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Federal CIO Kundra Takes Leave of Absence After Woes
CWmike writes "The fallout from Thursday's arrests of a District of Columbia IT security official and contractor quickly raised questions about the fate of Vivek Kundra, the new federal CIO who until recently ran the office now mired in bribery allegations. Appointed by President Barack Obama as CIO less than two weeks ago, Kundra was CTO for the District of Columbia. But yesterday, Kundra's former office in a downtown government building was a crime scene. A White House official, speaking on background, confirmed today that Kundra took a leave of absence from his new CIO job shortly after federal investigators arrested two men in the DC government office on bribery charges. The official would not elaborate on the reasons for the leave; there were no indications yesterday that Kundra was involved in any wrongdoing. Kundra's decision could slow his plan to create a 'revolution' in the federal government's use of technology."
I submitted a story on this earlier....may the force be with you VK!
FreeBSD bounties
Is this Change or Hope ?
...to bring his infotech expertise to a new project in the federal prison system.
The first rollout will involve electronic standards for documentation of the prison sculling teams.
They should have gone with someone with a cooler name. Like Padmasree Warrior her name kick's Wolf Blitzer's name any day of the week and she's better looking too.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I wonder if it has anything to do with Kundra's big push to turn over everything to Google.
Looks like Obama's plan for catching all the crooks is by appointing them to political office and let the approval process catch them.
I'm confused. I thought the government under Obama was going to be made of rainbows and kittens glued together with hope. Are you telling me Obama's administration is as corrupt as any other but also has a one-party supermajority Congress and a cheerleading media backing it? Sweet...what a change!
FBI-man wants no tech, FBI-man takes down tech-man. FOIA would expose certain unpleasant truths to whiners and malcontents. --Shampoo.
Sure, one of his direct reports ran ghost employees and kickback schemes for five years. But there is no evidence Kundra knew about it. Surely nobody expects the a state CIO to get involved in every petty detail.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Hmmmm. I voted against the neo-cons because of their total corruption and incompetence, as well as a very visible desire to destroy America. At this time, the dems appear to be heading in the same way with corruption.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I thought the government under Obama was going to be made of rainbows and kittens glued together with hope. Are you telling me Obama's administration is as corrupt as any other but also has a one-party supermajority Congress and a cheerleading media backing it?
He's a successful politician from the Chicago machine, which makes Boss Tweed's Tammany Hall look like minor pranks on a boy scout campout. What did you expect?
*I* expect ongoing machine corruption scaled up to the national level, culminating in something to dwarf the Teapot Dome scandal and any corruption in any other administration since than (including the Clinton and both Bush administrations).
But then I've dealt with Chicago politics a little bit... (Thank Murphy I've never had to live there.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
isn't exactly a petty detail. Granted I don't hold a lofty title like CIO but I damn well know what all my directs are doing. If I didn't I would not hold down the job I do. I even have to keep tabs on what the other guys outside of my direct control are up to. Plus some of what his directs are accused of isn't exactly something that just goes by without some questions arising somewhere down the line.
You also don't take leaves of absence. Just what in the hell is wrong with Obama's vetting process?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Whenever "their" team wins an election, we will suddenly begin claiming that all politicians suck. Yet if "our" team wins, suddenly it's always only "their" politicians who suck, and ours are magically now unsucky.
I'd bet cold hard cash that if your Republican team had beaten their Democrat team, you'd not be claiming that all politicians are "terrible"...only their Democrat politicians.
Let me try again...
But these offenses were in the distant past! He hadn't worked there for weeks! How does this have anything to do with him?
Help stamp out iliturcy.
there were no indications yesterday that Kundra was involved in any wrongdoing
But that won't stop angry slashdotters from trying to nail him to a cross.
Assasination is no longer tenable. The only reason we deabte who killed JFK is lack of footage.
But everyone, EVERYONE has dirt. And those with money will expose it, if given a reason.
Why is it that as soon as he appoints someone, scandals come to light? Think about that. Everyone in these kinds of positions is involved in scandals. Why is it that they are being exposed now?
To moderate this "insightful" would be to agree with the absurd statement that he's not responsible and convey approval of the bald statement. Because it's subtle sarcasm that skewers the point without being sophomoric, because the stakes are so high, and because the trauma is future tense, "funny" and its associated neutral karma isn't warranted. What's left is "interesting". There is no "sad" moderation option.
You're new here. Don't give up. Moderation works.
And if you carefully examine what I said, this post is not off topic.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
The D.C. government always was and always will be a hot-bed of cronyism and corruption.
