Let's Get Ethical*!

I wanna get ethical, ethical!
C'mo-ooon let's get ethical!

President Bush has ordered White House staff to attend mandatory briefings beginning next week on ethical behavior and the handling of classified material after the indictment last week of a senior administration official in the CIA leak probe.

According to a memo sent to aides yesterday, Bush expects all White House staff to adhere to the "spirit as well as the letter" of all ethics laws and rules. As a result, "the White House counsel's office will conduct a series of presentations next week that will provide refresher lectures on general ethics rules, including the rules of governing the protection of classified information," according to the memo, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post by a senior White House aide. WP

I'm saying all the things that I know you'll like
Making good conversation
I gotta handle you just right
You know what I mean
I gave you a good story tip
Then outed Wilson's wifey
There's nothing left to talk about
Unless it's marked "Eyes Only"

Let's get ethical, ethical
I wanna get ethical
Let's get into ethical
Let me hear that secret talk, that secret talk
Let me hear that secret talk

 

*sung to the tune of Olivia Newton John's Let's Get Physical

Wanted: Looking for a Leader

Large first world nation seeking leader

Well established first world nation seeking leader to run country, and help re-establish international reputation. The United States of America is seeking a new leader. Contract term variable, four and eight year terms available, depending on performance. Energetic, detail-oriented individual with a proven track record preferred. Must be willing to seek and take advice of others. People, project, resource, & budget management exp. required.

Experience or familiarity with U.S law, policies and procedures related to the Geneva Conventions, and/or common human decency, international law and diplomacy, and 3 years supervisory experience desirable. (1)  No idealogues, please.

Some travel involved, must relocate to Washington DC. (2) Past record of employment will be scrutinized carefully.

The successful candidate must have the following provable qualities:

• Integrity
• Honesty
• Experience in domestic issues, willingness to learn about foreign policy issues. (3) 
• Must be able to read and write in the English language. Additional languages helpful, but not required.
• More than 3 books in your personal library.
• Experience trouble-shooting world-wide hot spots and diplomacy a plus.
• Must be a team player. (3a)
• Must be able to put aside personal agenda, and stick to the facts.
• Ability to work well with others, including but not limited to: the UN, NATO, OAS, WTO, Fraternal Order of Squirrels, World Bank, NWS, Red Cross, Congress, CNN, Democrats, and Girl Scout Troup 121. (3b)

Is responsible for the overall defense & management of a large territory and population, stretching from sea to shining sea, and from the northernmost border of Mexico to the southernmost border of Canada. Some additional isolated areas such as Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, & Puerto Rico will also come under your territory of responsibility. Ask in cartography for specific locations of ancillary lands.

Main priorities include: world peace, health & welfare of American citizens,  economic stability, environmental responsibility. As a world leader, you will also be expected to apply the same standards of peace, health, welfare and environment to citizens of other countries that you apply to your own.

Large budget and workforce. Defense, Interior & State Departments, flag, motto, and fight songs provided. Homeland Security, Health & Human Services, Education Departments, enviromental condition & economy need work. International treaties in place, others to be negotiated.

The successful President will appoint others to positions within the government based on their qualifications, excluding other criteria or methods. (4) 

The successful President will set goals for the country and its people, and leave the internal management of other countries to them. S/he will improve conditions for its people and environment, in all areas including economic, social, scientific, and global.  (5)

This is a full-time position, but requires availability to respond outside of normal working hours.

Must swear to defend and uphold the Constitution. (6)

Benefits: Salary; perks including home and company-provided transportation, personal staff; four weeks of vacation per year, but only two may be taken consecutively - other two weeks must be taken seperately. Security clearance. Sick days pending. (7) Social Security benefits. (8) Secret Service protection for life, or five years, whichever is less. Wide-spread media coverage, and possibility of really cashing in economically and reputationally on your success after you leave office. Groupies a possibility.

(1) No, torture is not ok, neither is fabricating a case for warring on your neighbors.
(2) Must actually stay there some portion of the time, too.
(3) No "lone cowboys", please.
     (3a) Repeat that.
     (3b) Repeat that.
(4) Please see dictionary definitions for personal relationships & gain, cronyism, and nepotism.
(5) Basically, bub, leave the place in better condition than you found it, not worse.
(6) That doesn't mean change things around a bit to suit your needs.
(7) No sick days provided, until National Health Insurance has been provided for all. Sorry.
(8) Available at a rate not to exceed those offered to other citizens. You really are one of us, now.

 

[Permission to forward granted with attribution and source link only.]

Where's the outrage?

>> Are we so apathetic that we cannot work up outrage at being lied to, repeatedly?

Many are, yes. Many are also still deluded by the administration's lies. Ask the guys in maintenance if they think Iraq ought to be nuked in retaliation for 9/11. Yes, I know, but just ask.

>> torture... Have we, indeed sunk so low as to consider that these things are allowable

Apparently so. The Pentagon supports it, the CIA supports it, and the White House supports it. They hide away the prisoners, hide away their shame that they not only condone it, but arrange it, by having prisoners technically held by other countries who do not prohibit it.

>> The crime isn't in the mistakes, though, it is in allowing, in continuing to allow, our elected officials, many if not most of them, to continue to act in this fashion.

The media has been cowed or lulled into relative silence for 5 years. They're finally starting to wake up, but it took a hurricane to do it.

>> Where is the moral outrage at the lies and manipulation?

Here. In the blogs that were created as a foil to the media that failed in their fourth estate duties. In other places where liberal voices, and voices that prefer the truth can find to refuse to be cowed by the crooks who've taken over Washington and thrown god and sparklies in the faces of the people they're supposed to be serving - and protecting.

It's in Cindy Sheehan's protest, and the anti-war protests in Washington and other cities around the country.

It's in the action of Democrats fleeing Texas rather than being forced to vote in a crooked redistricting plan. It's in Ronnie Earle's indictment of Tom DeLay, and in Fitzgerald's of the fully grown man with the name of a child - Scooter, the VP's chief of staff.

It's in the lawsuit by the library that's protesting provisions of the Patriot Act that prohibit it from even saying who they are, and that they object to what they're being ordered to do.

It's in people like Richard Clarke, the former head of counter-terrorism for 3 presidents, including Bush, who stood up and said, "That's a lie."

It's in those so-called "activist judges", who are in our Honor Thread, who have stood up to the Bush administration and said, "No, you can't do that. All citizens have the right to legal council, to be charged with a crime or released, to a fair trial, to not be held indefinitely."

It's in organizations like Moveon.org, the ACLU, the Electronic Freedom Foundation.

It's in the broken voice of Ray Nagin, desperately crying, "We need help here!" as he watched his city drown. It's in the voices of the media and the people who said, "No, Brownie is NOT doing a heck of a job. Fire his ass!" It's even in Michael Chertoff, who listened.

Oddly, it's in the voices of the conservative Republicans who said, "Harriet who? She's no Supreme Court justice. Not on our watch."

It's in the voice of former POW and current Senator John McCain who said quite clearly, "No, torture is never ok, and I'm going to codify that. We're better than that, even if I have to remind you of it."

Where it's not, is in a single united voice in the Democratic Party. A united voice that could "throw the bums out."