More than $98 billion in taxpayer dollars spent by government agencies was wasted, much of it on questionable claims for tax credits and Medicare benefits, representing an increase of $26 billion from the previous year. In all, about 5 percent of spending in federal programs in fiscal year 2009 was improper, according to new details of a government financial report that were released Tuesday. Saying the overall error rate was similar in 2008, officials attributed the $26 billion jump to some changes in how to define improper spending as well as an increase in overall spending due to the recession. President Barack Obama is expected to sign an executive order within the next week aimed at cracking down on government waste and fraud, particularly in Medicare and other benefit programs. In the 2009 report, the government officially reported questionable Medicare payments of roughly $36 billion, but that amount will be revised upward to about $48 billion next year as the Health and Human Services Department fully converts to a new methodology that imposes stricter documentation requirements. Under the executive order, every federal agency would have to maintain a Web site that tracks improper payments, error rates and outstanding payments. If an agency doesn't meet targets for reducing error rates for two years in a row, the agency director and responsible official will have to directly report to OMB to explain the delinquency and new actions they will take. Among the reported waste: Agriculture: $4.3 billion in improper payments, or 5.9 percent of total department spending. Defense: $849 million, or 0.5 percent. Education: $599 million, or 2.1 percent. Health and Human Services: $55.1 billion, or 9.4 percent. Homeland Security: $644.5 million, or 3.7 percent.Housing and Urban Development: $1 billion, or 3.5 percent. Labor: $12.3 billion, or 9.9 percent. Treasury: $12.3 billion, or 25.5 percent. Transportation: $1.5 billion, or 3 percent. Veterans Affairs: $1.2 billion, or 2.7 percent. Social Security Administration: $8.0 billion, or 1.2 percent.
Mounting evidence that independent voters have soured on the Democrats is prompting a debate among party officials about what rhetorical and substantive changes are needed to halt the damage. Following serious setbacks with independents in off-year elections earlier this month, White House officials attributed the defeats to local factors and said President Barack Obama sees no need to reposition his own image or the Democratic message. Since then, however, a flurry of new polls makes clear that Democrats are facing deeper problems with independents. A Gallup Poll released last week offered a disturbing glimpse about the state of play: just 14 percent of independents approve of the job Congress is doing, the lowest figure all year. In just the past few days alone, surveys have shown Democratic incumbents trailing Republicans among independent voters by double-digit margins in competitive statewide contests in places as varied as Connecticut, Ohio and Iowa. Obama’s own popularity among independents has fallen significantly, too. A CBS News poll Tuesday showed the president’s approval rating among unaligned voters falling to 45 percent — down from 63 percent in April. Andrew Myers, who polled for Democrats in Virginia House of Delegates races this year, said his analysis of exit polls indicated that voters had come to see Democrats as a party of high spending — too willing to make a rush for the pocketbooks and unable to effectively articulate how their health care reform push benefited independents, many of whom already have insurance plans. Nowhere was that more obvious than in Virginia and New Jersey, where GOP candidates captured governorships on Nov. 3 on the strength of landslide margins among independent voters. In Virginia, Republican Bob McDonnell won a 65 percent to 34 percent victory over Democrat Creigh Deeds among independents in a state where President Barack Obama split the independent vote 49 percent to 48 percent against Republican John McCain just one year earlier. In New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie won a 58 percent to 31 percent victory over Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine among independents — a stark contrast to Obama’s 51 percent to 47 percent win among independents in 2008. “The perception of what’s happening in Congress is polluting what’s happening down below,” Myers said. Michael Dimock, a pollster for the Pew Research Center — which reported in a new survey that only 45 percent of independents want their own representative to return to Congress — also believes Democrats have suffered for their inability to move the ball on key agenda items such as health care.
European Union leaders are due to discuss key issues such as trade and energy with their Russian counterparts at a summit in Stockholm. Moscow and Brussels are still rebuilding relations after falling out over last year's Georgia-Russia war. The EU will also seek assurances there will be no repeat of last winter's disruption of gas exports to the West. And Brussels wants to know if Russia is still interested in joining the World Trade Organization. The EU, which represents 500 million people, is Moscow's biggest trading partner and depends heavily on Russian gas. Moscow, meanwhile, is seeking more foreign investment. Wednesday's talks are taking place in Stockholm because Sweden holds the EU's rotating six-month presidency.
On Monday, Moscow and Brussels agreed to notify each other in advance of any problems affecting energy supplies, and to work together to fix them. A quarter of the gas consumed in the EU comes from Russia, most of it transported via Ukraine, which has often had fuel disputes with Moscow. In January, Russia cut off gas supplies to more than a dozen European countries for two weeks, amid a row with Kiev. Earlier this week, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb said the EU needed to work closely with Russia. "There is a level of mutual dependence - we depend on them for energy supplies and we are energy consumers for them," he said. Other issues expected on the summit agenda include global warming, security and Iran's nuclear programme.
