Napolitano's options: quit or get fired

[Questor]

It's the only thing to do. Fire her or pressure her to quit.

[Cabin4]

She's totally unqualified for the job and should be fired. Never should have been hired. She's a political hack, with no military or security background put in charge of a technical based law/security enforcement organization.

[Questor]

The qualifications and job performance have nothing to do with it. It's a political matter. If the republican party were not dead there would be a heavy drumbeat from the republicans to kick her out. That's exactly what happens whenever a republican messes up. The republican party is dead.

[Sourdough]

Questor:  I have to agree.

[nomosendero]

True, but they all need to be fired, maybe they can fire each other, perhaps drawing names in the Christmas spirit. 

[mauser98us]

Either quit or get fired,you guys can keep her. I don't want her back in Arizona

[bulletstuffer]

The management team is a direct reflection of the CEO!

[jlchucker]

That's only part of the problem with any political appointee, political party aside.  The real trouble lies with the the management of DHS and its agencies.  Napolitano is only the current figurehead.  Like any civil service agency, the upper management is where the real weaknesses  can be found.  These fat cats have permanent jobs, and follow the whims of any politician who have their staffers call them to bend or break the rules for their "constituents".  That part never makes the papers, whether liberal or conservative.  Replace Napolitano and the same faces will still be in the same high positions, like they were before she got there, setting the tone for the activities of their agencies.  And Homeland Security is made up of lots of agencies!  These people are permanent unless they really get caught, and they are the best in the world at covering their own tracks.  They'll all still be there, looking out for each other, after Napolitano is gone. 

[magooch]

I say keep her right where she is.  She is a great source of embarrassment to the Osama administration.  If he is forced to send her packing, it will also be a major embarrassment and will once again demonstrate his ineptness.  There's plenty of time for that down the road.  I think she still has some great faux pas left in her and anything, or anyone who can make the lying piece of crap that lives in the White House look even worse is an asset.

[Dee]

I see no reason for her to step down or be fired. She is working under the regulations set out by the Republicans that preceded her, and the present Clown in Chief.
It is my hope that everyone in both parties will at the end of 4 years of the blame game, and further erosion of MY LIBERTIES, be so sick and beat down by the two parties, that they will draw the courage to tear themselves free of their FEAR, and vote for a PRO Constitution, and PRO Bill of Rights, NON COMPROMISING ON EITHER DOCUMENT Candidate.
They are available every election, but everyone is afraid to vote for them. So they COMPROMISE away more of my freedoms.
I see the whole thing as business as usual. As will be the next administration.

[Cabin4]

It's the job of HS to provide the president with recommendations on how to improve security and thus change regulation. It's the responsability of HS to ensure the processes that are in place are working. It's the responsability of the HS Director not to lie and cover up problems. HS, led by Napalitano has failed at all of these. She's unqualified to run HS to begin with. Given the president himself, has completly contradicted Napalitano on this last episode, she should be fired. Apparently obama does not even beleive her BS anymore.

[SHOOTALL]

The less secure we are the more restrictive laws will be needed . She may well be better at her job than you know , then you may not know her real job .

[Dee]

Well I don't believe Obama's BS either, so I guess that pretty well evens things out.
It is however in my opinion, THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE "INDIVIDUAL" to make him or her self safe, and so goes the air line industry. Unless of course you want to further Socialize them into strictly a governmental business.
You lay much at the feet of an organization (Homeland Security) I personally feel should have never been created.
If an air line company truly wants to survive it seems logical they should be the one's protecting it's CUSTOMERS, instead of the government.
This analogy of HS, merely substantiates that Americans are further becoming indoctrinated to BIG BROTHER protecting them. Perhaps they will get a big win in 2010, and the Republicans will PROTECT THE BETTER when they fly on "COMMERCIAL" AIRLINES.

