey player) are some of the lead stories on the news in Canada today, while the issues of Karl Rove, failed banks and the damage to the US stock market and other urgency for those inside the Beltway just are not even making waves. Sure they are being covered as little more than a footnote to the other events of the day.

It is interesting to see that there are other things going on. One of the other international topics being covered is the Korean Aid Workers being held by the Taliban in Afghanistan (and interesting twist on the story is being blogged). Regardless of why they are there, there is little expectation that many more will be released alive. Ironically, the coverage of this event is fairly sparse in the American media.

I was wandering through Canadian Tire a couple of days ago, looking for plastic cups of all things and wondered how Wal-Mart can even make money in Canada. Canadian Tire is an installation in the Canada long before Wal-Mart even went national in the United States. It has been said that if Canadian Tire does not have it, you really do not need it. While not entirely true, Canadian Tire is "more than just tires" and it is a solid institution in Canada.

A number of the "big US" names are here. Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, but not in the same visible quantity that they are in the US. While there is a Second Cup or Tim Hortons on every street corner, you have to look hard to find a Starbucks. There are as many independent grocery stores as there are major chains. There are plenty of non-affiliated shops and retail organizations, something that seems to be missing, at least in Washington where homogeneity is more the norm. Perhaps that is why things are so polarized in Washington. With little choice, we are constantly fighting over trivial things.

SCO loses another round

Novell wins rights to Unix copyrights: SCO also owes Novell for licensing revenue paid by Sun and Microsoft BY Nancy Gohring August 11, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Novell Inc. won a significant ruling in its lengthy battle with The SCO Group Inc. on Friday. A judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, Central Division, found that Novell is the owner of the Unix and UnixWare copyrights, dismissing SCO's charges of slander and breach of contract.

OK, this is probably something that most of you have not been following. In fact, most are probably to young to remember when Novell bought the rights to the UNIX name and almost the same day turned them over to the Open Source consortium that now manages them. At the time, it was a pretty big deal.

The other topic here is the SCO battle, which if not the longest running IT lawsuit certainly is close to it (the Microsoft Anti-Trust case might actually be a longer battle and it certainly has bigger attention, but the mayhem that SCO has brought to the table is much further reaching and revolves around intellectual property - something even Microsoft is paying attention to the outcome of.)

That the court ruled this way is not a surprise. Novell bought the rights and that is that. It was well documented at the time and legal under the laws of the land, both then and now. While this is hardly a death blow to the other SCO cases, it does make them much harder to pursue.

Virginia's Driving Fees and Fear of Taxation

Conservative Activists Target Taxes, Fees in Broad New Lawsuit August 7, 2007 - 8:45am By BOB LEWIS AP Political Writer RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Anti-tax conservatives on Monday filed the broadest legal challenge yet to the new transportation funding law, targeting not just steep fees for bad driving but the fiscal underpinning of the $1 billion-a-year initiative. (WTOP)

There has come to be, in Virginia, a dichotomy between the fantasy of No New Taxes and the reality of no new roads, resulting in no forward motion in one of the fastest growing areas of the United States.

The fees are an abomination. Let us be clear on that. There are better, more enforcible ways of curtailing reckless driving.

However, the issue of transportation funding still has yet to be addressed in a manner that is realistic and effective and leads to real solutions.

Just building roads is not enough. Just funding mass transit is not enough. Allowing unbridled development is not acceptable and expecting the funds of Northern Virginia to subsidize the operations of the rest of the state is not acceptable.

For all his good points (and if you can think of any, please let me know because I sure cannot) that Bob Marshall and his crone Jackson Miller bring to the table, the real issues are not religion and immigration, but the unadulterated fact that it takes 70-90 minutes to travel 24 miles in Northern Virginia when the schools are out and Congress is in recess. This is unacceptable.

It is time to get our heads out of the sand (or other parts of our anatomies) and start demanding that our elected leaders actually do something with their time in Richmond beyond the flag waving, moralizing and motto making they have been doing for the last 10 years. And it needs to be done before Northern Virginia becomes a gridlocked wasteland of people spending more time getting to and from work then they actually spend at work.

More OpEd Skewering

There are two OpEd cartoons this morning that just epitomize the current state of affairs in the United States today. First, this one from Jerry Holbert who nicely picks up what a lot of people know: that is, more money is being spent in Iraq than is being spent in the United States on infrastructure.

The second, from Wiley slams home a point that seems to be made every year about this time in the federal government. After all, have you ever heard of a failed pilot? If you wonder what I mean, just go and look at the Department of Defense's missile defense shield. How many chances does bad technology get before someone cancels the program?

IPv6 Requires Training...Go Figure!

