I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
Civil servants rock! First!
Only allowed to happen because the mass media are so pathetic.
It should be noted that the most indicted and convicted administration was Reagan's. You know. Mr. "Let's restore dignity to the White House." Of course, most didn't serve their time, and now under Bush the Second, many of them have spots in the administration again. Why are Republicans soft on crime?
Yes, yes and yes.
How many of you have ever seen the BBC series 'Yes Minister' or 'Yes Prime Minister'(the sequel)?
That's apparently a very good primer on the necessities and pitfalls of the whole UK civil service culture.
That begs the larger question... how does partisanship ratchet down? Imagine, for most readers of this site, a republican you could trust. Not agree with, but trust, like McCain. That would go a long way toward calming things down on our side, correct?
Look at the way the hard right treated him. I once asked a far right coworker why she was so vicious toward McCain after I heard her repeating a Limbaugh lie about him being some kind of Manchurian Candidate... and I thought she was gonig to spit in my face. "Because he's a goddamned liberal!" she sputtered.
So what would it take for her, and people like her, to quit rewarding the scorched-Earth crowd like Bush DeLay, and Fox News? Another Watergate? No way... it's payback for Watergate that made people like Atwater throw out the rulebooks. A schism between the theocrats and the libertarians? Between the fiscal conservatives and the neocons?
Shorter Jack Balkin:
This administration is staffed by lying fascist hacks.
Isn't that one of the theories as to why we found no WMDs?
That Saddam's minions were giving him information they thought he wanted to hear, not what was true...
"Instant karma's gonna get chu,
gonna knock you right off your feet!"
And I don't mean to suggest that the vicious radicalism is only on the right... most far left friends of mine are far more hateful and angry towards the moderates in the Democratic party than they are towards Bush. They're like the People's Front of Judea fighting the Judean People's front.
Bring back Chester A. Arthur!
Suskinds book "the Price of Loyalty" seems to posit the same basic theme.
Yeah, but if you want to join the PFJ you've got to really hate the Romans.
Bush's union busting against civil servants is just a tactic to bring back a spoils system in government. Instead of a well-educated, knowledgeable, unbiased workforce, you're going to have electeds and political appointees engaging in cronyism and favoritism to hand out plum assignments and contracts. There will be no "civil service", because agency employees will begin serving the political interests of the people currently in power. Don't expect government employees to "work for you", because I guarantee, they won't.
It's going to be Tammany Hall all over again, which shouldn't be surprising given Busco's desire to revert back to 19th century laws and practices when there was a Gilded Age of robber barrons, no middle class, and no worker or safety laws, and no civil rights.
The Kerry team played the counter-attack ad perfectly.
They asked "why is a sitting president putting out negative ads?"
Of course it's because george has NO positive ads to run since he HAS NO POSITIVE RECORD to run on!
"Uhh, I invaded and occupied 2 countries in failed wars, ehh, uhh, I helped tax cuts get passed which pushed unemployment up. uhh...Got gay marriage out there. Uhhh."
Absoulutely beautiful. Now everytime george runs a negative ad they can ask "why is a sitting president running negative ads? Shouldnt he run positive ads?
And yet he runs "positive" ads, that expose his record even more.
Beautiful.
Animal. Angry. Cornered.
I spoke yesterday with one of my colleagues who provides research services to the EPA, CDC, and other governmental organizations, who are long-time customers of his organization. He's running into the very frustrating problem of projects that have been agreed to, budgeted, and approved orally simply not going forward because the paperwork to start them never gets signed.
The staffers responsible for the projects in these organizations are also frustrated. What they're telling him is that the political appointees who have to sign off are just letting paperwork sit on their desks forever. This isn't just his research projects, but many, many things that the agencies are supposed to be doing. The staffers have expressed to him that the people in charge don't even believe in the mission of the agency, so simply not processing the paper to get it done is a convenient way of gutting it, without ever having to go on record as having taken any action against it.
The other frequent comment he told me was that people (civil servants, not poitical level) who were experienced and knowledgeable in their jobs are being forced out in various ways or are leaving in frustration, and the replacements have no experience, no knowledge, but only have the "correct" ideology -- and know someone in power who greased the way. It's creating a cancer in governmental organizations that will outlive the current administration.
One of the most interesting things is that this guy was a Bush supporter, who's seeing close-up the horrendous damage that their ideological cronyism is doing, and he is horrified. Needless to say, he is no longer a Bush supporter.
"And yet he runs "positive" ads, that expose his record even more.
Beautiful.
Animal. Angry. Cornered."
Jack
And that's exactly when they are most dangerous. I don't know what kind of crazy crap Bushco has planned during the campaign. With what a President Kerry could expose about the corruption and lying of *both* Bushes, especially the unprecedented power abuses committed by W's administration, you can bet Karl isn't going to go out like a gentleman.
