Summarizing Morrissey’s
DNI Replacement Post

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by Smitty

Ed offers some fine detail on why Dennis Blair ejected:

The problem stems from a poorly designed reform of the American intelligence community, provided by the 9/11 Commission and adopted by a too-credulous Congress under political pressure. Prior to that, the CIA director was the head of all non-military intelligence, both gathering and analysis. The 9/11 Commission decided not to streamline intel by putting all of it in one structure but to create another two levels of bureaucracy and put the DNI in charge of the entire mess.

However, in charge turns out to be something of a misnomer. The DNI is nominally in charge of the national intel center created in the overhaul, but as Blair discovered, not much else. Blair famously lost a power play with Leon Panetta last year after Blair wanted to reassign some of the positions in the CIA, laboring under the delusion that Panetta worked for the DNI. Panetta, a long-time power player in Washington DC, ended up winning that battle at the Oval Office level, leaving Blair emasculated. He wound up in charge of just enough to take the blame for the failure to stop three terrorist attacks in the last six months, but not quite in charge of enough to have prevented them through his own efforts to remake US intelligence.

Under those conditions, who in their right mind would want to replace Blair? It’s not just thankless, it’s powerless as well. The Obama administration should rename it the Scapegoat Secretary for some honesty in advertising.

The Obama administration gets the blame for putting itself in this position, but they shouldn’t get all of it. Congress needs to revisit its poorly-conceived reform of the intelligence community and start over from scratch.

Here is the rub:

BUDGET

We have 16 entities within the Intelligence Community. If the DNI doesn’t own the SIS and SES weenies at the tops of those 16 outfits, and the DNI does not, then DNI means “Demonstrates Negligible Influence”.

Part of the challenge here is that, unlike much of the function of the Department of Education, the IC is a legitimate Federal task, and among the original self-licking ice cream cones.

For the DNI to be meaningful, he has to be given the capacity to trim budgets and staffs at the various IC outfits, the POTUS has to be willing to offer the high cover, the Congresscritters can’t dictate via appropriation/authorization committees, and the voters have to support reductions in Federal IC money, call it “spooky bacon”, coming to their districts.

So, I’ve laid out roughly four overlapping impossibilities for you; such commitment and leadership are not to be found at any level.

You’re welcome.

Rule 5 Sunday

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by Smitty

The big news this week was that Miss America beauty pageant, and something that could be an escape from politics became, sadly, and exercise in politics.
It recalls that SNL sketch from a few years back where they had an interview show talking to all of the people who had wrecked it for everyone else, i.e. making Halloween dangerous.
Thanks, creeps.

  • The Pirate’s Cove has a patriotic pinup, getting ready for the 4th of July, no doubt. How many Stars and Stripes will be worn to Mexican schools, one wonders?
  • Waxing Erratic had another fine roundup of cuddliness, some furrier than others.
  • Bob Belvedere had the usual assortment of high style:
  • The entire blogoverse had to talk about the new Miss USA, Rima Fakih. She’s got a “past”, and may have benefitted more from politics than talent in her selection. But at least she was selected in time for Everybody Draw Mohammed Day. So we had that goin’ for us.
    • Michelle Malkin led off.
    • Left Coast Rebel was more interested in Miss Oklahoma.
    • Uncoverage was more interested in Rima’s Pole-ish culture studies.
    • The Pirate’s Cove had a roundup.
    • Gateway Pundit brought in the Miss OK “WTF does this AZ question have to do with a beauty pageant” clip.  OK’s answer apparently wasn’t. . .kosher. Hoft then picked up on the pole dancing angle.
    • The Classic Liberal requested the removal of politics from pageants. Are we expected to factor out money as well, and judge solely on liberal and classic values like talent?
    • Cassy Fiano recalled how politicized the preceding year’s contest had been. Note to Cassy: why don’t you bring in a marksmanship competition for Miss USA?
    • Smash Mouth Politics brings Throbbing Justice to bear on the Rima case. Good taste never stood a chance.
    • The BlogProf noticed that Rima would wear a Native American costume, vice cowboy attire, to represent the US. Does that mean she’d arrive dressed as a casino dealer? He then picked up on the promised investigation into the pole dancing by the Miss Universe pageant. What isn’t clear is whether the BlogProf promised to conduct the investigation himself, his planned methodology for the research, and when the ‘raw’ data may be available for peer review. Important academic questions. BlogProf also linked the Throbbing J clips.
    • Little Miss Attila took a day off for ‘research’. Possible BlogProf collaboration?
    • Knowledge is Power tacitly admitted that the bikini, too, is power.
    • BlackFive offers a disc-lame-er, emphasis mine:

      She is smokin’ and since she has been parading around in public in a bikini, isn’t that a good example and a knee to the nads of those burqa promoting wankers? More bikinis, fewer burqas. Muslim hotties rule!
      This is my contribution to our hearts and minds outreach campaign and not simply an excuse to post that picture.

      I’d say that Uncle Jimbo veered in the direction of Holderism with that last sentence, but he’d dribble me like a basketball.

    • TrogloPundit is refreshingly frank/dank: “I just wanted an excuse to google a few beauty queens, which sounds awfully dirty when you put it like that.”
    • American Power supported Miss Okie and, by extension, Governor Brewer all the way.
    • Atlas Shrugs looks at Rima, and, well, shrugs:

      UPDATE: Jason in the comments. Bingo, Jason:
      Hopefully every young Muslim girl will now tell her parents “I want to grow up and be like Rima.”

    • Allahpundit, whom you would expect to say something interesting here, opted for Miss OK instead.
    • Proof Positive had a long white dress shot.
    • Power Line featured the thoughtful review:

      So, to sum up: Rima Fakih is a worthy winner of the Miss USA title. I, personally, would have selected her over the runner-up on pulchritude alone. So no serious injustice was done this year, in my view. Going forward, pageants should stop asking contestants–especially selected contestants only, while others get “world peace” questions–questions to which the answers are needlessly controversial and likely to play to the judges’ own prejudices. No one who attends a beauty pageant has the slightest interest in the judges’ political leanings.

      As for Miss Fakih, we would be happy to suppose that she represents the “moderate Islam” for which the world has been waiting for some years now. Perhaps so. But, by her own account, she is part Christian, too–maybe that’s the moderate half. So we can only hope that she has ample bodyguards when she shows up for the Miss Universe pageant.

    • GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD raises the issue of for whom Rima really works.
    • Nation Of Cowards gives Morgan Elizabeth the full treatment.
  • Israelly Cool had a picture of the other Lady Arab newsmaker, whose hands appeared a trifle swollen from delivering a beat-down to a member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
  • At The Point Of A Gun explores the “Offend a Feminist” angle.
  • Manolo swears that Martha Stewart is holding a poncho, but she hasn’t explicitly denied that she’s helping with the Deepwater Explorer cleanup, so I’m not sure. A large pair of glasses and dark hair were also seen actually wearing a poncho, making Kim Kardashian at least believable.
  • The Daley Gator has had a top #25 babes of all time countdown underway:
  • Big Journalism undvered some in-bed-edness at ABC with Bianna Golodryga.
  • Irish Cicero brings us architecture and a hottie.
  • GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD has That Which Eric Holder Fears Most X2. The reaction to the Dennis Blair retirement seems to be PTFB (press the figurative button). She always has great captions, like a messy Megan: “Great Satan loves Hiz’B’Allah! They taste like chicken!”
  • Left Coast Rebel has a hottie that is not associated with the Italian Tea Party (wouldn’t something with espresso be more in keeping?). Also, LCR reports on Bono’s back injury, with a photo explaining why that’s “Bono” and not “nooB”.
  • The BlogProf did take his eyes off of Rima, probably over some wings.
  • Yankee Phil notes that Bristol Palin is engaged in straight-ahead capitalism on the speaking circuit. She could prove an interesting speaker. Whether Bristol could work at Hooters is a separate question.
  • American Power features Hugh Hefner, a man straddling the line between Rule 5 and hedonism. Not sure which side the hula hoop chick lands. Douglas also featured Sela Ward, motivated by the Daley Gator.
  • Dustbury recalls international diplomacy’s finest 5?8? woman and her 5?10? legs. Also, an interesting note on what a bizatch life can be. And then this daring rumor-monering about Campbell Brown. Wow. Meredith Viera also makes an appearance. What a news-oriented blogger, that Dustbury.
  • Daniel Foster at NRO, suspects Steve McQueen of the recent Paris art heist.
  • RebootCongress a loyal reader, points to hotties in Thailand on Michael Yon’s facebook page. Yon merits your support.
  • Proof Positive celebrated Katherine Hepburn in vintage mode, and Scarlett Johansson, both redheads, at least occasionally. Also there was a hooters post. There was another PETA post, but, really: Shirly Manson holding up an illegal immigrant like that is only going to cause the Left to implode.
  • Fausta has come up with a great solution for annoying relatives–chuck ’em out a plane! OK, that’s about the most radical possible mis-interpretation of the link. How about a tango reclama?
  • Fishersville Mike cools his jets, to the apparent chagrin of Yankee Phil.
  • TrogloPundit is tracking the Megan-to-Hayden switch at the Transformers franchise. Does Hayden look like Bristol Palin, or what?
  • House of Eratosthenes notes, with approval, that Ace of Spades is picking on Valerie Plame.
  • Three Beers Later brings out an old clip that reveals he both (a) played some mean maracas, and (b) used to hand out with Benny Hill. Oh, and the obligatory Juliana Moreira.
  • A Conservative Shemale points to a big cushion for the final ending of the Fed, when all things must halt.
  • New Rule 5 celebrant What the…?! brings you Julia Benson.
  • The Eye of Polyphemus needed some extra Scarlett Johansson, and also has an all-time favorite list.
  • The Mind Numbed Robot brings you Daisy Fuentes.
  • The Classic Liberal features Grace Park in one of his most instructive posts ever!
  • Irish Cicero the Younger brings a fine roundup.
  • Left Bank of the Charles features a ritual catfight in Harvard Square. “I’m more Progressive!” “No, me!” OK, it’s not like that, exactly.
  • Smash Mouth Politics whines “Anybody else noticed how difficult it is to find a hot chick who has not already been the subject of a Rule 5 post?” but comes up with Doutzen Kroes. See, sometimes it good to be the aggregator. . .

Rule 5 Sunday thanks the beauty in the world and the readers. Stay lovely out there!

Celebrity News Update: Djou Wins Hawaii; Lindsay Lohan Hits the Bottle; PLUS: Beyonce! Obama! Felipe!

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The biggest Hawaiian superstar since Don Ho:

Republican Charles Djou emerged victorious tonight in the special election to fill Hawaii’s vacancy in Congress, giving Hawaii its first GOP member of Congress in 20 years.
Djou won the special mail-in election with 39.7 percent of the vote in the final printout, released at 9 p.m.
The final printout represented 171,417 ballots returned by voters in the district, which stretches from Waikiki and downtown to Mililani.
Democrat Colleen Hanabusa was second at 31 percent, with Democrat Ed Case third at 27.8 percent.
“This is a momentous day,” Djou told a jubilant crowd at state party headquarters. “We have sent a message to the United States Congress. We have sent a message to the ex-governors. We have sent a message to the national Democrats! We have sent a message to the machine.
“We have told them that we will not stand idly by as our great nation is overburdened by too much taxes, too much debt and too much wasteful spending.”

Meanwhile, on a flight back from the Cannes Festival:

Lindsay Lohan tossed back some vino on a plane Saturday – just a couple of days from her DUI hearing in Los Angeles.
After partying until the early hours of Saturday morning in Cannes, France, the troubled star boarded a British Airways flight to London Saturday, where she was spotted knocking back red wine.
Lohan arrived in Los Angeles Saturday night around 7, according to reports.
She has been ordered to attend a court hearing Monday related to her 2007 drug and alcohol busts.

