American Czars

[stuartb]

Jamo that was funny.

[VRM]

Originally Posted by stuartb

Jamo that was funny.

Well...CdC and I are joined at the hip - if he gets booted so do I and vice-versa.

[FWB]

This message is hidden because VRM is on your ignore list.

[FWB]

i would guess there is ron, i just hope no one hacks into my user account as that would be a direct violation off cc user policy. i do thank you for monitoring the forum as you guys do. this has to be one of the best places i have ever been a member of, a lot of great people and great info. hats off to you all

Fred

[Jamo]

Hehehe...we WISHED we had such technology.

More like preditory instincts.

[VRM]

Originally Posted by Jamo

Hehehe...we WISHED we had such technology.

More like preditory instincts.

Well, you could always put us miscreants into a moderator queue...

Cause I know you have nothing better to do, right?
It might also play havoc with thread continuity.

[VRM]

So back on topic - How many tsars constitutes too much?
Is it better to have a specific individual who can be held responsible for specific goals, or to have a bureaucracy that just plods along doing what they always do?

Bush Sr. appointed the first drug tsar way back when - I'm not sure if there has been a long term measurable metric to determine that whatever policies that individual implemented were effective.

I'm really on the fence about tsars/directors/whatever-you-want-to-call-it people. I think that individuals with the proper motivation can be more effective than a group of government workers. But I also think that rewards for non-performance is also too prevalent.

Steve

[Ron61]

Steve,

He appoints tsars for every thing he can come up with a name for and then of course they have to have a staff of all of their friends. Do you actually believe this is any improvement over the commission type of crap? The only thing any of them are interested in is their big pay and getting as many friends on the payroll as possible. If it would actually work to the benefit of the country I would be all for it, but it is just a job creating thing to get his friends into high paying jobs I feel. If he even put qualified people in the positions that could give it a little merit. I guess we just have to hope for the best.

Ron

[VRM]

Originally Posted by Ron61

Steve,

He appoints tsars for every thing he can come up with a name for and then of course they have to have a staff of all of their friends. Do you actually believe this is any improvement over the commission type of crap? The only thing any of them are interested in is their big pay and getting as many friends on the payroll as possible. If it would actually work to the benefit of the country I would be all for it, but it is just a job creating thing to get his friends into high paying jobs I feel. If he even put qualified people in the positions that could give it a little merit. I guess we just have to hope for the best.

Ron

Ron,
Like I said - rewards for non-performance are too prevalent. And I actually think that same thing hold true at all levels of government. 'Tsars', or whatever else you want to call them, can work to get the job done, but unless there is some level of accountability then it will not matter what you call them.
And acting like this is some new Obama thing is just plain silly - all administrations staff themselves with cronies. Getting elected means you owe a lot of favours - complaining only when the Democrat does it is (and I do not recall any of these type of posts 5 months after Bush was elected) hypocritical.

The shoe is on the other foot now - if the GOP had not made such a mess of things then the electorate might have kept them in office. Suck it up - there is still 3.5/7.5 years left.

Steve

[stuartb]

There is the 150,000 jobs created or saved that he claims the stimulus has already work for.

[trularin]

Poop, I hate to find out I'm on a "LIST".

I'm already on one list for sure, now there could be another list?

Oh woow is me.



BTW, that 150,000 will not even get close to cover the workers let go related to automobiles alone.

[FWB]

no, i knew he was serious, thats what was funny

[FWB]

its you and bush's fault we are in this mess you know, if you would just drink the jones kool-aid.

[Ron61]

Steve,

If they are still around you will find that I complained about all of the friends and people that Bush, Clinton, and Bush Senior gave jobs to that didn't deserve them. Also no darn person needs 25 aides to do their work. If they can't do it, then they should not be appointed. Govt.is way over bloated and is just getting more so at a record pace now that he has passed both Bush and Clinton. Makes me wish for the Good Old Days of Jimmy Carter.

Ron

[cobra de capell]

Originally Posted by FWB

its you and bush's fault we are in this mess you know, if you would just drink the jones kool-aid.

But, just look at Obama on the subject of Iran.......

and, this....

We are so screwed......

