Saturday, October 09, 2010

National Insecurity Provider

So, now that General Jones is out as National Security Advisor --- you want to know what I think of his replacement?

Well, you need to head over to
BigPeace to find out.
UPDATE: It is even worse than what I put over at BP.

A little inside info from someone who was at Fannie Mae on the inside at the time:
"...he was a nice guy and a good lawyer and built up his fiefdom but he was pretty political. Like most of the senior people at Fannie Mae who had law degrees, he thought like a lawyer when it needed people with more business backgrounds. The lawyers only wanted lawyers in charge because they thought they were the smartest people in the room but didn't understand processes and lacked an operational mindset."
A great question for him is, what was a lawyer mindset with no national security background going to bring to the NSA job?

One more little nugget to let you know what an inbred line professional DC people are: the guy who replaced Donilon at Fannie Mae was David Gregory's wife. It will be interesting to see how Gregory handles him on Meet the Press.

Yep, you need to take a bath now.

29 comments:

John said...

Just when you think things cannot get worse, or more inept, incompetent, corrupt or anti-American appointments can be made, we are surprised.

Our President and his minions are destroying our country, either deliberately, or through ideological ignorance.

ewok40k said...

Gen.Jones was one of the best advisers to Obama nad now he's fired... sad story.

Southern Air Pirate said...

I don't think he was fired. Rather he decided to quit before feet started to be held to the fire over some of the revelations of the Woodward book (if they are true). One would think that a smart man like Obama would surround himself with just as smart if not smarter people in thier fields and not play political favorites so that he could curry favor with his political base. For an National Security Advisor, one has either the educational, think-tank, or advisory roles some admin prior to assuming the head cheese role.

I find it even more interesting that as many people are being shuffled around recently in the White House and Administrations Staff. Normally one doesn't see this thing happened this close to a major election that will decided the fate of your presidenacy. That is unless folks are bailing cause they don't want to be covered by the taint of supporting the wrong man, or they are trying to put distance tween themselves and anything hinky that might bring on the spector of impeachment from the other two branches, or they are leaving before they are fired for bring bad light to the office/admin.

butch said...

People keep saying that Obama is smart.  Why?

I have yet to see ANY evidence proving this.

He is a malignant narcissist.  Such types always select sycophants.

Skippy-san said...

"<span> He was on point when the Democrats in the Senate declared that “the Iraq War is Lost” and did everything they could do to undermine the military’s drive to achieve the victory we now have in Iraq."</span>

That's an interesting statement-considering the Iraqis have done most of the undermining of our so-called victory and the country still does not have a government.

Byron said...

My American history is kinda rusty, Skippy...tell us, how long was it between the time we kicked the Brits out and the time we had a government?

Redeye80 said...

Don't mind him.  I think he wants us to lose.

cdrsalamander said...

Skippy - focus.

Kristen said...

Regarding your last paragraph:  I think one of the most irritating things about the political class in DC is the way that relatives of elected politicians just happen to be named to all kinds of influential positions.  It happens with both parties, and it's disgusting.

Southern Air Pirate said...

Well he is a graduate of an Ivy League school. Remember according to some if you are an graduate of an Ivy League your the social and intellectual superior to the rest of us from main street.

UltimaRatioRegis said...

Except GW Bush, who, though with a higher measured IQ than Kerry and a higher SAT score to boot, was considered intellectually and morally wanting.  Because he was a Republican.  (See: Ingram, Laura; Buckley, William F.)  Why?  The answer is quite clear.

sid said...

The denizens of this political ilk are disgusting...

Steeped in their northeast elitist ways, and with no exposure to the military world, they view the military as little more than gayly festooned door openers at the White House and as chauffers of King O's and Queen Sleeveless's helos and jets.

Their view of folks in uniform go little deeper than this.


Doubt my assertion?

Then please let me remind everyone abouot the case of Gen. Ballduster McSoulpatch, and how he was able to freely move in the Democratic Party circles of the fourth largest city in the US without challenge....

A quite powerful argument for mandating compulsory service by all....

DM05 said...

The Fannie Mae mess brought to you by politico operatives like this hack, and now hyper regulated (new agencies/regs) that ultimately limits credit, but foisted by the same class of political hacks that don't understand economics. Last time I checked the National Security Advisor was rather important, but I must be wrong.

Ack,let's hope the mid-terms are resounding from folks from the John Wayne, John Deere, and Johnny Cash crowd.

