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DHS Chief Janet Napolitano Resigns
schwit1 writes with news that the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, has resigned her post. Napolitano entered the office at the beginning of President Obama's first term, and she was only the third person to hold the position since it was created in response to the September 11th attacks. In a statement, she said the Department of Homeland Security "has improved the safety of travelers; implemented smart steps that make our immigration system more fair and focused while deploying record resources to protect our nation's borders; worked with states to build resiliency and make our nation's emergency and disaster response capabilities more robust; and partnered with the private sector to improve our cybersecurity." Napolitano will be taking over the presidency of the University of California's 10-campus education system. "UC officials believe that her Cabinet experiences –- which include helping to lead responses to hurricanes and tornadoes and overseeing some anti-terrorism measures — will help UC administer its federal energy and nuclear weapons labs and aid its federally funded research in medicine and other areas."
"They said 'California is the place you outta be' so she loaded up he spooks and she moved to Beverly..."
I'd say "good riddance!", but I'm fully confident that the administration will find some crony just as eager to continue our security theater.
Its going fantastically after $100 BILLION/10 years spent. Well done results are fantastic. See immigration reform = surveillance reform as military tactics move inland from US borders
GFY Janet, you fascist, power-grabbing hooligan.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Napolitano is heading out there to ensure that the Sharknado does not come to pass. She's going to take flying lessons so she can hover a helicopter 50 feet away from the up-coming EF4 tornado and "blow it up".
sudo make me a sandwich
"implemented smart steps"
With the huge pile of body scanners sitting unused in warehouses thanks to DHS's wild (and illegal) binge on ineffective and invasive scanning technology, I have a hard time with their using the phrase "smart steps". In fact it's so bad, it almost seems like an inside joke. Not funny. And Janet? You make me sick
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
It's so dull when a public figure resigns for reasons other than "to spend more time with my family".
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
"UC officials believe that her Cabinet experiences –- which include helping to lead responses to hurricanes and tornadoes and overseeing some anti-terrorism measures — will help UC administer its federal energy and nuclear weapons labs and aid its federally funded research in medicine and other areas."
It's a good thing there's no need to have the head of a university system have experience in anything like education or research. All that matters is those security-industry connections!
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
has improved the safety of travelers;
Prove a negative. Nice.
implemented smart steps that make our immigration system more fair and focused while deploying record resources to protect our nation's borders;
So...nothing. No, wait! Nothing, but we spent "record resources" achieving it.
worked with states to build resiliency and make our nation's emergency and disaster response capabilities more robust;
So..nothing again. At least, nothing quantifiable, which is pretty much the same thing.
and partnered with the private sector to improve our cybersecurity.
Did...she just list PRISM as an accomplishment on her resume?
Stunning.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
when will the official groping policy be implemented on the campuses?
Except the beverly hillbillies got rich first then moved to Beverly Hills. In this case, UC is currently paying their president $600K and will probably pay her. Which is odd, because last I heard, the UC system was still cutting scholarships, teachers, and classes due to budget problems.
/s. This is idiotic. Why is a taxpayer supported institution wasting money like she's a CEO?
But I'm sure that money is well spent: I mean, if Napolitano can bring the same magic to the UC system that she did to DHS, then maybe the UC system will be safe from imagingary threats from Al Quaeda. And isn't that more important than students getting an education? We decided it was more important than the constitution, so yes, the answer is yes whether you like it or not.
[Citation needed]
'nuff said.
... milimeter wave scanners at the entrance to every academic building and mandatory patdowns before entering their dorms. Please allow up to two hours before class to clear security.
The day seems a little brighter.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
That's the name of her Wife?
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
1. better the enemy you know.... who's the next terrorist, i mean head of the dhs? 2. i only fly when i absolutely have to thanks to the tsa oil checks, what types of security 'improvements' will be increasing the drop-out rate of UC in the future?
An I.T. motto in the hands of an idiot is a dangerous thing...
The theory is that you get what you pay for. A $150,000 salary might attract someone who can save $5 mil. A $600,000 salary might attract someone better who can save $10 mil. In the end, taxpayers might be better off with a higher paid person if they can bring in the benefits. Professors at research universities operate on a similar principal... they might get paid $250,000 because they bring in $10 million in grants.
Of course, that's the theory.
We need someone to keep an eye on those hippies over at UC Berkeley.
Have gnu, will travel.
I understand the UC admission process will now include fully body cavity searches.
"Written on the pages is the answer to the never ending story..."
that may be, but Napolitano didn't save any money. She increased costs substantially, caused economic turmoil for the country with the policies she supported, and spent over 200 million bucks on those scanners which have saved us approximately $0. Did I mention the amount of tourism lost because people were like "Fuck this country" over things like claiming we can randomly stop people in 3/4 of the country. You may think it's a TSA thing, but TSA and DHS go hand in hand. Plus DHS harassing the shit out of foreigners, as well.
So does that mean she's working gratis? sadly, no.
Above a certain level, though, you start to pull in the wrong kinds of people. You can definitely get a better professor for $100k than $60k, and probably can get a top one for $200k. But if you're paying an administrator $600k? Now you start pulling in people who don't care about academia, and are just in it for the money. I think it might be better not incentivizing them to jump to academia; academic administration is becoming a revolving door of people from industry and government doing 3-year stints to put on their CV, when it would be better served by people with some kind of actual knowledge about, and commitment to, research and education.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
and a cry went up from the dark corners of campus, "woo-hoo, strip-search the co-eds."
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Will be get a Big Brother to run it? How about Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria or just plain old Stalin?
That's funny-- the anti-capitalists keep telling us that doesn't work for private companies, and criticize companies for their high-paid CEOs.
I think few execs in universities were brought there for their frugality.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
FWIW the police in Berkeley have long had a reputation for being strict and unkind. They are virtually the figurative personification of the man. So she'll fit in that niche.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
/s. This is idiotic. Why is a taxpayer supported institution wasting money like she's a CEO?
Why do you get a CEO? Sometimes it's only for the connections. And Janet Napolitano has a lot of connections. The key is this quote:
"will help UC administer its federal energy and nuclear weapons labs and aid its federally funded research in medicine and other areas."
There are groups in the government that want to take those programs away from UC, and privatize them (or whatever). UC wants to keep them because they bring in a lot of money from the federal government. Janet will help with that because of her connections.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
So one of the regime's big thugs is out. This would be a good time for the president to declare DHS a failed idea and abolish it. Of course he wouldn't phrase it that way. he would laud this thug's accomplishments and declare the department's ten year reign of terror a grand success and say it was no longer needed due the regime's advancements, and he will be able to save a lot of money due to his superior administrative skills with DHS' duties performed by some of its components, and other activities not performed at all, same as the situation for the 214 years prior to 2003. Not in exactly those words; his speechwriters could make hay out of the wording.
if Napolitano can bring the same magic to the UC system that she did to DHS, then maybe the UC system will be safe from...
If by "magic" you mean her using her DC connections to get more federal dough into the UC system one way or another, then probably. This reeks of hiring a DC insider to get cash...
" will help UC administer its federal energy and nuclear weapons labs and aid its federally funded research in medicine and other areas"
Revolving door much?
FWIW the police in Berkeley have long had a reputation for being strict and unkind. They are virtually the figurative personification of the man. So she'll fit in that niche.
Plus, being California, the vast majority of people who have the balls and/or means to fight against such authoritarian bullshit are already in prison.
Should make completing the fascist takeover a fairly straightforward manner.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
The difference is salary isn't based on any skill other than negotiations. I've known too many alleged "top professors", who were useless in a university, while other professors were let go because their course work was too tough for the students.
There are groups in the government that want to take those programs away from UC, and privatize them (or whatever). UC wants to keep them because they bring in a lot of money from the federal government. Janet will help with that because of her connections.
A simple solution here would be to get rid of the facilities in question. Then you don't need to employ someone like Napolitano. You know, don't lie down with dogs, don't get up with fleas.
Getting rid of UC's medical research facilities is indeed a very simple answer.
Didn't "simple" used to be one of the euphemisms for "mentally retarded"?
Yeah, but for the scanners we wasted money on, that was revenue and probably a lot of profit for the manufacturers. You do realize that the entire sole purpose of the Federal government, is to subsidize a select few friendly mega-corps at our expense (monetary expense, freedom expense). Napolitano did that job perfectly.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
In the 60's they called it CO-INTEL-PRO, She'll be starting a new program called COIN-TEL-PRO.
where better to start than a college campus.
What does that solve?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
And now we're duping the comments.
Brilliant!
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Do the "UC Officials" realize that J. does not use email? I suspect she doesn't even know how to use a computer. I'm not convinced someone like that is really suited to run a university system, where students should have those skills, and are in an environment where communicating electronically is essential.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
I think the whole math of paying someone more thant $75k/year to attract top talnet starts to go haywire.
A a point you tend to attract people who either cheat, game the system, or have connections, more than skill.
You're thinking about it all wrong. They're not paying her to work there, they're paying her NOT to work at DHS!
Getting rid of UC's medical research facilities is indeed a very simple answer.
Didn't "simple" used to be one of the euphemisms for "mentally retarded"?
I think the GP was referring to the military contracts, not necessarily the medical research. Be that as it may, it seems wasteful (and ... cronyish) to hire a powerful Federal administrator that can use influence and connections to obtain grant money rather than allow the grant applications to pass or fail based on the merits of the research involved. They've already gotten too focused on "monetizing patents", which can bring in a lot of money for treating things like sexual dysfunction and balding, than on work to actually cure diseases that cause suffering and death.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
The need to have political mercenaries. Don't have that infrastructure, don't need the protection racket.
I think you have different priorities than the UC administrators.....
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
And a sizable percentage of UC's supporters would rather see Napolitano in prison than in charge of that institution. Perhaps the regents should have considered what this is going to do to their funding before they chose someone like Napolitano to run their institution.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Seems to be the going paradigm for those high up in the current administration.
I kinda long for the past days of where it was just the #1 guy getting a hummer outside the Oval office. At least that didn't hurt US citizens' lives.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
At least the good news is that the US will finally be rid of her. After she left Arizona they ripped out the traffic revenue cameras on the highways. Hopefully, this means that the tsa and other overreaching programs can be dismantled.
Maybe a new university that has colleges that specialize in grant writing? How about doubling the universities so that out of state kids can get a good education. How about the california students that slogged through the requirements to go to a UC school but can't get in, because the schools are full; because there are not enough facilities for them? How about hiring educators to teach the kids so that those kids can step into jobs? The job is a lot of work, I hope she's up to it.
Something that may cause Chancellor Janet to grin, just a little. The difference between the UC system, and that candy ass operation she headed in DC is that in California, the Tea Party is forced to do something it doesn't feel comfortable doing; think.
I'm curious about what scandal was about to break that involved her...?
Seems to be the going paradigm for those high up in the current administration.
I kinda long for the past days of where it was just the #1 guy getting a hummer outside the Oval office. At least that didn't hurt US citizens' lives.
No scandal- she probably just won't go as far as our center-right authoritarian overlord wanted her to.
I anticipate we will be stunned by what her replacement is willing to do, stunned even given recent revelations.
I realized that Napolitano is basically the Margaret Thatcher of the US. Hated, and people will be much happier when she's dead.
I'm curious about what scandal was about to break that involved her...?
Seems to be the going paradigm for those high up in the current administration.
That is my thought exactly, or maybe she is just fed up with managing and defending a corrupt and over-reaching
government department and wants out before she becomes unhireable.
Stepping out of DHS she will lose all the protection that the administration would provide, but that protection
might not mean much when the next shoe drops.
The other possibility is she sees that she will the scapegoat for the Snowden affair anyway so she might as
well get out of the street before she gets thrown under the bus.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
I wonder if this has anything to do with the criminality being exposed in the U.S. government... ;)
...Steve
Don't forget to budget for the extra half million or so rounds of ammunition needed by University Police, for training purposes of course.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
Yeah, but for the scanners we wasted money on, that was revenue and probably a lot of profit for the manufacturers.
Are you familiar with the Broken Window Fallacy? Napolitano and the makers of those scanners certainly should be.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
More than that. I'd say Napolitano is probably the least knowledgeable person about terrorism in the Obama cabinet, which is just fucking sad.
She repeatedly claims there is no violence along the US/Mexico border, even though Arizona happens to be the kidnapping capital of the world, and people as far north as Chandler, AZ have been beheaded by Cartel members.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6848672&page=1#.UeBPe23aW2U
I remember it was her who made it sound like right wing groups were ready to storm the nation:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/15/extremism.report/
None of these "threats" ever actually panned out. Not a single one. The worse that happened is some idiot or two made a comment (e.g. talk about assassinating the president) but no physical violence ever surfaced.
Ironically most actual "acts" of domestic terror have been committed by left wing groups, usually environmentalists and/or animal rights groups, but including the mass shooters, nearly all of which considered themselves to be left wing:
http://archive.adl.org/learn/ext_us/ecoterrorism.asp
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ba6_1345149941
I remember a few years back there was an article on slashdot about how medical researchers had to stop their work due to eco terrorism being so bad, with one researcher who was studying Parkinson's by manipulating rat neurons, and some group threatened to Molotov cocktail his family, so he quit.
Napolitano has never made a single mention of anything like that, not even once. Al Qaeda threats are probably 1% of actual terrorism that happens in the US, and the so called "right wing" threat practically doesn't even exist. But to her, those are the top priority.
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
University of California's not just a bunch of hippies.
Their Chancellor talked in February about how fe feared they were "morphing into a federal university". http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/chancellor-uc-berkeley-morphing-federal-university-8816
This is just one more step in that progression.
I realized that Napolitano is basically the Margaret Thatcher of the US. Hated, and people will be much happier when she's dead.
Except people have the memory capacity of the average goldfish. Unless she dies in office, the average person will say, "Neopolitan who? Like the ice cream?"
Consider: War Criminal George W. Bush's approval rating has been rising ever since he left office.
Only if they're employed by the med school.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
...might attract someone better who can save $10 mil.
No one in government positions try to SAVE money. They bitch and moan for more money. When they don't get it, they cut necessary stuff that will hurt the most, while preserving pet projects and the pay and positions of government union employees.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, has resigned her post.
All right!
Napolitano will be taking over the presidency of the University of California's 10-campus education system.
Crap. Hopefully she doesn't damage our university system too much before my daughters are old enough to attend...
Napolitano: "deploying record resources to protect our nation's borders"
And here is the main clue for us all. "record resources" is just another way for the government to say "Transfered record amounts of middle class tax dollars to a few good friends."
The government which is strong enough to protect you from everything is strong enough to take everything from you.
Bullshit. He is not leftist.
Another internet retard convinced everyone who disagrees with him is a leftist.
Nice thing about your type of idiot, you can't wait to self-identify and so you waste little time of others- they know to stop attempting discourse.
That's funny-- the anti-capitalists keep telling us that doesn't work for private companies, and criticize companies for their high-paid CEOs.
You don't have to be anti-capitalist to think that most CEOs are absurdly overpaid and that you could get someone just as good at their job for a fraction of the cost.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
I just want to point out that TSA is only a small part of DHS. Janet Napolitano is in charge of TSA.
What makes you think the republicans want to kill DHS? For some reason, "conservative" too often means desiring to blow everybody else up in the name of security/freedom/whatever, foreign or domestic. There are too many terrorized politicians and predatory opportunists on both sides of the entrenchments.
Bullshit. Obama is Center-Right by American standards...just not by the standards of our media echo-chamber, which is far further to the right than the general public.
This isn't just personal observation either (well, the media echo-chamber being the cause is)...studies show the American public is further left than people think it is. One example: http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/politicians_think_americans_are_super_conservative/
Students entering and exiting UC dorms will now be required to submit to a cavity search.
Hahahaha- yeah, where more than half her students can be the "Dreamers" she gave 2 year deferments of deportation to.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
All American Politicians are leftists. Just a different variety than you think.
They are one of two varieties: Sexual libertines (what passes for the true left in the United States) or fiscal libertines (what passes for the right in the United States).
You can tell the sexual libertines by their rabid defense of the abortion industry and an absolutist right for everybody to the Holy Orgasm.
You can tell the fiscal libertines by their rabid defense of the financial industry and an absolutist right for the rich to control the Holy Grail of Private Property.
But both are liberals, make no mistake.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Better yet, UC will get all that money from educating illegal immigrants....oh wait....
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
...ahhhh, you know the rest.
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."
-- Pablo Picasso
Well...in a sense they're all everything because Left/Right is a TERRIBLE way to explain political ideology.
