The haze was not so bad over Lake Erie yesterday, but the
east coast was under an air quality alert due to the wildfires in Quebec and
Ontario. John Carter raises questions about who or what caused these
wildfires.Eco-terrorists?Canada’s deep state?From his Substack
column:
There are currently over 100 fires
raging throughout Quebec and, now, Ontario. The number goes up every time I go
to check Google, last I saw was around 160. The closest is just over 100 km
from here.
Wildfires on this scale, at the
point in the year, are in my experience unprecedented. Ten of thousands of
people in outlying communities have already been evacuated. So far about 3.5
million hectares have burned.
click to embiggen or check it out at the link
As you can see, not only are we on
track for the worst wildfire season on record, the temporal pattern is
completely out of step with what we normally see. In every other year, wildfire
season is mid-August, mid-July at the earliest. The beginning of June is
unheard of.
. . .
That leaves, as far as I can make
out, three broad categories of perpetrators: a foreign state actor; the
Canadian government itself; or non-state actors.
So which is it? Mr Carter leans to the Canadian government
itself, and he explains why.But he
concludes with a reasonable disclaimer:
I want to finish by emphasizing
that neither I nor anyone else I know has any proof that these wildfires are
caused by arson, or if so that this arson is the result of self-inflicted
damage by the Canadian state. That is all pure speculation based on the highly
anomalous behaviour of the wildfires (a large number starting more or less simultaneously
two months earlier than normal), along with the known policy vectors of the
current ruling class, and the demonstrated tendency of that ruling class to
‘make their own reality’, so to speak. This is the same ruling class, remember,
that blew up the NordStream pipeline and then pretended Russia did it. They’re
not above committing acts of terrorism on a vast scale if they think it will
benefit them. With the reputation they’ve made for themselves, it’s easy for
many of us - certainly for me - to believe that they would do something like
set an entire country on fire purely to spook the populace, and that is perhaps
the grimmest comment possible on the times in which we live.
In the next five years, either
cities will seek new governance to reduce taxes, break up municipal unions,
mandate charter schools, restore police funding and manpower, recalibrate
pensions, and prosecute criminals and corrupt officials—or Los Angeles, San
Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, and a score of others will become
Detroit.
One of the strangest phenomena amid
our current debility are the millions of affluent leftists and liberals who
have fled their unworkable, now unlivable blue-run, but naturally beautiful
cities like San Francisco or Portland. They seem to lack an abstract
recognition why they are leaving, or why and how their new chosen destinations
are so different and therefore so inviting to them. Is their motto, “I am
fleeing what I created, but I still hate those who created what I want”?
To have a “border problem,” one
must have a border. The United States has no southern border. . . .
VDH concludes his essay on a sad note:
Election night is a mere construct.
It is mostly meaningless. Local, state, and federal election results are
stalled and descend into days, weeks, and sometimes even months of bickering,
counter charges of ballot tampering and fraud, ballot harvesting and curing,
and a loss of confidence in the integrity of the final result. Debates mean
little anymore, once a large portion of the electorate has already voted. No
wonder deceased candidates can win. Gaffes are now determined by whether they
occur before or after the majority of voters has cast their ballots.
There should be a national uniform
standard that allows states to set their ballot procedures—as long as they
result in 70 percent of the electorate voting in person on election day.
America is in a similar position to
where it was in 1861, 1929, 1941, and 1968—only perhaps worse, given in all
those cases, there was at least a president and Congress that identified and
reacted to the crisis, whereas today our
elected government is what caused the crisis.
In his article "The Sovietization of Medical Care," Jeffrey A. Tucker, President of the Brownstone Institute,
compares the failures in the old Soviet Union’s “health care” system to America’s politicization of our healthcare system, using the
introduction of the COVID virus as the cudgel:
. . . In the US, in nearly every
state, regardless of whether the virus was spreading rapidly with significant
medical consequences, hospitals were forcibly reserved only for emergencies and
Covid patients. Elective surgeries were out of the question, as were cancer
screenings or other routine checkups. This left most hospitals in the country
with very few patients and a gutting of their profitability models, leading to
furloughs of thousands of nurses during a pandemic.
It also created a situation in
which hospitals were desperate for a revenue source. By government legislation,
a subsidy was provided to them for Covid patients and Covid deaths, thus
incentivizing medical institutions to classify everyone with a positive PCR
test as a Covid case, regardless of what else was wrong with the patient.
This began almost immediately. Here
is Deborah Birx speaking to the issue on April 7, 2020.
[Video clip & tweet:]Here is
Dr. Birx saying that the government is recording anyone who dies with
coronavirus in the United States, regardless of any other health issue, as a
death from coronavirus.
This practice continued for two
years, leading to a massive confusion about how many people actually died of
Covid and skewing all existing data on the case fatality rate. . . .
Further, doctors all over the
country are facing massive pressure to list as many deaths as possible as Covid
deaths.
These programs create a vicious circle. They establish incentives to
overstate the danger of Covid. The overstatement provides a justification to
continue the state of emergency, which keeps the perverse incentives going.
With effective vaccines and treatments widely available, and an infection
fatality rate on par with flu, it’s past time to recognize that Covid is no
longer an emergency requiring special policies.
. . . The further we move away from
health care as essentially a doctor/patient relationship, with freedom of
choice on all sides, and the more we allow central plans to replace on-the-ground
clinical wisdom, the less it looks like quality health care and the less it
contributes to public health.
The website for Dr Simone Gold’s America’s Frontline Doctors no longer comes up in my online searches.Instead, I find reports advising readers that
these doctors were pushing “misinformation” and prescriptions of ineffective and
harmful medications, such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine (which, in
reality, have been very effective in mitigating COVID symptoms).
Dr Gold was imprisoned for showing up at the January 6 “insurrection”
in DC.ABC described her as a “leading
anti-vax figure.”No, she was/is against
the mandates and the particular mRNA injection.If you want to see how blatant censorship and political propaganda corrupts
the public discourse, have a look at the Wikipedia page for Dr Gold here. My take-away:I would not trust Wikipedia on any topic that has generated
controversy.
