Category: Policy Page 31 of 35

Gen. Peter Pace: Morally Unfit for Command

By MB

On March 13, 2007

As you may have heard, Rep. Marty Meehan has introduced legislation to repeal the US military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Gen. Pace, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked about the issue by the Chicago Tribune. And this is what the top military officer in this country has to say about men and women currently under his command:

I believe homosexual acts between individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts.

[ . . . ]

I do not believe that the armed forces of the United States are well served by saying, through our policies, that itâ€™s okay to be immoral in any way, not just with regards homosexuality. So from that standpoint, saying that gays should serve openly in the military to me says that we, by policy, would be condoning what I believe is immoral activity.

Too bad he and the other generals don’t feel so free to pass public judgment on the morality of so many other issues facing the military today.

Militarizing Space

By MB

On March 12, 2007

In Policy

James Oberg, a 22-year NASA veteran writing at the Space Review, has an interesting piece up in which he examines (what he posits to be) myths and half-truths that stand in the way of a “trustworthy set of international reality-based agreements regarding constraints on future actions in space or on Earth.”

The militarization of space is one of those public policy areas in which very few actors drive policy. We could all do with a little more education on the subject, I think.

Via Slashdot.

Explaining Big Brother

By MB

On March 9, 2007

In EU, Policy, Society, UK

I’m always on the lookout for works that do a good job of explaining why Big Brother is a problem. A surveillance society doesn’t spring up overnight, but we’ve been moving by leaps and bounds, lately.

In the US and UK, the vast majority of the public seems to be utterly complacent about the ubiquitous gathering and storing of information about our private lives by people who have absolutely no accountability to them. I don’t think it’s necessarily because they don’t care, it’s because they don’t understand what it means. And it’s not always the easiest thing to distill in a few minutes. So I was happy to come across this video.

Updated to link the video. The wordpress visual editor strikes again . . .

Bush (Re)Discovers the Western Hemisphere!

By MB

On March 8, 2007

In Policy, Society

You know, in those pre-9/11 days, one of the few hopes I held out for a Bush Administration was that we’d see some serious efforts at integrating the economies of North, Central, and South America.Â Vicente Fox was obviously a Bush kind of guy, and folks like me (or, admittedly, perhaps just me) hadn’t entirely written off NAFTA as something that could actually bring some good to everyone.Â But then comes 9/11, and that agenda disappears completely.Â US policy towards Central/South America from 2001-present consists largely of shipping buckets of money to Columbia and getting into pissing matches with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez (and the mess that is CAFTA).

So, Bush is heading down to Central and South America to say, “Oh, sorry we ignored you for the past six years.”Â As usual, we can count on our media to do a bang-up job of covering the issues.Â Here, the WaPo reporter heading along with him promises all the juicy details – starting with how *hard* it is to have to wait for your flight at Andrews Air Force Base.Â I suspect we’ll get better news in the comments than the reports.

Sgt. Eric Alva: Still Fighting

By MB

On February 28, 2007

In Policy, Politics, Society

Sgt. Eric Alva finished his career with the Marines (and a life with two legs) when he stepped on a land mine on March 21, 2003, the first day of “Operation Iraqi Freedom.”Â As the Washington Post notes, he was widely honored as the first American casualty of the war, with personal visits from Rumsfeld and Bush.Â I wonder if they’ll be seen with him now that he’s come out:

[I] can almost hear it now — “Oh, yeah, he’s that gay Marine.” I’m okay with that. The truth is, something’s wrong with this ban. I have to say something. I mean, you’re asking men and women to lie about their orientation, to keep their personal lives private, so they can defend the rights and freedoms of others in this country, and be told, “Well, oh, yeah, if you ever decide to really meet someone of the same sex and you want the same rights, sorry, buddy, you don’t have the right.”

Fighting over here, so we can fight over there.Â Or something like that.Â Â Thank you, Sgt. Alva.

Today, Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) introduced – with 109 cosponsors – a bill to finally get rid of the abomination that is the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.Â It’s not a matter over which reasonable people can disagree – it’s long past time to end it.

CYA Security

By MB

On February 23, 2007

In Policy, Travel

Bruce Schneier, as usual, is dead on in his analysis of government security theater:

In short: Much of our country’s counterterrorism security spending is not designed to protect us from the terrorists, but instead to protect our public officials from criticism when another attack occurs.

Schneier provides plenty of examples in support of this, but does come up a bit short in considering solutions. Which prompts Paul McNamara to ask – are we just stuck with this? Wouldn’t our politicians respond to a public demand for more common sense, and less cover your ass security?

