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May 14, 2002
Vol. 5 No. 20
In this issue:
1. Truckers Against Terror
2. Supreme Indifference
3. Creative Planning
4. Quick Hits
5. Family Matters - and other highlights from Reason Online
6. Reason's print edition
7. News and Events
Reason Express is made possible by a grant from The DBT Group, manufacturers of affordable, high-performance mainframe systems and productivity software.
The nation's 3 million truckers are the latest draftees in the war on terrorism. Trucking companies plan to train them to spot "suspicious activities" as they ply the highways and byways.
This is not an altogether terrible idea, but it requires the FBI to sort through all the reports of benign stuff to find the truly ominous threads. And since the bureau has admitted that it brushed off pre-9/11 warnings from its own agents, it may not be up to the task.
As Congress tries to figure out how the massive national security state failed to anticipate the terrorist attacks, it looks more and more like warning signs were not so much missed as disbelieved.
An FBI agent in Phoenix noted in a July 2001 memo to his superiors that Middle Eastern men at an Arizona flight school didn't seem to belong there. A Minneapolis agent worried that French Moroccan flight student Zacarias Moussaoui might be part of a plan to "fly something into the World Trade Center."
There is also Chicago agent Robert G. Wright Jr., who believes the bureau was more interested in keeping intelligence flowing from radical Muslim groups operating inside the U.S. than in arresting their members. A First Amendment lawsuit filed byWright, who wants to publish a book called Fatal Betrayals of the Intelligence Mission, claims "FBI management intentionally and repeatedly thwarted and obstructed Wright's attempts to launch a more comprehensive investigation that would identify terrorists, their sources and methods of funding before they attacked additional U.S. interests, killing more U.S. citizens. "
Even allowing for 20/20 hindsight, this kind of second-guessing is long overdue. In fact, a wholesale shake-up of the FBI's management and procedures is what you'd expect after so colossal a failure in judgment and performance.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/751455.asp?cp1=1
http://www.msnbc.com/news/751100.asp?cp1=1
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3860-2002May10.html
The Supreme Court has ruled that the the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996 gives the Federal Communications Commission the authority to require that local Bell companies rent their lines to competitors at FCC-dictated prices. The Bells had argued that the FCC's fee structure essentially makes them give away their equipment.
The FCC has a complex formula known as TELRIC which is supposed to be fair to the Bells while spurring competition in local phone service. Justice David Souter, writing for the Court, said "we cannot say whether the passage of time will show competition prompted by TELRIC to be an illusion, but TELRIC appears to be a reasonable policy for now, and that is all that counts."
In other words, the Court is saying, "We have no idea if this will work, but it doesn't sound completely nuts. Check back with us in a few years."
By then, of course, telecommunications could be transformed as market forces compress the sector into a handful of companies, each offering both local service and long distance. Toss in wireless firms, cable phone service, and voice-over-Internet offerings, and things get more confusing. In a few years FCC plans to manipulate the telecom market won't make any more--or any less--sense.
http://www.austin360.com/aas/news/ap/ap_story.html/Washington/AP.V5997.AP-Scotus-Phone-Se.html
America prides itself on being a classless society. But what if a certain class is responsible for giving cities their vitality and economic clout?
Richard Florida and Kevin Stolarick, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, think what they call the Creative Class is the key engine of growth for cities. Its members, who make their livings designing things and solving problems, include engineers, musicians, scientists, actors, software developers, and writers.
If you have a lot of this class, you'll prosper. If you don't, your town and region risks sinking into slow decline. Florida and Stolarick rank Washington, Raleigh-Durham, Seattle, San Francisco, and Austin as the top five Creative Class towns. Stolarick thinks creativity is now more closely related to urban growth than is education.
If Florida and Stolarick are on to something, local planners have their work cut out for them. To keep their towns and cities growing and healthy they have to attract people who, by definition, tend to do surprising, unplanned things.
http://www.austin360.com/statesman/editions/sunday/news_1.html
Quote of the Week
"There aren't many Mac users left. The PC bigots have, for the most part, driven them out of the Senate." -- Jeff Hecker, a systems administrator at the Democratic Policy Committee, on a Senate policy that makes Macs unwelcome on Capitol Hill.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,52175,00.html
Farm Haul
President George W. Bush signed the 10-year, $190 billion farm bill, noting that "it's not a perfect bill." No kidding.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9463-2002May13.html
http://www.reason.com/sullum/051002.shtml
Righteous and Herb
Christians for Cannabis claim biblical support for opposing the War on Drugs, such as the line from Proverbs, "Do not accuse a man for no reason when he has done you no harm."
http://www.christiansforcannabis.com/
Books by the Bit
Huge collection of free e-books, as well as shareware books, and commercial e-books.
http://www.blackmask.com/page.php?do=page
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