Should the Bush-Cheney carryover security people be sacked?

The screenshot is from the top of the official White House web homepage as it stands today, Jan. 7. Go there if you care to "watch the video."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

Should Obama, Biden, Secretary Clinton, Secretary Gates, and Secretary Nepolitano clean house? Most of the security people who blundered are carryover individuals. They are not ones that were recruited and installed into job assignments since Jan. 1, 2009. A few might be, but not the bulk of the rank-and-file in the faulty procedures, faulty judgment, and faulty communications situation hind sight is revealing.

Recall how Bush rewarded his National Security Czar, Condi Rice, for her negligence prior to 9/11 by making her Secretary of State? A promotion for failure to perform.

Should error of that kind be repeated?

Reuters today, this link, reports:

President Barack Obama "is legitimately and correctly alarmed that things that were available, bits of information that were available, patterns of behavior that were available, were not acted on," Jones said in the interview published on Thursday.

Jones, Obama's top aide on security and foreign policy issues, predicted that Americans will feel "a certain shock" when they learn of the account the White House is to release later in the day.

"That's two strikes," he said, referring to the failed airplane bombing and a November shooting rampage by U.S. Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood, Texas, in which officials also failed to act on warning signs.

But Jones also suggested the report would show that the Obama administration is now on top of events.

"We know what happened, we know what didn't happen, and we know how to fix it," he told the newspaper. "That should be an encouraging aspect. We don't have to reinvent anything to make sure it doesn't happen again."

The president is scheduled to make a public statement when the White House released the report. The review is expected to make recommendations on plugging holes in security, including changes in passenger screening and terrorism watch lists.

Obama has already acknowledged a security "screw up" that officials say allowed a Nigerian man to board a Detroit-bound airliner in Amsterdam on Christmas Day with explosives sewn into his underwear that later failed to ignite.

[emphasis added] There is nothing in there among the reporting about cleaning house, assigning responsibility and then punishing inappropriate handling of duties by dismissals. Should there be? Certainly the negligence is paled in comparison to Bushco reading from the goat book while the trade center buildings were being brought down; but this is supposed to be an administration predicated on "CHANGE" so changing some culpable individuals from the government payroll to the unemployment rolls might be viewed by some as appropriate action in a "change-oriented" regime.

And this Crabgrass post is not a call for a ceremonial top department head falling on the sword, taking one for the team. I have more in mind the question of appropriate actions to be taken with answers being found via investigating who screwed up, got lax, got into turf wars or whatever, and my question is would it then be proper to be rolling appropriate responsible [irresponsible actually] heads to send a message up and down the security-bureaucracy complex that accountability is more than a dictionary word.

As was done by Gates in response to the armed nuclear weapon handling and transit fiasco; where responsible heads rolled, see here and here for extended in-depth reporting and opinion.

People at high responsibility levels were sacked over that one. But it was military chain of command, with the intelligence-security complex levels of responsibility and accountability not nearly as publicly well understood.

Will we instead see the situation as one where communication among security personnel was the fault, with the presidential answer being more Bushco imitation, curbing the freedom of the populace more, as per the offensive "Patriot Act" restraints on freedoms that until then had been longstanding and treasured. Will the Obama answer be the Bush answer, spy more on the population?

Finally along the lines of lax behavior, and those responsible paying a price, the situation of the double agent bomber at the Afghan CIA site has gotten less press coverage but the negligence there resulted in the responsible folks being blown up by the suicide bombing that Taliban claimed as theirs. Coverage here.

It seems to me that situation is "strike three" but with the instantaneous deaths to mark the laxity, we can expect that folks out at that field level in covert activity will not show a flat learning curve. The immediacy of the price paid is so very clear.

On other stuff, if the answer to lax behavior of officials will be to impose more on the general freedoms of the population; the likely result; on that --

We wait. We see.

EMILY's list - a formal Tarryl Clark Endorsement in Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District contest.

Two of Minnesota's leading DFL legislators seeking other offices so far have gained EMILY's List formal endorsement. Earlier Crabgrass featured the Kelliher endorsement, this link.

NOW, as of yesterday, Jan 5, include Tarryl Clark as being our second legislaror so endorsed.

