John McCain is preventing the confirmation of a new Director of National Intelligence, after the nominee received a unanimously positive vote in committee. Is that a really a patriotic thing to do, in wartime?
John McCain is holding the confirmation of a new Director of National Intelligence (reported favorably in committee by a vote of 15-0) hostage to some report he’d like to see.
Let’s hope that al-Qaeda’s Senate also has a “hold” rule that will prevent any terrorist actions before the U.S. is fully staffed to deal with them.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
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It's humiliating to have to attend to this person, but he can demand it. I do think he's so hellbent for revenge that he's no longer mindful of what havoc he wreaks.
You may have seen him on TV smirking about "rebellion." His Arizona organization is now openly collaborating w/ every insurrectionist "patriot" group that'll tolerate him. His main surrogate in the primary — a schlenter Ernst Röhm w/ a background too grotesque to be believed — is openly allied w/ these lunatics, & publicly denounces the President as an enemy of the nation, a traitor, etc. McCain didn't have to do this; he'll win his primary. It's for spite, & we'll be dealing w/ the nihilists he's empowered long after he's gone & forgotten.
The linked article doesn't say what the requested report was supposed to be about. My guess is something like "The modalities, analytical scenarios and strategic option assessment protocols for those kids getting off my lawn".
Because they aren't in power.
Just out of curiosity, does anyone think the DNI position is not a more-or-less impossible job?
Republicans hate us for our freedoms.
McCain got his report.
He had a chance today to distance himself the insurrectionary rhetoric of the guy I mention above, & he declined. Josh Marshall picks up the back-story at TPM.
"Just out of curiosity, does anyone think the DNI position is not a more-or-less impossible job?"
It depends on what you think the purpose of the DNI is. If you consider the possibility that the actual function of "intelligence" is more one of justifying pre-conceived foreign policy (as seen in the runup to the Iraq invasion), than of informing the policy-making process, then not only is the DNI's job possible it's indespensible.
Well, I may be naive, but I was sort of hoping that there was an adult in charge, trying to get everyone to share and play nicely together. But if he doesn't have the power to give people time-outs, what hope is there?
You can learn a whole lot by watching "Supernanny." She works magic.