Tuesday, June 12, 2007

The White House Trained Seals

The White House Trained Seals
"President Bush's Cabinet

The tradition of the Cabinet dates back to the beginnings of the Presidency itself. One of the principal purposes of the Cabinet (drawn from Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution) is to advise the President on any subject he may require relating to the duties of their respective offices.

The Cabinet includes the Vice President and the heads of 15 executive departments-the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, and the Attorney General. Under President George W. Bush, Cabinet-level rank also has been accorded to the Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency; Director, Office of Management and Budget; the Director, National Drug Control Policy; and the U.S. Trade Representative. "

COMMENT

I had a dream the other day about what I would do with my cabinet if I became President With my previous training as a manager, I learned many years ago that each Secretary had to have a set of annual goals and a framework in which to operate their individual organizations. First, I would have to select the best person for each secretary job and the positions usually attract the best American citizens from which to choose from. Most are outstanding achievers and American citizens to begin with.

The environment they must work in include the remaining budget for the fiscal year and the anticipated budget for the following year. The lawful obligations of each department must be fulfilled. Each department must be adequately staffed with highly qualified people. There must be adequate auditablility and oversite on all spending for each department.

I would meet with each secretary individually and tell him or her what personal goals I have for them and to obtain their own personal goals for their individual departments. I would want to prioritize and break out our goals into more detail with tentative deliverables, deadlines, and costs. I would alos try to identify things that could be accomplished internally within the White House or externally for example with Congress.

Think of all of the challenges that could be met if the secretaries led their departments and America by tackling existing and potential problems for America. Think about a ten percent decrease each year in high school dropouts. Think about a national energy plan for the next 20 years with specified deliverables each year. Think about peace for America at least temporarily. Think about housing stock at affordable prices. Think about completion of the border fences with Mexico. Think about the arrests of illegal aliens and their employers. Think about making college more affordable to the recent high school graduate and the worker that needs to be retrained. Think about America becoming a net exporter rather than a net importer. That we have some leveling of prices with grains being used to make ethanol and also to feed food animals. Think about having healthcare coverage that is affordable with affordable copayments or deductibles. There is so much the Bush secretaries could do but they are all restricted from doing anything. The Bush secretaries are dumbing it down while employed at the White House. Normally, subsequent employers would jump to hire Presidential cabinet level secretaries, but I do not think they can adequately answer the question, What did you do while in the White House employ? " is not a good enough answer for Secretaries.

I bring this up because the Secretary of Defense let the war in Iraq stall longer than the entire duration of World War II. Did this guy have deliverables for each milestone and deadlines to address? Why did everything slip, and slip, and slip?

The most pronounced achievement of the Department of Education has been the student loan scandal that increased the costs to student loans because of payoffs from financial institutions to trade schools, colleges, and universities to steer borrowing students to them. Educational ranking with other industrial nations was not as good as it should have been at the start of the Bush II presidency and is even worse now. Her favored quote is that it is the state's responsibility for America to have a qualified workforce and trained citizens.

HUD has not increased the number of rental units adequately. Many rental units were converted to co-ops or condominiums and few new rental units were created. And America's population has increased by more than 100 million people since 1968 with no proportional increase in rental stock. Each year, the existing housing stock is exploited more and more with excessive occupancy of individual units. Many people are doubling or tripling up in individual housing units because they cannot find or afford the housing that exists.

The Labor Department really stinks. America has been shedding tens of millions of jobs and it is anticipated that as many as 40 million jobs will additionally be outsourced overseas. There is a lack of support to retain jobs in America. And the H1B program is a complete insult to American labor because it was intended to import foreign workers to America on a temporary basis when there were no Americans available to perform the work. The H1B program is redundant because there are Americans able, willing, and qualified to perform the work. The Bush administration is even fostering foreign outsourcing of America's strategic defense weapon systems.

The Energy Department is a loser. I think America's energy position is worse of the 6 years of the Bush administration than when he began. There seems to be no plan, deliverables, milestones, or deadlines. It kills me that the Energy Department sponsored billions of tax dollars for the major oil companies while they are racking up billions od dollars in profits each quarter.
The energy department is the most dysfunctional in the Bush administration.

The seals perform well for President Bush. They will clap their flippers on demand. Some can balance a ball on their nose. I guess they get to watch a lot of TV in their offices because they do not seem to be doing meaningful work for America. I do not think any of these Secretaries have any self respect because the vast majority have do nothing jobs and are a waste of tax payers money. They shame me because they could be acomplishing great things for America.

I think the Bush II presidential library should be built in Sarasota Florida so that visitors can examine the Bush circus and stroll nearby to see the Ringling Brothers Circus Museum nearby.

Senator Kennedy, You Can Afford To Pay American Landscapers

Senator Kennedy, You Can Afford To Pay American Landscapers

Senator Ted Kennedy was angry when the Immigration bill was recently stalled and complained that now we will be using our border patrol and police organizations to catch landscapers instead of violent criminals. Everyone knows that the illegal immigrant landscaper, construction worker, slaughter house worker, housekeepers, warehouse workers, and others displaced American citizens on the job and reduced prevailing wages and benefits for those jobs.

Senator Ted Kennedy of the Kennedy fortune raised by his father, and has been a trustee of the estate, can afford to pay American citizens to perform those jobs instead of being frugal and saving as much as 50% by using illegal aliens instead. Ted, you already have more money in the world than you can spend in your lifetime, why be cheap and and hire illegal aliens. Ted, do you not respect hard working American citizens? And the illegal aliens broke the law by coming here unlawfully and you are probably breaking the law by hiring them. And you are also breaking the law by conspiring illegal aliens top remain in the United States and for employers to flagrantly hire them. If I was a labor union leader, I would give you a grade of "F" because you support the displacement of millions of American citizen workers.

Your buddy, Michael Chertoff is equally frightening and alarming and is quoted, "But, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff thinks it’s all fine and dandy.
"Chertoff told CNN that the bill would help him better focus his resources.
"Right now, I've got my Border Patrol agents and my immigration agents chasing maids and landscapers. I want them to focus on drug dealers and terrorists. It seems to me, if I can get the maids and landscapers into a regulated system and focus my law enforcement on the terrorists and the drug dealers, that's how I get a safe border."

Now, law enforcement gets to choose the boutique crimes of the week to enforce and to ignore the other crimes. What a wonderful America we all live in right now, where anarchy prevails with illegal aliens and their employers and our government officials who swore to uphold our laws, but chose to ignore many of them.

I do not understand the motivation of Senator Ted Kennedy, Michael Chertoff and others that support illegal aliens and the criminal employers of illegal aliens. Their efforts are not good for America or American citizen labor.