They're all Authoritarian/Right when using a 2-coordinate system.
http://politicalcompass.org/uselection2012
(FWIW, this thing uses a -10 to +10 scale, and I'm personally around (-8,-8) way off in the Libertarian/Left corner...so fuck 'em all.)
Spot on. I really can't see why people delude themselves that a Constitutional Lawyer would be anything other than conservative.
That's how these places work.
"Least knowledgeable" is what a professional liar would like you to think about them.
Also the left wing vs right wing thing on domestic "terror" is skewed heavily in numbers to something that could be called right wing with Oklahoma, but it's barely relevant since the only solid way you can define them is as a lot of criminals. Anarchist right or anarchist left is as irrelevant as the Irish joke where the athiest is asked if he's a Catholic athiest or a Prodestent athiest. Also didn't the "eco-terrorist" thing stop and start with a crazed associate of Charles Manson pulling a gun on President Ford?
WRONG!!!!
Napolitano is no Margaret Thatcher. In fact, Napolitano's brain would not make a pimple on Thatchers backside.
I'm dead center on the political compass scale- well, ok, slightly high authoritarian, but center left/right.
I'd classify you as "Individualist with sociopathic tendencies"
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Obama's signature legislation is the takeover of the medical industry, which is one sixth of the economy. Government increase of ownership/control is leftist, decrease is leftist. ObamaCare is the most leftist, vile, evil, nasty, immoral act in the history of the United States.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
You misspelled Congenital Liar.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
"ObamaCare" is more corporatist than left/right (as is most everything else our government does these days...). The entire purpose of the bill is to force people to purchase products from private corporations. That's neither left nor right...though yes, there are certainly some "leftist" aspects to it.
Interesting to note though, people who use the term "leftist" to describe themselves, at least in my experience, tend to be some form of anarchist...so it's really not as simple as "increases government control"...because again, there's Libertarian Left and there's Authoritarian Left. Obama is EXTREMELY authoritarian, and marginally further left than, say, Romney...but still right of center on the whole.
If you think that impotence and balding don't cause suffering, you are indeed ignorant. Furthermore, both are symptoms of more fundamental flaws which, if solved, would provide longer and healthier lives. I'll grant you that angst over balding is somewhat shallow, but that doesn't make the resultant depression unreal.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Professional liar? Ok, which part did I lie about? I cited sources for everything except that second to the last paragraph, which was only because searching slashdot articles is very time consuming. Here you go:
http://slashdot.org/story/06/08/26/2242248/neuroscientist-halts-research-to-stop-extremists
Here's another one for good measure:
http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/05/28/2124231/eco-anarchists-targeting-nuclear-and-nanotech-workers
That is the real terrorism in this country. It flies completely off of Janet Napolitano's fucking radar though. Instead she's focused on Alex Jones and the rest of his loudmouth looney bin gang, who while annoying as fuck, haven't actually hurt anybody.
You were saying?
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
Not you, her. Instead of being ignorant of her job (least knowledgeable) for a living she's been paid to lie about Homeland Security for a living.
"She repeatedly claims there is no violence along the US/Mexico border" because doing so makes it look like Homeland Security is doing a good job. Her job is to say "nothing to be worried about here citizen - move along and have a nice day" as the mouthpiece of that enormous octopus of an organization. That's what I mean by "professional liar".
If you think that impotence and balding don't cause suffering, you are indeed ignorant. Furthermore, both are symptoms of more fundamental flaws which, if solved, would provide longer and healthier lives. I'll grant you that angst over balding is somewhat shallow, but that doesn't make the resultant depression unreal.
There are a lot worse problems. You can argue about what the government should be spending its citizens' hard-earned money on, but if you think spending it on balding research is way up on the list, in a country already trillions of dollars in debt, is way up on the list, then it is you that are demonstrating stunning ignorance.
Sorry you're balding. Spend your own money on some Rogaine, and stop demanding public money for your $250/yr UC professors and the pharmaceutical corporation profit-sharing.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
Exactly! Implement the dream-act analogue DACA as a policy matter after the Congress rejected the DREAM act multiple times. A year later, become president of the Unviersity of California system for three times the salary. Quid pro quo.
UC is hiring a person who is both a spy and a bully to police increasingly restive students.