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Friday, December 22, 2006

Yugo Shopping

By Ken Herman | Friday, December 22, 2006, 11:03 AM

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Looking for a last-minute holiday gift for that tough-to-shop-for person who is really, really interested in Yugoslavia, say from 1948-1990?

This is your lucky day. The Director of National Intelligence is making available a collection of 34 recently declassified reports about Yugoslavia. The official title is “From National Communism to National Collapse.” The official subtitle is “US Intelligence Community Estimative Products on Yugoslavia, 1948-1990.”

What says holiday season more than a collection of estimative products?

Here’s part of the promotional blurb from the DNI:

“Over the years, these estimative products gave Washington policymakers keen insight into the major currents driving the maverick state, such as Belgrade’s fear of Soviet invasion and its need to balance between East and West, nationalism’s role as both a unifying and divisive force, and the race to establish lasting institutions before Tito’s inevitable demise.”

See the estimative products here.

Order a hard copy (including the companion CD) here.

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Veep Pay

By Ken Herman | Friday, December 22, 2006, 08:40 AM

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Nothing says thanks quite like a pay raise. And that’s just what President Bush has given Vice President Cheney this holiday season.

In an executive order that increased pay for most federal employees (save for himself), Bush bumped Cheney’s salary from this year’s $212,100 to $215,700. (There’s a calculator on that computer you’re using. Fire it up to figure out what that raise crunches to percentagewise).

The Bush order supplanted the usual congressional action on pay hikes for federal workers. A hold-up in approving an overall spending bill meant no congressional action on pay raises.

The presidential action raised congressional salaries from the current $165,200 to $168,000, but Democratic leaders have said that hike will not go into effect until a minimum wage increase is approved.

Bush also passed out pay hikes for his cabinet members, up from this year’s $183,500 to next year’s $186,600.

Footnotes on the vice presidential salary: Started at $5,000 in 1789. By 1949, it was $30,000 plus a non-taxable $10,000 expense account. The biggest hike came in 1994 when it went from $62,500 to $171,000 while Al Gore had the job.

The presidential salary, which started at $25,000 in 1789, has been set by law since 2001 at $400,000. The job also comes with a nice house in downtown Washington.

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