Monday, September 26, 2005

Chokin' on My Own Rage Here

For all of you who were worried about where disgraced former FEMA Head Michael Brown would find work in the aftermath of his staggering incompetence, worry no more. Brown has just been hired as a consultant. For FEMA. To investigate what went wrong with FEMA's response to Katrina.

We'll pause for a second so you can ask if they are, in fact, fucking kidding.

Done? Great.

You know, I'm really starting to think that the administration's staggering incompetence is a result of the fact that Bush only knows a handful of people. Need somebody to review FEMA's mistakes? Call Brownie. Sure, he fucked things up pretty royally when he was there, but I think he's free these days. Need someone to oversee the disaster relief for the Gulf Coast? Um, let's see... How about Karl Rove? Sure, he's a political crony with no experience in that sort of thing, but that's never stopped us before! Need someone to improve diplomatic relations with the Middle East? Let's send Karen Hughes. Sure, she has zero experience with the region, and it's probably a bad idea to send Ms. Man Hands to an area not known for its love of strong, aggressive women, but Karl and Brownie are busy. I mean, who else could we send?

Meanwhile, President Bubble Boy -- last seen here -- is once again busy staffing other important jobs with friends and family members. Who should be appointed head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the Department of Homeland Security? How about Julie Myers? Sure, she has zero experience in this sort of thing, but she's the niece of JCS Chairman Richard Myers and the new bride of DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff's Chief of Staff. She's probably picked up a rough working knowledge at the dinner table. She's got to be as qualified as Janet Rehnquist, Eugene Scalia or Michael Powell, right? Or Liz Cheney and her husband? Or the various brothers of Scott McClellan, Mitch Daniels, and Ken Mehlman?

I wonder where George W. Bush got the idea that someone could and should be entrusted with a top-level government position simply because their family members had already done so. Weird.

11 comments:

Mr Furious said...

Grrrrrrrr...

"You know, I'm really starting to think that the administration's staggering incompetence is a result of the fact that Bush only knows a handful of people."

I'm not so sure. I'm starting to believe in the motive being that Bush is just a straight-up fucking dick. There's plenty of evidence that many of his moves are simply to piss off the opposition. Or to show that he won't be "messed with."

I haven't read anything about this anywhere else yet, I literally checked in here first tonite to check on my earlier comments... but right off the bat this just smacks of another giant Bush "FUCK YOU!" to the rest of us. It also shore himself up with his hard-right Kool-Aid Hannity/Rush base that wants some kind of payback for Bush having to have actually showed weakness.

I long ago passed the point of "I can't even believe this" with these assholes. I believe everything I see and nothing that I hear.

Otto Man said...

Yeah, I ran into Outrage Overload sometime in 2002. Maybe Bush keeps pushing the envelope to see if we can still feel pain?

In other news, it looks like Thrillhous is messing with the margins tonight. That, or my liberal rage has physically moved the text all the way to the left.

Otto Man said...

Actually, I thought the Clintons' two-for-one approach was a disaster from the start. And boy, was it ever.

Studiodave said...

Perhaps, but I think the fact that Hillary had nothing to do with breaking the system, much less allowing 100's of people to die because she didn't want to over react makes it not the best analogy.

Yossarian said...

Okay Joe -
Good argument - All this nepotism IS Bill Clinton's fault. That is Original. Blame it on Bill Clinton.

"The military wasn't ready" - BC's fault
"The economy is bad" - BC's fault
"Corruption in government" - BC's fault
But all that is garbage. W. has to stand or fall on his own merits.

Otto Man said...

W. has to stand or fall on his own merits.

He hasn't his whole life. Why start now?

ORF said...

I wouldn't say you're starting a fire, Joe, but you're in danger of rendering yourself forever idiotic IMHO. There is a VAST difference between the qualifications Hillary Clinton had when her husband was in office (i.e. two degrees from Ivy League schools, which she got on her OWN merit, NOT legacy, unlike some OTHER people we know) and those of Michael "I love Arabians, and I don't mean the people" Brown and loads of others who've been put into certain positions in this administration. Seriously, Julie Myers? Just because she's knockin' boots with the right people? If Clinton had operated that way, then we might have seen Monica wind up as Secretary of State.

Everyone in positions of power hire their friends to a point, because they've helped them out or made big contributions. Vernon Jordan was the perfect example of that in the Clinton administration. And any politician who surrounds himself with an entire bay of strangers might be accused of cutting off his nose to spite his face. But I don't think I've ever felt so much like the whole friend-hiring thing has turned quite this collusional with regards to running the country. It's like a fucking coven. Choking on rage, indeed!

Otto Man said...

what about Julie Myers? Has anyone actually taken the time to read her bio or did they just immediately jump on the fact of who she is married to and related to?

She has the bare minimum amount of management experience required for the job. This job requires her to oversee 20,000 customs officials and a budget of $4 billion. Her past highest experience was overseeing 170 people and a budget of $25 million. And that job was in financial crimes and money laundering, not border security and customs inspection.

So, yeah, this seems like a job for which she's not entirely qualified.

Otto Man said...

If the minimum wasn't good enough, then it wouldn't be the minimum.

True, but that refers to the amount of time she's spent in management, and not the scope of the work she did there. Her new budget is 160 times larger than her old one, her workforce 110 times larger than her old one.

This is like taking the manager of your local McDonalds and making him CEO.

Otto Man said...

honestly, how many of you even knew what Julie Myers did before this job when we started this conversation?

Isn't that the point? That Buish and Congress (Dems and Reps alike) have been letting unqualified people in and we need to start looking more closely?

Nepotism isn't anything new to any presidential term, but instead of complaining about the sheer number, let's focus on the truly incompetent ones and save our outrage for when it really matters.

This is the head of our border security and customs inspection we're talking about. If this isn't important, I don't know what is.

I'll led the cronies slide in the Department of Commerce. But anything under DHS should require, you know, qualifications.

Yossarian said...

Joe,
You can't say "well if it ain't broke, don't fix it" because it obviously is broke.

I get your point, Democrats are just as evil, but you are missing ours - It needs to end. And it sucks to be the Republicans that they finally get caught.

Clinton screwed around and it was not okay. But he didn't say "But Kennedy did it, he just didn't get caught". Actually, rumors have it that a lot of the presidents had affairs, but it was not okay either.

Also, nobody died because of a presidential appointment on the Democrat's watch. Think about that.