Following the stimulus money

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Saturday September 26, 2009 · 1:27 PM PDT

2009/09/26 · 13:27

(Cross-posted from the Accountable Strategies blog and Blue Mass Group)

In the name of transparency and accountability, a lot of people are putting a lot of effort into tracking the federal economic stimulus money now flowing into cities and states.

The question is how effective and valuable are the results of those tracking efforts? Are the federal government and the states getting a real handle on the funding under the economic stimulus bill, also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009?

Dave in MA

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Wednesday July 29, 2009 · 12:09 PM PDT

2009/07/29 · 12:09

Sometime ago, I wrote about a battle going on in Massachusetts over privatizing the Fernald Developmental Center, the nation's oldest state-operated facility for persons with mental retardation.

This is a battle that has been playing out in state after state. The argument for closing these Intermediate Care Facilities (ICFs) is that the private sector can provide this care better and cheaper.

This same myth that government can't do anything right or efficiently is behind the opposition to President Obama's public option in his health care reform package. None other than Karl Rove has sounded the alarm that allowing government to complete with private health insurers will drive them all out of business and turn us into European socialists.

Dave in MA

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Thursday May 07, 2009 · 8:56 AM PDT

2009/05/07 · 08:56

Lori Berenson, an American citizen, has now been imprisoned in Peru for over 13 years. She is serving a 20-year sentence for having been convicted of associating with a terrorist group known as the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement or MRTA.

I wrote on the 11th anniversary of her imprisonment about the unfairness of both of her trials.

In email yesterday to her supporters, her parents, Mark and Rhoda, announced that Lori had just given birth in prison to a son. Lori was married in 2003 to Anibal Apari Sanchez, who is now a lawyer in Lima.

According to her parents, Lori, who gave birth via Caesarian section due to a chronic back condition, will require spinal surgery to prevent permanent nerve damage. They are rightly concerned about the state of medical care in Peru, particularly in the prison system, and have asked that Lori be released back to the U.S. to undergo the operation and rehabilitation.

Dave in MA

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Monday April 07, 2008 · 10:45 AM PDT

2008/04/07 · 10:45

(Guest post by Mike Gordon (jgordon30@msn.com) on the Accountable Strategies blog)

I have been a Respiratory Therapist for 19 years. I have seen hospitals try to increase productivity to unsafe levels, even though there is a Medicare mandate to have adequate staff.

I was the only therapist on at night at one hospital. Things were not right. I entered into the Kansas Human Rights mediation process and cannot discuss the case further. I can tell you that if you say something is not right and leave notes, those notes can be used against you. I am living proof. Retaliation is very real in healthcare.

Dave in MA

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Monday January 14, 2008 · 12:37 PM PST

2008/01/14 · 12:37

A bitter battle over privatization is being fought in federal court in Massachusetts. It’s one that has garnered little substantive media coverage in the state, yet it promises to have lasting consequences for the care of some of the most vulnerable members of society and for the role of government itself in this state.

The battle is over the fate of the Fernald Developmental Center in Waltham, Massachusetts, the nation’s oldest, state-run facility for persons with mental retardation. The administration of Gov. Deval Patrick, which is seeking to carry out the former Romney administration’s plans to close Fernald and privatize its services, is appealing U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro’s ruling last year that Fernald must stay open to its current residents.

Dave in MA

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Monday December 17, 2007 · 10:47 AM PST

2007/12/17 · 10:47

Two articles in the November/December issue of Public Administration Review highlight what seems to be a fundamental contradiction in American government---a contradiction that has become full blown under the current Bush administration.

The contradiction is basically this: George W. Bush, perhaps more than any president before him, has sought to strengthen the authority of the presidency under the "unitary executive theory" of presidential power. Yet, at the same time, Bush has actively promoted a trend that began in the Reagan years of downsizing government.

Why would Bush fight to increase his power and authority over the federal government, and yet work, at the same time, to make that government smaller and internally weaker?

