Office of the Independent Blogger

Thanks to the National Journal, we know now the salary of White House staffers, and thanks to the Journal’s research, we now know the most overpaid staffers, too, and know that there’s a Director of Lessons Learned. This fellow is being paid over a hundred thousand dollars to do nothing at all. It satirizes itself, like this news.

The State Department is recovering from large-scale computer break-ins worldwide over the past several weeks that appeared to target its headquarters and offices dealing with China and North Korea, The Associated Press has learned. Investigators believe hackers stole sensitive U.S. information and passwords and implanted backdoors in unclassified government computers to allow them to return at will, said U.S. officials familiar with the hacking. These people spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the widespread intrusions and the resulting investigation. The break-ins and the State Department’s emergency response severely limited Internet access at many locations, including some headquarters offices in Washington, these officials said. Internet connections have been restored across nearly all the department since the break-ins were recognized in mid-June.

That is miserable, and I think it’s the first time that I’ve ever blamed our own government for an attack by someone else. There’s absolutely no reason not to guard our computers well enough to prevent them from being hacked by foreign enemies of the United States. If we can’t secure our hard drives in the United States, how can we be expected to secure anything in these turbulent times? This century sucks, and watching it unravel reminds me of the movie Love Potion #9. Did someone in the Clinton Administration poison the White House’s drinking supply with a poli-potion that would instill all its drinkers with incompetence, because this level of overwhelming stupidity and lazyness can not have come naturally.

In Japan, there’s now a debate over whether or not their Constitution would allow a pre-emptive strike in Korea. The answer is simply No, and I hope that no one in the Administration is saying yes. I do recall that a few years ago we had members of the DOD telling the Japanese of al people that they should build nuclear weapons to deter Pyongyang, so anything’s possible, and anything ridiculous is probable, with the folks we have in Washington. Out of the other hotspot in the world today, there’s nothing positive, nothing new, except for the news that Iran is nowhere nearer compromise on anything. You know, I think it’s time for us to play hardball with Iran. Pull away from the talks, and threaten to. Countries like Iran and North Korea only begin talking when they’re told and shown that time is running out.

It’s better than sitting around listening to them brag about how they’re not going to do anything for the “invaders” from the West.

My condolences to those who died in the bomb attacks in Bombay, India. It’s terrible, and inexcusable.

Kenneth Lay has died. Lay, for those of you living in the White House, is the man who claimed that the frauds he was accused of in the Enron Scandal and Trial were the result of neglect and bumbling accounting instead of unmeasurable dishonesty and active, monstrous greed. Nobody really believes that he was innocent and merely negligent, and most people know that he was a money-loving crook who scammed the public for as long as he could before getting caught. When he did, he took to going on vacations and enjoying old gay outings with his male golfer buddies. An OJ Simpson of the Wallet he was, but nobody on Earth could’ve called him an innocent. There is no Mark Fuhrman in the case of Lay; there is just unequivocal dishonor, and shame.

I’m sad to see that he died before he could be brought to justice for his monstrous actions as the head of Enron. From the White House perspective, it’s a shame that he denied the President the chance to pardon him next year like his father did for Weinberger, Clinton for the Rich, and Reagan for the Watergate burgulars. If you expected Bush to, at a bare minimum, honor Kenny-Boy’s legacy, you’re mistaken, as it’s denying its relationship with the Hussler of Houston. Funny, I thought he was a man who admired loyalty?

I don’t like to talk like this about anyone, but this short-sighted and power hungry man has played a role in the oppression of the impoverished for all of his life, and he helped kick even more people to the financial curb by the time he was done. He was a pervert, and a brutal one, at that. He was the President’s friend, too, and while this White House pretends that he wasn’t, remember that it was his jets flying people into Florida to mob the recount boards, his money that funded Bush’s first campaigns for office, and his lobbying that killed Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill’s attempts to really, truly, make corporations and CEOs accountable for their financial records and the products they put onto the market. The wallop of his wallet destroyed the lives of millions, and that’s really all there is to it.

Browsing about the Internet, I came across this article about English-only laws, and I thought I’d weigh in on the issue. I am a believer that these types of laws should be allowed up to each state. If Pennsylvania wants to make its state English-only, then let them; likewise, I’m proud to see that my state is more lenient toward other languages, primarily Spanish, and is so kind as to provide translators for those that need assistance. It’s a matter of being respectful to others and treating them with dignity. There’s no need for any such law, and it’ll be terrible for something so reactionary and unneeded passes.

It reminds me of the story from Philadelphia a while back, where a sign was put up in a famous restaurant saying, “This is America: when ordering, speaking English!” and warning that management “reserves the right to refuse service.” You know how comically absurd that is? I can imagine a man coming to the counter, looking at the sign, and because he doesn’t speak English continue with his order. “Unas papas fritas con una nievesita y hamburgesa, por favor!” And, maybe I’m just a big old softie, but I can’t imagine it’s very good business to turn away a paying customer over something minor. I don’t think it’s good morality, either, to push a hungry person away when they are hungry and merely trying to get through their day.