SOME OF US FIGURED THIS ALL ALONG; OTHERS ARE JUST FIGURING IT OUT NOW. Yes, Obama Is A Phony On Torture. He used to indicate otherwise as a means of brand differentiation, but he doesn’t need that anymore. And I think that some kind of deal has been cut.
UPDATE: Related: “How did the man who was supposed to tame the imperial presidency become, in certain ways, more imperial than his predecessor?” Because you were sold a pack of lies, and you were dumb enough to believe it.
MANAGEMENT: Getting fired is Mission: Impossible for federal bureaucrats in the Obama era.
Federal managers have fired fewer bad employees each year since President Obama took office.
Fewer than 4,900 career civil servants were fired in fiscal year 2013 out of 1.4 million — about one out of every every 300 employees — according to Office of Personnel Management data.
The figures were 5,700 in 2010, 5,500 in 2011, and 5,200 in 2012. Only partial data was available for fiscal 2014, but it was on track for 4,800, the lowest in recent memory.
There are also about 7,700 senior executives in the federal government, who are held to a higher standard than those in the General Schedule rank and file.
But only five in the Senior Executive Service were fired in 2012, seven in 2013 and none in the first half of 2014.
Well, Romney said he liked firing people who wouldn’t do their jobs. And then the voters picked the other guy.
REPORT: No Indictment In Ferguson Case.
Background: The Grand Jury. Fiat justitia ruat caelum.
PLUS: NB: this DA is a Democrat, as is the County Executive and the governor.
RELATED:
Remember kids, #BobMcCulloch was on Obama's #TruthSquad. He is a dyed in the wool progressive. He's the government you wanted.
— Chris Loesch (@ChrisLoesch) November 25, 2014
Here’s an Obama Truth Squad flashback, for those who don’t remember 2008.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Obama talks as, on the other side of the screen, Ferguson burns.
Image of the year RT @HayesBrown: Wow. pic.twitter.com/IHCcBb2pSc
— Adam Serwer (@AdamSerwer) November 25, 2014
Perfect juxtaposition of Obama's general lack of awareness. #ferguson https://t.co/pANKg7YzG2
— Ben Howe (@BenHowe) November 25, 2014
NO INDICTMENT IN FERGUSON CASE, USA Today reports:
A white police officer will not face charges for fatally shooting an unarmed black teenager in a case that set off violent protests and racial unrest throughout the nation, an attorney close to the case said Monday night.
A St. Louis County grand jury declined to indict officer Darren Wilson, 28, for firing six shots in an August confrontation that killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, said Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the family. The decision had been long awaited and followed rioting that resembled war-zone news footage in this predominantly black suburb of St. Louis.
“The jury was not inclined to indict on any charges,” Crump said after being informed of the decision by authorities. Prosecutors scheduled an news conference to announce the decision.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, called for calm after calling up National Guard troops to stand by in case of unrest. Speaking before the decision was announced, he urged that “regardless of the decision, people on all sides show tolerance, mutual respect and restraint.”
Much more from Glenn, shortly.
YES, BECAUSE RICHARD DAWKINS IS ALWAYS CALLING FOR HIS FOLLOWERS TO BEHEAD THE BELIEVERS: “British fears about Islamists and Saudi fears about atheists are two sides of the same coin.” If they’re two sides, at any rate, they’re two very different sides.
FOR A BRIEF WHILE, Virginia Postrel’s The Substance of Style is just $1.99 on Kindle. It’s well worth reading.
PHOTOGRAPHY IS NOT A CRIME: Employee Fired After Posting Pictures Of DHS Vehicles Parked In Hotel Parking Lot. Well, if a company has promised to keep government presence secret, and an employee breaches that promise, firing might be okay. But I’m not entirely clear if that’s what happened here, and certainly the threat of arrest made by the DHS was bogus and unconstitutional.
SOMEHOW, I THINK THIS ROBERT HEINLEIN QUOTE IS WORTH REPEATING ONE MORE TIME:
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as “bad luck.”
You know?
ADVICE FROM OUR BETTERS: Vivienne Westwood: People who can’t afford organic food should eat less.
AT AMAZON, Black Friday Deals Week in Toys & Games.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Most Heavy Drinkers Are Not Alcoholics.
UPDATE: Tom Maguire is unimpressed with their definitions:
Talk about defining deviancy down! A guy who has two beers a night and cuts loose on Saturday by having a third is an excessive drinker? Even though he never even gets tipsy? But, fortunately, he is not an alcoholic! Imagine my surprise.
