Regulation

Wasting Millions, Earning Billions

This entry was posted in Capitalism Constitution Culture Domestic Terrorism Economics Law Law Enforcement Libertarianism Regulation Taxation on by

First, via Hit & Run I learn that the american taliban bushies are not only running a ridiculous deficit but that they are also wasting millions of the dollars that they don’t have chasing down willing folks selling product to willing buyers. Come on feds, if there are assaults, rapes, fraud, extortion, etc., go after’m otherwise leave the people you are supposed to serve alone.
And, then I learn via Boing Boing that the guy who may or may not be the world’s richest man makes a portion of his billions selling furniture to the folks willingly buying product from the folks the feds are harrassing.
Ahhhh, the webs of commerce.

Where Does the Buck Stop Now?

This entry was posted in bush Capitalism Constitution Democracy Democrats Economics Federal Government Libertarianism Regulation Republicans US Politics on by

Apparently it still stops in the Lincoln and other White House bedrooms:

Bush’s criticism of the Clinton fund-raising scandal is one of the reasons the White House identifies guests. In a debate with Vice President Al Gore in October 2000, Bush said: “I believe they’ve moved that sign, ‘The buck stops here,’ from the Oval Office desk to ‘The buck stops here’ on the Lincoln Bedroom. And that’s not good for the country.”
Bush’s overnight guest roster is virtually free of the famous � pro golfer Ben Crenshaw is the biggest name � but not of campaign supporters.
At least nine of Bush’s biggest fund-raisers appear on the latest list of White House overnight guests, covering June 2002 through December 2003, and-or on the Camp David list, which covers last year. They include:

Yes this bit of hypocrisy should be pointed out but no one should be surprised that bedsheets are traded for friendship or money.
First, you can pretty much count on the bush team either having done, doing or planning to do something they hammer the opposition about.
Second, and more important, the US government transfers huge amounts of money from the losers to the winners and the latter’s stripes change only modestly from administration to administration. Until we the people put a stop to the massive transfers we can expect politicians to seek favours votes and donations and reward those who give them with both bedsheets and favorable laws and regulations.
Via Calpundit who picked it up from It’s a Crock. The Apostropher also comments.
Update: John Cole and Mark Kleiman both argue that a Bush – Clinton comparison is off the mark and I acknowledge both their points which are different enough that you should go read their posts.
I will, though, stick to what I say in the two paragraphs above the ‘Via’ statement.

Where’s that Corruption

This entry was posted in Democracy Domestic Terrorism Federal Government Law Enforcement Libertarianism Regulation on by

The Corporate Crime Reporter has ranked the 50 states by their rate of corruption.
Then there is the state wannabe The District of Columbia

We calculated the District�s corruption rate as 79.33. This is more than ten times what Mississippi�s corruption rate is……
But we didn�t include the District in the list for one obvious reason � the District is the seat of the federal government, and because of this, there are more criminal prosecutions for public corruption than anywhere else in the country.
It can be said that the District is the most corrupt political entity in the nation � but that�s only because it�s the seat of an apparently actively corrupt federal government � with 453 public corruption convictions over a ten-year period.

Even though there are some deficiencies in the data (noted in the full PDF report) this is an interesting indicator of the quality of government officials.
Via A List a Day.

Orchestrating Emergencies

This entry was posted in Regulation on by

Now this will really make me feel safer:

Under a new proposal, the White House would decide what and when the public would be told about an outbreak of mad cow disease, an anthrax release, a nuclear plant accident or any other crisis.
The White House Office of Management and Budget is trying to gain final control over release of emergency declarations from the federal agencies responsible for public health, safety and the environment.

Undoubtably this will lead to more results like this:

In the same release, a section that said, “Even at low levels, EPA considers asbestos hazardous in this situation” was deleted and replaced with a section that read, in part, “Short-term, low-level exposure of the type that might have been produced by the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings is unlikely to cause significant health effects.”

Do you really want Karl and w deciding on the language and timing of emergency press releases?
There might be a bit more merit to a few aspects of this part of the OMB proposal:

The OMB also wants to manage scientific and technical evaluations – known as peer reviews – of all major government rules, plans, proposed regulations and pronouncements.

I would not want OMB micro-managing peer reviews for each agency but it might be reasonable for them to set guidelines for the agencies to use. The guidelines should be consistent with standards and practices of the relevant scientific disciplines and should probably include a requirement something like: no more then 1/3 of the peer reviews can be done by scientists employed by businesses involved in the area being studied.
Via Metafilter.

Voting for Pot

This entry was posted in Capitalism Constitution Democracy Domestic Terrorism Drug Laws Law Enforcement Libertarianism Regulation on by

Alaskans will vote next fall:

Registered voters will get a chance to decide next year whether to legalize private use of marijuana for Alaskans 21 and older.

In one sense it is a good thing that this is on the ballot. The good citizens of Alaska may thumb their noses at their elected representatives.
However, this is not something that should ever end up on the ballot. Nor, in the first place, should legislatures or congresses or parliaments be ruling one way or another on this or similar issues.
Via Via the Media Awareness Project.