Tech Lobbyist Named to DHS Top Security Post

An anonymous reader writes "Greg Garcia, a lobbyist for the high-tech industry, has been appointed to fill the new assistant secretary post for cyber security and telecommunications at the Department of Homeland Security. Garcia, a VP with the Information Technology Association of America, will try to resuscitate DHS's flagging efforts to formulate a response plan should the nation's key digital assets come under concerted attack or crumble due to some catastrophic failure. DHS is a little late in filling this post: Congress created it 14 months ago after getting fed up with the agency's lack of progress on cyber issues."

Comments

Job description

[Anonymous Coward]

Alright, here's your desk. Basically, you can do nothing and sit on your ass all day. No problem, you bought the privilege. At some point something might cross your desk that we'll tell you to sign to help out our buddies, but otherwise, that'll be about it. However, when disaster does strike, it's your job to basically take up a lot of television time saying that the administration is doing a wonderful job. The President will be out fundraising or stumping or playing a guitar or whatever, so your responsibility is to fill the void. We'll have someone helping you out with that saying "I don't think ANYBODY could have foreseen [insert disaster here]". Probably Condi. Trust us, it's a working system. Later there'll be lots of handshaking and concerned looks, but that'll be about it. When public opinion returns to neutral, if you've done nothing to rock the boat, you'll still have your job, and in a couple of years time, a promotion. It's a great gig -- we take care of our people.

Got it? Ok, now get loafing!

Re:Flagging?!?!

[Quince alPillan]

That's because you're using the wrong dictionary.

Miriam-Webster says:

Main Entry: flagging
Function: adjective
1 : LANGUID, WEAK
2 : becoming progressively less : DWINDLING
- flaggingly adverb

and American Heritage says:

SYLLABICATION: flagging
PRONUNCIATION: flgng
ADJECTIVE: 1. Declining; weakening: flagging strength. 2. Languid; drooping.
OTHER FORMS: flaggingly --ADVERB

Re:crumble? resuscitate?

[AllahsAvatar]

a President who has never vetoed anything..

He has vetoed one thing. H.R. 810, which is also known as the "Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005."

Re:crumble? resuscitate?

[ericspinder]

what are you talking about? what tubes are there to get clogged?

Series of Tubes is becoming a meme. Senator Ted Stephens gave a speech where for the benefit of his audience (well, presumably) he created an analogy for the Internet as a Series of Tubes

They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a big truck.

It's a series of tubes.

And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

Personally I believe it the "Tim Taylor trap", where someone who has a conversation with someone who presents a good analogy, or complicated explanation of fact. Then completely bungles an attempt to retell the story to another audience. The TV show "Home Improvement" had it as a running gag where 'Tim Taylor' would embarrass himself every time he tried to retell his neighbor's sagely advice.

Re:By the corporations, for the corporations.

[tbone1]

This really took off with The New Deal, actually. Back then, the lobbyists were professional do-gooders and charity-beggars who were eager for their place at the trough and saw a government pension as preferable to having to deal with the expectations and egos of the less intelligent children of the wealthy (who, often, were the financial backers of charities back then). I suspect this had always been around, even Lincoln had to deal with it, but FDR allowed it to go from cottage industry to major economic factor practically overnight.

H.L. Mencken, always a good voice for dissent, wrote some profiles of the people that became major power players under The New Deal. Mencken was many things, not all of them comfortable to modern sensibilities, but empiricist was one of them. Check some of his writings on it, such as the collection compiled by Alistair Cook, for some things they don't teach you in history class.

Re:Flagging?!?!

[lostboy2]

Hmmm... FWIW, the online Oxford English Dictionary also has this definition:

flag, v.
1. To hang down; to flap about loosely.
2. To become limp or flaccid. Now only of plants: To droop, fade
3. Of wings: To move feebly or ineffectually in attempting to fly. Of a bird: To move its wings feebly (in early use also trans. with wings as obj.); to fly unsteadily or near the ground. Obs.
4. To become feeble or unsteady in flight. Hence in wider sense (in early use perh. consciously transf.): To be unable to maintain one's speed; to lag, or fall into a halting pace, through fatigue; to become languid, lose vigour or energy.

He's ITAA. Who's the ITAA?

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

If you think a lobbyist is a good choice for a homeland security position, consider what his group has lobbied for.

In a conference call with voting machine makers, the ITAA proposed conducting a campaign on their behalf, in exchange for $100,000 to $200,000 per company, depending on the services provided.

The ITAA president told Computerworld that criticism of voting machines was just a "religious war".

Re:crumble? resuscitate?

[Princeofcups]

> Series of Tubes is becoming a meme.

I believe you mean to say "Series of Tubes is a popular expression." Meme is not a "cool" way of saying "idea." Please quit misusing this term.

From dictionary.com:
meme
n : a cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one generation to another by nongenetic means (as by imitation); "memes are the cultrual counterpart of genes"

jfs