As I write this post President Obama's SCOTUS nominee, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, is lying her pants(uit) off in her hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. To hear her tell it, her judicial philosphy is somewhere between Roberts and Scalia. Keeping military recruiters out of Harvard? No, you must be mistaken, she was actually trying to help them!
Alas, her slip is showing - this morning she answered a question about the original intent of the founders. Of course she intends to follow it.... but... there are times when it's "unknowable" and of course the world has changed... So you see, she's an originalist... except when she's not (which will naturally be when she's potentially the tie-breaking vote on a case of fundamental importance to America!
I suppose the best we can say about her is that she's replacing a judge known for rendering "progessive" and "activist" opinions; even so she's likely to be far more ideological than Justice Stevens - and she'll be around for a lot longer. Elections have consequences!
29 June 2010
21 June 2010
If the bureaucrats had been in charge during WWII...
...the same blockheaded adherence to the minutae of regulation without consideration of the circumstances of the moment which has obstructed cleanup efforts in the Gulf would probably have aborted the Dunkirk evacuation:
http://www.transterrestrial.com/?p=27632
Fortunately Britain had a wartime leader who rose to the occasion time and time again, and above all refused to be daunted by enormous challenges - even the supreme and unholy terror of pettifogging bureaucrats! Of course the knock on Churchill was that he was "unsafe" in peacetime, but when it came time to wage war in earnest all of the squeamishness about his intensity and bombast were laid aside in short order.
America doesn't necessarily need a Churchill right now, or even a Reagan. I'd settle for a Truman. Heck, even Clinton (Bill, not Hillary) would look pretty good right now!
http://www.transterrestrial.com/?p=27632
Fortunately Britain had a wartime leader who rose to the occasion time and time again, and above all refused to be daunted by enormous challenges - even the supreme and unholy terror of pettifogging bureaucrats! Of course the knock on Churchill was that he was "unsafe" in peacetime, but when it came time to wage war in earnest all of the squeamishness about his intensity and bombast were laid aside in short order.
America doesn't necessarily need a Churchill right now, or even a Reagan. I'd settle for a Truman. Heck, even Clinton (Bill, not Hillary) would look pretty good right now!
17 June 2010
Don't worry, the Obama Administration is in charge
I should begin by saying that I love the Coast Guard. Seriously. Having grown-up on the water and having owned a boat myself as an adult, nothing gives a mariner a greater feeling of security than knowing that the dedicated men and women of the U.S.C.G. are on guard day and night, one might say that they are "semper paratus".
That being said, I'll also acknowledge that they play an important role in education and enforcement of marine safety. But - you knew there was a "but" coming after all of that unexpected flattery - they realy look foolish on this one: it seems that the Coasties ordered the crews of sixten barges to cease-and-desist from their (apparently successful) project of sucking-up oil from the water off the Louisiana coast. The stated reason - the Coast Guard needed to ensure that there were life preservers and fire extingushers on board the barges, but they were supposedly having trouble contacting the barges' owners(!)
Yep. Read about it here: http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=10946379
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is ticked, and I don't blame him. Apparently these barges are some sort of home-grown project, a bit of latter-day American ingenuity, which were remarkably successful. At a time when every hour counts, a working solution to the environmental disaster was shut down by an arm of the Federal Government for a pettifogging reason. Perhaps the entire story, as reported, is inaccurate; but if not I'd note that this is exactly the type of thing I referenced in my previous post.
Where's the leadership here? Where's the unity-of-purpose, or the outside-the-box thinking? How on earth can it be that the U.S.C.G. cannot detemine whether there are P.F.D.'s or extinguishers on board the badges. They're either there or they're not. These guys have no problem boarding a pleasure boat on a Sunday afternoon to check this kind of thing, why didn't they simply check the barges? And - even supposing that there was nary a lifejacket or a fire extingusher to be found - why didn't they simply tell them "resolve the problem within N hours and you'll have no problem with us"? Heck, in the perfect world in which I'd be Archlaic-in-Chief, the Coast Guard would have gotten my message about being part of the solution (see below) and dispatched a Seaman in a Boston Whaler to retrieve sufficient quantities of these items to being the barges into compliance.
