I'll be in L.A. Wednesday to attend Reason magazine's 35th anniversary party. It's difficult for me to believe that I worked at Reason for more than one-fourth of its existence. It'll be a fine time.
Earlier that day, I'll be covering a Reason Public Policy Institute conference on education reform, organized by my friend Lisa Snell, who worked for me in Washington, D.C., as a summer intern a few years ago before getting hired full-time by Reason. Now she does a great job directing education studies for RPPI. Check out Lisa's blog.
No chance for abuse?
Debates have raged in blogdom and elsewhere over the USA Patriot Act -- whether it's a legitimate extension of federal power in the wake of the 9/11 attacks or an invitation to abuse our constitutional rights. Consider me clearly in the latter camp. Today's Review-Journal reported that the Las Vegas FBI used an obscure provision of the act to collect financial info on the targets of its political corruption probe. To be sure, some of the players here are bad guys. But nobody's claiming the Galardi strip club owners -- or the current and former elected officials under investigation -- are members of al-Qaida or any other terrorist group, for that matter. All of which makes the success of the broad coalition of lawmakers and activists set on rolling back some of the most egregious portions of the Patriot Act essential.
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