Supporting The Troops

Half-assed and lame-brained. Washington Post (02.09.08), via Crooks and Liars:

"President Bush drew great applause during his State of the Union address last month when he called on Congress to allow U.S. troops to transfer their unused education benefits to family members. 'Our military families serve our nation, they inspire our nation, and tonight our nation honors them,' he said.

A week later, however, when Bush submitted his $3.1 trillion federal budget to Congress, he included no funding for such an initiative, which government analysts calculate could cost $1 billion to $2 billion annually.

No Funds in Bush Budget For Troop-Benefits Plan

But, but, but. "Bush's proposal was added to the speech late in the process, administration officials said, after the president decided that he wanted to announce a program that would favor military families. That left little time to vet the idea, develop formal cost estimates or gauge how many people might take advantage of such a program. Some administration officials said the proposal surprised them, and they voiced concerns about how to fund it."

Perfesser Orzel, on last year's State of the Union (02.01.06):

"The main reason why I didn't watch the speech to hear what Bush would say about science policy is that it doesn't matter what he says. This administration doesn't do policy, they do politics.

If Bush says something in a speech, it's because they think it will sound good in a speech, period. That doesn't mean there's a concrete proposal in the works-- if the line in he speech is poorly received, odds are it will disappear without a trace."

Show Me the Pony

Some things just never change, do it.

Shhh!!

It's a secret. Or at least it was. The Mayberry Machiavellis strike again. Washington Post (10.09.07):

"A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition.

It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release.

Leak Severed a Link to Al-Qaeda's Secrets

"Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide."

"The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group, says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group's communications network."

Nice work, boys. All politics, all the time.

Guess we can add another fuck-up to the list.

Party Down

The Republican party that is. No experience required. LATimes (05.26.07):

"Over the last two years, U.S. Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales has appointed more than two dozen individuals as federal immigration judges.

The new jurists include a former treasurer of the Louisiana Republican Party, who was a legal advisor to the Bush Florida recount team after the 2000 presidential election. There is also a former GOP congressional aide who had tracked voter fraud issues for the Justice Department, and a Texan appointed by then-Gov. George W. Bush to a seat on the state library commission."

Immigration judges lack apt backgrounds

"One thing missing on many of their resumes: a background in immigration law."

"These lawyers are among a growing number of the nation's more than 200 immigration judges who have little or no experience in the law they were appointed to enforce."

"The admission by former Justice Department official Monica M. Goodling this week that federal immigration judges were screened for their political credentials and loyalty to the Republican Party in possible violation of civil service laws is drawing new attention to the usually low-profile immigration bench."

"'In the last few years, we have seen the appointment of a good number of immigration judges with no background whatsoever in immigration … which really makes you wonder how it is they are being appointed to those positions,' said Crystal Williams, deputy director of programs at the American Immigration Lawyers Assn. in Washington."

"In light of Goodling's testimony, Williams said, 'I think we might have an answer.'"

More Of The Same

All politics, all the time. What we hear. McClatchy (08.25.06):

"The president returns to the Gulf Coast on Monday to mark the first anniversary of the Category 3 storm, which killed 1,695 people, displaced 770,000 others and caused at least $96 billion in damage to homes, businesses and government property there.

In Gulfport and Biloxi, Miss., and in New Orleans, Bush will tout the progress his administration has made in a year toward getting the region back on its feet, and he'll emphasize that the road to total recovery is a marathon - not a sprint - that will take years to complete."

Bush has fallen short in steering recovery, experts say

What we get. "But a look back at the Jackson Square speech shows that Bush stumbled from the starting blocks in trying to make good on the ambitious recovery goals he set, according to academics, authors, hurricane experts, civil rights leaders and others monitoring post-Katrina rebuilding efforts."

"From his commitment to make New Orleans' damaged levee system 'stronger than it has ever been' to his vow to address the 'deep, persistent poverty' with 'roots in a history of racial discrimination' that Katrina exposed, Bush has come up short, they say."

"'It sounded like the Bush administration was going to engage in a grand historical moment, a Marshall Plan for the deep South,' said Douglas Brinkley, a Tulane University history professor and author of 'The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.'"

"'Instead, they're doing just enough to be credible,' Brinkley said. 'It hasn't been written off by the administration - federal money has come in. It's just been de-prioritized behind the war on terror and the trillion-dollar debt.'"

AP (08.25.06):

"First came the floodwaters, then the paperwork. Billions of promised federal dollars to fix New Orleans' crumbling infrastructure have gone largely untapped a year after Hurricane Katrina.

