Welcome to Reason Express, the weekly e-newsletter from Reason magazine. Reason Express is written by Washington-based journalist Jeff A. Taylor and draws on the ideas and resources of the Reason editorial staff. For more information on Reason, visit our Web site at www.reason.com. Send your comments about Reason Express to Jeff A. Taylor (jtaylor@reason.com) and Virginia Postrel (vpostrel@reason.com).
REASON Express February 21, 2000 Vol. 3 No. 8
1) Clinton Works a Tough Room in Cyberspace 2) China Clipper? 3) Milk: It Does Your Relevant Federal Agency Good 4) Feds Construct a Waco Test They Can't Fail 5) Quick Hits
- - Chat Boom - -
Leave it to Bill Clinton to turn the first live online presidential interview into an Orwellian lesson in the use and abuse of technology.
More than a few questioners thought CNN's Wolf Blitzer was a little too soft. "Can you define 'is' for us yet?" came one query from CNN's e-mail message board, which Clinton never saw.
And after a crash of CNN's chat software, one user logged himself on as Bill Clinton to comment, "Personally, I would like to see more porn on the Internet." That did make it out to other chat-roomers, who probably knew it was a spoof.
But don't look for that little exchange in the official transcript of the interview, it has been purged. And contrary to some reports that the deed was the work of wily hackers, in reality a simple failure on the part of CNN allowed the user to snare Bill Clinton's name as his own.
Still, the little stunts--both Clinton's and the impostor's--received far more attention than a truly dangerous hole in the government-Internet interface.
Last week the Environmental Protection Agency temporarily shut down its Internet connection after congressional investigators found that the agency's supposedly secure computers could be reached from a Web site.
This is no trivial matter as the EPA's lengthy regulatory reach often nabs proprietary information from businesses about chemical processes or mechanical designs. Add to that the value of getting a sneak peak at the EPA's leanings on a particular issue in advance of any public announcement, and you have some highly valuable information.
Of course the root solution to this problem would be to get rid of any agency that has such a scope and a demonstrated inability to police its own files. But in the interim, some common-sense respect for technology, along with a pledge to be as transparent as possible about its uses and failings, should be drummed into every bureaucrat--starting at the top.
http://news.excite.com/news/r/000214/17/news-clinton-internet http://cnn.com/2000/US/02/14/clinton.transcript/ http://www.foxnews.com/vtech/021400/hack.sml http://www.boredom.org/cnn/statement.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20000217/aponline041602_000.htm
Michael Lynch looks at some of the stealth expansions of power undertaken by the EPA and other Clinton agencies at http://www.reason.com/0003/fe.ml.weapons.html
- - Chip Off the Old Clipper - -
U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky found herself arguing that China should abandon its restrictions on encryption technology. Last month, Beijing announced that all foreign and Chinese companies or individuals using encryption must register with the government. The move is thought to be a prelude to forcing everyone in China to use only China-government approved software.
That position is stunningly similar to the official United States policy for most of the '90s, which sought to tightly control the use and export of strong encryption. Even now, with much looser controls, the feds still want to know where strong encryption is headed overseas.
But imagine if instead of trying to limit the export of crypto for all those years, the U.S. had actively encouraged its spread. China would likely now be so swamped with high-quality, Western crypto that Barshefsky's jawboning would be unneeded.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,34376,00.html
- - Spilled Soy-Based Beverage - -
The dairy lobby has long been recognized as one of the most effective in the business. Inside Washington, the dairy subsidies keep flowing. Outside, in the broader marketplace, milk is portrayed as vital to good health, even hipness. And nothing will be allowed to encroach on that.
The National Milk Producers Federation has filed a complaint with the Food and Drug Administration seeking a ban on the use of the word "milk" by soybean beverage makers.
"Soy-based beverages are attempting to directly compete with dairy products and are inappropriately taking advantage of the familiarity and positive image of dairy terminology in their labeling," said Dr. Rob Byrne, vice president of regulatory affairs for the NMPF.
But it would be a very confused consumer who mistakes soy drinks for cow's milk. First off, it is not clear that any soy drinks even call themselves milk. Second, supermarkets do not waste valuable dairy-case space with the vacuum-packed soy beverage boxes. More common is space in an entirely different part of the store.
