THIS IS A GRACIOUS EXIT?

During Bush's last days, there has been no shortage of compliments on how graciously he handled the transition. To be sure, he was polite, cordial, and maintained the expected decorum. Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute said in the New York Times that Bush's "Gentlemanly Goodbye" earns him "a big gold star for the way he is leaving his office."

The Bushes offered up a formal White House tour for the Obamas that even featured an opportunity for Malia and Sasha to jump on the White House beds. Too bad, though, that the Bush graciousness didn't extend to accommodating the Obama family's request to move into Blair House, the official guest residence, in time for the girls' first day of school. It was apparently more important that John Howard, former Prime Minister of Australia, have the full run of the 14 guest bedrooms, eight staff bedrooms, 35 bathrooms, four dining rooms, kitchen facilities, laundry and dry cleaning facilities, exercise room, flower shop, and fully equipped hair salon for his single night stay.

High fives though for the Bush people's efforts to set up a formal transition council, and for helping to expedite security checks for the Obama nominees. Make a few formal gestures, and everyone glazes over with warmth at the graciousness of the departure.

But in giving Bush his transition score card, how can we focus on the menial cordialities, while completely ignoring his utter abandonment of his duties to the country during the gravest economic disaster in all of our lifetimes? Instead of making even the most rudimentary attempts to lead our country, to calm the market jitters, or to convene insightful economic advisers, Bush was either sitting with friendly interviewers making his public relations case to outline his successes to the cameras, or traveling abroad (and dodging flying shoes) in an attempt to wallpaper over the deep fault lines in our foreign relations.

But Bush can't be accused of failing to govern these last few months -- to the contrary, Bush has been extremely busy laying hundreds of regulatory land mines in the form of last minute regulations to booby trap the incoming administration, and create far reaching damage long after Bush is history.

It will take months to uncover the extent of the fallout from Bush's de facto laws resulting from these rule changes. The outgoing administration ramped up their efforts beginning last May to pull together this package of executive branch legislation in order to have it in place by November 1, 2008 - the last date to ensure they cannot be easily reversed by the incoming administration. Obama has devoted a number of full time staff who have worked for months culling through the mess. Here's a sampling of Bush's bighearted exit activities, otherwise known as "midnight regulations":

• health care providers may deny treatment, including contraception, to anyone for moral or religious reasons;



• the Endangered Species Act will no longer require scientists to assess impact on species before permitting logging, mining, drilling, or building roads;



• limitations on truckers' driving hours will be lifted to permit up to 11 hours of driving per day;



• loaded firearms will be allowed in National Parks;



• changes in Family & Medical Leave Act will make taking leave more difficult;



• millions of acres of wild lands will be opened up to mining activities and miners' royalty obligations slashed;



• coal miners may dump waste from mountaintops into neighboring streams and valleys;



• air pollution standards near National Parks will be relaxed (despite dissent from 9 of 10 EPA regional administrators);



• uranium mining will be permitted near the Grand Canyon;



• restrictions will be lifted allowing factory farms to permit animal waste seepage into water;



• 100 major polluters exempted from monitoring lead emissions;

There are many dozens more.

Bush has been extremely industrious these last few months. In our direct line of vision, but completely outside of our reach, democracy has been sidelined while the Bush Administration has been enacting hundreds of politically controversial last minute regulations -- the kind that will have the new administration devoting hundreds of hours attempting to defuse, reverse or neutralize. Notwithstanding our remonstrations, and despite the profound impact sure to be created by many of these controversial regulations, we will be sentenced to accept the long term fallout from Bush's gracious goodbye.

cartoon printed with permission Stephff

GOOGLE THIS


As a Google devotee, I embrace the Googlization of Everything. I can remember, barely, life before Google, but I could never go back. Google Search, Gmail, Google Desktop, Google Maps, Google Earth -- these applications have changed the world, including my own, profoundly. The Google feature on my phone is like a spouse of 60 years -- helping me finish all my incomplete thoughts. Just as my grandmother drove us crazy relying on my grandfather for the other half of every thought, I infuriate my family with frequent fact checks during practically every conversation. I voted (but was voted down) to name our last puppy "Google."And I have been known to give Google-logo'd gifts to my favorite relatives.

