EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
- One American Who Isn't For Sale
- Edward Snowden: Saving Us from the United Stasi of America
- Major Loss to Organic Farmers as Court Rules in Favor of Monsanto
- The Judicial Lynching of Bradley Manning
- Remembering Satyajit Ray’s Hirok Rajar Deshe: On Edward Snowden, Resistance and Inverted Totalitarianism
Popular content
Today's Top News
HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson's Resignation -- A Window Into Bush Administration's Corruption, Indifference, and Incompetence
The involuntary resignation of HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson this week provides an opportunity to underscore and distinguish the three major failings of the Bush administration: corruption, indifference, and incompetence.
Corruption occurs when a government official -- elected or appointed -- uses his or her office to engage in illegal activity for partisan or personal advantage. Jackson is facing investigations by the HUD inspector general, a federal grand jury, and the Justice Department's public integrity section for a variety of alleged corrupt practices, including steering HUD funds and contracts to friends and Bush political supporters in violation of HUD's rules.
This kind of crony capitalism, which the news media often refer to as "scandals," has been rampant within the Bush administration. In most cases, the corrupt officials are allowed to resign without facing prosecution. Instead of fines or jail time, they land lucrative jobs as lobbyists and consultants.
The most high-profile example of corruption so far is Lewis "Scooter" Libby, top aide to VP Dick Cheney, who was convicted for perjury and obstruction of justice for lying about the illegal leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000, but President Bush commuted his sentence, voiding the prison term.
Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is another high-ranking Bush official forced out for corruption -- in his case, for his role in firing eight U.S. Attorneys in order to stop their investigations of high-ranking GOP officials or because they refused to carry out indictments of Democratic office-holders that the Bush administration wanted to give the Republicans a tactical advantage in the November 2006 elections.
Not all cases of corruption lead to resignations, especially if officials have the power to avoid even being thoroughly investigated. Vice President Dick Cheney steered $7 billion in no-bid government contracts to Kellog Brown & Root, a subsidiary of his former employer, Halliburton, to restore Iraq's oil field just before Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq. The FBI looked into the matter, but apparently dropped its investigation. The Bush administration also steered hundreds of millions of dollars to politically connected firms like Halliburton, Fluor Corporation, and Bechtel, many through no-bid contracts, for post-Katrina reconstruction.
Lying may be considered a form of corruption, although it doesn't require breaking the law, only evading the truth. Among the myriad examples of this are Bush and Cheney's repeated claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons-of-mass-destruction when there was no evidence of it. Of course, the list of Bush's lies could fill a book. In fact they have already filled several books, including David Corn's The Lies of George W. Bush.
Indifference covers a wider range of activities than corruption. Let us not mistake indifference for benign neglect. The Bushes are actively indifferent. It is key to their top-down class warfare. They wear their indifference on their tailored sleeves. This indifference is a natural outgrowth of the Bushes' fundamental hostility to government itself. A central tenet of conservative ideology is the belief in small government, highlighted by its insistence that government interferes with individual liberty, is less efficient than the private sector and, in many cases, is simply unnecessary. Conservatives like Bush, his Republican allies in Congress, his intellectual strategists like Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform and William Kristol of the Weekly Standard and the corporate-sponsored policy wonks at the American Enterprise Institute, Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation argue that (with the exception of military spending) we need to further reduce government, in large part, by cutting taxes even more, especially for the very rich. They call this "starving the beast"- reducing taxes so much that government in general, and the federal government in particular, will be virtually paralyzed. If starving the beast isn't sufficient, Bush has a back-up strategy: appoint foxes to guard the chicken coop. Putting corporate executives in charge of government agencies that regulate business guarantees that indifference extends to the vulnerable, but not the powerful.
Since taking office, for example, the Bush administrations shown little interest in addressing the problems of poverty and homelessness. It opposed raising the minimum wage. It cut food stamps. It pushed to slash funding for low-income housing programs, such as Section 8 rent vouchers. Here, too, Alphonso Jackson has been a poster boy for the Bush philosophy. The now-disgraced former HUD Secretary testified to Congress several years ago that "being poor is a state of mind, not a condition." Lest it be thought that Jackson was veering from the Bush playbook, he was simply echoing the sentiments of his predecessor at HUD, Mel Martinez -- now a GOP Senator from Florida -- who told Washington Post that "housing issues are predominantly local issues. The solution to meeting the nation's affordable housing needs will not come from Washington." (This is the same guy who spent most of his final year at HUD unofficially campaigning for the Senate seat; he visited Florida 16 times in 21 months, much of it at taxpayers' expense).