IPv6 will require learning curve for network admins: Independent lab says training is needed BY Matt Hamblen August 06, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Business IT managers be forewarned: Implementing networks with the emerging Internet Protocol Version 6 standard will take substantial preparation, including training developers and IPv6 administrators charged with provisioning office applications.

In an interview I did back in 2004 with Network World, I said basically the same thing. To quote Homer Simpson "D'oh."

Infrastructure Collapse - What Cost?

While the failure of the bridge in Minnesota last week is not funny per se, the OpEd Cartoonists, more so than the general public are getting the implications and having a field day with it. Mike Luckovich had this one on Saturday, which should become a classic along with Rob Rogers . And Tony Auth put this one out on Friday.

The United States is fighting a war of attrition. In a posting somewhere else, someone pointed out to me that the utilities are run by private companies in the US (this after I posted something about the manholes in New York not being terrorist related as anyone who has lived in DC for more than a month can tell you. We went through several years of exploding manholes here before Pepco (the power company) was forced to do something about it). While I am aware that the utilities are private, there is supposed to be oversight of their operation by the government. Part of that oversight should include the general safe operations and health of the infrastructure. Regrettably, as we are beginning to learn, this oversight has been neglected for far too long and it is beginning to become a painful cost.

How painful? Bridge inspection costs are expected to exceed most State transportation agency budgets for this year. That means that things like fixing the flaws will have to come out of the next budget round. And we have not even had snow yet this year. Underground maintenance is almost impossible for most cities to manage with roads so congested that it is almost impossible to close to do the required work.

At the heart of all of this however, is the almighty dollar. Americans bitch about being taxed, yet they demand that their roads are not filled with potholes, that their bridges are sound and stable and that they get power and water when they flip the switch or flush the toilets. They expect the Government to rebuild their city, neighbourhood, house when a storm levels it, even though they insist on building on land that is unstable, prone to flooding or below sea level.

The infrastructure in the United States is crumbling and has been crumbling for decades. Meanwhile, money is flowing out of the United States in the form of foreign aid, military spending and other forms of empire building and it has to stop. Or the black out in the Northeast, exploding manholes and failing bridges will be the norm, rather than the tragic exception.

Can the Deterioration Be Stopped?

Death Toll Dips to 4 in Bridge Collapse August 2, 2007 - 8:16am By JON KRAWCZYNSKI Associated Press Writers MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Authorities lowered the death toll from an interstate bridge collapse to four Thursday, but warned the final number could change as divers search the Mississippi River. (WTOP)

A little good news from what is clearly a horrific event. And shame on Fox News for rushing in the press release from the Department of Homeland (In)security, clearly stating that this was not a terrorist incident. Of course it was not an act of terrorism. That should have been clear from the way the way the bridge came to rest.

Now, with all that being said, it should be a wake up call. As I have said before, a number of times, the infrastructure in the United States is crumbling to dust.

• The power grid is in danger of overload for more months out of the year than not.
  
  
• Water and sewer pipes under the nation's cities are rusted, rotted and decayed and just waiting to break, freeze or explode, costing even more money to band aid and keep them functioning.
  
  
• The road network is just barely hanging together, most of the key pieces being more than 20 years old, unmaintained or not maintained at the level that they should be and most not even designed for the volumes of automobiles, SUVs and trucks that pass over they every single day.
  

Visual inspections are not enough any more. I am sure we will discover that there was some intrinsic flaw in the material that caused it to collapse, something that could not be predicted. What concerns me is that the flaw is probably evident in other structures and it is only a matter of time before a bridge over a more significant drop results in more than just a handful of deaths.

What I really want to know is when is the United States going to start investing in itself again? Answer that question before it becomes to late to make the decision.

What's the rush to IPv6?

IETF floats IPv6 plan IPv6-only networks by 2011, one engineer hopes By Joab Jackson Not all fields of endeavor appear to be as collectively organized as well as the federal government when it comes to migrating to version 6 of the Internet Protocol. Now, an engineer from the Internet Engineering Task Force has posted a proposed timetable for all organizations and service providers to move to the new protocol. (GCN)

I tried not to laugh when I read this. If the author thinks that the effort to convert to IPv6 is "collectively organized" then I think someone is deluded. From my cursory examination inside several agencies, most seem to be doing as little as possible to implement IPv6 and "meet the mandate" while continuing to conduct business as usual. After all, if there is no support at the operating system level (and it is an issue of more than just the stack folks) then is it really a migration or just window dressing...oh wait, it is Windows that is part of the problem, that and some one at the Office of Personal Management that was told the economy required more PC sales. That has to be the reason to force the move. Nothing else makes sense.