Cronyism, Bill Marr, And the GOP Agenda

It appears that Dubya’s good old boys are at it again, giving their friends and relatives some of the most important jobs in the country regardless of their actual qualifications for said job. At the moment, the résumé of Bush's most recent appointee to direct the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), Julie Myers (left), is being examinedand and criticized by both Democrats and Republicans.

Thanks DC Media Girl for encapsulating this juicy little Washington Post tidbit which has the likelihood of affecting the future of every American from a number of aspects.

Kudos to Crooks and Liars for highlighting her posting. This is one we better stay on top of or we may end up regretting it later.

SOME QUOTES FROM THE WASHINGTON POST:

[Many immigration advocates, ICE employee representatives and homeland security experts said they were troubled by the nomination of Myers to take over an agency with so many problems.]

[Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio) went so far as to tell Myers that her résumé indicates she is not qualified for the job.]

["It appears she's got a tremendous amount of experience in money laundering, in banking and the financial areas," said Charles Showalter, president of the National Homeland Security Council, a union that represents 7,800 ICE agents, officers and support staff. "My question is: Who the hell is going to enforce the immigration laws?"]

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As usual Bill Marr does a superb job of beautifully summing up the Bush administration's deeply flawed philosophy of cronyism which continues to be SOP (standard operating procedure) for the feds. With his usual biting wit and scathing satire he hits the mark with his portrayal of true "evil" in his latest New Rules segment which you can download here at Crooks and Liars .

More Bill:

Watch Marr debate Tucker Carlson on his MSNBC show. He slams President Bush in the wake of the hurricane Katrina disaster. "....there's also huge federal responsibility, George Bush should have been on this case, again he didn't leave his vacation, he appointed Freedo Corleone to be the head of FEMA...if this was a lawsuit, privately, I would say people would have a case of negligence against the federal government."

Bill Marr highlights how differently the reaction would've been with President Clinton in office during this disaster. "That would not have happened under Bill Clinton, you can't tell me that you think that FEMA would have not have been a completely different agency, and that Clinton would have been all over this situation from minute one, like white on rice. You don't think that's who Bill Clinton is? He would not have slept from the moment this hurricane started to hit until we could do the best we could with the situation."

Carlson makes the argument that George W. Bush is not a conservative and echoes the many comparisons being put forward likening him to Lyndon Johnson. "Consider what he said in the last couple days... we are going to spend at least 100 billion probably 200 billion to rebuild this, he's come out for affirmative action, he said in his speech the other night that racism causes poverty. These are all liberal ideas, he is behaving like Lyndon Johnson." After a couple of conciliatory speeches, apparently the conservatives want to frame their lame-duck president as a liberal in the hopes of distancing themselves from him.

Download the video clip of Tucker Carlson's show on MSNBC here courtesy of Crooks and Liars

Over at Talkleft they highlight exactly what the Bush administration and the Republicans are up to these days. According to a Wall Street Journal article, they're using the Katrina disaster to shamelessly put forward the GOP agenda. Apparently offering no-bid contracts to subsidiaries of Halliburton wasn't enough, now they're suspending wage regulations and affirmative action protections in the name of expediency and efficiency. Republicans are also working on legislation to limit the rights of victims to sue. Apparently they're thinking is along the same lines as Bill Marr's, and are trying to head off the flood of lawsuits that is sure to ensue.

Additionally conservatives want to offer school vouchers, lift environmental restrictions on refineries and create tax advantaged enterprise zones in order to maximize private-sector participation in the coming reconstruction. Some of the ideas they're considering in the hopes of promoting "free-market solutions" would eliminate regulatory barriers in the awarding of federal funds to religious groups housing hurricane victims, waving the estate tax for deaths in the storm affected states, and making the entire region a "flat-tax free-enterprise zone." Amzingly they seem to have include almost all the GOP's pet projects in their proposals.

The 40 member study group pushing this agenda met in a closed session Tuesday night at the headquarters of the ultraconservative Heritage Foundation. The Republicans will also be pushing for incentives to expand offshore drilling and approval of an energy bill that would revive provisions that were dropped from last fall's bill.