FM newswire for May 8, interesting articles about geopolitics

Today’s links to interesting news and analysis. If you find this useful, please pass it to a friend or colleague.

1. This is a tale about the horrors of medical care in Mexico (next to us, but with a very different system), Fred Reed, 18 April 2010
2. Big expenditures on fun things:  “A Tale of Carriers Investing in Slide Rules“, Fred Reed, 23 April 2010
3. Another few billion down the drain:  “Killer Drone Builder General Atomics Builds Killer Electromagnetic Rail Cannon“, DefenseTech, 5 May 2010
4. More of the “just make stuff up” school of political thought:  “The minority leader’s absurd charge about Obama’s counterterrorism strategy“, John Dickerson, Slate, 6 May 2010 — Esp since Obama’s actions so closely resemble those of Bush.
5. Big government = government spending that does not benefit them:  “Tea Parties and Farm Subsidies“, Matthew Yglesias, ThinkProgress, 7 May 2010 — Yes, they are typical Americans.
6. Analysis of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s report on climate change in the US, Willis Eschenbach, 8 May 2010
7. “The End of the Free Market: Six Questions for Ian Bremmer“, Scott Horton, blog of Harper’s, 7 May 2010
8. Valuable insights about inteligence, based on one of the great secret ops of WWII:  “Pandora’s Briefcase“, Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker, 10 May 2010 — “It was a dazzling feat of wartime espionage. But does it argue for or against spying?”

Current status of the Deepwater Horizon Response project

From their website, as of 7 May 2010:

• Total Vessels (including tugs and skimmers): 256
• Boom deployed: 876,936 feet
• Boom available: 1,287,764 feet
• Oil and Water Mix – Recovered: Approximately 1.89 million gallons
• Dispersant Used : 267,195 gallons
• Dispersant available: 317,591 gallons
• Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV): 4
• Overall Personnel Responding: 8,497
• Volunteers trained to assist in the response effort:  2,500+
• Staging areas in place and ready to protect sensitive shorelines:  10

About the best hope to quickly control the oil spill:  “How the Gulf Oil Spill Containment Dome Will Work“, LiveScience, 7 May 2010 — It’s now on the seabed, being hooked up to the surface.