So, here it is Monday morning and I'm sitting in the local bagel shop on the way to work enjoying a cuppa and a bagel (I'm pretty sure the guy who applied the shmear was sure that extra cream cheese was coming out of his paycheck...it's a BushEconomy Thing), when I see this story about Diploma Mills. Great way to make a living...if you run the Mill. So I read it and see that Sen. Susan Collins (who should really be a Democrat), is busting on them. Big Time. Well, that's pretty boring stuff...congresscritter, easy target...like shooting [something] in a barrel. Right. Oh no, it's waaay better. Seems that some over-paid under-qualified(?) Depity Departmint Hed at the Department of Homeland Security might be a certified Grad-U-Ate of a Diploma Mill (well, they're investigating, but given that it's on the list of Diploma Mills, I'd say her chances of vindications are, well, slim?)...and the Office of Personnel Management sees this whole situation as a problem (reeealy?).
Concerns about phony credentials have been mounting since June, when questions were first raised about the academic record of the Homeland Security Department's deputy chief information officer, Laura Callahan. She's on paid leave while the department investigates whether her degrees, including a Ph.D. from Hamilton University of Wyoming (which is not affiliated with Hamilton College in New York or similarly named colleges and universities), came from diploma mills.
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Patients trusted Gregory Caplinger, who told them he was going to market a drug to treat AIDS and cancer. Investors trusted him, too, and gave him money for his venture. But while Caplinger claimed he had a medical degree from Metropolitan Collegiate Institute in Great Britain, an expert witness for the government testified that a medical degree from MCI could be bought for $100 with no study required, according to court documents. He said he was nominated for a Nobel Prize in medicine by a British hospital, which court documents say was merely a mail drop. The North Carolina man was convicted of six counts of wire fraud and two counts of money laundering, and was ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution as part of his 2001 sentencing.
One couple gave him $30,000 and sought his advice about cancer treatments for family members. An actress who was HIV positive was treated at his clinic.
Anyone who wants can get a fake Diploma and probably get a political-appointee job at, say, NIH, FDA or NASA, or be 'science' advisor for the 1600 Crew? They'd probably put you on their website as Dr. X YYYY, MD, PhD from Columbia State University, 1997 Double Nobel Nominee in Microbiology (Medicine) and Quantum Mechanics (Physics), who doesn't believe in Extensive Human Drug Trials, or Global Warming, because scientific evidence to support either is lacking.
Isn't that what CEO (gag me) presidents do, surround themselves with really smart people? Well, there ya go!
Hey! Who checked out Instahacks J.D.? Just asking....
Callahan will be the senior director of an office that will be in charge of management, policy and enterprise initiatives such as disaster management and Project SafeCom, a communications network linking first responders, Homeland Security Department CIO Steve Cooper told Federal Computer Week.
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Callahan is the latest in a series of information technology executives to join the new department's CIO shop.
No wonder DHS is such a mess...I thought that they were supposed to be doing Background Investigations...and she came from the Department of Labor, so she wasn't even a "new hire".
I feel more secure already...is the DHS Depity Director of guns'n'ammo just hired from a Pizza Delivery position?