Michael Young is a visiting fellow at the Center for
Renewing America. His article in Tablet Mag explores the hazards and risks to
our freedoms in the age of Big Tech and consolidated banking systems.It’s not pretty, and he concludes:
What happens when a government is
no longer required to do the very difficult, friction-filled work of finding
people, writing tickets, arresting them, charging them, granting them due
process, obtaining convictions, and jailing the guilty? When the government can
bring a person’s practical participation in society to a standstill with the
push of a button, it becomes silly to even talk about individual rights or due
process. In the face of this new kind of push-button power, exercised at the
whim of the governing party with zero legal oversight, individuals can simply
be deleted from the system—even if, technically speaking, they are never
charged with or convicted of a crime.
. . .
A deeper concern is what happens
when private institutions like corporations, universities, and media exercise
the same power without even the pretense of accountability. If the large
financial institutions want to, they can act as gatekeepers to society and
would be held accountable only by the market, to which they also hold the keys.
Given that institutions are heavily dependent on each other, if the
institutions that hold important positions in the global financial web decide
to freeze someone out, they can do so with the push of a button. Worse yet, we
can imagine a scenario in which a system of freeze-outs could be automated
based on people’s credit scores, purchasing histories, political donation
patterns, key words in social media postings, carbon footprints, or political
activism. It’s not hard to imagine a situation in which a citizen of a democracy
wakes up one day to find themselves unable to participate in the digital
economy, where almost all financial transactions take place, due to an
automated system which flags them as being undesirable in some way.
Corporations and government have
always exercised tremendous power, of course. Government has a monopoly on the
use of force, using the policing powers to enforce laws. Corporations have
always exercised enormous power via market share, advertising, lobbying, and
other financial instruments. But never before have they been able to lock
ordinary citizens out of social participation with the flip of a switch.
This push-button tyranny is real,
and it represents a greater abuse of power than any that has been exercised
before within the boundaries of liberal democratic government. It is new, it is
breathtaking, and it is very dangerous.
There's a popular meme you've
probably seen that was floating around even before the endemic
pandemic. The images vary, but the text delineates four stages
running thusly:
Hard times make strong men
Strong men make good times
Good times make weak men
Weak men make hard times
This takes us back to step one,
after which the cycle repeats itself.
. . .
Key to understanding this so-called
"doctrine of the yugas" is that in each of the four stages, one group
or form of social organization is the dominant one and the holder of all the
culture's moral legitimacy. Currently, things are so upside-down
that in the view of most of the establishment — government, media, education,
the entertainment industry, and the business world — an illegal alien who
crossed the border this morning, with neither money nor education and thus
entirely dependent upon American largesse, has higher "moral value"
than a legacy American whose family has been living and paying taxes here for
150 years. And suppose this simple citizen of the merchant caste
criticizes his rulers' importation of the fourth caste from others' lands and
demands that they be deported. In that case, he is branded with the
scarlet letter R because — just to chill you to the core and leave no doubt
that you're in a cosmic soap opera — per ancient teachings, caste and race
overlap.
The ancient doctrine of the four
ages is key to understanding where we are now, how we got here, and the correct
course of action. It should be clear that winter has fallen upon us,
that we are no longer the land of the free and home of the brave but are on an
inescapable path to becoming its very opposite. In winter, the trees
are barren, the antithesis of what they were in that verdant
springtime. You cannot plant seeds because the soil won't sustain
them. You can only bunker down, ride it out, and fight off the wolf
at the door. And you can reflect upon what you learned over the
year, where things went wrong, and how to do things differently when spring
finally comes.
Konstantin Kisin has a lengthy piece on Tablet Magazine tracing years of government and media deception, malfeasance, and complicity. Here’s Mr. Kisin’s big finish:
. . . It is at this point that vaccines
become the main focus of government policy and media commentary.
The same people who told you Brexit
would never happen, that Trump would never win, that when he did win it was
because of Russian collusion but also because of racism, that you must follow
lockdowns while they don’t, that masks don’t work, that masks do work, that
social justice protests during pandemic lockdowns are a form of “health
intervention,” that ransacking African American communities in the name of
fighting racism is a “mostly peaceful” form of protest, that poor and
underserved children locked out of shuttered schools are “still learning,” that
Jussie Smollett was a victim of a hate crime, that men are toxic, that there is
an infinite number of genders, that COVID couldn’t have come from a lab until
maybe it did, that closing borders is racist until maybe it isn’t, that you
shouldn’t take Trump’s vaccine, that you must take the vaccine developed during
the Trump administration, that Andrew Cuomo is a great leader, that Andrew
Cuomo is a granny killer, that the number of COVID deaths is one thing and then
another … are the same people telling you now that the vaccine is safe, that
you must take it, and that if you don’t, you will be a second-class citizen.
The most recent edition of Hillsdale College’s Imprimis features an essay (adapted from
a speech) by the inimitable Mark Steyn.It begins:
I live about 20 minutes south of
the Canadian border, which used to be called the longest undefended frontier in
the world. People moved freely back and forth across it all day every day. But
now it’s been closed for over a year. At one point my daughter asked me to
drive her up there, because there was a 30-minute opportunity for people on one
side to talk to their friends on the other. “Sad!” as President Trump would
say. It was like Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin during the Cold War, except that
both sides are now like East Berlin.
I don’t know how this happened, but
it is just one indication that America, and the West in general, have become
almost unrecognizable from what they were not that long ago.
Look at just three things we have
lost.
One is equality before the law,
something absolutely essential to a free society. In its place, we now have
politicized law. If a policeman fatally shoots someone, whether his name is
released to the public depends on whether the shooting is consistent with the
preferred narrative of the ruling class. A policeman recently took down a young
woman who was threatening the life of another young woman with a knife, and
that policeman was immediately identified—indeed, his photo was posted and he
was threatened by NBA superstar LeBron James on Twitter. On the other hand, we
know nothing of the policeman who shot dead an unarmed woman in the U.S.
Capitol on January 6. His name will apparently never be released to the public.
Second, border control. Functioning
societies, at least since the Peace of Westphalia three centuries ago, have
borders. America has no southern border and no plans to get one. The official
position of our government seems to be that any of the seven billion persons on
this planet has a right to come and stay in the U.S. for three years, until his
or her assigned court date comes up. As the number of people with pending cases
continues to grow, that three years will extend out to five or seven or 15
years. If we get all seven billion people to come here, the court system will
break down entirely and maybe we can go back to having a functioning border.
And third, dare I bring up the fact
that it is a real question whether we can go back to agreeing to have open and
honest elections? And if we don’t have open and honest elections, control of
our borders, and equality before the law, then we don’t have the conditions for
politics or free government.
