One very direct way to “fix” the problem would be to slice most of the program people out of the White House Staff, and put them back in the departments and agencies — thus subject to a request from Congress to provide testimony.

Although I personally agree with you and have the highest regard for your views, it seems unlikely that there would be enough opportunity for inflated, bloated ‘consultant’ contracts to study whether your proposal would be viable.

As written, it seems too sane, simple, and straightforward to have any prayer of being implemented in DC for the foreseeable future.

How was Cheney able to set up the OSP and create a coup via OLC? Look at the number of Exec appointees he controlled (!), and then how was this admin able to create entire departments out of ‘thin air’ so to speak – within DoS, within DoD, and by appointing their tools to OLC?”

One very direct way to “fix” the problem would be to slice most of the program people out of the White House Staff, and put them back in the departments and agencies — thus subject to a request from Congress to provide testimony. The best departments and agencies over time have had relatively few “political appointees” below the highest management level, but very high standards for the competence of the professional and permenant staff. Back in the 60’s, there was a big push in many agencies to offer senior management the chance to return to college, for a specialized MA for instance, and make that essentially a condition for promotion. The idea was to develop a cadre of senior managers who moved institutional memory from one administration to the next. I am most familiar with what DOD did with procurement in that era — Harvard and the U of Chicago designed advanced management programs for DOD. At the time DOD had strict rules against a senior employee shifting to the private sector — I believe it was a three year wait before one could accept employment with the “other side”. Restoring such rules would very much slow down the revolving door.

But it will be hard to deny Obama supporters some of the appointments they certainly expect. Al Franken is actually running on this issue — much longer waiting periods before someone can go through the revolving door.

How was Cheney able to set up the OSP and create a coup via OLC? Look at the number of Exec appointees he controlled (!), and then how was this admin able to create entire departments out of ‘thin air’ so to speak – within DoS, within DoD, and by appointing their tools to OLC?

To address this would probably take someone with a good sense of not only federal budgets, but the personnel roster. JMO.

The link leads to what’s probably the ‘first music video made without a camera’ — created entirely using digital data**, and the programmer approached Radiohead because he thought they’d be the only group open to the concept. And FWIW, it’s refreshing to see that Radiohead’s art code can be accessed via a google page. (So UnBushCheney-like of Radiohead.) Woohoo!!

And while you’re over at Ben Fry’s, check out two sports links; one baseball, one football:
Baseball: payroll vs performance in this year’s MBA:
http://benfry.com/salaryper/

(Tip: let the page load fully, then use your direction left/right keys to move the graph so you can see the shifting cost/performance for this year’s pro baseball teams — in this analysis, the Diamondbacks are doing well. Come to think of it… could this be used to illustrate the number/authors of BushCheney ’secret’ documents…? I’m not sure…)

And for football: ‘the farther from the ball, the lower the IQ’:
http://benfry.com/writing/archives/147

** So here’s a shoutout to bigger, faster processors!

Thanks for tolerating the brief OT, and enjoy the music!

NOTE: The launch of Oxdown Gazette will be slightly delayed. We’ve found a couple of “ghosts in the code.” We’ll post an update soon as we can.

______

Stating, “Not found on this server.”