The Bush administration's attitude toward the health and safety of workers is another example of how indifference shapes public policy. It brought in mining industry insiders to stack the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), which oversees the nation's coal mines, and the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC). For example, Bush nominated Richard Stickler, a former executive at a West Virginia subsidiary of Massey Energy (which has one of the worst safety records in the industry) to run MSHA. At his Senate confirmation hearing, Stickler said he believed the nation's mine safety laws are adequate. Miners faced increasingly unsafe conditions because of the Bush administration's rollbacks of health and safety regulations, and its slashing of the budget and staff for safety inspection. Not surprisingly, the nation's 2006 coal mine death toll -- 47 -- was the highest since 1995.
Long before Katrina hit the city, New Orleans' residents already knew that the Bush administration had abandoned them. But the federal response to the disaster simply put Bush's indifference to the plight of the poor in dramatic relief. Likewise, Bush demonstrated his indifference to low-income children by demanding that underfunded local school systems leave no child behind, while failing to provide the money to hire the teachers to make it possible. In similar fashion Bush showed his indifference to the plight of millions of families caught in the tsunami of predatory lending, subprime mortgages, and pending foreclosures, in contrast to his eagerness to bail out Bear Stearns and other Wall Street giants.
Incompetence is a close cousin to indifference. As Bush has shown, if you don't care about the poor, or the Lower 9th Ward, or mine workers' safety, its OK to appoint political hacks to high-level posts. You just hope that don't embarrass you. But, of course, sometimes the incompetence comes to light.
In Alphonso Jackson, Bush had the misfortune of winning the corruption/indifference/ incompetence trifecta. Under his leadership, HUD was probably the most mismanaged Cabinet-level agency. Since reporters prefer writing about corruption more than incompetence or indifference, Jackson's liabilities might have remained invisible, until he made a point of advertising his malfeasance. In 2006, he gave a speech in Dallas bragging that he'd canceled the contract a HUD contractor who admitted to disliking President Bush. Later he said that he was only joking. This got the attention of the FBI and the Justice Department, however, and led to the investigations that resulted in this week's resignation.
But history will no doubt record that the crown prince of incompetence during the Bush years was Michael Brown. Our image of Bush's mishandling of the Katrina disaster is frozen in time, with Bush standing with his FEMA director in New Orleans and congratulating him with the now-famous words, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
Clearly Brown was way over his head, having had no previous experience in disaster management - or management of any kind. Before joining FEMA, Brown was employed by the International Arabian Horse Association, but was forced to resign after numerous lawsuits were filed against the organization over disciplinary actions.
We do not yet know the magnitude of the Bush administration's blunders and misjudgments, or their cost in human lives and property damage, but the failures were due much more to Bush's indifference, and Cheney's corruption, than to Brown's incompetence. Long before Katrina struck, the Bush administration systemically stripped FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers of authority, money and key staff; undermined their morale; and ignored warnings by state emergency managers that its actions were sabotaging FEMA's capacity to respond to disasters. It folded FEMA into the Department of Homeland Security, diminishing its role as an emergency planning and relief agency while viewing it as simply another part of the administration's "war on terror."
There were plenty of competent and experienced FEMA employees -- public servants who, given the opportunity and resources, could have prevented the disaster and/or dramatically limited its consequences. The failure to prevent the Katrina disaster and to adequately respond once it occurred was a failure of political will by the highest-ranking government leaders, not incompetence by middle-level managers and front-line staff in the military, FEMA, and other agencies.
The Bush administration failed to invest adequately in the infrastructure needed to prevent severe hurricane damage in New Orleans and Mississippi. The Bushes knew long before the storm hit that 100,000 New Orleans residents had no way to escape a major hurricane on their own and that the city had finished only 10 percent of its evacuation plan. The National Weather Service correctly predicted the force of the storm, but the top officials in the Bush administration failed to heed the message. And when the money finally flowed to the Gulf Coast, the corruption took over, with contracts steered to Bush and Cheney's political and business allies.
Since Katrina hit, Alphonso Jackson and HUD mainly stood on the sidelines, playing almost no role in helping survivors with their myriad housing tragedies. In Mississippi alone, more than 40,000 people remain displaced as a result of Katrina, many of them still living in FEMA trailers. So it is fitting that one of Jackson's last acts as HUD Secretary was to approve, at the request of Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour - the former corporate lobbyist, one-time head of the Republican National Committee, and a Bush crony - the diversion of $600 million from the state's housing recovery programs to expand the state-owned port of Gulfport, a project that could eventually include casino and resort facilities.
"It's just insanity, true insanity," Sister Martha Milner, a Catholic nun and longtime Mississippi housing advocate, said before Jackson's approval.
Unfortunately, Jackson's maneuver was hardly insane. It was, for the Bush administration - corrupt, indifferent, and incompetent - business as usual.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
27 Comments so far
Show AllMr. Dreier, corruption, indifference, and incompetence, are the hallmarks of everything done so far by the criminals who have usurped our government. Not simply "failings". Failings might come from sheer incompetence. What we see is a consistent goal diven assault on the USA. No terrorist from foreign shores could ever have done as much damage to the US as the Washington based terrorists of the Bush Rgime have done.
So who mailed the anthrax? Why target the Judiciary Committee?
I believe the problem with the Bush administration is not just "corrupt, indifferent, incompetent." I believe that it is SYSTEMIC with any Republican control of anything, and that the root problem is whether the government seeks to empower and advantage individuals---or whether everything we do from government must be filtered through private corporations with a skim of corporate profit off the top.
Some will say, yeah, and Democrats favor corporations over people too. Perhaps, but I do believe it's less so, and I think Democrats re-engineered by an Obama revolution might indeed become far less tilted to the corporate mindset.
Thirty plus years ago the congress, with some help from the press, managed to get rid of the traitor Richard Milhouse Nixon who attempted during Watergate to destroy the constitution of this nation. Now we have the even larger and more aggressive and terminal menace of George Wanker Bush and Death Cheney. Neither the congress nor the press have done a thing to put an end to their reign of terror over the constitution or the lives of ordinary citizens. What exactly happened to this country over those last thirty years will be debated as long as there is a United States. But no one can debate that for the last nearly eight years we have been ruled by a cabal of out-and-out gangsters who would have been entirely at home in Nazi Germany or the Stalinist Soviet Union. There appears to be no end to this. John McDeath will probably be the next president. This man, who was viciously slimed in 2000 by the Bush Sewer Brigade, has since then stuck his nose so far up Bush's ass he thinks he's smelling some exotic perfume. In the end, McDeath, the so-called war hero and straight talker, has proven to be nothing more than a coward and opportunist - in other words, an ordinary, run-of-the-mill politician. If you're young enough, you will live to see the United States look like the mercantile tyranny of today's China. The only freedom left to you will be the decision to be buried or cremated.
Max Beerbohm 1872–1956
You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind-legs. But by standing a whole flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men. [Why do we put up with this?]
Nancy Pelosi is an elected official that did not do her job, and is the single biggest reason for the continued robbery of our tax dollars.
The uprising will be quelled by Blackwater
Alphonso Jackson is another example of the Great Lurch Backwards executed by Dubya, Cheney, & Co. to a redux of the Robber Baron era mixed with "Spoils System" politics. As any student of American history will tell you, it was a good thing when those things passed from the scene. Another cursory study of history will tell you that any era that tries to revisit what has passed on generally turns into one of great turbulence and merely hinders necessary progress.
To apply the term "incompetence" to anyone or anything associated with the Bush administration implies that somebody did not know what needed to be done or how to do it.
From day one, this administration knew exactly what it wanted to do and has executed its mission with 100% precision. The overriding plan has been to transfer US wealth from the 99% to the 1% and that process continues to advance without delay. It is not their money and lives that are being squandered in Iraq or to "fix" financial crisis, it is our money and lives...just as they planned.
Neocons want you to consider them incompetent because they know that their base and many swing voters will react by thinking: "The Republicans are good people that had a lot of tough decisions to make, and should be forgiven for making a few mistakes".
RE: "The only freedom left to you will be the decision to be buried or cremated."
And even that decision is often driven by economics rather than personal preference.
This administration's failings go beyond corruption, indifference and incompetence to war crimes and treason. Calling the release of an undercover CIA operative's identity goes far beyond corruption. John Woo's memos to the contrary, the tactics used to by both military and CIA interrogators constitute war crimes. Words matter. Calling the actions of the Bush administration corruption, indifference and incompetence cheapens both the actions and the words used to describe them. Let's call them what they were.
The non-stop fly over New Orleans while returning from LA, after Katrina, tells much about the Bush indifference.
"In most cases, the corrupt officials are allowed to resign without facing prosecution. Instead of fines or jail time, they land lucrative jobs as lobbyists and consultants."
We must admit, our TOP government officals, be they Republicans or Democrats are experts at hiring sociopaths who can clearly identify with their own ideology and philosophy of life: ME first, MY family second, and f-k the rest of you!
It is true that Democratic politicians have been know to display a little more sensitivity and concern for the majority in this country, but over the years, that too has been fading away. It seems that American taxpayers have forgotten that government employees in the House of Representatives and in the Senate are actually on their PAYROLL and ARE (suppose to be) working for them!
Imagine telling your boss, the person who cuts your paycheck every week, that you don't really care what he/she has to say about the decisions you are making. Needless to say, you would be out on your ass within minutes looking for another job.
How did we ever get to a point where we allow our employees to tell us to f-k off? "WE" are the insane, not the ME first, MY family second sociopaths that we vote into office and who endorse this form of treason to take place.
"We the People" have to start holding these people accountable for their actions!
Excellent article, many good responses. The passive acceptance of all this is aided and abeted by television. Prior to this omnipresent medium in our homes, REAL debates, discussions, and interactions occured. So many people now just zone out, and for a lot of people, reality has morphed into T.V so much so that if 1. it's not ON T.V it's not real and 2. There's a subliminal sense if you don't like something, you're free to just change the channel. The purported freedoms have led people into their own cognitive prisons. Those asleep don't recognize themselves as such and therefore seek no means to an awakening. The composite factors of our now bankrupt economy, global warming, and the karmic blowback from a war of caprice and unbelievable callousness now congeal. Wake up calls are coming.
Depraved indifference
A central tenet of conservative ideology is the belief in small government
The ideology of small government is now fully discredited, with the collapse of the Washington Concensus, neoliberal capitalism, and the WB/WTO/IMF, the exploding costs of privatized services, privatized healthcare, the accumulating proof of highly successful state enterprises such as US Medicare and medical research, the Cuban healthcare system, healthcare and general economic success in the social democracies, China's extensive industries, the long-held policies of market protections in East Asia, etc.
why do i think the bush administration is scapegoating alphonso jackson to bear the burden of the whole administration's crimes?
IMPEACH CHENEY AND BUSH!!!
"In similar fashion Bush showed his indifference to the plight of millions of families caught in the tsunami of predatory lending, subprime mortgages, and pending foreclosures, in contrast to his eagerness to bail out Bear Stearns and other Wall Street giants."
I wonder why they didn't lend the $30 Billion to the people facing foreclosure? They could have helped 200,000 households, and would have had the same effect in the long run.
I'll have to bookmark this article somehow. Its a good short primer on what this administation is up to. I have to agree with VTFW that "High Crimes and Misdemeanors" are more than just corruption.
The comment "starve the beast" is interesting. They didn't just starve it. Our great grandchhildren will be paying down these deficits with their tax dollars. The goverment's ability to administer the nation will be compromised for decades.
I hope Obama is our next president and ushers in some of the "change" he is talking about, but the corruption and "active indifference" are everywhere, and he might end up as the next Jimmy Carter, or even worse, Jack Kennedy.
Hillary might have a more successful presidency as she and Bill have more experience playing ball with the scum that masquerades as our buisness and political leadership. But not much will change.
Alphonso Jackson in his disgrace will make more money and have a better life than the vast majority of the honest and competent people that work for the government. He will fall into a cushy job just like John Yoo (spelling?). John Yoo the pro torture legal scholar is a LAW PROFESSOR, hasn't been disbarred or made a social pariah despite writing illegal, unfounded, unconstitutional opinions that gave apparent legal support for war crimes in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
Both of these guys are likely to return to government in future administrations just like Shotgun Dick and Rummy to commit additional war crimes.
If there is one thing nearly 8 years under republican rule has taught this country-it is that republicans cannot govern.
They have no capacity for governannce.
Their entire political ideology seems based on filling their own pockets, and "getting away with whatever they can get away with."
Lets see. It seems that this administration is responsible for:
1. Destruction of Iraq
2. Destruction of the rule of law
3. Destruction of the surplus
4. Destruction of the Geneva Conventions
5. Destruction of assistance to rebuild after Katrina
6. Destruction of the treasury with deficits
7. Destruction of relations with our allies
8. Destruction of fiscal discipline
9. Destruction of international treaties
10. Destruction CIA torture tapes
11. Destruction of white house emails
12. Destruction of the career of a CIA agent for political reasons
13. Destruction of military brass careers who disagreed with Iraq invasion policy
14. Destruction of food inspections
15. Destruction of illegal immigration enforcement
16. Destruction of regulations governing mortgage companies
17. Destruction of balanced budget initiatives
18. Destruction of border and port security
19. Destruction of open bidding versus single source contracts
20. Destruction of the Republican Party
21. Destruction of Americas reputation world wide
22. Destruction of 3 million manufacturing jobs
23. Destruction of accountability to congress
24. Destruction of the worth of the dollar
25. Destruction of real estate values
26. Destruction of reasonable gas prices
27. Destruction of pay as you go policies
28. Destruction of consumer confidence
29. Destruction of a reasonable trade deficit
What a tremendous record of achievement!!
Hey broskie!
Thanks for just giving us the short list.
" Spike April 3rd, 2008 11:42 am
... No terrorist from foreign shores could ever have done as much damage to the US as the Washington based terrorists of the Bush Rgime have done."
TRUE. But prior administrations weren't significantly better, though. What's reported of the Clinton administration, f.e., and what's not reported, now when we learn of the latter part, then we have a whole lot of awakening.
It's not only this [Cheney]-Bush administration, but the U.S. govt and its real ruling elites. If the latter disagree with Cheney's ways, then they still go along, to not cause disturbances, say. They definitely don't want to attract attention and are careful when disagreeing; but Cheney's going to get his way for only ... "so long". He's not king. The "elites" don't always agree, but compromise is part of any criminal enterprise, too.
The criminality of these present wars, including the one on Haiti, are obvious; but while the details are not. That the details aren't obvious won't reduce the criminality of these wars, they'll only tell us more; a valuable more.
Pay [attention], say. The govt, so its so-called elected overseers, are "screwing us" wildly. Hell's been unleashed!
That's the American Way you're talking about there Broskie! I hope you know that, you just broke down the American Mythology and shattered precious perceptions.
:)
I'm not complaining about your post.
*
This is the 21st Century bait-and-switch and bullshit no longer work. Apple pie will kill you.
Freedom is not free. Freedom requires responsibility.
These people have represented the most irresponsible administration ever. We are now close to losing our freedom.
Corruption stifles growth. These people have cheated us out of every existing program that was designed to promote growth. Therefore we are now faced with stagnation, perhaps depression, from years of corruption.
Accountability. We must hold these people to account. The media does not help. There are alot of pundits out there that need to be ignored. If a spade is called out, the person doing the calling out is destroyed. Without accountability there is no justice.
The truth is on our side. We here on the internet have created our own media. A fine information sharing system. Without it,we would have remained in the dark. We must tell as many people as possible. Vote for integrity, restore value to our country. The truth is on our side, hopefully, there is enough time left to get the job done. I feel good with truth on our side, so let's get the job done.
Tell as many people as possible.
Vote for integrity.
Promote the truth.
veros
And remember.......... we can thank the conservative right wing (followers of peace) Christians for voting these "upstanding believers" into office!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aren't these the kind of hypocritical people that Christ threw out of the church and condemned for their injustice against the poor and less fortunate?
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
It makes no difference whether every outrage since the 'appointment' of G.W.B. was a matter of incompetence or indifference. Stupidity is not known for consistency, but rather is more a matter of 'chance'. Stupidity at least has to screw up on the side of the 'good guys' 50% of the time. The consistency with which this administration has 'screwed up' is beyond the pale. I don't know a single person who really believes we can take back our government by peaceful means any longer.
The whole world is watching this presidential election cycle to see if we have any sense left. They were amazed at our stupidity in 2004 when the election was close enough for yet another theft by this evil cabal.
And yes, the Clintons were/are corrupt liars not much different than the Bushites. The one good thing to come from this wretched decade: there is no statute of limitations on war crimes. Those bastards can run to Paraguay and never come back.
We have a chance with Obama to correct some of what is wrong with this country. He is a very brave man to want to clean up this mess. I certainly wouldn't want the job, the smell of sulfer and shit would make you pass out!