Coincidence? I don’t think so!

In other celebrity news:

Celebrity news via WeSmirch. Political news via Memeorandum. Sometimes you’ve got to ask, “Which is which?”

The Difference Between Theory And Practice Is Greater In Practice Than In Theory

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by Smitty

Da Tech Guy asserts that Rand Paul failed to consider his audience when launching into a theoretical discussion on MSNBC:

The basic issue isn’t so much with the theory, which I discuss in detail here; the problem is theory can be an excuse to do nothing. As Sen Pat McNamara once said to Sen Richard Russell when challenged why the south should not be left to solve it’s own civil rights issues during the debates of 1957: “Because you’ve had 90 years and haven’t done it!” There are times when theory is not enough.

But Paul biggest mistake was similar to John McCain’s in 2008 and comes from the same source. He and his father have gotten relatively soft interviews from the mainstream media, due to their willingness to critique republicans in general and the war in particular. Once he was a face of the party, he was no longer of use, thus the media did a 180.

However, I think that DTG cleaves closer to the bone in that second quoted paragraph: it really doesnt matter what Paul said; his words were going to fed into the Verbal Aerator/Gyeconlogical Inverter/Nebulous Artificer, emerging as vastly different monolougue. He may as well have quoted Klavan offering suggested campaign promises for the POTUS:

If it was me, I would have kept the booking on Press the Meat for this Sunday, and started off my remarks by forgiving Rachel Maddow at length and in detail for being such a sad little Lefty propaganda hit-bimbo. But that’s how I roll.

This post’s title is and old Herb Sutter-ism

Recent Offerings For The Younger Set

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by Smitty

Via the entire right-o-sphere, Governor Brewer seems deeply concerned at the appalling lack of literacy amongst political appointees:

This is all the more worrisome considering the copycat States considering similar legislation.

From Caroline Glick we have a Hebrew language satire show that, I daresay is as formidable as Colbert, only with a delightful conservative spin. They have a segment starting just after 5:00 that climaxes at this soon-to-be-bestselling “children’s” book:

Watch the whole thing.

Felipe Mistakes Juarez, Razes Arizona

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by Smitty

Felipe Calderon deserves to be ignored. And that disgusting pack of cretins that applauded the man deserve to be cashiered. Truly a standing, ovating insult to Americans, these Democrats.

PA-12

My take-away? Reducing the Progressive rot at the heart of the country is going to take more blood, sweat and tears than Tea Partiers realize. No individual American can be as passive as I was for my first 15 or so voting years. The political situation in America recalls movie that I could not finish: Trainspotting. The third scene (or so) is “The Worst Toilet In Scotland”, where we get to see a junkie whose flesh is so corrupted that he’s taking his dope as a suppository. Before he’s received his hellish blessing of a fix, he has to use his digestive tract in the usual fashion. So there is a bathroom stall, every single square inch of it a foul septic nightmare, and this horrid wretch pawing through his own filth in the toilet bowl to find his pills.
That summarizes the level of debasement to which this 111th Congress and some of the electorate has sunk.
And thus, we should find it unsurprising that PA-12 has trouble envisioning any other situation. VA-8 is going to be as bad or worse, as we try to pry loose an equally corroded, odious tool named Jim Moran. But all Americans must try, or we should have stayed under the British Crown.
Continue reading Felipe Mistakes Juarez, Razes Arizona →

No ‘Horse’ Jokes, Please: Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts Cheap Condoms

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Because some stereotypes aren’t just stereotypes:

D.C. to begin using more-expensive
Trojan condoms in HIV prevention program

High school students and college-age adults have been complaining to District officials that the free condoms the city has been offering are not of good enough quality and are too small . . .
So D.C. officials have decided to stock up on Trojan condoms, including the company’s super-size Magnum variety . . .

Yes, this clearly validates the stereotype that government giveaway programs foster the entitlement mentality:

No word yet on whether Nancy Pelosi will claim free condoms of “high quality,” at government run schools, is a basic civil right.

