Swamp Gas, December 24, 2007: The Swamp

Posted December 24, 2007 9:15 AM

by Frank James

A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important, most interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.

Experts are worried that rising credit-card debt delinquencies are signaling worse to come in the credit crunch as the aftershocks of the subprime mortgage crisis spread.

Lawmakers around the country are trying to constrain high real-estate property taxes which rose greatly during the housing boom but are declining more slowly than housing prices.

Central Intelligence Agency officials destroyed the interrogation videotapes involving high-value al Qaeda detainees, even after the then-CIA director warned against it, because they believed they would be abandoned by the nation's political leadership if the tapes ever became public.

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said the reduced violence in that nation has led to new challenges – the absorption of returning refugees and the continued gap between reality and expectations in terms of political reconciliation.

Holiday spending appears to be better than many analysts had feared based on consumer sentiment.

U.S. officials acknowledge that much of the $5 billion in military aid that was sent to Pakistan to assist the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban was wasted, spent on military systems to counter India, because of the lack of sufficient oversight and controls.

With Christmas fast approaching, many of the presidential candidates kept up their efforts to the cusp of Christmas Eve, though they veered away from attacks on opponents, choosing instead to spread holiday cheer or talk up their candidacies.

U.S. officials ignored years of warnings from defense and security experts about the dangers presented by private-security contractors, allowing the providers of hired guns to expand their influence in Iraq.

The declining U.S. dollar is effecting people globally, causing lost jobs and reduced earnings for many whose livelihoods are somehow tied to the dollar because of falling exports to the U.S. and other trends.

Comments

Now to stop local gov't off their addiction of rising real estate taxes through inflated property values.

Posted by: Terry | December 24, 2007 10:24 AM

CIA people thought they'd be abandoned by the evil Cheneybush regime? Well, OF COURSE THEY ARE RIGHT!!! Is there a human alive who doesn't believe dick cheney started that evidence destroying fire in his office last week to protect himself and a few people on his "nice" list this Christmas better start scurrying right now. He's protected his few, personal pals and the rest will be thrown to the wolves. Merry Christmas, Cheny-style.

Posted by: snalg | December 24, 2007 10:51 AM

Real estate property taxes.

This one hits home.

Recently we received a reassessment of our house for property taxes from Kane county. We've lived in our house for about 20 years. Despite the fact that housing prices are cooling because of the sub-prime situation, Kane country had reassessed our property at TWICE the previous value. So unless we fought it, our property taxes would have doubled and we could have been faced with an even HIGHER tax bill because of increased taxes from the various taxing bodies.

$350.00 later and an appraisal for 3/4 of what the county says our house is worth, we are hoping for the best.

It is concerning that one taxing body could simply double your taxes and how few options you have to fight it.

Posted by: dogjudge | December 24, 2007 11:11 AM

Dog,

You didn't know you buy your house twice: Once from the bank and again from the gov't

Posted by: Terry | December 24, 2007 11:52 AM

Terry,

The big $$$ expenditure of property taxes is your local school district.

What's your plan for your local transition of your tax dollars$

Posted by: Doug Zook | December 24, 2007 12:11 PM

"SENATOR LEAHY SPEAKS"

Dusty, I said Dusty, anybody seen Dusty?