Official Takes Blame For Passport Mess

Asst. Secretary Of State Is Sorry Passport Rules Caused Americans Undue Aggravation

(AP)  The current passport mess is rare among government foul-ups: A top federal official has publicly taken the blame and expressed regret.

"Over the past several months, many travelers who applied for a passport did not receive their document in time for their planned travel. I deeply regret that," says Assistant Secretary of State Maura Harty, who is in charge of passports for U.S. citizens. "I accept complete responsibility for this."

In an effort to thwart terrorists, the government implemented new rules on Jan. 23 requiring more Americans to have passports. By summer, more than 2 million Americans were waiting for passports; half a million had waited more than three months since applying for the travel identification that historically has been ready in six weeks.

The massive backlog has destroyed summer vacations, ruined wedding and honeymoon plans, disrupted business meetings and educational trips. Individuals have lost days of work waiting in lines or thousands of dollars in nonrefundable travel and lodging deposits. And Congress has been overwhelmed as constituent pleas for passport help soared from dozens a year to hundreds a month in many offices.

The culprits have variously been identified as inept planning, underfunded preparations, popular misunderstanding of poorly crafted government advertising, unanticipated effects of public debate over immigration, tardy and ill-considered responses to the developing crisis, and even partly on Hurricane Katrina, which damaged the New Orleans processing office.

Some in Congress wonder if the effort hasn't actually harmed security. Others question whether more passports actually contribute much to security at all.

[ramos937]

While of noble intent, Ms. Harty's effort to "fall on her sword" is not even close. Throughout the Executive Branch, every dollar that is not nailed down in some way (and even when it is), has been diverted to the Iraq war. This has had the very real effect of curtailing the delivery of services to the public which includes passport delivery. All you have to do is to notice how the quality of federal service has deteiorated over the past six years. This is not the fault of the employees. They simply do not have the resources they should have.

[yamuttya]

with Bush in charge is anybody REALLY surprised ???

[jb01201a]

Well lookie here : Another stupid lib remark:
with Bush in charge is anybody REALLY surprised ???

I think he would be better than any one of you loons on the left.

[mayihavemore]

Inept planning & unanticipated affects certainly plagues this countrys leadership. The beat goes on!

[hypnotoad72]

Hurry up NAU; that'll spare some of the excess time and waste involved. Assuming NAU is going to be real, but wikipedia suggests it might be.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Union

[jn122736]

jb01201a, don't worry. These two (yamuttya and MCVet) seem to be hardcore Bush-haters who troll threads and take any opportunity to attack the US government. Strangely enough, yamuttya is a Canadian! He/she doesn't even live in the USA, so don't waste time debating these cretins.
Posted by S_Temper at 07:42 AM : Jul 22, 2007
------------------------------

S_Temper and jb01201a,

To accept your assessment that yamuttya and MCVet are %u201CBush haters%u201D one would have to conclude that what they are saying about Bush and his administration is incorrect.

Can either of you specifically contradict what they are saying? If not, then what does that say about you and your comments?

The old %u201Cstones and glass houses%u201D clichi, like most other old sayings, are deeply rooted in logic and facts.

[sandy19731]

And, to make matters even worse Passports are only good for ten years. That will mean ten years from now another glut. Our fingerprints are not required on them, only pictures.

We can do better than this.

[barbaraf4]

This situation is indicative of how this administration does business: 1. rush into action, without checkpoints or contingency plans; 2. keep repeating the same actions expecting different results, even though the original plan is obviously failing; 3. find a flunky to fall on their sword and take the blame; 4. block all requests for information leading up to the situation (Executive Privilege); 5. go the Crawford for annual August vacation (drag press along so everyone can swelter while waiting for the daily news and photo op with Bush looking like a regular guy in dusty jeans and boots); urge "fellow Americans" to cutback on energy, while using Air Force One as a commuter jet - at least 3 times a week (Bush doesn't want to be in Crawford either).

[jeff776]

What not our highly effective and efficient government...(sarcasm)

[jetranger7]

Alright: WWW.INFOWARS.COM WWW.ALMARTINRAW.COM

[likeitis5050]

jn122736 Don't know where you stand on eating at a table you haven't contributed squat to, but I resent it. Can't vote in our elections? Then don't throw rocks at our low-lifes. Stick with your own low-lifes working you over in your own government...there's a thought. And I'm sure every citizen of every country feels the same way about outsiders weighing in on matters they know little about, or are invested in personally.

But we can all pretty much agree Bush is not the man he pretended to be 7 years ago. Blame it on mental illness, or whatever makes it feel right, he's not working for the American people any more now than he intended to do 7 years ago. He's a fraud. I know...I stay in touch with my congressmen and it's getting harder and harder for them to defend his idiotic actions. (Elections coming up have a whole lot to do with that).

But the basic rule of thumb when dealing with smelly, don't-have-any-other-skills, and think-I'm-bad-because-I'm-not-saying-this-to-your-face trolls...don't respond. Ever. They feed off that. Only another troll will ever respond to a troll once they've been identified.

[condumism]

S_Temper (a SOUTHERN REDNECK) blurted:

hardcore Bush-haters who troll threads and take any opportunity to attack the US government.

Ann you, a hardcore hypocrit that takes every opportunity to defend cronyism as though it's a VIRTUE? You southerner's and America hater's make it very clear to the rest of US that the Neanderthal is not extinct afterall.........

[zootallures2]

take any opportunity to attack the US government.

Posted by S_Temper at 07:42 AM : Jul 22, 2007

Maybe they are from Able Danger and only hit the specially reinforced parts.

