With regard to Nepotism and Favortism
[from a post to a local email list]
Isn't it questionable to try to knock it down to "Bush didn't do anything by himself" ? No, I don't think people here really believe that Bush is the instigator of all the negative things that have occurred while he was in office. I think they refer to "Bush" in the same way that I think of the whole administration. Voting for Bush voted for the way things are run right now, and for his choices in Administration. I don't think anyone is foolish enough to think that Bush is capable - or competent enough - to do most of the damage by himself. So I'll make an effort to refer to them as the Bush Administration, just to assert how much I think it is a combined effort.Decrying the actions of a party, leader or administration is not the sole responsibility or reaction of those who "didn't win." I had a long conversation with a 60-ish woman the other day who stated, and I quote, "I'm ashamed that I voted for George Bush." Technically she won - the person she voted for got in. But she felt she had even more of a right and a responsibility to state that Bush & Co are not good for our country, in her opinion. I respect that so highly. I think it is every person's responsibility to hold their leaders accountable for the best interests of the people, and even if I chose that person, if they are screwing it up, I should call them on it.
I personally feel that Bush/Cheney are sort of a dynamic duo of dirty deeds. Let's forget for a moment that Bush/Cheney have undermined checks and balances personally numerous times in ways that no other Executive Office have in the past - openly refusing to answer the Supreme Court, holding themselves out as above the law, and pushing through legislation where the fundamental rights of people can be ignored in the name of terrorism. This might be egregious enough to be upset about and show how checks and balances are being destroyed by this Administration.
Instead, let's focus on the special interest industry people who have been put into lead positions of departments which has eroded a lot of the checks and balances you are talking about. The heads of the agencies and departments are supposed to be watching industry and protecting the people. The Bush Administration has directly undermined the checks and balances that existed here.
Examples? I'll give you plenty:
Vice President Dick Cheney's son-in-law, Philip Perry, has been named deputy attorney general. Secretary of State Colin Powell's son, Michael Powell, is the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Powell was appointed to the FCC by President Clinton in 1997 and elevated to chairman earlier this year. Bush also re-appointed him to another term on the commission, until 2007.
Budget Director Mitchell Daniels' sister, Deborah, has been appointed assistant attorney general. Deputy White House press secretary Scott McClellan's brother is on the president's Council of Economic Advisers.
The brother of White House political director Ken Mehlman -- Bruce -- is an assistant secretary of commerce.
In the broader Republican family, relatives of Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Antonin Scalia also have been picked for plum posts in the Bush administration. Janet Rehnquist is the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Eugene Scalia is solicitor general at the Labor Department. He was one of Bush's attorneys when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the then-Republican presidential candidate in the Florida election case.
Business Week magazine opined: "Dads, sons and other relatives reign so widely in this administration that there have never been so many family combos in an administration at the same time."
(http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/35502_helen177.shtml)
Chairman and Member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) - Michael E. Baroody, of Virginia . Baroody is the executive vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). NAM is one of the nation's largest trade groups and it opposes aggressive product safety regulation.
After dropping three national experts in lead poisoning from the Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services appointed several individuals with ties to the lead industry, including a lead industry consultant who had testified that a lead level seven times the current limit is safe for children’s brains. Dr. William Banner, who has served as an expert witness for Sherwin-Williams paint company, a maker of lead paint, and Dr. Joyce Tsuji, who worked for two companies that represented lead firms . The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) nominated as chair of the FDA’s Reproductive Health Drug Advisory Committee an anti-abortion activist who recommends that women read the bible for relief of premenstrual symptoms. The appointee’s principal credential appears to be his opposition to the abortifacient RU-486.
Advisory Committee to the CDC’s Director - The Bush Administration appointed a prominent advocate of abstinence-only programs, Dr. Joe McIlhaney .