And here’s the thing. It is not at
all clear to me that many of America’s conservative politicians understand the
seriousness of all this. You can see it in the fact that they go around trying
to scare people with the specter of a “radical socialist agenda.” For well over
a year now, we have been living in a world in which it’s accepted as normal
that the state has essentially unlimited power—and in which our freedom to
decide for ourselves has been diminished almost to invisibility. Why do these
conservative politicians think the words “radical socialist agenda” still scare
anyone in a time when the state can tell us whether we can have Aunt Mabel over
for Christmas? They are completely out of touch.
Over the same period as the
pandemic lockdowns, we have seen an escalation of so-called wokeness. And if
you look at one of the most startling manifestations of this, transgender
fanaticism—which involves, after all, the abolition of biological sex and, I’m
sorry to have to say it, the physical mutilation of children—one notices that
America is farther down this road than any other country in the Western world.
In other words, at this moment of crisis for Western Civilization, or for what
we used to call Christendom, the leading country of the free world is pulling
the wrong way.
Think of it. Your daughter has been
training since she was a little girl to run in school sports. Now at 17, she’s
in the state high school track championships, and you are forbidden even to
notice that she’s competing against a woman who is 6’2” with thighs like
tugboats, a great touch of five o’clock shadow on her face, and the most
muscular bosom you’ve ever seen. You’re not supposed to notice the craziness of
this, and the craziness is at its craziest right here in America.
We traditionally think of France as
being a bit screwy, but today there are French intellectuals who regard
themselves as hardcore leftists and yet who think America has gone bonkers on
this transgender issue. President Macron himself has said that American
wokeness is an existential threat to the French Republic, and he even found
bureaucrats in France’s education bureaucracy who agreed. There is not a single
bureaucrat in the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., who would agree,
but there are apparently a few in Paris.
If you look further east in Europe
to the lands that were once behind the Iron Curtain—to Hungary, Poland, and the
Czech Republic, which still function as conventional nation-states calculating
their best interests—you find tremendous fear of the threat of wokeness that is
being exported, sometimes aggressively, from America. So it is here in the U.S.
where we have to put the stake through these ideas.
But again, even most of our
conservative leaders and institutions seem oblivious. School districts in
America are talking about revising their curricula to cover transgender issues
from grade school on. Now, I went to an English boys’ school, and we were
expected to pick up sexuality on our own time. In those days people would have
looked puzzled if you had said, “We’re going to have to cancel geography or
Latin, because we need to put gay studies in there.” These days, instead of
going off behind the bike shed during recess to learn about sex, kids need to
sneak behind the bike shed to do a little bit of closeted geography or closeted
Latin. It’s completely backwards. And yet what do we hear from most
conservative politicians? That it would be nice to offer people a tax cut!
We are way beyond tax cuts. We’re
broke. We’re just a smidgen away from $30 trillion in federal debt—something
with no historical precedent. Talking about tax cuts today is like talking
about VAT tax refunds on the Titanic. It’s not actually what’s necessary at the
moment.
Another big issue that should take
our minds off tax cuts is China. I can’t get over the way we in the U.S. have
been ordered by our governors and the CDC to punish ourselves by living small,
shrunken lives, while the people in China who loosed this pandemic on the world
have paid no price for it.
Dr. Fauci has been a federal
government bureaucrat since 1968. He’s the J. Edgar Hoover of public health. He
talks about the COVID virus as if we’re at war. But he seems to think a country
wins a war by taking it out on its own population rather than the enemy, which
is what we’ve done.
At American Thinker, Jay Valentine does a deeper dive into the
2020 election fraud. It’s frightening – and he makes the case.
The Sovereign Crime
of Industrial Scale Vote Fraud
. . . Your government, at the state and
federal level, the FBI, government agencies can be in on the scam. That
is the realization slowly being accepted by millions of Americans.
We have technologies that can
identify dead voters the moment they cast a ballot. We can identify
people who are out-of-state, voted twice, are underage, live in a vacant lot or
a UPS or FedEx postal box. We can even show a photo of that vacant lot so
you can see where your fake neighbor claims to live.
Literally, the second their ballot
is counted, they can be flagged as a likely fraud.
Yes, we can deploy that technology
today. We have done it in the insurance industry for decades.
We can predict where election fraud
is going to happen. We can predict how it is going to be done. We
can deploy technologies to identify likely fraud within seconds of when it
happens.
The question is, if the government
is pretty much in on the election fraud, does it really matter?
Some
polls show Trump the winner, others Hillary. Similarly, the pundits are mostly
declaring their preferred candidate the winner. David P. Goldman (a/k/a/ “Spengler”)
published his take on PJ Media and here are a few short extracts:
The referee should have stopped
it in the tenth. Punching at will, Donald Trump said, "Hillary used the
power of her office to make $250 million. Why not put some money in? You
made a lot of it while you were secretary of State? Why aren't you putting money
into your own campaign? Just curious." Reeling and against the ropes, Clinton gasped
that she supported . . . the Second Amendment. It was a brilliant rhetorical
device: under the rubric of campaign financing, Trump slipped in an allegation
that Clinton corruptly enriched herself by using the power of her office for
personal gain--and Clinton didn't even respond. That's a win by a knockout.
That's the decisive issue of
the campaign: the corrupt machinations of a ruling elite that considers itself
above the law, and the rage of the American people against the oligarchical
ruling class that has pulled the ladder up behind it. Trump's bombshell below
Clinton's waterline came at the end of the debate, well prepared by jabs at
Clinton's erased emails and Bill's rapes. Trump used the "J"
word--that is, jail. That was perhaps the evening's most important moment. This
is not an election fought over competing policies but a struggle for
legitimacy. A very large portion of the electorate (how large a portion we will
discover next month) believes that its government is no longer legitimate, and
that it has become the instrument of an entrenched rent-seeking oligarchy.
. . .
The Republican voters chose a
reckless, independently wealthy, vulgar, rough-edged outsider precisely because
they believe that the system is corrupt.
Read
the rest here. If you missed the debate (or could not bear to watch), you can see the whole thing here.
Vice President Joe Biden says "Washington right now is broken" and the country is in "deep trouble" unless it attacks ballooning federal deficits.
Asked about the political climate across the country, Biden said in a nationally broadcast interview that "we understand why they're angry. ... We get it."
