Glenn Miller has a stone at Arlington. Troops who die in active duty whose remains are not recoverable are eligible for an Arlington memorial. The article is inaccurate to refer to his as a grave site.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=glenn+miller+arlington

I never said one way or another was a superior way to memorialize someone. I simply pointed out that the forthcoming comparison of the Vietnam Memorial, a 250 foot memorial wall built 25 years after the start of that conflict, to Arlington Cemetery, which covers 624 acres and has over 300,000 graves, is an apples-to-oranges comparison, and honestly asked if it is realistic to expect the cemetery to archive everything left on the grounds. I'm not aware of any large cemetery that does this, but if there is one, please let me know.

The article is conflating the internal disputes with the care and management of the cemetery. It doesn't sound to me like the cemetery is grossly mismanaged. Just because a well-run private cemetery of similar size managed to digitize its records in less time doesn't mean Arlington's failure to complete that monumental task to date is a result of complete ineptitude--a military cemetery with burials coming in from messy conflicts all over the world has different issues that a private cemetery which sells plots to families--another unfair apples-to-oranges comparison. It sounds like an unhappy employee with no authority to set policy went outside the chain of command to the media and got herself fired. I don't know if Higginbotham is a dedicated long-time public servant or an unaccountable tyrannical bureaucrat, but he's innocent until proven guilty and I know a one-sided hatchet job when I see one. It does look like he's at least guilty of poor judgment and a cover-up (but he is presumed innocent until proven otherwise) but we have no idea how much he was directly responsible for and how much can be attributed to other overzealous subordinates.

In any event I don't have a great deal of sympathy for Gray. Comparing "intrusion" into her company email to home invasion is totally over-the-top. And you don't go whistleblowing to the media unless you 1. There is fraud, illegality, or public welfare at stake, AND 2. You have gone all the way up the chain of command and nothing is being done. As an officer you DON'T create a media story and challenge your institution's policies in public, unless you quit your job first. In any event, this is an internal personnel matter masquerading as a matter of legitimate public interest. I see no evidence that the cemetery has been grossly mismanaged. On the contrary, it is the 2nd largest national cemetery in the nation, in which veterans are buried free of charge with full honors in dignified ceremonies, and which by this article's own contention is kept in immaculate, beautiful condition. That is no small feat, and it just might take someone with an "iron fist" to keep it that way.

You do not have to be a forensic psychologist to understand that combat stress causes homicides.

If being put in a high-intensity situation where you kill and witness killing all around you does not lead to increased incidence of homicide, what does? It is irresponsible to claim that you can train someone to be a killing machine, throw them into the fire, and then give them a debriefing and maybe a few pills and expect them to be fine.

Rich Americans will flee the counry! No doubt to Somalia or some other libertarian haven. No, they won't. Because they got rich by being in America in the first place. Because Americans are subject to income tax (less foreign-earned income exclusion) regardless of their country of residence, and this surcharge applies regardless of country of residence. Because even if they renounce citizenship AND leave the country, the IRS will collect taxes for 10 years anyway. And will always tax income originating from the U.S.A.

Doctors will just stop practicing! They'll take up some other prestigious occupation, like blogging or ditch-digging. Or practice medicine in Somalia. Never mind that the same platform is aimed at reducing healthcare costs and student-loan burdens.

I only hope that the House language makes it into a final bill. I'm not too optimistic, but Mr. Reich is absolutely right, except I quibble slightly with the Robin Hood analogy. For the last three decades or so the rich have been stealing from poor, working class, and lower-middle class, by systematically giving away tax breaks, making the tax system progressively more regressive while stripping away social supports, public services, and public infrastructure on a scale that is fairly described as a legal program of systemic looting by the overprivileged.

and @nardwilly and bearpaw1,

NP NP is not making shit up, he's quoting a very reliable source, Joe the Plumber, who made shit up.

Thanks for pointing out the obvious difference between revenue and net income of a sole proprietorship. Joe Mom and Pop are not taking home 250,000 a year, before or after taxes.

Please, please move to Somalia. It really sounds like your kind of place. No government bureaucracy whatsoever, no gun control, and certainly no tax collectors coming to steal your rightfully-earned property. Vote with your feet.

Robert Reich did not claim the tax rate is only 1%, rather that it affects only 1% of taxpayers. For most of them the rate would actually be less than 1%, but for the wealthiest ones it would be higher.

The actual rate is 1% of adjusted gross income above $350,000 and less than $500,000, 1.5% of AGI above $500,000 and below $1,000,000, and 5.4% of AGI above $1M.

So, for instance, a taxpayer with an AGI of $400,000 would have an effective surcharge of only 0.125% ($500 = 1% of 50,000). A taxpayer with an AGI of $3,000,000 would have a surcharge of 3.9% ($1,500 + $7,500 + $108,000 = $117,000).

Exorbitant, no?