Let's just be sure that we clean house before going soft. The failure to take action against these crooks the first time, (Iran-Contra,etc.), enabled them to bring the whole wretched crew back.
It isn't going to be easy with a Republican Congress.
Balkin is describing, unknowingly, perhaps, the population of the Coalition Provisional Authority, as noted by Josh Marshall and his colleagues in Washington Monthly. They're all about a second Bush term, putting in time in Baghdad in hopes of a stateside political posting, later. It's become an arm of Bush Cheney 04.
Operation Rolling Plunder, International Division
It's only partisan when Democrats do it. The GOP is only protecting America from terrorists, queers, taxes, and other evil things. We need more Republican appointees. Remember, a vote for Kerry is a vote for Hitler.
As Big-Time Dick so memorably put it: "It's our due." Expertise be damned! Craven compliance is the order of the day.
Sebastian Cat - that's why we need to concentrate on getting the message out to voters that it's not just President Bush that is the problem; it's the entire party that has drifted way too far to the right. We need to make sure that they know that most of the awful things Bush has done could not have been done without a compliant GOP Congress. And we need to financially support Democratic House and Senate candidates.
For another take on how the policy making process has been corrupted, check out Karen Kwiatkowski's piece at Salon - particularly the last page. As she notes, Bush has appointed this toothless tiger of a commission to look into "intelligence failures" and has not only set it up to report after the election, but has also specifically exempted the Office of Special Plans - those very political appointees who corrupted the intelligence process - from its purview.
It's 1930's nazi germany all over (from the political perspective anyway) It's all, from the republican point of view, for the good of the party first, the good of the individual second and the good of the country third.
The bright side, if there is one, is that this administration's manipulation of policy by putting only unqualified political appointees in top positions has rendered it tone-deaf to the reality of the economic situation and many, many other things. Which is why we're seeing so many gaffes from them - they aren't getting accurate or reliable information, because they appointed people who they were sure wouldn't supply it, and everything gets "filtered" through those appointees. Which results in them making stupid comments which any non-Kool Aid drinker can see right through and convinces ever more voters that they are unfit to lead.
"Mismanaged information practices?" Is that the polite way of saying "Firing the ass of anyone who brings news that Bush does not want to hear"??
Don't forget about the large number of contract employees of the federal government, especially at national labs. They are even more "pure" from politics, yet more savaged by the ridiculous politicization of their work.
This is exactly right:
"Bush's union busting against civil servants is just a tactic to bring back a spoils system in government. Instead of a well-educated, knowledgeable, unbiased workforce, you're going to have electeds and political appointees engaging in cronyism and favoritism to hand out plum assignments and contracts. There will be no "civil service", because agency employees will begin serving the political interests of the people currently in power. Don't expect government employees to "work for you", because I guarantee, they won't. "
This is a recipe for total governmental corruption. What a legacy these assholes have created.
Poisoning the "civil service" well has been a legacy project by Greedy One Percenters since the 1960s. The fact that its pinnacle is being realized by such an obviously corrupt political machine--BushCo--only reiterates its essentially rotten, antisocial ideology.
On the bright side . . . not to get all "critical theory" on everyone, but I've got a lot of colleagues who are talking about a future of more "communnitarian" thinking--inherently anti-individualist--which has the added attractiveness of encouraging interdependence in a world that many conservative people (the current Rethug Kool-Aid crowd) feel is unsociable. It also is a way of thinking that sees good government as essential, and makes a huge amount of common sense.
Chimpy and his ilk get lanced in November, and then the rest of us can bury this sad chapter in the dark recesses of history where it belongs and get on with human progress.
once kerry out-boxes bush all the way to election time
(hey! rope-a-dope!)
it seems wise to appoint moderate repubs to positons of power, both to reward them for being sane in the face of their compatriots (i use the term loosely) and to show the nation we are not going to promote partisanship in order to maintain power at all costs.
this will help win seats back in the congress.
liars. crooks. sociopaths.
BushCo is getting more and more brazen and so more and more obvious to more and more people. Plus, their supporters are getting more and more shrill. If Kerry---and all of us---remain calm and slowly but surely, week after week, explain plainly what is going on, the systemic corruption of our government, we will win in November. Just Rex: I agree. Most of the Republicans I've known all my life are actually fairly reasonable people who have essentially the same goals we have, they just have different ideas on how to reach those goals. They don't, generally, put the Party first. They honestly do put the country first.
