Former ACLU Leader: Congress Should Pass FISA Bill
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Even longtime ACLU leader Morton Halperin is endorsing the FISA bill, which authorizes and regulates federal antiterror surveillance programs. Halperin says that the “bill provides important safeguards for civil liberties” in his editorial today in the New York Times. (As director of the ACLU office in Washington, Halperin defended the right of the The Progressive magazine to publish details on how to construct an atomic bomb). Halperin says that the bill “represents our best chance to protect both our national security and our civil liberties.” (Other countries like Sweden permit their governments to engage in much broader surveillance than the FISA bill would permit the U.S. government to do).
I earlier explained why the FISA bill appropriately grants phone companies immunity from being sued in certain circumstances, and how doing so protects phone companies from a legal double standard. Trial lawyers, who have brought multibillion dollar lawsuits against the phone companies, vociferously oppose immunity.
What about being confused by foreign language TV?
The UK National Children’s Bureau recently issued a 366-page guide on how to spot and discourage racist behavior in children. Three-hundred and sixty-six pages of potential racist incidents? Well, not exactly.
The National Children’s Bureau, which receives £12 million a year, mainly from Government funded organisations, has issued guidance to play leaders and nursery teachers advising them to be alert for racist incidents among youngsters in their care.
This could include a child of as young as three who says “yuk” in response to being served unfamiliar foreign food.
This really shouldn’t be that surprising. There are only so many prejudices in this world, so when government bureaucrats try to put together a tome of this girth on that topic (to justify their budget, for instance), they may need to descend to this kind of silliness just to fill space.
Affordable Housing Trust Boondoggle
Congressional mortgage bailout legislation would create a costly “affordable housing trust” that would spawn new slums at taxpayer expense, and enrich the politically-connected developers who create them. The Washington Examiner explains how in an editorial today, describing how similar programs subsidized by the Illinois legislature created dangerous housing in Chicago, including “collapsed roofs, raw sewerage,” and “vermin infestations.”
The mortgage bailout legislation would also provide millions of dollars for left-wing special-interest groups, such as militants who harass bank managers’ children to intimidate banks into making loans to people with bad credit, and groups that lobby for taxpayer-funded welfare benefits for illegal aliens. It would also cost taxpayers a bundle, bailing out politically-connected lenders that gambled away their money, and encouraging irresponsible borrowers to default to get a federal handout. It will also invade the privacy of consumers and employees.
FISA Bill Much Worse than Immunity
Apparently, the FISA bill is much worse than many commentators have made it seem. The bill goes way beyond telecom immunity. As Ars says, immunity is the “icing, not the cake.” According to Ars:
Specifically, the new legislation dramatically expands the government’s ability to wiretap without meaningful judicial oversight, by redefining “oversight” so that the feds can drag their feet on getting authorization almost indefinitely. It also gives the feds unprecedented new latitude in selecting eavesdropping targets, latitude that could be used to collect information on non-terrorist-related activities like P2P copyright infringement and online gambling. In short, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 opens up loopholes so large that the feds could drive a truck loaded down with purloined civil liberties through it.
I should point out that this is one area in which I disagree with my colleague Hans Bader. Hans has posted numerous times about his support for a strong FISA bill. While Hans is right to point out that privacy advocates have been a bit inconsistent in their opposition to government snooping at times, I don’t think that’s a reason for libertarians to be inconsistent too.
My brand of libertarianism opposes the government tapping into private phone lines or spectrum in order to listen to what people are saying - even if it helps fight terrorism. I’m a deontologist, and so think that good consequences cannot justify fundamentally unjust actions. (One can also question whether the FISA bill will really help fight terrorism and even whether we should be so concerned with fighting terrorism. I predict that more people in the US will die of lightning strikes this year than of terrorism.)
Because I’m a deontologist, I also oppose telecom immunity (another point where I disagree with Hans). Companies that do something wrong, e.g. wiretapping conversations that they agreed not to, should be punished for their actions. Further, we should not incentivize companies to do wrong, when ordered by the state. Instead, they should - like Google - fight demands to violate their customers’ privacy.
I’d be interested to hear the comments of other libertarians. TLF writers like Tim Lee are with me, but my former boss Roger Pilon is with Hans.
Ars vs. TLF: DTV Transition
Tech news source ArsTechnica reported last night that more than 200 civil rights groups are panicking about the transition to digital TV and asking the government to do more. According to Mark Lloyd of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, “There is an absence of clear Federal leadership and a comprehensive transition plan to address the needs of those most vulnerable to the transition.” LCCR claims that the $5 million dollars the government has already spent on DTV transition education alone - which is not to mention the two free converter boxes per household - is “not nearly enough.”
