Moses Kagan's Aurora Borealis

Now that we have further proof that Monica Goodling, Alberto Gonzelez's aide, subverted the civil service laws designed to protect the jobs of career government workers from political interference, I have a few questions:

1. Will Goodling and the other guilty parties be punished? Is there any doubt that what they did (perverting the hiring process in the Justice Department such that non-partisan or Democratic leaning candidates could not be hired or promoted) was worse for the country than, say, some crackhead robbing a liquor store? At the very least, these people ought to be disbarred, convicted in court, and run out of Washington D.C. on a rail.
   
2. What about the political hacks they hired? Do the civil service laws that Goodling ignored now protect these incompetents from a thorough house-cleaning after the election?

This is most assuredly NOT an isolated incident. The Republican Party has gone beyond mere disagreement with the laws and regulations it dislikes. Instead, under President Bush, the GOP has been relentless in subverting the power and credibility of those parts of the Executive Branch tasked with enforcing rules it finds disagreeable, the Justice Department being just one example.

We Americans have endured the consequences in ways large and small: the response to Katrina by the cronies running FEMA, the bungling of the Iraq occupation after the Administration transferred authority from the "unfriendly" State Department to the more pliable Defense Department, the lack of enforcement of voting rights protections for minorities during recent elections by the Voting Rights office of the Justice Deparment, and the un-ending stream of recalls of unsafe food and toys by the under-staffed and under-funded FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection (whose Bush-appointed leader actually testified to Congress that she did not want more power and money to police toy companies), to name a few.

These were not accidents. They were the foreseeable outcomes of policies cooked up by an Administration staffed by people who believe that government, all government, is bad.

Labels: Bush, Monica Goodling, Republicans

Great article, even better headline:

"Obama Overseas! In Presidential Mode! Back Home, It's McCain in a Golf Cart."

Labels: McCain, Obama

Mark my words:

Obama is going to give at least one speech in Europe that is much more pro-American than people are expecting. He is going to publicly give the Europeans, particularly the French, a hard time about not fulfilling their responsibilities in Afghanistan.

Why am I so sure? Two reasons: First, Obama has a history of telling groups what they don't want to hear. Want examples? He has repeatedly excoriated black males (as a group) in front of black audiences for not being sufficiently involved with their children. He also swatted down the Clinton / McCain Fuel Tax Holiday Idiocy.

Second, the media is waiting to pounce on anything that Obama does overseas that could be construed as talking down to Americans (like the infamous "bitter" talk in San Francisco). What better way to swing things the other way than to give the Euros a (deserved) tongue-lashing for not pulling their weight?

Labels: Europe, Obama, speech

From the Times:
"As the administration wrestles with the cascade of petitions, some lawyers and law professors are raising a related question: Will Mr. Bush grant pre-emptive pardons to officials involved in controversial counterterrorism programs?

Such a pardon would reduce the risk that a future administration might undertake a criminal investigation of operatives or policy makers involved in programs that administration lawyers have said were legal but that critics say violated laws regarding torture and surveillance.

Some legal analysts said Mr. Bush might be reluctant to issue such pardons because they could be construed as an implicit admission of guilt. But several members of the conservative legal community in Washington said in interviews that they hoped Mr. Bush would issue such pardons — whether or not anyone made a specific request for one. They said people who carried out the president’s orders should not be exposed even to the risk of an investigation and expensive legal bills.

“The president should pre-empt any long-term investigations,” said Victoria Toensing, who was a Justice Department counterterrorism official in the Reagan administration. “If we don’t protect these people who are proceeding in good faith, no one will ever take chances."

Exactly.

Labels: Bush, pardons

Take a quick look at the people charged with shaping the Republican Party Platform. Does that look like the America you live in? Four old, white dudes? Really?

Labels: Republicans

Michael Arrington has a piece on Techcrunch today ripping into Microsoft for offering to consider re-entering merger talks if Yahoo replaces its board. He argues that: "...Microsoft, led by CEO Steve Ballmer, have taken Yahoo’s rebuffs entirely too personally. It’s no longer just about business, it’s about destroying and humiliating the people who embarrassed Microsoft."

False. The reason that Microsoft is insisting that Yahoo replace its board before re-entering talks is that Jerry Yang and his allies previously gave Microsoft the distinct impression that, rather than submit to a merger, they would "burn the furniture [and] destroy the place".

We can all understand why Yang would have gone to extreme lengths to try to keep the company he founded from being subsumed into Microsoft. However, we can also all understand why Microsoft, having had its fingers burned once, would prefer never to deal with him again.

My unsolicited advice to Yahoo shareholders: Fire the board, do a deal, and get on with life.

Labels: merger, Microsoft, Yahoo

Further to the Jesse Helms post:

Here is a partial list of Mr. Helm's "achievements" as adapted from Marc Thiessen in the Post:

1. Helms led the successful effort to bring Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into NATO
2. He won overwhelming approval for his legislation to support the Cuban people in their struggle against a tyrant. - [Helms-Burton strengthened the embargo, which has been an embarrassing policy failure since JFK's Administration.]
   
3. He secured passage of bipartisan legislation to protect our men and women in uniform from the International Criminal Court. [We, alone in the West, have refused to acknowledge the legitimacy and jurisdiction of a court designed to bring war criminals to justice. Thanks, Jesse.]
   
4. He won majority support in the Senate for his opposition to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. [In insisting upon our right to test nuclear weapons, we incentivize other countries, like Iran, to pursue their own.]
   
5. He helped secure passage of the Iraq Liberation Act, which expressed strong bipartisan support for regime change in Baghdad. [We all know how this story unfolded.]
   

If these "achievements" are among the best arguments in favor of Helm's career that Thiessen can muster, I think he's proven my point for me.

Labels: Jesse Helms

Of all the things Jesse Helms did in his long career, waging a long, bitter rear-guard action to block funding for AIDS prevention and treatment was the worst. Here is the relevant part of the Times obituary:

"He fought bitterly against federal financing for AIDS research and treatment, saying the disease resulted from 'unnatural' and 'disgusting' homosexual behavior. "Nothing positive happened to Sodom and Gomorrah," he said, "and nothing positive is likely to happen to America if our people succumb to the drumbeats of support for the homosexual lifestyle."

Helm's personal crusade against funding for AIDS meant that thousands, possibly millions, of people here and around the world died needlessly from a disease which (with a bit more research) eventually proved manageable, if not yet curable.

There's a tendency in life to smooth over awkward moments and misbehavior in people's lives after they're gone. In this instance, the impulse ought to be avoided. Jesse Helms was a cruel, mean, selfish, bigoted man whose legacy ought to serve as a warning to others who hold similar views now.

The long arc of American history bends toward freedom and compassion and equality. Stand in its way and you will be remembered harshly. Good riddance, Jesse.

Labels: Jesse Helms

Wow. Just wow:

"PARIS — The chief of staff of the French Army resigned on Tuesday, two days after a soldier from one of the country’s top units fired bullets instead of blanks during a military exhibition, injuring at least 16 people and prompting broad outrage and incredulity." - NY Times

Labels: France