AnnotatedOpinions.com

“I don’t think that this is the Obama administration’s fault. This is the way bureaucracies work or don’t work.”

Ah, I see. Even though it was President Barack Obama’s Transportation Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security, CIA and State Department that the Christmas Day terrorist penetrated. . .  

This interesting rationalization was offered by Washington Post op-ed columnist Ruth Marcus on ABC’s Dec. 27 “This Week” program . . . 

“Brownie,” of course, was Michael Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency who received Bush’s accolades in the first days of the Hurricane Katrina recovery, but then resigned as the chief scapegoat. Still, that didn’t save Bush from years of ridicule and finger-pointing. No liberals suggested that the Katrina failures in New Orleans were the result of bureaucracies being bureaucracies. . .

[AO: There is a difference between Michael Brown’s actions regarding Hurricane Katrina and the TSA, Homeland Security, CIA and State Department’s collective inaction that resulted in the Christmas Day terrorist incident. In the former, Brown was criticized because he, in his individual capacity, took steps that made things worse. In the latter, the agencies can and should be criticized for failure to make things better (i.e. failure to improve national security). However,
these are not comparable reasons for criticisms because of the act/omission difference and because one involves an individual's actions while the other involves actions by many individuals across different government agencies.  

Put another way, no one blamed Michael Brown for the hurricane. He was blamed for his actions. To make a comparable criticism of the Obama administration regarding the Christmas Day terrorist incident, one must blame the administration, not for the terrorist plot, but for the various agencies failure to do enough. In other words, this is exactly what Washington Post op-ed columnist Ruth Marcus said on ABC's Dec. 27 "This Week."]

Veterans Day

·       A set of dog tags, a clipping, a father revealed: A reflection on Veterans Day of a son trying to reconcile two very different sides of his father. [Boston Globe]

·      On Veterans Day, feeling the cost of war: Afghanistan was abstract, until my friend’s flag-draped coffin came home. [LA Times]

·      Healing our troubled vets: Suicide, homelessness, stress disorders — caring for today’s veterans will be a long-term and costly commitment. [LA Times]

·       Homeless on Veterans Day: Washington and communities across the country should support a national drive to end veteran homelessness. [New York Times] 

·      Recalling ‘Mother of Normandy’: A Frenchwoman dedicated herself to tending the graves of American troops. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

·      Veterans Day [USA Today]

·    Standing tall in harm’s way: Still Army-strong – The image of a traumatized military stemming from Fort Hood doesn’t square with reality. [Washington Post]

·    Taking care of our military: It used to be said that for kids, the military took care of its own. Now help is needed. [Washington Post]

Cruel and unusual: No life without parole for juvenile offenders The Supreme Court should rule against life without parole for juvenile offenders. [Houston Chronicle]

A National Disgrace: A court’s overt disregard for the central role of judges in policing executive branch excesses has frightening implications for safeguarding civil liberties. [New York Times]

Obama’s duty to tamp down anti-Muslim bias [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

Dithering heights: Filibustering Republicans and three Democratic enablers bring the Senate to a halt. [Washington Post]

Pawlenty: GOP’s newest ideological enforcer [Boston Globe]

A comprehensive solution to combustible markets: Barney Frank delineates his committee’s approach to preventing another financial collapse. [Boston Globe]

Cruel, Pointless Games: The case of the American hikers is only the latest example of the Iranian government misusing and undermining its judiciary for political ends. [New York Times]

Bodyguard of lies: The House health-reform bill looked better after I heard a GOP blizzard of falsehoods about it. [Washington Post]

No fount of wisdom for GOP: Health care is much too complicated for
Congress [Chicago Tribune]

The W. and Bill no-show: It’s too bad the two former presidents pulled out of two scheduled evenings of policy debates, er, policy discussions. [LA Times]

After the wall, Bush was right: The celebrations of the 20th  anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall this week failed to note that reunification of Germany was once a topic of great contention. [Boston Globe]

East Germans feel nostalgic for the bad old days [Chicago Tribune]

Army must be on guard for extremism: For Maj. Nidal Hasan, religion might just have been the lens through which his inner disquiet focused itself. [LA Times]

Fort Hood tragedy: Terror or typical workplace violence? [USA Today]

China, the U.S. and Taiwan: The U.S. could use arms sales as leverage to ease tensions between mainland China and Taiwan, pave the way for closer Sino-American ties and promote peace and stability in Asia. [LA Times]

‘One child’ horrors: Chinese government policy is leading to forced
abortions. [Washington Post]

Kabul, Taliban are talking: Karzai’s government is reaching out to the
insurgents – with U.S. support. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

A little steel, please: Afghanistan strategy could use a little passion from a professorial president. [Washington Post]

The Trouble With ‘Zero Tolerance’: Schools should not be criminalizing students for what are essentially normal childhood behaviors. [New York Times]

Getting in holiday spirit when out of work [Chicago Tribune]

Trucks, Trains and Trees: Without a new system for economic development in the timber-rich tropics, the only Amazon your grandchildren will ever know ends in dot-com and sells books. [New York Times]

In a bad economy getting undocumented immigrants on the right side of the law only makes sense. [New York Times]

Former president George W. Bush and some of his White House aides are gathering in Dallas this week to plan the future George W. Bush Policy Institute [Washington Post]

Sunday’s rescue of an American ship’s captain was welcome news. But the piracy problem off Somalia remains. [LA Times]

Duped By Fidel: What a congressional delegation didn’t notice on its visit to Cuba. [Washington Post]

The American Bar Association, which will vet judicial nominees, needs to ensure that its evaluators make assessments based on merits, not on political pressure. [New York Times]

Captain’s heroics, Navy’s skill give pirates a very bad day [USA Today]