It's Nice To Be Proved Right

When one expresses rather blunt opinions about subjects in the public arena, "proof" is quite often elusive. The strength of one's arguments, their structure and rhetorical power can carry the battle - for awhile. So when examples comes to light from the news, it's gratifying when they provide factual proof for one's arguments.

One past example was the discovery that Neptune is warming ... and since no SUVs are on Neptune, clearly Man is not the cause. Something else is causing Neptune to warm, and by simple interpolation, something else is making the Earth warm. This goes to prove with hard fact my statements that Man is not causing the Earth to warm.

Today's WSJ brings proof of another broad statement, viz. that Congressional earmarks are payoffs or bribes.

"US Raids Contractors Aided By Murtha"

" Federal agents raided two small Pennsylvania defense contractors that were given millions of dollars in federal funding by Rep. John Murtha, chairman of the defense appropriations committee and one of the most powerful men in Congress. Kuchera Industries and Kuchera Defense Systems shut down for the day after the raid by officers from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and an Internal Revenue Service criminal unit.

" In a statement Thursday night, the Pittsburgh U.S. attorney confirmed that offices in Windber, Johnstown and Summerhill were raided "as part of an ongoing investigation." A second federal official said that ties to lawmakers would be examined as part of the probe.
A spokesman for Mr. Murtha, Matthew Mazonkey, said, 'We know nothing more than what we've read in the press today,' referring to an initial report on the Web site of the Tribune-Democrat newspaper in Johnstown. Messages left last night for Kuchera executives weren't returned.

" Pentagon auditors have been looking at the use of earmarks, which are special-interest spending items directed to a specific company by members of Congress. An Oct. 30, 2007, page-one story in The Wall Street Journal identified Rep. Murtha as the largest earmarker in the House."

It's nice to be proved right.

Markets

Possible bad day coming - futures are down bigtime and Europe is down, too. I suspect hedge fund liquidations starting in Europe. The signs are similar to days from the fall when we now know that was occurring.

Word of the Day

"Rimose" - adjective [$10]; A Mrs. B word
Rimose means (especially Botanical uses) full of chinks or fissures; covered with cracks.
Sentence: The rimose edifice of Congressional earmarking practice might soon crumble as investigators find evidence of criminal payoffs and bribes of Members. The earmarks themselves are a roadmap for investigators.