Kleptocracy, Cronyism and War Profiteers – Part Five

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

The brown nosers have been nothing but a disaster for the Bush Administration, and the country has been, and will be, paying for their monumental mishaps for a very long time. Our financial stability is non-existent. Our policies have sown seeds of hatred. Our politeness has turned to rude and crude behavior unfitting as the leader of the free world.

How can one argue for and from a moral high ground when arguably the most powerful man in the world entertains himself and others with his “inner musical abilities” ? Can we distance ourselves from political allies whom the President amuses himself by describing them as “not be the prettiest person on the block” ? When you’re in trouble and need friends, they’re apt to grab your hands and legs and toss you head first into the briar patch. “With friends like this, who needs enemies?”

There are countless hacks that are rewarded with cushy ambassadorships to foreign embassies for raising huge sums of cash for Bush and the Republican National Committee.

“And, of course, there are wealthy interests who keep the party alive financially and who must be rewarded on all possible fronts. This, actually, is the one service Republicans do perform competently. They make damn sure of that.”

Why is it this group of Republicans is exceptionally gifted when it comes to raising and spending cash, but have opted to shred the image of being strong on defense and tight fiscal conservatism?

Since Henry Kissinger has made a “comeback” (according to Bob Woodward’s new book, “State of Denial”) I’m reminded of his fabulously accurate (and frighteningly autobiographical) observation: “power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.” The only immediate problem I have in terms of Kissinger are best summed up by a couple of bad country and western songs – “How can I miss you when you won’t go away?” and in honor of his name: “Get Your Tongue Out Of My Mouth (Because I’m Kissin’ You Goodbye ) ”.

How come we can send an old horse to the glue factory, but we’ve got to put up with politicians who are well past their expiration dates, getting involved in administrations they’re not appointed to. Go out to pasture like a good little glue horse! It’s time for someone to file a FOIA on the White House visitor’s log and Mr. Kissinger’s visits, and find out how many times he’s been in giving war advice to President Bush. Anyone else having Forrest Gump flashbacks? “ Stupid is, as stupid does ”?

It’s hard to believe Harriet Miers was one of the few crony “show ponies” President Bush’s didn’t get approved, demonstrating his total lapse of judgment while giving the peasants a royal wave off . He picked a woman with little experience in Constitutional law and reportedly has tort law experience. Did she get into Bush’s good graces during the tort reform fights? She has never had the experience of a sitting judge, yet she is being tapped on the shoulder to sit on the most important court. Has she even argued a case in front of the US Supreme Court? Not from what I can see, but in case I’ve missed something, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. She is unknown among her peers, but what bothered me the most (beyond the cronyism), is that she has no paper trail because according to reports, it was her job to keep clients out of the courtroom. If someone is going to have the opportunity to make new case law, I would prefer it if they had experience on both sides of the bench first.

A good litmus test in this case is to determine how other sitting judges view such controversial nominations . Keep in mind I’m no fan of Judge Bork for one reason: he’s consider a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research – AKA, a conservative think tank that makes no apologies regarding their extreme Christian Zionist bias. Otherwise, the man is correct in this case: not even the ultra far Right would consider her qualified to sit on the nation’s highest bench.

The President must have absolutely no confidence whatsoever in the ability of his cronies to perform their jobs or else he wouldn’t consistently skip the nomination process by appointing people during the recess periods .

One good “quagMier” deserves another (Julie) Meyers . This recess appointment is well connected – the niece of Gen. Richard Meyers, and married to the chief of staff for the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff. The job description for the Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security spells out some very specific qualifications:

"Section 442 ( Page 116 STAT. 2193, item #2B ) of Public Law 107-296  , which created the Department of Homeland Security required the assistant secretary responsible for border and transportation security: ‘Shall have a minimum of 5 years professional experience in law enforcement, and a minimum of 5 years of management experience.’”   It seems cronyism has its guardian angel in high places. In a signing ceremony in Scottsdale, Arizona , President Bush signed into law a document that establishes minimum requirements on new hires for FEMA as a measure to protect the American public from “Brownie cronyism” in light of a horrifically botched Hurricane Katrina emergency response. After the fanfare had gone away and the press organizations retired for the night, the infamous “presidental signing statement” slithered silently onto the corkboard for the main stream media to ignore.   Also on that signing day is a terrifying little nugget the President hoped wouldn’t be spotted:

The White House also reserved the right to withhold or alter reports of a unit that monitors DHS use of Americans’ personal information in background checks, employment screening and air travel, among other things.

Excuse me?! “Withhold or alter”? There are innocent Americans who can’t even get off the State Department’s terrorist no-fly watch list who get strip searched every time they try to fly, and we’re going to trust these government hacks with personal information they can alter or withhold at will? They can’t even protect a laptop computer from in office theft, but I digress…

In light the posting requires, not gently suggests but requires the candidate to possess law enforcement experience, this isn’t merely for grins and giggles. In the event of a major incident, the qualified candidate needs to understand regulatory rules and make sound judgments based on existing law, not guess based on bureaucratic standard operating procedures. As Michael Brown learned, a disaster is no time to be on a learning curve. The candidate is not running an ice cream shop, but the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency under DHS. To put someone into this position not only eeks of cronyism, but it screams the rule of law is once again under attack. At every turn the Bush Administration has tried to get around laws of this country – recess appointments, signing statements, secret renditions, and illegal tribunals.   “ Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio) went so far as to tell Myers that her résumé indicates she is not qualified for the job. ”

The Senator was correct, and then he backed down. Why? In the real world I have been passed over in interviews because I did not have all the skills or qualifications as outlined in the requisition order. In Washington D.C. , the less qualified you are, the greater your chances are to be awarded the position. Mediocrity rules…literally!

If you want to talk about the most famous of President Bush’s sneak through recess appointments, that dubious honor goes to none other than Ambassador John Bolton . It was like watching the Fourth of July in March; only these guys were aiming the roman candles at each other.

I’d like to say this man parses his words so well it slides by your ears like fine silk, however, when he talks, it reminds me of when Roseanne sung the National Anthem. What scares me is if President Bush’s policies are called “cowboy diplomacy”, then Bolton ’s strain must be “crony diplomacy”. Granted, the United Nations is considered to be nothing more than a rich playboys’ club who do little and enjoy diplomatic immunity from their millions in parking tickets and I’m not letting those do-nothings off the hook, but Bolton is the face of America , which is scary. What ever happened to the concept of “putting your best face forward”?

If John Bolton is exhibiting such stellar performance, then someone’s going to have to explain to me why the United Nations employed the use of a “Special Envoy to Darfur ”. This isn’t any ordinary hack being tapped and run up the flagpole, this is Boston’s “Big Dig” $16 billion dollar hack . I could almost overlook the mammoth cost overruns with Boston’s third harbor tunnel…before the three-ton overhead poured concrete tiles started to fall from the ceiling and crush cars driving below. (As much as I’d like to “third rail” this guy since I’m a native of Massachusetts , I’ll give him a pass; I can only burn so many people at one sitting.) Who else were they going to ask to stand up? After all, Bolton was busy playing Republican politics instead of helping to alleviate human suffering on a grandiose scale all too familiar on the African continent.

At every turn during the Israeli-Lebanese war this summer, Mr. Bolton shamelessly acted in perfect concert with not only the Bush Administration, but also the Israeli war machine. He actively caused problems in the United Nations, blocking any progress they attempted to make like an eight hundred pound gorilla. In the beginning of the military offensive, Israel made it clear they’d need about a week to bomb Hezbollah strongholds, however, one week turned into thirty four days, with each passing one increasing the estimated timeframe they required. As the shifting sands of Israeli intelligence estimates changed due to incompetence, so did John Bolton’s tactics. His job was simple: buy Israel all the time he could to bomb the stuffing out of Lebanon . If you want to consider that “progress”, then perversely I’d have to admit his objects had been satisfied.

In light of his mission accomplished, he recently underwent round two for a permanent nomination to the United Nations , which was scuttled by Senator Lincoln Chafee due to his very tight re-election race, whatever the reason, the Senator has done us quite the favor . Thank you for the pre-election day gift!

Many of Bolton’s problems in the Senate hearings stemmed from his effort to drum up a "Cuba has biological weapons" scare. He tried to fire two intelligence officers who had the temerity to disagree with him. Under oath, he denied trying to have the men fired, but seven intelligence officials contradicted him. In a typically intemperate statement, Bolton had dismissed the opinion of the chief bio-weapons analyst at State as that of "a mid-level munchkin."

As Senator Voinovich put it, "I do not believe the United States, at this dangerous time, can afford to have a UN ambassador who does not have Congress’s full support.” Does the American public have a say in who represents them on the world stage!? Considering Senator Voinovich has already proven himself susceptible to the snake charming spells of other Bush hacks, why on earth should anyone trust him to do what’s in the best interest of this country?

The most disturbing aspect of Bolton ’s nomination isn’t the recess appointment trick …again… it’s the fact he’s extremely pro-Zionist at the expense of the American political system . Who’s pro-American in this government?! I’m not anti-semitic; I’m frustrated this country is under the damned thumb of Israel while we grant them carte blanche foreign aid unrivaled by any other country.

There are is a large chorus of well-known voices screaming John Bolton is very wrong for the United Nations . They (United Nations diplomats) may be marginalized due to their own playboy attitudes, but it’s not Bolton’s job to bust heads like a mob enforcer and threaten the world body . His job is to work together for the greater goal of peace and to make the world a better place – in theory, of course. Wherever he is placed, he causes consternation and aggravation (read a few examples here and here and here ). How can one aspire to help when you’re too busy bashing the organization you want to be the ambassador to ?

I want an American government that serves American interests in an ethical and fair manner instead of instigating a constant state of war. I want an American government that can figure out how to “play nice” with not only our allies, but with potential threats. I want an American government that doesn’t go in search of giving or getting black eyes as a form of entertainment. I want an American government that stops meddling in every other country’s political system when our system is broken and begs for serious attention. I want an American government that stops worrying about overseas trends as if its oxygen it desperately needs in order to breathe, and for once, pay attention to the actual social problems here in our own country. I want an American government who shuts the free trade fiasco down and revamps it into fair trade so American businesses can effectively compete and Americans like me are no longer end up in a revolving door of job losses due to cheap outsourced labor and tax breaks.

I want my American government to wake up and stop acting like a four-year old temper tantrum stooge in a wet, soggy diaper. Is this too much to ask?

Want more critical thinking? You can find articles by Suzanne Bald and other authors at Axis of Logic . If you enjoyed this article, consider digging it with others!