Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Justice Served for Chief Chambers

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There are (basically) two kinds of civilian government employees: political appointees and career public servants.

Political appointees serve at the pleasure of the president, and can be fired for pretty much any reason at the President’s discretion. As such, when President George W. Bush (R) found himself embroiled in a controversy over the politically-motivated firing of a number of U.S. attorneys, I scratched my head and wondered why everybody was making such a big deal out of it. Was it imprudent and politically damaging? Yes. Was it illegal? Absolutely not. The president can fire appointees for any reason whatsoever, including petty political ones.

Career public servants, however, are different. The bureaucracy, as much maligned as it is, is supposed to be full of employees who dutifully execute public policy without regard to the politics behind them. They can’t be fired except if they fail to do their jobs. The president can’t demand that a career bureaucrat be fired, only the agency’s equivalent of an H.R. department can, and only with valid cause. Bureaucrats have whistle-blower protections as well, giving them the leeway to protect the public interest by reporting waste, fraud, abuse, and mis-management without having to fear being fired for it. They can’t divulge classified information (ahem, WikiLeaks leaker) or private personal information (e.g., military service or tax records) without clearance, but otherwise have a lot of freedom to discuss their work. After all, they work for us!

Back in November 2003, Teresa Chambers—then-Chief of the United States Park Police—expressed her concerns about staffing and funding of the department in an interview with the Washington Post. Within days, she had been suspended by the Bush-administration Interior Department. In June of 2004, she was fired.

As one would expect, Chambers appealed the decision to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), which is a panel that hears appeals from terminated federal employees. The Board finally rendered its decision today, determining that Chambers had been fired improperly and must be reinstated within twenty days. Good for her. Our federal bureaucrats must be permitted to express their concerns about the operations of our federal agencies without fear of repercussions. They answer to us, so it stands to reason that they should be allowed to let us know what’s going on.

One innocent victim: current Park Police Chief Salvatore Lauro, who will be displaced by Chambers assuming she chooses to return to her wrongfully-taken position. I am hopeful that the Department of the Interior can figure out some way to ensure that both Chambers and Lauro are properly compensated for the mess made by the previous administration.

Ruger Mk-III 22/45 .22LR

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Using some of the cash I got for Christmas (thanks, cash-senders!), I decided to go pick up a .22 LR pistol. The main purpose is to have something for inexpensive target practice at the range. .22 LR is too light a caliber for defensive purposes, but ammo is drastically less expensive than any other handgun round. When I say drastic I mean drastic. You can pick up 500 rounds of .22 LR for less than the price of 100 rounds of 9mm, so it makes it much more affordable to go to the range.

Melissa and I dropped by Virginia Arms in Manassas, our favorite go-to shop for handguns, and handled a few different .22 LR pistols. We settled on the Ruger Mk-III 22/45 as having a good balance of price (less than $300), reliability, reputation, and feel. Melissa and I both found the 22/45 grip, which has the same angle as the traditional M1911 .45ACP, more comfortable than the ‘standard’ Mk-III grip. We are hoping to get out to the range sometime in the next week or so to try it out!

Rep. Giffords (D-AZ) Shot at AZ Grocery Store

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Representative Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Giffords (D-AZ 8th) has been critically injured after being shot in the head at point-blank range at an official public event in Tuscon, AZ. Giffords underwent surgery and is expected to survive. Six others, including U.S. District Court Judge John Roll and at least one aide to the Congresswoman, were killed in the attack. Another twelve were injured.

The shooter, identified as Jared Lee Loughner, is in custody. His social media postings include a number of vague anti-government rants that deride, among other things, the government’s “mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar.” He identifies Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kamph and Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels’s Communist Manifesto as being among his favorite books, and there are indications that he suffers from mental illness. Police are now indicating that they are seeking a second suspect, but have been particularly vague about who it is or why they believe Loughner didn’t act alone.

Giffords was first elected in 2006 and has just begun her third term in the Congress after her narrow re-election in November over Republican ‘tea-party’ challenger Jesse Kelly. She is a member of the centrist ‘Blue Dog Coalition’ of Congressional Democrats, and is married to Mark E. Kelly, a NASA space shuttle astronaut.

Off on a Tangent offers our prayers for the victims who have died, as well as for those injured and the families, friends, and colleagues of all affected.

Say Hello to the 112th Congress

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Today began the 112th United States Congress, with a newly-Republican majority in the House of Representatives and a narrower Democratic majority in the Senate. It’s no secret that I was largely unimpressed with the outgoing 111th Congress. I can recall no other Congress in my adult life that so blithely ignored the will of the people to pursue its own partisan ends and, as I expected, the people lent them a stinging rebuke last November.

I am cautiously optimistic that the new Congress, with each major party controlling just one house, will spend more time compromising with one another and listening to the voters, and less time trying to force through an unpopular, hyper-partisan agenda. Quite frankly, even a gridlock-mired and ineffective Congress (which is basically what the founders intended) would be a huge improvement over what we’ve experienced the last two years.

What are the main things I want to see from the 112th? I want transparency. I want major bills to be put-together in the public sphere, on C-SPAN, with time for public scrutiny before votes like President Barack Obama (D) promised in 2008. I want Congress to exercise its oversight authority over Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve, rather than silently permitting its destructive money printing. I want a balanced budget—not in a decade, but in the next budget. I want all of our Congressmen to uphold their oaths to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution, which means no more unconstitutional federal intrusions into the private sector through bailouts, health care ‘reform,’ etc.

Sorry, have I asked too much?

The Ugliest Cars of the 2011 Model Year

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Automotive manufacturers seem to be keeping themselves very busy, introducing another slew of all-new-for-2011 ugly cars. None of the cars on last year’s list have been discontinued, but a number of new additions forced the Nissan Versa Hatchback, Scion xD, Toyota Yaris, and Scion xB off the bottom. It’s not that any of these cars look any better this year, it’s just that they have a lot more competition.

The criteria for this list remains mostly un-changed from last year. I don’t include models that aren’t sold in the United States. I don’t include models that sell in low volume (and volume is defined subjectively based on how many I see on the roads in the Washington, D.C. metro area). I don’t include exotic, military, or special-purpose vehicles (so no super-cars, tanks, or postal trucks). It’s based entirely on my personal opinion of what looks good and what doesn’t.

You might notice that two cars on this list aren’t actually available to buy just yet, which is a bit abnormal. Because they are being made available by major brands as 2011 models in the coming months, I expect that they will sell in reasonable volume and qualify for this list. I would feel bad leaving them out until 2012 over a unique scheduling oddity. I don’t expect this to become a regular occurrence.

Enjoy!

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Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.