Unable to Govern at any level

We've witnessed the incompetence of the Bush Administration in many places, from Iraq to Katrina. By appointing cronies and like-minded idealogues into positions of responsibility, the Bush adminstration has created a government that is unable to govern. The latest example comes from decisions made by the Ashcroft Justive Department in 2002 with regards to the size and function of the Board of Immigration. Natually, a New York Times article inspired this diatribe. Quoted text comes from the article unless otherwise indicated.

The Board of Immigration had a large backlog of cases in 2002, so Mr. Ashcroft "hacked off all the liberals," reducing the number of judges on the board to 11 from 23. The net effect, as pointed out in the article, was a massive increase in the number of immigration appeals, which end up in Federal Circuit court. The implication of the article is that since the Board has become stacked with incompetent conservative non-rubber stampers, far more applicants are being forced to appeal their case to even have it reviewed by a person with any qualification to perform such a review. The Board is no longer performing a useful function, as it is denying more applications and not providing and written documentation to explain its decisions, in the name of "expediting" the process, due to a large backlog. This has effectively eliminated the utility and purpose of the board, which is now bueacratic way-station as opposed to a valuable institution. Decisions are now foisted upon Federal judges who actually are compelled to analyze the cases and write opinions. The Board was not performing and useful function, and yet the Justive Department's immigration review office said, "the surge in federal appeals is not related to the board's increased number of decisions [denials], but the rate of appeal."

Classic meaningless Bush-speak. They are saying the rate of appeals is increasing because it is increasing. I.e., our useless incompetence and poor decision making have nothing to do with it. Nothing that happens in any Bush-league office is ever their fault. Nothing is ever explained. No one is ever taken to task. No one is accountable in this Administration. The only thing that matters is mindlessly following the boss' instructions. The immigration judges decisions were described like this: "The tone, the tenor, the disparagement, and the sarcasm of the I.J. [immigration judge] seem more appropriate to a court television show than a federal court proceeding."

This is what you get when the country is being run by a theocratic oligarchy, where the most important leadership positions are filled by incompetent idealogues like Ashcroft or Gonzales. Later today I think I'll draw a chart showing the differences (there are very, very few) between Bush and Osama.

Item	Bush	Osama
Comes from a privileged background of oil wealth	X	X
Believes they are a messenger of God devliering justice to the infidels	whereby justice = democracy or death	whereby justice = plain old death
Flouts international law and the Geneva conventions	X	X
Believes civilian casualties are acceptable	Do you know how many Iraqi civilians have died in this conflict?	X
Believes you're either with us or against us	X	X

I could go on and on, but the point is that both men are from wealthy backgrounds and believe the ends justifys the means in their psuedo-religious crusade that is really about money and power.