City officials complain that a snarl of red tape, restrictions and unexpectedly high costs have kept hundreds of public buildings in disrepair, streets pocked with potholes and most parks too dirty for children to play.

New Orleans Awaits Billions in Fed Aid

"So far, the city has collected only $117 million to start the repair work in what has been billed as the largest urban restoration in U.S. history."

Then again, how well you're doing seems to depend quite a bit on who you are. AP (08.25.06):

"The government awarded 70 percent of its contracts for Hurricane Katrina work without full competition, wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in the process, says a House study released yesterday by Democrats.

The report, a comprehensive overview of government audits on Katrina contracting, found that out of $10.6 billion in contracts awarded after the storm last year, more than $7.4 billion were handed out with limited or no competitive bidding."

Katrina contracts wasted money, House report says

"In addition, 19 contracts worth $8.75 billion were found to have wasted taxpayer money at least in part, costing hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the report."

"'The blatant fraud, the audacity of the schemes, the scale of the waste — it is just breathtaking,' said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee."

Should have had Hezbollah handle the reconstruction.

For once George, for old time's sake, spare us the smiley-faced public relations. Just show us the fucking pony.

All Politics; No Policy

Solemn duty indeed. Washington Post (07.20.06):

"Poverty forced its way to the top of President Bush's agenda in the confusing days after Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast and flooded New Orleans. Confronted with one of the most pressing political crises of his presidency, Bush, who in the past had faced withering criticism for speaking little about the poor, said the nation has a solemn duty to help them.

As it happened, poverty's turn in the presidential limelight was brief."

Bush's Poverty Talk Is Now All but Silent

"Bush has talked little about the issue since the immediate crisis passed, while pursuing policies that his liberal critics say will hurt the poor."

"He has publicly mentioned domestic poverty six times since giving back-to-back speeches on the issue in September. Domestic poverty did not come up in his State of the Union address in January, and his most recent budget included no new initiatives directed at the poor."

Why? Because he doesn't give a shit. Uncertain Principles (02.01.06):

"This administration doesn't do policy, they do politics. If Bush says something in a speech, it's because they think it will sound good in a speech, period.

That doesn't mean there's a concrete proposal in the works -- if the line in he speech is poorly received, odds are it will disappear without a trace."

Show Me the Pony

"And even if the line sounds good, that doesn't mean there will be any follow-through -- ask the people of New York, Afghanistan, Iraq, and New Orleans about that."

All Politics, All The Time

We don't need no steenkin' policy. LATimes (03.19.06):

"A growing Republican chorus is calling for a staff overhaul inside President Bush's beleaguered White House, but some conservatives say such a change would stop far short of fixing what they view as a serious flaw: an unfocused domestic agenda.

The war in Iraq is dominating the attention of Bush and his top aides, these critics say, while the recent departure of the president's top domestic policy advisor after just one year has left the White House without an obvious conductor to direct the sometimes disparate policy-making machine.'

Bush's Agenda Loses Focus

The President's top domestic policy advisor was Claude Allen. The "recent departure" business had to do with Claude being arrested on 25 counts of retail fraud for allegedly returning stuff he never purchased. Actually, he did buy stuff. He'd allegedly purchase an item, allegedly put it in his car, allegedly take the receipt back into the store, allegedly grab the same thing off the shelf, then allegedly try to return it. Or so they say.

The "All Hat, No Cattle" approach has some folks wondering. "'You mean they have a domestic policy?' quipped Michael Tanner, director of health and welfare studies at the libertarian Cato Institute."

John and Jane Q. Public are also catching on. "Bush is facing the lowest approval ratings of his presidency, in the low to mid-30s."

"In one independent survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, a plurality of respondents used the word 'incompetent' when asked to describe Bush.

Folks also used the words "idiot" and "liar", though not as much as "incompetent".

As an example of their apparent inability to formulate a focused agenda, the article discusses the Administration's policy, or lack thereof, with education. "'Somebody really needs to steer it if it's going to happen, but the sense at this moment is that nobody's really steering it,' said one GOP lobbyist who works closely with the administration on education issues but spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution from the White House."

And that tells us all we need to know about what's important to these guys.

