getting sober

[alocispepraluger102]

Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned

By Jeremy Grant in Washington

Published: August 14 2007 00:06 | Last updated: August 14 2007 00:06

The US government is on a ‘burning platform’ of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned.

David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations”.

These include “dramatic” tax rises, slashed government services and the large-scale dumping by foreign governments of holdings of US debt.

Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government”.

“Sound familiar?” Mr Walker said. “In my view, it’s time to learn from history and take steps to ensure the American Republic is the first to stand the test of time.”

Mr Walker’s views carry weight because he is a non-partisan figure in charge of the Government Accountability Office, often described as the investigative arm of the US Congress.

While most of its studies are commissioned by legislators, about 10 per cent – such as the one containing his latest warnings – are initiated by the comptroller general himself.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Walker said he had mentioned some of the issues before but now wanted to “turn up the volume”. Some of them were too sensitive for others in government to “have their name associated with”.

“I’m trying to sound an alarm and issue a wake-up call,” he said. “As comptroller general I’ve got an ability to look longer-range and take on issues that others may be hesitant, and in many cases may not be in a position, to take on.

“One of the concerns is obviously we are a great country but we face major sustainability challenges that we are not taking seriously enough,” said Mr Walker, who was appointed during the Clinton administration to the post, which carries a 15-year term.

The fiscal imbalance meant the US was “on a path toward an explosion of debt”.

“With the looming retirement of baby boomers, spiralling healthcare costs, plummeting savings rates and increasing reliance on foreign lenders, we face unprecedented fiscal risks,” said Mr Walker, a former senior executive at PwC auditing firm.

Current US policy on education, energy, the environment, immigration and Iraq also was on an “unsustainable path”.

“Our very prosperity is placing greater demands on our physical infrastructure. Billions of dollars will be needed to modernise everything from highways and airports to water and sewage systems. The recent bridge collapse in Minneapolis was a sobering wake-up call.”

Mr Walker said he would offer to brief the would-be presidential candidates next spring.

“They need to make fiscal responsibility and inter-generational equity one of their top priorities. If they do, I think we have a chance to turn this around but if they don’t, I think the risk of a serious crisis rises considerably”.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

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© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2007.

[king ubu]

best drink to get sober:

4 oz Irish Whisky (Jameson is fine)

2 oz honey

2 oz cream

[paul secor]

Surprised that W hasn't found a way to fire David Walker.

[7/4]

I'm not sure this is news.

[AllenLowe]

well, as someone (Louis Jordan?) said, what's the use of getting sober when you're just gonna get drunk again -

Edited August 14, 2007 by AllenLowe

[alocispepraluger102]

I'm not sure this is news.

hearing someone in an official capacity state it, however, is news.

[king ubu]

“Sound familiar?” Mr Walker said. “In my view, it’s time to learn from history and take steps to ensure the American Republic is the first to stand the test of time.”

Who cares, really? Things come and things go...

[Chuck Nessa]

Indeed.

[RDK]

“Sound familiar?” Mr Walker said. “In my view, it’s time to learn from history and take steps to ensure the American Republic is the first to stand the test of time.”

Who cares, really? Things come and things go...

True, but can we at least wait until I'm done with it?

[MoGrubb]

...Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire...

I've seen that coming for a long time, it ain't rocket science;

diversity without assimilation, scio-economic classes, etc.

[porcy62]

...Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire...

I've seen that coming for a long time, it ain't rocket science;

diversity without assimilation, scio-economic classes, etc.

A part "rocket science", he said "pitagora theorem", you use the very same arguments of this guy

[MoGrubb]

Is that a cesar?

Et tu, porcy62?

Edited August 15, 2007 by MoGrubb

[porcy62]

Is that a cesar?

Et tu, porcy62?

Diocletian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletian

When I killed old Julius Caesar, I did it for the Empire, to make it stronger, and I killed JFK for the same reason.

I feel that you undestimate the Force.

Please allow me to introduce myself

Im a man of wealth and taste

Ive been around for a long, long year

Stole many a mans soul and faith

And I was round when jesus christ

Had his moment of doubt and pain

Made damn sure that pilate

Washed his hands and sealed his fate

Pleased to meet you

Hope you guess my name

But whats puzzling you

Is the nature of my game

I stuck around st. petersburg

When I saw it was a time for a change

Killed the czar and his ministers

Anastasia screamed in vain

I rode a tank

Held a generals rank

When the blitzkrieg raged

And the bodies stank

Pleased to meet you

Hope you guess my name, oh yeah

Ah, whats puzzling you

Is the nature of my game, oh yeah

I watched with glee

While your kings and queens

Fought for ten decades

For the gods they made

I shouted out,

Who killed the kennedys?