And clearly, anyone involved in IT in the DC government is probably mostly capable of knowing how to grease palms and take advantage of kickbacks.
There is nothing competent in this government. Remember, this is the government where the employees set up fake companies to take take rebates and stole $40M.
The only reason Kundra got the job in DC is probably because he worked for a contractor that gave kickbacks to somebody high in Fenty's administration. And I'm guessing he got the Obama job because somebody owed him a favor.
And if you doubt what I'm saying, remember Marion Barry? He was re-elected Mayor and is currently on the council. And due to a lifetime of drinking and drug abuse basically used up his kidneys. So he talked his campaign manager into giving her kidney to him.
These are lying, thieving people. When you realize Obama appointed him, you realize Obama is probably corrupt and incompetent.
That was the Democrats circa LBJ's "Great Society" in the 60s. By the 1990s, the pro-business faction was solidly in charge, culminating in 1992 when the head of the Democratic Leadership Council (the pro-business / anti-lefty caucus) won the Democratic nomination. Sort of analogous to New Labour displacing Old Labour in the UK.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Here's a fact: ALL politicians are corrupt.
Now, here's a theory of mine: Some are more corrupt that others, and there's never been an effective way to weed them out. Everyone was corrupt, that much was understood, but how badly was never clear. And it was too dangerous to try and figure it out. Just ask Paul Wellstone. about how much luck he had with that.
Even worse, some of those more-corrupt bastards are in your OWN party. Nominating them to any position puts you in jeopardy, and once again, your plane could end up suddenly taking a nosedive during a "routine" landing.
How to eliminate them without slitting your own throat?
Theory: establish a culture of rigorous honesty and total accountability. Make it clear that anyone selected is going to be examined with a fine-toothed comb. Show the people exactly how you're doing it, and more importantly, demand the same from the average citizens your campaign and administration is using for volunteers.
Now start nominating people you want to eliminate.
You know they're all corrupt? Now you can find out just how bad without slitting your own throat.
Theory: your not-so-bad enemies and just plain neutral associates see the writing on the wall and become very loyal to your policies, lest they "get nominated" and destroyed. /Tin Foil Hat
[End Of Line]
Democrats are BETTER than the Republicans.
The past 30 years have proved it. Yes, they both suck, but the Republicans suck more.
So the trick really is, how do we move from the Democrats to something better, avoiding a retreat backwards into Republicanism?
Step one: Dispense with the assumption that Democrats are better. Some Dems are; Some Dems aren't. We're electing people, not an abstract 'Democrat' or Republican'.
Step two: Stop caring about party affiliation. Both yours, and your candidates'. Vote purely on their record and your judgment of them as individuals, not because of the side they are on.
That second step is the hard one. You can look at how insanely popular sports teams are, to gain an idea how ingrained the idea is in human nature that we should pick 'a side'. Once a side is picked, we tend to justify and rationalize their behavior, and demonize the other side.
If he's not corrupt then he's incompetent. Either way, he's not qualified.
There's one more option: he noticed it and altered the authorities.
I greatly doubt that's the case but there is that third option to consider.
Of course, if that were the case, we'd almost certainly already have heard about it, and this would be the end result of an "FBI investigation" and NOT an "FBI sting" so I'm betting he was either in on it or paid off.
To be fair, he was only CIO of DC for 3 of the 5 years that the misfeasance was going on. Despite this I have to go with the "buck stops" rule. He's responsible by inheritance. If it were not so, delegation of responsibility would no longer work.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I'm not American.
Sheesh, guys! There was ONE guy in the organization who selected an outside contractor based on kickback money he would then receive.
How in the world was the CTO to figure that out?!? By all appearances the outside contractor was competent. The only tip-off that there might have been a problem would have been that the services provided were perhaps more expensive than one might ordinarily expect.
The idea that the CTO should somehow know every little thing that goes on -- including the secret communications between a subordinate and an outside individual -- is RIDICULOUS. The subordinate was perpetrating a crime! Obviously it was in the subordinate's interest to hide this crime from his superior! Suppose you had to perpetrate a crime and keep it secret from your boss at work. Don't you think you could do it, especially if you made sure that the level of the crime could be hidden in the normal level of financial noise or uncertainty? Yes, you absolutely could, and your boss could not reasonably be accused of being incompetent or criminally negligent. (Again, you design your crime to be undetectable to the reasonable level of diligence to be expected from your boss.)
