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), Virginia Postrel (vpostrel@reason.com), and Reason editor-in-chief Nick Gillespie (gillespie@reason.com).
REASON Express March 13, 2000 Vol. 3 No. 11
1) Add E-Mailgate to the List 2) Indiana School District Goes Nuts Over Beer 3) Feds to Determine Your Race 4) Quick Hits
- - Buggy White House - -
The Clinton White House appears set to deploy its tried-and-true defense against investigations: incompetence. Oh, sure, there have been threats and intimidation along the way, with denials and dismissals sure to come. But in the end, for the embarrassment that is becoming E-mailgate, "we goofed" is sure to be the final answer.
To recap, White House contractors say they were threatened in 1998 with jail if they disclosed a computer error which had the effect of keeping over 100,000 e-mails out of the hands of congressional investigators. All such White House communications had been under subpoena.
E-mails from August 1996 to November 1998, some dealing with the various White House scandals such as Filegate and Monicagate, were not produced for the investigating committees.
Why this happened is curious, indeed. It seems one of the e-mail servers was named "Mail2" instead of "MAIL2" and as a result, it was not regularly backed up onto a separate database.
This means that Congress should immediately move to enjoin anyone who worked on the system from ever laying a finger on a government-controlled keyboard, as they were evidently unaware it was a case-sensitive UNIX system they were mucking with. Only failing to turn the machines on would be a more boneheaded move.
Still, the timing is odder. One of the contractors says that this "programming error" must have happened some time in August 1996.
And what was going on in August '96?
The Senate Whitewater Committee had recently recommended that Ken Starr bring perjury charges against several White House aides; former Clinton Whitewater business partner Jim McDougal was talking to Starr; the FBI had been caught trying to get an agent to retract the notes he took from a March 1993 background check which said Hillary Clinton had suggested that Filegate fall-guy Craig Livingstone be hired; former travel office head David Watkins had come forward to say that Hillary pressured him to fire seven travel office workers; Susan McDougal was sentenced on four felony counts of fraud; a White House memo had surfaced which said Hillary urged holding back the Vince Foster suicide note from investigators; and there was a presidential election going on, one in which Clinton's lead had shrunk after the Republican convention in San Diego.
Good time for a bug.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/news2-031000.htm http://www.judicialwatch.org/otherserver/lambuth/1lambuth.htm http://cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/03/13/counsel.ap/index.html
In the April issue of Reason, Charles Paul Freund looks at Bill Clinton's real legacy--one of spinning scandals at http://www.reason.com/0004/fe.cf.secrets.html
- - See No Evil, Drink No Evil - -
You might think it was the turn of a different century considering the reaction that greeted Lori Gallagher's consumption of one beer. With that act her high school teaching and coaching career came to an end.
Gallagher, in her early 30s, was suspended from her job as an English teacher and the girls' and boys' swim coach at Greenwood (Indiana) High School for the rest of the school year and will not be re-hired for next year. She also coached the middle school swim team, making her a three-fer in working with kids.
Gallagher's offense was drinking a beer at a team dinner at a local restaurant after a February swim meet.
"It is a tough call to make," said Greenwood Assistant Superintendent David Edds. "But she was a sponsor, the chaperone, and we trusted her."
Trusted her to do what, exactly? Behave like an adult? Responsibly consume one drink with a meal, in a public place licensed to do such things?
The district's school handbook does not specifically ban a teacher from drinking alcohol in the presence of students or team members. It does include a vague prohibition on "improper conduct" with students. And a coach consuming alcohol in the presence of students at a school function is improper, according to Edds.
Incredibly, Edds' view--which makes no distinction between a drink with a meal or hitting a flask during practice--is widely shared.
"We're talking about a lady who is a teacher and a coach," said school board member Len Scotten. "My standpoint is we acted appropriately."
"Clearly, a situation in which alcohol is in the presence of minors is inappropriate," said Dan Clark, deputy executive director of the Indiana State Teachers Association, raising the bar even higher. That suggests merely taking students to a restaurant where alcohol is served is a no-no.
This neo-prohibitionist view is seriously warped and surely does not do the students any good. Instead of seeing adults they know and respect consume alcohol in a sane manner, the message is that alcohol is evil and a sure ticket to ruin. But is this tee-totaling message effective, let alone proper? No, it simply sets up alcohol as an enticing taboo drug, something that has one purpose only: to get drinkers drunk.
Many of the thousands of European exchange students who come to the U.S. each year are always floored by the way Americans treat alcohol. Open and regular moderate consumption isn't part of suburban edu-crat culture. Instead any alcohol consumption is a sign of disease, even moral turpitude, and a sure precursor to traffic fatalities.
In Greenwood, those views have mutated into a bizarre zero-tolerance policy against adult life. Maybe Gallagher should've smoked crack behind the restaurant. At least that vice would've been out of sight and out of some very small minds.
http://www.starnews.com/news/citystate/2000/mar/0309st_coach.html
- - One From A, and One From B - -
The census has already cleared up a big misunderstanding: government bureaucrats will determine your race. That is all.
People who check off more than one racial group on census forms will be assigned to one category for the purpose of monitoring discrimination and enforcing civil rights laws.
And anyone who checks both white and a minority will be counted as a minority when the feds pour over the census data to help enforce the Voting Rights Act, job bias laws, and other racial bean-counting laws.
The Office of Management and Budget says it is fine for government agencies to use census data this way. The problem is that the census form allows 63 possible race categories while schools, employers, and other institutions only can report about a dozen categories. So there will obviously have to be some mix-and-match when is comes time to look for "patterns" of discrimination.
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-03/11/110l-031100-idx.html
QUICK HITS
- - Quote of the Week - -
"This is the craziest thing I've ever heard! The last thing you need in school is more disruptions," Maryland state Sen. Michael J. Collins (D-Baltimore County), on a plan to revamp the state's decade-old ban on cell phones in schools. A leftover from the days when only drug-dealers needed to be wired, the law now cramps the style of suburban teens and their parents who want to be able to stay in touch--and safe.
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-03/09/268l-030900-idx.html
- - Filter Flux - -
Filtering software is under the gun again. This time the target is I-Gear software and what critics say are the thousands of legitimate sites the software blocks. The anti-"censorware" group Peacefire says it found that the software blocked sites written in Latin because of the word "cum."
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,34842-2,00.html
- - Cut It Out - -
It happened again. This time it is a seventh-grader with blunt scissors expelled by officials in Omaha.
http://www.omaha.com/Omaha/OWH/StoryViewer/1,3153,313530,00.html
- - Waco Wake Up - -
A veteran Texas state trooper has come forward to say that as he stood guard outside the still-smoking Mount Carmel site on April 19, 1993, a white cargo van entered the scene and left carrying a body bag. A U-Haul van also left with debris, he said.
http://www.mysa.com/pantheon/homebase/hbm&s/0903bwaco_body_0309nz.shtml
- - Bell Rung - -
The Federal Communications Commission and New York state regulators fined Bell Atlantic $13 million because Bell made it hard for its customers to switch to a competitor.
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-03/10/065l-031000-idx.html
- - Gun Nut - -
Dr. John Lott Jr. is allowed by CBS News to argue against gun control.
http://cbsnews.cbs.com/now/story/0,1597,167661-412,00.shtml
Reason interviewed Dr. Lott at http://www.reason.com/0001/fe.js.cold.html
- - Gene Genie - -
The European Union voted to keep genetically modified crops out of the 15-nation bloc for at least another six months.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,34877,00.html
REASON NEWS
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