ROGER KIMBALL: Further Thoughts On Obama’s Syrian Adventure.
Archive for 2013
September 5, 2013
NOW BUZZFEED IS ASKING: Was Mitt Romney Right About Everything?
TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 119.
BRUCE SCHNEIER: The Only Way To Restore Trust In The NSA.
All of this denying and lying results in us not trusting anything the NSA says, anything the president says about the NSA, or anything companies say about their involvement with the NSA. We know secrecy corrupts, and we see that corruption. There’s simply no credibility, and — the real problem — no way for us to verify anything these people might say.
It’s a perfect environment for conspiracy theories to take root: no trust, assuming the worst, no way to verify the facts. Think JFK assassination theories. Think 9/11 conspiracies. Think UFOs. For all we know, the NSA might be spying on elected officials. Edward Snowden said that he had the ability to spy on anyone in the U.S., in real time, from his desk. His remarks were belittled, but it turns out he was right.
This is not going to improve anytime soon. . . .
It’s time to start cleaning up this mess. We need a special prosecutor, one not tied to the military, the corporations complicit in these programs, or the current political leadership, whether Democrat or Republican. This prosecutor needs free rein to go through the NSA’s files and discover the full extent of what the agency is doing, as well as enough technical staff who have the capability to understand it. He needs the power to subpoena government officials and take their sworn testimony. He needs the ability to bring criminal indictments where appropriate. And, of course, he needs the requisite security clearance to see it all.
We also need something like South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where both government and corporate employees can come forward and tell their stories about NSA eavesdropping without fear of reprisal. Yes, this will overturn the paradigm of keeping everything the NSA does secret, but Snowden and the reporters he’s shared documents with have already done that. The secrets are going to come out, and the journalists doing the outing are not going to be sympathetic to the NSA. If the agency were smart, it’d realize that the best thing it could do would be to get ahead of the leaks.
I doubt that will happen. Read the whole thing.
STAY HOME ON ELECTION DAY, get Ed Markey.
UPDATE: Profiles In Courage: Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren Vote “Present.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Why Obama is losing the Syria war resolution vote. “To say Obama seems to lack urgency would be an understatement. He’s not even using all his political tools such as Organizing for Action to gin up support (this is no small thing, considering many Congressmen have noted that their constituents seem to be nearly unanimous in their opposition to intervention.)”
MORE: Nick Kristof backs Obama, faces “near-unanimous” commenter revolt.
GARRETT EPPS: Yes, Congress Can Authorize War Without Formally ‘Declaring’ It: The lawfulness of action in Syria doesn’t depend on magic words — lawmakers can consent in any form they choose. When I was a visiting professor at Virginia a while back, I remember a heated discussion on this question. John Hart Ely and I took the position that, just as a contract doesn’t have to say “CONTRACT” at the top in bold Gothic type, so a declaration of war need not read DECLARATION OF WAR at the top so long as it contains the requisite elements. The international-law folks get their panties in a wad over this — form over substance is their stock in trade, after all — but their complaints are constitutionally irrelevant.
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Also, Warehouse Deals in Tools & Home Improvement.
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YOU CAN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT’S NOT THERE: McClatchy: Many in Middle East struggling to understand Obama’s Syria policy.
ON NEXT GENERATION TV, Michelle Fields and I talk about the exploding price of textbooks.
I IMAGINE A LOT OF BUSH ALUMNI ARE LAUGHING UP THEIR SLEEVES: Democrats Dragooned Into Supporting War: The president relies on party loyalty, not policy arguments.
Chris Matthews of MSNBC, who served on Capitol Hill for years as a top Democratic aide, put the party’s dilemma in stark terms on Wednesday: “I think the Democrats are going to be forced to sacrifice men and women who really, really don’t want to vote for this. They’re going to have to vote for it to save the president’s hide. That’s a bad position to put your party in.”
One reason it’s especially awkward is that on the substance, the White House isn’t doing well.
Or in the polls.
Related: Andrew Klavan: Things That Don’t Matter When Deciding on Syria.
WHO WILL AUDIT THE AUDITORS? “The Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups has revived old fears about the agency’s vast taxing and auditing powers, so easy to abuse. But the IRS isn’t alone in holding those powers. Across the country, states and municipalities have endowed thousands of revenue and audit bureaucracies with similar capabilities. Critics complain that officials use these entities to harass enemies and help allies. The evidence makes clear just how well-founded those concerns are—especially since these agencies typically receive far less scrutiny than the IRS does.”
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Tunku Varadarajan: Who Shrunk America? Hint: It was by design, not by accident.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: More On The Decline Of The Biglaw Summer Program. “For the most part, large — arguably bloated — summer associate classes are a thing of the past. Among the Am Law 50, only eight firms are bucking this downward trend, with actual increases in the size of their summer classes since 2007. These firms are a collection of Wall Street’s oldest and most elite white shoe mainstays: Sullivan & Cromwell, Cravath, Davis Polk, and their ilk. On average, these firms were founded 112 years ago (i.e., during the McKinley Administration). The outlier here is the relative upstart litigation powerhouse Quinn Emanuel, founded only back in 1987.”
A LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF SPENDING FREEZES: “During long periods in American history, flat budgeting was the norm. For the first 150 years of the nation’s existence, federal policymakers generally restrained spending and reduced debt between wars. Today, the war in Afghanistan is winding down and the economy is growing, so lawmakers should be cutting spending or at least holding it flat. While the budget deficit is expected to continue falling until 2015, it will then start rising again. The problem is excessive spending, not a shortage of revenue. Consider that if Congress simply held total spending to this year’s level of $3.5 trillion, the budget would be balanced by 2016 as the growing economy generated rising tax revenue.”
LIFE IN THE FREETHINKING GROVES OF ACADEME: Economist Ronald Coase Was Chased Out of UVA in 1963 for Supporting Market Solutions.
J.D. TUCCILLE: School Choice Isn’t About Fighting for Resources, It’s About Choosing How To Learn.
On a family vacation a few weeks ago, my older nephew’s unhappiness with school was a major topic of conversation. His fifth grade teacher, it turns out, required all of the kids in class to read assigned books at the same rate—sprinting ahead was strictly forbidden. For a kid who just tested at the reading level of a high school senior, this was a pointlessly morale-killing rule that contributed to a very smart boy’s growing discontent with school.
I used to get in trouble for the sin of “reading ahead,” too.
DIVISION WITHIN EACH PARTY: How The Votes Are Shaping Up On Syria Resolution.