Common Sense with Paul Jacob

Today, Common Sense comes to you courtesy of a fellow American, who wrote the following letter to The Washington Post : “American citizens are willing to sacrifice civil liberties in the fight against terrorism, but which Americans are doing the sacrificing?

“Since Sept. 11 the FBI has interviewed me at work and at home because my name is similar, not to that of one of the hijackers, but to an individual arrested with suspected links to the terrorists. The FBI has contacted my broker, my neighbors and my friends to learn more about me. I was purchasing an apartment, but . . . at closing I was informed [that] my bank accounts were frozen. Only an angry settlement attorney was able to unfreeze the funds.

“A month passed . . . Then I found out again that I did not have access to transfer funds from my accounts without government approval. “I am a federal employee. I have not been charged with a crime. I do not support terrorism, and I was willing to help the law enforcement agencies. . . . But as time goes by and I have to get ‘clearance’ every time I want to make a bank transfer, I feel victimized. Every time I travel and receive the extra security checks because of my name it makes me trust my government less. What scares me even more is that I am an American citizen, and that is why I am not in jail. If I were not a citizen, I could be one of the hundreds of detainees . . . only because . . . my name is Ali Ayub and not Joe Smith.”

Something to think about.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

It’s the latest lobbying technique. No matter what the program may be, be sure to insist how crucial it is to the war on terrorism.

Some arguments are more plausible than others. The Postal Service wants new funding for new machines that will irradiate the mail and kill any deadly spores. And anthrax was sent through the mail. On the other hand, the post office was adrift in red ink long before September 11.

And then there’s the Centers for Disease Control and prevention. Surgeon General David Satcher wants Congress to hand over even more dough than it’s already getting. Threat of bio-terrorism, you see. One of Satcher’s complaints is that the CDC’s laboratories are in lousy shape.

Thanks to lobbying help from an array of corporate supporters, the agency already fetches a whopping $4 billion a year from the government. But Satcher makes it sound as if CDC gets such a skimpy budget that it couldn’t possibly keep its labs in good repair. This crumbling infrastructure is “the fault of the nation, not the CDC,” Satcher says.

In fact, though, the agency has been frittering budget dollars on anti-smoking propaganda, campaigns against TV violence, teaching kindergartners about birth control and so forth. Programs geared more to behavior control than disease control. Talk about mission creep.

A recent audit doesn’t help Satcher’s case. The General Accounting Office says that the Centers’ fiscal managers are mostly incompetent and inexperienced, resulting in case after case of misdirected or lost funds . . . a situation that probably cannot be blamed on terrorists.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

What’s the greater danger: a cancer patient in California or a member of al-Queda in Jersey City or the Middle East?

We all know the answer to that one. But though the war on terrorism is so much more urgent, the U.S. government keeps throwing billions of tax dollars at the war on drugs. We’re already crippling much of the al-Queda terrorist network.

But as long as there is demand for illegal substances, we’ll never make a dent on drug traffic with the so-called war on drugs. All we’ll do is help fund real threats to life and limb: the terrorists and other bad guys. Students of America’s Prohibition era know that the ban on alcohol created a very profitable enterprise for Tommy-gun-toting thugs like Al Capone.

The criminality of the enterprise added to the profit margin. And those easy profits helped fund other crime. Violent crime.

Until a few months ago, another criminal gang, the totalitarian Taliban, also got lots of help from Afghanistan’s traffic in illegal drugs. Of course, it also got money from Uncle Sam to help it fight the drug war.

A few years ago, Californians passed a measure permitting the use of marijuana for medical purposes. A few weeks ago, the Drug Enforcement Agency raided the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center.

Why? To stop the nefarious relief the Center was giving to AIDS patients and cancer patients in pain.

Let’s stop fighting a failing war that drains our resources, punishes the sick, and bankrolls our enemies.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

There are only so many days left until Christmas.

Ann Coulter thinks maybe that’s why her jewelry was confiscated by airport security. The jewelry was a silver charm in the shape of a bullet that had a lot of sentimental value. But she reports that when she eventually tried to recover the charm, “it was missing from the Olympic security box of confiscated loot. It’s probably already wrapped.”

