Faceless Bureaucrats

Iraqi Elections

I have been waiting for the Iraqi elections with my fingers crossed. If successful, it will be the beginning of the end for dictators in the Middle East. I've also been reading Stealing Elections by John Fund. It is clear from Mr. Fund's book that voting takes the place of combat in modern societies. And given some of the examples in the book, it would not be difficult to imagine gun battles breaking out in the U.S. without our long history of finding other ways to settle arguments and get even.

Recently, Zarqawi has decided to make war on Democracy. (Via Kathy, via Blogfather.) This makes the Iraqi election a battle in the war against Islamo-Fascism.

So, I pose the following question to any Muslim that might wander by this site: if dying in a Jihad makes you a martyr (which guarantees that you go to heaven); and given that Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has made voting a religious duty in Iraq; and given that Zarqawi has decided to make war on Democracy; and if you accept that voting is a form of warfare; is someone that is killed while voting in the coming Iraqi election a martyr in the Muslim religion?

Intelligence Czar

I have not had time to read the 9/11 commission report. However, it is not difficult to spot a good idea and a bad idea in the news accounts of the report. The good idea is to reduce the amount of congressional oversight committees. One committee, overseeing intelligence correctly, should be sufficient. Multiple oversight committees lead to an agency spending significant amounts of creative energy playing committees off of each other and not enough creative energy getting work done.

The bad idea is for a new cabinet level intelligence czar position. The government has a drug czar already. Does anyone think that an intelligence czar will be more successful than the drug czar has been? Better to let individual intelligence agencies compete against each other than set up this additional layer of bureaucracy that will either do nothing or slow everything down. The private sector runs on competition. We call the effects from this competition “private sector efficiency.” Bureaucracies do better when they compete against each other too. However, we call this competition “wasteful government duplication of effort.”

Col. West 1

Today in the Washington Times, Clifford D. May discusses Col. West’s case. Mr. May argues strongly that Col. West did not break the Geneva Convention in his questioning of the terrorist in Iraq. The commentary begins with:

Twenty years ago, in what some regard as the start of the terrorist war against America, Hezbollah suicide-bombers attacked the U.S. Embassy and the Marine barracks in Beirut, slaughtering more than 250 Americans.

Only one man was punished for those crimes — Keith Hall, the CIA agent in charge of the investigation. He was fired because he was seen as too tough, too aggressive in his interrogation of suspects.

Read the entire commentary. This has been a problem for longer than I thought.

Col. West 2

On Saturday, I heard David Burd on WMAL talk about the charges against Col. West. Mr. Burd said that if any Pentagon types were listening, that they had to know the charges against Col. West were simply wrong. Mr. Burd is right. The Pentagon has to know that these charges are simply wrong.

Thoughts of Dad on Veteran's Day

I went to my brother’s today and we ended up talking about our deceased father who fought in WWII. Dad had always been a little bit odd and my brother and I think that his war experiences bothered him until he died. Dad saw a lot of things that no one should have to see. He came home from WWII with a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart that were from two different incidents. Neither my brother nor I think we ever got a straight story from Dad on either incident.

Even years after Dad’s death, my brother and I still try to figure out what Dad went through during the war. Today, I heard something from my brother that I had never heard before: Dad spent three months in VA mental hospital after coming home from WWII. My brother found this out when he was sorting through some old papers. The VA 'crats must have done something right; Dad stayed in the Army for another 10 years and served in Korea.

Thanks to all Veterans and a special thanks to the VA 'crats who put my Dad back together after WWII.

Welcome to the Real World

I remember testimony on the Hill that discussed the use of coercion in the questioning of captured Al-Qaeda terrorists. The conclusion was that different tactics were permissible before and after 9-11. This was a realistic assessment of real world tactics needed to prevent terrorism. Unfortunately, as this story makes clear, even the military seems to have trouble remembering the lessons of 9-11. Can we really end the terrorism beginning in Iraq by tying the hands of our military?

Responsive Government

I’ve been seeing a lot of proposals for reforming the Civil Service that say that we need less Civil Servants and more political appointees to make government more responsive to the people. Believe me; we do not need more political appointees. We really need less government. Too much government leads to agencies with unclear missions. Unclear missions lead to unresponsive government. An increase in political appointees just leads to a more political government rather than a more responsive government.

Deregulation

I may not have been the last person in Virginia to get their electricity back on after the hurricane, but I was close. On top of that, one of the many power surges that happened both before and after the storm damaged my computer. Yes, I have the computer on a UPS that is supposed to eliminate damage from power surges. The computer still got damaged. The experiences centered around the storm have lead many to call for an end to deregulation in the energy market. I respectfully disagree. Government regulations solve many problems, but they have one nasty side effect: they suppress innovation in the regulated market. If a company has to fight a regulatory problem every time they want to innovate, the company will just stick with the tried and true. This is a time for innovation in the energy market, not Government action that will suppress innovation.