Speaking of intense partisanship in the capital, Biden said on CBS's "The Early Show" that "I've never seen it this dysfunctional." (My Way News)
During his tenure as Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover routinely spied on U.S. citizens who were speaking out against the government -- Dr. Martin Luther King being one of them. It looks like Facebook co-founder, Chris Hughes, has been and still is, like a current day Hoover without a badge for President Obama and his Czarministration. Participating in the White House Forum on Modernizing Government, which supposedly seeks to improve government efficiency, Hughes has admitted using Face Book for the same purpose -- spying on U.S. citizens....
"There should be a real focus on metrics and analytics," he said. "I don't think there's anything that's been more core to the success of Facebook and the Obama campaign than knowing up front and as quickly as possible what individuals are doing."
At any given moment during the campaign, he said, "we knew how many people were active in any given state or congressional district ... we could see what people were excited about, what stirred them."
He's stayed in touch with White House officials that he worked closely with on the campaign.... (The Hill.com)
And many Democrats, and some Republicans, thought unwarranted wire taps on suspected terrorists & the Patriot Act violated their privacy and took away their rights! I guess knowing who plays "Whoville" & "Farmville" is now considered a national security threat. Who'd a thunk it! As we know, some people have been SCREAMING that a more free market & private-sector approach and way of thinking would only improve government operations and efficiency -- but that is material for another post. Improving technology and learning techniques for improving efficiency from successful private sector companies is not a bad thing for the snail-like effect imposed on operations and/or programs by inefficient government bureaucracy. But it appears theWhite House Forum on Modernizing Governmentis nothing more than a thinly veiled cloak for a much larger increase of "Big Brother" government using the private sector and modern technology to gain knowledge on your personal information, purchasing habits, hobbies, trends & your thoughts. Or as in Hughes & Facebook's case -- a proxy spy agency for Obama's presidential campaign and now his Czarministration. Watergate was only a hotel break-in, what Hughes & Facebook has done for is like having someone breaking in tour house and rummaging through your underwear drawer! Speaking of underwear.... what should make Facebook Gate even more alarming is that DHS Director Janet Napalitano & the current Czarministration feel Tea Party Patriots, 9.12er's, our returning soldiers & Marines, and other U. S. citizens exercising our God given & Constitutionally protected rights are extremists and warrant being investigated -- but Fruit-of-Kaboom jihadikaze's trying to blow up airplanes are just spiffy! Besides Hughes admitting Facebook is the government's black book on citizens, most of the current Internet search engines track and retain your IP addresses along with a history of your search requests and the links you visit. There is a current Internet search engine, StartPage.com that does not track your searches and acts as a proxy server. The Tea Party Patriots have a fairly new Social Networking page (Click Here) where you can be assured thatyour information will never be shared with anyone. This is also a great place to meet Tea Party Patriot members from other states and see what other TPP groups are doing.
Note: Being a Capitalist I purpose that we do one of two things with this list.
1: Create Czar trading cards.
2: Create a Card based fighting game for kids like Magic, pokemon, or yugioh.
Serious Note: Watch them like a hawk. These are the people that are operating outside the limits of Over site and Regulation. Know one really knows their true power, but I bet you it is substantial. Watching these people are like watching a Browns game. It is painful yes, but a necessary Evil.
• The Brainroom counts 32 czars in the Obama administration, based on media reports from reputable sources that have identified the official in question as a czar. • In addition, President Obama has said that he will create the position of cyber czar, and there have been media reports that there could be a health insurance czar and a copyright czar. When and if those positions are filled, that would bring the total to 35. • Since czar isn't an official job title, the number is somewhat in the eye of the beholder.
NOTE: positions that also existed under previous administrations are indicated with an *.
1. Afghanistan Czar - Richard Holbrooke
Title: Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Salary: unknown Reports to: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Appointed: January 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: State
• Will work with CENTCOM head Gen. David Petraeus to integrate U.S. civilian and military efforts in the region. • 45 years of experience have made him a fixture of the Democrats' foreign policy establishment. • Was U.S. ambassador to U.N., 1999-2001 • Brokered the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords in Bosnia • Also served as Assistant secretary of state, East Asia and the Pacific (1976 to 1980); worked in foreign service (1962 to 1976) • From 1972 through 1976, was the editor of Foreign Policy magazine.
2. AIDS Czar * - Jeffrey Crowley
Title: Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy Salary: $102,000 Reports to: President Obama (as part of the Executive Office of the President’s Domestic Policy Council) Appointed: February 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: Health and Human Services
• Coordinates HIV/AIDS policy domestically and internationally. • Senior Research Scholar at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute and a Senior Scholar at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University Law Center. • Was Deputy Executive Director for Programs at the National Association of People with AIDS • Has Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
3. Auto Recovery Czar - Ed Montgomery
Title: Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers Salary: unknown Reports to: Larry Summers, the president's top economic adviser, and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis Appointed: March 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: Labor
• Will work to leverage government resources to support the workers, communities and regions that rely on the American auto industry. • Was Deputy Secretary and Chief Economist at the Labor Department (1997 to 1998) • Is Dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland (2003 to present) • Has PhD in economics from Harvard • In 2008, made $1,200 in political donations, all of which went to Obama’s presidential campaign. • Wife is the granddaughter of a General Motors worker from Portland, Mich. • Drives a 2000 Lincoln
4. Border Czar * - Alan Bersin
Title: Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs Salary: unknown Reports to: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano Appointed: April 2009 Agencies that might have handled similar issues: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
• Will coordinate all of the department's border security and law-enforcement efforts. • Essentially had the same job under President Clinton; served as Attorney General Janet Reno's special representative on border issues, a job that he held while retaining the position of U.S. attorney for San Diego. • This time, boss will be Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who will expect him to handle illegal immigration and drug violence issues along the Mexican-American border • Previous experience: Chairman of the San Diego Regional Airport Authority (2006 to 2009); Secretary of Education for California (2005 to 2006); Superintendent of San Diego Public Schools (1998 to 2005); U.S. Attorney for San Diego (1993 to 1998) • Graduate of Harvard and Yale Law School • Talking about border security shortly before he was named Clinton border czar in 1995, said he wanted to focus on suspected smugglers of both drugs and people and was not interested in prosecuting “economic migrants.” • Often tied to the 1994 border policy called “Operation Gatekeeper.” The policy shifted the U.S. focus from the arresting of immigrants who actually crossed the border to an increased border presence designed to stop border crossing in the first place. When Bersin left the position in 1998, border arrests were on pace for an 18-year low of just more than 200,000. Latino groups complained that Operation Gatekeeper was immoral, saying the program monitored the border near San Diego but simply forced illegal immigrants to other, more dangerous areas. • Has given more than $50,000 to political campaigns since 1999, almost all of it to Democrats.