Well, I fear we are stuck with it. For quite some time, actually. As Schneier points out, it’s human nature to CYA, and that will be the default, unless there’s a great incentive to do something more. And while McNamara understandably looks to the public to provide that incentive in terms of public pressure on politicians, I really don’t think we’ll see that any time soon. As we’ve seen over the past few years, the US public will treat as credible almost any fantastically ridiculous threat (Liquids on a Plane! Plastic Utensils for (Some) Passengers! Target: Rappahannock, er Tappahannock, er . . . nevermind!). And the vast majority of people that I talk to about security issues (often while waiting in a TSA line, natch) seem to pretty much follow the “well, if it keeps us safe . . .” line. And it just makes my head explode (wait, maybe *I’m* a security threat . . .) that they appear to believe that it *does* keep us safe.

So, absent real public pressure, what will be done? Very little. There is an enormous industry devoted to selling snakeoil/”homeland security solutions”, and plenty of snakeoil salesmen who have absolutely no compunction about hard selling us totally useless products for millions of dollars in the name of “security.” Worse, securing contracts for these pushers also happens to be an excellent way for a Congressman to bring home some pork (how’s that working for you, Virgil?).

In sum, we’ve got complacency in the public, motivated salesmen in the industry, and eager buyers in government. It will get much worse before it gets better.

(And as I finish this up, with CNN on the tv in front of me, the TSA announces further deployment of “backscatter” x-ray machines, which will make involuntary exhibitionists out of all of us . . . )

DOJ: Wouldn’t know terrorism if it . . .

By MB

On February 20, 2007

In Policy

So, it seems that the DOJ has “counted immigration violations, marriage fraud and drug trafficking among anti-terror cases in the four years after 9/11 despite no evidence linking them to terror activity.” Put another way – we’ve been “protected” by an Administration that can’t tell the difference between arranging a marriage for a green card and procuring material for an actual attack . . .

I sure feel safer.

Call Congress: Walter Reed Army Medical Center

By MB

On February 18, 2007

In Personal, Policy

Hopefully, you’ve read this Washington Post story on the conditions some soldiers face at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In case you haven’t, this is why you should:

Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan’s room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

[ . . . ]

The common perception of Walter Reed is of a surgical hospital that shines as the crown jewel of military medicine. But 5 1/2 years of sustained combat have transformed the venerable 113-acre institution into something else entirely — a holding ground for physically and psychologically damaged outpatients. Almost 700 of them — the majority soldiers, with some Marines — have been released from hospital beds but still need treatment or are awaiting bureaucratic decisions before being discharged or returned to active duty.

This is unacceptable. Not unacceptable as in, yes, Congress should make improving care a priority, and candidates should make it an issue. It’s unacceptable as in this needs to be fixed tomorrow. Now. Call your Congressional rep and tell him or her that if they want to make their words in these inane “support the troops” debates mean a goddamn thing, then they’ll jump on this now. I’m serious. Call them. And don’t take anything less than “Yes, I will do something.” for an answer. We owe it to ourselves, to our country, and to every single soldier that’s had his or her life shattered for this obscene adventure that is Bush’s war. He might not give a damn about these soldiers, but we certainly should.

Criminal Negligence

By MB

On February 9, 2007

In Policy

It appears that the Swiss-brokered fax outlining an Iranian proposal for a US-Iranian diplomatic agenda is seeing the light of day.Â If it turns out to be genuine (and I have no reason to believe otherwise, beyond general skepticism), the Bush Adminstration’s failure to act on it is absolutely criminal.

Weekend Roundup

By MB

On February 4, 2007

In DC, Distribution, Law, Policy, Politics, Tech

Because I’m just so far behind.

The most important discussion arising from the ridiculousness in Boston: 70s haircuts.

Your local news . . . from Bangalore! (Keep in mind that unless you live in a major metro area, you probably don’t get your “local” news from anywhere reasonably considered local.Â So what difference does this really make?)

I’m less than enamoured with the junior senator from New York. I don’t have any problems with Sen. Clinton’s electability, or “divisiveness” or any of the other ridiculous junior high tests people seem to like to talk about. It’s that I simply don’t think that she’s at all committed to anything but herself. Now, that can be said about many politicians, but it shouldn’t be the sole driving force behind all of their decisions. (Hell, even Dick Armey can say he was wrong on Iraq.) All that said, I’d become much more appreciative of her if she’s really serious about this.

Non-disclosure agreements for state legislators? Sounds like a pretty clear breach of Do No Evil, Google. And since I think Robert X. Cringley may well be onto something with his theory that Google’s planning to build datacenters in most states . . . well, we should all be on the lookout.

I’ve added a new link under Media, to the right. It’s Fora.tv, best summed up as a YouTube for thinking people. Check it out.