ActusRhesus said...

Interesting, and not at all inconsistent with my experience, though I will say one of the most entertaining memories of my own academic history was taking Laws of Armed Conflict from a scathingly liberal son of a Sandhurst graduate senior officer in the Sri Lankan Army who was clearly exercising his daddy issue demons by being as anti-bush and anti-military as possible.

Ah memories.

AW1 Tim said...

Byron,

  Then there was that Whiskey Rebellion, followed by Barbary Pirates, a 2nd war with Britain, and then a massive civil war.  Seems like a lot of fluid politics before things began to settle down a might.

ActusRhesus said...

Byron, Tim, that's totally different.  Don't ask me to explain how, I mean sure...it LOOKS like our own history would suggest that lasting democracies take time, not to mention our early advantage in geographic remoteness from any major threats, but still...this is totally different.  If the Iraqis, after thousands of years of oppression cannot become a stable democracy in one administration it is a failure and we should nuke it from orbit.

Byron said...

Actually, it did. The first few years after the British left, there was a lot of dissension amongst the colonies, mostly between the southern colonies and the northern ones (and setting up a nastyness four score and seven years afterwards). It took a great deal of negotiating and time before everyone was ready to sign off on the Constitution and more importantly, the Articles of Confederation (remember that description, it'll be in a test...in about 70 years). And as Tim pointed out, there was the Whiskey Rebellion in W. Pennsylvania that took George Washington himself to put down...with almost no bloodshed. Don't forget that the whole thing started over taxes on whiskey. Fast forward to the prohibition days, you'll find the same people making the same living from the same commodity.

This Nation wasn't just sprung full grown the day after Yorktown. It took YEARS of patience and negotiation before the colonies could trust each other enough to form a government. And Skippy, if you can't see the parallels between the nascent United States and the Iraqi Republic, you must have failed history. It's all about building trust. Trust between the colonies and trust between Sunni, Shia and Kurd.

Anonymous said...

SAP - my sister (who has always been much smarter than I, not that its difficult) was noticing yeterday at the large number of people leaving BEFORE the midterm.  You would normally expect them to leave right after it.

Anonymous said...

AR - do tell us more about the Sri Lankan approach to the LOAC in COIN. 

Neca eos onmes, Deus suos agnoset?  <span><span> </span></span>

SCOTTtheBADGER said...

I have been reading the British LE blog Police Inspector Blog
http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/     The depressing picture he shows of life in the UK is the direction that the Liberals wish to take us, I fear.

ActusRhesus said...

I get the feeling my professor was not supportive of the Sri Lankan military either.  Like I said...daddy issues.

Southern Air Pirate said...

That is what I am saying. Traditionally the folks that help make your administration don't leave weeks or even days right before the mid-term or even the re-election bid. Rather, it is more polite to bail sometimes afterwards as part of the general shake up or you leave really early on in the election cycle. Like I mentioned above there are typically three major reasons you leave the admin right before midterm or even the re-election bid. One is cause your trying to bail from a crashing plane/sinking ship and don't want the taint of failure on your future, two someone knows something hinky went down that could be considered illegal or is illegal and they are trying to leave to either set up thier own defense or not be made the scapegoat, three they are leaving to try and perserve thier dignity and honor to keep from being publically fired for stepping out of line with the offical view or from having too many "foot in mouth" disease issues.

UltimaRatioRegis said...

Ayep.  The "two year mark" is January 2011, not October 2010 with a mid-term election looming. 

The ship of state is listing heavily and taking on water faster than the pumps can clear it.

Casey Tompkins said...

Butch, he's what we used to call "book smart but street dumb."

I also tend to reject term "sycophant." I suspect Obama bases his judgment on ideological purity, based on classic Progressive precepts.

Casey Tompkins said...

I think he is focused; on the position that Reid, Biden, and Obama were right, while the hawks, conservatives, neanderthal military, and 101st Fighting Keyboardists (AKA the chickenhawks) were all wrong. We're just too slow to figure it out.

Wharf Rat said...

But were they blowing each other up with IED's?  I do remember that part of American history, and no, they weren't.

ActusRhesus said...

neanderthal? Hang on while I lift my knuckles up from the ground to slap the smugness off your face.

Andrewdb said...

AR - that "Guest" was me. 

Darn software.

Andrewdb said...

SAP - that Guest was me.