Thursday, June 24, 2010

poor judgement

    It seems there is  a lot of poor judgement being shown by people these days. 
  • Take the policeman in Washington who slugged a 17 year old girl, for instance. I watched the video several times and the girls who committed the crime of jay walking  were definitely wrong in being verbally abusive to the policeman. But hitting someone with your fist is not part of police training.  There are "come along" holds that cops are taught to use that enable him to get the upper hand with someone who may be larger than he is. It took a long time for this policeman to gain control of the girl. He may have forgotten his training. I can't help but wonder how this officer would be able to arrest a man his own size who was not willing to be arrested when he could not gain control of a teenage girl. Poor judgement? I think so. Not too long ago a policeman was video taped tasering a woman in her 70's. Sure, she was being uncooperative and mouthy, but using a taser?  Extremely poor judgement. I think both these cops should find a job more in keeping with their abilities and temperament.
  • Then there is the situation with Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) . After a meeting at the White House where a deal was made with BP to create 20 billion dollar escrow account to cover oil damages and claims resulting from the Gulf oil leak, congressman Joe Barton apologised to Tony Hayward, CEO of BP, for the "shake down" he received by the president. A corporation being held accountable for it's actions is a shake down?  Poor judgement? You bet.  Texas voters will be exercising good judgement if they vote Barton out of office in the next election.  Note: Barton has received 1.5 million dollars in campaign contributions from the oil industry. Money does have a way of clouding your judgement, doesn't it?
  • Tony Hayward, CEO of BP would like to have his life back. If he is able to sail his yacht on the weekends then this tragedy in the Gulf is just a minor inconvenience for him. Lives and livelihoods have been lost  but no concern was forthcoming from Mr. Hayward until he was overwhelmed by the public furor.
  • U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman has overturned the Obama administration's six month moratorium on deep water oil drilling. It turns out the judge holds stock in oil drilling and pipeline companies, but he assures us there's no conflict of interest. I feel better knowing that.
  • General McChrystal is relieved of his command after bad mouthing the commander in chief in a magazine article. As a career military man the general understands the consequences of insubordination and I'm sure that he would never brook such a lack of respect from any of his own subordinates.  So, I wonder if this is the mother of all bad judgements or if there was an ulterior motive.

5 comments:

Rain Trueax said...

Worst about the Afghanistan thing is this thought from Sullivan-- http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/06/petraeus-now-runs-the-war-and-obamas-presidency.html There are so many people in this country defending this bad judgment to decide we can remake Afghanistan and this is an angle to it that is very worrisome to me. :(

Envoy-ette said...

My sources say it was McC.'s staff, after several weeks with the reporter who was stranded there because of the volcano in Iceland. What should have been a 3 day assignment lasted much longer. Not excusing the bashing,(although deserved) but really, do you think Rolling Stone had the military's best interest at heart?
Of course not, they were thrilled to have something like that to report. One final question, if it had been Bush, would he have fired his general, or listened to him and learned something.

Unknown said...

Bush would have fired him also. As you know, in the military insubordination can not be tolerated.

AJEYA RAO said...

Good info, from the otherside of the world. I agree how mis-judging can cause affects. I like you new arrangments in the garden. Lovely.

Lorna said...

Good call on all these issues.