Well, I suppose their classification scheme can be justified if the available categories are “No health consequences” and “Possible adverse health consequences”. But I think most people would consider there to be a large grey area between “Not bad for your health” and “Doing real damage to your health”. And I would guess that fifteen drinks in a week (or one wild night of five drinks during a month) is well within most people’s conception of that grey area. Or put another way, someone who drinks too much once a month won’t be considered by anyone to be an alcoholic.
What does Stephen Green say, anyway?
Yeah, the medical establishment seems to be of two minds on alcohol. But I’m sure they’ll come down on the nanny side, because that’s where the federal funding is.
SHOT: Under The Fourth Geneva Convention, “Collective Punishment” Is A War Crime. “Article 33. No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.”
CHASER: U-Va. president suspends fraternities until Jan. 9 in wake of rape allegations. “Faced with mounting pressure from students, faculty and alumni, University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan suspended all campus fraternities Saturday, an action prompted by a searing magazine account of an alleged 2012 gang rape inside a fraternity house at the school. The suspension, which includes sororities and other Greek organizations, will continue until Jan. 9, the Friday before the spring semester is to begin, Sullivan said in a statement posted on the university’s Web site.”
Snark aside, let’s remember what the University did here. It knew about this for quite a while, but didn’t do anything until there was an article in a magazine. Then it boldly and dramatically took action — against people who didn’t have anything to do with the alleged crime. As Ashe Schow says, another argument why universities shouldn’t be involved in prosecuting rape. Plus, while there’s showy collective punishment for the innocent, the actual accused were helped by the University’s mishandling: “In Jackie’s case, Eramo eventually told her that ‘all the boys involved have graduated.’ This meant the case was no longer in the university’s hands and if Jackie wants justice, she’ll have to go to the police, only now it will be more difficult as the attack was years ago, meaning evidence and witnesses may no longer be available.”
UPDATE: In the comments below, much skepticism about the Rolling Stone report. Well, I guess you can’t expect Rolling Stone to get it right every single time.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Number of College Students Taking Remedial Courses Explodes. “The number of college students taking at least one remedial course rose to 2.7 million in the 2011-2012 academic year from 1.04 million in 1999-2000, federal data show. During the same span, the amount of federal grants spent by undergraduates enrolled in at least one remedial course rose 380%, after inflation, Education Department figures show. There was also a drastic rise in remedial students taking on student debt. . . . Now, the high dropout rate among remedial-education students—along with a sharp rise in student debt—is fueling debate about whether the government should be more stringent in awarding student aid. Critics—ranging from some think-tank academics and conservatives to a trustee of a community-college system in Texas—say aid should be targeted toward students who are better-prepared.” These are students who shouldn’t be in college. Colleges are letting them in because they want their money.
WELL, ACTUALLY, THIS PROBABLY IS SMART DIPLOMACY: John Kerry Advised Russian Foreign Minister ‘Just Ignore Obama.’ At least, it’s probably good advice for most everyone these days. Forget what he says, and watch what he does.
ASHE SCHOW: UVA gang-rape allegation shows why universities shouldn’t arbitrate sexual assault.
Related: Peter Thiel: Thinking Too Highly Of Higher Ed. The “church” metaphor isn’t just a metaphor. Universities descend from clerical institutions, and have adopted poses, and enjoyed privileges — like internal disciplinary procedures and semi-immunity on their campuses from ordinary law enforcement — that descend from those institutions, too. But that’s problematic in today’s world, and the contradictions are becoming more apparent.
JOSH BLACKMAN: The Constitutional Limits Of Prosecutorial Discretion. Also, Prosecutorial Discretion With Rubber Stamps.
Josh’s discussion also reminds me of MCI V. AT&T, 512 U.S. 218 (1994), in which the Supreme Court held that the FCC couldn’t stretch a statutory provision allowing it to “modify” tariff requirements into a general rule eliminating the need for most of the industry to file tariffs at all. That seems fairly analogous to what Obama is doing with immigration, and possibly a better fit than Heckler v. Chaney.
On the contra side, though, there’s the case I always bring up when people suggest that executive power has exploded in recent years, U.S. v. Spawr Optical. (Also discussed here.) Spawr is a Court of Appeals case, not a Supreme Court case, and turned on some particularly sweeping statutory delegations, but still. . . .
Meanwhile, some thoughts from Ilya Somin.
I also think that if the Supreme Court wants to hear this in a hurry, it can. If it takes it in the ordinary course of business, we’ll probably see a decision in June of 2016. Could Obama — already seen as passively aggressively undermining Hillary in other ways — have put a long-range torpedo into the water that will explode around the time of the Democratic Convention?
MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Asians Get The Ivy League’s Jewish Treatment.
IN THE MAIL: The Baen Big Book of Monsters.
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TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 564.
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