Political Economy

Among the evils invented by modern politicians is the permanent campaign. There used to be a period of campaigning followed by a period of governing. Now, the politicians run for office on a 24/7 schedule. This has the effect of changing the requirements for civil servants. Prior to the permanent campaign, technocrats were usually the top civil servants in an agency. Now, politicrats are usually the top civil servants in an agency. What are politicrats? They are political appointees that are chosen for top career jobs. This is not the same thing as “burrowing in.”

Politicrats introduce instability at high levels in agencies. Why? Because every time the party in power changes, the new party must change the politicrats in agencies along with the plum political appointees. Replacing politicrats takes up to two years because of civil service protections. Before all the politicrats are finally removed, they are a detriment to agency performance because they strongly oppose the goals of a new political party. This ultimately makes an agency less responsive to a newly elected political party than if technocrats were running the agency.

As a result of politicrats, the behavior of an agency oscillates with each election of a different party. Since government is such a large part of the economy, the oscillating behavior by government agencies eventually begins to affect the economy. The end result is the kind of economy that the British used to have. Think it can not happen in the US? Watch. It has already begun. Future business cycles will be tied to Presidential elections.

Geoghan Slaying

The coverage of the Geoghan Slaying is interesting. In the current stories, Gehoghan’s murder is described as a hate crime against homosexuals. When the first stories came out about Priests molesting teenagers, the Priests were sick pedophiles not homosexuals.

I suppose regulations requiring consistency in news coverage need to be drafted. I'll get on those regulations as soon as I run out of better things to do.

Arianna Huffington

I have to start by admitting that I am not exactly sure who Arianna Huffington is and why she is famous. I know she hates SUVs and is running for Governor of California. Susan Estrich has written an article about Ms. Huffington that criticizes her for running for Governor and sacrificing her family in the process.

Huffington has no chance of winning. Never did. The only reason to run was her ego, self-aggrandizement, attention -- at the expense of her kids.

What is unusual about this story is the visibility of the ego, not the expense being paid by the kids. Many politicals have outsized egos that require a high price on their families. Normally, you just do not get to see it so clearly.

ICE

The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has an official acronym of BICE. However, unofficially the Bureau is referred to as ICE. This is definitely a cool acronym. It does beg the question ... when ICE Agents are making an arrest, do they yell "FREEZE!"? Enquiring minds want to know.

Metro Again

I got on a subway car Tuesday morning. There were no seats, so I moved to the middle and stood. I looked around and noticed that there was one other person standing. YUP! A pregnant woman. There were several people sitting that were pretending not to notice that a pregnant woman was standing.

Yeah, it really does bug me that we have become such a self-centered nation that people sit while pregnant women stand. BTW, she eventually got a seat. Someone exited the train and she got the empty seat.

Interest Rates

I am back and as I promised, your taxes were not raised. Please note that I did not say a thing about what would happen to interest rates while I was gone.

Raising Taxes

I will be gone for a week. Your taxes will not be raised while I am gone.

Nazi Planes

Did you see this story?
Fully armed Nazi bomber planes 'buried below East Berlin airport'

You probably thought the story was about buried Nazi airplanes and bombs in bunkers underneath airport runways. You are wrong. The story is really about bureaucrats. Those airplanes and munitions/bombs were moved into the bunkers by post WWII German ‘crats under the orders of Russian ‘crats. You can see some logic in storing the planes and munitions in bunkers, but why were the airplanes loaded with fuel? Gas goes bad in a hurry when exposed to air and those airplanes probably have vented fuel tanks. Obviously, someone did not follow proper bureaucratic procedures. Then again, maybe proper bureaucratic procedures were followed. The procedures were just communist bureaucratic procedures.

What happens next is amusing or chilling depending on your point of view. The next generation of German bureaucrats discovers that there are bombs buried in bunkers underneath airport runways and decides it is safe for the bombs to stay in the bunkers. The ‘crats do not know the quantity of bombs but know that it is safe. Even though the ‘crats know it is safe, they decide to keep the existence of the bombs a secret. Do you think they might have had doubts about the safety of bombs underneath runways and that is why they kept it all secret? Actually, the ‘crats probably did not have any doubts about safety. Even though the Berlin wall has fallen, these are really communist bureaucrats making the decisions and keeping everything a secret comes natural to them.

This story is one of the reasons the US has the first amendment. The first amendment has more to do with bureaucratic decisions leading to buried bombs under airports than it does with idiots protesting the war in Iraq.

I hope this story turns out to be true. The Confederate Air Force could use the airplanes.

Hours on the job.