As Coulter points out, the charm could have been in the shape of the anthrax virus and remained just as harmless. This particular item had survived a dozen previous post-911 airport security checks. But silver is silver.

Coulter doubts whether there should even be personal inspections at all. As she points out, “We can’t keep weapons out of prisons; we certainly can’t keep them off airplanes not even by turning airports into the pleasant and welcoming environment of a federal penitentiary.”

When Coulter asked the security supervisor what his name was, the supervisor called airport police. Apparently it’s dangerous to expect airport security to accept accountability for their actions.

To borrow a line from Lord Acton, I think what we have here is a tale of power corrupting, and absolute power corrupting absolutely.

It’s not just people in politics who can be corrupted by power not just cops or security personnel. It’s anybody in a position to push people around with impunity, without having to worry about a person’s rights.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

There’s been lots of bad news lately. But our country is strong and our economy is strong. We’ll pull through.

I’m not so sure about certain parts of the economy, though. In particular, I’m not so sure about a certain giant socialistic company called Amtrak. The reason is the red ink that Amtrak spills year after fiscal year.

Congress keeps threatening to pull the plug on subsidies to Amtrak, saying it better balance the books or else. But then, the very next time Amtrak admits it is losing money and needs more of our tax dollars, Congress bails them out anyway.

Amtrak has scooped up over $25 billion in subsidies over the 30 years of its existence. And now things are getting really ridiculous. Some lawmakers in Washington now want to pour $3.2 billion into Amtrak’s coffers even though Congress has “instructed” the company to whip itself into shape by 2002.

Of course, Congress won’t allow Amtrak to cut any of the unprofitable routes. To top it all off, some legislators are selling this $3.2 billion as “emergency money.”

Huh?

The airlines got emergency bailouts because they lost riders in the wake of the terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, Amtrak has gained riders. Get it?

Whereas up until now Amtrak was burdened with too little business, now it’s suffering from too much. Whatever.

But if an enterprise can’t survive with customers, maybe it’s time to let others try this job without the subsidies. People do ride trains, and pay for tickets.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Oh, sure, he’s a jolly old elf most of the time. But just ask Mrs. Claus, he’s got a temper.

Not long ago, I compared Congress to Santa Claus, because both hand out lots of goodies. Well, Santa was not amused.

“How in the name of the North Pole can you compare me with the politicians in Congress?” Santa wanted to know. “My elves and I produce our presents ourselves and we make a list so they go to the nice people. The Congress takes from others and often gives the loot to folks who are naughty.”

He’s got a point. And who wants to argue with Santa, especially this time of year? Then came the flap in Kensington, Maryland, where the long tradition of Santa lighting the town Christmas tree was ended this year because a few families who don’t celebrate Christmas complained.

It seemed another case of political correctness run amok. Santa called and I was ready for an earful but Santa wasn’t mad at the families who complained or the town officials. “Christmas is my holiday,” Santa said calmly, “and I’ll not let anyone turn it into something that’s forced on people. I don’t want anyone forced to pay taxes against their will to celebrate Christmas. That’s not my style. And that’s what’s been going on in this little town taxpayer funded Christmas cheer.

“I don’t need any government mandates, after all, hundreds of people in Santa suits brought their own holiday cheer to the Kensington tree lighting this year. The spirit of Christmas is something you give, not something you take. Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Years ago there was a cartoon about Soviet society in which a reporter is interviewing a Russian citizen about life under Communism.

He asks the woman about Soviet transportation and she seems to have no problem with it.

“Eh, I can’t complain,” she says, shrugging.

Bread lines? “I can’t complain,” she says indifferently.

Housing? “I can’t complain,” she says.

Finally, the exasperated interviewer asks, “Well, ma’am, is there anything about living in Russia you don’t like?” And the woman shrieks: “I CAN’T COMPLAIN!!”

Which is what freedom of speech is all about. Any totalitarian government will let you talk as much as you want, so long as you agree with them. Agreement is not the issue. It’s the dissent, the complaints, that bother the people in power.