5. California Water Czar - David J. Hayes
Title: Deputy Interior Secretary Salary: unknown Reports to: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Appointed: June 2009 Confirmed by Senate (as Deputy Interior Security): May 20, 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: Interior
• Charged with coordinating federal agencies to ease California's water shortage • Graduate of Stanford Law School; clerked for U.S. District Court for the D.C., has been a partner at two big D.C. law firms • Was deputy interior secretary under Bruce Babbitt during Clinton administration • From 1993 to 1995, was chairman of the board at the Environmental Law Institute, a non-profit research center. • As a lobbyist, represented the Southern California Metropolitan Water District in 2001 • In August 2008, wrote a policy report while working at the Progressive Policy Institute accusing the Bush administration of leaving a “damaging legacy” in their natural resource management policies • Donated $2,300 to Clinton during 2008 campaign; after she withdrew, donated $2,300 to Obama
6. Car Czar - Ron Bloom
NOTE: on July 13, 2009, Bloom took over as head of the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, replacing Steven Rattner
Title: Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury Salary: unknown Reports to: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council head Larry Summers Appointed: July 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: Treasury
• A leader of the White House task force overseeing auto company bailouts; worked on restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler LLC. • Was special assistant to president of the United Steelworkers union from 1996-Feb 2009 • Has negotiated restructuring deals for more than 50 companies, getting major concessions from unions and companies. • Was raised in New York in a pro-union family, which included a schoolteacher mother and unionized relatives. • After working for the Service Employees International Union, got an MBA from Harvard University because he thought unions lacked business smarts, he said in a 1996 interview in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. • From 1985 to 1990, he worked as an investment banker with Lazard Freres & Co., which specializes in mergers, acquisitions and corporate restructuring, before co-founding the investment-banking firm Keilin and Bloom.
7. Central Region Czar - Dennis Ross
Title: Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the Central Region (encompasses the Middle East, the Gulf, Afghanistan, Pakistan and South Asia) Salary: unknown Reports to: National Security Adviser Gen. James L. Jones Appointed: June 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: State
• Spent 12 years in the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations trying to create a permanent agreement between the governments of Israel and the Palestinian territories • In 1981, was named to President Ronald Reagan’s national security staff as the director of Near East and South Asian Affairs. • Was director of the State Department’s Policy Planning office during President George H. W. Bush’s term. • 1993: appointed to the position of Middle East coordinator, making him the top negotiator for peace between Israel and Palestinian territories • After he left government in 2000, headed up Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a hawkish think tank with a pro-Israeli bent
8. Climate Czar - Todd Stern
Title: Special Envoy for Climate Change Salary: unknown Reports to: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Appointed: January 2009 Agency or department that might have handled similar issues: Environmental Protection Agency; State
• Responsible for developing international approaches to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. • Served in the Clinton White House from 1993 to 1999; Was Head of the Initiative on Global Climate Change (1997 to 1999) and Adviser to the Secretary of the Treasury (1999 to 2001) • As a top aide to President Clinton, helped negotiate the Kyoto and Buenos Aires climate pacts, both of which fell apart partially because of a lack of U.S. support during Bush administration. • After Bush was elected to office, went to the Wilmer Hale law firm, where he is a partner in the regulatory and government affairs division. • Was most recently a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he focused on climate change and environmental issues. • Has written extensively on climate change, and has called on the American government and the international community to take a series of steps to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. • Supports a national cap-and-trade system that would limit carbon emissions and reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil • Has law degree from Harvard
9. Domestic Violence Czar - Lynn Rosenthal
Title: White House adviser on Violence Against Women Salary: unknown Reports to: President Obama and Vice President Biden Appointed: June 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: Health and Human Services
• Will advise the President and Vice President on domestic violence and sexual assault issues. • 2000-2006: served as the Executive Director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence • Was an advocate for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2000 and 2005 and has assisted states and local communities with implementation of this federal legislation • Was director of the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence
10. Drug Czar * - Gil Kerlikowske
Title: Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy Salary: unknown Reports to: President Obama Appointed: March 2009 Confirmed by Senate: May 7, 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: Justice
• Directs drug-control policy in the U.S.; is expected to shift drug policy to intervention, treatment and a reduction of problem drug use. • Was police chief for the city of Seattle from 2000-2009 • Was Deputy Director of the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (1998 to 2000); Police Chief for the city of Buffalo (1994 to 1998); Police chief of Fort Pierce, Fla. (N/A to 1994) • A strong gun-control advocate, urged both the Washington legislature and the U.S. Congress to pass an assault-weapons ban and has worked to close the loophole that doesn't require background checks at gun shows • 2003: admitted that busting people for personal marijuana possession was not a top priority of the Seattle police department. • As Seattle police chief, assigned an officer full-time to the drug court, which commuted sentences of drug users who complete medical treatment in lieu of going to jail.
11. Economic Czar * - Paul Volcker
Title: Chairman of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board Salary: Volcker reportedly isn't paid for his advice. Reports to: President Obama Appointed: January 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: Treasury
• Charged with offering independent, nonpartisan information, analysis, and advice to the President as he formulates and implements his plans for economic recovery. • Some reports say he's been marginalized by Larry Summers. • Former Federal Reserve chairman (1979-1987) • Was Undersecretary for Monetary Affairs, Department of the Treasury (1969 to 1974); Deputy Undersecretary for Monetary Affairs, Department of the Treasury (1963 to 1965) • Gave Obama campaign $2,300 in 2008.
12. Energy and Environment Czar - Carol Browner
Title: Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Salary: $172,200 Reports to: President Obama Appointed: January 2009 Agency that might have handled similar issues: EPA
• Coordinates energy and climate policy, emphasizing regulation and conservation. • Was Environmental Protection Agency administrator in the Clinton administration (1993-2000) • Was Florida Secretary of the Environment (1991 to 1993) • Founded and continues to serve as a principal of The Albright Group LLC, a global strategy firm led by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Also a principal of Albright Capital Management, an investment advisory firm that concentrates on emerging markets. • Worked on the Socialist International's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which argues that the global community must work collectively to address environmental policies • Described Bush administration as the "worst environmental administration ever" • While orchestrating private discussions between the White House and auto industry officials on vehicle fuel efficiency standards, kept the talks as quiet as possible. Mary Nichols, the head of the California Air Resources Board, said, "We put nothing in writing, ever." • 2003: A federal judge held the Environmental Protection Agency in contempt for destroying computer files during the Clinton administration that had been sought by a conservative legal foundation. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth also ordered the EPA to pay the Landmark Legal Foundation's legal fees and costs because the agency disobeyed his order to preserve the electronic records of Browner, the former EPA chief.
13. Faith-Based Czar * - Joshua DuBois
Title: Director of the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Salary: $98,000 Reports to: President Obama Appointed: February 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: Health and Human Services
• Acts as a liaison between faith and secular community groups and the White House, often partnering with them to tackle social issues. Helps these groups apply for federal grants available to them. • Is 26 years old • Has master’s in public affairs from Princeton University; served as associate pastor • Worked for Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) as an intern and then as a fellow for Rep. Charles B. Rangel (DN. Y.). • Hired as a legislative correspondent in Obama’s Senate office in May 2005 • In 2008, at the age of 25, was appointed director of religious affairs for the Obama campaign.
14. Government Performance Czar - Jeffrey Zients
Title: Chief Performance Officer Salary: unknown Reports to: Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orzag Appointed: April 2009 Confirmed by the Senate (as deputy director for management for the OMB): June 19, 2009 Agency that might have handled similar issues: OMB
• Charged with cutting costs and finding best practices throughout government. • Has never worked in government before • Was a chief executive and former management consultant • Was founder of Portfolio Logic (2004 to present); Partner of the Washington Baseball Club (2004 to 2006); CEO of the Advisory Board (1998 to 2004) • Has donated just over $90,000 to political campaigns since 1999, almost all of which went to Democratic candidates
15. Great Lakes Czar - Cameron Davis
Title: Special advisor to the U.S. EPA overseeing its Great Lakes restoration plan Salary: unknown Reports to: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson Appointed: June 2009 Agency that might have handled similar issues: Environmental Protection Agency
• Oversees the administration's initiative to restore the Great Lakes' environment. • President of the Chicago-based environmentalist group Alliance for the Great Lakes • Was a litigating attorney and served as an adjunct clinical assistant professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School. • Served with the United Nations Environment Program in Nairobi, Kenya, where he worked on the Montreal Protocol to protect the Earth’s ozone layer, and U.S. EPA’s Office of Regional Counsel in Chicago.
16. Green Jobs Czar - Van Jones
Title: Special Adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality Salary: unknown Reports to: Head of Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley Appointed: March 2009 Agency or department that might have handled similar issues: Environmental Protection Agency; Labor
• Will focus on environmentally-friendly employment within the administration and boost support for the idea nationwide • Rose from near obscurity in the Oakland, Calif., grassroots organizing scene to the leader of a national movement to spur the green economy. • Founded Green For All, an organization focused on creating green jobs in impoverished areas • Also co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Color of Change, which includes Bay Area PoliceWatch, a group devoted to "protect[ing] the community from police misconduct" • Published New York Times best-seller The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, in October 2008 • Started career as a prison-reform advocate in Oakland, Calif., lobbying for reform of the juvenile justice system and youth-violence prevention programs • Has law degree from Yale • 2007: worked on the Green Jobs Act with then-Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), who co-sponsored the bill in the House • 1993: was arrested at the Los Angeles riots that followed the acquittal of cops in the Rodney King beating. "I was arrested simply for being a police observer," says Jones, who had just graduated from Yale Law School and was working with the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco. • 1999: was arrested in the 1999 Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization • Excerpt from a Nov. 2005 interview in the East Bay Express: Jones had planned to move to Washington, DC, and had already landed a job and an apartment there. But in jail, he said, "I met all these young radical people of color -- I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was, like, 'This is what I need to be a part of.'" Although he already had a plane ticket, he decided to stay in San Francisco. "I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary." In the months that followed, he let go of any lingering thoughts that he might fit in with the status quo. "I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th," he said. "By August, I was a communist." In 1994, the young activists formed a socialist collective, Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, or STORM, which held study groups on the theories of Marx and Lenin and dreamed of a multiracial socialist utopia. They protested police brutality and got arrested for crashing through police barricades. In 1996, Jones decided to launch his own operation, which he named the Ella Baker Center after an unsung hero of the civil-rights movement.
17. Guantanamo Closure Czar - Daniel Fried
Title: Special envoy to oversee the closure of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay Salary: unknown Reports to: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Appointed: March 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: Justice; State
• Works to get help of foreign governments in moving toward closure of Guantanamo Bay, in fulfillment of Obama's promise to close the prison within a year of taking office. • Was Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, State Department (2005 to 2009); Director for European and Eurasian Affairs, State Department (2001 to 2005); U.S. Ambassador to Poland (1997 to 2001)
18. Health Czar * - Nancy-Ann DeParle
Title: Counselor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Health Reform Salary: $158,500 Reports to: President Obama Appointed: March 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: Health and Human Services (HHS)
• Coordinates the development of the Administration's healthcare policy agenda. • Experience: Managing Director, CCMP Capital (since 2001); Adjunct professor (focusing on healthcare policy), Wharton School of Business (since 2001); Commissioner, Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (since 2001); Fellow, Harvard Institue of Politics (2000 to 2001); Director, Healthcare Financing Administration (1997 to 2000) • Has law degree from Harvard • Served as the OMB’s representative on health-care reform during Bill Clinton’s first term • As head of the HHS Health Care Financing Administration under Clinton, ran the largest health insurance provider in America, overseeing $600 billion in payments annually to 74 million recipients of Medicare and Medicaid • 2001: left government to take a year-long fellowship at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, where she was part of Harvard’s Health Care Policy Forum and led a weekly study group on reforming Medicare. • During Bush administration, sat on the boards of many health companies, from medical treatment producers to hospital systems • In September 2008, donated $2,300 each to Clinton and Barack Obama.
