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Category

Abuse of power

• 08.10.09
  Speaking in parables
  Abuse of power (1)

  There is an amazing article by Josh Levin at Slate.com: "How is America Going to End? Five steps to totalitarian rule." It makes a lot of good points, even going to the trouble of pointing out FDR's authoritarian tendencies and abuses of power during the 1930s. The truly amazing part is how it managed to put out so many words without once mentioning Barak Obama's actions in the direction of totalitarianism. It mentions Bush & Cheney quite a bit, and gives a fairly balanced account of what they did and didn't do in the totalitarian direction. ...
  
  
• 08.05.09
  
  Abuse of power, Bash the Messenger (0)

  I dislike headlines like this one from CNN: "Ex-Rep. Jefferson convicted of corruption" The problem is, it gives people the idea that corruption is illegal. If corruption was illegal, then Rahm Emanuel would be in the slammer for trying to give out federal stimulus funds only on condition that recipients speak favorably about the stimulus program. Of course Emanuel should lose his job over that, but I'm not sure it's something for the criminal courts.
  
  
• 07.11.09
  How to rid Ghana of corruption
  Abuse of power, Regulation (0)

  A good way for President Obama to exhort Africans to rid themselves of corruption would be to lead by example. He could start by being more open with Congressional investigators about the firing of watchdog Gerald Walpin. The first African-American president came to the continent of his father to exhort Africans on Saturday to rid themselves of corruption, embrace democracy and move from the grand, often violent, struggles of liberation and tribalism to the quieter, more potent movement of stability and economic growth. URL here.
  
  
• 06.17.09
  Shovel ready
  Abuse of power, Bash the Messenger (0)

  When Obama's first stimulus bill was making its way through Congress, we kept hearing about "shovel ready" projects that could get started right away. Then it turned out there weren't so many such projects. But now we see that some projects truly are shovel ready. Last night the scandal involving the firing of federal watchdog Gerald Walpin made it onto the front page of Google News, though not to the very top. In the wee hours of the morning you could find it, not on the front page, but pretty high up ...
  
  
• 06.16.09
  Unduly disruptive
  Abuse of power (0)

  I guess the old saying is no longer operative. Lefters used to say that you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. It looks like Gerald Walpin may have broken the wrong egg. WASHINGTON (AP) — A White House lawyer says President Barack Obama fired the watchdog for federal AmeriCorps programs because he was "unduly disruptive" and engaged in "trouble and inappropriate conduct." And here I thought it was the job of watchdogs to be disruptive. Back when Rod Blagojevich was in the news, it reminded people that President Obama had come out of the ...
  
  
• 05.12.09
  White House press corps scandal
  Abuse of power, Bash the Messenger (0)

  There has hardly been any comment on the recent scandal involving the White House press corps. We can all assume that what Tom Lauria said is true. The Obama administration threatened Perella Weinberg, saying it would use "the full force of the White House press corps [to] destroy it's reputation” if it resisted the government's plan to abrogate their status as preferred creditors. Robert Gibbs denied that the White House put that kind of pressure on Perella Weinberg, but nobody believes that. Obama's defenders in the blogosphere are instead defending the right of Obama to ...
  
  
• 03.25.09
  A larger customer base for Camp Guantanamo
  Abuse of power (0)

  This is ominous news for The Reticulator, who predicts he'll end up in one of Hillary's internment camps but hopes he's wrong. George W. Bush asserted the right to put "enemy combatants" in detention camps without even charging them with a crime. That was quite a power grab on his part, but now Barak Obama has gone him one step better. He asserts the right to put people in camps even if they aren't enemy combatants. A lot more people will fit his definition of who can be locked up than fit GWB's definition. From the World Socialist Web ...
  
  
• 11.22.08
  Joe, the Regulated Plumber
  Abuse of power, Regulation (0)

  We're getting a good look at what "re-regulation" of our economy means. It means that government regulators can violate the privacy of individuals' records for partisan political gain, and get by with a belated slap on the wrist. Mind you, it doesn't always work this way. When a couple of employees in the administration of Bush the Elder took a peek at Bill Clinton's passport files during the 1992 campaign, they were fired immediately. But that was a Republican administration. In Ohio, under Democrat Governor Ted Strickland, some employees took a look ...
  
  
• 11.03.08
  Another step to one-party government
  Abuse of power (0)

  This sucks. I was hoping to take half a day off of work tomorrow (Tuesday) to do some Spokesrider research at the state archives in Lansing. I voted by absentee ballot today so I could be gone all day tomorrow. So tonight I sat down to plan my strategy for tomorrow, only to find that the entire Michigan Library and Historical Center is closed for election day. Not only is that personally inconvenient to me, but it's highly improper for a state agency to do something like that on election day. It's basically a taxpayer-funded contribution to the ...
  
  
• 11.01.08
  All appropriate laws
  Abuse of power (0)

  "...all appropriate laws should be followed..." I suppose another way for the chief executive to say that is, "I enforce the law when it suits me." I guess Obama is right. Vote for McCain, and you're going to end up with Bush III. (Same if you vote for Obama.)
  
  

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