RestrainedRadical's comments

@TV, it was possibly procedurally illegal. Junior officers should refuse to obey illegal orders.

@SirWellington, I don't think anyone else shares your definition of propaganda. The government's anti-smoking ads are propaganda. Campaign ads paid for by public funding are propaganda. What is prohibited by US law is unauthorized propaganda on US citizens. Cadwell tried to use the IO unit on US citizens which is isn't authorized to do. He can do the same thing through public affairs which is what he ended up doing.

I once worked for a Democratic politician. In the context of some regulation, I suggested a Pigovian tax. I was told "No, I don't want them to be able to pay their way out of it. I want it banned." I think a large segment of the population believes if something shouldn't be done, it should be banned outright and that things like cap-and-trade and Pigovian taxes are still letting the wrongdoers off too easy. Taxes don't carry moral condemnation. I think it may be because they see business activity less as economic decisions and more as moral ones. Does anyone think that if we had a high carbon tax, people would stop calling for a reining in of gas guzzlers? This is primarily problem on the left. The right's problem is that they aren't thinking about the political reality. If you close the door to Coasian bargaining, you're gonna get bad regulations.

@SirWellington, public affairs isn't propaganda? And Voice of America is still alive and well.

I'd like to propose a solution. An unwaivable right to unionize plus binding arbitration. Aside from those two conditions, employees and employers can come up with any arrangement they want.

Who drinks domestic rum?

Moderates are the favorites in presidential primaries so I don't know why this would count against Daniels. On Intrade, Daniels is tied with Palin.

First there's the problem with combining SAT and ACT scores. Looking at ACT alone Virginia beats Wisconsin. If you look at SAT scores alone, you notice something very odd. The poorer states outperform the more affluent states. This is due to varying participation rates. Only 3% of students (the very brightest) in South Dakota take the SATs and as a result their scores are far above average. Contrast that with Maine which has 100% participation and ranks dead last.

So now that we've disposed of that, on to MS's remaining point about foreign unionization. Conservatives would love if the US adopted Japanese style unions. Unfortunately, they're illegal in the US. Conservatives would also love to roll back labor laws to German levels and let unions protect workers instead. But liberals insist on more and more labor laws which end up diminishing the role of unions.

Question for liberals: Wouldn't you want the state to take over union duties? We're told that the benevolent state makes the best choices. Seniors on Medicare have zero bargaining power. They can't strike. They only have their votes, just like everyone else. Yet the state generously provides for them. Why isn't that arrangement good enough for teachers?

If you do agree that the government negotiating with itself isn't the best arrangement, if you believe that ideally private associations would do things like babysitting co-ops and car pooling, welcome to the right.

@sparkleby, it would be nice if all costs of business were deducted from shareholder dividends instead of passed on to consumers or deducted from investment. As I've stated, I don't actually mind making them pay but I also don't live in a fantasy world where taxes only prevent Wall Street execs from buying bigger yachts. These royalty-free leases don't do "nothing." They have at least as good a bang-for-the-buck as space exploration spending.