[gramto7]

You southerner's and America hater's make it very clear to the rest of US that the Neanderthal is not extinct afterall.........
Posted by ConDumism

I don't know exactly where you live, but I am a DEMOCRAT who lives in the SOUTH, and I am getting tired of your slurs against those of us who live down here. The war was over more than 100 years ago. GET OVER IT!

[jt_lancer]

Government is generally inefficient and incompetent, and this is yet another example. Why would anyone trust the government to do anything right?

[sevenveils]

Face it and there are no bones about this fact: The neocons are turning passports into a national identification system.

Don't think Big Brother is not watching.

[ioweign]

And MCVet seems to be obsessed with calling people "Nazis." I don't know what war MCVet fought in, but it wasn't WWII, because he knows nothing about Nazis. Message to MCVet: Thank you for your service to our country. Please stop accusing your fellow Americans of being Nazis.
Posted by S_Temper at 07:50 AM : Jul 22, 2007

If you haven't noticed, he is pointing out behaviour that has resurfaced on this planet after 60 some years.

He is not the only one to have noticed it and placed the Nazi name on it.

Nazism and Fascism are very similiar.

Fascism is an authoritarian political ideology (generally tied to a mass movement) that considers individual and other societal interests subordinate to the needs of the state, and seeks to forge a type of national unity, usually based on, but not limited to, ethnic, cultural, or racial attributes. Various scholars attribute different characteristics to fascism, but the following elements are usually seen as its integral parts: nationalism, authoritarianism, statism, militarism, corporatism, populism, totalitarianism, anti-communism, racism and opposition to economic and political liberalism. However, contrary to popular belief, racism is not a requirement of Fascism

[robertstom1]

There's a reason these passports are being delayed and it has less to do with the ineptitude of the US government than with making sure we stay in the country.

[randalds]

Posted by IOWEIGN at 02:03 PM : Jul 22, 2007

Absolutely and there is no doubt that the road Bush and Cheney are leading us down IS the road to fascism. Too many people in this country have become to arrogant in thinking that it can't happen here, well it most certainly can and under the current administration is most certainly is. Once upon a time even bringing up the word Nazi was considered to be hyperbole and over the top. However more and more people are beginning to recognize what even Bush and Cheney might not themselves really see, that we are starting to mirror that sick system in far too many ways. This time I hope we're smart enough to stop it now, instead of having to try when it's too late.

[starleo146]

Barbara4 I liked that analogy. Is bush going on vacation again? I thought he just had a vacation with mommy and daddy and Putin, Man does he ever work at all? I forgot Cheney is really the president that is why he is holding all those documents and papers. hoping we will not find it out.

[lastdance2]

Looks like that low life :

Weekend : CBS News Management
is back.

[deepperppl]

It's nice to know the buck stopped somewhere on this snafu. Not often you see a gov't employee admit doing something wrong. I find it quite refreshing.

[jacksteen1]

The "buck" didn't stop anywhere. This low-level appointee was TOLD to fall on her sword and take the heat.

She'll be rewarded with a lifetime gig at the nearest office of Halliburton after this administration starts to feel the indictments closing in on them.

[sharncedar]

Hey I know - apply for dual Mexican citizenship and then you won't need a passport at all to cross the US border, since you'll be Bush's and Pelosi's special little amigos who are like them above the law. Lot cheaper to bribe some scummy Mexican crooked cop than the $85 for a passport anyhow.

Did any government officials take the "blame" for that mess, oh I guess not. I guess they are still doing right now. As hard as they can. Still giving out fraudulent L-1 and H-1 visas as well to companies like Tata, who use the visas to train workers for offshore placement, a clear violation of rules for both h-1 and L-1 categories. But this little tramp didn't take the "blame" for that, did she now, but rather for somephony snafu about the passports being slow. This is another cynical political move from an outrageous government, like apologizing to your wife for forgetting her birthday when you were really caught having an affair or plotting to kill her.

These government types make me sick, so really sick.

[slim1h2o]

Hey I know - apply for dual Mexican citizenship and then you won't need a passport at all to cross the US border, since you'll be Bush's and Pelosi's special little amigos who are like them above the law. Lot cheaper to bribe some scummy Mexican crooked cop than the $85 for a passport anyhow.

And maybe I can get my SS that I've paid into the last 37 years,...... that they won't give me since I've been disabled. *** Jerks

[slim1h2o]

I said A.s,s, hole jerks.

[coffeehead-2009]

I find it quite refreshing.

xxxxxx

I find it quite "telling"...


"What happened was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to be governed by surprise, to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security ...
To live in the process is absolutely not to notice it -- please try to believe me -- unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, regretted.
Believe me this is true. Each act, each occasion is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow.
Suddenly it all comes down, all at once. You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, what you haven't done (for that was all that was required of most of us: that we did nothing) ... You remember everything now, and your heart breaks. Too late. You are compromised beyond repair. "

German professor after World War II describing the rise of Nazism to a journalist

[crater7]

HEY FOLKS, JUST THINK HOW MANY TERRORIST PLOTS THIS ADMINISTRATION HAS PREVENTED BY NOT ALLOWING AMERICANS TO GO ON THEIR HONEY-MOONS TO CANCUN ETC. I FEEL SAFER ALREADY.
STAY THE COURSE.

[bustardo]

Effing cry babies. If people had requested their passports in a timely manner, this would not have been the problem it became. This plan was announced months before it went into effect. Could the govenment to better? Of course, but be real, don't expect a passport to be completed in a few weeks.

[kansas1946]

The current passport mess is rare among government foul-ups: A top federal official has publicly taken the blame and expressed regret.
****************************
No, this isn't rare. Another Bush adminstrator taking the fall for Bush's stupidity. Mr. Get-Tough-On-Americans allowed this law to go through without any thought, fore-thought, planning, or, common sense. This isn't rare. It is just par for the Bush Whitehouse course.