Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
My first new administration complaint
WTF is up with this:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/166328
Newsweek's picks for those most likely to get top Cabinet jobs.
On the list, there's one woman (Napolitano) and one minority (Charles Ogletree of Harvard) on the gossip list for Attorney General. Beyond that, it is all white men. Including Larry Summers, which would probably cause a revolt among women's groups.
The version of affirmative action I support is the one where people doing the hiring actually have a diverse candidate pool. I think the best qualified person should get the job, but I think, generally speaking, that if your entire list is white men, you've done something wrong, because there is just no way that only white men are going to be interested and qualified to pursue the opportunity.
How is it that no women seem to be making the speculation cut in these important jobs?
Re: My first new administration complaint
my read shelf:
"As of page 2 this might be the most boring argument ever. It's making me long for Rape Day." - Mouse
In addition to Larry Summers' slight "woman problem," he was the author of a private World Bank memo (back in '92 when he was their CE) that actively encouraged the dumping of toxic waste in developing countries--referring to African countries as "under-polluted."
He noted that while increased incidence of prostate cancer was a known result of dumping toxic waste in populated areas, poor people in developing countries rarely live long enough to develop prostate cancer so it wouldn't be an issue...
I think Rice and Powell were both exceptionally qualified. Alberto Gonzales was qualified. While he turned out to be a trainwreck, though the trainwreck didn't turn on his qualifications. Elaine Chao at Labor was the only 2000 appointee to stay on the entire 8 years, and did so without controversy or fvckups.
Harriet Miers for SCOTUS was a terrible pick, but other than that, I don't think there was a lot of high level tokenism, so I respect that enormously.
Summers would be a problem. I think part of the reason these names get floated by sources is so the transition team can see what the general response is.
This is an excellent point. And given the sh!thole the country is in right now, I appreciate the need to avoid inexperienced picks.
I guess I just wish there were a few more exciting, diverse names on the shortlists that I've seen.
And mxolosi - that is insane about Summers. I totally missed that. Lovely. I also don't really understand picking a former T-Sec who is probably in part responsible for the financial mess to help us get out of the financial mess.
my read shelf:
Oh dear. Have you forgotten about Michael "heckuva job, Brownie" Brown, FEMA director during Katrina? His previous post included a ten-year stint at the International Arabian Horse Association from which he was fired after too many lawsuits were filed against them.
Ditto. I was addressing zoe's rumor that Bush valued diversity over qualifications. It wasn't the diversity picks that got him in trouble, it was the cronyism that did (and you could lump Miers and Gonzales in with cronyism).
A few years ago, when he was president of Harvard, he spoke some science convention about women in the sciences. And he said something along the lines of "maybe there aren't as many women in the sciences because their brains aren't wired that way."
Needless to say, it went over like a lead balloon.
Perhaps as Secretary of the Department of Crazy. ?
Well I would suggest David Iglesias was the perfect example of Bush's minority recruitment efforts. Though I suppose they couldn't have known that he would turn out to be a do nothing USA.
But back to the original point, Richardson is a minority.
But these are Newsweek's picks. Unless Newsweek has an ear in the inner workings of Team Obama Transition, I think it's premature to get upset over who is and who is not making the speculative cut.
(I didn't read the article so if there is more nuance behind the Newsweek picks, my appologies)
Is this a joke?
David Iglesias wouldn't prosecute fake voter fraud cases. He acted with integrity. He wouldn't tow the party line and do their dirty work. That makes him a good prosecutor -- not a good partisan hack, as they wanted him to be.
They weren't fake cases. They were referred to him by a democrat county clerk. I can't even understand what you mean by "fake" in this regard.
Beyond that issue, he delegated most of his responsibilities and lacked leadership. There are references to it in the DOJ investigation findings. Fortunately NM now has an outstanding, active USA.