No, that's not what the Coast Guard is for. But when you're dealing with an emergency you take extraordinary measures. At the very least you ask yourself, "is what I'm doing here aiding or impeding the cause?" At best you look at a situation and think, "how can I best resolve this while contributing to the solution to the overriding problem here?" This bif of nonsense is analogous to an OSHA inspector accosting a fireman who's fighting a conflagration and ordering him to put down his hose because the nozzle didn't meet current federal waterflow standards!
I don't blame the president for the Coasties following the rules. I do blame him for failing to lead, and failing to make it clear that results take precedence over legalism and bureaucracy. If you want to see leadership here, watch Gov. Bobby Jindal. You may be seeing a lot more of him.
That being said, I'll also acknowledge that they play an important role in education and enforcement of marine safety. But - you knew there was a "but" coming after all of that unexpected flattery - they realy look foolish on this one: it seems that the Coasties ordered the crews of sixten barges to cease-and-desist from their (apparently successful) project of sucking-up oil from the water off the Louisiana coast. The stated reason - the Coast Guard needed to ensure that there were life preservers and fire extingushers on board the barges, but they were supposedly having trouble contacting the barges' owners(!)
Yep. Read about it here: http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=10946379
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is ticked, and I don't blame him. Apparently these barges are some sort of home-grown project, a bit of latter-day American ingenuity, which were remarkably successful. At a time when every hour counts, a working solution to the environmental disaster was shut down by an arm of the Federal Government for a pettifogging reason. Perhaps the entire story, as reported, is inaccurate; but if not I'd note that this is exactly the type of thing I referenced in my previous post.
Where's the leadership here? Where's the unity-of-purpose, or the outside-the-box thinking? How on earth can it be that the U.S.C.G. cannot detemine whether there are P.F.D.'s or extinguishers on board the badges. They're either there or they're not. These guys have no problem boarding a pleasure boat on a Sunday afternoon to check this kind of thing, why didn't they simply check the barges? And - even supposing that there was nary a lifejacket or a fire extingusher to be found - why didn't they simply tell them "resolve the problem within N hours and you'll have no problem with us"? Heck, in the perfect world in which I'd be Archlaic-in-Chief, the Coast Guard would have gotten my message about being part of the solution (see below) and dispatched a Seaman in a Boston Whaler to retrieve sufficient quantities of these items to being the barges into compliance.
No, that's not what the Coast Guard is for. But when you're dealing with an emergency you take extraordinary measures. At the very least you ask yourself, "is what I'm doing here aiding or impeding the cause?" At best you look at a situation and think, "how can I best resolve this while contributing to the solution to the overriding problem here?" This bif of nonsense is analogous to an OSHA inspector accosting a fireman who's fighting a conflagration and ordering him to put down his hose because the nozzle didn't meet current federal waterflow standards!
I don't blame the president for the Coasties following the rules. I do blame him for failing to lead, and failing to make it clear that results take precedence over legalism and bureaucracy. If you want to see leadership here, watch Gov. Bobby Jindal. You may be seeing a lot more of him.
12 June 2010
What the President should have done...
I've been a harsh critic of the 44th President of the United States in this blog and elsewhere. Occasionally I've been asked "OK, hotshot, what would YOU have done differently?". I've been so appalled by Mr. Obama's involvement in the Gulf oil spill that I didn't think anything he did in that regard could make me madder, but this week I learned that while he refused to speak to the CEO of British Petroleum he was meeting with the families of the victims of the Deepwater Horizon explosion to get their opinions on what could be done to avoid such incidents in the future, etc.
Don't get me wrong - I'm 100% in favor of the President meeting the families of victims of a disaster, but for Heaven's sake can someone tell me what they can possibly provide in terms of improving the safety of deepwater offshore oil drilling operations? Perhaps each and every one of them is an expert in that field, but I doubt it.
This, in a nutshell, is what's wrong with B. H. Obama's reaction to the disaster - it's all based upon appearances, illusions, and political calculations. Oh, almost forgot, a few shakes of "Hope-n-Change" and a healthy dollop of "blame Bush" as well.
But I digress - what would "Commander-in-Chief I. M. Archlaic" have done differently? here goes:
Don't get me wrong - I'm 100% in favor of the President meeting the families of victims of a disaster, but for Heaven's sake can someone tell me what they can possibly provide in terms of improving the safety of deepwater offshore oil drilling operations? Perhaps each and every one of them is an expert in that field, but I doubt it.
