Also on today’s menu:
Constitutional Drafting Project Brings Together Ideologies
CISA As Stand-Alone Agency?
Reaction To Russian Mobilization
Jason Gerhard, a Republican candidate for state representative from Northfield, was among the residents who confronted the Winnisquam Regional School Board on September 19 about its decision to take no action on an offer by a charter school to purchase the closed Union-Sanborn Elementary School.
Board Chair Sean Goodwin issued the statement, “Union-Sanborn School remains on the market, and there is no further information to report at this time” — a sentence he repeated several times during the evening, saying, “That is where we are.”
“So if you address the issue of some bid that did or didn’t occur, it’s gonna deter other people from putting bids on it?” Gerhard asked. “I’m just getting this blank stare. Everybody’s here for answers. ... It’s public comment, but no reaction. We’re just going to do this whole miming thing? ... Can anyone else talk, or is this kind of like your kneecaps get broken or something?”
Also chastising the board was Senator Bob Giuda (R-Wentworth), who said, “This is not your school; this is their school. You are charged to be the responsible stewards of it, and by violating the state law … your stonewalling now puts you in violation of [RSA] 91-A, as stated in the law. … Tabling that proposal is not negotiating in good faith and you’re facing legal consequences for that.”
Board member Mary Steady later explained the board’s position. “I think somebody used the word ‘stonewall’ and I felt like that’s not actually the position I’m in right now. I’m trying to listen and take that information and give the best possible feedback ... but I don’t think it came across that way. I felt for the public that came here, and then we gave a standard answer which is what we probably legally are able to provide at this time, but it didn’t come across that we were listening.”
Constitutional Drafting Project Brings Together Ideologies
Jamal Greene, author of “How Rights Went Wrong: Why Our Obsession With Rights Is Tearing America Apart,” spoke with the Christian Science Monitor about the Constitution Drafting Project undertaken by the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The project brought together people from different ideological orientations to come up with sensible revisions to the U.S. Constitution.
The project set up three teams — a progressive team, a libertarian team, and a conservative team (Professor Greene was part of the progressive team) — each working independently to draft their own constitutions, then coming together to see where they agree and to draft language that all three of the teams could accept. They agreed that aspects of the Constitution need revision, and agreed on five amendments: That naturalized citizens should be able to be president, at least if they have lived in the country for a certain length of time; that there should be a legislative veto that allows the legislature to override an agency regulation without necessarily getting the approval of the president; that the thresholds for an impeachment conviction should change from a simple majority in the House and two-thirds in the Senate to three-fifths for both bodies; imposing 18-year term limits on the Supreme Court with two justices appointed for every presidential term; and changing amendment procedures in the Constitution so, instead of requiring a two-thirds vote of both houses and three-quarters of the state legislatures, it would require a three-fifths vote in both houses and two-thirds of the states, with the possibility of either two-thirds of the states, or states representing three-quarters of the population.
Greene said of the project, “I … think that if we are going to revise the document, it needs to be in a way that takes into account the views and commitments of a broad range of people. And it’s also important to show that it’s possible for people who have different views and attitudes and commitments to compromise, to negotiate, and not just yell at each other on social media or cable news. I think this is a good kind of object lesson in how one can actually come to agreement on things that we all can believe in, even if we start from different points.”
CISA As Stand-Alone Agency?
Chris Krebs, the former chief of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, proposed the department’s role be elevated into an independent “US digital agency,” or at least liberate it from its status as an operational component under the Department of Homeland Security. Krebs suggested CISA could be spun out of DHS to make cybersecurity “apolitical, non-political, bipartisan, and nonpartisan.” Instead of organizations going to “five or six different agencies” for their security issues, he said, there should be “a front door that is clearly visible. And as I see it, that’s CISA.”
Jonathan Reiber, vice-president for cybersecurity strategy and policy at AttackIQ, said a CISA spinoff could run into major logistical hurdles. DHS currently provides personnel management capability which CISA might have to contract out, and the director of CISA might spend most of the time managing the transition, Reiber said.
Bryan Ware, chief executive officer of LookingGlass and a former CISA assistant director, said CISA’s relative newness as a federal agency needs to be considered when deciding how to move forward. He would prefer that the National Cyber Director be pulled out of the White House, that the positions of director of CISA and the NCD be merged, and that the United States “commit to having a well-resourced, powerful, front door for private sector and international partners, and an operationally strong CISA that can coordinate and integrate USG efforts.”
Reaction To Russian Mobilization
Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the state-owned broadcaster RT — who as a high school student had participated in an exchange to Newfound Regional High School in Bristol, New Hampshire — reacted to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a partial military mobilization in Russia’s war in Ukraine by saying, “Judging by what is happening and what is about to happen, this week marks either the threshold of our imminent victory or the threshold of a nuclear war. I can’t see any third option.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he did not believe the world would allow Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons and pledged to press on with liberating Ukrainian territory captured by Russian forces. NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called Putin’s military mobilization “dangerous and reckless” nuclear rhetoric and said NATO will make sure there is no misunderstanding in Moscow about the seriousness of using nuclear weapons.
British foreign office minister Gillian Keegan said, “Clearly, it’s something that we should take very seriously because, you know, we’re not in control — I am not sure he’s in control either, really. This is obviously an escalation.”
John Kirby, spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council, agreed, saying, “It’s irresponsible rhetoric for a nuclear power to talk that way. But it’s not atypical for how he’s been talking the last seven months and we take it very seriously.”
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