kmorrison's blog

The Oil Spill in the Gulf has yet again highlighted one of government’s major failings – government regulators and bureaucracies are inept. President Obama is being criticized for his reaction to the leak, and some are comparing it to President Bush’s reaction to Katrina. However, a more suitable comparison is the financial meltdown that occurred late in President Bush’s second term. For both presidents there was little that they personally could have done prior to these terrible events, and both had strikingly few options after the event occurred. While they both have to answer questions about the effectiveness of government under their watch, in reality these events aren’t showing a failure of the executive branch, instead they show the massive failure of government regulation and associated agencies.

In both cases the failure of regulators has been so complete that it’s left the citizenry asking, ‘How did this happen?’ After the financial meltdown people wondered what good the SEC is if it can’t figure out blatant financial cons like Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme. Ponzi schemes have been around for eons, and shouldn’t be particularly hard to detect for someone with proper education/training. However, it’s the credit default swaps that appear tanked several large banks along with the U.S. economy, yet there was no recognition of this problem by the SEC until it was too late.

The question that most everyone has heard post oil spill is, ‘Seriously, they don’t have a plan to stop the leak?’ It seems like such a no-brainer that if a company drills offshore there should be a plan in case something goes wrong. Not just one plan, but several plans both to prevent disasters, and to mitigate disasters if they do occur. Now we’re over a month out from the initial explosion, and BP is still guessing about what might possibly stop the flow of oil. Again government regulators by definition have failed. Similarly the Minerals Management Service appears to be a joke.

Thus we end up with Government’s Catch 22. There is a need for some regulation, yet the government clearly sucks at regulation. This unfortunately is on both a big scale and on a small scale. I work for a company that was recently visited by an FDA regulator; much of it was the theatre of the absurd. Our file cabinets are now much more clearly labeled, and we provided copious amounts of information about things that have nothing to do with the FDA. Not a huge deal, but somewhat depressing when considering how much money is being spent on useless regulation, and how many serious violations are likely being missed.

There is blame to put on Congress. They are responsible for oversight, and clearly they’ve failed at providing adequate oversight of these agencies. Yet there is an even bigger problem than Congress. As a country our regulatory agencies have failed and continue to fail. We need a better system. First, we need a better selection process for picking the people who run these agencies. Choosing the buddy of someone powerful or choosing someone who has done political favors for an influential person clearly is inadequate selection criteria. Experience and knowledge matter - a lot, if people running and participating in these agencies don’t know their stuff then they don’t belong there. While that sounds obvious, clearly it’s not happening.

My theory is that people with a military background may be better leaders for these agencies. The one person during the gulf disaster that has inspired any confidence (and basically the only person that hasn’t talked in circles) is Admiral Thad Allen. Maybe the structure and the directness that a military commander would bring to an overly political government bureaucracy could help. Congress also needs to wake up and worry less about placing blame after a disaster, and instead provide the proper oversight to these agencies; that could even prevent disasters. Finally, voters have to demand that this problem is addressed. This isn’t a glamorous issue, but it is a critical one. There is a real need for voters to insist that politicians give sustentative answers on how they will make government work again. As a country we’ve created a monster with big regulatory agencies that suck up money and fail to effectively regulate. The fix isn’t obvious, but it is vital.

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Big Government’s Catch 22 – We’ve Created a Monster

Senator Coburn Blogger Call – Addresses Fiscal Crisis and Potential for the U.S. to be in the same position as Greece in Four Years. (embedded mp3)

Finally, someone succinctly makes the point that both sides of the political spectrum have their crazies, and that pigeonholing all the people that have problems with the health care legislation as radical or racist is intellectually dishonest. Best moment of the interview is when Chris Matthews mutters under his breath "this isn't working."

Dana Loesch Owns Chris Matthews in Debate About Tea Party Protests

Senator McCain came to New Hampshire this weekend to co-host a town hall meeting with Kelly Ayotte the former New Hampshire AG. Senator McCain is supporting Ayotte's bid to fill the empty Senate seat being vacated by Senate Republican Judd Gregg. The first question was to Kelly Ayotte about her recent trip to the VA. Ayotte, whose husband is an Iraq war veteran, voiced her support for a VA hospital in New Hampshire. The second question was to Senator McCain asking if the current health care bill was passed could it be repealed. While Senator McCain said that the passage of the bill would trigger a nationwide movement to repeal the bill, he also stated that defeating the current bill was far better option. He urged people speak up and speak out against the bill as strong opposition by the American people (our representatives constituents) is now what is most likely to influence the House and Senate. The questions that followed were in large part about the either health care, the huge amount of government spending, the skyrocketting national deficit, or some combination of these issues. Some of the points made by Ayotte and McCain included:

• The health care bill will collect money from tax payers for four years before offering any benefits in a rather blatant budgetary gimmick.
• The huge amount of government spending is an act of generational theft, leaving future generations with a massive debt to pay off.
• Cuts in payroll and corporate tax rates would be far more effective in stimulating economic growth than government spending.
• The process involved in formulating the health care bill has revealed the broken promises of the Obama adminstration in terms of transparency, bipartisanship, and backroom political dealings i.e. Cornhusker Kickback, Louisiana Purchase, Gator Aid, etc.

