Federal Bureaucracy
Patent Failure: New book addresses bureaucracy’s suppression of innovation
Not a long post today, but a good one. There is a terrific review from the Ars Technica website of a new book: Patent Failure:How Judges, Bureaucrats, and Lawyers Put Innovators at Risk.
16Jul2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Getting the approval of 15 different agencies
The Gulf Port, MS, Sun Herald reports today on both the problems and progress of the Missisippi Development Authority (MDA) in its post-Katrina rebuilding efforts.
Officials from the Mississippi Development Authority paint a picture of vital Hurricane Katrina-relief projects still snared in federal bureaucracy almost three years after the storm.
But members of the MDA [...]
“Incredibly quick response for a governmental institution…”
A nod to yesterday’s Progress Report for pointing me to this Washington Times story. It’s about veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) being given the drug Chantrix in a Veterans Administration study about smoking cessation. Chantrix has a record of causing or exacerbating mental instability, and someone somewhere had to be nuts (to use [...]
18Jun2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
You know you’ve lost control when…
Here’s a hoot: it appears some one or more State Department career-types—meaning non-Bushies—have been having a bit of fun in the State Department hallways. This is from the blog Nukes & Spooks:
Outside the State Department ’s press briefing room on the department’s 2nd floor hang large official photos of Bush, Rice and Vice President [...]
From SNAFU-ed …. Situation Normal: Medical Marijuana User Dies After Being Denied Transplant
Here’s one for your daily dose of bitter gall:
SNAFU-ed …. Situation Normal: Medical Marijuana User Dies After Being Denied Transplant
Timothy Garon, 56, died Thursday at Bailey-Boushay House, an intensive care nursing center. He was denied a spot on the transplant list primarily because he used medical marijuana to ease the symptoms of hepatitis-C.
The author [...]
Thumbs Up to Oak Lawn Bureaucrats, Thumbs Down to Illinois State Bureaucrats
This is just too typical, funny and sad all at the same time.
Town ends comical ‘Stop’ signs like ‘Stop! In the Name of Love’
1 day ago
OAK LAWN, Ill. (AP) — Oak Lawn has removed comical remarks in octagonal shapes it placed under stop signs in an effort to get motorists to obey the law.
Mayor Dave [...]
Bureaucracies at Their Worst: Governmental, Corporate, and Organizational
In all cases, there are features in the structure of the bureaucracies that have allowed this turning of responsibility inside-out, such that the government, business or organization operates 180° out of phase with its stated principles and mission. The question becomes: how can bureaucracies be structured differently to prevent that 180° shift?
20Apr2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Catching Up
Recovery from knee surgery is going really well, but it has set me back on posting here, which is a tad frustrating with so many relevant things going on. This post will consist of snippets and links to a few of those stories.
Beginning with last week, there was the story about federal bureaucrats spending [...]
The Broken FDA and Thoughts of Stakeholder Governance
I can’t help but wonder, though, if there might be a better, less adversarial model that might work–something that involves stakeholder organizations being in active dialogue throughout each phase of both policing and regulatory functions.
7Apr2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Sunshine and other updates…
Sunshine, sunshine everywhere? Ah, were it only true—even the sort that one of these days will melt the snow in my yard and draw toward it the sharp green shoots of daffodils and tulips. As for political sunshine: I’ve refrained thus far from joining the fray about former Gov. Spitzer, which all came [...]
18Mar2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
I couldn’t have said it better…
I couldn’t have said it better, and actually I have been thinking about a post along these lines lately, so I’ll let the Philippines’ former Civil Service Commission chair say it for me:
ABS-CBN Interactive
A professional bureaucracy is the best defense against graft and corruption in government, former Civil Service Commission chair Karina David said.
In a [...]
Which bureaucracy flubbed the records search? US rendition flights stopped on UK soil
Today’s GuardianAmerica carries a story about US flights on “extraordinary rendition” missions—i.e. transporting terrorist suspects to and from secret prisons where “enhanced interrogation,” aka torture, was used—that had twice landed on British soil. Tony Blair’s government had assured Britons that no such flights had ever landed on British soil, that Britain had not participated in the US [...]
21Feb2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Biden & Bond Going in the Right Direction
I had barely finished my last post when I found this:
Biden, Bond Seek Probe of Vehicle Delay
2008-02-18 19:49:46
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two senators are urging the Pentagon to investigate a Marine Corps report that bureaucrats refused an urgent request from battlefield commanders in 2005 for blast-resistant vehicles. “We need an official investigation to figure [...]
VoteVets.org Presses for Hearings about Military Bureaucratic Mess
VoteVets.org recently launched a petition drive to get Congressional hearings into why a manufacturer of helmets who was being sued for shoddy work was awarded a new, huge contract to produce more helmets for troops in Iraq. Since launching the drive, the story came to light about military bureaucrats’ “gross mismanagement” being responsible [...]
18Feb2008 | Deborah Alicen | 1 comment | Continued
Bureaucrats’ “Gross Mismanagement” Blamed For Hundreds Of Marines’ Deaths - Politics on The Huffington Post
Granted that Mr. Miranda, as cited in a recent post, had an axe to grind in his scathing memo about State Department bureaucrats being leaked (see the backstory section of that post), but I think it’s notable that two major stories barely more than a week apart point specifically to bureaucrats as the source of so much waste of life and resources.
16Feb2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
“We have brought to Iraq the worst of America — our bureaucrats”
“We have brought to Iraq the worst of America — our bureaucrats…” So says veteran Republican operative Manuel Miranda, as reported in this story from ABC News. In what ABC News terms a “confidential memo,” Miranda also says that the there are “scores” of his counterparts in Iraq who share the same opinions, “each [...]
8Feb2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
CIA Destroyed Tapes As Judge Sought Interrogation Data - Politics on The Huffington Post
Here’s the lead of a HuffPo piece today, that links to a couple of more detailed articles very worth reading, but once again a situation that should incite tons of attention which will likely soon fall off the radar of whatever few have noticed it so far:
The New York Times reports this morning that according to [...]
Of Ombudsmen, Freedom of Information Act, Conflict of Interest, and Bush
This certainly does not come as a surprise. From a recent AP story on WTOPnews.com:
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Senate committee chairman accused the Bush administration on Monday of undercutting open government with a budget proposal that would have the Justice Department oversee a new office devoted to promoting greater freedom of information.
Open government advocates [...]
Henry Waxman on Bill Moyers This Week
Rep. Henry Waxman has to be one of the greatest public servants in the history of the country. The man has been an unrelenting voice for accountability in government for decades.
He was on Bill Moyers Journal this week, talking about a number of egregious federal cases in which accountability is lacking. The two [...]
HUGE Instance of Government Protecting Itself from Prosecution
“Gross incompetence.” That, and malice, inevitably take root in any system where accountability is lacking. Granted that governments can’t set themselves up to be sued out of existence in on fell swoop (or even one swell foop, as my mama used to say), but we are in desperate need of increased accountability in this country.
1Feb2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Hello Debby,
Just this week I sent 2 copies of the eulogy for your Dad to people. This happens regularly. ...
