Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Nepotism

Maybe it has something to do with winning Daddy's job, or maybe a nation of 300 million is seriously lacking in talent, but what are the chances the the best qualified head of the FCC would be a Supreme Court appointee's son? Or maybe the best assistant undersecretary for blah blah would be the VP's daughter? Suppose you needed a Chief Counsel for Homeland Security, I'd look no farther than Dick Cheney's daughter Liz's husband (she has one), Liz being the State Dept. hack as well.

Knowing how the outfit that runs the Executive branch acts would you be surprised to find out that Homeland Security is at or near the bottom in job satisfaction, leadership, and job performance and that the GAO Comptroller General Walker and Homeland Security Inspector General Skinner can't get documents past Cheney's son-in-law, or manage interviews without interference? What do you suppose the Fatherland...er ooops...Homeland Security bunch has to worry about, other than say, sex for visas, airport screeners stealing from passengers, air marshals smuggling drugs, and various other employee sex crimes? I certainly wouldn't want anything leaking out to Comptrollers or IGs, you know, Security and all. Maybe Philip Perry is a really nice extremely competent fellow with a poor choice of relatives - somehow I doubt it.

Here's the mind numbing part of all this, BushCo wants your rights and is competent and capable of taking care of them for your security but government is not important enough to take the time and energy to look farther than your daughter's bedroom to find expertise, or what ever other relative or party hack is at hand with their hand out. Go get out a serious history book and see what dysfunctional failing governments have in common - just to check me out:

Severe restrictions of civil liberties, particularly relating to trials
Wide disparity of income
Patronage
Nepotism

You will find these failings in a wide variety of truly sickening states, Nazism/Fascism, Communism, Theocracy, Despotism, Imperialism...

I am not calling BushCo any of these names, they've hit on something new entirely, Reaganism taken to its illogical extreme. They're not drowning government, they're selling it or stupefying it. After Caesar Augustus the Roman Empire doddered on for a long time through capable and imbecilic Emperors because the bureaucracy kept things going despite the "leadership," I don't like the looks of this...

4 comments:

Crackpot said...

A bit off topic perhaps, but I have a question for the blog master. How does one reconcile the pro gun views you so strongly claim to profess while supporting a man like Dennis Kucinich?

Kucinich on Gun Control
Exhibit A-E:
* Require background checks, licensing, and fingerprinting. (Jan 2004)
* Voted NO on prohibiting product misuse lawsuits on gun manufacturers. (Oct 2005)
* Voted NO on prohibiting suing gunmakers & sellers for gun misuse. (Apr 2003)
* Voted NO on decreasing gun waiting period from 3 days to 1. (Jun 1999)
* Rated F by the NRA, indicating a pro-gun control voting record. (Dec 2003)

WTF Chuck?

Chuck Butcher said...

I know, it's self contradictory. Dennis will not get the nomination, not ever, but he will spur debate and push. We know Hillary, no guns. Most of the rest are coy. We know Dennis, not quite a nut case, but not so good on guns.

Kucinich might push some of these dips into taking real stands on war, poverty, wages. That's my hope, that's why I want him in. So essentially I see Kucinich as a lever, but if he were better on guns, well, I'd like him a lot better.

One thing about NRA, I've done more in the state of OR politically for guns than G Walden (R) OR 02, but they ignored me while giving him an A, but of course I had a (D) after my name. When they had me on NRA radio their agenda was to attack Democrats rather than talk about what I'd done, I don't take them too seriously in politics. (I'm a member)

Crackpot said...

Fair enough Chuck, though I must admit your stance seems about as solid as jello to me. I am not a one issue voter myself nor am I a member of a political party, but there's no way I could throw my support behind the likes of a candidate with a strongly anti-gun record (ie Kucinich, Kerry, Gore, etc.) and still claim that gun rights ranked anywhere near the top spots on my list of political priorities.

Perhaps your mission is to change your party from within. If so, best of luck with that. Frankly, I believe you would be better served in the long run by directing your energy toward a third party movement. IMO, both parties are too far gone, incapable of truly representing me or properly leading this country. Blue or red- which flavor of authoritarian facism would you like today?

Chuck Butcher said...

I sent you an email with a bit more detail, got it back.

In 2000 I voted for GWB on the basis of Gore's gun record & one size fits all enviro stances. Maybe that was a large mistake, though of no electoral significance.

I work real hard within the D Party. There is no such thing as a 3rd Party within much of what's left of my life, and really not much need for one. What's needed is participation. Yep, I'm pretty far left & my gun stance is to my mind exactly that (despite other's thoughts on the matter).

Richardson is probably best on guns of the Dems, he's also not quite the corporate tool Hillary is, but geeze louise, it's way past time to actually do some things. Universal Health Care. (I have a long list - it's in the Blog) If somebody doesn't push the dialogue - they'll just blather - Dennis will.

The Parties are hopeless if people walk away from them. We are now in a position where a close Presidential election results in the election of somebody with 27% of the elegible vote, that's minority rule and it sucks. GWB sucks and most of the choices are way short of stellar and that's BS. A real large portion of the blame goes to those who will not come out and play. Yes the government is in the toilet and has been for some time, so I'm not going to throw up my hands and walk away.

Running for the OR 02 CD Dem Primary was probably an act of lunacy, well, some thousands of people liked what I had (not nearly enough thousands) and I got to have my say. I went and did something. No, I don't throw my hands up.