Janet Napolitano as Homeland Security chief? "We could do worse"
Reason's David Weigel thinks Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano (rumored to be Obama's pick) wouldn't be a bad choice for Secretary of Homeland Security. My favorite part of Weigel's piece is his assessment of Rudy Giuliani:
Dammit, Janet, I Love YouI think history has already forgotten Battlin' Bernie Kerik, the laughably corrupt and mobbed-up cop whom Rudy Giuliani commended to George W. Bush as a great replacement for Ridge. Kerik's nomination caught fire like styrofoam in a microwave, and we as a nation got the first clue that Giuliani had been replaced at some point in 2001-2004 by a strange, bald cyborg that needed to recharge batteries by making inopportune phone calls to its "wife."
the latest
latest episodes
Hmmm. A butchy woman named "Janet." Clinton administration redux.
Plus she wrote a lot of really good songs, including this fav of mine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47UplyBQK4Y
Meh, I need to know more. Being against the real ID act is nice and all, but pocket change in the grand scheme of things. I am far more interested in whether or not she is going to snap back the psychotic levels of domestic spying, stop grabbing for more power for the DHS, and in general conduct business with a rational eyes as to the dangers we face.
I am vastly more likely to die visiting my parents house between the two hour trip and the dip in the pool than I am to ever die of a terrorist attack. I would like to see the government treat the threat proportionally.
I don't mind taking counter measures, and I don't mind them tracking down would-be terrorist and tossing them in jail until hell freezes over. I do mind when they ignore all cost-benefit analysis and spend absurd resources on these goals. A few hundred bucks per air plane to reinforce the cockpit door? Eh, I get behind that. Not letting me bring 3oz or more of liquid into an airplane, making me take off my shoes, and putting guys with automatic weapons in the airport? That is fucking stupid
If I want to smuggle 3oz or more of liquid on the airplane, I will, and I will do it easily. I did it the other day. I just left my bottle of cream in my pocket. Someone with an ounce more motivation could just tie something to their leg. You are pissing off everyone and stopping absolutely no one.
Shoes are the same damn thing. If I want to smuggle in something that could fit in the sole of my shoe... I will just smuggle it in somewhere else, you know... like a pocket. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to get something past security that small.
Finally, the whole stuffing people with guns into the airport is stupid on so many levels that I can't even begin to respond. If someone just wants to find a crowd of people to gun down, they just hit a parade or mow people down on a busy sidewalk. Why the hell are we wasting time defending an airport when there are thousands of other far more crowded places were blowing up a bomb would be bother easier, face less security, and be deadlier? The answer? There is no good reason. It is just show. I could stomach measures just to make morons feel better, but I have to pay for said morons.
So, the whole anti real ID act is nice, but I would rather someone show me that she is for a fundamentally rethinking counter terrorism to put it more in line with how much of a threat it truly is.
NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
I live in AZ. Trust me, this in NOT who we want.
Besides, haven't we figures out that putting politicans in these kind of jobs is not the answer? How about instead we have someone in charge of security who, oh I'm just spitballin here, KNOWS SOMETHING ABOUT SECURITY??? Like maybe a security expert?
DHS is in bad enough shape without it turning into another FEMA.
the outgoing overlords were grooming you all for perpetual serfdom. Your new overlords have not yet revealed themselves - and probably don't even know themselves yet what they will want to do when they finally get the control button for the national shock collar. Yet. But they WILL think of something.
Will styrofoam really catch fire in a microwave?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIWsQHSOkbU
now,what do Arizonans know about Janet?
"Of all plastic materials used to construct cages for the confinement of rats during exposure to electromagnetic radiation, only Styrofoam has been found to be, for practical purposed, transparent to microwaves. However, because of its softness, it is easily chewed by rats, with the result that they escape from their cages. Coating the inner walls of cages made of Styrofoam with quinine effectively prevents the rats from chewing through the cage walls."
Abstract from a report titled, "Styrofoam Cages for Rats Used in Microwave Research: Coating with Quinine," 1975.
Apparently, styrofoam, in fact, does not catch fire. Rats, on the other hand...
@Jim
No, styrofoam will not catch fire in a microwave, but you can put a little tin foil and paper in a microwave just right and use it to light a cigarette
@ #2 Maddy: Lol, that's what I thought at first too.
Gawd, what a beautiful voice!
the Almost-First Lady was a shoplifting junkie?
http://www.kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=9386620&nav=menu216_2
Same for #2 here-- first thing I thought was "wasn't she in Concrete Blonde?"
Johnette, Janet, same difference.
As an on and off again Arizonan, the only reason I wouldn't want Napolitano as Homeland Security chief is that AZ would lose, as the article says, the "bulwark against the crab barrel of restrictionist crazies in her state."
She's the only decent Governor Arizona has had since 1990. If she goes, I'm pretty sure yet another embezzling republican scumbag will take her position.
