Matt Miller: Sorry, Alan and Erskine -- it's not nearly enough - Washington Post

I'm torn between cheering some of the "tough choices" (by Washington standards) that Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson have usefully put on the table -- and running from the room screaming at how phony and inadequate so many of the steps they've laid out are, despite first-day commentary hailing them as "bold." Here's a two-minute Radical Centrists's guide to how to think about what they've floated (drafted at the airport while waiting for a flight, so forgive the short strokes).

21 versus 22. As I wrote in The Post a few months ago, the Bowles/Simpson plan to hold spending to 21 percent of GDP as the boomers age is a dangerous fantasy. All you need to know is that Ronald Reagan ran government at 22 percent of GDP when 76 million baby boomers weren't retiring. Today we're on the verge of doubling the number of folks on Social Security and Medicare. The Bowles/Simpson size of government goal is a fantasy -- it will not happen. Unfortunately, this wrongheaded goal undermines much of what they propose, since it's the organizing feature of their proposal.

2037. The co-chairs don't balance the budget until 2037! The outer limits of the ambition of a commission set up to get our fiscal house in order is thus a 27-year plan to balance the budget? Oy. The most you can say is that it's faster than the plan offered by that other falsely-hailed fiscal conservative, Paul Ryan, whose "Roadmap" wouldn't balance the budget until the 2050s!

Health-care dreaming. The long-run savings in health care are merely assumed -- they say growth rates after 2020 will slow to some rate closer to GDP growth than they are today. Everyone seeks such a result, but no one has any real idea how to achieve it, because it means taking on the Medical Industrial Complex in ways unthinkable today. But is it possible? You bet. Mighty Singapore spends 4 percent of GDP on health care versus our 17 percent, with as good or better health outcomes. We CAN do more with less. Whether we have the political gumption to get there is the multi-trillion dollar question.

Social Security. The co-chairs don't raise the retirement age to 68 until 2050, and to 69 until 2075 (a blow for today's newborns, but tough choices have to be made...). So we have a bold, 40- to 65-year plan to bring benefit eligibility ages in line with reality, when life spans are already 14 years higher than when the retirement age of 65 was set decades ago. Come to think of it, in 2075 people will probably be living to at least 100. A task for a future commission! Meanwhile, the co-chairs don't even phase in "progressive indexing" of benefits until 2050, when a more thrifty shift to "price indexing" much sooner would be justified (this is a longer, seemingly arcane, yet essential discussion for a future column on intergenerational equity).

Gas tax. On my reading, the co-chairs call for a bold new 15-cent a gallon gas tax. Ross Perot called for 50 cents twenty years ago. Our problems grow, our ambitions shrink.

Good news! The co-chairs do put tax expenditures (or subsidies) for things like employer provided health care and mortgages on the table for cuts. That's genuinely terrific and worthy of applause.

I know that within the conventional boundaries of debate, what Bowles and Simpon have offered is a step forward. But when the conventional boundaries of debate are utterly inadequate to our actual challenges, someone has to say so.

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Xi3 Launches Miniature Modular Computer - InformationWeek

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Taking a new approach to personal computing, Xi3 has unveiled its Xi3 Modular Computer, which resembles an aluminum cube, and targets home and office users.

The Xi3 Modular Computer's architecture divides the standard motherboard into three separate boards -- one that houses the processors and RAM and two additional I/O boards to handle all connectivity and input/output requirements, the Salt Lake City-based Xi3 said. All three of the boards can be removed, modified, and replaced.

The individual modules back each other up so that the computer has no single point of failure, the company said. Adding other modules for scalability is not a problem and a network-like environment can be easily created to increase the computer's processing capabilities as requirements change, according to Xi3. The modular design makes it easy for new external devices to be connected to the computer, Xi3 said.