This, in a nutshell, is what's wrong with B. H. Obama's reaction to the disaster - it's all based upon appearances, illusions, and political calculations. Oh, almost forgot, a few shakes of "Hope-n-Change" and a healthy dollop of "blame Bush" as well.
But I digress - what would "Commander-in-Chief I. M. Archlaic" have done differently? here goes:
- I'd call the C.E.O. of British Petroleum first thing. He'd surely be expecting my call and he'd probably have a pretty good idea what I was going to say, he didn't get where is is by being obtuse. I'd tell him that now was not the time for recriminations or politics, we both wanted to get this thing cleaned-up A.S.A.P. and he knew how to do it better than I did. I'd offer him the full support of the U.S. military and give him a private phone number to reach me if he encountered any difficulties with any branch of the Federal Government. But I'd also tell him that if he dropped the ball we'd take care of it ourselves and send him the bill.
- I'd call the governors of the Gulf states, starting with Louisiana, and asked them their plans. I'd brief them on my conversation with BP and tell them that while I assumed that they knew what was best for their states, any resources they needed from the Federal Government would be available as needed. I'd schedule another call with them for later in the day.
- I'd convene a cabinet meeting and order the Secretaries of the Interior, Commerce, Transportation, Energy, and Homeland Security, as well as the Administrator of the E.P.A. to inform their departments that any activities related to the cleanup which required their review and approval were to be fast-tracked and handled within 24 hours. One-time waivers of regulations should be granted, if necessary, on an emergency basis.
- The Secretary of Defense would be asked to nominate (subject to my approval) a high-ranking officer, probably from the Navy, to take charge of the Federal Government's response. He would act as primary liason between the Federal Government and British Petroleum and the states.
- In light of the nature of the disaster and the fact that the Navy and the Coast Guard would be primarily involved (as needed), I'd schedule a daily status briefing by the SecDef and the Secretary of Homeland Security of no more than 30 minutes.
- The SecDef would also be responsble for initiating an ad hoc project within each branch of the services to identify technologies and equipment which might be usefully brought to bear on the problem of plugging the well. A similar request would be made to the Administrator of NASA (and any other Federal agency which might have some smart people and cool technology that could help).
- I'd contact the C.E.O.s of the largest domestic oil companies and request that they identify and make available any and all specialized resources which could assist in the cleanup and leak stoppage process. I'd make it clear to them that it was BP's baby but that we'd be very interested in their help (again, as needed). They'd be invited to the White House for a meeting within the next 48 hours.
- I't would be lunchtime by now so I'd probably take a break for an hour or so.
- After lunch I'd have the second call with the governors and brief them on the foregoing actions. I'd request a daily status briefing call of no more than 30 minutes.
- A day or two later I'd jump on AF1 and make a flying visit to encourage the workers involved in the effort. No photo ops with oily birds or dead turtles. No threatening to kick anyone's arse. No speculation on things of which I know nothing.
11 June 2010
America's Deadliest Joke
Fans of Monty Python's Flying Circus will remember a sketch about a joke so funny that anyone who read or heard it would die laughing. Eventually it was painstakingly translated into German (one word at a time for safety) and used to great effect during WWII. At one point the narrator described it as "over 60,000 times as powerful as Britain's great pre-war joke" as an image of Neville Chamberlain returning from Munich flashed on the screen.
In the seventeen months of the Obama Administration, it had become abundantly clear that America has its own version of a deadly joke, unfortunately nobody is laughing except those who hate America and wish her ill. This morning I saw a bumper sticker - right here in Taxachusetts - reading "Buyer's Remorse", using the Obama Campaign logo as the "O" in "Remorse"! It's not the first anti-Obama sticker I've seen on the potholed roads of The People's Republic either. They're becoming quite common.
Two years ago a large swath of America drank deeply of the "Hope-n-Change" Kool-Aid, and a heady brew it was. More and more of them are starting to regain consciousness, as the grogginess wears off they're becoming appalled at what they see. The shining, self-confident prince who seduced them has been revealed as an impostor: an incompetent, feckless, mendacious, petty, thin-skinned, narcissistic, uber-partisan failure.