[Sharroll Celby]

Politics here in the USA is much like a pendulum...people didnt like JFK/Johnson, they voted in Nixon. People didnt like Nixon/Ford, they voted in Carter. People didnt like Carter, they voted in Reagan. People didnt like Reagan/Bush, we got Clinton. They didnt like Clinton so we got Bush. People didnt like Bush, and now we have Obama.

Hopefully, people wont like Obama in '12, (or the Dems in '10) and we get a responsible Conservative(s) to straighten things out.

[cobra de capell]

Still, the GOP is the best bet for turning this country around because there are still elements in the GOP that understand the concepts of individual freedom, personal responsibility, and small government/taxes. The GOP can be fixed (and maybe this election will make them realise that it needs to be), the DNC cannot.

So, why would a sane person ever vote for someone in the DNC?

So much logic turns out to be all BS.

[cobra de capell]

http://frontpage.americandaughter.com/?p=2385

Czar update....

1. Afghanistan-Pakistan (Af-Pak) czar, Richard Holbrooke
2. AIDS czar, Jeffrey Crowley [openly gay white man]
3. Auto recovery czar, Ed Montgomery
4. Behavioral science czar, position not yet filled
5. Bailout czar, Herbert Allison Jr., [replaced Bush bailout czar Neel Kashkari, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability confirmed by Senate]
6. Border czar, Alan Bersin
7. Car czar, Ron Bloom [Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury , under Senate oversight]
8. Climate change czar, Todd Stern
9. Copyright czar, not appointed yet
10. Counterterrorism czar, John Brennan
11. Cybersecurity czar, position will be vacant on August 21st [upon the departure of Melissa Hathaway]
12. Disinformation czar, Linda Douglass [This is a new media buzz since our earlier list, a response by pundits to the White House request for informants: see Glenn Beck and Lew Rockwell]
13. Domestic violence czar, Lynn Rosenthal
14. Drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske
15. Economic czar, Larry Summers
16. Economic czar number two, Paul Volcker
17. Education czar, Arne Duncan
18. Energy czar, Carol Browner
19. Food czar, Michael Taylor [a former Monsanto executive, or, the fox in charge of the henhouse]
20. Government performance czar, Jeffrey Zients
21. Great Lakes czar, Cameron Davis
22. Green jobs czar, Van Jones [who has a communist background]
23. Guantanamo closure czar, Daniel Fried
24. Health czar, Nancy-Ann DeParle
25. Infotech czar, Vivek Kundra [Shoplifted four shirts, worth $33.50 each, from J.C. Penney in 1996 (source). His last day in DC government was March 4 but on March 12 the FBI raided his office and arrested two staffers.]
26. Intelligence czar, Dennis Blair [Director of National Intelligence, a Senate confirmed position. He is a retired United States Navy four-star admiral]
27. Latin-American czar, Arturo Valenzuela (nominee) [although this post is referred to as a czar, he is nominatied to be Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and so is subject to Senate confirmation. Voting on his confirmation was delayed to clarify his position on Honduras. Watch WaPo’s Head Count to track status of confirmation.]
28. Mideast peace czar, George Mitchell
29. Mideast policy czar, Dennis Ross
30. Pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg
31. Regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein
32. Religion czar, aka God czar Joshua DuBois
33. Safe schools czar, Kevin Jennings [appointed to be Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, a newly created post (that does not require Senate confirmation); openly gay founder of an organization dedicated to promoting pro-homosexual clubs and curricula in public schools]
34. Science czar, John Holdren
35. Stimulus oversight czar, Earl Devaney
36. Sudan czar, J. Scott Gration
37. TARP czar, Elizabeth Warren [chair of the [Congressional Oversight Panel for the Trouble Assets Relief Program; note that Herb Allison is frequently called the TARP czar]
38. Technology czar, Aneesh Chopra
39. Trade czar, Ron Kirk
40. Urban affairs czar, Adolfo Carrion
41. War czar, Douglas Lute [retained from Bush administration, married to Jane Holl Lute, currently a Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security]
42. Water czar, David J. Hayes [a Deputy Interior Secretary and therefore subject to Senate oversight]
43. Weapons czar, Ashton Carter [actually Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics and so subject to Senate confirmation]
44. Weapons of mass destruction czar, Gary Samore

Positions being planned:

1. Income redistribution czar
2. Land-use czar
3. Mortgage czar, formally “consumer financial protection czar” (source)
4. Radio-internet fairness czar
5. Student loan czar, to oversee a program of mandatory service in return for college money (source)
6. Voter list czar
7. Zoning czar

Obama has moved swiftly to concentrate power in the White House, bypassing the review of our elected representatives in Congress in most of the posts listed above. Even though cabinet positions are part of the executive branch, the cabinet secretaries must be approved by Congress, they are funded by Congress, and they can be called before Congress to testify. Most of these czars, on the other hand, are appointed by Obama at his sole discretion, and are answerable only to him. If subpoenaed by Congress, they can claim executive privilege.