Dave in MA

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Monday July 30, 2007 · 8:09 AM PDT

2007/07/30 · 08:09

Nonprofits have come under increasing scrutiny in recent months for issues ranging from nonpayment of payroll taxes to a lack of financial transparency to the simple fact of their increasing involvement in delivering federal and other governmental services.

Some of that scrutiny has lately been brought to bear on the connections that some politicians, particularly candidates for president, have with nonprofits.

Dave in MA

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Wednesday July 18, 2007 · 11:22 AM PDT

2007/07/18 · 11:22

George W. Bush is widely known to be concerned about his legacy, and he may indeed be doing all he can to cement a future historical judgment of him. Only it looks as though it may just turn out to be as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.

It may not even be Iraq that ultimately brings that judgment down upon him. It may be the concerted effort he (or Dick Cheney) appears to have made to dismantle our constitutional system of democratic checks and balances and to turn the country in the direction of a police state.

Can we quantify the constitutional damage Bush and Cheney have done? One recent attempt to do so is contained in a new report issued by the nonprofit OpenTheGovernment.org and the People for the American Way Foundation. Read it. It's worth it.

Dave in MA

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Wednesday July 11, 2007 · 8:58 AM PDT

2007/07/11 · 08:58

Maybe a special counsel needs to be appointed. Maybe a lawsuit should be filed.

So far, though, it’s unclear exactly what Congress has done or plans to do in response to presidential actions, which have been described as "threatening to overturn the existing structures of constitutional law."

There doesn’t seem to be a concerted plan of action.

Dave in MA

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Wednesday June 27, 2007 · 7:45 AM PDT

2007/06/27 · 07:45

Cross-posted from the Accountable Strategies Blog

If we could put a man on the moon, why is it that 38 years later, we can’t create a homeland protection agency that can keep its books straight and its personnel honest?

From the debacle of FEMA’s performance during Hurricane Katrina to the contract cost overruns and delays in the Coast Guard’s "Deepwater" fleet modernization program, it seems DHS hasn’t been able to shake out the bugs since its inception in 2003. If you read the latest two semi-annual reports by the DHS Inspector General, you might shake your head in wonder at how those problems seem to have cropped up in every area.

Dave in MA

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Tuesday June 19, 2007 · 11:48 AM PDT

2007/06/19 · 11:48

Cross-posted from the Accountable Strategies Blog

Might it have been a diabolical strategy on the part of the Bush administration to neutralize Patrick Fitzgerald-by disingenuously giving him too much power and independence?

Here’s the scenario: The Department of Justice appoints Fitzgerald as the special counsel to investigate the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA agent and gives Fitzgerald independence in his probe. Complete independence. He’s not supervised by anyone and not even bound by DoJ policies. It’s patently unconstitutional. Ultimately, any convictions Fitzgerald gains are thrown out on appeal.

Dave in MA

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Tuesday June 12, 2007 · 7:11 AM PDT

2007/06/12 · 07:11

Cross-posted from the Accountable Strategies Blog

For the past decade, we’ve been witnessing the rise of the "public-private partnership," not only in this country, but around the world.

Neither the public, nor the private, nor the nonprofit sectors can solve our increasingly complex societal problems by themselves, so the P-PPs have come to the rescue. From the construction of municipal wastewater treatment plants to the establishment of development programs in poorer countries, public, private, and nonprofit players have come together in a spirit of "partnership" to get these jobs done.

So, why doesn’t it work so much of the time?

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Following the stimulus money

Chipping away at the government-can't-do-anything-right myth

Why it's time to release Lori Berenson

The patient loses: a whistleblower's experience

Fernald and the folly of unchecked privatization

The Bush contradiction in government

The candidates and nonprofits

One group's attempt to quantify Bush's impact on government

What's being done about the presidential signing statements?

Why we can't clean up the Homeland Security mess

Accountability in the Libby case

Are public-private partnerships accountable?