Saturday, April 26, 2014

BloggeRhythms

It doesn’t seem to matter where you look regarding the current administration, but you’ll find politics always overrides effective governance while political hacks continually attain powerful positions of leadership.
 
Today’s example comes from Alicia A. Caldwell of the Associated Press, who writes about the Homeland Security Department.
 
Newly arrived Secretary, Jeh Johnson, who’s starting off by trying to appear efficient and conscientious, “put his agency's former internal watchdog on leave within hours of the publication of a Senate report that concluded the employee was too cozy with senior agency officials and delayed or classified some critical reports to accommodate President Barack Obama's political appointees.”
 
It seems that, “Charles K. Edwards had been allowed to quietly resign as acting inspector general and transfer to another post within the Homeland Security Department in December, just before Johnson took office.” However, Secretary Johnson, found that arrangement unacceptable, among many other departmental faults.
 
Ms Caldwell then goes on to point out the laxity and favoritism practiced by his predecessor, Janet Napolitano, “who on several occasions allowed problems to fester until they become unavoidable.”
 
Napolitano also “dealt with plenty of controversy, including a 2012 Secret Service prostitution scandal, in her more than four years at the helm of Homeland Security.
 
In 2010, The Associated Press obtained nearly 1,000 pages of internal emails that revealed that for at least a year Homeland Security officials detoured requests for federal records to senior political advisers for unusual scrutiny, looking for information about the requesters and delaying disclosures deemed too politically sensitive.
 
In 2012, the chief of staff at Immigration and Customs Enforcement was accused in a lawsuit of sexual discrimination and retaliation. She was granted a leave of absence and later resigned.
 
And last year, the department spent weeks dealing with the fallout from the release of thousands of immigrants being held in immigration jails.”
 
In the last case, “The department and the White House initially said the releases involved only a few hundred people. The AP later reported that more than 2,000 people were released for budgetary reasons.
 
Napolitano said the AP's story was "not really accurate" and developed "its own mythology." But about a week later, then-ICE Director John Morton contradicted her and confirmed to a House panel that the government released 2,228 immigrants from jail.”
 
As far as the man Johnson replaced is concerned “Thursday's suspension came within hours of a report that concluded that Edwards was not only politically influenced, but wasn't qualified for his job. The report said that he also lacked the independence required of an inspector general.”
 
So, here’s another blatant case of cronyism overriding needs of the nation added to those rampant in just about every aspect of the current administration.
 
But, in the outgoing inspector general's case  he certainly knows what to look forward to. Because when the spotlight turns off and the heat dies down, he’ll accompany the incumbent on a taxpayer funded reward trip, just like Susan Rice just did, to a few first class days of luxury in some of the safest world capitols on the globe.  And perhaps, maybe he plays golf too.
 
That’s it for today folks.
 
Adios  

No comments:

Post a Comment