Monday, October 31, 2005

 

Firings and Resignations

This idea was first seen on www.tompaige.com under an article by Nick Turse, entitled, "The Fallen Legion". The article originally appeared in Tomdispatch.com.

How many people in government are so upset by the Bush Administration policies that they quit their job? How many workers have been fired by the Administration? The article goes on to list 35 people who were either fired or resigned in protest of Bush's policies. The list includes Bunnatine Greenhouse, the top official in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in charge of awarding government contracts in Iraq who was demoted when she raised objections at the secret, no-bid contracts awarded to Kellogg, Brown and Root (a subsidiary of Halliburton) and other abuses of Halliburton contracts was demoted in August of 2005. Last year Captain John Carr and Major Robert Preston asked to be reassigned and quit their posts as Air Force prosecutors rather than take part in the trials in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba which they considered rigged against the alleged terrorist held there. Captain Carrie Wolf also asked for reassignment for the Office of Military Commissions due to what she considered unjust commission for trying prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. These individuals stayed but could not work in these departments because of the Bush Administrations policies. The article mentions these others who were either fired or resigned.

Tony Oppergard, a federal geodesic engineer who headed a team who investigated toxic wastes from mountaintop strip-mining in Kentucky was fired the day that Bush was inaugurated in January of 2001.

Mike Dombeck, chief of the Forest Service, resigned in March of 2001 when the Bush administration promoted to take the Forest Service away from a pro-conservation stance.

Thomas E. Novotny, a deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services resigned in August of 2001 over frustration with the administration's decision to soften U.S. positions on key issues, such as restrictions on secondhand smoke and advertising and marketing of cigarettes.

Eric Schaeffer, Director of Regulatory Enforcement at the Environment Protection Agency, resigned in February of 2002 over the Bush administrations non-enforcement of the Clean Air Act.

Martha Hahn, the State Director for the Bureau of Land Management and responsible for 12 million acres in Idaho, resigned after being resigned to a previously non-existent job in New York after she took issue with grazing rights in March of 2002.

Mike Parker, Director of the Army Corps of Engineers testified before Congress the Bush-mandated budget cuts would have a negative impact on the Corps. He was asked to resign in March of 2002.

James Zahn, a microbiologist with the Department of Agriculture resigned in May of 2002 when ordered not to publish his study which identified bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and found in the air on industrial-style hog farms.

Sylvia K. Lowrance, a top Environmental Protection Agency official resigned in August of 2002 in protest to the administrations failure to enforce environmental laws and put investigations on ice.

Paul O'Neil served as Secretary of the Treasury for two years. He was fired when he opposed the president's tax cuts in December of 2002.

Larry Lindsey a top economic advisor was fired in December of 2002 after he revealed to a newspaper that the war with Iraq could cost $200 billion.

Richard Clark held a cabinet level post of National Security Council and was the chief advisor on terrorism. He became disillusioned when the Administration ignored evidence and then put pressure to produce a link between Al Qaida and Saddam Hussein when there was no connection. Clark quit in January of 2003.

John Brady Kiesling, a career diplomat, resigned over the invasion of Iraq in February of 2003.

John Brown, a career diplomat, resigned in March of 2003 over the war on Iraq.

Rand Beers, the National Security Council's senior director for combating terrorism resign in March of 2003.

Ann Wright, a career diplomat in the Foreign Service resigned the day the Administration launched the Iraq war in March 2003.

Richard S. Lanier, Martin E. Sullivan and Gary Vikan all resigned in April of 2003 while serving on the White House Cultural Property Advisory Committee to protest the looting of the Baghdad National Museum of Antiquities.

Eric Shinseki. the Army's chief of staff told Congress that the occupation of Iraq would require "several hundred thousand troops" retired in June of 2003.

Paul Redmond, Assistant Secretary for Information Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security resigned in June, 2003 when he shared at a congressional hearing that his department didn't have enough analysts to do the job and his office still lacked the secure communications capability to received classified reports from the intelligence community.

Karen Kwiatkowski, a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force who served in the Department of Defense's Near East and South Asia Bureau resigned in July of 2003 over post-Iraq war decisions.

Charles "Jack" Pritchard who served as the senior expert of North Korea resigned over the Administration's refusal to engage directly with the country in August of 2003.

Bruce Boler, an Environmental Protection Agency scientist resigned in October of 2003 because he refused to support the position that wetlands are a pollution source.

Jack Spadaro, a geodesic engineer on a team to investigate toxic wastes from mountaintop strip mining in Kentucky was harassed for years to sign off on a report and resigned in October of 2003.

Bruce Buckheit, Director of EPA's Air Enforcement Division resigned in November of 2003 over the Bush Administrations decision to put the economic interests of coal-fired power plants ahead of the public interest of reducing air pollution.

John W. Carlin, Archivist of the United States, was pushed to resign by the White House allow no reason was told to him. He resigned in December of 2003.

Colonel Douglas Macgregor retired from the Army in June of 2004 because he felt that now dissent was equated with disloyalty and so no arguments were allowed.

