More Bushie Ineptitude
By Nicole Belle Thursday Nov 29, 2007 11:46amDoes anybody have a scorecard of how many Bush appointees whose understanding of how to do their job was actually the exact opposite of what everyone else understood their job to be?
Let's add another name to the wall of shame: Julie MacDonald.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday reversed seven rulings that denied endangered species increased protection, after an investigation found the actions were tainted by political pressure from a former senior Interior Department official.[..]
The rulings came under scrutiny last spring after an Interior Department inspector general concluded that agency scientists were being pressured to alter their findings on endangered species by Julie MacDonald, then a deputy assistant secretary overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service.
MacDonald resigned her position last May.
Rahall in a statement said that MacDonald, who was a civil engineer, "should never have been allowed near the endangered species program." He called MacDonald's involvement in species protection cases over her three-year tenure as an example of "this administration's penchant for torpedoing science."[..]
Francesca Grifo of the Union of Concerned Scientists said the acknowledgment of seven instances of wrongdoing "does not begin to plumb the depths of what's wrong" at the wildlife agency and its implementation of the Endangered Species Act.
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Hello?
It's called kakistocracy!
WTF is going on with comments?
Weird
heard about this a couple days ago. disgraceful.
Chimpy is just running his government like a business.
Oh yeah, he's the same douchebag who couldn't keep two oil companies afloat in Texas.
The bushies don't care about people, no suprise that they would care even less about animals, endangered or not. It's just another way to poke the left in the eye with a sharp stick.
They never consider the consequences, ever. That's for the next and the next and the next generation to take care of, if we last that long.
Straight Shooter @ 7:
Cheaper the better!
http://tinyurl.com/18r
Very weird why the link I'm trying to post won't work.
I was trying to figure out if she was a Reagents U. grad, but apparently no. She graduated from UC Davis, but I did find this about her motivations (from the cited article):
So, maybe she belongs to the Cheney (criminal) camp of the administration, rather than the Bush (fundie) camp. Its a match made in heaven, I guess.
No immediate word on her connection to James Watt/Gayle Norton. I'll get back to y'all.
Hey Nicole, my cat posted about this same thing today. Great minds and all..... :)
Bush appointments were like this right out of the gate. Michael Moore's book, Stupid White Men, details the beginning. Robert F. Kennedy's Crimes Against Nature: How George W. bush & His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country & Highjacking Democracy goes into great detail about the repercussions of such appointments.
The Conservation Legacy of Theodore Roosevelt was completely undone with Bush letting the timber industry into our national parks. It's pretty sickening.
Not ineptitude. Future fall guy appointments to divert attention from fascist policies. A la Brownie taking the heat for Chertoff's decision to ignore suffering and dying poor folk.
I don't think these things are done thru ineptitude. If you will follow the results of each and every appointment you will see, science is being dumbed down and our government is being made ineffective.
I think the republicans want to do this. Look at what they have done of the schools with the half-ass No Child Left Behind. And look what they did with making funds for college harded to get.
All this stuff can not be hap hazard. They have a plan. And no conspiracy hinted at. They are trying to dumb us down and break our pockets books, so the rich bunch that support the republicans can take over permanently.
Does anybody have a scorecard of how many Bush appointees whose understanding of how to do their job was actually the exact opposite of what everyone else understood their job to be?
I hope people here realize that all of these appointees were intentional.
The primary goal of the republican party is to prove that government doesn't work. If they put incompetent people in high-ranking positions, it's called a self-fulfilling prophesy.
The figure that we stupid citizens will clamor for "privatization" of everything over stupid government.
Imagine, however, the day when there are no more government services, and you have to buy insurance for police protection, insurance for fire protection, insurance for healthcare, insurance for your retirement, insurance for your kids' educations, insurance for...everything.
We have a conservation legacy?
For bike and blowjob parks?
This goes way beyond Bush. We have no environmental program of any consequence in this nation. If we did, sprawl would not be allowed in every last corner of the country.
And it's not just because of politics. Those great big environmental clubs are all sellouts.
dumbing down of america
science is heresy
intelligence is elitism
war is peace
clear skys
anybody
heh...
"Thanks for coming in to interview for this Bush Administration position."
"Oh, thank YOU."
"Now, reviewing your resume, we don't find that you have ANY qualifications for this position..."
"...Oh, um, I can explain, see, I'm in my last semester of training, and then I'll have a qualification for this position."
"I see... hmm... Well, do you still have time to drop out of the training and get a refund for your fees?"
"Uh... yes?"
"Very good! Well if you can take care of that, you can start Monday!"
"Gosh gee, thanks!"
"No problem, now if you'll just sign this receipt for your soul..."
L.A. Confidential @ 8:
That link doesn't work...
I see now why Bush appointed Laura in charge of birthing and rearing his progeny.
It all makes sense now.
Incompetance, thy name is BUSHOLINI.
MacDonald had no scientific qualifications, but that doesn't mean she was inept. In fact, she was very good at what she was appointed to do, which was to block endangered species listings. I was a reviewer on one of these so I got to see what was going on. The FWS people put together a detailed critical habitat listing for a group of endangered flies, which she threw out and replaced with one-acre blocks around their last collecting sites. You can find thousands of flies in an acre, so that's plenty enough for them, right? Unfortunately, one of the results of this kind of thing (probably something they count on) is that most of the scientific reviewers just said "this is stupid" and didn't even bother sending in comments. Fortunately it's getting changed back to the original proposal because her decisions have been reviewed.
Also unfortunately, one of the things she eliminated, the Preble's jumping mouse, probably really isn't a valid species. I'm as much of a conservationist as anyone, but I'm also a scientist, and I've looked at the evidence and it's bogus; it's the same as the jumping mouse that's common all through the midwest. But because MacDonald was behind its removal, it gets a new lease on life.
