government

The Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, will be granted unprecedented authority in the financial bailout plan:
“… Paulson’s new powers will be almost breathtaking in their scope. He and his successor will have the right to buy not just the mortgage-related securities at the heart of the crisis but, under some conditions, any financial instrument [...]

The Bailout Plan places additional debt on every American. An baby born today - an American citizen - is in debt. The Bailout Plan calls for $700 billion. How was it decided that this was the number to rescue the economy:
“…”‘It’s not based on any particular data point,’ a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com [...]

In trying to stem the problem of identity theft, Australia is enacting new legislation:
“The State Government is cracking down on identity theft, a crime that affected half a million Australians last year.
Acting Premier Rob Hulls said new legislation would beef up protection against identity theft and help in the prosecution of identity crime.”
link: Government [...]

George Orwell imagined a government that gathered every piece of available information of its citizens. There was constant surveillance, with control of the society as an end goal. George Orwell was an imaginative futurist and his view of a totalitarian government was presented in his novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four”.
It seems that Britain [...]

For many people, especially the elderly, social security is somewhat a puzzle, even when one is receiving benefits. There is an online resource that seems to help address some of the confusion and the seemingly shifting policies:
link: Social Security Online
It is a helpful resource. For example, under the ‘Other Useful Links’ feature, [...]

The White House has issued staggering economic figures. The government has a unprecedented federal budget deficit:
“… The White House is tipped to lift its deficit forecast for 2009 to $490bn (£246bn) up from $407bn.
The budget deficit measures how much more the government is spending than it is raising through taxes.”
link: Record [...]

By far, the number of people online from China is the highest of any nation in the world. It exceeds the number of online citizens from the United States and the growth of the internet in China will continue at a unprecedented rate:
“…More than 253 million people in the country are now online, according [...]

As a security measure, there is a data base of known and suspected terrorists. South African President Nelson Mandela was on that list. Former Assistant Attorney General Jim Robinson is on that list too and he finds it a major annoyance:
“…”It’s a pain in the neck, and significantly interferes with my travel arrangements,” [...]

With the technological ability to gather and store data, the Australian government is creating an online data base of every school child:
“…Photographs, personal details, career aspirations, off-campus activities and student performance records are being collected from all 1251 state schools.
Education Queensland said details of 180,000 students from 637 schools already were online and the database [...]

There are some news items that every American should read. This is one of them:
“(CNN) — Casualties could have been reduced by half among Marines in Iraq if specially armored vehicles had been deployed more quickly in some cases, a report to the Pentagon says.”
link: Marines want probe into armored vehicle program delays
The [...]