-- Two links, Polinaut; here; and Minnesota Progressive Project; here; give text of the press release - statement endorsing Clark.

For further media coverage, see Strib here, Minn Post here, and PiPress, briefly, here and here. Rather than repeat that - please visit the links for the full statement - Crabgrass presents a screenshot excerpt - click it to enlarge and read - from the Emily's List website at this page, on Clark; (for interested readers, this link, on other EMILY's List endorsed candidates).



Well, the anti-progressive, anti-family choice, anti-DFL voice has been raised, the ultra-right wing True North site noting:

Republican Party Chairman Tony Sutton issued this statement on Tarryl's latest endorsement:

Today's endorsement of Tarryl Clark by the far-left group EMILY's List is yet another indication that Clark is out-of-touch with the families of the sixth congressional district. EMILY's List only supports candidates who support the 'right' to partial-birth-abortions and oppose parental notification for minors. If Clark thinks her blatant disregard for human life will help her succeed on Election Day, she is greatly mistaken.

Normally, I cringe a little bit when I read the term out of touch because it frequently is used when more vivid descriptions can be used. This time, I wholeheartedly agree that Tarryl's views on abortion are totally out-of-step with CD-6. In 2006, a writer for MSNBC called CD-6 "the Bible Belt of the North." That's an accurate depiction of CD-6.

When President Bush campaigned in St. Cloud in 2004, he noted in his speech that Central Minnesota had a high Catholic population, which meant that this is a strong pro-life district.

That right-wing item is cross-posted, here.

Not all of the Sixth District is polarized the way the True North writer indicates. There are a substantial number of progressive thinkers in the district, believing that families are best positioned to make their size and timing decisions themselves, they have the liberty and right that way, and that others should cease wanting to tell free Americans how to live and choose and exercise freedom. Constraints others would put on individual and family freedom are viewed as intrusion by a good number of sensible people in the district. The Clark candidacy and the progressive endorsements she has attained show that. And, may the DFL endorsement challenger, Maureen Reed, publicly be equally pro-freedom and pro-liberty in supporting family liberty in making family choices as Clark is and has been. Intrusive interference in family choice matters by the government, or private parties is okay with the GOP, who nonetheless posture as if they value liberties. They don't, or they would not go down that abusive and intursive road as they repeatedly and happily have. They are hypocrites, first rate hypocrites, that way.

___________UPDATE___________
For those reading the screenshot, not going to the EMILY's List page, you cannot work the "Make a contribution" toggle from the image, so to contribute:

http://emilyslist.org/support/TC_profile

It's important to know that the toggle opens to a page where you can earmark a Clark donation, as well as give a general donation to the organization.

_____FURTHER UPDATE_______
While giving to EMILY's List is good because it spreads the wealth, the Sixth District has two capable challengers to the incumbent, and it's often best and easiest to give directly instead of routing and earmarking via third parties.

The Tarryl Clark direct contribution page is here.

The Maureen Reed direct contribution page is here.

A sound write-up on Mark Dayton, New Year's Eve, the N.Y. Times, proving remoteness can aid objectivity and that terse clear writing helps.

This link.

If any reader has trouble opening the link, leave a comment. I have a screenshot I can post, but use the link as long as it works. Some resources that have a subscription page, as NYTimes does, can be a nuisance even when access is free. If you encounter access problems, please leave a comment.

_________UPDATE__________
You have to like Dayton because he is as unlike Tim Pawlenty as one could be. Rybak reminds me of Pawlenty, in "the other party." And for Rybak, the Obama coat tails have worn thin, given how Obama has squandered goodwill and hope among progressives.

We keep waiting for change.

And it is 100% understandable and something to be sympathetic toward, the galling frustrations Dayton had to feel in the Senate. Seeing how those clowns bungled around the healthcare thing, bloviating and showing egos out of line with capabilities, serving special interests, Nelson, Lieberman, those of that kind, it is no hard task to understand exactly what pissed Dayton off about having to deal with that kind of people and that mentality and mind set day in and day out.

As governor, it's the driver's seat, not less, and there is no way Dayton would abuse the public trust attaching to it the way Pawlenty has. Dayton would be as different from Pawlenty as day is from night.