[Redtail1949]

reports are defending her as supposedly she did not get the info from the cia. whatever it makes no difference it has been pointed out that one of the biggest rants of bho before he became pres was to bark about the failures of bush in this area. now he said he would fix it if he was pres and just what has been done..nothing. it is his responsibility and if he has some who can not do it he owes us the people a change in officers that can not get it done. he has had the tiome to make sweeping changes. if he would take the billions spent on GOVERNMENT MOTORS, (who will collapse anyway)and put into something useful like our security things migh be different. no we are going to build tennise courst and gay library and musems and other idiotic crud.

he is a loser and almost all he has put into positions of control are too. it has nothing to do with skin color only incompetence.

[Dee]

If you don't expect anything from someone you are seldom disappointed.
I never expected anything Obama but, more government intervention into my rights and less freedom.
But then again I never expected anything from Bush but, more government intervention into my rights, and less freedom.
Therefore I am not disappointed in either.
I also don't expect American voters collectively to recognize these two parties as failures, and to stand up for their freedoms, and break away from these two fraudulent parties.
Therefore I am not disappointed in that area of life either.
When all the fist waving is completed, and all the oaths are issued by the voters, they will do what they have always done, it will continue to be SSDD, until there is nothing left.

[gypsyman]

No reason for either option. Obongo will just replace her with another clone. gypsyman

[Cabin4]

I only expect HS to deliver what they are suppose to deliver. The agency was created to connect the dots and recommend changes and advancements to keep us safe from this stuff. This episode proves that they are not doing their job and the words from the HS Director proves she is clueless. Imagine how many people are getting into this country illegally or never should be let in as in this case. This guy was only caught because of his failed attempt to blow up the plane.

How could someone on the terrorist watch list in the UK have a valid USA Visa? The job of ensuring the dots are connected is not happening.

How can the guy not have a valid passport and get through Dutch Customs? No solid communication between US and Dutch authorities is in place.

How can someone with no luggage and paying for a one way ticket in cash get on any plane unabated? ---- Another example of lack of enforcement to US standards by Dutch authorities and no checks and balances or audits of our standards.

How can the guys father alert US authorities of his son's terror connections and any of this happen? ---- No connecting of the dots by HS between the agencies.

I don't disagree Dee that HS should never have been created. But they have been given a role (like it or not) and if they don't perform we will have gaps that no agency is looking at which will result in the mess we have here. If we are to have an HS, they better damn do their job or planes are going to drop. If we don't want an HS, because we don't think it’s needed, that’s fine, then the responsibility to connect the dots and perform the coordination will be assigned to another agency. In the interim, we have failing HS and as a result we are less safe.

Napolitano is too busy trying to manipulate for political gain towards the president’s agenda. Remember, this is the same HS Director that supported gun control as a means to improve security on our southern border. This is the same HS director that released a report on so called Right Wing extremists who support Ron Paul and alike. The same director that has done nothing about the failures of the Ft. Hood incident.

[Dee]

The real truth is that the U.S. cannot FORCE other countries such as the Dutch to run their security as we demand. We "can" stop flights from there coming here, but we are not their boss. I suppose we could do what we did in Saddam Hussein's' case and invade them. That would show them whose boss. Then we could force them to comply with something they obviously don't agree with. Just like we did Saddam.
Tongue in cheek, but the point is made.

[wganz]

Got a guarantee that the replacement would be any better?

[Cabin4]

No, thats not a guarantee I need to make. Thats the presidents job. Maybe his next pick might have a clue. Can't be any worse then the dim wit in their now.

[nomosendero]

No, thats not a guarantee I need to make. Thats the presidents job. Maybe his next pick might have a clue. Can't be any worse then the dim wit in their now.

I don't know 'bout that, look how they manage to find new Presidential Candidates worse than the one before.

[Dee]

Already have thought about it. It's like bettin on a horse race. Take the human off the horse and you "might" get an honest race. MIGHT!
I personally have a different take on HS than Cabin4. I wish the hell the organization would disappear rather than succeed. If HS is successful combined with the Patriot Act, Cabins' liable to wake up one morning with them on his front porch.

[Questor]

Just remember George W. Bush's attorney general, Trent Lott and all of the other republicans that were kicked out because the democrats raised a stink over trivial things.

[Cabin4]

If HS is successful combined with the Patriot Act, Cabins' liable to wake up one morning with them on his front porch.

Micheal Chertoff was Bush's HS Director. He was a co-author of the Patriot Act.

[Dee]

Yes, I know. A scary document with a scary goal, and scary powers which basically GUTTED the American Constitution and Bill of Rights.

[Black Eagle]

Usually, these cabinet members, like Napolitano, have little control over what goes on in the departments. Within DHS, this recent problem is one that belongs to the "Directorate of National Protection and Programs" and those divisions are run and operated by career civil servants who are almost impossible to fire and remain the same people from administration to administration.  These same people are the ones who let Richard Reid [the "shoe bomber"] board an airplane during the Bush Admin. Once in a while you get a cabinet member who rules with an iron hand and they almost always make things worse. E.g, Donald Rumsfeld ran the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, neglecting advice from the JCS, even though Rumsfeld had never been to the War College and knew nothing about the conduct of war. We also had Hank Paulson as Secretary of the Treasury who was simply a former CEO of Goldman Sachs who engineered the TARP bailouts which gave Goldman Sachs $10 billion of your tax dollars. I don't think you want these cabinet members running the operations of their agencies because they will screw things up all the time. They simply do not have the expertise to do any more than allocate resources within the agency. What we really need is the ability to fire the idiot career civil servants under them when they screw up.  Does anyone really believe that the former head of DHS, Michael Chertoff, or the current head, Janet Napolitano, have the expertise to tell the Coast Guard [part of the DHS] how to do their job? Is there any person out there who has the expertise to manage all of the sub-divisions including TSA, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, the FBI, etc. etc etc? Only in your dreams.    

[pmeisel]

I have a better idea.  Abolish Homeland Security.  Give airline screening authority to the FAA, they won't mess it up any worse than it has been. 

While we're at it, abolish the DEA and any criminal/investigative powers of the ATF, give those jobs back to the FBI.

If you don't put many thousands of bureaucrats out of work and back into the private sector, we will continue to have to import immigrants for manual labor.  If those people are mowing lawns and bagging  groceries we can keep our population down a bit.

[Dee]

Well the fact remains that just because the United States Government's Department of Homeland Security said it, doesn't mean the Dutch Government has to listen and obey.
This whole damn mess of air line security should be handled be the vendors themselves. i.e. The AIR LINES. These are businesses in the business of making money. If they want to stay in business, LET THEM make sure their air lines are safe.
Next we will have a Dept. of Roller coaster Security, to make sure their all safe. WAIT! We probably already do.

[Dee]

I have a better idea.  Abolish Homeland Security.  Give airline screening authority to the FAA, they won't mess it up any worse than it has been. 

While we're at it, abolish the DEA and any criminal/investigative powers of the ATF, give those jobs back to the FBI.

If you don't put many thousands of bureaucrats out of work and back into the private sector, we will continue to have to import immigrants for manual labor.  If those people are mowing lawns and bagging  groceries we can keep our population down a bit.

I've got a better idea. Expand YOUR IDEA to INCLUDE THE FBI. Get rid of it, and turn it all over to the Secret Service.

[Black Eagle]

Cabin4 and Dee make a good point. The Patriot Act, which killed the 4th amendment once and for all, was jammed down our throats by Bush appointees. Many of the career lawyers in the DOJ [some of whom are good friends of mine] opposed it because it gutted the 4th amendment. Worse than the Patriot Act was the DSP [Domestic Surveillance Program]. The DSP died in 2004, while John Ashcroft was in the hospital for gall bladder surgery, because the acting USAG refused to sign off on it stating that it was unconstitutional. [When the DSP was adopted, it had to be reapproved by the Attorney General every 6 months. Ashcroft signed off on it every 6 months until he was hospitalized and his Deputy then refused to do it. This put Bush, Dick Cheney, and Cheney's attorney, David Addington, through the roof but they had to live with it.   ]