In August 2002, HHS appointed 15 new members of this committee, apparently without consulting NCEH director Dr. Richard Jackson. The new advisers, who now constitute a majority of the 18-member committee, include individuals with close ties to regulated industries, such as:
• Roger McClellan, former director of the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology;
• Becky Norton Dunlop, Vice President of the anti-regulatory Heritage Foundation and opponent of federal environmental regulations while serving as an official in Virginia;
• Lois Swirsky Gold, a risk assessment specialist who has minimized reports linking environmental pollutants with cancer; and
• Dennis Paustenbach, a toxicologist whose firm does paid risk assessments for industry
(from http://oversight.house.gov/features/politics_and_science/pdfs/pdf_politics_and_science_rep.pdf)
Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose department headed the panel that approved the Dubai Ports deal, came to the Bush administration from the chairmanship of CSX, a rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World the year after Snow joined the administration. The new head of the Maritime Administration, David Sanborn, worked for both CSX and Dubai Ports.
Bush’s first mine safety chief, David Lauriski, resigned in late 2004 after CBS' 60 Minutes revealed that his agency had improperly awarded no-bid, single-source contracts to coal industry companies to which he was tied. Lauriski also tried to push through changes in coal dust regulations that miraculously benefited only his former employer—even other mine operators were opposed.
Thomas Scully, the man who served in the Bush Administration just long enough to implement the badly-flawed Medicare Drug Benefit, came from a job with the hospital association and left directly to the drug industry.
David Safavian, the head of the White House Office of Federal Procurement Policy was a former lobbyist and Hill staffer with no prior experience in government contracting; he has since been arrested in connection with the sprawling corruption investigation surrounding lobbyist Jack Abramoff, an old friend and colleague. His expertise was the getting of contracts for politically powerful outfits.
As Deputy Secretary of Interior, former energy industry lobbyist J. Steven Griles pushed for the leasing of public lands for oil, gas and coal development. Griles, like Safavian an Abramoff buddy, continued to receive annual severance payments from his former firm while he was at Interior. He was investigated for arranging meetings between former clients and partners and department officials; the department’s inspector general said his behavior eroded public trust. He’s now back in the energy lobbying business.
Scott Gottlieb, a high-ranking Food and Drug Administration official, is a former harsh critic of the agency who published a Wall Street newsletter with tips on hot bio stocks; he also blogged as fdainsider.com. At the agency, Gottlieb, deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs, has pushed cautious subordinates to expedite product approvals.
Kenneth Tomlinson, the former chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, resigned after investigations found activities trying to influence PBS news content in a more conservative direction improper. Tomlinson himself did not work in broadcasting, though he served as a member of several Reagan-era broadcasting policy boards. His longest tenure was at Reader’s Digest.
In matters of the law, there is of course Harriet Miers , a Bush legal troubleshooter with no judicial experience who was nevertheless nominated to the Supreme Court before her name was withdrawn in response to a welter of criticism.
Less well known is Julie Myers, head of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, who also had a thin resume but is the niece of the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and had, at the time of her nomination, recently married the chief of staff of her boss-to-be, Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff. Perhaps her main credential: she had worked for the zealous Clinton-hunter Ken Starr.
(from http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/06/appointees_guarding_the_henhouse.php)
We saw that most recently with FEMA, where Bush first appointed his campaign manager, Joe Allbaugh, a man with no appropriate emergency or management experience. He then installed as his successor Michael Brown, a man who had never managed more than two people and whose career pinnacle was investigating misconduct at horse shows.
Head of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Air and Radiation - William Wehrum to replace former EPA air chief Jeff Holmstead. Both men previously worked for the law firm Latham & Watkins, which often represents electric utilities. Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, was president of Searle Pharmaceuticals, now owned by Monsanto.
Secretary of Agriculture, Ann Veneman, was on the board of directors of Calgene Pharmaceuticals, an affiliate of Monsanto.
Mitch Daniels, Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Daniels was the vice president of corporate strategy at Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical company. Eli Lilly and Monsanto developed the genetically engineered bovine growth hormone. Lilly "owns" the European "franchise." Daniels presence insures that the bovine growth hormone will one day be approved for use in Europe.
Or perhaps other ways that the Administration has used its weight to affect world policy...http://www.commercialalert.org/issues/health/international-public-health/secret-document-shows-bush-administration-effort-to-stop-global-anti-obesity-initiative
I guess I really feel that one can only delude oneself for so long. No, our country isn't in a shambles just yet, but I feel the 8 years we just went through went far to undermine the integrity of our political and governmental system - within our country and in the world. And no amount of larger tax returns will make me feel proud of that.
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exponential) wrote,
