Chris Clayton on Actively Engaged

Chris Clayton summarizes the debate on the FSA final rule on "actively engaged". Unfortunately he's a victim of the stupid GPO system, which doesn't give you a permanent URL for the document, so his link doesn't work.  And, it turns out, regulations.gov is no help, because, as of 4:30 pm, it hadn't been updated with today's issue of the Federal Register.

Fortunately, the expert bureaucrats at FSA have already updated their website with the link to the regs.
Way to go, JK and JB.

Best Sentence of Jan 7

" Coordination is the impulse of bureaucrats" from Chris Blattman's Blog on Development, a post about Clinton's speech on development.  (I'd also recommend the post on the other Clinton's Foreign Policy interview. Say what you will, the guy can be impressive.)

Another Party Heard from on Iraq

I recommend Thomas Ricks blog, The Best Defense.  He used to be the WPost defense correspondent and seems to have good sources in the military, particularly from lower levels than you see in the mainstream media.  My recommendation is odd, because I've always boasted of being a natural-born civilian, something reaffirmed by my involuntary service in LBJ's Army. 

That is preamble 1.  Preamble 2 is the observation I put up a short post recognizing no combat fatalities in Iraq in December and giving GWBush credit. 

But, as Mao supposedly said about the French Revolution, it's too early to tell about the overall policy.  Ricks has a post passing on a prediction by someone that Iraq will disappear in the next 5 years, which almost sounds like the policy our current Vice President was pushing back in 2007.  We will see, or maybe our descendants will see.

He's Back

The bogeyman to scare all industrial farmers, Michael Pollan, has another book out: "Food Rules."  The one-star review at Amazon says it disappoints, in that it's a boiled down version of "In Defense of Food". There are 5 star reviews.  And it costs $5.50

Whoopsie--Was FSA One of the Agencies Which Goofed?

Here's an example of a bureaucratic screwup, along with a somewhat exaggerated story. In sum, a 1996 law required executive branch agencies to send their final rules to Congress, but many appear to have failed to do so. (The law gave Congress the right to disapprove the final rules after being notified of them.)

In theory, the rule isn't effective until sent to Congress.  And, the answer to the question in my title is "yes", both CCC/FSA and NRCS failed to send several of their final rules over, one of which is a payment limitation rule and one an EQIP rule. (See page 20  of the CRS report.) It strikes me as a Mickey Mouse rule, as we used to say in the old days.  If an agency does something which is controversial and could be disapproved by Congress, the thing will have a life of its own.  If it's not that important, then it's bureaucratic routine.  It's not important in itself; Congress is able to read the Federal Register, after all so the appropriate staffers know when the final rule goes out.

Restored Service, Back to Blogging

Verizon has restored our service, so I'll resume blogging just as soon as I catch up with my online reading.

Props to W

Via Starbucks WiFi (my Verizon repair order is still waiting to be assigned to a technician--somehow I had thought all utilities worked day and night to restore service, so even at my late age there's opportunity to learn the reality of the world), I'm obligated to start the new year by acknowledging no combat deaths in Iraq in December.  I could add caveats, but I won't. GW wasn't always wrong in everything.

Verizon Problem

Due to problems in Verizon land line service, my blogging will be interrupted.

Interrupted Blogging

Apparently our snow storm last week resulted in a slow degradation of the phone line, meaning first the loss of dial tone and finally the loss of DSL.  Verizon promises a fix by 9 pm Wednesday night.  If you see this post before, you'll know they've made good on their promise.

 

http://facelessbureaucrat.blogspot.com
http://harshawfamily.blogspot.com

The Next War and Security Works

Two thoughts coming out of the airline incident:

• I'm not clear on who handles security in Amsterdam, whether it's TSA for US flag airlines or the Dutch.  Assuming it's TSA, I think we should credit their rules as successful.  Apparently terrorists believe the screening process is good enough that they went to some lengths to evade the process--sewing the explosive into underwear.  And the attempt to use it to bring down the plane failed, presumably because of the difficulties of turning the hidden explosive into an effective bomb.  I'd compare it to a football defense like Carolina showed Sunday--effective enough to force the Giants into low-return and/or risky pass plays. If the terrorist had been able to get an effective weapon on board, it would be a different matter.  And it's a separate issue of whether procedures should have identified and prevented the guy from boarding in the first place.
  
• I noted Sen. Lieberman now wants to attack Al Qaeda in Yemen.  That's the downside of Obama's policy in Afghanistan.  He may be right that his new strategy can work and avoid the problems of using lesser force.  But, as long as the strategy is sold as attacking terrorism and preventing a safe haven for terrorism, it's doomed to failure.  The number of failed or impaired states in the world far exceeds the capability of DOD.