19. Information Czar - Vivek Kundra
Title: Federal Chief Information Officer Salary: unknown Reports to: Director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag Appointed: March 2009 Agencies that might have handled similar issues: other federal agency CIOs
• Basically in charge of overseeing other federal agency CIOs and for setting technology policy across the government. • Head of a federal technology budget that amounts to $71 billion annually • Operation is housed in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and will likely have authority to question how money in departmental technology budgets is used • Formerly head of the District of Columbia's technology operations • Shortly after he joined the OMB, federal authorities raided his old District government office. They arrested two technology office managers and a subcontractor, charging them with a bribery scheme that allegedly defrauded the city out of at least $500,000. Kundra was not a suspect in the case, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. • Has a masters from Maryland in information technology. • Experience: Washington, D.C. Chief Technology Officer (2007 to 2009); State of Virginia's Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Trade (2006 to 2007); CEO of computer security firm Creostar
20. Intelligence Czar * - Dennis Blair
Title: Director of National Intelligence Salary: $197,700 Reports to: President Obama Appointed: January 2009 Confirmed by Senate: January 28, 2009 Agency that might have handled similar issues: CIA
• Nation’s top intelligence official. • Retired four-star admiral. • Graduate of the United States Naval Academy, 1968; sixth-generation naval officer • Lacks professional roots in the world of intelligence • Held a number of prestigious Washington posts, including the Pentagon’s top liaison to the CIA and director of the Joint Staff. • Ran the non-profit Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), which focuses primarily on issues related to national security, and does a lot of work for the Defense Department. Left IDA under a cloud of controversy in mid-2006.
21. Mideast Peace Czar - George Mitchell
Title: Special Envoy for Middle East Peace Salary: unknown Reports to: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Appointed: January 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: State
• Works to maintain the shaky peace between Israel and Hamas after recent hostilities • Senate majority leader from 1989 to 1994 • Was special envoy to Northern Ireland during the Clinton administration and lead investigator into steroid use in Major League Baseball. • 2000: led a fact-finding committee to study violence in the Middle East; 2001's Mitchell Report formed the basis for the road map for Middle East peace
22. Pay Czar - Kenneth R. Feinberg
Title: Special Master on executive pay Salary: reportedly receiving no compensation for his work. Reports to: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Appointed: June 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: Treasury
• Named to examine compensation practices at companies that have been bailed out more than once by the federal government • Oversaw the payouts to the families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks • Was the chief administrator to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, which commemorates the students who died in the April 2007 shooting rampage at Virginia Tech • Founder and managing partner of Feinberg Rozen LLP (1992 to present), law firm specializing in mediation • Was Chief of staff for Sen. Edward Kennedy (1978 to 1980) • While working with the Feinberg Group, donated over $150,000, nearly all of which has gone to Democratic candidates and political action committees. In 2007, donated $2,300 to 2008 presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani (R).
23. Regulatory Czar - Cass R. Sunstein *
Title: Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Salary: unknown Reports to: Office of Management and Budget head Peter Orszag Appointed: January 2009 Nomination was sent to Senate on April 20, 2009 - no action yet taken Agency that might have handled similar issues: OMB
• Will be responsible for reviewing draft regulations and assessing their costs and benefits • Is a Harvard Law School professor; prior to that, was a professor at the Univ. of Chicago Law School (1981-2008) • Academic specialties: constitutional law, administrative law, and regulatory policy • Obama: "Cass is not only a valued advisor, he is a dear friend" • Known for advancing a field called "law and behavioral economics" that seeks to shape law and policy around the way research shows people actually behave; though embraced by conservatives, critics say it fails to account for the sometimes less-than-rational aspects of human behavior. • In his 2002 book, Republic.com, discussed the drawbacks of limitless choices on the Internet that allow people to seek out only like-minded people and opinions that merely fortify their own views; he talked about the idea of the government requiring sites to link to opposing views. He later came to realize it was a "bad idea." • In his 2004 book, Animal Rights, suggested that animals ought to be able to bring suit, with private citizens acting as their representatives, to ensure that animals are not treated in a way that violates current law. • In a 2007 speech at Harvard he called for banning hunting in the U.S. • The American Conservative Union started a website, Stop Sunstein, in an effort to keep him out of the White House.
24. Science Czar - John Holdren
Title: Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology Salary: unknown Reports to: President Obama Appointed: December 2008 Confirmed by Senate: March 19, 2009 Agency or department that might have handled similar issues: Energy
• Top adviser to Obama on science and technology, issues that are increasingly relevant to other issues such as homeland security, energy and environmentalism • Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy and Director, Program in Science, Technology, and Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (1996-2009); Harvard University Professor of Environmental Science and Public Policy (1996-2009); University of California, Berkeley Professor of Energy and Resources Emeritus (1996 to present) • Studied aerospace engineering and plasma physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — where he earned his BS and MS — and Stanford University, where he received his doctorate in 1970 • Is an outspoken advocate of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and believes the United States should sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty. • In a 2008 New York Times op-ed, Holdren called climate change skeptics “dangerous” members of a “denier fringe.” • In 1971, co-authored a paper in Global Ecology suggesting "some form of ecocatastrophe, if not thermonuclear war, seems almost certain to overtake us before the end of the century." • Some conservative media outlets have called attention to a book Holdren co-authored in 1977 titled Ecoscience: Population, Resources, and Environment. The book reportedly includes this statement: "population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution." Holdren's office says he "does not now and never has been an advocate of compulsory abortions or other repressive measures to limit fertility."
25. Stimulus Accountability Czar - Earl Devaney
Title: Chair of the Recovery Act Transparency and Accountability Board Salary: unknown Reports to: Vice President Biden Appointed: February 2009 Agency that might have handled similar issues: OMB
• Leads oversight board that monitors money spent by the stimulus package • Experience: Inspector General at the Interior Department (1999 to present); Director of criminal enforcement at the Environmental Protection Agency (1991 to 1999); Special Agent at the Secret Service (1970 to 1991) • During his tenure at Interior, uncovered the shady dealings of disgraced ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, an investigation that eventually led to Abramoff's imprisonment and the resignation of Interior's no. 2, J. Steven Griles, for lying under oath about his own role in the scandal. • On July 8, 2009, the U.S. General Services Administration issued a press release announcing an $18 million contract for a new recovery.gov web site, which quoted Devaney as saying, “We are pleased that another major milestone has been achieved."