One could argue that this is not a rhetorical question, but to be bluntly frank the establishment in London is naïve as well as biased and our people in Nicosia are simply incapable of doing anything about it. It’s just that in this world of giants and small players, we are expected to behave properly while the U.K. government is not. The British High Commissioner’s decision to attend the inauguration in the north of a memorial to the Colonial troops who died during the EOKA struggle was a faux pas of gross dimensions that was played down by the Cyprus government for reasons beyond logic. Surely, President Christofias and his Foreign Minister should have seen this coming, considering that the noisy British expats who live on stolen refugee property in the north far differ in their colonial attitudes from the expats who have chosen to live or retire in the Republic. Would it not have been better for the High Commissioner to ask the Foreign Office in London to politely ask Ankara to gently remove its guard post from the hilltop above Wayne’s Keep near the old Nicosia airport? That is, after all, where there is a memorial to all the fallen, including those who lost their lives defending the Empire in 1955-59. It just happens to be within the UN-patrolled neutral zone and nobody has access to it, ironically, not even the British, simply because Turkey refuses to withdraw its troops from there. It is unfortunate that those in government in London continue to ignore the opinion of the vast majority of Britons who want to see a fair solution to the Cyprus problem, where all European citizens will be able to live and move freely. They remain blinded by their military and economic obligations to Turkey and are misguided by the advice of some biased analysts. Which brings us to the second misguided event of the week and the Nicosia government’s inability to respond. In an otherwise well-written column by Max Watson that appeared in the Financial Times Cyprus Report on Monday, the Chatham House analyst said, naïvely, that “Economy is key that will unlock barriers.” He seems to have reached a foregone conclusion that Christofias is to blame for the stalemate (and subsequent delay of Turkey’s EU accession) and the solution lies in a unified economy for Cyprus. Despite having advised the UN team during the run-up to the Annan Plan in all its variants, Watson insists that Turkish Cypriots will be overrun in a prospective solution and seems to have forgotten that the main issue of discontent is that of return and compensation of occupied properties, without which one cannot even discuss issues related to a federal economy. How naïve, and how stupid of us to let these comments get away.
Serge Brammertz is not satisfied with the investigations regarding Croatia's 1995 military onslaught against the country's Serb areas, reports say. Zagreb daily Jutarnji List wrote on Tuesday that the chief Hague prosecutor was unhappy about the probes into the whereabouts of the Operation Storm artillery logs. The daily stated that according to the diplomatic sources Brammertz had already sent his written report to the UN Security Council and that he would also address this UN body on December 3. The report spells "more bad news for Croatia’s efforts and efforts of some countries members of the EU to unblock the judiciary system chapter [in negotiations with EU] as soon as possible, blocked by the Hague Tribunal prosecutor’s position, now more unfavorable than before", said the newspaper. Jutarnji List added that its EU sources had seen the contents of Brammertz’s report and pointed out that the Office of the Chief Prosecutor considered that the results of the working group formed by the Croatian government were limited, and that none of the requested artillery logs had been found.
The Hague Prosecutor’s Office pointed out that they expect the Croatian authorities to continue the investigations so the documents could be found ,and handed over before the trial of Ante Gotovina is finished. This former general is being tried at the Hague Tribunal for Operation Storm war crimes along with two others: Ivan Čermak and Mladen Markač. The logs concern the Croatian military's attacks against Serb civilian areas. The Hague believes that the documents offer key proof of the excessive shelling of Knin during the offensive that was led by Gotovina. The Croatian authorities, however, claim that the logs either do not exist, or were lost.
The high church officials that shall attend the funeral service are Bartolomew, the Patriarch of Constantinople, Anastasi, the Patriarch of the Albanian Orthodox Church and Christian, the Archbishop of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Russian delegation shall be led by Filaret, the Metropolitan of Minsk and Slutsk. The Russian Patriarch Cyril shall not come due to illness. The Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Dean of the Cardinal Collegium as his representative at the funeral of the Patriarch Pavle. High state delegations of Greece and the Republic of Srpska are expected to come as well as the President of Macedonia Djordje Ivanov. Since the Monastery in Rakovica cannot host all of the people that shall attend the ceremony, Bishop Irinej yesterday expressed regret over that fact and asked the people to part from the Patriarch at the St. Sava Dome. He also asked them not to buy flowers and wreaths but instead to give money for completion of the Dome since that was the Patriarch’s wish. After the funeral service at the St. Sava Dome, Metropolitan Amfilohije, Concierge of the Throne of the Serbian Patriarch shall deliver a speech. The Patriarch of Constantinople Bartolomew and Serbia President Boris Tadic shall also deliver a speech.
Nativity Fast starts as of today [November 15] and runs for 40 days. The main spiritual significance of the fast is passion purification. Fasting is to purify the main function of human life. The fast is observed from November 15 to December 24, inclusively. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the fast traditionally entails fasting from red meat, poultry, meat products, eggs, dairy products, fish, oil, and wine. Fish, wine and oil are allowed on Saturdays and Sundays, and oil and wine are allowed on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The fasting rules permit fish, and wine and oil on certain feast days that occur during the course of the fast such as the St. Nicholas Day (December 6). The Nativity Fast is not as severe as Great Lent or the Dormition Fast. Sea foods like clams, shrimp and other seafood are also allowed.