I read Deb Fuller's "So what, this is how it's done"
post and deleted it before getting to this one (I was
reading on my cell phone and didn't get full text).
Deb, here's the so what: While some part of the
procedure may not be completely new, it's the
requiring that those hired mimic the "Bush agenda" on
the environment that causes me concern. I know a lot
of folks get offended when one speaks of politics
here, but you cannot address this without so doing.
I read a bazillion documents everyday (an info junkie,
sometimes I think I subscribe to too much since I feel
compelled to get to the bottom of the inbox each day).
A good chunk of those documents are from the media.
If you follow what's been ongoing in the last 24
months alone, there's been a genuine pillaging of
lands that belong to you and I and turning them over
to "big business" and other interests. Things that,
in my opinion, should be left veritably pristine, or
at least in a state where they can be enjoyed by the
public at large are being raped in the name of vested
interest (sorry to be blunt; it's my version of the
truth I've read and processed).
The same is now being done to the Endangered Species
Act in Congress. If you believe, as do I, that this
planet belongs to those who follow us, and we are
simply borrowing it, watching people (in large measure
on the Right)invalidate the worth of other creatures
that precipitously occupy this earth seriously
troubles me.
Now take the attempts to overthrow Social Security.
The minnions who were civil servants working for the
government before this administration took office were
being compelled to skew the facts and repeat the party
mantra as though it were gospel. Add to that the
potentially inflammatory discussion of the Cheney/CIA
wars (a la the events that lead up to the Valerie
Plame/Joe Wilson case), where the second in command
tried to compel the intelligence branches to repeat
what he wanted to have said (and we'll leave it to
Fitzpatrick to sort out), the article below doesn't
represent a so what.
The administration just got its butt beat by a federal
judge because it engaged in jaundiced journalism
(planting sources as though they were reporters who
would mime the message the White House wanted
uttered). The concern of those of us who do care
about the environment, endangered species, social
security, education, and more, is that we don't want
the evidence to be so blatantly misrepresented as fact
when, in reality, it's pure bull aimed at enriching
the few at the expense of the masses.
So, yeah, there's a procedure that gets followed when
folks get hired, the screening, the probing of
philosophies (though you couldn't prove that much by
the Roberts/Meirs documents), etc., but unlike the
folks who work in the private sector who are to spout
what the big boss wants spouted, these folks
technically work for you and I (as naive as that may
sound), and owe some responsibility to protect the
environment, not pillage it.
Gale Norton has enough problems explaining what
happened and is happening to the Native American
trusts. She's not proven (in my book) very worthy to
be entrusted with our environment. I, personally,
don't want a parrot hired that will squawk what she
wants conveyed.
--- Reine Hauser <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Scary e-mail from the Public Employees for
> Environmental
> Responsibility....
>
>
> News Releases
> Immediate Release: October 13, 2005
> Contact: Chas Offutt (202) 265-7337
>
> POLITICAL SCREENING FOR ALL PARK SERVICE MANAGERS -
> Mid-Level Managers
> Picked for Fealty to "the President's Management
> Agenda"
>
>
> Washington, DC - The National Park Service has
> started using a political
> loyalty test for picking all its top civil service
> positions, according
> to an agency directive released today by Public
> Employees for
> Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Under the new
> order, all mid-level
> managers and above must also be approved by a Bush
> administration
> political appointee.
>
> The October 11, 2005 order issued by NPS Director
> Fran Mainella requires
> that the selection criteria for all civil service
> management slots
> (Government Service grades or GS-13, 14 and 15)
> include the "ability to
> lead employees in achieving the .Secretary's 4Cs and
> the President's
> Management Agenda." In addition, candidates must be
> screened by Park
> Service headquarters and "the Assistant Secretary
> [of Interior] for
> Fish, and Wildlife, and Parks," the number three
> political appointee in
> the agency.
>
> The order represents a complete centralization of
> Park Service promotion
> and hiring in what has traditionally been a
> decentralized agency. More
> strikingly, the order is an unprecedented political
> intrusion into what
> are supposed to be non-partisan, merit system
> personnel decisions.
>
> The President's Management Agenda includes
> controversial policies and
> proposals such as aggressive use of outsourcing to
> replace civil
> servants, reliance on "faith-based initiatives" and
> rollbacks of civil
> service rights. Interior Secretary Gale Norton's
> "4Cs" is a slogan she
> uses to express her management approach: "4 Cs:
> communication,
> consultation, cooperation, all in the service of
> conservation."
>
> "It is outrageous that park superintendents must
> swear political loyalty
> to the Bush agenda and parrot hokey mottos in order
> to earn a
> promotion," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff
> Ruch. "The merit system
> is supposed to be about ability, not apple
> polishing."
>
> The order applies to all hires for park
> superintendents, assistant
> superintendents and program managers, such as chief
> ranger or the head
> of interpretive or cultural programs. Overall, the
> policy applies to
> more than 1,000 mid-level management and supervisory
> positions in the
> Park Service.
>
> "Presidents come and go but the civil service is
> designed to serve
> whoever occupies the swivel chair in the Oval
> Office," Ruch added. "It
> is downright creepy that now every museum curator,
> supervising scientist
> and chief ranger must be okayed by a high-level
> political appointee."
>
> ###
>
> Read the October 11 "Revised Procedures for GS-13,
> GS-14, and GS-15
> Selections"
>
http://www.peer.org/docs/nps/05_13_10_hiring_directive.pdf
>
>
> Revisit the President's Management Agenda
> http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2002/mgmt.pdf
>
>
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Indigo Nights
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