Entropy: score 1, Order: score 1

Today's tally:
Blackberry bushes (Himalayan, though they are omnipresent in Oregon, they are -invasive- hence unnatural and crowd out other native plants) - carefully trimmed back from the fence, from the street, from civilized sidewalks. Score 1 for order in the universe.

Along to upset the careful civilized order comes a McDonald's fry package (wrapper?), nestling in, to say, hey, I can take over. Score 1 for entropy in the universe.

Did you read the 9/11 Commission report? I did (well, mostly, especially the recommendations section). Connect the dots. I was hoping against hope that some federal agency would think I was a worthy new public administration graduate. Little did I know that there really aren't many federal agencies in Portland, and here I am.

At the time the 9/11 report was penned, there were 88 federal agencies responsible for various aspects of "intelligence". All gathered together to report to a new figurehead - the Director of National Intelligence. Or DNI (and I don't mean NPCs, though it sounds a little the same..) Now it turns out there are over 100 separate agencies! Intelligence appears to have been a growth industry since 9/11.

But we knew that. Bush played every Maslow's heirarchy "security" card in the book, and then some. Fear mongering was politically popular in the Bush era. Follow the money, my friend said, and it is amazing how this applies to so many situations. So it is no surprise that money was poured into intelligence.

I wonder if the Mythical Man Month applies here - the more people you throw at a project, the more interconnected lines of communication you create. Till you have a web of people who have to continue to communicate with each other instead of keeping their eyes on the terrorists in foreign countries that wish us ill.

Mirrored apparently to this multitude of intelligence agencies is the appropriations process. Now, if you watch cspan (no wonder I feel low-energy today, I have not have a dose of cspan in several days now, like someone who's been hiking in the desert, no water... Rachel Maddow will have to do) you will see that the Appropriations process really doesn't ever end in an actual appropriation. Its like a tangent line, you can never get there.

They debate and grandstand in Congress, but don't actually pass actual budgets. So then this is left to the Appropriations committees to do in quiet secret places. Voila, more money (probably even voted in by those Republicans who scream we need to get our fiscal house in order - well I guess they are thinking about tomorrow, not today when it comes to their favorite cause, and maybe even directly benefits their constituents).

Someone should get out the loppers and hack, like those invasive blackberries, those invasive extraneous intelligence committees. Somehow it seems easier with blackberries, for a moment in any case you have wiped them out of a little corner of the universe. But even to get to that state its not really "easy", it takes man vs. blackberry rage. So who will lead the charge to consolidate intelligence agencies?

postscript:
dear Little Theorem - have you read any books on NSA as yet?