One and All
Caught on Tape– “Counterintelligence Woman!”
Gosh golly gee whiz. Here I am, a bare six months into this blog and already I’ve succumbed to leading with a sensationalistic and inaccurate headline. My bad. So here’s the clarification. “Counterintelligence woman” (explanation here) wasn’t actually, literally caught on tape. But a story about her and the problems she caused certainly was caught [...]
2May2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
The Innocence Project
I’ve taken myself to The Innocence Project website a few times, intending to write something about it here at some point. Yesterday’s release of James Woodard from a Texas prison sets a good point. May it be repeated as many times as there are innocent incarcerated people, and as quickly as possible. Mr. Woodard’s story [...]
1May2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Across the Pond, It’s “Clipboard Man” in “Bureaucracy Gone Bonkers”
Oh, were the UK the only place the likes of Clipboard Man runs unfettered! Carmichael cites some amazingly dotty adventures of Clipboard Man from years past, and reports that Clipboard Man has recently re-surfaced, “more intrusive and creepier than ever.”
27Apr2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
The academics of bureaucracies
Every now and then in these posts I have mentioned, or quoted others who mentioned, the importance of developing a professional bureaucracy. What I’ve not yet touched on are the academics of bureaucracies—formal studies and theories and research about the different types of bureaucracies, their characteristics, and the work they are suited for. And not [...]
24Apr2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Revisiting the Original Premise and Vision
The premise, rationale, and remedies all lead to what I see for the future of this blog: a network of people in different parts of this country and the world, monitoring the state of bureaucracies within their areas
21Apr2008 | 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 [...]
16Apr2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Good Investigative Reporting & Human Interest Stories
Bloggers and independent online news outlets are doing a great job of staying on top of a lot of very important issues, working to keep people in power honest or at least accountable. But for whatever reasons, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of human interest stories online.
2Apr2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
James Kilpatrick on Bureaucrats, and more…
It was certainly a more craven example of an insurance company’s trying to pad its stockholders’ dividends by cheating poor and injured workers.
28Mar2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
On a little spring hiatus…
Updates will be spotty here for awhile. There’s way too much snow still on the ground outside my window so I’m going to concentrate very hard on increasing local thermal units and see if that will help. (Actually, the hiatus is occasioned by a little arthroscopy on a knee, so there’s this middle stage in [...]
24Mar2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
From The Rising Nepal: Promoting Ethics in Civil Service
There’s a very thoughtful editorial today on The Rising Nepal, Promoting Ethics in Civil Service. It’s far more than just a cheer leading piece for ethics. It presents an analysis that has both depth and breadth in its considerations of the issues in different types of organizations—ranging from social and academic associations to professional bureaucracy—and [...]
15Mar2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Where Bureaucracy Leaves Off: Black & Missing
Posting this on the fly, I’ll fill in more later. You can do so yourself, however, by reading this and this. Here’s an effort by a young woman who is picking up where bureaucracy leaves off, to save the lives of people are are otherwise being forgotten by the system and mainstream media. If you have your [...]
14Mar2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
More in the Kays Gary Library
I got another of Dad’s old columns from The Charlotte Observer posted over the weekend, and have a couple more picked out to transcribe and upload this evening. These are straight off the old, crinkly yellow newsprint. Check them out as time and inclination dictate. Peace. Deborah Gary Alicen
11Mar2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
The political understory…
The most heartbreaking and headache-inducing aspect of what’s happening out there in blog-comment-land is that there are so many people who think of themselves as politically progressive who are behaving this way. If that kind of knee-jerk, insulting, obliterate-the-other-side non-thinking is characteristic of progressive politics in general, then what’s the point of getting rid of the Bushites?
5Mar2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
A Case in Point
In my 11/24/07 inaugural post on this blog, I wrote the following: I have seen state bureaucrats possessed of as much ineptitude and malice as anyone in the Bush administration, and what I’ve seen has convinced me that we’ve wound up with something as bad as our present corrupt government because of our acceptance of [...]
27Feb2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
The Age of Transparency Arrives in East Tennessee
Here’s a very heartening story the AP is running today, about Knox County, Tennessee, where voters are effectively sweeping out the old county bureaucracy and instituting transparent processes where cronyism long held sway. By DUNCAN MANSFIELD, Associated Press Writer Tue Feb 26, 5:50 AM ET KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Maybe it was the expensive lobster lunch. [...]
26Feb2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
US Court Strikes a Blow against Transparency
I’m posting this on the fly—click the link for the complete article. BBC NEWS | Technology | Whistle-blower site taken offline A controversial website that allows whistle-blowers to anonymously post government and corporate documents has been taken offline in the US.
19Feb2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Kays Gary Columns Available Here
A couple of weeks ago, when I wrote a post about the PBS program on Sargent Shriver, I made reference to my Dad, the late Charlotte Observer columnist Kays Gary, and went looking online for some of his writing to link to. I didn’t find much, which was a little bit of a surprise since [...]
4Feb2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
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
Lawmakers look at quality of state’s human services: Times Argus Online
Today’s Times Argus has a story about the DCF Family Services Division undergoing some restructuring. An excerpt: Lawmakers look at quality of state’s human services: Times Argus Online Vermont’s family and child welfare system is restructuring itself after a federal review last fall was highly critical of how the Department for Children and Families’ Family [...]
26Jan2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Porn viewing runs amok at DC agencies – AP Story on Charlotte.com
Now here’s one to inspire confidence in bureaucracies! Porn viewing runs amok at DC agencies The Associated Press WASHINGTON – An investigation of city computers found that dozens of employees frequented pornographic Web sites at work and clicked on thousands of images, the mayor said Wednesday. The D.C. powers-that-be are to be commended for taking [...]
24Jan2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
