The next time your credit card company calls you with a question about a charge on your card, be glad that the bank is looking out for its own interests as well as yours.  Financial companies constantly upgrade systems against identity theft to protect their bottom line.  But executive branch agencies that have your SSN, home address, telephone number, and other personal information have much lower standards, an article in the September 2008 issue of Consumer Reports shows.  Citizens give the government their personal data every day when they apply for mortgages, unemployment insurance, Medicaid, agricultural programs, veteran’s benefits — you name it.  Still, to this day there is no U.S. government-wide policy on protecting citizens’ personal data, and individual agencies often do little to protect your good name.  Consumer Reports quotes one expert who points out that "government agencies are among the worst offenders in weeding out data breaches because they have no financial incentive to look for them."  The incentive of protecting citizens from crime should be enough.  -NH

Century foundation executive and frequent Washington Monthly contributor Greg Anrig argues in the Washington Post’s Sunday outlook section that GOP ideas on government are on the way out. Anrig presents an argument familiar to Understanding Government readers: that Bush administration scandals from FEMA in New Orleans to Justice Dept. hiring are making Americans pine for a government where civil servants are competent and apolitical. The Reagan-Gingrich-Bush era of eviscerating government is effectively over.

We’ll see. The "Reagan revolution" moved the goal posts so far to the right that the mere idea of a Food and Drug Administration that does its job is now a partisan issue. So when 53 percent of the public says they want government to solve more problems, the extent of that unclear. Anrig argues that John McCain’s "message free" campaign that’s seemingly indifferent to government execution will seriously hurt him. But if McCain does become President, the calls for a more energetic government could fall by the wayside.-MB

The Centers for Disease Control announced this week that 56,300 people in the U.S. have AIDS, a significantly higher figure than the 40,000 people previously estimated. The Wall Street Journal’s Marilyn Chase flags that the racial disparity in who gets AIDS is more stark then ever: black people are 7 times more at risk than white people.

Can the federal government do something about this? Well, liberal House member Henry A. Waxman (D-Ca.) used the report to point out that CDC is getting 19 percent less funding since 2002. Also, it may be another sign that the Bush administration’s domestic and international emphasis on abstinence-only education is unworkable policy.-MB

The New York Times’ Shaila Dewan chronicles the problems faced by three Hurricane Katrina victims who are slowly getting off FEMA assistance. The Times discusses how many poor, former residents of New Orleans are in limbo, as they’ve left a FEMA trailer park but still require aid from FEMA or the state of Louisiana or city of New Orleans.

All of which raises the question of how much FEMA is responsible for displaced New Orleans residents. They messed up both the recovery and rebuilding, but maybe it’s up to other federal and local agencies to assist in housing and employment.-MB