Michelle Malkin for Secretary of DHS! First order? Implement all necessary changes outlined in her first book, Invasion.

Can’t we get rid of Chertoff and put someone normal in charge?

When General Petraeus is done in Iraq, I think he’d be a great choice.

I’m up at Elmendorf and we have just finished the first NSPS cycle. I’m still waiting for the official review and information on what the raise/bonus will be. The one nice thing is that you can point out all the ways you exceed standards, if you actually do your job well. However, once the novelty wears off, people will figure out how to use the system just like any other system. My biggest issue is that if you do well, the pay pool still gets to decide whether to give your pay-out as a bonus or a raise. That means that I could do my job extremely well and never get an increase in my base pay because the bosses can just hand out a bonus each year instead of actually raising your pay. I don’t think that will happen at the beginning but with the budget cuts, I can see the wing having to make a choice like that in order to keep enough money in the flying hour or other mission-oriented programs. It will be interesting to see what happens.

As far as the topic of this thread, it’s amazing to me that her security clearance check did not find this stuff a whole lot sooner. My clearance check has taken a year and they’ve sent FBI to talk to my undergrad profs, my parents, my colleagues, etc. There is no excuse for the failure of both the FBI and CIA.

If you are depending on DHS to protect you, be worried.

NSPS is not as bad as the unions would have you believe. That said, no matter what system is in place, the main problem is that supervisors are failing in their job to actually SUPERVISE their personnel. If they were to simply document shortcomings and rehabilitation failures, it wouldn’t be any problem to purge the workplace of substandard performers.

We have got to hold people accountable, and it starts from the top down.

I had a Top Secret Crypto clearance with a very high level access in the military … I concur about the length of time it takes to get a clearance … of any level …

It appears to me in the Prouty case that her husband being an employee resulted in a haphazard and less than thorough background investigation if there really was one … and I am beginning to doubt an investigation even took place other than on paper …

On November 19th, 2007 at 10:03 am, DesertLover said: There are aspects of our terrorism policy (and others) that I do not agree with whole-heartedly …

I concur. I would prefer an anti-terrorism program to Bush’s open borders policies.

The Prouty issue is mind-numbing. Why is it that she obviously didn’t have to undergo the unbelievably strenuous screening that born citizens do when applying to the FBI or CIA? I was interviewed for three hours for an employee who applied to CIA and my interview came in the third round of screens nearly a year after her application was filed! CIA even traced her ancestors for three generations and verified their burial places.

But Prouty faked her marriage to obtain false ID, clearly orchestrated her way into highly sensitive matters, has clear ties to Hezbollah, rises to “star status” to grill al Qaeda sympathizers…and even managed to marry a state department envoy to the Middle East along the way? How?

Any wonder why most folks, regardless of politics, trust their US government officials about as far as they can pick them up and throw them?

However, IMHO, Alot of our trained warriors would be an improvement over this maddness. My suggestion would be for a senior E-6+/O-3+ from the Spec Ops (eg. SEALS, RECON, Special Forces, or DELTA Force) Community to take the lead. Heck, even Sherrif Joe Arapoe (sp?) would do a far superior job

GSP

On November 19th, 2007 at 9:48 am, ajmontana said:
…Does that make Chertoff Big Bird?

I love the Sesame Street characters AJ.

Them’s fighting words!