Category Archives: ethics

Crony Capitalism

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Hillary Clinton’s former chief of staff [Cheryl Mills] at the State Department had a Democratic donor with virtually no relevant experience appointed to a nuclear intelligence advisory board, according to a new report that also claims the aide tried to stall journalists examining his background.

And

[Rajiv K] Fernando, a Chicago securities trader, had been a fundraiser for Democratic candidates and a financial contributor to the Clinton Foundation and even traveled with Bill Clinton on a trip to Africa.  The board he was appointed to—the International Security Advisory Board—included nuclear scientists, members of Congress and former cabinet secretaries.

The ISA “advises” State’s Arms Control and International Security sub-secretariat, a section that does highly classified work because, pursuant to its “advice”-giving, it investigates nations like Russia, Pakistan, northern Korea and their arsenals and development plans.

Fernando had, supposedly, an unpaid position, but he also had that lack of qualification, and so he had no Need to Know.  And the spot puts him in well with any Clinton administration.

This is the sort of cronyism to which we can look forward, and it’s the new Ambassadorship-as-Reward.  Elections have consequences.

YGTBSM

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In the wake of last week’s fatal Blue Angels jet crash in Tennessee, a San Francisco lawmaker wants to ban the famed F/A-18 fighter jets from being able to fly over his city—and, in his words, “strafe neighborhoods.”

City Supervisor John Avalos, who long has waged a public battle decrying the squadron’s aerial acrobatics over San Francisco—at one point calling them loud “killing machines”—has introduced a nonbinding resolution to require the jets to only fly over the bay.

Only in California.  Apparently neither jet noise, the sound of freedom, nor entertaining aerial shows is a safe space for these politicians.  Jeez.

More Stonewalling

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The CFPB, which was created after the financial crisis and began operation in 2011, is the latest federal agency to reject requests using a “Glomar response,” named after the Glomar Explorer, a Cold War-era ship used by intelligence officials to retrieve sunken Soviet submarines.

A Glomar rejection of a FOIA request for information is a rejection based on the premise that the agency saying “No” cannot either confirm or deny that the requested records even are in its possession.  This is an intelligence-related claim; yet the the requests are consumer-related information, and the CFPB is reputed to be a consumer-oriented Federal government entity.

With consumer-related FOIA requests, there are no intelligence questions involved.  Of course, the bureaucrats of the CFPB know this.

Sam Gilford, a CFPB spokesman, had this on the matter:

Disclosing whether the bureau possesses records about a pending or potential investigation would effectively disclose whether it has in fact investigated the institution [which could hamper an investigation].

This is disingenuous.  If an “investigation” is pending, it’s under consideration for being initiated.  If an “investigation” is merely potential, it’s just a thought in a CFPB agent’s mind.  There is no investigation extant in either case, and so there can be no hampering of one.

The CFPB is simply stonewalling.

Stonewalling

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This blatantly insults our intelligence.  The Republication National Committee sued in Federal court to enforce a FOIA request for a years’ worth of correspondence involving then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s aides, including her former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills; Jacob Sullivan, one of her advisers; and Patrick Kennedy, a senior State official at the time, a FOIA request against which State had already been stonewalling.  In response, State had a filing:

The State Department has told a federal court that processing a Republican National Committee demand for documents relating to Hillary Clinton and her aides would take as long as 75 years—and would stretch “generations.”

Generations to check out a year.  State expanded on those 75 years:

…it would take approximately 16-and-2/3 years to complete the review of the Mills documents, 33-and-1/3 years to finish the review of the Sullivan documents, and 25 years to wrap up the review of the Kennedy documents — or 75 years in total[.]

Because, State says, it’ll only process 500 pages, per month, and there are 450,000 pages of these documents.

The presiding judge should hold those State Department bureaucrats in contempt of court and send his bailiff to seize the records and the computers on which they sit, as well as any hard copy files, and bring them to his court where a court-appointed team of evaluators can go over them.

Fat chance, unfortunately.

“Systemic” Failures at VA Watchdog

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That’s the heart the title of USA Today‘s piece earlier this week on the Veterans Administration’s continued failure to perform.  This smacks of active coverup by the top levels of the VA.

A Senate investigation of poor health care at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Tomah, WI, found systemic failures in a VA inspector general’s review of the facility….

And

The probe by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found the inspector general’s office…discounted key evidence and witness testimony, needlessly narrowed its inquiry, and has no standard for determining wrongdoing.

And [emphasis added]

One of the biggest failures identified by Senate investigators was the inspector general’s decision not to release its investigation report….

Releasing the report would have forced VA officials to publicly address the issue and ensured follow up by the inspector general to make sure the VA took action. Instead, the inspector general’s office briefed local VA officials and closed the case.

Veteranos Administratio delende est.