Arpio for Grubbenor!
"We could do worse."
Dammit. I say we roll up our sleeves because it's obvious we're not trying hard enough.
haha, i too instantly think of Concrete Blonde every time i hear Janet's name.
http://savevsdeath.blogspot.com/2008/11/johnette-napolitano-vs-janet-napolitano.html
"By the way, Janet Napolitano is a terrible choice for Secretary of Homeland Security. During her tenure here in Arizona as Governor, she has militarized the US- Mexico border, she criminally neglected to investigate thousands of deaths of human beings including children in the Sonoran Desert(aka aliens or undocumented workers), and has made a mockery of the Constitution, human rights, and fiscal responsibility by not arresting Sheriff Joke Arpaio. Not a great start for the cabinet of change.gov "
Just once, I'd like to see a political appointment get "we can't imagine anyone more appropriate for this position" as the general media response.
Colbert's available
We should breathe a collective sigh of relief it's not Joe Arpaio we're talking about. *shudder*
So many questions...What are "restrictionist crazies"?
How big is a "crab barrel"?
Do they/you have crabs (properly-so called) in Arizona?
For a second I was confused with the lead singer of Concrete Blonde...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_Blonde
-MrMoonbeam-
If we lose Janet as governor here, we get some screwball Republican to replace her. That's the biggest problem I have with it- she's pretty much the only Democrat left in office these days.
@#8: The voice of experience? That's hilarious. I'm trying not to picture the situation you found yourself in.
Oh Gods, no. As soon as Napolitano is gone to Washington, we get a Repunlican Governor. We have no Lt. Governor here, and the succession is the AZ Secretary of State -- Jan Brewer, Republican, And with the Republican balance as it now stands, Arizona stands to get crapped up thoroughly...again.
What Steven just said. Just what we need in AZ: the Repubs in the legislature with no Dem gov to veto all their crazy-insane bullshit. Please say "no!" Janet!
Maybe (if she did take the post) she could pay all the billions that the Feds owe the state that she's always complaining about.
So people are suggesting that we put someone that is not a politician in a political position? They have to go to the Hill and discuss budgets, spending, etc? Oh yea, let's put a security expert from MIT in that spot. That will surely work out. Comparisons to FEMA are silly. That was a political payoff to put someone head of an agency, not a department, as the Bush administration had convinced themselves that FEMA was better as a feeding trough than a functional agency. I know nothing about this woman but I do know no one here has offered a better alternative and that's pretty amazing given I know nothing about this woman.
I know she's not Chertoff.
So which reason would you prefer for proving that Janet would be a terrible choice for any cabinet position? Maybe in '96, while U.S. Attorney in Arizona, she would not cooperate with a government sting that targeted pedophiles because the pedophiles in her state turned out to be gay men. She let one guy go who ended up molesting 200 boys. Maybe we should consider that her policies took Arizona from a surplus to a $1 billion deficit. Maybe we should look at how she rewrote a voter ID law so that a utility bill would suffice as ID, thus allowing illegals to vote.
truthteller,
Those claims are going to require citations from reputable news sources.
I should have known I wouldn't be the only one who'd make the Concrete Blonde connection...:)
@#26 mikelotus
Yes, they do have to go to the Hill and discuss budgets, spending, etc. They have to discuss budgets, spending, etc about security. I'd rather they understood the security side of things more than the budget side of things. What's the point in understanding how easily you can afford a $10,000,000 contract if you don't understand if the contract has any actual value?
A security advisor should be a security expert first and a politician second
For a minute there I got really excited for Concrete Blonde.
if Napolitano’s years of experience neglecting to secure the Mexico-AZ border are any indication, then she’s on track to do a horrendous job securing the whole country
As an Arizonan, I will say this is a loss for both our state and our nation. It takes her from her strength to her weakness. She's an able administrator and voice of reason when it comes to budget matters. But her accomplishments on security consist of passing the buck to avoid doing anything herself, and undermining what's left.
@#4/vetnoir
It's not about what exactly she knows about security. It's about how well she manages a bureaucracy and how quickly she learns.
How many security experts could walk into one of the larges bureaucracies in the government and get it running from day 1? Not many, because a huge portion of them are academics/think tank types.
Of the good bosses I've had, few have been super knowledgeable about what the organization actually does. What makes them successful is that they're actually good at managing people.
Of course, the Bush administration brought in tons of managerial types to run things, and that didn't exactly work out real well...
The only problem with the idea of national identification cards is the probability that it will be underfunded?
Uh, I really hope that this isn't Napolitano's ONLY objection to this nonsense.
Let me ask all of you this, Napolitano just approved the installation of more than 200 speed cameras in fixed locations across AZ. Now while she is certainly happy about the revenue that this will generate, she is also quite ecstatic about the ability to track vehicles around the state. Does this sound like who YOU want in charge of homeland security?