I've referred to him as a "deadly" with good reason. His failures will have consequences for America. Already he's scuppered relations with several of our staunchest allies, seeminly intentionally, while making naive overtures to some of the most malevolent regimes on the planet. The economic "stimulus" packages he's championed haven't stimulated anything other that budget deficits and the national debt. Meanwhile the economy sputters along, half-paralyzed by uncertainty about Obama's policies and intentions. The MSM tells us that the recent market plunge is due to anxiety over Greece and some of the other EU member nations, but they're only telling half of the story. Neither Wall Street nor Main Street are worried only about the European economy affecting our own, the big concern is that they see America rushing headlong over the same cliff and a president who seems determined to accellerate the process.
The president's ongoing reaction to the tragic oil spill has been inconsistent at best and misdirected at worst. I am not one who believes that the President of the United States is personally responsible for micro-managing the response to natural and man-made disasters, but there are things he can and should be doing to faciliatate and expedite the process. His omissions have not only been injurous to the cleanup, but they've made his utter lack of executive experience woefully apparent.
And don't even get me started on "Obamacare". Ill-conceived, poorly-legislated, and passed only through the exercise of bare-knuckle politics and parliamentary tricks; this pig-in-a-poke has united not only the G.O.P. but much of the country in their opposition and intent to repeal it.
I'm sorry if this sounds bitter, but I'm angry. Really angry. I didn't vote for the guy but I know plenty of people who should have known better than to do so. And now we're stuck with him until January 20th 2012. And this is not simply personal pique I'm expressing, I used the word "deadly" intentionally. The 44th president is killing America, and it will take many years to recover from the damage he's done already. God willing, we can start the recovery in November of this year. Elections in America have seldom had higher stakes.
In the seventeen months of the Obama Administration, it had become abundantly clear that America has its own version of a deadly joke, unfortunately nobody is laughing except those who hate America and wish her ill. This morning I saw a bumper sticker - right here in Taxachusetts - reading "Buyer's Remorse", using the Obama Campaign logo as the "O" in "Remorse"! It's not the first anti-Obama sticker I've seen on the potholed roads of The People's Republic either. They're becoming quite common.
Two years ago a large swath of America drank deeply of the "Hope-n-Change" Kool-Aid, and a heady brew it was. More and more of them are starting to regain consciousness, as the grogginess wears off they're becoming appalled at what they see. The shining, self-confident prince who seduced them has been revealed as an impostor: an incompetent, feckless, mendacious, petty, thin-skinned, narcissistic, uber-partisan failure.
I've referred to him as a "deadly" with good reason. His failures will have consequences for America. Already he's scuppered relations with several of our staunchest allies, seeminly intentionally, while making naive overtures to some of the most malevolent regimes on the planet. The economic "stimulus" packages he's championed haven't stimulated anything other that budget deficits and the national debt. Meanwhile the economy sputters along, half-paralyzed by uncertainty about Obama's policies and intentions. The MSM tells us that the recent market plunge is due to anxiety over Greece and some of the other EU member nations, but they're only telling half of the story. Neither Wall Street nor Main Street are worried only about the European economy affecting our own, the big concern is that they see America rushing headlong over the same cliff and a president who seems determined to accellerate the process.
The president's ongoing reaction to the tragic oil spill has been inconsistent at best and misdirected at worst. I am not one who believes that the President of the United States is personally responsible for micro-managing the response to natural and man-made disasters, but there are things he can and should be doing to faciliatate and expedite the process. His omissions have not only been injurous to the cleanup, but they've made his utter lack of executive experience woefully apparent.
And don't even get me started on "Obamacare". Ill-conceived, poorly-legislated, and passed only through the exercise of bare-knuckle politics and parliamentary tricks; this pig-in-a-poke has united not only the G.O.P. but much of the country in their opposition and intent to repeal it.
I'm sorry if this sounds bitter, but I'm angry. Really angry. I didn't vote for the guy but I know plenty of people who should have known better than to do so. And now we're stuck with him until January 20th 2012. And this is not simply personal pique I'm expressing, I used the word "deadly" intentionally. The 44th president is killing America, and it will take many years to recover from the damage he's done already. God willing, we can start the recovery in November of this year. Elections in America have seldom had higher stakes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)