I have to add my voice to the chorus of disapprobation over the selection of Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the Innaugural. This sends entirely the wrong message. Couldn't the president-elect have chosen someone who has not expressed bigotry towards Gay and Lesbian citizens, and who has not endorsed the assassination of foreign leaders as a tool of foreign policy? Warren no doubt has done some good things, but there are plenty of alternate possible choices who have not stained their records in this manner. Selecting Warren telegraphs that these serious defects in his character and message are no big deal.
Update: I hope this is a bit of hyperbole, but I'm afraid I'm not sure: [Digby].
Later Update: [1/21/09] Rick Warren's invocation was obnoxious, but not overly so. Coulda been worse. Bad choice, bad signal, just basically unfortunate, but it didn't ruin the parade. And then there was Rev. Joseph Lowery's benediction, which stole the show and made up for any amount of self-congratulatory fatuousness on the part of Warren.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Fire Blackwater AND review entire contractor regime
It's being reported that a State Department panel is recommending, for implementation by the new administration, that Blackwater be excluded from its current role of providing security for State Dept. personnel in Iraq.
It's clear that there has been massive fraud and abuse by private contractors in Iraq, and that the whole scheme of privatizing services that once were, and should again be, either handled by uniformed military or by civilian government employees, needs to be completely overhauled. In most cases, private contractors should be excluded entirely. Certainly those whose track records have been deplorable (and that's most of them), should be fired and excluded from eligibility for a good long time.
Of course, in conjunction with a top to bottom overhaul of American interventionist foreign policy all around, which I hope the Obama administration seriously pursues, we can hope that the need for private contractors in these kinds of functions will drop to practically zero in the fairly near future regardless.
It's clear that there has been massive fraud and abuse by private contractors in Iraq, and that the whole scheme of privatizing services that once were, and should again be, either handled by uniformed military or by civilian government employees, needs to be completely overhauled. In most cases, private contractors should be excluded entirely. Certainly those whose track records have been deplorable (and that's most of them), should be fired and excluded from eligibility for a good long time.
Of course, in conjunction with a top to bottom overhaul of American interventionist foreign policy all around, which I hope the Obama administration seriously pursues, we can hope that the need for private contractors in these kinds of functions will drop to practically zero in the fairly near future regardless.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Keep Robert Rubin out of administration
I should think that this, from Frank Rich's column in last Sunday's Times, would be sufficient reason for Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin to be permanently excluded from consideration for any government post, not to mention any significant management post anywhere:
...if all bubbles and panics are alike, this one, the worst since the Great Depression, also carried the DNA of our own time. Enron had been a Citigroup client. In a now-forgotten footnote to that scandal, Rubin was discovered to have made a phone call to a former colleague in the Treasury Department to float the idea of asking credit-rating agencies to delay downgrading Enron’s debt. This inappropriate lobbying never went anywhere, but Rubin neither apologized nor learned any lessons. “I can see why that call might be questioned,” he wrote in his 2003 memoir, “but I would make it again.” He would say the same this year about his performance at Citigroup during its collapse.
...if all bubbles and panics are alike, this one, the worst since the Great Depression, also carried the DNA of our own time. Enron had been a Citigroup client. In a now-forgotten footnote to that scandal, Rubin was discovered to have made a phone call to a former colleague in the Treasury Department to float the idea of asking credit-rating agencies to delay downgrading Enron’s debt. This inappropriate lobbying never went anywhere, but Rubin neither apologized nor learned any lessons. “I can see why that call might be questioned,” he wrote in his 2003 memoir, “but I would make it again.” He would say the same this year about his performance at Citigroup during its collapse.
Guest Post (Nancy S): Automaker Industrial Complex?
I am honored to be able to post on Gyro, my brother's blog. I have many opinions, some insights and commentary about the American scene as reported to me on Link TV, Free Speech TV, CNBC, Fox News, MSNBC and C-Span and various books and blogs.
Remember the military industrial congressional complex. How come defense contractors don't need bailouts...maybe because they already get such a gigantic chunk of the Pentagon's $800B budget every year? I don't know for sure...but maybe Congress could think about giving the automakers a budget like that and then we can buy our cars through our Senators. Of course they would have to have cute cars, sleek cars, roomy cars etc. The Car Czar could do some market research and get back to us.
Nix on Hayden
Message I sent to change.gov.
I certainly hope that the report in the U.S. News & World Report, that Pres. Elect Obama is considering keeping on Michael Hayden as CIA director, is wrong. Hayden is clearly an unacceptable choice. Sen. Obama himself referred to Hayden, in May, 2006, thus: "as the architect and chief defender of a program of wiretapping and collection of phone records outside of FISA oversight." Sen. Obama said his vote against confirmation was necessary "to send a signal to this Administration that even in these circumstances President Bush is not above the law".
Nothing has changed. Hayden has never acknowledged his role or indicated in any way a reform in his thinking. He should definitely have no role in the Obama administration.
I certainly hope that the report in the U.S. News & World Report, that Pres. Elect Obama is considering keeping on Michael Hayden as CIA director, is wrong. Hayden is clearly an unacceptable choice. Sen. Obama himself referred to Hayden, in May, 2006, thus: "as the architect and chief defender of a program of wiretapping and collection of phone records outside of FISA oversight." Sen. Obama said his vote against confirmation was necessary "to send a signal to this Administration that even in these circumstances President Bush is not above the law".
Nothing has changed. Hayden has never acknowledged his role or indicated in any way a reform in his thinking. He should definitely have no role in the Obama administration.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
First Post
This blog has been created to post input, advice, recommendations, suggestions, etc. to the new president who will be elected this year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