Midnight Rambler @ 23:
you describe what many don't realize: they want to destroy government and make it useless in defending the american people, the american way of life or anything else from the wealthy and powerful.
corporate ringers at all levels of the administration
A civil engineer overseeing something a biologist should.
One more attempt at undermining environmental protections.
Here's a quick question for the rape and plunder capitalists; "What are you gonna do when the oil, the trees, and the fish are all gone?
Eat insects and burn cow shit, perhaps?
Marge @ 14:
I agree, it's brilliant and cunning, delivering maximum effect with minmal resistance.
Dumb is the new smart.
Midnight Rambler @ 23:
Maybe some people want to have a jumping mouse in the wild places around where they live, maybe the Preble's form is better adapted for the places it is known from.
Morphological similarity isn't all there is to an organism. If that were the case, I might be giving some of the wingnuts the benefit of the doubt. In the behavioral key to distinguishing the two forms, one must pay close attention to the smirk in the corner of the wingnuts face I would hate to lump the two species together!
Unwinding the damage done by these capitalist cronies will take years.
Liberal AND Proud @ 29:
And just when things get back to the way they should be-the country will elect another Bush-or someone like him-and we will be right back where we are now.
let me guess: home-schooled?
I work for Interior, and we've been seeing this crap for a long time: any time a Repug becomes Prez. But Dumbya is the worst. I'll spare you all the litany of environmental crimes he's committed, but it's certainly NOT ineptitude. His cronies are quite adept at what they're hired for: screwing the environment and lining the pockets of corporations and rich individuals.
A few years ago, Dumbya tried to get the National Park Service to change its very missionto favor more exploitation over its mandate to "preserve and protect." Thankfully, that got some coverage and the public rose up and shouted these assholes down. But you can't trust them at all. Why do you think they weakened the Whistleblower laws? So they could persecute professionals who stood up to this wanton disregard for science and preservation.
On this issue alone, Gore's views separated him from Bush. Thanks all you 2000 Nader voters who thought there was no difference; we've had 7 years of environmental hell because of your stupidity.
Bushie ineptitude? How bout deep seated corruption at multiple levels... This U.S. fish and wildlife business??? Tip of the iceberg folks....tip of the iceberg... I have no doubt on that personally... Read Matt in Texas's post above.... He's trying to pull the curtin back with facts he is specifically aware of... And that is just in the one agency he was involved with.. This shit goes waay deeper than that...And I agree, those Nader voters, for all their principles, have some culpability in all we've suffered and continue to suffer at the hands of these immoral misfits running this nation today. As much as a big part of me would like to find a viable third party candidate who could actually win an election, that person does not yet exist and won't for awhile... And we CANNOT afford as a nation to allow repubicans to continue to hold this kind of power in this nation any longer....JD
Wait'll they find out that Julie MacDonald was releasing hordes of cancer-ridden laboratory mice into the Oregon woods in order to trap and catch Spotted Owls for her annual 'insider' Spotted Owl barbecue, which she throws for her close associates each year at Thanksgiving.
I think her future at US Fish and Wildlife is uncertain, unless the '08 election is canceled.
Hopefully most of you read the entire story. The coupe de grace was in the last couple paragraphs.
"In her three years on the job, MacDonald also was heavily involved in delisting the Sacramento splittail, a fish found only in California's Central Valley where she owned an 80-acre farm on which the fish live." (emphasis mine)
To me, this is as clear an example of misusing one's office and authority, for personal gain as you are likely to find. I absolutely despise a person who will betray the public trust this way. If a pot smoker can draw a 10 year prison sentence, this lady (term used loosely) merits 20 to life (in my opinion).
As we get ready to vote soon, it is important to remember, it is not just the candidate we are evaluating. What kind of government leadership will they appoint? That starts with the cabinet, head of Justice, CIA, all the way down through the exempt management appointees. These people can make, or break, an administration.
Someone needs to keep score by adding every count to the impeachment list. An ineptitude write off is good for another free pass because who could ever prosecute the village idiot. They are playing us all for everything we value and laughing all the way to the bank.
Extra credit to Francesca for using the term "plumb the depths".
Without a doubt this will go down as the most criminally stupid, inept and corrupt administration in history.
vickif @ 30 "And just when things get back to the way they should be-the country will elect another Bush-or someone like him-and we will be right back where we are now."
The country never elected Bush EITHER TIME.
RFK Jr. - "The Republicans treat the world like a business in liquidation."
Does anybody have a scorecard of how many Bush appointees whose understanding of how to do their job was actually the exact opposite of what everyone else understood their job to be?
Seriously, is there a list somewhere? I think we need to announce every appointment in the new administration with an accompanying press release explaining how rancid the person they are replacing was. Can we do a wiki or something?
Cheers,
I get so frustrated when I see these Bush appointees labeled inept and incompetent. They're not. They know EXACTLY what they're doing.
MacDaKnife @ 35:
right on, these people now exactly what they are doing, bush is the grand enabler for all his cronies to profit.
Doesn't matter. The took EPA oversights out of the states years ago. Now environmental protections (at least in the Rockies) are "assured" by state groups made up of oil, gas, and coal lobbyists. I'm sure that will work just fine. Anyone else hear about that?
J.C. @ 41:
Right, please note.
The problem isn't government, it's criminals in government.
cmh@cmhughesmd.com @ 40 "Seriously, is there a list somewhere?"
There are several such lists. But the one I can locate immediately is Rahm Emanuel's version (dated, though, May 2, 2007):
http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=327
There is another interesting tidbit somewhere regarding the unprecedented number of federal agencies being run by staff or lower level assistants as a result of the mass die-off of Bush cronies under the oversight process. Something like 70% of agencies?
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