What May Intel Folks Say?

The US Director of National Intelligence, General James R. Clapper Jr., is being taken to task for his comments before a Senate Committee regarding the situation in Libya.  He was asked what he thought and this is what The Washington Post said he said:

Clapper stepped into Thursday's controversy when he was asked to address the conflict in Libya. Gaddafi "appears to be hunkering down for the duration," the intelligence director said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, adding moments later that because the dictator has superior military resources "over the long term . . . the regime will prevail."

The White House fairly quickly distanced itself from the DNI.

Within hours, the White House was all but dismissing Clapper's remarks. National security adviser Thomas E. Donilon described Clapper's appraisal as "a static and one-dimensional assessment," reflecting the lopsided division of military assets in Libya but not other forces sweeping through the region.

What disappointed me was not the White House NSA, Mr Donilon, but Senator Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.).  He should know better.  Further, if the Senators on the Committee (and Senator Graham is one of them, albeit not present at that hearing) think that there might be an answer that calls into question some policy then they should go behind closed doors.

My conclusion is that it is likely never going to be possible for us to accept that Intel personnel should tell us what they believe to be the case, even if not politically acceptable.  And yet they should be encouraged to do so.

I have no opinion on General Clapper himself or his take on the situation (well, I hope he is wrong), but we need to encourage open expression of views and then can ignore them for operational reasons if we wish.

On the other hand, there is the view that Gen. Clapper is a senior Obama Administration appointee and the usual expectation is that he will support the President's policy or advise him and others privately, but not publicly undercut him.  "Not so much a question of political correctness as loyalty to the boss who gave you the job."  That is fine enough, but he shouldn't be lying to the US Congress.  He could avoid blurting out the truth, but he should never lie.♠

So, it all goes back to the US Senate not being smart enough to hold closed hearings.

In the mean time, if we are not going to expect Intelligence Specialists to "speak truth to power" we could save them a lot of frustration and us a lot of money by getting rid of them, at least at the higher reaches, and contracting for a clipping service.

UPDATE:  Here is the view from the Windy City, as articulated by Reporter Ken Dilanian.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  General Curtis LeMay:  "Never lie to Congress.  You can avoid blurting out the truth, but never lie."

"Follow the Money", or Not

My wife and I are taking a course at UMass Lowell this semester, "French Cinema and Society".  It is interesting and fun, aside from the tests.  We had our second one last night and we will have to wait two weeks for the results, due to St Patty's Day break.

With this new interest in film—before this class we hadn't been out to the movie theater in over a year—I found this blog post, "Fact-checking Watergate advice that ‘worked’" interesting.

In it Professor W Joseph Campbell takes to task Professor Eric Alterman for pushing the idea that the line "Follow the money" was a part of the history of the Watergate Scandal.

It turns out that the line "Follow the money" was not in the Book All the President’s Men, nor was it in any of the Washington Post articles by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, nor was it ever uttered by "Deep Throat" (FBI Number Two Man W. Mark Felt).♠  It was a line utter by Actor Hal Holbrook in the movie.

Film is a powerful tool, teaching us things that are not true, although they have a sense of being true.  Quoting from the Blog post:

Richard Bernstein, in an essay published in 1989 in the New York Times, offered a thoughtful discussion about cinema’s capacity to shape perceptions about historical events. Although Bernstein didn’t mention All the President’s Men, his essay is germane nonetheless.

He noted that “even small details have value as history.

“To change them is the rough cinematic equivalent of a newspaper’s inventing quotations on the grounds that, even if nobody actually made the quoted statement, it represents what people were thinking or feeling at the time.”

There is a lot more in the Blog post and it is worth skimming through.

The comment from the Instapundit was

Alterman probably thinks it was Sarah Palin, not Tina Fey, who said “I can see Russia from my house,” too. . . .

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  In my mind Deep Throat went from being a patriotic whistle blower to being an aggrieved office seeker when it was revealed that W Mark Felt was the person behind the cover name.  Mr Felt reminded me of a modern day Charles J Geiteau.

Judicial Elections and Wisconsin

Here is a very short piece from Opinionator Mickey Kaus on the upcoming (April 5th) Judicial Elections in Wisconsin.  Yes, in some parts of this Great Nation they do elect judges, including to the State Supreme Court (Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts terminology).♠

There is a quote from FireDogLake blog and then there is this comment from Mr Kaus:

Will Wisconsin voters feel comfortable turning a judicial election into, in effect, a referendum on a law Democrats don’t like?

At least they are being civil in Wisconsin—no death threats or things like that, mostly.♥

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  In some states Supreme Court Justices are not initially elected by the Citizens, but they are reconfirmed several years later, thus the reference to Rose Bird.
♥  From Powerline Blog.

Live Steaming Video at GLTHS

Last evening the Technology Subcommittee of the Greater Lowell Technical High School reviewed options for making School Committee meetings available in read time and came up with the solution of live streaming, using an existing capability with vBrick Systems Inc.  Part of the reason for going this route is that at least one City does not have Cable TV and can thus not accept a live cable feed via a "sling box" lashup.