What next? WIC vouchers for Starbucks? Don’t low-income mothers have the right to relax with a double-skim decaf mocha latte? What are you, some kind of racist?

Fear and Fedora in Las Vegas
When In Doubt, Put It All on Red

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You may remember this video of Steve Foley and Eric Odom from my March expedition to Las Vegas:

Foley and Odom were playing the slots at the Orleans Hotel & Casino on West Tropicana. The Orleans is way off the Strip, far from the overpriced glitter that attracts rich tourists, celebrities and other high rollers. If you want to see showgirls, comedians or Cher, go to the Strip. If you want to do some serious gambling, go to the Orleans.

Slot machines aren’t serious gambling. Slot machines are electronic devices for reducing stupid people to poverty. That’s why I was so shocked a few years ago when it was revealed that Bill Bennett was a video-poker addict.

Dude. You’re the former Secretary of Education, a Ph.D. and a Harvard Law graduate, and you can’t figure out that video-poker is a chump’s game? As Steve Sailer pointed out at the time, playing the slots is also a loner’s game:

Playing modern electronic slot machines looks a lot like what I do for a living everyday: tapping away on a computer . . .
The news that Bennett, a man with a doctorate in philosophy, played the slots religiously aroused much derisive comment from my acquaintances, who saw slots as a low-class, strategy-free solitary vice.
A novelist wrote me, “What astonishes me is the stupidity of Bennett’s gambling. I used to be a drunk, but I didn’t get sozzled on cheap gin and moonshine. I drank good Scotch and Carlos Primera brandy. Similarly, I can imagine being addicted to gambling, but not to slot machines. . . .”
Slot machines and video poker, Bennett’s two favorites, are widely seen as old ladies’ games . .
A barber who has been playing poker three nights a week at the card rooms southeast of Los Angeles since he won $45,000 last winter, observed, “The slots are a no-brainer. You don’t have to know anything to play them, so you can’t mess up and be embarrassed.”

Playing the slots is an anti-social activity, a lonely habit like heroin or pornography — and, as Steve Sailer noted, journalism can be kind of a lonely habit, too. Covering the Tea Party Express gave me a once-in-a-lifetime chance to hit Vegas, so why would I want to spend my time sitting around “tapping away on a computer”?

No, I say. If you’re going to lose money, you might as well have some fun while you’re at it. So after I pried Odom and Foley away from the slots, and we were joined by New Media strategist Ali Akbar, I insisted on more sociable entertainment.

Odom just sent me that photo via Twitter. That’s Ali on the other side of the table. And notice those stacks of chips lined up in front of me? I sat down with only $20. As I said at the time:

[W]hen JSF of Valley of the Shadow blog heard I was coming to Vegas, he offered me this excellent advice: “Put it all on red.”
Dude. You’ve got no idea how well that advice paid off.

So clearly a hat-tip is owed, and I notice that JSF — California Republican activist Joe Fein — has some more excellent advice: A blogger-friendly fundraiser to boost the California GOP in 2010.

You should hit Joe’s tip-jar while you’re there. And if you’re ever in Vegas, take Joe’s advice: Put it all on red.

UPDATE: My libertarian friend Tom Knapp notes that he is author of the $3.99 booklet Roulette for the Leisure Gambler.

In his comment below, Tom explains what several of my friends have told me — roulette has the highest house “edge” of any table game — but on the other hand, the mathematical probabilities are easier to understand than poker or blackjack.

Any fool can walk past a row of roulette tables, looking at the electronic boards, and spot one that has, for example, hit black on seven of the last eight spins, with four consecutive even numbers.

The key here is not to say anything to your buddies. Your choice of tables should seem entirely random.

Plunk down $5 on red and $5 on odd, scatter five $1 bets inside (always cover 0/00) and spend the rest of the night being congratulated by your buddies on your amazing luck. 

When your buddies get bored or lose out, they’ll go to the ATM and hit the blackjack pit or craps tables, lose some more and come back, to find you still sitting there with a pile of chips in front of you, laughing and joking without a care in the world.

Vegas schadenfreude, baby! Cue the music: