Responsibility without authority

In the headlong rush to cherrypick recommendations from the 9/11 Commission Report, Bush Calls for New Intelligence Director yet

... rejected the panel's recommendation that the director control all intelligence budgets, and have the authority to choose who would lead the CIA, FBI, Defense Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies.

What a maroon! It doesn't take an MBA to know that you don't vest responsibility without authority. But, Dubya, being the anti-intellect that he is, seems to think that he knows better.

Does Dubya really expect us to believe that he is "tough on terrorism"? By his actions (or rather inactions), I'd say the exact opposite.

The members of the 9/11 Commission are not Pollyannas, yet they are deeply concerned that the administration, and congress, do not have the sense of urgency that they should. No, duh! They are also not fools. They know that it will be difficult to change the status quo because much is so deeply mired in entrenched feifdoms of some very powerful politicians and career bureaucrats.

So, now apparently, the administration expects to be able to get away with some window dressing instead of really addressing the fundamental flaws in our intellegence gathering and safeguards against terrorism that the 9/11 Commission so effectively brought to light.

Of course, Dubya and co. know full well that most of the American voting population is either too dense to see through the charade, too busy with their 2 or 3 jobs (they now need to hold to make up for the one that was shipped overseas thanks to the corporate tax incentives granted by the administration) to take the time to educate themselves as to this fraud, or too befuddled by the FUD generated by the administration around non-issues such as gay marriage and stem-cell research to rally the radical right to vote against those amoral liberals who would deign to allow *judges* to undermine the sanctity of marriage and the rights of the unborn zygote.

By vesting in this new national intelligence director and counter-terrorism center the responsibility without the budgetary, personnell and management authority (that Rummy clearly doesn't want to give up!), the Dubya administration may in fact make matters worse than they are today, not better. Many of the 9/11 Commissioners made this clear in their various interviews given since the report was made public.

The real problem is that Dubya and his crones are running scared. They can see the writing on the wall and it doesn't bode well. Thus, they will be given (increasingly) to knee-jerk responses aimed at fooling those few voters on the fence as to whether they deserve another term in office.

This is by far the most inept and self serving administration I never voted for.