Teresa Chambers, a U.S. Park Police Officer spoke with reporters about budget problems in her organizations and was fired in July 2004.

Andrew Eller, a researcher with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was fired in November of 2004 when his research didn't support an airport project in the Florida panther's habitat.

Rich Biondi, Associate Director of the Air Enforcement Division of the Environment Protection Agency retired in December of 2004 due to the Bush administration interference in allowing his agency to act.

Joanne Wilson, the Commissioner of the Department of Education's Rehanilitation Services administration quit in February of 2005 in protest of the attempts to dismantle programs and cut funding for programs that helped the disabled find employment. In February the administration announced it would close all RSA regional offices and cut personnel in half.

Susan Wood, the Food and Drug Administration's assistant commissioner for women's health and Director of the Office of Women's Health resigned in August of 2005 in protest of the FDA's decision to delay again a ruling on whether the morning-after pill should be made more easily accessible despite a 23-4 vote to do so.

Frank Davidoff, the editor emeritus of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine and an internal medicine specialist of the FDA's Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee resigned a few days later in September of 2005 over the same issue as Wood.

These people are promenient, but they seem like they are just the tip of the iceberg to me. The poor Environmental Protection Agency has lost a large number of people. No wonder the Bush Administration is able to claim the pollution is not related to global warming. Most of the people have left and just cronies remain. This Bush Administration is truly frightening. And with all these people resigning they don't even appear on any unemployment statistic. I wonder if there is any statistic for the number of people hired by the federal government since Bush took office. I wonder if almost half the people are new hires? I wonder if I could find that out somehow?

I didn't realize how lucky I was not to be a federal employee at this time.

The article asks that if you know someone who is a "fallen legion" to send the information to fallenlegionall@yahoo.com

Monday, October 17, 2005

 

Judge Roberts

I've decided to try to post more regularly to this blog. I've saved a series of Wall Street Journal articles (its the only paper I get) to give me food for thought. This one on John Roberts was from August 8th, 2005, pA4.

A friend the other day, a fan of Bush's, was saying that I should be happy with the choice of John Roberts for the Supreme Court. When I said I had concerns, she couldn't believe it. When I explained that he had very few rulings and there was two I knew of that had me very concern. First I said it that he was one of the three judges that sided with the Bush Administration that prisoners at Guantanamo should not be given rights such as those under the Geneva Convention. She thought prinsoners should not have rights. I didn't get it. Her own son is in prison, for something I believe he did not do. Here are men in Guantanamo with even less rights. Not able to speak to a lawyer or your family for over three years now. Abuse is rampant under this administration because the soldiers have few guidelines. Men in Guantanamo and in Iraq have died in the prisons due to the torture by Americans. How can Christian people say that prisoners have no rights? Where is the Christian love? Bush and Christ are not the same. He should be known by his actions. Would Jesus have started a war? No! Would Jesus have tortured men! Jesus preached love and forgiveness. Where are these people coming from?

Then I brought up John Roberts ruling on the child with the french fries who was held in a jail. She said that was a lie. Well, I had read that it wasn't a lie and a little girl was handcuffed and hauled away because she was eating a french fry and the Metro said no eating was allowed. Now adults, were only cited, and were able to pay a fine at a later date, but this child had her shoelaces removed, was handcuffed, and locked in a cell. And Judge Roberts felt this was fair and the police had done nothing wrong. This is what law.com said about it.

"In the unanimous ruling last October in Hedgepeth v. WMATA, Roberts upheld the arrest, handcuffing and detention of a 12-year-old girl for eating a single french fry inside a D.C. Metrorail station. "No one is very happy about the events that led to this litigation," Roberts acknowledged in the decision, but he ruled that nothing the police did violated the girl's Fourth Amendment or Fifth Amendment rights."

Now what kind of ruling is that.

It sorta goes in line with a case he help prepare in 1992 that said if a defendant had a fair trial, even if new evidence came up that suggested his innocents, that if he was sentenced to be executed, then he should be executed regardless of this new evidence. Does this man have a heart? Is this what Jesus would have ruled? I doubt it. This Texas man was executed four months later

In 1992 Judge Roberts also argued (although he did not win this case) that police had the right to make false promises to prisoners in exchange for a confession. So basically he is saying that we should make a law saying that Americans have the right to lie to one another.

In 1991 he argued before the Supreme Court that the federal government should bar doctors from receiving money for abortion counseling. So here are women who feel they are in a desparate situation and counseling is barred from them because of John Roberts.

Why does the religious right like people such as Roberts and Bush. I see no love in either of them. Are Christians not to follow the example of Christ?

I'm a Christian and a liberal. I'm sure that's what Jesus would be a liberal. He was in his lifetime. Jesus was always trying to help the down trodden, the lower class, not the rich and the powerful. He tried to bring love and equality for all. As for sentencing others, did he not suggest that those who are without sin should cast the first stone. What has happened to the love in Jesus's teachings? Why have many of the Christian right forgotten about love?

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