31 Comments

1. Chiral:

Each czar will forever serve the same role as NASA astronauts: To be guest speakers at as many schools, social groups, and political events as possible.

Ie. to lobby for their employer.

Sep 8, 2009 - 2:35 am 2. bob:

I found a marker lying about entitled Czar for Wildlife, Fish, Lakes, Streams and Woods which none of the others had noticed or didn’t care for, over in the corner, behind the waste basket, by the cigarette butts and drinking containers, and party favors, after all the others had scrambled for their czar markers. I’ve put in for this unwanted position. I intend to protect the elk herds of the west, and get some solitude in the bargain, if I’m accepted. I’m trying to grease some wheels. I ask for your support, and especially your money, too.

Sep 8, 2009 - 2:45 am 3. richard:

Is there any information on where the money comes from to support these czar’s? Do the use funds provided by congress to operate the State Department go for the Central Czar? Maybe there are private donors who provide the operating funds for each czar? How do foreign govt respond to the czars via the state dept? So many question!

Sep 8, 2009 - 3:24 am 4. Lifeofthemind:

LoTM in ‘10, a Czar for the Little People.

Obama has reduced the awe of the United States to the status of a Seinfeld skit. This is the Festivus of government. With a few exceptions these are a collection of has beens and never beens. The regular bureaucrats should be jealous and furious. The Democrats have set a precedent they may regret. The idea behind the regular civil service was rigid adherence to procedure and reduced compensation in return for tenure in office and a generous pension. The rationale for that system needs to be reexamined. Civil service pay on average in 2006 was $65,516 for 1,674,026 federal civilian employees. Go to OPM.gov and get the Fact Book. It may be more rational to move to a system with no deferred compensation pensions for civilian employees.

Sep 8, 2009 - 3:40 am 5. tomw:

LOTM: go to CATO and check the comparison graph:
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/08/24/federal-pay-continues-rapid-ascent/

The Fed benefits package value has increased more than private industry since 2000. The salaries indicate no ‘deferred’ compensation, it is all paid right up front.
tom

Sep 8, 2009 - 5:05 am 6. Blaine:

I watched a news magazine on sunday and the reporter was talking about one of the reasons for the csars is for the president to say to a particular constituent that they have a person in the white house with the president’s ear. That is fine if you have a handful of csars but 33? If I were one of those special interersts groups who were promised a man on the inside I would be so angry I could not see straight right about now. 33 people do not have the ear of the president, someone (most) are being kicked to the curb.
Blaine

Sep 8, 2009 - 5:23 am 7. rab:

Richard (3)

Van Jones said that he would have 80 BILLION to dispense. I don’t think he was worried about the pay, if any.

Sep 8, 2009 - 5:47 am 8. Lifeofthemind:

tomw,
Thanks for the link. That is my point. The original argument was that generous pensions and tenure were forms of deferred compensation to ensure nonpartisan loyal performance at low pay. That no longer holds true. Federal pay is generous, especially for the unskilled. We would be better off hiring on short term contracts at market wages with no expectation of a pension. The nonpartisan and untainted by corruption arguments for the present system are a joke. Chester Arthur thought he was reducing corruption and making the government more professional but what is the actual result?

Sep 8, 2009 - 5:57 am 9. Mongoose:

It is a Politburo, along the lines of a Soviet, One Party State. It is no joke.

Ane they are doing t right out in the open too.

Note: there is no real opposition to it.

Obama and the Dems have complete contempt for this country, its laws and its politcal principles, traditions or customs.

We are in the middle of a Bolshevik coup. It is time we faced it.

Sep 8, 2009 - 6:13 am 10. RWE:

Last night on Fox News Charles Kruatmammer said he was amused that the attacks on Van Jones were described as “vicious” but in fact consisted entirely of quoting the man himself.

The Memory Hole is a phenomenon that has been mentioned here more than once. It appears that failure to adhere to it is now officially a “vicious” act.

Sep 8, 2009 - 6:21 am 11. Enscout:

LoTM: It doesn’t matter how it’s structured if renegades like Obama are allowed to do as they please. Where is his Constitutional authority in the matter? It’s a law enforcement problem & if there is no authorized vehicle in place to enforce the law, then it may be the best time in our nations history to repel this invasion of domestic enemies of our Constitution.

I took an oath to defend that document and its ideals. Time to join the local militia.

Let’s roll.

Sep 8, 2009 - 6:23 am 12. Pseudo-Polymath » Blog Archive » Tuesday Highlights:

[...] Czars (and Czarinas … although I can’t spot any women’s names on that list) … odd that. [...]

Sep 8, 2009 - 6:30 am 13. Stones Cry Out - If they keep silent… » Things Heard: e84v1:

[...] Czars (and Czarinas … although I can’t spot any women’s names on that list) … odd that. [...]

Sep 8, 2009 - 6:32 am 14. Lifeofthemind:

RWE,
The presumption is that the concealed information about Obama, his student papers, the teachers he had and especially the tape of him at the Rashid Khalidi party would be as inflammatory, in his own words, as Van Jones’ was.

This leads to an interesting problem. It is really like something from a film noir or horror script. How do you deal with someone who is by appearances rational and well dressed but who you have reason to believe lacks the capacity to exercise Free Will. If Obama is subject to blackmail because of explosive evidence against him then lacks the basic condition needed to be a citizen in a free society. When I see the movie D.O.A. my first reaction is pity. It is a tale told by a dead man. In horror movies the zombies also elicit our pity, they want to be human but they can’t. If the first Black President is subject to control because his own words can be used against him then he is morally not a free agent but a slave.

Sep 8, 2009 - 6:37 am 15. Insufficiently Sensitive:

Frank (D-Mass.) told author Stuart Weisberg that he would like to be Housing and Urban Development secretary.

Oh joy, the person most visibly responsible for the Community Reinvestment Act wishes to take charge of the agency now harboring Ron Sims, the former Executive of King County, WA. Under Sims, the crooked recount manipulation of ballots by the County succeeded in reversing the results of the 2004 election and emplacing the current Christine Gregoire as Governor. The two ‘liberal’ Seattle papers were remarkably incurious about some of the blatant evidence which turned up, and a legal challenge failed. Birds of a feather…

Sep 8, 2009 - 7:50 am 16. RWE:

Lifeof #14;

Ah, but Obama’s “base” does not give a rat’s rump if all those allegations are totally true. Just as Clinton’s base said that they would not care if he had been proven to rob a bank.

Those people are lost. Lost to us, lost to the country, lost to themselves, lost to God, lost to that red fire hydrant on the corner.

As to whether it would matter to others…. It would not matter to me because I already know what he is. I was not so sure about Jimmy Carter until he demonstrated his nature but I was sure about Obama from the first day he popped up.

So what about the “middle”? Would it matter to them? Not so sure. If you were looking for a lifeboat would it matter that the Captain of the Titanic climbed atop the iceberg and announced he was gay, a communist, and had always hated boats?

Sep 8, 2009 - 8:32 am 17. Lifeofthemind:

RWE,
A certain, perhaps decisive, percentage of the public will care that they were used and lied to and that there really was a cover up. Remember it wasn’t the 3rd rate burglary that destroyed Nixon. People don’t like being publicly exposed as chumps. The real hard core ‘will stick by BHO no matter what base’ are not that large, most Blacks (10% of the vote, but BHO is really an outsider and the Jesse Jackson and Establishment Blacks may dump him), whiskey’s sluts (another 10% at best and only until it becomes uncool), real true believers of the Old/New Left (maybe 15%?). As the air goes out his support should sink to 25-30%. Just look at the Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll. Today he is at -11 and yesterday he was at -13 but the trend is steady. By November he should be solidly in the -15 to -20 range and the second slump is yet to hit the economy.

That does not mean that I counsel complacency. Far from it. All that I mean is do not despair. We simply have to do the basic unromantic spadework of local politics.

Sep 8, 2009 - 8:51 am 18. always right:

Is it ridiculous for me to think of this administration as

“To boldly go where no one esle had gone before….”?

And we have Jean-Luc Piccard = Mr. Obama. In this case, the one episode where Jean-Luc was not himself.

Sep 8, 2009 - 9:34 am 19. JMH:

But who is the Czar Czar, Axelrod or Emannuel? And seeing Kerlikowske’s name on the list, I am reminded of the two rays of sunshine Obama has brought to me – getting Kerlikowske and Ron Simms out of Seattle. I do feel bad inflicting them on the rest of you, but at least Obama is doing his part to collect all the loonies in one bin.

So what about the “middle”? Would it matter to them? Not so sure. If you were looking for a lifeboat would it matter that the Captain of the Titanic climbed atop the iceberg and announced he was gay, a communist, and had always hated boats?

Well, to continue the analogy a bit, it might if the Captain had been constantly repeating that it was his predecessor’s responsibility that the ship hit the iceberg. At some point, the incompetence demonstrated by the captain in his choice of officers, and the pile of questionable reactions to the emergency (“Quick, burn the lifeboats to keep everyone warm! Drill holes in the hull to let the water out!”) make it clear that whatever the last guy’s responsibility, the current guy isn’t the right one for the job.

Sep 8, 2009 - 9:39 am 20. Roderick Reilly:

FWIW: Van Jones is a genuine street thug.

He went to jail for participating in the 1993 Rodney King riots. He is, therefore a street thug and ex-convict. It was while he was in jail that he became further radicalized by people he met there — people he called “revolutionaries,” or words to that effect, but whom the rest of us would call career criminals. He stated in writing that he needed to be more like them.

So, in summation, America’s “green jobs” czar, or whatever it was he was in “charge” of, was a career criminal elevated to a virtually cabinet-level height of responsibility.

Sep 8, 2009 - 9:56 am 21. Roderick Reilly:

This is a spoils system corruption scandal as much as it is a power grab. Obama figured out that he could get away with all sorts of things, and is pressing his advantage. Hot Air is absolutely correct in labeling this a “shadow government.”

This czar system provides an excellent network for syphoning off huge amounts of money at a time when the government is shoveling out money — with minimal accountability — at a rate not seen since the New Deal and WWII. Since this money is not buying tanks, aircraft carriers and planes (as it did back then), that leaves plenty of loose cash, doesn’t it? Combine that with deliberate efforts to emasculate the IGs and other forms of oversight, and we have the makings of the largest corruption scandal in the nation’s history.

I had made the point repeatedly in 2008 that the Obama crowd are not merely redistributionists, but also retributionists. Without getting too much into the delicate issue of race and ethnicity, this administration is top-heavy with members of the “aggrieved” faction of American politics, who believe they are owed reparations of all sorts. This provides them with a spectacular and never-to-be-repeated opportunity to loot America and punish its majority for “past crimes.”

Sep 8, 2009 - 10:04 am 22. Lifeofthemind:

Somebody outsourced the political process to the Ivy League law school admissions committees of the 1980’s and 90’s. Think about the incredibly small number of people who make those decisions and reflect that we know nothing about them or their prejudices. They are a poor substitute for the Electoral College.

Barack Obama, Van Jones, Eliot Spitzer, etc., the list goes on.

Sep 8, 2009 - 10:05 am 23. RWE:

JMH No.19

To compare to Obama you would have to add to the captain’s qualifications that he was the one that prevented the earlier capitan from installing those new-fangled radar-directed searchlight systems so to make more room for indigent passengers.

Sep 8, 2009 - 10:29 am 24. Robohobo:

Via Major Garrett on Fox:

…special advisers to the president, or czars, are not required to fill out the questionnaire that runs 7 pages and contains 63 questions.

So this admin sidesteps it’s own requirements for transparency? That is some strange definition of “Most Transparent Administration Evah!”

Cannot this ‘Shadow Government’ be deconstructed through a Constitutional argument? I am not a lawyer but has not someone considered this avenue?

LOTM @ 14:

If the first Black President is subject to control because his own words can be used against him then he is morally not a free agent but a slave.

Ouch! That is going to leave a mark! I like it! (Channeling Chevy Chase in “Modern Problems”.) Then who is the Master? Follow the money.

JMH @ 19:

But who is the Czar Czar, Axelrod or Emannuel?

I vote for Rahmbo E.

Roderick Reilly @ 21:

I had made the point repeatedly in 2008 that the Obama crowd are not merely redistributionists, but also retributionists.

You and me both. I took 0bama for what he said he was. Radical. But it is scant comfort these days.

Glenn Beck, Malkin @ her sites, NRO and others must keep hammering on the current admin until they are exposed for the shite that we all know they are.

Sep 8, 2009 - 10:41 am 25. Batman:

I’m having an interesting dialogue with my brother about political philosophy. He says that the test for him is to ask, “Do you believe that both Democrats and Republicans sincerely believe that their programs are in the best interests of America? And do you believe that both Democrats and Republicans love America?”

I replied that the man in the street Democrat and Republican each think they love America but that is not necessarily true of the leadership, both elected and behind the scenes.

I further asked him to consider a different question. “Whenever you see something or hear about something from any administration, do you ask yourself how you would feel about the same thing if it were enacted by an administration from the other party?” In other words, if Nixon or Reagan or Bush had appointed someone with the right-wing version of Van Jones, would you regard it as serious or innocuous? If Nixon or George W. Bush had a Treasury Secretary who hadn’t paid his taxes, or if Nixon gave a televised speech to the nation’s school children, would you think of it the same way as you do for Obama? And so forth.

And more to the point of this post, if Nixon had 33 Czars or George W. Bush had them, would you feel as comfortable about it as you do now with Obama?

I think this is a fair test that all sides should employ as they consider the political horizon.

Sep 8, 2009 - 11:57 am 26. Chiral:

@25 The political parties sell products like Coke and Pepsi, whose management may be fond of (and even enthusiastic about) their line of wares. But due to class barriers, it takes executives forever to realize anything is wrong, and when they finally do most choose to cash out rather than help the company survive.

Now apply that to a whole country… yikes!

Sep 8, 2009 - 12:17 pm 27. Mark:

Batman writes: “Whenever you see something or hear about something from any administration, do you ask yourself how you would feel about the same thing if it were enacted by an administration from the other party?”

That’s a fair test, and one that a lot of Americans are open to.

Who’s paying for the czars?

Are the czars a vanity gig, a way to reward your friends and keep them very close?

Van is a handsome man. The halo effect protected him, I suspect, to a large extent. The czars share the halo, hailing from distinguished heights in academia and ngo-land. Such illuminati are above mere questionnaires and senate confirmation. At one time in Europe there existed the “republic of letters,” an informal society of scholars who shared learning and a scholarly language (Latin). The new illuminati share a belief in a new kind of world, something like the kind of world that really smart people like them and Mr. President could imagine.

Sep 8, 2009 - 2:18 pm 28. geoffb:

“This czar system provides an excellent network for siphoning off huge amounts of money at a time when the government is shoveling out money — with minimal accountability — at a rate not seen since the New Deal and WWII”

I maintain that, even if there is not a corruption scandal soon, that there is going to be a major problem for the Democrats because of this money binge. The Democrats have for quite awhile been involved in the buying of their power, their votes, both at the ballot box and in Congress using mainly the funds of the Government.

Republicans got in on the action for awhile but their voters ultimately dumped them over the “earmarks” etc. They don’t have the constituency that can make the buying of power a long term proposition.

With the spending that Obama has unleashed, all the people that get paid are seeing a huge increase in what they receive. Like the employee who sees a huge increase in his pay for doing basically the same job as before, these people will expect to continue to receive not just the increased pay but new raises of equivalent amounts in the future.

Hyperinflation is hitting the graft and corruption set. The greed therein may upset the entire system. Or bring us all down together. Compounding increases like interest go hyperbolic eventually.

Sep 8, 2009 - 5:46 pm 29. herb:

As to the Authority of these Czars: Please note that the Last Czar of All The Russias, Nicholas II got his Authority from God. And that makes Baraq…………

Sep 8, 2009 - 5:53 pm 30. trangbang68:

Heck why not make everybody a czar of something? Let’s see Rosie O’Donnell can be czar of fat crazy people, Madonna can be czar of shameless self promoters, Jimmie Carter can be czar of ridiculous former presidents, Steve Nash can be czar of free throw making, my dog Maggie can be czar of tail chasing….the world ends with a whimper not a bang.

Sep 8, 2009 - 8:54 pm 31. Rurik:

We should thank them for giving us a list of people to take to the lamp posts after the counter-revolution. No need for the controversy inherent in compiling an “enemies list”, they’re providing it.

Sep 9, 2009 - 8:53 am

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