Just saw a Kool-Aid drinker on Fox news that said that the rich didn't really receive much of a tax cut, that they really pay the
AMT. If there was no tax cut, then why are they fighting like rabid dogs to make it permanent???
kerry is gonna spend a lot of time eradicating 'linda tripps' this ime.
clinton's administration may have been investgated to death, but there sure wasn't many convictions.
Whatever you say about the culture behind the classic British comedy 'Yes, Minister', the fact that civil servants prepare the portfolios for incoming politicos after a new election in the UK means that we don't end up with as many egregious fuck-ups as in the US, where political appointees come in and intimidate the career civil service.
Blair, as has been typical, has tried to change this, often with severely messy effects, but it's a temporary blip. Sir Humphrey usually knows best.
Now, if only the administration wasn't doing all of this on purpose.
The administration is intentionally dismantling the institutional memory of every department of government while that asshole Tom Delay does the same thing to house procedures. They haven't yet been able to get away with this in the senate, but Frist is sure trying.
We need to wake up and realize that the Bush administration and their ilk are a fifth column, plain and simple.
I was just complaining about this to my fiance yesterday. Any country can't function well with a partisan civil service, since 95% of what the government does is strictly "gears and cogs" kind of stuff to keep the country operating, which is miles and acres different from the usual party-partisan stuff, or at least should be.
pansypoo - correction, there weren't any convictions for malfeasance in office. The only Clinton appointee convicted for anything was Webb Hubbell, and that was for events that took place when he was at the Rose Law Firm. I may be forgetting one - the Hispanic appointee who had the mistress - can't remember the name - was he prosecuted and convicted? Even if he was, none of the convictions had anything to do with mucking up government policy.
Compare and contrast that with the number of convictions of Reagan appointees, who absolutely were involved with mucking up government policy, to the point of treason, and the difference becomes quite clear. Democrats are hounded for "private" crimes unconnected to their public service, while Republicans commit crimes that do great harm to the public interest, get prosecuted and convicted, and then re-appointed by subsequent Republican administrations.
Bring back Chester A. Arthur!
blake
-----------------------------------
Wouldn't he be pretty moldy by now? Besides, with all the skeletons already escaping Bush's closet and marching around, Chester isn't needed.
Did he bother to cast any votes in his "return" to the Senate. It's not like he's done a bunch of that lately =D
Did he bother to cast any votes in his "return" to the Senate. It's not like he's done a bunch of that lately =D
Yeah, it was great for Bush that GubTex is such a low-overhead job: all he needed to do during the campaign was return to Austin and sign off on executing a few dozen people.
Smarter trolls, please.
=D
Attila the Neocon
do you put that in there so we'll know you're a dick?
=D
Attila the Neocon
do you put that in there so we'll know you're a dick?
preznit giv me turkee
Not that it was necessary. We already knew.
On topic, hopefully Kerry can appoint people who are actually qualified for their appointments. What a concept, eh?
In addition to the political appointees, there are lots of koolaid drinkers among contractors, esp whose big clients are DoD. I worked at Booz Allen Hamilton for a few years (in their environmental practice) and there are lots of true believers hooked up to the big money pipeline. The even hired that piece of shit jim woolsey, in their national security business to market "antiterror" services like Total Information Awareness, for which they were the biggest contractor.
Glad I don't work there anymore, it was the most venal, disfunctional place I ever worked.
In 2002, I joined this administration for one of those two-year internship assignments. The office I joined was a policy shop with around 45 people, with at least 30 of them at the analyst level (GS 11-15). They have had nearly complete turnover of all the analysts within the last three years.
Says alot, doesn't it.
I plan to stay here at least through November to see what happens.
For my career's sake, everyone keep up the good work.
--locus
In 2002, I joined this administration for one of those two-year internship assignments. The office I joined was a policy shop with around 45 people, with at least 30 of them at the analyst level (GS 11-15). They have had nearly complete turnover of all the analysts within the last three years.
Says alot, doesn't it.
I plan to stay here at least through November to see what happens.
For my career's sake, everyone keep up the good work.
--locus
Sorry for the double
The important thing about bureaucrats (and other career professionals, like military) is that they have their professional reputations to consider. Do you think for a moment that the Bush administration would not have "found" WMDs in Iraq were it not for the presence of professionals on the ground? (They would just have trucked them in.)
Connect these dots ...
Pat Robertson
Regent University
Robertson School of Government
Kay Coles James
Former Dean, now Director
US Office of Personnel Management
Ideal institutional structure does not guarantee good government. Corruption is not just a political condition. It is human. Integrity insures, and democracy empowers it.
locus, bless you. Thanks for the info. Hang in there, we need good people like you.
The center does not hold.
Somebody had to say it.
So, how much does it take to convince the average, non-political American that our government has been turned into a carny sideshow, and that what the barker outside the tent promises and what you'll get inside it are totally different things?
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