Senator McCain was back in his element hosting a town hall in New Hampshire, and Kelly Ayotte had a solid performance too stating that she would regularly conduct town hall meetings as a NH Senator. Representative Hodes, her likely Democratic competitor, has been highly reluctant to hold town hall meetings. For another take on the McCain Ayotte town hall NECN filed the report, McCain: Ayotte the 'next generation' of leadership

McCain Stumps for Ayotte - Health Care and Spending are Hot Topics

Protests Iran Today

For those following the use of social media, particularly Twitter in regards to the protests in Iran, today is a good to be folowing the #iranelection tag on Twitter as large protests are scheduled. The government has renewed attempts to crackdown on its citizens internet use. Only time will tell how successful they have been in oppressing their own people.

From the Denver post Huge rally and protests mark Iran revolution

TEHRAN, Iran—Hundreds of thousands of Iranians massed Thursday in central Tehran to mark the anniversary of the revolution that created the country's Islamic republic, while a heavy security force fanned out across the city and moved quickly to snuff out opposition counterprotests. Police clashed with protesters in several sites around Tehran, firing tear gas to disperse them and paintballs to mark them for arrest. Dozens of hard-liners with batons and pepper spray attacked the convoy of a senior opposition leader, Mahdi Karroubi, smashing his car windows and forcing him to turn back as he tried to join the protests, his son Hossein Karroubi told The Associated Press.

The celebrations marking the revolution's 31st anniversary

An image made from video provided by Iranian State TV, pro-government demonstrators gather in the central square of Tehran to mark the 31st anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution were an opportunity for Iran's clerical regime to tout its power in the face of the opposition movement, which has managed to keep up periodic street protests since the disputed June presidential elections despite a fierce crackdown.

The opposition turnout was dwarfed by the huge crowd at the state-run celebrations. Many were bused in to central Azadi, or Freedom, Square to hear an address by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who proclaimed a new success in Iran's uranium enrichment program and dismissed new U.S. sanctions.

And the massive security clampdown appeared to succeed in preventing protesters from converging into a cohesive demonstrations. Large numbers of riot police, members of the Revolutionary Guard and Basij militiamen, some on motorcycles, deployed in back streets near key squares and major avenues in the capital to move against protesters.

Opposition Web sites spoke of groups of protesters in the hundreds, compared to much larger crowds in past demonstrations

One protester told The Associated Press she had tried to join the demonstrations but soon left in disappointment. "There were 300 of us, maximum 500. Against 10,000 people," she told an AP reporter outside Iran. She said there were few

Female demonstrators wave Iranian flags, as a picture of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is held at center, during a rally commemorating the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, at the Azadi (freedom) Square in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010. Many thousands of pro-government demonstrators gathered in the central square of Tehran to mark the 31st anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the US-backed late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Protests Iran Today

Many who supported Senator McCain during his presidential run would have liked to see the features now present at the newly revamped John McCain Dot Com present on his old dark presidential candidate version of John McCain Dot Com, but hey, better late than never. Today the new and improved John McCain.com was launched with the following message...

We are proud to announce our brand new website for the 2010 campaign. This is the place to come for everything you want to know about what Senator McCain is doing, what the issues are that matter to you, and what others are saying as well.

JohnMcCain.com Re-Launched

Excerpt from the NYT Illinois Senate Race Worries Democrats Anew

CHICAGO — Alexi Giannoulias, the treasurer of Illinois and a basketball-playing friend of President Obama’s, won the Democratic primary here on Tuesday for the Senate seat once held by Mr. Obama. But his victory was hardly the free throw some had expected, setting off a new round of worrying among Democrats that the reliably Democratic seat might be picked off by Republicans in November.
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In an Illinois Primary Race, Victory Is Self-Declared (February 4, 2010)

With four others on the ballot, Mr. Giannoulias won 39 percent of the Democratic vote, or, as Republicans preferred to describe it on Wednesday, lost 61 percent of it. A little-known former federal prosecutor who had never run for office, David Hoffman, came within six percentage points of Mr. Giannoulias.