Dayton would be quite a good choice as governor. Other DFL candidates would also, so the choice is not easy. But Dayton is one of the more appealing options, should the DFL in its unpredictable ways, end up endorsing a lesser luminary than Mark Dayton.

"Tax the rich" is sound policy, as is his favoring single payer along the lines John Marty has proposed. Dayton has the courage to not equivocate, and we know he's not in it for the money or to serve some hidden agenda. What you see is what you get.

He says, "Tax the rich," and you can believe that if elected he would devote his energies in that direction.

It's the complete opposite of promising "Change" and then not making any.

Advance Our Homeland. Get morons out of Washington DC.

photo from here

UNALLOTMENT DECISION - Have you ever noticed how sorehead losers react, especially those biased on the right?

Have a look at what sorehead non-lawyer Luke Hellier has to say, and the non-lawyers who comment at the GOP website he maintains; here. "Left Wing Judge ..." in the headline offends. Because a jurist put politics to the side and READ the Minnesota Constitution and was learned in the law from years on the bench, she's "Left Wing" because the decision was NOT politicized the way this turkey would have wanted it.

How trustworthy is that approach to things? In the two politicized branches, legislature and executive, such criticism arguably may be warranted.

And notice, it is "judicial activism," to not decide an issue the way Luke Hellier in all his skill and wisdom and impartiality would have wanted things.

Get real, Hellier.

Hellier, you are being a true and total hack over this. A hack without shame or discipline. And a dunce.

Consider this -- Who else should have taken such a controversial case, but the chief judge of the court, especially when she owed her initial position only to the electorate (not appointed to the court and then running as an incumbent, or that's what the biography suggests and any reader can correct me in a comment if that's an incorrect reading of things and her first sitting on the bench was via a governor's appointment).

It appears the critics neither cared to read the bio, it's online here, or the Minnesota Constitution before voicing learned opinions and views. The Minnesota Constitution does give a hint of how the judiciary has a position in the government, a role, and how it was discharged in this instance. It's worth a reading, before a pontification. The Pope has read the Bible, before talking about it, before saying what it means.

Below is a screenshot of the leading part of the Gearin online bio, again the full item is here.



_________UPDATE________
Actually, an apology to Hellier and much more so to those putting up comments to his MDE post. The comments there were generally helpful, and Hellier did not use the cliche GOP hack-job hackneyed language term, "judicial activism." I mistook a statement attributed elsewhere to House GOP Whip Dan Severson as if it had been said by Hellier; Severson being the one claimed, by GOP partisans, to have stooped that low in insulting the English language; this link. I erred. It was a GOP politician not a GOP blogger who allegedly was that egregious. Sorry, Luke.

_______FURTHER UPDATE_______
Gary at LFR gives blurb quotes, without links or indications of full words for a context. His source[s] go undisclosed, hence, verification becomes difficult. Gary links to another blogger, here. Take it all with a grain of salt, it is GOP partisan doings, not independent reporting or analysis. The linked blog item says factual debate should not be closed, but remains debateable, yet that blogger also gives absolutely no verifiable links to test the authenticity of his factual claims about the give-and-take he alleges to have happened between executive and legislative branches.

One wonders what record the reviewing Court will have in making an ultimate decision. One hopes and expects more quality will be in that record than baldly asserted outsider views of what happened. Something better hopefully would be passed on to the higher court for review. Judge Gearin gives every indication of being careful in forming a record of factual verities upon which the higher court can base its interpretations of governing law.

RAMSEY - Perhaps with yet a different consultant there might be other Met Council grants to attain. Some can deliver. Some only promise.

New TP Podium blog has a post on an interesting petition. Even "librals" might want to sign it.

This link, for the blog post. I am unsure of who is pushing the amendment or how it is being channeled, but the comment there about making sure the dogs are not misfed says something "librals" dissatisfied with the meanderings of House and Senate might feel.

Everyone should sign the petition. I did.

It is at this link:

http://fleming.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=55§iontree=29,55

_________UPDATE_________
I subscribed to the mailing list of the GOP Louisiana congressman. Keep friends close, etc. I expect I would agree with little else he stands for, but saying the hacked up job that will become law should be the coverage those writing it are stuck with is only fairness to everyone else having to live with the good, bad, and ugly.