Thad Allen Established at RAND

National Incident Commander Thad Allen left BP's oil spew for a position at RAND.  In Allen's usual clarity, he stated:

The "National Incident Command is disestablished."

Was that responsive? Allen will join the RAND Corporation as a senior fellow.  WSJ reported:

At RAND, Allen will do research for the Homeland Security and Defense Center, which studies how to protect communities and key infrastructure from natural catastrophes and terrorist attacks. 

Will Thad's first job be creating an operational definition for Vessels of (Fleeting) Opportunity?  The numbers range from 3,500 to nearly 5,000 to 7,000. 

Let's hope RAND has improved the quality of their work.  They projected the number of uninsured illegal immigrants in the U.S. by extrapolating Los Angeles rates to the rest of the country.  RAND used LA County data from 2000 & 2001 to project a two decade long shift. LA County was 44.6% Hispanic in 2000, while the U.S. had 12.5% Hispanic or Latino population.  The media had the gall to state:

The increase in the number of people without health insurance has occurred largely because of illegal immigration, a study found.

If the trend for Los Angeles County held true for the rest of the country, about a third of that growth can be attributable to illegal immigrants.

The RAND study was responsive to Bush priorities in 2005, but not to the major causes of  growth in America's uninsureds, i.e. the other 2/3. 

Fuzzy estimates to further political ends, RAND and Thad, it might be the perfect fit.