Despite my unabashed devotion to my Google lifestyle, it's appropriate to harbor some conflicting emotions. Google, the brainchild of Larry Page, with Sergey Brin, originally became the master of the search engines by its unprecedented success at sorting through publicly available internet-based information. Few dictionaries lack entries for the verb "Google" which has come to mean internet based searching. Google has increasingly toiled to maintain its edge by expanding into ever more private information. A well informed Google user should think about a few things, even if you stay on with the Google Team.

Google permanently tracks and logs all of your search habits and your web surfing activity. It logs every one of the navigational clicks of all of its users of every one of its services, keeping track of every website visited as a result of a Google search. While it may not link it to your name in order to associate it with your personal data, the information is recorded, stored, and permanently accessible. This means that your medical searches, job searches, purchases, ads clicked, youtube videos viewed, and other potentially embarassing clicks or searches remain stored in the great Google database.

Do you use "autofill" to fill in online forms? Google Finance? Make purchases on Google Checkout? This information is stored on Google servers.

Gmail? Google permanently archives all email, G-chat conversations, and stores all Contact information.

Google Desktop? Google indexes and stores all versions of all files, including emails.

While you may not mind that Google is developing detailed profiles of its users using these data mining techniques, you might mind if a nefarious federal government were to issue subpoenas which ordered this information turned over. When Bush's Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez ordered this very information turned over, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL silently turned it over without a fight.. Thankfully, Google fought the Department of Justice and won (to a large extent) to protect searchers' privacy.

Have you ever authored a book? Google has made great strides in its attempts to scan every book ever published -- including yours. The goal is a worthy one - once scanned the full text of millions of works, many housed only in university libraries, can be searched, much like a website is searched, exponentially increasing the public's access to millions of works. In exchange for their agreement to participate, university libraries (the University of Michigan was the original partner in the project) are provided with a scanned copy of each work for preservation. The work involved in the hand-scanning of each book is enormous, and estimated to take many years at each participating university. As library shelves have been culled for purposes of scanning, a number of treasures have been discovered, such as "The Private Correspondence of Benjamin Franklin."

What are the possible legal issues? As it applies to public domain works (expired copyright), this is a no-brainer-- there is no limit on copying. But how does the scanning project affect copyrighted works (like yours?). Because only snippets of copyrighted works are made available, it is likely that the use is consistent with the principles of fair use. But what about the full electronic version Google keeps once the work is scanned? This was one of many questions which became the subject of litigation resulting from the project, which recently settled (still awaiting court approval, expected in late '09).

Under the terms of the settlement, Google will pay $125 million to authors and publishers (the plaintiffs in the lawsuit) for the project, which is estimated to cost Google about $800 million. Unless authors specifically opt out, books that are out-of-print but still subject to copyright will be available at no charge to "preview" (a few pages), and will be available in full for a fee. In-print books require the copyright holders to "opt in" in order for search access to be made available.

Google gets the lion's share of the ad revenue and associated income from searches. But perhaps more important will be Google's right to keep each electronic copy -- think in terms of data mining. Google will be able to exponentially enhance translations, studies of speech patterns, voice recognition. We can't even imagine all of the uses Google engineers will think of.

Google's notoriety spans beyond internet innovation, and in many ways has earned Google the reputation of a good citizen of the world, notwithstanding its reputation as a privacy buster. As an employer of more than ten thousand employees, it is not insignificant that Google is regularly ranked as a Best Employer, with free meals, swimming spa, and free doctors onsite. At "Googleplex," Google's Silicon Valley headquarters, the company is decidedly "green," with PVC-free carpet and sofas, paints free of volatile organic compounds, and a commitment to buy local cafeteria food. The campus is powered, as well, by the largest commercial solar facility in the US.

Next time you casually run a search on your phone's browser, or peruse your niece's latest baby photos on Picasa, you should give a split second's thought to the Google Power at your fingertips, and at Google's.


Update: Google co-founder and University of Michigan alumnus Larry Page will deliver the spring 2009 commencement address at the University of Michigan.