Luckily, some cooler heads are explaining why the transition to digital broadcasting is no crisis. Over at the Technology Liberation Front, Tim Lee explains that the hysteria is unjustified. As he points out:
If someone is too oblivious to apply for a converter box in the months leading up to the transition, I can only assume there will be lots of discussion of it on their televisions the week or two before the transition. And if that doesn’t convince them to get a converter box, surely they’ll figure it out the day their TV stops working.
Sometimes, Ars needs a gentle reminder that not every little inconvenience is a climacteric needing quick government intervention.
Europe Rethinks Deadly Ethanol Mandates
Since ethanol mandates cause deforestation and skyrocketing food prices, the European Union is now reconsidering its biofuel mandates. Ethanol subsidies have many bad effects. They have caused rioting and starvation in many poor countries. They also have harmed the environment and increased food prices and support for Islamic extremists.
Washington, D.C. Government Attacks Cheap Buses, Environment
Washington, D.C. recently tried to put cheap private buses out of business, by preventing them from picking up passengers anywhere but the inconvenient, forbidding location of L’Enfant Plaza. (Currently, the cheap buses stop at many places in the city to pick up passengers). If the D.C. government tries again and succeeds, the result will be more automobile use by people unable to get picked up by buses — resulting in more air pollution, more gas consumption, and higher gas prices.
France may be a socialist, union-dominated country, but even it is less socialistic and hostile to cheap private transportation alternatives than the corrupt and incompetent Washington, D.C. Government. When I visit my relatives in Southern France, I can take a private bus all the way from the city of Nice to my wife’s parents’ home a dozen miles away for about $1. The local government allows the private bus companies to stop at places convenient to pedestrians and tourists.
By contrast, subway and public transit systems in the U.S. are largely government-operated, and thus run in a way that serves the interests of their employees and vendors, not their customers. As a result, most subway systems cost much more to operate now than they did a couple decades ago, while providing transportion to a shrinking segment of the public. But their unionized employees benefit at public expense: they can often retire years before private sector employees, with pensions many times larger than private sector employees typically receive. And subway train operators sometimes make well over $100,000 per year. (Public sector employees tend to be better paid than private sector employees, and to receive much better retirement benefits).
Wireless Kills Birds, Birds Kill Wireless?
Ars editorializes today about bird deaths caused by wireless communication towers. Apparently, bird groups such as the National Audobon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, and the American Bird Conservancy met with the FCC to demand new regulations to reduce the risk of bird deaths caused by towers - even though not much is know about exactly how to prevent such deaths.
The groups had earlier called for a complete halt to new wireless towers until environment assessments had been performed. Ars concludes its piece today with the statement that birds serve many valuable functions and so “we may need them more than our cell phones.”
This is a little absurd. Towers only kill a thousandth as many birds each year as do domesticated cats. Wireless communication is incredibly valuable and increasingly necessary for our mobile, global economy. The deaths of a few million birds is tragic, but it is not a compelling reason for giving up our cell phones any more than it is a compelling reason for giving up our feline companions.
Oil Is In Your Future (and Your Pension Fund)
An “excess profits” tax on oil companies — which liberal Congressional leaders support — may well harm you by taking money out of your retirement fund, not just by discouraging oil production and exploration. Your pension fund is probably invested partly in oil companies or oil-related commodities. As the Washington Post reports today:
“Soaring fuel prices that are burning a hole in the wallets of consumers are not only benefiting oil companies . . . They are also lighting up the investment returns of pensions funds, which millions of ordinary Americans are counting on for their retirement. California’s public employees’ pension fund, the world’s largest, made its first investment of $1.1 billion into oil and other commodities early last year, and since then, Calpers has seen it soar 68 percent. Fairfax County pension managers have enjoyed a 61 percent return from a similar move over the past 12 months, far outpacing any other segment of the fund’s portfolio.”
I’m not a public employee, but I’m in the same boat when it comes to oil. My own 401(k), IRA, and 403(b) retirement accounts contain mutual funds that own stock in Exxon Mobil and other oil companies. An excess profits tax might enrich the government, but it will make it harder for me to ever retire.
Google Links to Privacy Center from Homepage
Google decided to give into demands from California legislators and post a link to its privacy center on its homepage. Jim Harper has a funny send-off of potential reactions from those who think that Google hasn’t gone far enough. But, luckily, Harper’s facetious speculations have not come true. According to CNET, Google’s move has placated privacy advocates. Interestingly, CNET may not have realized that Harper was being facetious. Its lone example of a non-satisfied blogger was Harper’s sarcastic post. For more information and a chuckle, it’s worth reading both pieces.
