TBWAIN - AKA Jeff Svare's Blog

If you are familiar with the BBC series, Yes, Minister , you may recall an episode entitled "The Challenge" where the Minister of Administrative Affairs, Jim Hacker , plans on implementing pre-set failure standards on local governments plans to determine if they are successes or failures. The criteria were to be described in the documentation for the plan so that everyone would know if something worked or not. I came across and interesting website today put up by the United States government called ExpectMore.gov . This website purports to show what government programs are " Performing " and " Not Performing ." I take it that there are some performance standards built-in to every government program that makes it possible to gauge if they are a success or failure. Programs that are "Performing" are rated as " Effective ," " Moderately effective ," or " Adequate ." Programs that are " Not Performing " are

When Senator Edward Kennedy announced his endorsement of Barack Obama he made the following statement: "With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion." Absolutely. We'll be turning to a brand new page of misrepresentation and distortion. Do politicians think we aren't paying attention? The Democrats accuse the Republicans of misrepresentation and distortion, and in return the Republicans accuse the Democrats of misrepresentation and distortion. This is nothing new. The fact is that everyone is so busy with misrepresentation and distortion that the truth is successfully obscured and we are given government statistics to accept as facts. All it does is rally the existing supporters, boost a few percentage points in undecided voters, and make it look like something is really going to happen, so that no one will have to do anything. And the universe continues to unfold just as it should.

... the candidates have taken to attacking the others in their party. It's really rather amusing, and would be even more so, if one of these people wouldn't end up being blamed for everything that's wrong in this country. That is, after all, why we elect a president, you know. The democrats still haven't signaled to Hillary Clinton that they don't want her. And why shouldn't they? She's probably the most polarizing candidate running. Mitt Romney is accused of flip-flopping, which is a negative way of saying "he changed his mind." Only a fool never changes his mind when confronted with evidence to the contrary. Unless of course, you can blame someone else for it. Hillary's qualifications are the stuff of legend: Whitewater, the gifts to the Rose Law Firm, the Chinese campaign contributions, grand jury subpoenas, Kenneth Star, the Lincoln Bedroom, Monica Lewinisky, her husband's impeachment, Gennifer Flowers, the failed campaign promise to