TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 102.
Archive for 2013
August 19, 2013
CHARLIE MARTIN: 13 Weeks: What Do We Make of Times of Little Change?
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Lavish travel spending by President of Westfield State.
THE HILL: NSA violations up pressure on Obama to accept intel reforms.
News that the National Security Agency has overstepped its legal authority thousands of times in recent years is ratcheting up pressure on President Obama to accept reforms to the surveillance programs.
Last Friday, Obama tried to quell the growing uproar over NSA spying by laying out a series of steps to increase transparency and toughen privacy protections. He insisted the programs are critical to national security, but he acknowledged that certain changes might be necessary to restore the public’s confidence.
But the latest revelations about widespread privacy violations mean the NSA controversy is unlikely to die down anytime soon.
Related: Rand Paul: Supreme Court should review NSA programs.
POLICING: “We’re Building A Domestic Army.”
I WONDER WHY IT’S UNPUBLISHED? Unpublished Congressional Research Service Report: Obama Administration Has Missed Half Of Obamacare’s Legally Imposed Implementation Deadlines. Deadlines are for the little people.
NEW MEDITERRANEAN GAS FIND: A Chance To Break With Turkey? “The future lies in Israeli, Cypriot, and Greek cooperation on newly discovered natural gas fields.”
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Obama Bets Against Human Nature—and Usually Loses. “What is the common denominator to his failed foreign policy initiatives — reset with Russia, a new, kinder gentler Middle East, supposed breakthroughs with China, outreach to Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela — and his domestic catastrophes: Obamacare, deficits, huge debts, or chronic unemployment? In a word, he doesn’t seem to know much about human nature, whether in the concrete or abstract sense. Obama either never held a menial job or ran a business. In lieu of education in the school of hard knocks, he read the wrong, if any seminal, texts at all.” Unlike George Bush, Obama’s not much of a reader. Prefers to watch sports, I understand.
It was Senator Wyden who famously asked Director of Intelligence James Clapper last March, before the Snowden revelations, whether the NSA collected “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.” Clapper’s response was pretty clear: “No, Sir.” When pressed, Clapper amended his answer to “not wittingly.” He later told NBC News that he had given the “least untruthful” answer he could think of. He should have done what previous officials have long done and said he could fully respond only in a closed session. At least one of our top intelligence officials doesn’t display intelligence as often as he should.
Other top officials have made such a hash of explaining each new NSA revelation that even staunch national-security conservatives are beginning to wonder what else we don’t know. “The proper response to the latest revelation is not panic but deep frustration and a demand for data that does more than get the NSA through a news cycle,” writes Jennifer Rubin, the Washington Post’s conservative blogger. “It must be more forthcoming, or it will lose its mandate.”
In 1999, then-senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote Secrecy: The American Experience, in which he analyzed the parallel growth of secrecy and bureaucracy in the U.S. “Secrecy is a form of regulation,” he warned. “At times, in the name of national security, secrecy has put that very security in harm’s way.” He observed that although secrecy is absolutely necessary for our protection, it all too often serves as the first refuge of incompetents or those drunk with arrogance. We should not give these groups the ability to cloak their operations — no matter how virtuous the goal.
Indeed.
NATIONAL JOURNAL: Are Democrats About To Fracture Over Fracking?
Led by President Obama, most Democrats have tried to occupy a careful middle ground on the natural-gas industry that’s transforming the U.S. energy economy. But that balance might not last much longer, as environmentally conscious “fracktivists” look for ways to press their case that the potential for pollution outweighs the jobs created by the mushrooming shale gas drilling industry.
Natural gas doesn’t receive full-throated Democratic backing like wind and solar power, but it doesn’t come under heavy fire like oil and coal, either. Obama, for instance, has called for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to be safe and carefully monitored, but has never pushed for federal restrictions on it.
Some environmental leaders and so-called fracktivists are hopeful the party will turn against the industry. And they have some reason for optimism. Already Democratic governors and presidential prospects Mario Cuomo and Martin O’Malley have upheld moratoriums on the controversial process in their respective states, New York and Maryland, suggesting the issue could emerge as a potent one in a presidential primary. And this summer, the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee passed a resolution calling for all drilling to temporarily halt in the Keystone State. The resolution was nonbinding, but it was nonetheless significant in a state seen as ground zero for the country’s natural-gas boom and where Democrats have been friendly to the industry.
However, any political shift within the Democratic Party won’t come easily. And many party insiders and operatives think it won’t come at all—because the booming industry offers too many economic benefits to too many groups, including members of the Democratic coalition. In addition, the environmental fallout, while a concern, doesn’t stir as much worry as that of oil and coal.
Also, with “Smart Diplomacy” currently turning the entire Mideast into a fiery cauldron, domestic energy is looking better and better.
UPDATE: Reader Gary Harmon writes: “Correction of the National Journal story on hydraulic fracturing, which says in pertinent part that the Obama admin has never pushed for restrictions on the practice. The EPA is studying the needs for federal oversight, prompting several states to complain that they are doing the job now and that a federal hurdle would needlessly extend permitting and add unnecessary requirement.”
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: Angelo Codevilla: Whom Shall We Drone?
Some people are aiming for Julian Assange. And hey, he’s made Obama look bad, so he’s gotta be on the list. I mean, he’s no rodeo clown or anything, but . . .
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Master’s Degree Is New Frontier of Study Online. “Next January, the Georgia Institute of Technology plans to offer a master’s degree in computer science through massive open online courses for a fraction of the on-campus cost, a first for an elite institution. If it even approaches its goal of drawing thousands of students, it could signal a change to the landscape of higher education.”
TWO-FACED: Manchin Unapologetic on Guns (But Still Playing Defense). “There’s no doubt that West Virginia’s politics are much tougher for a Democrat like Manchin than they used to be. Consider this: In 1996, Democrat Bill Clinton won 51.5 percent of the state’s vote on his way to winning a second presidential term. Last year, Republican Mitt Romney’s losing presidential bid took home more than 60 percent of the vote. Obama did not win a single county in West Virginia. That Manchin’s admission came in Raleigh County was particularly fitting. Long a Democratic stronghold, the county has fast become GOP territory. The most striking example is Nick Rahall. The Democratic congressman, who has served for more than 30 years in the House, hasn’t won the county where he was born in five years.”