This administration has had a few main goals and one of them is to weaken the federal government to such a degree that it will be useless to the people, unless the government can continue to scare the people into thinking we need the huge military budget we have.
Katrina was not just a hurricane. It was a message to the American people; "you're own your own, Suckers!"
There is another goal of this presidency, leave the horrendous mess BushCo has made to the next president, whom even the GOP figures will be a Democrat. The economy is being held together with bubblegum and baling wire. It has been so since the latest Secretary of the Treasury took office during the second term of this appalling administration.
The hope is that the meltdowns will destroy the Democratic Party once and for all. I sincerely hope that the vast majority of Americans are not that retarded.
It's not that I give a hoot about the Democratic or the Republican party, since I can't figure out what either of them stand for anymore. (I believe we would be much better off with several parties which are more clearly defined in their beliefs about governance and a system that would make members of congress form alliances and work together to govern.)
No, it is more that I hope Americans undertsand that the meltdowns, which will surely come, are the result of the total mismanagement of the government and the nation by this illigitimate administration and that, while the next president will have to lead, it will be up to the people to stand shoulder to shoulder with him or her to work our way out of the horrendous mess we are already facing, and it will take decades, not years.
We can no longer afford to protect the corporate American empire, nor should we. We must focus on our needs here at home and leave the rest of the world alone.
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Except for the occasional swipe at business as usual in Washington, the 2008 campaign has been devoid of the slightest attention to the recent meltdowns in government — the tainted meat, toxic toys, aircraft groundings, contract fraud, counterfeit Heparin or formaldehyde-soaked trailers.
Who knows why? Barack Obama’s children are young enough to play with lead-painted toys, John McCain is a former Navy pilot who has personal experience with airplane crashes, and Hillary Rodham Clinton has eaten more hamburgers on the road than Popeye’s friend, Wimpy.
The problem is that the federal government is perilously close to the breaking point. Unless the next president takes the lead in fixing government, he or she will preside over a string of meltdowns that will make the federal response to Hurricane Katrina look like a minor mistake.
Just imagine for a moment the worst possible circumstances for running a high-performing government.
First, the federal government would be given missions that stretch well beyond its resources. Asked to do more with less, federal employees would eventually be forced to do everything with almost nothing. Old missions would never fade away, even as new missions would suck up scarce resources.
Second, the federal government would be governed by a chain of command that defies logic. Built upon the belief that more leaders would create better leadership, the federal hierarchy would be stocked with needless layers of management and ample opportunities for political interference. There would be so many deputy associate assistant deputy secretaries, assistant associate undersecretaries and assistant assistant secretaries (repetition intended) that no one could be held accountable for what goes right or wrong in government.
Third, the federal government would be led by presidential appointees selected through a process that guarantees delays, vacancies and embarrassment. It would ask nominees to fill out 60 pages of forms listing every detail of their personal lives, including short trips to Canada and Mexico, the names and birthplaces of long dead relatives and in-laws, and any traffic fine over $150. And pity the paranoid nominees who are now asked whether anyone, fairly or unfairly, overtly or covertly, will oppose their nominations.
Fourth, many federal employees would be motivated more by pay and compensation than the chance to make a difference. The civil service system would be slow and confusing in its hiring, permissive in giving promotions, reluctant to penalize poor performance, and penurious in giving the federal service the technology, information, employees, and training to do its job well. Federal employees would estimate that roughly a quarter of their co-workers are not doing their jobs well and would rate their leaders as mediocre at best. “Heck of a job, Brownie” would be long gone from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but his spirit would live on in the DNA of appointees selected solely for their loyalty.
Finally, federal employees would share accountability with a hidden work force of contractors and grantees that disguises the true size of government and diffuses accountability for what goes right and wrong. This shadow work force would grow by more than almost half to nearly 10 million during the war on terror, but it would be nearly impossible to hold it accountable for even egregious failures on the launch pad or in the streets of Baghdad. Under constant harassment from the president’s henchmen, government’s oversight agencies such as the office of inspector general would be unable to keep up with the number of huge contracts awarded without the slightest competition.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.
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