The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.~Norman Thomas, American Socialist

[Roscoe]

Roscoe - Bra Czar

In the United States the title "czar" is an informal term for certain high-level Executive Branch officials who direct or oversee federal operations on a given topic or who coordinate policies between different departments on a given topic. Examples are "drug czar" for the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and "cyber-security czar" for the highest-ranking Department of Homeland Security official on computer security and information security policy. Czar is also used to denote certain high-level, specialized advisers to the President, such as "counterterrorism czar" for a Presidential adviser on terrorism policy, and "war czar" for the President's adviser on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A thorough history of English and American czars can be found here: Tsar- English and American.

The czar term derives from the title "Tsar" which was used to designate the Russian, Bulgarian or Serbian monarchs of pre-World War I Europe.

In the United States, the term czar has been used by the media to refer to appointed exective branch officials since at least the early 1940s, when Roosevelt expanded the government rapidly and appointed a host of brand-new federal overseers.[1] The Washington Post reported in 1942 on the sudden rush of "executive orders creating new czars to control various aspects of our wartime economy," and a cartoon from that year shows "Czar of prices" Leon Henderson, "czar of production" Donald Nelson, and "czar of ships" Emory S. Land all cramming onto one throne.[1]

In the postwar era, the rise of the "czar" has accompanied the expanding role of the executive office in promoting policy initiatives; the term tends to be used when presidents create special new posts for the individuals charged with pushing those initiatives through.[1]

Nixon succumbed to czarmania, appointing the first "drug czar," Jerome Jaffe, in 1971 (long before William Bennett took the mantle in 1988).[1] But it was the title of "energy czar" that got the most attention during those days of OPEC embargoes and gas rationing.[1] Though John A. Love first held the title in 1973, his more powerful successor William E. Simon really got the "czar" ball rolling.[1][2] The "drug czar" title was first published in a 1982 news story by United Press International, which reported that "Senators... voted 62-34 to establish a 'drug czar' who would have overall responsibility for U.S. drug policy."[3]

Since then, a number of ad hoc executive positions in both the United States and United Kingdom have been established that have subsequently been referred to in this manner. The term "czar" has also been applied to officials who are not members of the Executive Branch, such as Elizabeth Warren, named to a Congressional commission to oversee the Troubled Asset Relief Program in 2009 and described as an "oversight czar",[4] and Senate-confirmed positions, such as the Director of National Intelligence, described as the "intelligence czar" in 2004.[5]

Rationale and criticism

Advantages cited for the creation of czar type posts are the ability to go outside of formal channels and find creative solutions for ad hoc problems, the ability to involve a lot of government players in big issue decision-making, and the ability to get a huge bureaucracy moving in the right direction. Problems can occur with getting all the parties to work together and with managing competing power centers.[6] The appointment of "czars" has come under recent attack. In 2009, critics of the Obama administration circulated a list of "czars" compiled by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-partisan organization. TCS argued, "By our count there are at least 31 active Czars, giving the current administration more Czars than Imperial Russia had in its history."[7] Conservative commentator Glenn Beck has argued that the list of "czars" is evidence of a "shadow government" "giving the Obama administration unprecedented power with virtually no oversight."[8]

List of executive branch "czars" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ch_%27czars%27

[Roscoe]

Obama's environmental czar started group targeting Beck
Attacks follow Fox News host's reporting
of White House adviser's radical activism
Posted: August 13, 2009
1:03 pm Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2009 WorldNetDaily


President Obama's "green jobs czar" is co-founder of a black activist organization that has led a campaign prompting major advertisers to withdraw from Glenn Beck's top-rated Fox News Channel program.

In recent weeks, Beck has done several critical segments about Van Jones, who was appointed as the special adviser for green jobs, enterprise and innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=106805