06.12.08
Posted in Politics, Turtles all the way down at 10:41 am by CMonster
From the Wall Street Journal’s health blog comes this shining gem:
FDA Budget Swells as Administration Bows to Congress
In a nutshell, the FDA is the federal agency responsible for regulating the quality and safety of a variety of products. As more manufacturing of drugs has moved overseas, this job has become harder- and a few notable disasters (like the issue with contaminated heparin from China) have highlighted the issues with regulating plants in another country.
One of those issues is simply financial- it’s hard to project a government agency’s influence onto another continent without establishing a real presence there. Yet until now, the FDA hasn’t asked for more money in congressional testimony.
And that’s when the story came out: OMB rules forbid officials from doing so.
“Witnesses will avoid volunteering personal opinions that reflect positions inconsistent with the President’s program or appropriation request.”
There’s been a lot of talk about government officials being muzzled before, but in some ways, this is worse- partly because it’s an explicit rule, and partly because the normal process of debate is losing the feedback of the people in the best position to assess their own needs.
Hence if the administration screws up getting out of bed in the morning the budget, that’s too bad- we’re out more more cog in the system of checks and balances. Ugh.
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05.19.08
Posted in Politics, Screechy monkeys, Such People, behind the curtain, technology at 1:54 pm by CMonster
A random assortment of links:
Student arrested over e-mail: Upset over receiving a B-, a business student threatened to put his professor in a wheelchair. This did not improve his grade.
Things younger than John McCain: Although slightly amusing in itself, the real entertainment value comes from the fact that the blog was started by a senior democratic strategist. (A tidbit which has since been removed) The major political parties are getting increasingly savvy about using the internet, and this is an excellent example of using blogs to test a possible campaign strategy for November.
FakeRecycle: A friend found this virus on her USB drive last week. Unlike a lot of the internet-based threats out there, this one propagates by copying itself onto removable media (like USB drives or floppy disks). This strategy was once common, and it might be ripe for a return- as my friend discovered, there’s more to computer security than staying off the internet.
Also: don’t do this. I’m not quite sure where things went wrong, but the oil rapidly caught fire in the pan. And I didn’t get popcorn.
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05.09.08
Posted in Politics, Screechy monkeys, Such People, Turtles all the way down at 9:18 pm by CMonster
Here’s an interesting way to sideline a law you don’t care for: refuse to nominate leaders for the agency in charge of implementing it.
Yesterday, I learned that the Consumer Product Safety Commission had too few members on the panel to call a quorum: while it should have five members, it actually only clocks in at two right now. Apparently, agency rules require that at least three commissioners (a quorum) vote in favor of certain enforcement actions- like demanding a recall or issuing fines.
In the absence of a quorum, their power becomes pretty effectively (knee)capped- and of course, Bush gets to complain that Congress caused the problem by rejecting his last nominee for commissioner, a lobbyist for the manufacturing industry.
Today, I pulled up the NY Times for some light entertainment while working late, and found that the same stunt is being pulled over at the F.E.C. Has anyone done a study to find out how widespread this is?
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And in other news, Congress will have some explaining to do come Mother’s day. Next up: a vote on Apple Pie!
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03.14.08
Posted in Politics, Turtles all the way down at 4:03 pm by CMonster
From the Chronicle of Higher Education comes one of the strangest true-crime stories I’ve heard yet:
What’s Up, Doc? German Law Bars American Ph.D.’s From Calling Themselves ‘Doctor’
Apparently, a nazi-era law prohibits the use of the honorific unless your degree was awarded in Germany. (Or possibly the EU; media coverage varies) Fortunately, several of the scientists charged happen to be directors at a highly prestigious research institute there; as a result of political pressure and an enlightened modern perspective,
…state education ministers met last week and decided to allow holders of degrees from designated American universities to call themselves “Doctor.”
I’m told that our system of university education has its roots in Germany, and I realize that nationalism has an amazing way of making idiots of people. Still, isn’t this taking pride just a bit far?
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10.26.07
Posted in Politics at 7:06 pm by CMonster
The New York Times reported today that the current nominee for attorney general might soon face opposition unless he takes a harder- and more specific- line against terrorism. This is at least partly in response to recent reports that the justice department had created a subclass of “enhanced interrogation” procedures- that is, the definition of torture had been kicked up a notch.
As frightening as this is to someone raised with the ideals of international law as a protection against such treatment, however, it’s sometimes quite instructive to dip back into history just a few decades, when truth serum was the big draw. From mail covers to mind control, the Church Committee hearings dug up an amazing amount of dirt- and reminds me of how quickly we forget the things we denounced just a short span ago.
(In particular, I’d recommend tracking down the original report; some of this information is muddied by the large number of JFK conspiracy sites referencing the subject)
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