Bureaucracies
TVA Disaster
Most of my time lately is still spent getting used to my two new knees, but I keep watch on matters bureaucratic when I have the opportunity between the day job and rehab sessions. Now having the time for a post, I find I do have a problem with deciding which stories to focus on, [...]
13Jan2009 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Here’s to things passing as they should…
Ah, I just couldn’t let the end of the year pass without one more post for 2008. My latest hiatus was on account of my taking the time to get two new knees installed. Though I didn’t have internet access while in rehab—and wouldn’t have had the brain power to make proper use of it [...]
1Jan2009 | Deborah Alicen | 1 comment | Continued
The old home team is doing good stuff
This is a journalist doing what journalists are supposed to do.
5Aug2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Open records struggle in Vermont
This week saw a new chapter in open records struggles here in Vermont. The Vermont State Employees Association, the state workers’ union, had requested from the Department of Human Resources emails and other documents relating to Gov. Douglas’ plan to cut 400 jobs from the state’s payrolls. DHR responded with a demand for $1700 to pay for the time DHR staff would have to spend gathering the documents
2Aug2008 | Deborah Alicen | 1 comment | Continued
On Jim Schutze, incompetence trumping party lines, and race and racialization
One of the things I love about doing this blog is sitting here in my little corner of Vermont, poking around the net and finding terrific writers and their writing…
24Jul2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Insurance Company Rules
Netroots Nation, which recently wrapped up in Austin, TX, is something I really, really hoped to go to, but alas. Good things are popping out of there, however, including this stitch of a video, Insurance Company Rules. It’s from Health Care for America Now!, a grassroots campaign to achieve universal affordable health care. Insurance company bureaucracies [...]
20Jul2008 | Deborah Alicen | 1 comment | Continued
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
Keith John Sampson’s Apology from IUPUI Chancellor Bantz
This one will also go into the BureaucracyBlog Resource Library as an example of both the importance of standing up to bureaucratic abuse, and the role that publicity plays in rectifying bureaucratic abuse.
14Jul2008 | 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 [...]
12Jul2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Bureaucracy and higher education
I find it astonishing, but also fairly common, that institutions of higher education often do not take time to find out, and make use of, some of the cutting edge work being done by their own students and faculty that could so well serve the kinds of administrative changes that would enhance the educational mission.
11Jul2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Keith John Sampson update: The WSJ story
As mentioned in the post of a few days ago, there is indeed a story in today’s Wall Street Journal by Dorothy Rabinowitz about Keith John Sampson’s situation at IUPUI. The reportorial aspects of the story are fine, but oh, do I have a problem with the tone! And the graphic.
7Jul2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Unpacking the last decision: Egregious is as egregious does
If Franz Kafka and Lewis Carroll had provided the raw materials for the fantastical creation of a government office, their results would probably look very much like the Office of Professional Regulation in the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office. Last week I posted the latest and last decision in my Kafkaesque journey through the Looking Glass world of the OPR. This week I unpack that decision.
6Jul2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Conduct Unbecoming a University
“I thought my situation was over here at IUPUI but now I find that the IUPUI News Center, run by Rich Schneider, is still telling members of the media that the problem was not in my reading the book in question but some other actions that they can not reveal to the press. “
3Jul2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
“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 the [...]
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 [...]
23May2008 | Deborah Alicen | 2 comments | Continued
“A rising tide raises all boats.”
Every community needs a Jayme Wilson. He’s being honored tonight as Humanitarian of the Year in San Pedro, CA. Mr. Wilson went from attorney to business man and community leader, and has demonstrated top notch leadership in the San Pedro area. Consider this from today’s DailyBreeze.com story: Navigating sometimes rough waters between community factions and [...]
21May2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Another Textbook Case of Bureaucratic Insanity
Someone saw “KKK” in the title and jumped to the conclusion that Mr. Sampson was a supporter of the KKK, and filed a complaint against him with his university’s Affirmative Action Office, alleging that his reading the book in the break room constituted racial harassment.
12May2008 | Deborah Alicen | 1 comment | Continued
Oh, the challenges of setting up good bureaucracies…
This situation touches on deficient personal ethics of the officers who milked the system, but the flaw they exploited appears to have been an innocent one. That’s different from corrupt government officials intentionally setting things up (e.g. “no bid contracts”) so as to benefit themselves and their cronies, as we have seen so often during the Bush administration.
8May2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Bureaucrats and Billboards
I was still living in North Carolina and under the age of majority when one evening at dinner Dad waxed eloquent and enthusiastic after meeting Vermont’s Governor Phil Hoff, and also about what had just happened in Vermont. The event of note was the ban of billboards in Vermont, preserving open scenic views along Vermont’s [...]
7May2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Lots of ‘He said–He said’ in Missouri’s Open Records Mess
Last month I ran a little item about the situation in Missouri, and since then it has expanded into a “he said—he said” mess of grand proportions. Governor Matt Blunt has his hands full, as does MO’s Attorney General, Jay Nixon. There are bunches more people involved, however, with lawsuits developing so quickly one would [...]
6May2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
