As Alice said in Wonderland, things get "curiouser and curiouser." And, as management consultant Tom Peters advises, "If you're not confused, you're not paying attention."
Can anyone understand this?
· Many mega wealthy corporate CEOs are presiding over companies that are losing value and income, but are rewarded with enormous bonuses and stock options for poor performance. John Thain, the top executive at Wall Street's Merrill Lynch, took home $83.7 million in pay, perks and bonuses, although shareholder return on his company's stock fell 41 percent. John Mack, CEO of Morgan Stanley, was compensated $41.3 million although the firm's net income fell 66 percent and shareholder return dropped 11 percent.
· There seems to be no shame in the United States' lecturing China about its human rights abuses in Tibet--even though the Bush administration is notorious worldwide for torture of detainees, refusal to accord "suspect" terrorists the right to legal counsel and access to evidence against them, and its announced rejection of Geneva Conventions on humane treatment of prisoners.
· What can the Pentagon and the Bush White House possibly be thinking when they recycle soldiers two, three even four times back into Iraq and Afghanistan combat and complain it has difficulty in recruiting new GIs, while also issuing new reports of record numbers of mental illnesses among troops returning home?
· How can President Bush predict a rosy economy within months as the Treasury continues to borrow tens of billions of dollars abroad in such inhospitable places as communist China, as another 80,000 workers are laid off in one month, as record fuel prices drive three airlines out of business in one week, and the president admits he didn't know gasoline was headed toward $4 a gallon?
· How crazy is this? The State Department has renewed the contract of Blackwater Worldwide, despite an investigation of the killing of 17 unarmed and innocent Iraqis by Blackwater security personnel who guard diplomats in Baghdad. The Washington Post won a Pulitzer Prize for stories that prompted the investigation.
- Idaho legislators adjourned their 2008 session with complaints they lacked adequate funds for some programs--but gave tax breaks to film companies that produce movies in Idaho and to a French firm if it builds a uranium enrichment plant in the state.
- Sen. Hillary Clinton's principal idea strategist, Mark Penn, resigns after admitting he wanted to lobby for a free trade agreement with Colombia although Penn presumably advised Sen. Clinton as part of his campaign strategy to oppose the pact.
Still confused? Join the club.
