Inspectors General Need to Be Taken Seriously
The Inspectors General are probably the most underappreciated and underrated people in the federal government.
The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) was statutorily established as an independent entity within the executive branch. Since then it has been instrumental in identifying fraud, waste, mismanagement, and abuse, as well as developing policies to deal with those problems. As part of the office of the Inspectors General, the Office of Evaluations and Special Projects was created in 2014 to oversee the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012. This gives them the following mandate:
ESP is also responsible for reviewing allegations of administrative misconduct by senior officials, and issuing management alerts to highlight urgent need for corrective actions and capping reports on thematic areas of concern. Additionally, ESP is responsible for special evaluations and reviews, including responses to congressional inquiries. The work of this new office complements the work of OIG’s audits, investigations, and inspections by developing a capacity to focus on broader, systemic issues.
Drinking Lessons
I was a scofflaw. In my state it is against the law to provide alcohol to any person who is under age 21. When my sons were underage, I broke this law on a few occasions. Neither of them ever embraced the binge-drinking culture when they went to college. Teach your kids how to drink.
I saw a story featured in the Google News “spotlight.” It was an article from CNN, a few months ago, titled “Is Drinking with your Kids at Home a Good Idea?” I say, yes it is a very good idea. Your kids need good role models. They need to see that adults can enjoy one drink or two drinks and then stop. They need to learn how to enjoy one drink and then stop.
Modern American youth culture wants to teach them that, when you drink, you are drinking to get drunk. It is all over social media, TV, movies, pop songs, etc. Drunkenness is a laughing matter. Often it is an excuse for bad behavior, such as casual sex, which is frequently blamed on alcohol.
This is article is in response to The Greatest Lie Ever Told by Ricochet Member Robert McReynolds. Preview Open
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This Week in Federal Regulatory Takeover
“As the presidential primaries dominate the news, under the radar the Obama administration continues its unilateral assault on the economy and civil society. Consider the news from just this week.” So I wrote last month. Is it poor form to start a new post with exactly the same opening?
1. Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration announced that they will extend tobacco regulations to e-cigarettes:
On the Necessity of Federal Lands
DT had a chat with Field and Stream. Twitchy:
The GOP front-runner came out against letting states control public lands now run by the federal government saying, “I don’t like the idea because I want to keep the lands great, and you don’t know what the state is going to do.”
Last week I was in the hospital for some testing. This Thursday evening, I got a phone call from an employee of that hospital asking me to confirm my Medicare ID, etc., information the hospital already had or they would not have admitted me. I asked why she was calling me at such a […]
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I’m waking up to the realization the Federal Government hates me personally. Literally waking up. Our smoke alarms, which seem to have absolutely no use other than to issue false positives, woke us up last night because one of them has turned on us like a pet gone rabid and started blaring for no particular […]
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As the arrival of America’s newest pre-existing condition dominates the headlines, worries over the Ebola virus have wreaked havoc on Wall Street, causing the S&P 500 to post its worst three-day slide since November 2011. But if Ebola thinks it can just waltz into this country and diminish Wall Street’s wealth, then Ebola doesn’t know President […]
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The Jobs Con Job
It was September 2012. Unemployment had been over 8% since Obama had taken office. “I don’t know much,” my neighbor said to me, “But I know this: The unemployment rate next month will be 7.9%.”
In the event, the reported rate was a much-heralded 7.8%, undermining Romney’s message that the country needed a better steward of the economy, and giving Obama a boost going into the November election. Outside of the MSM echo-chamber, however, skeptics noted anomalies in the data. The anomalies suggested inaccuracy at best, malfeasance at worst. Even Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE, tweeted, “Unbelievable jobs numbers…these Chicago guys will do anything…can’t debate so change numbers.” The skeptics were vindicated a year later when John Crudele of the New York Post uncovered that the Census Bureau had, in fact, faked the data.
Federal Workers Resent Surge in Hiring Vets
You might have noticed that I’m not Obama’s biggest fan. But grudgingly I must admit that there are one or two things he has gotten right.
Five years ago, the administration decided to help veterans find work after returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Vets have received preferential hiring for government jobs going back to WWII, but Obama further sweetened the formula in their favor. Last year, nearly half of all full-time hires were ex-military; now vets make up a full third of the federal workforce.
