Newsfromme

When I grow up, I want to be Mark Evanier. Every morning I hit two blogs; Mark's News From Me and Chris Diclerico. Chris is a good friend and I used to be an author on his blog long ago (Chris,when you gonna link me, man?). Mark Evanier I've never met but his blog is always insightful, well written and most importantly, completely unfiltered. He's also had the career I'd die for. If he stops by and says hi, I'll link him. Until then, I will worship from afar.

Every now and then he says something that makes me laugh out loud. Today it was political:

We have this real scary Cover Your Ass mentality now in Washington, and it's worse than it's ever been. They protect the top guy because he's the top guy, and they protect all the people under him because to blame them would be to admit things had gone wrong on his watch. No one was fired for whatever intelligence mistakes led up to 9/11. No one was fired for all the inaccurate reports about Saddam Hussein's weaponry. Our leaders grossly misunderestimated the cost of the Iraq War, the number of troops we'd need to fight it and how we'd be welcomed there. No one was fired. If anyone at FEMA or the Department of Homeland Security is sacked or even faulted, it will only be because they've reached some new, hitherto-unimaginable level of incompetence such that even their own party can't save them...or someone decides that they should take a bullet (and all the blame) for the team.

I once saw a kid who worked at a pizza stand get fired on the spot for screwing up a big order. If that kid grew up to work in government and his incompetence caused people to die, he'd not only keep his job, they'd probably give him a promotion. That's after they give him the medal.

Check him out. Every day after you've visited me.