Here We Go Again

Ever wonder why this Administration comes across sometimes as being just a wee bit, uhhh, incompetent? It's that word again: apparatchik. Government Executive (03.07.06), via Crooks And Liars:

"Douglas L. Hoelscher is the new executive director of the Homeland Security Advisory Committees and the 'primary representative' of department Secretary Michael Chertoff in dealing with more than 20 advisory boards.

Hoelscher has no management experience, a review of his professional credentials shows. He came to government in 2001 as a low-level White House staffer, arranging presidential travel, according to news reports. He earned $30,000 a year, salary documents show."

Former White House staffer named to head DHS policy committee

"Hoelscher launched his political career after graduating from the University of Iowa in 1999. During the 2000 campaign, he worked for Wisconsin's Republican Party, campaign finance records show."

"In 2001, he was a political coordinator in the White House Office of Political Affairs, which was run by Ken Mehlman, who was Bush's Midwest regional political director in the 2000 campaign and is now the Republican National Committee chairman."

"In 2004, Hoelscher worked for the RNC. The following year he became Homeland Security's White House liaison, 'obtaining information from the department,' said Joanna Gonzalez, a department spokeswoman." As in like calling them up and asking them to send him stuff?

Might this be yet another example of politics over policy?

Wonder if Doug knows George Deutsch?

You Asked For It

Now you're gonna get it. Another example of politics over policy. Add it to this one, and this one, and this one, and this one. NYTimes (02.16.06):

"Top political appointees in the NASA press office exerted strong pressure during the 2004 presidential campaign to cut the flow of news releases on glaciers, climate, pollution and other earth sciences, public affairs officers at the agency say.

The disclosure comes nearly two weeks after the NASA administrator, Michael D. Griffin, called for 'scientific openness' at the agency. In response to that, researchers and public affairs workers at the agency have described in fresh detail how political appointees altered or limited news releases on scientific findings that could have conflicted with administration policies."

Call for Openness at NASA Adds to Reports of Pressure

"Some examples have been reported to senior scientists and administrators who are assembling complaints as part of a review of communications policies demanded by Dr. Griffin, who became administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in April. Others have been described or provided to The New York Times."

Jeebus. The morale over there must be just peachy. "Press officers, who were granted anonymity because they said they were still concerned for their jobs despite Dr. Griffin's call for openness, said much of the pressure in late 2004 was placed on Gretchen Cook-Anderson", who managed "the flow of earth science news at NASA headquarters."

"In a conference call with colleagues in October 2004, the colleagues said, she said that Glenn Mahone, then the assistant administrator for public affairs, had told her that a planned news conference on fresh readings by a new NASA satellite, Aura, that measures ozone and air pollution, should not take place until after the election."

"In an e-mail message yesterday, Ms. Cook-Anderson, who now works as a writer and editor for NASA through a contractor, said, 'While I can't discuss these matters, I won't disagree with that description of what took place.'"

Dean Acosta, "a political appointee who was then Mr. Mahone's deputy and is now Dr. Griffin's press secretary, said he had never pressed Ms. Cook-Anderson to cut back on news releases."

"But archives of news releases on the NASA headquarters Web site show a sharp change in the number of such releases, to 12 in 2005 from about four dozen in 2004, a figure that had helped lead to the pressure to cut back. (The figures do not count routine announcements of events like satellite launchings.)"

See Ya

More folks with years of policy expertise head for the doors. Just didn't have their minds right. Knight-Ridder (02.07.06):

"State Department officials appointed by President Bush have sidelined key career weapons experts and replaced them with less experienced political operatives who share the White House and Pentagon's distrust of international negotiations and treaties."

State Department sees exodus of weapons experts

"The reorganization of the department's arms control and international security bureaus was intended to help it better deal with 21st-century threats."

"Instead, it's thrown the agency into turmoil and produced an exodus of experts with decades of experience in nuclear arms, chemical weapons and related matters, according to 11 current and former officials and documents obtained by Knight Ridder."

Here's one example of the political operatives being hired.

"An inquiry by Knight Ridder has found evidence that the reorganization was highly politicized and devastated morale".

Once again, all politics and no policy.

Ooops!!

Public affairs officer or political commissar. You make the call! From the NYTimes: "Mr. Deutsch's educational record was first challenged on Monday by Nick Anthis, who graduated from Texas A&M last year with a biochemistry degree and has been writing a Web log on science policy, scientificactivist.blogspot.com." NYTimes (02.08.06):

"George C. Deutsch, the young presidential appointee at NASA who told public affairs workers to limit reporters' access to a top climate scientist and told a Web designer to add the word 'theory' at every mention of the Big Bang, resigned yesterday, agency officials said.

