by CKR
I was going to write about the non-content in Intelligence Director Mike McConnell's impassioned plea for modernizing FISA, but Kevin Drum has pretty much covered it for me.
It's not possible to have a responsible public argument on policy without facts. What is the current policy? What does it need to be changed to? Why? How does this improve law inforcement? Does it infringe on civil liberties? If so, is that infringement acceptable in view of the goals. McConnell finds "trust us" a sufficient argument to cover all these questions.
In my continuing non-coverage of global warming, I must make note of Arnold Schwartzenegger's challenge to the Bush administration: lead, follow, or get out of the way. Pretty strong stuff for a Republican. But if the states are to be a laboratory for policy, it doesn't make sense for the feds to sit on any experiments they want to do. Unless actual evidence is no part of the federal policy. Here's some soft environmentalism in action: carbon tax, new technologies, emission standards, better forestry, environmental impact reviews. It's no surprise that the author is a professor at Harvard, and I'll bet he makes a bunch of money from consulting on just those subjects. But, because carbon dioxide is an essential product of combustion, if we're serious about decreasing it in the atmosphere, it'll take a lot more than that. Less carbon fuel consumption, which will mean seriously less power usage or more nuclear power. We'll be hearing more about that from the UK this week. The unwillingness to face up to the hard decisions is one more reason I don't write much about this.
Everyone else will have more to say on this, so I'll just note that rejecting suggestions out of hand makes it harder not to look like a fool when you have to backtrack. President Bush's desire to look strong continues to undercut itself. Meanwhile, Iraqi leaders are planning to be out of that country for a while. Here's a nice summary of how peace came to Northern Ireland, which one may or may not extend to any other country in turmoil.
Finally, the Cutty Sark went up in flames last night. Photos here.