Adios, Dr. Amendariz--And The Questions That Linger

It was a Sunday afternoon execution, off the news cycle, unobtrusive. The resignation was written for him, no doubt, and he signed off. Dr. Al Armendariz, who so reveled in Roman political technique, was treated to, not Roman, but more approximately, Soviet political technique.

He is surely under orders to disa-blanking-ppear, lest he be disappeared by his former mentors whom he now must still regard as his present bosses. Surely a quiet bit of good-bye money has been arranged, just to help him maintain his loyalty, his silence, and to reduce the temptation to, say, write a book about his life in the Obama Administration for release in early October--complete with the requisite book tour and chat-show appearances. He probably didn't need to threaten them too extensively, and he knows that if he were to jabber, and Obama win in November...his wife teaches school and he has children and he'd like a shot at academia again someday...hmmm. Silence is golden, after all, is it not? Who knows, if Obama wins, he could be rehabilitated! It happened in the golden days of the Soviet Union, after all, why not here and now?

Thus: A reading from the Book of Regulatory, Chapter 13, Verse 13.

Al Armendariz, the top environmental official in the oil-rich South and Southwest region, resigned in a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on Sunday, saying he did not want to be a distraction for the agency. The resignation is effective Monday.

"As I have expressed publicly, and to you directly, I regret comments I made several years ago that do not in any way reflect my work as regional administrator. As importantly, they do not represent the work you have overseen as EPA administrator," he wrote. "I take great pride in having built a career based on integrity and hard work. These are the principles that guide me personally as well. While I feel there is much work that remains to be done for the people of this country in the region that I serve, after a  great deal of thought and careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that my continued service will distract you and the agency from the 2012 political campaign its important work."

Here endeth the lesson.

The most important bit is in the first sentence--'I've already said I'm sorry, and I'm not really like that, and I guarantee you aren't really like that. Honest, I don't know how those words came to my lips--I must have been channeling Caligula or Hugo Chavez'. 

Of course, the question does linger in the air: How did TheMostTransparentAndIntellectuallyAstute administration in the history of the Republic hire this guy? To work at this level, the candidate has to be vetted and vetted again and background checked and interviewed several times, because he really will wield a lot of power as the energy caudillo of Region 6.  They'd need a guy with the sort of stones and lack of squeamishness needed to crush TheLittlePeople under the boot, someone who wouldn't surprise them with pangs of conscience, someone who could boast about the Romans crucifying villagers at random as a legitimate means of governance.

 

So, we are led to one of two conclusions: Obama and Lisa Jackson, if they were doing their jobs and are the astute people they insist they are, must have known with certainty what manner of man they were hiring. Or, alternatively, they were recklessly negligent to the point downright stupidity to have hired Dr. Armendariz. There really isn't much middle ground of possibility.

So, which is it? Are they venal, or are they stupid? 

Can we afford to have them in power, in any case?

Let's Remember, Ya'll: Himself Really ADMIRES Chavez

This from a English-language Venezuelan blog OS has been following of late, The Devil's Excrement.

Last May, Hugo Chavez ordered the expropriation of a dairy farm, Hacienda las Carolinas, stating that the 'land was unproductive, and its owner, Diego Arria, used it solely to invite his friends over to drink whiskey'.

(OS reads a bit of Spanish, and was stunned to read that line in the announcement, so he's including the quote below, just to be certain his old eyes weren't deceiving him.
El primer mandatario aseguró que las tierras estaban improductivas y que su dueño, Diego Arria, las utilizaba “sólo para invitar a sus amigos a tomar whisky.)

The first link is one to click, fer sure, fer sure. It's the 'before and after' pictures of the hacienda: before, when Mr. Arrias was inviting his mates over for whiskey, and after, six months after the great socialist hero Chavez heroically confiscated it on behalf of the proletariat.

Hmmmm.....

A couple of points immediately come to mind.

(1) If, indeed, Mr. Arias were using the farm as a gentleman farmer operation where he could invite his mates to visit, drink, hunt, play cards, etc.--all of them legal activies--then that's his own business, and not the business of any arm of the government, anywhere, anytime. If Mr. Arrias wished to abandon it and let it go fallow, well, that's his business as well. That's how a culture operates under a sane rule of law that deliberately limits the power of the state.

(2) Obama, and a lot of the folk around him, really admire Chavez, and Castro, and Mao, and Stalin--all of whom engage(d) in wholesale expropriation of property from private hands in order to 'redistribute' it to their own favored constituencies. In every case, poverty resulted. Along with a lot of starvation, prison camps, etc. Remember Stalin and the kulaks? Millions died, and a great nation that once exported grain to the world became a massive importer, just to keep the population fed.

The pictures of this farm are illustrative, and powerful, because they can easily be understood. ThePeopleInCharge, having already expropriated some big chunks of the economy, will be very tempted by our houses and lands, our savings accounts, our pension savings, our small businesses, if the crunch really comes. And OS, hoping he is wrong, suspects we are in for one.

OS hopes ever'body keeps them in mind as November approaches, 'cuz that's future we face unless we all stand up and say Hell, No!. We need to do this now, while we still have a ballot box, and the ability to make use of it.

The Four Envelopes: Obama Still Running Against George Bush

Honest, can't make this stuff up.

There is an old joke about Nikita Kruschev, the Soviet leader of the 50's and 60's.

Stalin is on his deathbed, and writes four letters, seals each into its own envelope, labeled 1-2-3-4. He then writes a separate note, and seals it inside a large envelope along with the four letters. He gives it to Molotov, and says: 'Give this package to my eventual successor, and tell him to read the note as soon as he takes office.' That done, he dies.

Kruschev ascends to power, and is given the envelope. The note reads: Comrade! Crises are an inevitability of history. When you have a major crisis, open each letter in order, one letter per crisis. Good luck, comrade!

Kruschev stuffs the envelope in the drawer for safe-keeping. The wheat crop fails--a crisis. He opens the first envelope, and the letter says: Blame me!

The de-Stalinization campaign begins, and it works!

Next crisis arrives--next envelope: Blame the Chinese! Damn, it works!

Next crisis--envelope #3: Blame the Americans! Hot-damn, it really works! He goes to the UN, bangs the podium with his shoe, makes the cover of Time!

(By this time, Nikita's feeling pretty good about his job. It's a good gig, screwing up and getting to blame everybody else!)

Next crisis--envelope #4: Prepare four envelopes.