I look forward to the time when we will have a Republican president, and anything resembling the politicization of intelligence will be vigorously denounced by just about every media outlet in existence. But for now, we do not have a Republican president, so we have to be content with the Daily Beast's denunciation of the …
More Horrifying News on the National Security Front
I am most emphatically not one of those people who freaks out upon hearing that jobs have been outsourced to other countries. "The outsourcing bogeyman" is just that; a bogeyman whose supposed ill effects on the American economy are wildly overstated, and the evolution of the economy means that certain jobs will be outsourced--something we …
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Bad Times for the Good Guys on the National Security Front
This story is filled with references to anonymous sources, so I am trying my hardest to take it with a grain of salt. But it still reads as being plausible, which is why it still worries me: UK intelligence agents have been moved because Russia and China have access to classified information which reveals how …
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Quote of the Day
If you believe Glenn Greenwald’s new book (which I reviewed here), the NSA’s appetite for gobbling up communications is unlimited. Legal controls on its behavior are trivial. Its much-repeated claim that it does not spy on American citizens is a lie. And its goal in its collection activities is political control over citizens, whom surveillance renders …
Quote of the Day
Valerie Plame doesn't deny that blowing the cover of the CIA station chief in Afghanistan is a serious matter. It's just that, discussing the issue at a Wednesday evening forum sponsored by The Atlantic, Plame seemed to view the outing of the CIA's top spy on the front lines in the Afghan war as more of an embarrassment than an outrage. …
Why Am I Fond of Jeb Bush
Here is a good reason--he is really smart and we need a really smart person to lead the right and lead the country: As governor of Florida, Jeb Bush flew in Ivy League social scientists for daylong seminars with his staff and carved out time for immersive brainstorming sessions he called “think weeks.” A voracious reader, …
Quote of the Day
I think he broke the law, so I certainly wouldn’t characterize him as a hero. If he wanted to raise the issues and stay in the country and engage in civil disobedience or something of that kind, or if he had been careful in terms of what he had released, then it would fit more …
Things Get Worse in Ukraine and the Crimea
Russian troops are in the Crimean Peninsula, and are busy "taking control of military and civilian installations." Ukraine is getting ready to respond, but let's not pretend that Ukrainian forces are any real match for the Russians in Crimea (although it would appear that if Russian forces seek to further expand their reach, Ukrainian forces …
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Justification for My “Art of the Day” Interludes
Exposure to art increases intelligence: FOR many education advocates, the arts are a panacea: They supposedly increase test scores, generate social responsibility and turn around failing schools. Most of the supporting evidence, though, does little more than establish correlations between exposure to the arts and certain outcomes. Research that demonstrates a causal relationship has been …
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James Clapper Throws the Obama Administration Under the Bus
Following up on this post, we have yet another indication that the intelligence community is pushing back against White House claims that it knew nothing about spying on friendly foreign governments: The nation’s top spymaster said on Tuesday that the White House had long been aware in general terms of the National Security Agency’s overseas eavesdropping, …
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