Author: Redactor

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Common Sense

A Wish for Presidential Transparency

The blogger Alaskan Librarian has a list of things he’d like done by the next president. I share at least one of his wishes, “to see policy formulated in the open.”

Specifically, he wants candidates to sign the Reason Foundation’s “Oath of Presidential Transparency.” The pledge has two parts. The first endorses “effective management, accountability, transparency, and disclosure” of federal spending. The second is a commitment to enforce the Federal Funding and Accountability Act, passed by Congress in 2006.

This legislation was introduced by Senator Tom Coburn. Both Barack Obama and John McCain signed on as co-​sponsors. It requires all recipients of federal funds to be fully disclosed on the Web. And hey, they even set up a website.

Obama has already signed the Oath of Presidential Transparency. I have to wonder who is asleep at the McCain camp, given that their candidate has yet to add his John Hancock. Same goes for Ralph Nader, Libertarian Bob Barr and the Green and Constitution Party nominees.

But since we’re all in agreement here, let’s demand more.

Like what? Like real-​time updates about budget items, allowing citizens time to protest particular pork projects and other prodigalities. Like forbidding the last-​minute stuffing of earmarks into reconciliations bills.

Maybe we need a new compact with our government, one where, as Leslie Graves of the Lucy Burns Institute suggests, there would be “No taxation without information.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense

The Little Boy Who Almost Could

One thing about toddler Mikolaj Sobolewski: He sure shows initiative.

The three-​year-​old Polish boy unlocked the front door to his home by himself, took the bus to the airport by himself, and apparently expected to board a plane.

Police found him at the airport and returned him to his parents, who, of course, were quite relieved. The police say there is “no suggestion of negligence on their part.” The kid just found his chance and took it.

It seems Mikolaj’s mom works near an airport in Warsaw and the boy had seen a lot of planes flying past her office. He wanted to see what it was like to be on one. He’d done enough dreaming about it, I guess, and decided to just do it.

Mikolaj made a mistake. He didn’t have enough information about how to fulfill his desire. He didn’t give enough thought to how his parents would feel when they found him missing. I know I’d have been worried sick if one of my own children at age three pulled the same disappearing act.

You might say that young Mikolaj has some growing up to do. All the same, we’ve got to give the boy credit for spunk, don’t we?

Write that name down and see if we hear about him again in twenty or thirty years. Mikolaj Sobolewski.

I don’t think he’ll grow up to be a bureaucrat.

Here’s hoping you and your kids have a great summer. Keep track of each other. And happy flying!

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Accountability Common Sense free trade & free markets insider corruption

A Real Reform for Obama

Barack Obama’s record as a maverick, either in the U.S. Senate or his years as an Illinois legislator, is slender at best. Behind the self-​avowed reformer’s rhetoric, his policies seem typical, demanding ever-​bigger government, ever-​more intrusive government.

But there’s at least one reform practiced by candidate Obama that could yield some very good changes indeed: His rejection of government funding of presidential campaigns.

Note I say “practiced by,” not “advocated by.” Obama has opted out of the system for tactical reasons only. In doing so he broke a promise earlier in the campaign that he would accept matching funds — along with the limits on his own general election spending that this would entail. But he had scooped up so much financial support so fast that he decided it would be shooting himself in the foot to accept spending restrictions.

Obama may be uncomfortable with his flip-​flop. I applaud it — no, not the hypocrisy of it, but the example it sets for policy.

We should never force taxpayers to fund campaigns they may not support. And while we’re at it, let’s cut away the tangle of campaign laws regulating how much money we can give a candidate, or what and when and where we can say things about candidates.

If Obama could sign on to that proposal, he could really punch away at McCain on the issue. Obama would then be advocating real reform. Real good reform.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense

Tim Russert’s Different Angle

When Tim Russert died, many journalists had many good things to say about the Meet the Press host. Russert did his homework. He asked tough but fair questions. He was a decent man, a family man, who never lost sight of the important things. He had a zest for life.

But in all the praise for Russert’s virtues, was something being overlooked?

Former CBS journalist Bernard Goldberg thinks so. When Goldberg’s book Bias, a critical examination of the media, was published in 2001, only one person on the network news shows would touch it with a ten-​foot pole — even though the book was a bestseller and many Americans obviously thought the topic important.

The exception was Tim Russert, who spent an hour interviewing Goldberg on CNBC. Russert declared that “if there’s a liberal bias or a cultural bias [in the newsroom], we have to sit up and tackle it and discuss it. We have got to be open to these things.”

Peggy Noonan, the former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and the first George Bush, now writes commentary for the Wall Street Journal. There, she agreed with Goldberg: Russert was eager to give non-​liberal points of view a hearing when other broadcast journalists turned a deaf ear.

Wouldn’t it be a good thing, Noonan reflects, if many of the journalists generically praising Russert for his open-​mindedness and fairness paid more attention to the implications of their own words?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense

Mistakes Were Made

Choices. Gotta love ’em. But they can be a kick in the pants, too.

A few weeks ago I chose to criticize Subway for a kids’ essay contest that didn’t allow homeschoolers to participate. And I pointed out two misspellings in its printed rules. And, wouldn’t you know it, my readers detected several typos in the email version of my rant.

Radio listeners missed out on this bit of hilarity.

Subway had spelled “United States” as “Untied States,” and added an extra “t” to another word. I had used the wrong kind of “bear,” and left out a “c” in another word. Once an email’s out, it’s out … but right away I made sure the website had it right.

Since Subway’s instructions were printed, they had a harder time of it. But they were quick to correct the chief error I had chastised them for: Not allowing homeschoolers to participate in their contest.

When Subway realized that customers were angry, the company did more than confess to the lapse. With remarkable speed, Subway found a way to allow homeschoolers to compete.

This was a far more important problem than any typo. My proofreaders may have fallen a bit short in the homonym department, and someone at Subway got his or her fingers tangled. But leaving a contest open to everyone is very, very basic.

Thankfully, unlike in government, such mistakes tend to get fixed fast in the private sector. Why? Customers can choose to go elsewhere, taking their money.

That’s the kick in the pants.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
Common Sense Second Amendment rights too much government

I Second that Amendment

The First Amendment recognizes some very basic rights:

  • to speak truth to power, personally and through the press;
  • to practice our religion — or not — as we choose;
  • to associate with others and peaceably assemble together;
  • to petition our government for a redress of grievances.

The Second Amendment, which recognizes our right to arm ourselves, means we — as individuals — may legally and practically secure the rights of the First.

Or does it?

The Amendment reads: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”

A debate has raged over what these words actually mean. Does the Amendment support an individual right to be armed … or only when enlisted in a state militia? This makes a big difference for gun regulation and prohibition.

Now, in the case D.C. v. Heller, the U.S. Supreme Court has settled the issue. Voting 5 – 4, the court says Yes, the Second Amendment does enshrine an individual right to bear arms.

This makes perfect sense to me. That’s why the framers wrote “right of the people.”

Indeed, this is a wonderful victory for freedom.

It is also welcome news for Washington, D.C., residents who now, whether driving a cab or sitting at home alone, will be able to protect themselves. Which means, in the end, less crime and violence.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.