Molly Ivins: Bush makes 'government incompetence' a reality

Boy, you really can't take your eyes off this bunch for a minute, can you? If they're not screwing up one thing, then they're screwing up another -- busy little beavers. And then there are the administrative nightmares they have created all by themselves: The new Medicare prescription-drug benefit is such a disaster area, four states took it over in less than a week just to make sure poor people received their drugs.

Some of the press is starting to get the drill. Give us something like the West Virginia coal mine disaster, and instead of standing around emoting like Geraldo Rivera, a few reporters have enough sense to ask the obvious question: What is this mine's safety record? And when it turns out to be abysmal, a few more reporters have enough sense to ask: Who's in charge of doing something after a mine gets 205 safety violations in one year? Where's the Mine Safety and Health Administration? Who runs it? What's their background -- are they professionals or mining industry stooges? Who's the Michael "Heckuvajob" Brown in this outfit? Why are so many jobs at MSHA just left completely unfilled? How much has MSHA's budget been cut since 2001 to pay for tax cuts for the rich?

The great irony is that this was supposed to be the CEO administration. Bush was supposed to put people in charge of government who had track records in private industry, who did in fact know how to run a railroad. For just sheer incompetence, this administration sets new records daily. All those years the right wing sat around yammering about government incompetence, and it took this administration to make it true.

But while the press is busy sort of figuring out what government needs to do -- homeland security, anyone? -- other agencies are slipping quietly out of control, with almost no attention paid. In the case of the Internal Revenue Service, the problem appears to be more malice than incompetence.

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http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=20206

In 2000, Ms. Ivins was one of the famous adherents to the concept that Al Gore was the same as George Bush.

To the extent that she was a proponent of that particular bit of far right propaganda, she has little to complain about. She got exactly what she wanted.

I really have very little use for her.

Molly Ivins NEVER claimed Al Gore was the same as George Bush. She wrote the book "Shrub" (which I have on my bookshelf and have read several times) specifically to warn people what a Bush presidency would be like, and she was right on the money. The only thing she said during that time that I could disagree with is her claim that Bush was not "mean". I think he is petty and vindictive myself.

I guess she holds a very low opinion of Gore as well.

Sorry, Molly and friends, we're fucked.

Think about that for just a minute... Our American CEOs... How much competence have we seen them demonstrate in the past 20 years or so...other than in laying off employees and rewarding themselves with a yearly mega-raise?

They actually now employ less now than they did then. Remind me again why we're supposed to admire corporations?