America is, of course, a country in which you and I can complain. I believe we will always enjoy that freedom. Still, it is disturbing to hear the U.S. Attorney General, John Ashcroft, say that critics of the administration’s anti-terrorism proposals are providing, quote-unquote, “ammunition to America’s enemies.”

He told Congress that those who “scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty . . . only aid terrorists.”

A pretty sweeping generalization. Now, some of the criticisms may be valid, some not. And the motives of the critics are probably all over the map too. But geez, this is a country where we have the right to talk things over, openly, isn’t it?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

There’s something about democracy that makes the heart glad.

Of course, it’s a little more happiness-making if you have real elections, and not just legislators-for-life. That’s why I like term limits. And that’s why it tickles me no end when the critics make claims about term limits that are the opposite of the truth. I guess they have to pretend to like something that at bottom they really don’t like that much at all.

Anyway . . . one thing the critics like to say is that under term limits, all the power to do anything in a legislature will quickly drift away. To the governor or the lobbyists or the regulators or the staffers anybody but the legislative newcomers who got the opportunity to serve because of term limits and who actually have the political authority to introduce legislation and vote on it.

Actually, under term limits the new guys hop off the bench a lot faster than they used to. And far from being ineffectual clowns, they are often quite the contenders.

Certainly that’s true in Ohio, one of the 50 or so states of the union suffering a few budget problems right now. The governor there, Bob Taft, wants to deal with the shortfall by cutting some government spending and also by raising some taxes.

Many legislators in Columbus’s term-limited chambers feel that these approaches would cancel each other out. So the new guys have been flexing their muscles, opposing tax hikes.

They don’t want to follow the governor’s playbook. Maybe they’ll win, maybe they’ll lose. But obviously they’re more than puppets, eh guv’nor?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

I think I’ve found an approach we can all live with.

I’ve caught flak lately for suggesting that maybe an individual’s rights are relevant to how we should deal with persons suspected of terrorism or of knowing a terrorist or saying hello to a terrorist.

These are dangerous times, granted. So dangerous that some people believe we dare not pause to check whether there’s any actual evidence of nefarious dealings before locking people away. Let’s not be too dainty when everybody’s life is on the line, is the feeling.

Of course, that feeling might change just a little if the feds come knocking on OUR door. And while we’re detaining and investigating people for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, who knows . . . ? Maybe we’re wasting investigative resources that could be spent on more substantial leads.

Even some former FBI officials are raising a red flag about how the U.S. is going about things now. In any case, I’ve found a compromise that I’m sure will please all parties.

It’s from a fan who writes that maybe we should just, quote, “strap the occasional suspect into a chair in the Capitol Building and make him sit through an Appropriations Committee mark-up. The sound of the hogs feeding at the trough of government revenues is almost certain to drive the a truly guilty party to confession, contrition, and repentance.”

This could work. The very idea of having to witness this kind of activity makes me want to confess, and I ain’t done nothin’. I swear.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Ah, the power of the mass media.

No sooner had I taped not broadcast, mind you, just taped my latest installment of “Common Sense,” than the gears started going into motion.

Somebody at the studio must have phoned Montgomery County, Maryland, and said, “Hey, Paul Jacob is against this! You’d better veto it if you know what’s good fer ya!” And that’s what County Executive Douglas Duncan did.

Although he had supported it before, Duncan promptly killed council legislation that would have turned Montgomery residents into prisoners.

Imagine it! Prohibited from smoking in the privacy of your own home, if some vindictive neighbor decides to go after you. The new law would have fined people $750 for each separate infraction.

Quite a steep tax for being politically incorrect. Next they’d be throwing you in jail for burning a hamburger in the kitchen. You know, that’s what they can do if you refuse to pay a fine: throw you in jail.

Oh, sure. The uproar over this particular piece of Puritanical paternalism was instantaneous and worldwide. On ABC’s “This Week,” George Will compared the Montgomery Council to the Taliban. John Stossel made it the focus of his “Give Me a Break” segment on “20/20.” The ACLU threatened to sue.

Even the Moscow Times weighed in. You know you’re in trouble when the Russians start wagging their fingers at you for going over the top. But I still give myself the sole credit for stopping the Montgomery home smoking ban in its tracks.

After all . . . This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.