26. Sudan Czar - J. Scott Gration
Title: Special Envoy to Sudan Salary: unknown Reports to: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Appointed: March 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: State
• Will coordinate U.S. role in the aftermath of the genocide in Darfur • Experience: Supreme Allied Command, NATO (2004 to 2005); Air Force assistant deputy undersecretary for international affairs (2003 to 2004) • Commanded all air operations during the Iraq war in 2003 • 2006: left Air Force position to join Obama’s staff after traveling to Africa with the then-Senator from Illinois, even though he was a Republican • Has won a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, a Defense Superior Service Medal and 16 other awards • Is a fluent Swahili speaker who grew up in the Congo • Has called on the Obama administration to incentivize participation by the Sudanese government in peace talks by lifting sanctions, a position that is controversial. Also worked to position himself as the principal negotiator between the Sudanese government and its adversaries in Darfur, and is planning an international conference for September 2009 • Has M.A. in security studies from Georgetown
27. TARP Czar - Herb Allison
Title: Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability Salary: unknown Reports to: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Appointed: June 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: Treasury
• Leads the government's $700 billion financial rescue program in the office of financial stability • Veteran Wall Street banker and interim head of the mortgage-finance company Fannie Mae • Worked at Merrill Lynch for 28 years, reaching position of president and COO • Was CEO of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association College Retirement Equities Fund (2002 to 2008); CEO of the Alliance for Lifelong Learning (2000 to 2002) • Has undergraduate degree from Yale and MBA from Stanford • 2000: was John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign finance chairman • In 2008, donated $2,300 to Obama's presidential campaign
28. Technology Czar - Aneesh Chopra
Title: Chief Technology Officer Salary: unknown Reports to: President Obama Appointed: April 2009 Confirmed by Senate: May 21, 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: Commerce
• Will lead in the effort to eliminate wasteful government programs • Will probably work to increase broadband access nationwide and computerize medical records • Was Virginia’s secretary of technology (2005-2009) • Has degree in public health from Johns Hopkins, Master's from Harvard in public policy • Worked at Morgan Stanley as investment banker; also worked at Advisory Board, a health-care research and consultancy firm • Has donated more than $24,000 since 1997 to various campaigns. With the exception of a $1,000 donation to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) in 2004, all of Chopra’s contributions have gone to Democrats. From 2007 to 2008, Chopra donated $2,750 to Obama’s presidential campaign.
29. Terrorism Czar - John Brennan
Title: Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Salary: $172,200 Reports to: National Security Adviser James L. Jones Appointed: January 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: Homeland Security
• Under Obama's plan the homeland security adviser’s office would be eliminated, and the National Security Council would take over those duties. Brennan would be responsible for guarding against natural disasters and terrorism. • Has called for increased integration between the Departments of Commerce, State and Defense • Graduated from Fordham University in 1977 after a year of intensive Arabic and Middle Eastern studies in Cairo. Earned his J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin before joining the CIA as an intelligence director in 1980. • Is a CIA veteran and fluent Arabic speaker • Was CIA deputy executive director (2001 to 2003) and National Counter-Terrorism Center, Chair (2004 to 2005) • Worked at Analysis Corp, (2005 to 2008); • Staunch supporter of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Program; defended the use of extraordinary rendition, saying it is “an absolutely vital tool.”
30. Urban Affairs Czar - Adolfo Carrion Jr.
Title: White House Director of Urban Affairs Salary: $158,500 Reports to: President Obama Appointed: February 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: Housing and Urban Development
• Job entails coordinating transportation and housing initiatives, as well as serving as a conduit for federal aid to economically hard-hit cities. • Has undergraduate degree in world religions from Kings College; became an associate pastor at a Bronx church; earned his master’s degree in urban planning from Hunter College • Was Bronx Borough President (2001-2009); President of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (since 2007); City Council member (1998 to 2000) • Many reporters say he has higher ambitions and will probably run for New York City mayor in the next ten years. • Was an active campaigner for Obama, travelling across the country to speak on his behalf. He focused particularly on states with large Hispanic populations. • The NY Daily News reported numerous developers made tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations to Carrión around the same time he was considering approving their projects in the Bronx.
31. Weapons Czar - Ashton Carter
Title: Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Salary: unknown Reports to: Defense Secretary Robert Gates Appointed: April 2009 Confirmed by Senate: April 23, 2009 Department that might have handled similar issues: Defense
• Will coordinate the Pentagon's acquisitions, technology and logistics for weapons. • Will oversee a weapons-buying system that Obama has placed at the top of his list of federal programs he wants to fix and will be asked to quickly weigh in on difficult decisions concerning at least 10 major defense programs, while also instantly dissecting the procurement system’s ailments so he can advise the administration on its Pentagon acquisition reform agenda • Is a physicist and Harvard academic whose only previous Pentagon stint was in a mid-level policy post from 1993 until 1996 under the Clinton administration • Graduated from Yale summa cum laude; studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar and earned a doctorate in theoretical physics. • Chair of Harvard’s International Relations, Science & Security Area International Security Program within the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy (1993 to 1996); Director of the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School (early 1990s) • Has donated primarily to Democratic politicians since 2000. He donated $6,900 to then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in 2007 and 2008. He gave the same amount to then Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) during that same span.
32. WMD Policy Czar - Gary Samore
Title: White House Coordinator for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Security and Arms Control Salary: unknown Reports to: National Security Advisor Gen. James L. Jones Appointed: January 2009 Department or agency that might have handled similar issues: NSC; Defense; State
• Will coordinate issues related to weapons of mass destruction across the government. His portfolio includes proliferation, nuclear and conventional arms control, threat reduction, and terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction. • Position sits within the National Security Council. • Is a veteran arms control negotiator. • B.A. in sociology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and his PhD in government from Harvard University in 1984. • After brief stints with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the RAND Corporation, joined the State Department during the Reagan administration in 1987. Held several positions there, including director of the Office of Regional Non-proliferation Affairs; special assistant to the Ambassador-at-Large for Non-proliferation and Nuclear Energy Policy; and deputy to Ambassador-at-Large for Korean Affairs Robert Gallucci. Helped to negotiate the 1994 U.S.-North Korea Framework Treaty • Joined the Clinton administration’s National Security Council in 1995 as an adviser on nonproliferation. Coordinated U.S. policy on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. • Was Director, Council on Foreign Relations (2006 to 2009); Vice President for Global Security and Sustainability, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (2005); Researcher, International Institute of Strategic Studies (2001 to 2005)