With much on the line here, including the symbolism of the president’s home state possibly slipping away, some Democrats were concerned that the party had played into the game plan of the Republicans, who chose Representative Mark Steven Kirk, a centrist-leaning suburbanite who hopes to appeal to the state’s independent voters and even some moderate Democrats.

Already Wednesday morning, the National Republican Senatorial Committee had issued a Web video mocking Mr. Giannoulias, 33, for what it described as questionable loans made by his family’s bank, his ties to Rod R. Blagojevich, the indicted former governor of Illinois, and more.

“Is this change we can believe in?” the video asks.

Mr. Obama called Mr. Giannoulias to congratulate him on his victory, aides said, but despite the friendship, the White House indicated in the past that it had reservations about his candidacy. At one point, White House officials tried without success to recruit another Democrat, Lisa Madigan, the state attorney general, even after Mr. Giannoulias had made his aspirations clear.

Mr. Obama, who endorsed no one in the primary, has pledged to party officials to do what he can to help keep the seat in Democratic hands. But aides said the president would invest his time and efforts in races across the country and not necessarily devote more attention to the contest for his former seat.

White House Worried About Senate Race in Illinois

Senator Barrasso brings an interesting perspective to the health care debate as doctor/orthopedic surgeon. However, it is his experience as the husband of a breast cancer survivor that provided one of the most compelling moments of last Saturday's health care debate from the Senate floor. Senator McCain asked Senator Barrasso about how advisory boards factor into the proposed health care legislation...

Mr MCCAIN. Now that is a nice academic discussion. But I would ask-maybe Dr. Barrasso would answer it-isn't that the kind of advisory board this legislation could put into law; that those kinds of mandates could come down, which could literally jeopardize the health and lives of Americans? Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I would say to my colleague and friend from Arizona, this type of legislation would have cost my wife her life. She is a breast cancer survivor, diagnosed by a routine screening mammogram. She was in her forties when that mammogram was performed. She went through the testing and had the operation. In that age, in her forties, she already had the breast cancer spread from her breast to one of the lymph nodes. It was a screening mammogram that saved her life. She has had three operations, two bouts of chemotherapy. As a result, she is a survivor-6 years later. But this piece of legislation says: No, no, do not worry about it. There is not going to be any denial of care. There is not going to be anything like that. But if you turn to page 1,150, it talks specifically about this preventative task force, specifically saying when they make their recommendations there is going to be money that taxpayers are going to pay to tell people what those recommendations are. Then, if you go to page 1,190, it says that if it is not approved, they will deny payment for that service-deny payment. C-SPAN video of health care debate

What will and won't be covered in a government-run health insurance option is no minor issue. Two seperate panels in the last week have suggested less cancer screening, the most controversial of which stated that women in their forties don't need mammograms. As Senator Barrasso can attest, that could cost some women their lives. Supporters of this bill owe the American people a better explanation of the nuts and bolts of this plan; probably more to the point, they owe the American people a better bill.

Senator Barrasso: This Type of Legislation Would Have Cost My Wife Her Life

From JohnMcCain.com sponsored email...

Taxpayers simply cannot afford this government takeover of our health care system and this is our opportunity to put an end to it.

That's why I urge you to add your name to this petition showing your opposition to government-run health care.

We still have an opportunity to stop the Democrats' public option from becoming law, but I need to know you stand with us in opposition to a government takeover of health care - so, please sign this petition immediately.

The wasteful spending ways of Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress must be put to an end. Americans are angry and I share your frustration with our current leadership in Washington.

In less than one year, Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress have increased our nation's spending by more than 80%. Our national debt has reached $9 trillion and will only go higher if the President signs a health care bill with provisions for a government-run option. Last month, unemployment surpassed 10%, the highest rate in over 20 years.

Recent polls show clearly that Americans are against the health care takeover by Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress. And these same polls show that Americans understand and are infuriated by policies that are mortgaging our children's and grandchildren's future. It must be stopped. We must act now to show our continued opposition to the direction the Democratic leadership is taking our country.

McCain Health Care Petition Against Government Run Health Care.

Tip for the day... Anyone who uses Facebook or Twitter include the hash tag #beatcancer in your posts to raise money for cancer related charities. Each Tweet or Facebook post raises $.01, the goal being that the more it is spread through people's networks, the more people re-tweet and re-post, the potential for money raised rises exponentially. Cool way to raise money for a good cause, and interesting social media experiment to see how effective the big 2 social media sites can be in both spreading a message and generating fund-raising dollars.

For more info from Mashable... Social Media Campaign to Beat Cancer
#BeatCancer Social Media Cancer Fundraiser #BeatCancer