Is Britain Selling Health Care to Foreigners?
A British hospital says no. But a suspicious number of foreign liver transplants have been done at one hospital. Reports the BBC:
A London hospital has been referred to health watchdogs after concerns that too many liver transplants are being given to foreign patients.
The Healthcare Commission was alerted after 72 non-British EU nationals were given new livers in four years at King’s College Hospital.
Of those, 37 were given to Greek and Cypriot nationals in what were classed as “private” operations.
But the hospital said non-UK patients could not “buy” a transplant.
It said the figures were an anomaly caused because the Greek and Cypriot governments operate a different funding arrangement with the Department of Health than other states.
Most countries pay the Government a block fee to cover their citizens’ treatment in the UK. However, Greece and Cyprus pay hospitals directly on a patient-by-patient basis and so the procedures are classed as “private”.
I though the National Health System meant equal access for all, and not just for those whose governments will send a check.
Ethanol Subsidies Starve the Poor
A global food crisis has resulted in skyrocketing food prices, riots, and starvation in many poor countries like Afghanistan, Haiti, Egypt, and Ethiopia. “A confidential World Bank report . . . concludes that biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75%,” as farmers produce ethanol instead of food. We described earlier how ethanol subsidies and mandates are causing environmental devastation, violence and political turmoil, and increased support for Islamic extremism. In Afghanistan, the Taliban forces that supported Osama Bin Laden are making a political comeback, killing more Americans recently than Iraqi insurgents.
Don’t Go to the Dentist in Great Britain
It’s long been obvious that you don’t want to get cancer in Great Britain. (Obviously, you don’t want to get it anywhere, but especially in a country which will take your money to provide health care but then won’t provide the drugs necessary to save your life.) You don’t want to have kidney disease there. Or suffer most any other ailment.
You also don’t want to have to go to the dentist there.
Changes in the way dentists are paid mean they effectively have no financial incentive to give appropriate treatment, the Commons Health Select Committee said.
Under the new contract, dentists receive an agreed annual sum rather than being paid for each individual treatment.
The committee found the number of dentists extracting a decaying tooth rather than carrying out a more complicated procedure had increased.
As a result, the volume of more complex work like crowns, bridges and dentures has fallen by 57%.
Evidence presented to the committee also suggested that patients were being pushed unnecessarily into the hospital system.
A survey carried out by the British Dental Association in 2007 found 78% of clinical directors had seen an increase in referrals from general dentists.
“We are concerned about the increase in referrals of patients requiring complex treatment to dental hospitals and community dentists,” the MPs said.
“This can be bad for those patients who would prefer to be treated by their general dental practitioner and can also have adverse effects on patients who are traditionally treated in these settings and have to wait longer for treatment.”
The report said it was “extraordinary” that the Department of Health did not carry out pilot studies on the new system before introducing it across England.
And it said that, despite assurances from the Government that the new arrangements would work if Primary Care Trusts and dentists acted more flexibly and used common sense and goodwill, the Committee “saw little evidence this will happen”.
Figures released last month showed that almost a million fewer people are now seeing an NHS dentist than before the Government’s reforms.
Well, why worry about the quality of your care? You’re equal with everyone else, who also is not receiving proper medical attention. So there’s no cause for complaint, right!?
Hostage Rescue and Free Trade with Colombia
The Washington Post cites Colombia’s dramatic rescue of American hostages to endorse passage of the free trade agreement between Colombia and the U.S. (The hostages were being held by a left-wing terrorist group. A liberal Congressman from Massachusetts, who is a leading opponent of the free trade deal, earlier offered that terrorist group help in undermining Colombia’s democratically-elected government).
The free trade agreement would create jobs by eliminating Colombia’s tariffs on U.S. products. Liberal congressional leaders have refused to even allow a vote on the deal. They bash Colombia’s pro-American government, while cozying up to Venezuela’s anti-American dictator.
Although the U.S. would be the primary beneficiary of the free trade deal, since its products currently face tariffs in Colombia, Colombia would also get some benefits. While Colombian products are free from many tariffs at the moment, that would only become permanent under the free trade agreement, encouraging investment and job-creation in Colombia’s export sector. The refusal by Congressional leaders to even allow a vote on the deal will have serious international repercussions, making it more likely that foreign trade blocs will discriminate against American products in the future.
Sun-Phobia Kills
Researchers are discovering that Vitamin D cuts deaths from a host of illnesses. Exposure to the sun provides crucial Vitamin D, especially for lactose-intolerant people. Yet people avoid the sun based on small risks of skin cancer, even though people in warm sunbelt cities live longer than people who live in cold northern cities. Vitamin D deficiency kills thousands of Americans and Canadians every year.
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