Given that Kundra is in a position to assist investigators learn more about the perpetrator of the crime, does it not make sense that he take time away from his new job to assist with that investigation? Are some of you REALLY taking his assistance to the investigation to mean that he himself is corrupt? Really?!?
I think it totally sucks that some of the Slashdot editors see fit to find fault with the Obama administration at every turn -- and that the Libertarians and neocons gleefully jump on the bandwagon to smear Obama and members of his cabinet. You folks don't like Obama. We get it. But holding him and his appointments to superhuman standards is ridiculous. For example, Kundra would need to be psychic to avoid your wrath! Psychic!!
The very first comment in this discussion is: "Is this Change or Hope ?" THAT IS SO LAME. And the comment made by a person pretending to be disillusioned by the Obama administration (which he thought was supposed to be "rainbows and kittens glued together") IS REALLY IMMATURE. Grow up, you guys. Really. You need to get some integrity, too.
Anyhow, thankfully our nation avoided McCain/Palin, and Ron Paul, etc. Despite our electorate's insanity (Bush not once, but *twice*! WTF, America?!?), which is ongoing, America GOT SERIOUSLY LUCKY with Obama. Some people will never realize just how deep Bush plunged our nation, and how deftly Obama turned it around. The 8-year setback of the Bush administration involved the whole of the Republican party and its ideas, Fox News and CNN, and much of the electorate who supported them. Obama represents the polar opposite to all of that evil. Simply look at every action Obama has taken as president thus far, and you will see just how intelligent and compassionate his actions are, in stark contrast to those of president Bush (and the decisions that a McCain/Palin administration would have made). Even on an absolute scale Obama's actions as president seem wise and ethical, and I am grateful that Obama ran for president and managed to win.
Obama wouldn't have gotten elected if he hadn't successfully been able to garner the support of power bases of all sorts. Those power bases expect a payback after the victory. So Obama nominates them and let's the system weed out the corrupt leaders.
Obama gets a minor blemish to his reputation but he gains two valuable things. First, the corrupted power players are weakened by the public humiliation and lose much of their lobbying power. Secondly, those weeded-out entities do not hold a grudge against Obama who, after all, held his end of the bargain by appointing them.
Two things are very common for slashdot last two months - too much "ohhh how good Windows 7 will be" articles (clearly a organized propaganda using clueless Slashdot editors, but hey, it brings ads money in) and clearly too much "look, look, another *suspicious* persona appointed by eeeeeeeeevil Obama. He is eeeeevil. He is just like rest of politicians. They all are evil manipulative bastards".
Yes, Obama is not Jesus or not perfect president either. Gosh. But he is best what we can have now. So far I have heard only speculative things about him. All his cabinet is gone trough something like fiveteen times, looking for everyone's smallest mistake. Wow, why you didn't give such hard ticket to Bush? Ohh, because he didn't care. Now we found someone who does and let's make him hard time.
Isn't that funny when people hype something too much and then lay their anger and confusion when something doesn't go according to their plan? And for paranoia that everything is controled by coorporations and power peole, see "Syriana". We would like to thing that there is some huge in control, because then we could better justify why we are powerless. Because "other people are simply stupid or I am just too paranoid and no one listens to me" doesn't fly anymore.
Grow up.
And about Microsoft - already said, Microsoft is geeks 'female fatale' - no matter how it has screwed them over, they keep crawling back.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
Typical politicians......CORRUPT. Time for another revolution in this country to take back the government, which has grown out of control. Between politicians, who think they are above the law, and lobbyist who think they can tell politicians what to do by flashing $$$$, we need TERM LIMITS on ALL government politicians. If term limits are good enough for the president, they should be good enough for legislators. The founding fathers NEVER wanted politicians to be a "lifetime" job. When you have these idiots, who "make" the laws, write themselves out of the laws they want the rest of us to live by, then it is time to blow the whole place up, and start from scratch!
Nothing to see here, move along.
It's fortunate that Vivek Kundra's agenda for transparency within the government is exactly what helped reveal the corruption therein.
Do we really want to push people who are helping uncover corruption out of the upper levels of government? What sort of message is this sending?
I suspect Kundra is a GRIMA
Credible
Kundra was appointed CTO because he is not white and so was a shoe in for the Obama administration There can be no other reason why creating a web site and email distribution for the Obama election campaign qualifies a person for being CTO of the nation.
You clearly haven't looked at how white is Obama's cabinet.
But lets pick up in one of the secondary posts assigned by Obama and then bring the dead horse of "political correctness" into the arena.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.