NOAA's Party Boat

A boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money. An old cliché, and very, very true.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), while not yet reaching the level of cliché, has become a euphemism for inept management.

NOAA's Fisheries Service Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) in Seattle bought a boat -- a very fancy boat, a "luxurious" boat, a boat that cost $300,787. You can view a sales video of the boat here. Indulge yourself -- see how the 1% lives.

The boat was delivered in June 2008 and was used by OLE personnel for personal entertainment. The first operational patrol was in June 2009, a year after the boat had been delivered. It was taken out of service in September 2010 after a total of just nine operational patrols.

Much of the factual information in this essay comes from a response by the Department of Commerce to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts. The FOIA response is dated 16 February 2012, and Senator Brown gave a speech from the Senate floor on 17 February. You can view the eight-minute speech here, and you will see that it is not normal go-along-to-get-along Senate demagoguery. Brown is a breath of fresh air. He asked, "What does it take to get fired at NOAA?"

The IG report in the FOIA response is heavily redacted -- for privacy concerns, we are assured. We are familiar with redacted FOIAs, particularly from NOAA. The redactions are annoying, but one can interpret who is who at least in broad terms. There is a primary actor in the NOAA Party Boat saga. He is one of four supervisory OLE agents in the Seattle office. I will refer to him as the Redacted Rascal, or RR for short.

The IG's report includes the following:

1. [RR] violated agency policy and ethical standards by operating the UC [undercover] vessel with his wife and/or friends aboard on three known occasions (workdays) in the summer of 2008.

2. When contemporaneously questioned by [redacted], and later by OIG [Office of the Inspector General], [RR] was not candid about unauthorized persons aboard the UC vessel, in violation of agency policy and the Standards of Ethical Conduct.

4a. Inappropriate use of personal credit card for nearly $12,000 in vessel operating costs.

4b. Interference [by RR] with OIG investigation.

How serious are these charges? Well, #2 and #4b can get you lots of hard time in a federal slammer -- just ask Martha Stewart, Scooter Libby, and the bleeping golden Blago. How did RR make out? Much better than the other three. RR is under the protection of the benevolent Dr. Jane Lubchenco, administrator of NOAA. The following is also from the IG's report:

On May 31, 2011, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland [serving NOAA Headquarters] declined criminal prosecution of [RR] in favor of administrative remedies. A USA [redacted] specifically recommended administrative action be pursued against [RR] and the Government be made whole for the cost of the fuel and time attributable to [RR's] reported misconduct involving the UC vessel.

No criminal prosecution -- only an administrative action recommended, and we don't know if the recommendation was followed.

The Bad Faith President

Say what you might about Jimmy Carter and the inept presidency, but at least Jimmy was acting in good faith.

President Obama is the personification of bad faith.

"[N]o president ever before has lied as frequently, as flagrantly or as foolishly as has Barack Obama" (Jack Kelly in Real Clear Politics).  "[T]he president is coming across more and more as a trimmer, as an operator who's not operating in good faith" (Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal).  "President Obama is too busy spewing falsehoods to support his ideological agenda than [sic] to take account of the facts" (Larry Kudlow in Real Clear Politics).  These essayists are neither lightweights nor ideologically rigid right-wingers.  Ms. Noonan was a recent supporter of Obama.

As citizens, we owe the office of the president respect and support, regardless of our individual feelings for the occupant of the office.  In return, the occupant of the office of the president owes us a good-faith custodianship -- a custodianship that we are being denied by President Obama.  Let us explore Obama's bad faith in three areas: energy policy and the economy, national defense and foreign policy, and personal freedom and liberty.

Energy Policy and the Economy

Obama is campaigning on the energy slogan of "all of the above" in bad faith.  See his website (ignore that "Donate" tab).  The funny thing about Obama's "all of the above" is the limited definition of the word "all."  Shades of what the meaning of is is. 

"All" does not include coal. 

Obama is campaigning on reducing the cost of gasoline and creating more jobs.  At the same time, he is putting virtually an entire industry out of business with an EPA regulation that limits the emissions from coal-fired plants to economically unachievable low levels.