The Xi3 Modular Computer measures less than 4 inches on each side and is powered by dual-core processors, but requires less than 20 watts to operate, the company said. The device's aluminum casing acts as a type of "heatsink," and the heat generated inside is lessened by its flow-through design and the way the processors have been placed, Xi3 said. Separate universal mount slides have been placed on three of the aluminum casing's external sides so that it is easy to mount it to almost anything, according to Xi3.

"We reject the concept that computers should have a useful life of only two to four years," said Jason A. Sullivan, president and CEO of Xi3, in a statement. "Instead we believe that computers should be upgradeable and updateable over and over and over again, and that's how we've designed the Xi3 Modular Computer, making it (potentially) the last computer you ever need to buy."

A companion product, the Z3RO (Zero) Module, connects to the Xi3 Modular Computer so that three additional workstations can be integrated.

The Xi3 Modular Computer will retail for under $1,000 and will be available in early 2011.

Are your star players about to bolt? You need to know before the job market warms up. That story and more in the new, all-digital issue of InformationWeek's Boardroom Journal. Download it now (registration required).

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Honor Flight brings veterans to WWII memorial - CNN International

Veteran Dick Coss hugs an enlisted family member who surprised him at the World War II memorial. WWII veterans get free travel to memorial in Washington through Honor Flight Less than 10 percent of WWII American veterans are still aliveTwelve veterans started the Honor Flight in 2005 with six small planesNow, Honor Flight charters Boeing jets to take veterans from all over the country

(CNN) -- Meet the "greatest generation" -- the 16 million servicemen and women who served in World War II.

Eighty-year-old Army veteran Chris Maurer couldn't wait to sign up. He lied his way into the army at the age of 15.

"I went to sign up and said 'I'm ready to go!' They told me, 'You look too young!' So I said, my mama said I could go. So she signed for me and that was it. I was gone," Maurer said.

Eighty-nine-year-old Hal Murray said he remembers navigating the skies of Europe like it was yesterday. "The farther we pushed Germany back after the Rhine crossing, the heavier the flack for our bombers," Murray said.

And 83-year-old Weyman Owens witnessed the destruction left behind from the nuclear strikes at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"It was hell. At least a mile from where they dropped that thing, buildings made of rod iron were just twisted and torn to pieces: a church, torn all to pieces, everything just blown to pieces. Nothing I've ever seen compares to that."

Many veterans, including Maurer, Murray and Owens, didn't think they would get a chance to see the memorial.

Chris Maurer is greeted by military officials and volunteers at the Baltimore airport.

That is until they heard about Honor Flight, a program dedicated to getting veterans to the memorial in Washington. Twelve veterans started the program in 2005 with six small planes.

Today, it operates like a volunteer airline, with 98 hubs in 35 states. Now, instead of renting small planes, they charter Boeing jets, thanks to donations that keep the planes in the sky. The veterans don't pay a penny.

There is a sense of urgency at Honor Flight because less than 10 percent of those who served in the war are still alive.

At the memorial, Murray paused to remember the high price of freedom -- the more than 400,000 American soldiers who died in the war.

"To Paul McKinney and the 15 other men who died in my squadron, this honors them all," Murray said. "This is just a very beautiful place and they've done a very great job of making it meaningful for old jokers like me."

"I didn't go into service to have a memorial," fellow veteran Owens said.

"But it's beautiful, it's worthwhile, and it's something to be proud of."

World War II veterans are dying at a rate of about 1,000 per day, said Royce Ard, West Georgia's Honor Flight hub director.

"Some have even passed away while waiting to go on this trip. So it's imperative that we get as many of these flights done as quickly as possible," Ard said.

In the days and weeks before each Honor Flight, an army of ground volunteers coordinates every detail from the buses that pick them up to the meals they eat.

Everywhere they go, they are greeted by well-wishers -- people who have no connection to the veterans except a desire to thank them for their service.

In some cases, Ard said, this is the first time they have been thanked so directly.

"It's not because people ignored them. In 1945 everyone was in the service. So when they came home, they went back to work, back to the farm and back to school. They just came home and started to build up America again," Ard said.

"Thanking the World War II veteran took way to long."

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