When after all

It was you and me

Let me please introduce myself

Im a man of wealth and taste

And I laid traps for troubadours

Who get killed before they reached bombay

Pleased to meet you

Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah

But whats puzzling you

Is the nature of my game, oh yeah, get down, baby

Pleased to meet you

Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah

But whats confusing you

Is just the nature of my game

Just as every cop is a criminal

And all the sinners saints

As heads is tails

Just call me lucifer

cause Im in need of some restraint

So if you meet me

Have some courtesy

Have some sympathy, and some taste

Use all your well-learned politesse

Or Ill lay your soul to waste, um yeah

Pleased to meet you

Hope you guessed my name, um yeah

But whats puzzling you

Is the nature of my game, um mean it, get down

Woo, who

Oh yeah, get on down

Oh yeah

Oh yeah!

Tell me baby, whats my name

Tell me honey, can ya guess my name

Tell me baby, whats my name

I tell you one time, youre to blame

Edited August 15, 2007 by porcy62

[alocispepraluger102]

Four Preludes

On Playthings of the Wind

Carl Sandburg

"The Past Is a Bucket of Ashes"

1

The woman named Tomorrow

sits with a hairpin in her teeth

and takes her time

and does her hair the way she wants it

and fastens at last the last braid and coil

and puts the hairpin where it belongs

and turns and drawls: Well, what of it?

My grandmother, Yesterday, is gone.

What of it? Let the dead be dead.

2

The doors were cedar

and the panel strips of gold

and the girls were golden girls

and the panels read and the girls chanted:

We are the greatest city,

the greatest nation:

nothing like us every was.

The doors are twisted on broken hinges.

Sheets of rain swish through on the wind

where golden girls ran and the panels read:

We are the greatest city,

the greatest nation:

nothing like us ever was.

3

It has happened before.

Strong men put up a city and got

a nation together,

And paid singers to sing and women

to warble: We are the greatest city,

the greatest nation,

nothing like us ever was.

And while the singers sang

and the strong men listened

and paid the singers well

and felt good about it all,

there were rats and lizards who listened

... and the only listeners left now

... are ... the rats .. and the lizards.

And there are black crows

crying, "Caw, caw,"

bringing mud and sticks

building a nest over the words carved

on the doors where the panels were cedar

and the strips on the panels were gold

and the golden girls came singing:

We are the greatest city,

the greatest nation:

nothing like us ever was.

The only singers now are crows crying, "Caw, caw,"

And the sheets of rain whine in the wind and doorways.

And the only listeners now are ... the rats ... and the lizards.

4

The feet of the rats

scribble on the doorsills;

the hieroglyphs of the rat footprints

chatter the pedigrees of the rats

and babble of the blood

and gabble of the breed

of the grandfathers and the great-grandfathers

of the rats.

And the wind shifts

and the dust on a doorsill shifts

and even the writing of the rat footprints

tells us nothing, nothing at all

about the greatest city, the greatest nation

where the strong men listened

and the women warbled: Nothing like us ever was.

[porcy62]

Thanks for the poem, Aloc.

I didn't know it, nor I know Carl Sandburg, overall there are a lot of things I don't know, a world out me.

[alocispepraluger102]

Thanks for the poem, Aloc.

I didn't know it, nor I know Carl Sandburg, overall there are a lot of things I don't know, a world out me.

thank you.

Edited August 15, 2007 by alocispepraluger102

[MoGrubb]

.....

......Please allow me to introduce myself

Im a man of wealth and taste

Ive been around for a long, long year

Stole many a mans soul and faith

And I was round when jesus christ

Had his moment of doubt and pain

.....name

Tell me honey, can ya guess my name

Tell me baby, whats my name

I tell you one time, youre to blame

The Stone's Paint It Black?

[porcy62]

.....

......Please allow me to introduce myself

Im a man of wealth and taste

Ive been around for a long, long year

Stole many a mans soul and faith

And I was round when jesus christ

Had his moment of doubt and pain

.....name

Tell me honey, can ya guess my name

Tell me baby, whats my name

I tell you one time, youre to blame

The Stone's Paint It Black?

Simpathy For The Devil

[MoGrubb]

....

Simpathy For The Devil

Oh yeah, I think it's on the Paint It Black album.

[porcy62]

....

Simpathy For The Devil

Oh yeah, I think it's on the Paint It Black album.

It doesn't exist a"Paint it Black" album of the Stones.

"Paint It Black" is a song on Aftermath album (U.S. edition) and as a single in U.S. and U.K. In both countries reached the n.1 of the charts as single.

"Simpathy For The Devil" is on Beggars Banquet.

[BruceH]

I always spelled it "Sympathy For the Devil."

[porcy62]

I always spelled it "Sympathy For the Devil."

I beg your pardon , Im not a man of wealth and taste

[MoGrubb]

Well shit, I'm batting 0.