Politics

Various and sundry commentators have been making alarmed noises about the new DARPA-organized political stock market. There are a few rational objections. Someone over at CalPundit noted that the system may be very gamable by people who want to conceal the possibility of their own terrorist activity. Kevin Drum notes that there’s the possibility of pissing off allies who would prefer that we not enable a market for futures based on negative events occurring in their country. ...

Adam Tinworth brought me up to date on the David Kelly story, and rather than just rephrase his words I thought I’d simply quote his comment: You might want to note that Dr Kelly has turned out to be much more senior (original) than the Government tried to make out. You might also want to note that one of journalists Kelly spoke with has a tape of the conversation. The story moves on, and it’s swinging back in the BBC’s favour. ...

The BBC is having a Jayson Blair moment of sorts. It’s an interesting, complex story, which may wind up getting Tony Blair out of the tight spot he’s in. On May 29th, Andrew Gilligan said that a British official told him that the government spiced up a dossier which made the case for war. He did not name the official, because he wanted to keep his sources confidential. That’s reasonable journalism. On June 19th, Gilligan told the Foreign Affairs select committee that his source was one of the senior officials who assembled the dossier. The British government promptly accused Gilligan of lying. The BBC Board of Governors backed Gilligan up. ...

The Texas Democrats took off again (original) (via Perverse Access Memory (original)). This time it’s the Senate Democrats, but the effect should be more or less the same. As mentioned earlier, it is not illegal for Texas legislators to hide out for the purposes of breaking quorum. Indeed, it may be illegal to hunt them (original).

Some reports say that North Korea may carry out a nuclear test on September 9, the anniversary of the country’s founding, if there’s not more progress in the current standoff by then. I’m torn between believing that North Korea is willing to push the boundaries of reasonable behavior and remembering that the North Korean government is not always grounded in reality. In any case, the Washington Post reports that “Bush may give in on non-aggression.” Bush keeps denying that anything like that is on the table. We’ll see. ...

I’m not a Democrat; nor am I a Republican. I fall somewhere more or less on the left side of the spectrum, if you insist on a single axis. I prefer a minimalistic government, but I believe that enlightened self-interest calls for more voluntary intervention than your average libertarian advocates. I’m a capitalist. I think the optimal size of self-governed political units is fairly small. So how do you get my vote in 2004? Easy. Come out in favor of approval voting. ...

The words chilling effect (original) come to mind, somehow. (Via regis.) This is an isolated incident — perhaps. It’s a story told by a liberal — certainly. I don’t care. This shouldn’t happen. If I call the FBI and report that someone was reading something suspicious, that’s not an incident. That’s someone reading. A few months ago, I got one of those scam emails from someone pretending to be Paypal. I called the Boston FBI office to report it. I literally couldn’t get someone to take my report. “Did you lose over $5,000?” “Well, no.” “Sorry, we don’t deal with cases in which nobody lost $5,000.” ...

Sixteen words: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” Eight words: “I did not have sex with that woman.”

Supporters of the Texas redistricting effort were eager to claim that the Texas Democrats were acting illegally. Proof? Well, the Texas House rules allowed the Texas Department of Safety to hunt missing legislators down, and that must mean that the legislators were breaking the law. The difference between police acting as a favor to the legislature and police acting to enforce actual laws was apparently beyond some. Not, however, beyond a Texas judge. Judge Charles Campbell pointed out that Texas law “limits the role of D.P.S. to enforcing the laws protecting the public safety and providing for the prevention and detection of crime.” ...

Oh, for heaven’s sake. Remember that Iraqi children’s prison? It was a big deal. It was proof that we were right to go into Iraq. It was a noble, shining moment. It was an orphanage. A really bad one (original), but not a prison, and not someplace kids were sent for refusing to join the Ba’ath Party. And hey — if we’re in the business of liberating facilities which treat children horribly, maybe we should start here. It’s run out of Utah (original). We can start at home.