Today I am much more interested in the advance of Hurricane Ike on Texas than I am in blogging. Many of my family members are in or close to the direct path--as it is currently projected--of the hurricane. However, I have been reading other news and here is a summary of what has interested me most recently: :
- Ethics scandal at the Department of the Interior: I'm not a policy wonk, and I don't understand all the intricacies of government, but I do understand bad management. I've had bosses in my lifetime who should never have been put in charge of people--and others who could lead a battalion if necessary. I have seen up close the effects of bad management and have even been asked to direct and put back on course a program that had been badly mismanaged. During the last eight years of the Bush administration, we have seen some serious management issues. Every administration is going to make mistakes, to make a wrong call occasionally, or to choose a wrong person for a job. The mismanagement of this administration, however, has reached epic proportions, from the early planning and later execution of the Iraq war, to billions of dollars unaccounted for in the Iraq war, to FEMA (and "good job, Brownie"), to Homeland Security, to Porter Goss's short reign as Director of the CIA, to the Reading First program in the Department of Education, to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal , to the outing (and consequent cover-up) of CIA covert agent Valerie Plame, to the illegal and scandalous activities within the Department of Justice, to the economy and the national debt. But the latest story reads like a television script: sex, lies, drugs, and cronyism. Officials with the Denver office of the Minerals Management Service, an office in charge of collecting for the government billions of dollars in oil royalties, have been charged with accepting gifts from oil companies, using their influence to provide jobs in those companies for friends and colleagues, steering profitable contracts to particular companies, having sex with subordinates, taking drugs on the job, etc.:
Between 2002 and 2006, nearly a third of the 55-person staff in the Denver office received gifts and gratuities from oil and gas companies, the investigators found.
Devaney said the former head of the Denver Royalty-in-Kind office, Gregory W. Smith, used illegal drugs and had sex with subordinates. The report said Smith also steered government contracts to a consulting business that was employing him part-time. ("Sex for Oil Scandal at Interior Department," CBS News, Sept. 10, 2008.) - Charlie Gibson's interview with Sarah Palin: I didn't listen to the interview; I was taking a walk in the neighborhood when the interview aired. Since then I've listened to a few clips of the interview online and have heard other clips in the evening news. Here are some responses from people whom I admire:
- James Fallows points out how Palin's response to one question (which is receiving some attention in the news and on the Internet) indicates not only her ignorance on the topic but her lack of interest. That's the question Charlie Gibson posed about the "Bush Doctrine." Palin seemed to have no idea what Gibson was talking about.
- Steve Benen at The Washington Monthly thinks that watching Sarah Palin respond to Charlie Gibson's questions was "eerily reminiscent of watching George W. Bush, circa 2000."
- Joan Walsh believes that people who want a vice-president or president "just like them" may want a Sarah Palin as their leader but that "most Americans, most independents, and serious, patriotic conservatives, are going to see this interview and be very, very afraid."
And now, back to the weather.
No comments:
Post a Comment