Author: Redactor

I’m against naked power grabs. How about you? If you’re a career politician, the answer is, “I’m all in favor!”

For example, every ten years in this fair land we take a census to determine population, and we redraw political districts to take the new numbers into account. And who do you think does the redrawing? Sure, politicians. And not just any old politicians: the ones in power. Not exactly a disinterested third party. I’m thinking Florida. I’m thinking oranges, Disneyland and pitched political battles. I’m thinking Republicans on the upswing and turning as many districts as they can into soft pretzels, the better to keep themselves in power.

Bill Jones, a veteran of Florida’s redistricting wars who now lobbies for the League of Women Voters, says that redistricting is “like a card game in Alice In Wonderland where nobody knows the rules, everything seems terribly strange and everyone acts a little weird.” State Senator Steven Geller is a Democrat who sits on a redistricting panel. He says if the Republicans “don’t get too greedy, they can overrun the Democrats, providing they only run over the Democrats just somewhat.” Oh. Geller says if the Republicans are too obvious, the courts, which have to approve the redistricting, might get nervous about things. But the story is the same in almost every state. The ground rules may vary a bit, but the bottom line is the politicians themselves get to decide the shape of the fiefdoms they rule. A naked power grab. Just don’t be too obvious about it, right? Yeah, right. T

his is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Well, I just got back from California and I can report that it is a real, true fact: The career politicians there really do not like term limits. A recent battle in the California legislature was most revealing on this point. It had to do with whether banks and other financial institutions should be allowed to give away your private financial information without first getting your permission. The hearings were rigged in favor of lobbyists opposing the requirement rigged by a career politician by the name of Lou Papan.

Papan arranged things so that opponents of the bill could testify as long as they wished, and were allowed to speak first. When the vote came, the co-​sponsor of the bill was absent, and the member substituting for the sponsor abstained during the vote. It was thanks to this sneaky switcheroo that the bill narrowly lost. But not before Papan’s main foe on the issue had publicly chastised him for trying to sweep the whole thing under the rug and avoid any hearings at all. Now Papan is yelping that back in the old wonderful days the days before term limits legislative members did not dare criticize each other in the press.

Papan complains that it was this public criticism which led to the San Francisco Chronicle ‘s editorializing on the privacy issue, forcing Papan to hold hearings to begin with. This sort of thing is most annoying for a career politician. Ah, for the good old days, when career politicians could just do whatever they liked without any whistle-​blowing on the part of renegade colleagues who believe they’re supposed to be serving the common good.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Hey, “red tape” sounds so intimidating, doesn’t it? Let’s call it blue tape, sky-​blue tape. And that word “bureaucracy” scares people. How about “nice-​people-​eaucracy?” And if you have an outfit called “Health Care Financing Administration,” which strikes fear into the hearts of hospitals and doctors because of invariably frustrating regulations and red tape oops, I mean, sky-​blue tape why not find a name that sounds sweeter and more accommodating?

The Health Care Financing Administration is the government bureau er, I mean, the nice-​people place that runs Medicare and Medicaid. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson says it’s hard to love a place with a clunky name like Health Care Financing Administration, so he’s holding a contest to change it. According to Citizens Against Government Waste, the name isn’t the problem. They say, “Doctors and hospitals know HCFA creates too many forms to fill out, takes too long to reimburse claims … Last year alone, HCFA made about $12 billion in improper payments.”

Twelve billion dollars in bungled payments? Well, that sounds kind of harsh. Let’s just say “mislaid payments.” The name change will cost millions of dollars. It would mean reprinting stationery and forms and information kits. Money and energy that Citizens Against Government Waste says would be better spent reforming the agency itself, to make it more reasonable to deal with. That’s why they’ve awarded Tommy Thompson their coveted Porker of the Month Award. Hey, congratulations, Secretary Thompson. Although that word “porker” does seem a bit blunt.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the farm animals overthrow the human farmer and set up a society of strict equality. Yet, no sooner is the society established than the political leaders become a special class. The slogan, “All animals are equal,” gets an amendment: “But some animals are more equal than others.” Well, welcome to the barnyard of modern-​day Washington.

Our Congress has authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to protect endangered species. A good thing for the snail darter and other such critters, but lousy for people trying to earn a living in rural America. And to add insult to injury, The Washington Times reports that parts of the Endangered Species Act that are enforced throughout the nation are not enforced in the nation’s capital. Seems a massive amount of toxic sediment according to one EPA official, “the most toxic discharge I have ever seen” is being dumped into the Potomac River. A director of the National Wilderness Institute charges, “The EPA doesn’t stop the [polluting] because of political pressure brought by affluent Northwest Washington residents who don’t want to be inconvenienced by a few dump trucks rumbling through their neighborhoods.”

Meanwhile, 1,200 families in the Klamath Basin of California could lose their livelihood because the EPA wants to take all their water away. Why? The better to accommodate a few fish on the endangered list. Politicians give lip service to equality, but then allow two standards: one, for the politically-​connected, and another for the rest of us. Some are more equal than others.

This is Common Sense.  I’m Paul Jacob.

If somebody arrests you and throws you in jail, does that mean you deserved to be arrested and thrown in jail? Not long ago I discussed the case of Gail Atwater, a Texas mom who was not only fined but also arrested and briefly jailed. Her crime? She and her children were not wearing their seat belts while looking for a lost toy.

The experience was a traumatic one for her, and especially for her kids. Atwater thought the treatment way out of bounds and sued, taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court. But the Court ruled that although the officer’s actions were unreasonable, they were within his proper discretion. Most of us can put ourselves in the shoes of Gail Atwater. Most of us have gotten a ticket for speeding at one time or another. A ticket is bad enough. What if the police felt they had the right to arrest us too, even without reasonable cause? Most cops would never do that, but a few bad ones might.

Say if the motorist seems to be looking at them the wrong way. Most listeners took my point. But a couple said, hey, you wouldn’t need to arrest me to make me wear a seat belt! I abide by the law! In other words, the sheer fact that Atwater was arrested proves she deserved to be arrested and tough luck. All I can say is, there are countries where people get arbitrarily arrested as a matter of routine, and there is nobody, no media, no legislature, no court, to protest or stop it. These countries are called dictatorships. And that’s not a road we want to travel.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.