The unanimous action of the Subcommittee was unanimously approved by the overall School Committee and there will be three monthly meetings presented in real time under the current contract with vBrick.

This action was covered by Reporter Robert Mills for The Lowell Sun.  It was also covered by Lowell Blogger Gerry Nutter at Gerry Nutter's Lowell.  It was nice of Mr Nutter to mention that Move Lowell Forward's Paul Sweeney addressed the GLTHS Committee and thanked them for this action.

It is another positive step by the Greater Lowell Tech School Committee to be transparent. Paul from Move Lowell Forward Thanked the committee on behalf of the group especially since MLF has been a strong advocate in asking Greater Lowell to be more transparent. Some will be unhappy still that it is not televised live but it will be viewable and will still be recorded to air on delay as it is now.

It is my opinion that MLF is very happy with this outcome.♠

Going back to the story in The Lowell Sun, in a standard move the leadership of the overall School Committee turned over at the meeting, with Chairman David C Laferriere being replaced by Lowell Rep Michael Lenzi and Dracut Rep Victor Olson elected vice chairman.  The new Secretary is Lowell Rep George O'Hare.

Thanks to Chairman Laferriere for his fine work and congratulations to the new leadership.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  At least it seemed that way at last night's monthly meeting of MLF.

Intervention in the Arab World

Some have suggested we intervene in the Arab World in support of ongoing uprisings.

I would think we should be cautious.  As someone pointed out, the French intervention in our own Revolution against the British was a short term gain for them, but in the long run it lead to the French Revolution.  The reason was money (isn't it usually).  The cost of effort had to be paid for and that meant new taxes.  That meant taxing all sorts of folks, including privileged groups, who expected something in return, which was an increased say in the Government, which had to come at the expense of royal power.  It was all down hill from there, right to the guillotine.  As the person said,

The French experience, among other things, is a cautionary tale about getting involved in someone else's civil war.

I suggest we go slow in sticking our oar in other peoples' wars.

Regards  —  Cliff

Forget the Federal Budget Deficit

Here is a real problem:

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of Commerce, announced today that total January exports of $167.7 billion and imports of $214.1 billion resulted in a goods and services deficit of $46.3 billion, up from $40.3 billion in December, revised. January exports were $4.4 billion more than December exports of $163.3 billion. January imports were $10.5 billion more than December imports of $203.6 billion.

How much longer can this continue?

Read the Press Release here.  Then ponder if the Budget Deficit is masking a larger and longer lasting problem with regard to our balance of payments.

Frankly, this makes me ask if we should be raising Federal taxes as a way of discouraging imports.  The problem is, the money would not be used to pay down the national debt, but rather to create new Federal programs.  I just lack the faith I should have in the ability of the US Congress and the bureaucrats they enable to get us out of this problem.  I am hoping that this Session of Congress will prove me wrong.

And, at the bottom of the BEA report is this entry, which raises a couple of questions:

Changes to Country Names and Groupings

Country Names

Effective with this release, the U.S. Census Bureau has altered the country names used in certain exhibits of the FT900. These changes will bring the names used in the FT900 and related data products closer in line with names used by the U.S. Department of State and the International Organization for Standardization. The changes are as follows:

Previous Name / New Name
Falkland Islands / Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
Federal Republic of Germany / Germany
Bosnia-Hercegovina / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Macedonia (Skopje) / Macedonia

I wonder how the Brits and the Greeks feel about those changes?  And, is Germany no longer a Federal Republic?

Regards  —  Cliff

NPR Management Style

A friend of mine♠ includes me in his EMails on various topics.  I know none of the other folks, but they are sometimes insightful and sometimes informative.

One of them wrote, re the recent NPR imbroglio

The resignations in recent days of Ron Schiller, Vivian Schiller, and Ellen Weiss are indicative of the guilt they all feel and [a] cause for celebration. Soon NPR will be defunded.

I missed the Ellen Weiss thing.  She resigned from NPR in January of this year, but it looks like she was encouraged to do so.  She is the person who fired Commentator Juan Williams with a text message.♥

Frankly, I am concerned about an organization that has no internal process for correcting mistakes and whose only management tool is the pink slip.  It is an approach of "You are either with us or against us."  There seems to be no middle ground here.  And firing someone with a text message shows a decided lack of class.

The best spin I can put on it is a belief that those who have transgressed must be cut off immediately, for fear they will infect the rest of the body.

I don't think this is any way to run a railroad.  But, then, I have never managed an organization as big or as important as NRP.  The best I have done is 1,200 people, a half a billion dollars worth of airplanes and a whole bunch of nuclear weapons.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Yes, he lives on the right side of Lowell, but his mind and heart are on the left side.
♥  In the interest of full disclosure, I have always liked Mr Juan Williams, both when he was at NPR and when I would see him on Fox News.