Mr. Deutsch's resignation came on the same day that officials at Texas A&M University confirmed that he did not graduate from there, as his résumé on file at the agency asserted."

A Young Bush Appointee Resigns His Post at NASA

"Officials at NASA headquarters declined to discuss the reason for the resignation."

Though we could probably guess.

"The resignation came as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was preparing to review its policies for communicating science to the public."

"The review was ordered Friday by Michael D. Griffin, the NASA administrator, after a week in which many agency scientists and midlevel public affairs officials described to The New York Times instances in which they said political pressure was applied to limit or flavor discussions of topics uncomfortable to the Bush administration, particularly global warming."

Prior to landing his job at NASA, George had worked on President Bush's re-election campaign and inaugural committee.

At least that's what it said in his resume.

More on George from World O'Crap. The lad's a beauty, eh?

Clowns To The Left Of Me

"Jokers to the right, and here I am, stuck in the middle with you." This is exactly where George didn't want to be. Needs to cut Medicare costs, but won't cut the cost of his new drug plan because that would be admitting a mistake. Knight-Ridder (02.06.06):

"President Bush tapped the brakes on Medicare spending Monday, but kept his right foot on the accelerator in a move that's likely to frustrate both political fringes but do nothing to ease anxiety over the program's mushrooming long-term costs.

Bush proposed curbing the growth of projected Medicare spending by $36 billion over five years. White House aides noted that it would still grow by 7.5 percent a year - driven not least by the cost of Bush's new prescription-drug benefit."

Medicare seen as a political liability for Bush

"Bush's expansion of Medicare in 2003 to help the elderly pay for prescription drugs, a keystone achievement of his first term, has become a political albatross. Republicans initially thought it would help Bush take the health care issue off the table as an issue favoring Democrats, but once the drug benefit went into effect on Jan. 1, many Americans became confused and angry about it. A recent Gallup Poll found that 58 percent of Americans were dissatisfied with Medicare, and only 35 percent were satisfied."

Conservatives are crabby. They're bitching "that Bush's drug benefit is the biggest expansion of a government entitlement since Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society in the 1960s. Many are bitter that the Bush White House concealed the program's true costs from Congress while promising that it wouldn't exceed $400 billion and forcing Congress to vote on it."

They're also pissed that "the benefit's growing price tag - now estimated to be $724 billion over 10 years, and perhaps $2 trillion over the following decade...will be difficult to defend, particularly in the conservative-dominated primaries that will pick the 2008 Republican presidential nominee."

All politics; no policy. Ron Suskind (01.01.03):

"There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus,' says [former head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives John] DiIulio. 'What you’ve got is everything — and I mean everything — being run by the political arm.'

'It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis.'"

Why Are These Men Laughing?

But what if we reverse the polarity on the flux capacitor?

Never Mind

Just kidding. "If Bush says something in a speech, it's because they think it will sound good in a speech, period." Knight-Ridder (02.01.06):

"One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally."

Administration backs off Bush's vow to reduce Mideast oil imports

"'This was purely an example," Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said."

These guys are something else. "The president's State of the Union reference to Mideast oil made headlines nationwide Wednesday because of his assertion that 'America is addicted to oil' and his call to 'break this addiction.'"

He also "pledged to 'move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past.'"

It was a crock. Pure PR.

"Asked why the president used the words 'the Middle East' when he didn't really mean them, one administration official said Bush wanted to dramatize the issue in a way that 'every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands.'"

And by the way, our administration official "spoke only on condition of anonymity because he feared that his remarks might get him in trouble."

Foobarrific!!

Uncertain Principles (02.01.06), via Brad DeLong:

"The main reason why I didn't watch the speech to hear what Bush would say about science policy is that it doesn't matter what he says. This administration doesn't do policy, they do politics.

If Bush says something in a speech, it's because they think it will sound good in a speech, period. That doesn't mean there's a concrete proposal in the works-- if the line in he speech is poorly received, odds are it will disappear without a trace."

Show Me the Pony

"And even if the line sounds good, that doesn't mean there will be any follow-through-- ask the people of New York, Afghanistan, Iraq, and New Orleans about that."

"So, yeah, 'double the federal commitment to the most critical basic research programs in the physical sciences over the next 10 years' sounds great. So does 'If we reverse the polarity on the flux capacitor, we can generate an infinite amount of free energy, and a pony.'"

"I'll believe it when I see the pony."