A Stitch in Haste

So Hillary Clinton wants to create a "privacy czar" to protect our privacy rights.

A few hasty stitches.

--Most of her proposals as they apply to credit reports already exist. Those that don't -- requiring free annual credit reports and creating a "credit freeze" option -- are: (a) costly, (b) apparently not now in sufficient demand for the market to generate them, and (c) not sufficiently sweeping to warrant the label "major policy proposal" one way or the other.

--Senator Clinton, a former trial lawyer, wants to make it clear that people, with help from trial lawyers, have a right to sue -- well, everyone -- if their information is stolen or abused. Go figure.

--Senator Clinton's "privacy bill of rights" does not assert that spying on American citizens on American soil without a warrant is in any way improper. In fact, it says nothing about the NSA, warrantless wiretapping or data-mining of phone recordsat all. Go figure.

--Her "privacy czar" would be part of the Office of Management and Budget. Does anyone seriously believe for a moment that either the National Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security or the Department of Defense is going to give any kind of a damn about what a paper-pusher at OMB thinks about, well, anything?

--Did creating a "drug czar" in any way help combat the War on Drugs? Or how about the "AIDS czar"? Can you even name our "drug czar" or "AIDS czar"?

--Senator Clinton wants to guarantee our medical privacy rights. Like the right of same-sex couples to be married so as to ensure their ability to make major medical decisions for each other without the legal complexities of living wills and powers of attorney? No? Go figure.

There's a word for people like Hillary Clinton:

Politician.