Nov 01, 2008
Here are a few items noted with interest over the past month:

A Guide to the Housing Crisis: Ten Questions and Answers

Plain English straight talk about the financial collapse for which our grandchildren will still be paying. (From The Century Foundation. Accessed October 5, 2008)

Integrating Instruments of Power and Influence: Lessons Learned and Best Practices

Have we learned any lessons from Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan? If the multiple recommendations of this two-year study are taken seriously, perhaps we have. In its essence: less reliance on our military and more cooperation among all interested parties, especially indigenous ones. (From The Rand Corporation. Accessed October 5, 2008)

Nuclear Weapons Dismantlements Up 20 Percent

Betcha didn’t know we were taking apart out nukes. Bush, in a right move for a change, set a goal in 2004 of achieving the lowest number of nuclear weapons consistent with national security needs. By 2012, we will be down to one-quarter the number of nukes we had at the end of the Cold War. (From The National Nuclear Security Administration. Accessed October 5, 2008)

Public Transit Users Save $9,499 Household Annually, Up Over $250 From Last Year

Pretty amazing statistics, showing how urbanites can save real money using public transit. (From American Public Transportation Association. Accessed October 11, 2008)

Fact Sheet: Federal Employee Performance Appraisals to Include Information Sharing (.pdf)

After years of complaints about a lack of information sharing among intelligence agencies (NSA, CIA, DoD Intelligence, FBI), sharing skills have finally risen to the level of a requirement for government employment. They even have their own web site. We’ll just have to wait and see how it works out. (From Information Sharing Environment. Accessed October 11, 2008)

Ohio Middle Class Index: 8 Years of Failed Economic Policies (.pdf)

As Ohio goes, so goes the nation. This stark one-page summary of the beating middle class Ohioans have taken at the hands of the Bush administration should be in every voter’s pocket when they go to the polls on Tuesday. McCain just promises more of the same. (From Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH). Accessed October 11, 2008)

Is America Ready to Vote?: State Preparations for Voting System Problems in 2008

We’ve been keeping an eye on voter disenfranchisement issues here at ATN. See, for example, Stand Up and Be Counted and No Voter Left Behind. Now here is what may be the exhaustive final word from a trio of careful examiners of state-by-state voting issues. Make sure your polls are on the up and up come Tuesday. (From The Brennan Center for Justice (in association with Common Cause and Verified Voting). Accessed October 17, 2008)

In Their Own Words: Voices of Jihad—Compilation and Commentary

David Aaron has produced this compilation of original writings of radical Islam fundamentalists. (From the Rand Corporation, 2008. Accessed October 18, 2008)