You are probably not going to believe this, but I've been working some long hours the last couple of weeks. I know that we bureaucrats are not supposed to work long hours, but sometimes you have no choice. I need to go get a real government job that lasts exactly eight hours per day and does not require work over weekends. I've thought about going on one of those four day work weeks where you work ten hours a day and get one day free. However, my friends with that schedule assure me that it quickly turns into five ten-hour days. I've already got those hours plus weekend hours too. At my department the hours are long, the work is hard, but at least the pay is low.

Oh well, back to work.

Humanity in DC

The Metro’s Orange Line was a disaster today. My normal commute on the Metro is approximately 20 minutes. Today my commute was about 2 hours. A train died between Rosslyn and Foggy Bottom and jammed the entire Orange Line. This worries me as there was a breakdown on the Red Line a day earlier. Breakdowns on the Metro tend to happen in cycles due to problems with maintenance. That is, the breakdowns occur because of problems in how the trains are being maintained. Usually the breakdowns continue until Metro finds the problem in the maintenance procedures.

Anyone who rides the Metro for a long time develops strategies for dealing with Metro’s breakdowns. Mine is just to wait until a breakdown appears to have been fixed and then make sure that I get a seat. This does not always work. Today, it did not work because Metro was overly optimistic on how long it would take to move the dead train out of the way. I got onto a relatively empty train after waiting in the station for about a half-hour. The Metro announcer said the dead train would be moved in just a few minutes. It turned out to be about 90 minutes. This is not the first time that Metro has fooled me. There was that snow storm a few years ago and … but I digress.

Did I mention that I try to get a seat when things are going wrong on the Metro? This is just in case Metro fools me and I get stuck longer than I anticipate on a crowded train. The strategy did not work today. My relatively empty train pulled into a station that was packed. A pregnant woman walked on the train and … what can I say? I gave her my seat. I must be a chauvinist. I cannot sit while a pregnant woman stands. Seems unnatural to be sitting under those circumstances and I ended up standing for 90 minutes on a very crowded train.

When the train finally got to Farragut Square I noticed a most peculiar thing. Every pregnant woman on the train was sitting! There were a lot them too. Such behavior in DC is very unnerving. It was as if we Washington Bureaucrats were human. (A very scary thought indeed.) If I hadn’t seen this behavior with my own eyes, I would not have believed it.

Contracting

The Washington Post is running a series of articles on the DC government’s attempts to deal with youth offenders. The DC government hired a contractor to perform tasks normally performed by the government. Take a look at the article Firm's Lack Of Control Has Deadly Consequence and the excerpt below.

Re-Direct Inc. was hired by the District to provide juveniles convicted of crimes with a refuge of counseling and structure. Instead, teenagers living in the company's group homes and apartments received little help and were allowed to roam free. By the time the for-profit company declared bankruptcy this year, six of the teenagers had been slain. Four were killed on the streets, two shot in the head inside their apartment. A seventh had committed murder. Others were in prison for robbery and assault.

What procedures were being performed by the DC government to ensure that results were actually being achieved? It is difficult to believe that anyone was paying attention.

Now, take a look at OMB Circular A-76 (If you can figure A-76 out, you’ve got a future in the federal government.) Scared yet? You should be. Contracting out is not a panacea. As written, A-76 will have spectacular successes and spectacular failures. The party in power will tell you about the successes and the party out of power will tell you about the failures.

The procedures in A-76 begin with dividing jobs into inherently governmental functions or commercial activities. If you live in the Washington DC area, you may know someone who is afraid of losing their job due to A-76, particularly if they work in the IT field. Why pick on the IT field? It is fashionable in the federal government to contract out IT functions.

The focus of A-76 should be on measurable results. If the end results of an inherently governmental function are easily measurable, then contract out the function. It is not important whether a function is inherently governmental or a commercial activity. It only matters whether you can measure success easily. If you cannot measure success easily, then you are stuck with alternative measures traditionally used by the government such as the weight of the regulations or the length of the regulations or.....

Running the War in Iraq.

Do you ever feel like criticizing the way the way the military is running the war in Iraq? RTFM--> http://www.smallwars.quantico.usmc.mil/sw_manual.cfm.

A note to Iranian Bureaucrats

You know those students are not going to get a change in the government by themselves. You know how much work goes into coordinating the government’s responses to the protests by the students. You know how to slow down something that should not be done. You know how to prevent something that should not happen. As one Bureaucrat to another, it is time.

Second Post

First Posts are very important. First Posts set the tone for your weblog and should catch a reader’s interest. Given the importance of the First Post, I’ve decided to write the First Post later. After I’ve written appropriate bureaucratic regulations and when I have more time.

Thanks to Kathy for setting up the BLOGHOUSE and, yes, I did do the install of MT by myself. Can’t you tell?