Finally, soy's niche rests in stressing how different it is from dairy products--no lactose, no milkfat, among other properties--to consumers who want a dairy-free alternative. The milk lobby's actions suggest it fears that more consumers will choose soy as it competes--gasp--with moo juice.
How that private choice should be a concern of the FDA is not at all clear. Then again, it is the FDA.
http://www.cnn.com/2000/FOOD/news/02/14/soy.milk/index.html
Virginia Postrel looked at the milk lobby's power at http://www.forbes.com/forbes/00/0110/6501072a.htm
- - Waco: The Last Roundup - -
At the current rate of one revelation every couple of days, by the time the Waco reenactment rolls around in late March nothing we thought we knew about the April 1993 siege and its aftermath may be true.
After months of denying that an infrared camera would provide anything useful at the reenactment, let alone reveal muzzle flashes from gunfire, the government's lead lawyer turned around and said, yeah, the test might well show gunfire.
"It's not impossible for this camera to detect gunfire. That doesn't, in and of itself, answer the question if these particular flashes on this tape are gunfire," said U.S. Attorney Mike Bradford. "We have consistently said that the flashes on the April 19 [1993] tape are not gunfire."
The FBI had previously insisted that the camera used at Waco could not possibly record gunfire.
So now the government's position is that even if the test with the same camera and same weapons produces the same flashes as those seen the day the compound burned, that still doesn't prove anything. In a narrow sense, that might be true. But it is unclear what it would take short of a trip back in time to get the Justice Department to reconsider the mantra that no shots were fired. That attitudinal change is needed before anyone can believe the government has shifted from ass-covering to truth-seeking mode.
Another revelation involved the government's desire to keep as much as possible about the tests secret. Part of that gambit involved a claim that the camera which was to be used for the reenactment, a British-made GEC-Marconi unit mated to a Royal Navy Lynx helicopter on loan from the U.K. since the U.S. government could not produce one, was super-classified.
"Disclosure of even the most fundamental information would permit identification of the aircraft and provide notice to those who seek to avoid detection by federal law enforcement," the government argued before a judge.
Trouble with that was that British experts and Defense Ministry representatives said none of the information that the FBI and the Justice Department wanted to hide was considered sensitive to them. In fact, much of the data is already publicly available.
http://dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/33273_WACO18.html http://dallasnews.com/waco/32319_WACO17.html
Check out the Reason Online Breaking Issue "What Happened at Waco?" at http://reason.com/bi/biwaco.html
QUICK HITS
- - Quote of the Week - -
"We've already been raped. Now they want us to be prostitutes," Sam Brown, a former Burkittsville, Maryland, Town Council member, on plans for a sequel to the "The Blair Witch Project." The tiny (pop. 200), rural town was beset by tourists and vandals after being featured in the hit horror film. Producers for the new film wanted town residents to participate more in the making of the sequel.
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-02/16/179l-021600-idx.html
- - Quote of the Week, Smoking Signals Division - -
"We are a sovereign nation, and state taxes don't apply to us. The law allows us to send 290 cartons a day to the same address, but it's only for personal use," Shana Lindell, manager at Wolfpack Tobacco, one of several Indian reservation-based online sellers of cigarettes. California and other states are trying to recover taxes lost to online sales, some of which are a third cheaper thanks to low taxes.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-1553811.html?tag=st.ne.1002.tgif?st.ne.fd .gif.e
- - Hello, Friendless Schlub - -
A questionable study by Stanford University's Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society concludes that the Internet is bad for interpersonal relationships. Rebuttals spread far and wide.
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-02/16/155l-021600-idx.html http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-02/16/167l-021600-idx.html http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,34387,00.html
- - Nuclear Neighbors - -
Plutonium from nuclear bombs exploded by India has turned up at Pakistan's nuclear test site, or so U.S. intelligence thinks. Such a contamination would violate India's commitment to the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which bans tests which cross borders.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns222626
REASON NEWSFor the latest on media appearances by Reason writers, visit http://www.reason.com/press.html.
On 24 February Wade Hudson, RPPI Economic Policy Analyst, and Adrian Moore, RPPI's Privatization Center Director, will be in Orlando, Florida, speaking at an all day session on managing employee transitions during privatization. The session is part of the 2000 World Outsourcing Summit.
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