Congress gets a raise

After forcing Corporate CEO's to accept salaries of $1/yr based on dubious accusations of responsibility for the economic crisis, Congressmen get $4700/yr. pay increases. And that in the light of rising unemployment, a downturn in the economy, and much of the responsibility for the U.S.'s economic problems falling squarely on the shoulders of...yup, Congress and the policies they enacted. Uncontrolled spending, encouraging irresponsible debt, refusal to address the pending failures of Medicare and Scoail Security, deficit spending...that is the legacy of Congress.

Wish I could be incompetent and get a $4700 raise.

*Pink*

Posted by BubbaJake @ 12:40 pm EDT | Permalink | 7 Comments

Opinions?

I blogged the other day that the guy who threw his shoe at Bush should be tried.  He is now sucking up...errr...asking the Iraqi President for a pardon.

Should he get one?

What should happen to him?

Douche exploiting the system or do you think he really believes he made a mistake?

*Pink*

Posted by BubbaJake @ 12:01 pm EDT | Permalink | 8 Comments

And I wasn't even in Arkansas

Map showing the risk of death from 'Natural Hazards'.  Gives new meaning to the whole 'Red State/Blue State' thing.  Oprah unavailable for comment.

 

Posted by BubbaJake @ 8:54 am EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Art Auction

Hey...I forgot I was supposed to put in a word for the 2old2play Holiday Art Auction. It goes through Dec 22 and there is some cool shit. And it is 2old2play art, not Holiday Art, so if you are looking for midget elf porn, go use google.

*Pink*

 

And check out Obama, the College years. 

 

 

Posted by BubbaJake @ 10:52 am EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Czars

When our government was formed, we had four cabinet positions, State, War, Treasury, and the Attorney General.  The President's Cabinet was to advise and assist the President in running the Executive Branch and these were clearly the most important functions.  In addition to normal operations, the intent was that in time of crisis, the President had the best advice available and the important sectors of public policy had a voice.

Over the years, the Cabinet has grown to 15 Departments plus 6 Cabinet level positions (the VP, White House Chief of Staff, Administrator of the EPA, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, The Director of National Drug Control Policy, and the U.S. Trade Representative).  The expansion of the Cabinet was political (duh) and intended by a given President to show that he felt a particular issue or area was important.  Personally, I fail to see the role the Secretary of Veterans Affairs plays in a National of International crisis, but I'm sure someone got some votes out of the deal and now that the position exists, it cannot be undone.

 

So how does a new President show that his Administration is serious about say, Energy?  Appoint a really good Sec. of Energy?  No, that will never do.  Not flashy enough.  So yesterday, Mr. Obama, of the President ElectObama's , named Carol Browner, the former EPA chief, as a White House Energy Czar.  Now he also named people to head the Dept. of Energy and the EPA.  And he filled the position of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development while also saying he will be naming an urban-affairs czar to work out of the White House.

And dispite the fact that he has the Treasury Department, the Council of Economic Advisers, and the National Economic Council, he named PaulVolker

as the Economic Czar...probably to have him try and make sense out of what the Treasury Department, the Council of Economic Advisers, and the National Economic Council are telling him.

Tom Daschle is unique in that he is going to be secretary of Health and Human Services AND Health Czar.  I wonder if he gets half pay for each, double pay for both, or time-and-a half?

Even Congress is trying to get in on the act and has been making noise about appointing a 'Car Czar'.     

Yet read what Paul Light, and expert on Government from NYU says:

"There've been so many czars over last 50 years, and they've all been failures."

"Nobody takes them seriously anymore."

(reference to homeland security and drug policy)

"The problem is that 'czars' are meant to be all-powerful people who can rise above the problems that plague the federal agencies, but in the end, they can't."

"We only create them because departments don't work or don't talk to each other,"

"It's a symbolic gesture of the priority assigned to an issue, and I emphasize the word symbolic. When in doubt, create a czar."

Am I the only one who sees that if you have a Secretary of Energy and an Energy Czar, you are setting up a huge turf battle?  From the Obama camp...

"the goal is to give special attention to the issues he cares most about, said a transition official. The transition team is currently reviewing campaign promises and options as officials figure out how many more of these jobs are needed."

More Czars.  But the era of the 'Czar' is ending.  The public is tiring of term.  It has been used so much that is it starting to become what it really is...meaningless.  'Prince' sound weak.  'King' threatensObama's manhood.  'God' doesn't work for either the religious right or the loony left.

So my advice to the Obama team is to reinvent the government and come up with some new terms that will inspire the ignorant masses.  We don't need Secretaries and Czars, we need Bad-Assed Mother-Fuckers and Omniscient Super Beings.  Think about it.  Imagine Samuel L. Jackson introducing himself to Kim Jong Il..."I'm the BAMF from State and I'm here to talk to you about those missiles you sold to the Iranians".  Beats the crap out of "I'm the Czar in charge of negotiating with pain-in-the-ass countries run by dwarf Chihuahuas."

But seriously...how big does the government need to get?  It is already so unwieldy we need an 'Uber-Czar' to manage the Czars.  Then we will need Uber-Uber Czars...

We have a War on Drugs that is a failure (at least for the 800,000 non-violent criminals it has put in prison, not for the police agencies that get to confiscate Corvettes), State is a mess...just look at how many times under both Clinton and Bush II North Korea has promised to behave only to say "Never mind", Defense has Congress shoving weapons systems down their throats that they don't want, don't need, and cannot afford because it saves jobs in some congressional district.  Homeland Security?  Don't get me started -- it's aclusterfuck .  Veteran's Affairs?  Sorry, but crack whores are treated better by the government.  Education?  Fuck Education, we need a Parenting Czar who carries a big stick.  Energy?  They watch nukes age and pump oil INTO the ground.  Treasury?  Great understanding of economics there.  Interior doesn't know if they are cutting down or planting trees this week.  The AG is too busy chasing adults watching porn to worry about governmental corruption.  Agriculture is paying the non-farming owners of rural property to not farm (seriously...Realtors tell city folks who want to get out of the city that it is a 'bonus' for owning the rural property).  Sigh.

So given the option of more people working for the government trying to do more fucked-up things in a more disorganized manner, I'm for firing half of the government so that they can do fewer bad things.

*Pink*

Posted by BubbaJake @ 10:01 am EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments