Political Screening For All Park Service Managers

[LiviaOlivia]

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility News Release (www.peer.org)

For Immediate Release: October 13, 2005
Contact: Chas Offutt [phone]

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 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.”


http://www.peer.org/news/print_detail.php?row_id=598

[dionysus]

1. facistastic!

n/t

[intheflow]

37. That's my new favorite word!

:thumbsup:

Unfortunately, we have so many chances to use it these days. :evilfrown:

[Deep13]

2. Hate to draw yet another NAZI parallel, BUT ...

...German soldiers in and before WW2 were required to swear alligence to Hitler personally and not to Germany.

They want people who understand that they are to assist in selling out the National Parks.

[Pacifist Patriot]

30. If the shoe fits.

[KamaAina]

85. Don't you mean "if the jackboot fits"?

:grr:

[Cha]

45. This makes me madder

than anything of the bushit I've read about.

At least the m$m is calling them a few things these days..maybe they Can Be Stopped!

[KittyWampus]

79. Please, Soviet Union Is A More Accurate Analogy IMO.

[oxbow]

84. With all the talk about cronyism in the media these days, I'm surprised

that they just keep on rolling on with their nepotist agenda like this.

Please DU, join me in sending this to all major media outlets and telling them that we're tired of the cronyism. We want competent people running our government for a change, not Bush's old roommates and proctologists. If Katrina taught us anything, its that cronyism is dangerous!

[ClintonTyree]

89. It IS amazing, isn't it?

Usually when someone gets caught with their hand in the cookie jar they learn their lesson and alter their behavior. Not THIS bunch though they try all the harder to get into that cookie jar. The question is, WHY? What are they trying to pull off here, why are they trying to fill every government position with bush loyalists? The obvious answer is they're preparing for some event that requires loyalty instead of qualification. What could that event be?
Or, do they have such disdain for the American public that they could care less what people think and will continue their purging of all those not willing to swear a blood oath to der failure? Are they so callous and disinterested in Americans' opinions that they simply don't care what anyone thinks of them?
Either way this does not bode well for the bush administration. History is littered with the remains of Kings, Emperors and other despots that put their personal gain before the good of their citizens. Not one has remained in power for long and the end result was usually bloody and final. The bush cabal would do well to study history, for past surely is prologue.

[ticapnews]

83. Not just soldiers, but workers as well

Join the Nazi Party and swear allegiance to Hitler (after all, Hitler and Germany were the same thing) or else you'll lose your job - and anyplace in Germany you might want to find work will know why you were fired and won't hire you.

In a book I am reading about Germany before and during WW2, the author interviews an engineer who refused to take the oath at first and they gave him 24 hours to reconsider. He thought about it and realized if he didn't take the oath he would never work again and his family would suffer. He went back the next day and took the oath, rose in prominence and used his position to get people out of the country.

Just one more example of how we are following that path...

[ClintonTyree]

88. Or perhaps they'll be turning some of these parks.........

into, "containment" areas for those citizens that DON'T sign the loyalty oaths to Der Failure. Yep, just plop all of those "undesirables" into the Grand Canyon, they'll be nice and "safe" there and of course, "contained".

[Hobarticus]

3. Play your cards right...one day park ranger, next day, SC nominee!

It's the American suck-up's dream!

[madrchsod]

4. i take it that bush isn`t going to step down

after 2008?

[Deep13]

7. Nope, tomorrow belongs to him.

Bad dictator! No booze for you.

[spacelady]

95. That song always makes me cry at the end of Cabaret

But that sentiment seems so 1940's now, haven't we proven that tomorrow doesn't belong to the Nazis now? *W* knows how ro rui-I mean RUN the country, RIGHT? I mean LEFT? well anyway Tomorrow is another day. And it belongs to whomever holds the cards. And whatever holds our attention. BuhBye~!

[firefox]

5. Worst president ever n/t

[Jara sang]

6. Holy fuck...

They are going to turn over our most pristine areas to corporations. Expect to see oil derricks lining the rim of the Grand Canyon soon. Faith-based initiatives in the parks? how the hell are they going to do that?

[clichemoth]

25. Faith-based national parks.

Well, for one thing, every mention of actual science will have to be replaced by a literal Creationist explanation. Dinosaur National Park in CO/UT will be renamed either Leviathans of the Adamic Age National Park or God's Little Inside Joke National Park, depending on which explanation the Bushites support. The Grand Canyon will be used to illustrate the Great Flood and will host a multimedia exhibit showing what happened to the sinful natives 4,000 years ago.

Then there's **'s other religion: Big Oil. Visitors will be able to come from all over the world (if they're cleared by DHS, anyway) to see our mighty derricks. They may even put one in Teddy Roosevelt's noggin, after all, he broke with the GOP and was kind of an environmentalist (even though he mostly wanted to preserve wildlife in order to kill them later).

[FuzzyDicePHL]

68. By holding Sunrise Services

at gunpoint

[wordpix]

8. BushCorp going down and taking national parks with them

BushCorp is getting ready to hand the national parks over to the Chinese when we can't pay them back all the money we've borrowed.

Big Oil, Gas, Mining and Timber in our national parks, national widlife refuges, the Continental Shelf---what's next?

Impeachment is the only answer!

[LiviaOlivia]

26. Welcome to DU!

:)

[reprobate]

81. Impeachment followed by extradition to the Hague and a life sentance there

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. The civil service must be independent because it overlaps administrations.

[IndianaGreen]

10. The new personnel systems at Homeland Security and DOD

do away with civil service protections replacing them with a spoils systems in which loyalty to the Fuehrer, rather than the Constitution, becomes paramount.

[MisterP]

38. isn't the spoils system what killed Garfield

[PegDAC]

64. National Security Personnel System

You're absolutely correct. The Neo-con Fascists want to turn GS-13s, 14s, and 15s in managerial positions into political appointees, and woe unto you if you're not one of their favorites. Under the Pinkerton Act of 1883, this is totally ILLEGAL.
:mad: :puke: :argh: :grr: :nuke: :yoiks:

[AndyTiedye]

24. This "Administration" Intends to be Permanent

[Lilith Velkor]

74. I wonder--why do so many still don't get that?

:shrug:

[htuttle]

11. In the Soviet Union, even the street cleaning crews had political officers

The same thing appears to be true in the United States under the Bush administration.

[indepat]

22. Is the entire Federal bureaucracy being bastardized? Are the Congress

and Supreme Court to sit idly by on their collective arses?

[pfitz59]

12. Is anyone surprised?

Competence is not an issue. Knowledge and experience are not issues. Fanatical loyalty to the Bush Reich is the ONLY criteria (in ALL) government hiring!

[Bravo411]

13. Just another disgusting move by the Bush Administration ...

It's crap like this that scares the hell out of me. Short of a Revolution, I doubt that there's any way to get the country back on track to being a democracy. There's no way they'll let elections go forward with a verifiable vote count and election fraud will be their M.O. in stealing the country.

[davidinalameda]

14. it's who you know

not what you know

[berni_mccoy]

15. "Who did you vote for?"

"Come on, you voted for Bush, right? No. GET OUTTA HEAR THEN YOU PINKO COMMIE LIBERAL."

[Judi Lynn]

16. Bush has perverted the office he stole. He should go immediately.

We've never had a less intelligent, civilized, well-balanced person attempting to act as President. He and his criminal friends aspire to control us all.

Surely something can be done before 2008.

[Angry Girl]

17. WE HAVE GOT TO STOP THIS!

This maniac is the worst president EVER for the environment:

Bush has reversed more environmental progress in the past eight months than Reagan did in a full eight years.

What can you say about the environmental record of an administration that seeks to test pesticides on poor children and pregnant women? That argues in court that a dam is part of a salmon's natural environment? That places a timber lobbyist in charge of the national forests and an oil lobbyist in charge of government reports on global warming? That cuts clean-air inspections at oil refineries in half, allows Superfund to go bankrupt and permits the mining industry to pump toxic waste directly into a wild Alaskan lake?

Only this: It's about to get even worse.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/7605389?rnd=1129151088984&has-player=true&version=6.0.12.1212

And here's a nice list of the scumbag's little helpers:
http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200505/counter-enviroment-power-list-1.html

Who do we contact? What can be done? Is there anything legal that can be done?

[sofa king]

18. Just the tip of the iceberg.

It's already been happening at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Now, if you want to be a lawyer for the BIA, you have to have "demonstrated support for the President."

http://www.indianz.com/InTheHoop/archive/010516.asp?print=1

At this point, the President isn't even bothering to name an official Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs because there's no longer any such thing as a qualified, clean Republican Indian.

The K-Street Project is another fine example of Republican influence peddling, but Indian Affairs is highly important because it's the canary in the coalmine for government corruption. If you're a corrupt bastard politician or lobbyist, Indians are first and most attractive target out there.

And what do you know? That's just where Jack Abramoff went first when his boy Bush got into office. Now they're trying to staff the whole damned place with Bush's folks.

Do you even need to wonder why?

[sofa king]

20. I need to point out, however....

That what this is really doing is providing us with a list of people to fire and prosecute if and when Our Fearless Leader is removed.

It will take years to eradicate the criminal element being introduced into the executive branch, but this terrible hiring practice will actually give us a head start once--no, if--the heads start rolling.

[trogdor]

77. You know what would be interesting?

If the next President (presumably a Democrat) would ask for the resignations of everyone in the federal government hired between now and Jan 20, 2009 on the grounds that they're political appointees. Can you imagine the howling over at Fox News about the "spoils system run amok"?

[progressoid]

19. Sweet Jesus - time to notify the sleeping media.....again.

[AnneD]

21. I got a newsflash for you

this isn't the only job that now has a political component.....try homeland security....and no, drawing a Nazi comparison is not premature.

[Angry Girl]

27. True but for it to be THIS blatant is just shocking!

The term Homeland Security is derived straught out of Hitler's Heimatland. I can never see or use that term without thinking of the Nazis. It's unbelievable that they chose that term. :scared:

[AnneD]

73. when you go in to take the test

they actually ask if you think the current government is going in the right direction, if you agree with the current government etc....so you either lie to get the job or worse yet...you really believe (and that is scary).

[PinkyisBlue]

96. You have to promise to continue the effort to rape, pillage and plunder

the environment in order to get a job.

[PinkyisBlue]

97. You have to promise to continue the effort to rape, pillage and plunder

the environment in order to get a job.

[phusion]

23. It's like the what PRI party did in Mexico for 70 years

the "perfect dictatorship."

Then came the violent repression of protests...

[Trillo]

28. Isn't this just a reflection of the human condition through the ages?

Yes, it is opposed to the concepts of equal opportunity under the law as I understand it, as well as the concept of merit for competency and ability, and I think it's a horrible move back toward the times of tyrants and dictators. I thought the first amendment was protective of one's beliefs, as beliefs are certainly peaceful and related to associations.

Nevertheless, in human life, if one expresses or holds an unpopular opinion or view of something, isn't discrimination by some based upon that view to be expected?


Didn't Orwell say something about Big Brother's mind programming? What better way of training is there than to reward belief intermittently and withhold reward always when lack of belief is expressed?

[klook]

31. It's a sea change, not just business as usual

The park service is now expected to serve not the public interest, but the White House.

[Trillo]

36. I fully agree, however,

isn't your chosen phrase 'business as usual' versus 'sea change' a reflection of the same phenomenon? The comparison is reminiscent to me of, "a little is of something is okay, a lot of it isn't."

[klook]

67. I didn't mean to convey that a little of this is OK

but rather that, as far as I know, requiring a fealty oath to the White House's anti-nature ideology is a sea change for the park service. In the past, "business as usual" for the park service meant that they served all the visiting public--not just those visitors with jetskis, snowmobiles, chainsaws, jackhammers, Hummers, bulldozers, steamrollers, paving equipment, bazookas, fighter-bombers, TNT, etc.

Sorry if the wording in my previous post was unclear.

[klook]

29. "I promise to turn a blind eye

when logging companies clear-cut wilderness areas, when tourists drive their jeeps, jetskis, and snowmobiles into wildlife habitat, and when oil companies drill in the middle of wetlands and national seashores. And I promise to work with Republican politicians whenever possible to destroy wilderness in favor of developers and wealthy hoteliers, so help me George."

No wonder morale is so low among park service employees.

[The Backlash Cometh]

32. This is big stuff. They're going to give away our parks, and they don't

want anyone stopping them. Be prepared DUers. They're not going to stop until they disunit the U.S.A. and they're using stupid patriots to do it!

[dkofos]

33. And when the Dems take over??

[BiggJawn]

34. Ooh! Lookit the nifty new knives they're being issued, too!

They even say "My Honour is my Loyalty" on one side and "God Bless Karl Rove" on the other!

[CanonRay]

35. This is the begining of the end of the Civil Service

[RedEarth]

39. That is totally unbelievable.. where does it stop with this administration

[CrispyQ]

40. Can the ACLU do something about this?

If this isn't political discrimination what the hell is?

Every fucking day is a new nightmare with this group as the sheeple sleep peacefully through it all.

:banghead:

[loudsue]

42. That's what I'm thinking, Crispy.... This HAS TO BE ILLEGAL!!

Isn't there a right to privacy issue in there, too? Not to mention just such BLATANT nazism!

Gawd!!! Can it get any WORSE?? It seems like it gets worse every day!!

:kick:

[Megahurtz]

92. This FOR SURE has to be ILLEGAL!!!

:mad:

[slay]

41. So now we're The United States of Bush and no longer America?

It has become more and more obvious that the Republicans have declared war on the rest of us. Soon every employer will be some unqualified Bush cronie or some "faith based" wacko. America is getting scarier by the second. :scared:

[Sequoia]

43. Smokey Bear for Supreme Court!

[Cha]

44. Okay, now who doesn't believe

they're FUCKING FASCISTS?

The bushits are putting a lot on their plate in these last 3 years..I wonder who is going to lie and swear by the bushit agenda to move on up in the park service? We'll have infiltrators!

[Cults4Bush]

46. Unbelievable... they just put it right out there these days, don't they!?!

I mean that is just the definition of fascism right there. Add in the lusty lubby love of corpos and man I tell you, anyone who doesn't think we are under a fascist empire is still infected.

Im stunned.

It is so similar to 80's Russia only its getting worse instead of better. Soft porn communist style corporatism with a few hunks of democracy hanging off of it like human flesh.

Unbeliveable. ..

Yet expected, no?

[glitch]

47. These people are so creepy.

I know, everybody knows this. But I had to say it again.
Zombies, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, every book, every movie about fascists and nazis. It's all there.
They've got it all, and quite proud of it.
I want them back in their parents basements where they belong.

[PSPS]

48. This is Bush's "Geheime Staatspolizei"

This is exactly how the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo) worked in Hitler's Germany.

[htuttle]

50. Stalin's were called 'Zampolit'

And they worked this way too.

[OnionPatch]

49. OMG, this is just sick

I can't believe this is happening in America. I could just throw up.

[iamjoy]

51. I Kind Of Agree With The Idea

I mean, it does no good to hire managers who actually care about the environment. They are only going to be frustrated when they are told their job is to destroy it and will probably end up quitting anyway.

Since Dubya is not going to listen to any other viewpoints, he might as well surround himself with sycophants (as he has done). He might as well make sure anyone responsible for carrying out his evil plan actually agrees with it.

Of course they are civil service and will be around in the next administration (hopefully Democratic). What then? Well, these people have no conscience, when the sensible administration tells them they actually have to start protecting the environment, they will change their colors to keep their job.

[pinniped]

58. We still have these so-called activist judges.

Every few weeks I see a new news article about them shooting down another one of idiot boy's (always illegal) plans to kill either the forests, the oceans, or some endangered animal.

[peacetalksforall]

52. What kind of action can we take? This is communism, nazism, facism,

and dictatorial. This is sinister and scary. Where is our damn COngress?

If only 27 to 37 per cent of the country support Bush, it means that hard core political criminals are on their way in to employment positions to work with the corporations who are going to decimate our country, The people who will get the jobs are the politicians, the mafia, or the born agains because the hard core contingent of the silver haired Republicans are not going to work for the parks in a management position. Are they going to publicly toss park employees in management like they are quietly tossing the CIA employees?

Washington Journal, bloggers, all the environmental workers. We must broadcast this. Have any of the Kennedy's said anything? Is Clinton continue to pal around with Poppy?

What about Democrat candidates? Are they going to speak up?

Is the country going to let us go communist-nazi-fascist?

How many atraocities do we have to hear today.

Are they rushing this all in because they know they are going to be out?

[Tigress DEM]

53. I cry FOWL - Chicken Hawk! Vultures! Skunk-Pigeons!

OK the last is a genetic hybrid yet to be invented, but that's how prolific and potent their shit storms are. So let me have my metaphor!

[drhilarius]

54. Correct me if I'm wrong, but part of this is unconstitutional...

Article VI, clause 3: The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.


In other words, if a person up for a job refuses to go along with Bush's "faith based" initiatives (for reasons of faith or logic), and then they are passed over for someone who does, then a religious test, of a kind, has been administered.

Oh, where are those strict constructionists when you needs 'em?

[pinniped]

55. Two of the POS's four Cs include corruption and con.

Conservation my ass. This POS norton has a record of reverse-conservation.

Are all of the high-level forest managers going to propose 95% reductions of dangerous trees all in the name of fire safety? How the F are they going to build their arks?

Sick dermatophytes, I'm running out of names to call these scum.

[Geo55]

76. Forestry application,

Commercial logging is :

A. healthy forest management.

B. see above.

C. see above

[Lorien]

56. The parks belong to the people-NOT the GOP! And they want to start selling

the off to their corporate fossil fuel cronies (15 parks are on the chopping block). ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! :grr:

[Carolab]

57. EEOC guidelines

http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-orientation_parent_marital_political.html

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) does not enforce the protections that prohibit discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation, status as a parent, marital status and political affiliation. However, other federal agencies and many states and municipalities do. The relevant federal agencies are listed below. For assistance in locating your state or local agency, contact the EEOC office nearest you.

In the federal government the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA), as amended, prohibits federal employees who have authority to take, direct others to take, recommend or approve any personnel action from discriminating against applicants and employees on the bases of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, marital status or political affiliation and from discriminating against an applicant or employee on the basis of conduct which does not adversely affect the performance of the applicant or employee.

The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) enforce the prohibitions against federal employment discrimination codified in the CSRA. The OSC will defer those bases of discrimination under EEOC's jurisdiction to the respective federal agency and its EEO process. The CSRA also prohibits employment discrimination in the federal government based on marital status, political affiliation and conduct which does not adversely affect the performance of the employee, none of which are within EEOC's jurisdiction. Moreover, the law defines ten other prohibited personnel practices in the federal government, all of which fall under the jurisdiction of the OSC and the MSPB. See Prohibited Personnel Practices at http://www.osc.gov/ppp.htm.

(snip)

Marital status, political affiliation. Allegations of discrimination based on marital status, and political affiliation are not within the jurisdiction of the EEOC. Such allegations, along with those arising under 5 U.S.C. § 2302(b)(10), may be prohibited personnel practices or other violations of law subject to investigation by the OSC.

Ref: 5 C.F.R. § 1810.1

[slay]

61. Yet another case of BushCo breaking the law

Hopefully they won't get away with this one. For some of us, unfortunately, our parks are our only contact with nature anymore. I hate to think of what will happen to them if BushCo takes total control. :(

[PegDAC]

65. MSPB

is starting to close offices. It's already happened in Boston and Seattle (if memory serves). Something tells me it's going to be dismantled piece by piece.

:mad:

[MarsThe Cat]

59. Until the media is freed from the corporatists- this will never end.

the sad truth is that the majority of the people in this country have NO idea what's going on.

[Historic NY]

60. This is really sad.........

the park service is now under funded and can't take care of historic sites much less national parks. Imagine going to a national historic site and getting lectured on *. I feel sorry for my park service friends. It was bad enough when they developed a warped affirmative action program years back. They put people in positions just to comply, not based on merit or experience. It was strange, outside main stream policies one would expect with civil service. I had a few friends quit mid-level positions mostly because they were by-passed promotions due to the policy.

Strange indeed.

[salin]

62. Isn't this sort of practice causing all sorts of problems for 2 GOP gov.s?

Fletcher in Kentucky - and somewhere else (can't recall).

[blindpig]

63. baldfaced, shameless evil

They will not be happy until every iota of Nature is commodified. They consider the concept of the commonweal anthema. They are the depths of the degeneration of our species.

[Sabriel]

66. Today, the parks

Tomorrow, the schools!

I can hardly wait for those to start. What should I wear to a loyalty hearing? I hear head bags are in this year.

[FizzFuzz]

69. The better to strip mine Parks, my dear.

I can't believe it.

I may sound calm but I am screaming inside.

Stop these fucking people goddammit----when are the leaders going to unite against these monsters??? I can try to open someone's eyes here and there but its not like I have any influence. Shit, I feel like we're trapped on a train with no brakes heading towards a cliff.

shit.

[yellowcanine]

70. Hmm. So there is a Republican way to run a national park? What

a crock of piss.

[RaleighNCDUer]

71. Hey, give em a break. They have our best interests in mind.

They are trying to do something about illegal immigration.

"America? Why the fuck would I want to emigrate to America? I'm trying to ESCAPE repression and corruption!"

[Rex]

72. Swear loyalty or we break you!

Papers! Vere are your papers!

[nytemare]

75. Wouldn't this be against Federal Government EEO policies??

I am trying to google them. If I find something, I will edit.

To me, it seems like they would have a great lawsuit.

[KittyWampus]

78. Just like Nixon

[Aviation Pro]

80. So much for the idea that the Republican Party....

...is the party of meritocracy. These jerkwads would screwup a wet dream.

[Zorra]

82. We need to get all actions taken by this illegal administration

declared null and void through a constitutional amendment as soon as we get control of Congress back. This includes Bu*h's new Scotus cronies.

The Bu*h administration is the enemy of the American People, and came to power through illegal means, therefore, their actions are moot, and with some work can be undone outside the already compromised Supreme Court.

We need to elect Dems/Greens/other who will work to completely nullify every action toward establishing a fascist dictatorship that the PNAC/Bu*h administration has taken.

[reprobate]

86. Here's my letter to the editorial writer of the Orlando Sentinel.

I sent this to the main editorial writer, not the LTTE section, to alert him to the problem and hopefully write something about it in the editorial section.

Hope you do the same with your local rag.

Dear Mr. Porter:

I cam across this article and was astounded that something like this can happen in what used to be the United States of America. There is now a requirement that middle and upper management of both the National Park Service and Department of Homeland Security swear an oath of allegiance to the President. Not the Constitution, but the President; the man, not the office.

It should also be noted that the new personell systems at the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense do away with the civil service system and replace it with a spoils system in which loyalty and not ability is the primary step to advancement.

If I recall correctly wasn't this the same thing Adolph Hitler required of all the management of the early Nazi party in the 1930s?

Personally, I find this very frightening, especially when combineed with the Bush insistance that the military be used for law enforcemant and he declare martial law should another natural or man made disaster occur. This begs the question: Does this administration EVER intend to relinquish power?

This is another huge story that the media has let slip under the radar. It seems to me that the Orlando Sentinel has the obligation to inform the public of this real threat to the American way of life. Loyalty oaths to a person instead of the constitution is NOT the American way of life.

Please let America know just how far this administration has gone. SOMEONE MUST!

I quote a few lines from the below:

http://www.peer.org/news/print_detail.php?row_id=598

"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. "

“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.”

[ourbluenation]

87. This makes me wanna hurl - vomitous policy. I'm contacting

EVERYONE I know...this is scary fascist bullshit.

[wordpix]

90. I just contacted my sleepy media favorites

MSNBC and NBC. Maybe Chris Matthews and Brian Williams will pick up on this story. On the other hand, they're busy with Repuggate (Rove, Scooter, Delay, Frist, etc. etc.) so maybe not.

[ignatzmouse]

91. Screening helped with Voter Vault?

I wouldn't put it past them. Voter Vault is the RNC's enormous database on almost every US citizen that tracks your voting patterns, zip code, magazine subscriptions, credit card purchases, membership in organizations, literally hundreds of variables to make marketing determinations as to who you are. It wouldn't surprise me if applicants were run through their database to especially weed out environmentalists along with anyone leaning left of fascist fanatic.

[PinkyisBlue]

98. Isn't it ironic that they screen out environmentalists

to work in the environmental field?

With the way things are going, our nation's managerial positions will be held by unqualified dolts who believe in the Shrub. Heil Bush.

[freethought]

93. Cripes!! I used to work for the NPS!

I was a law enforcement ranger years ago!! This is sick!! Several people who I initially trained with are still there!! One of them is a special investigator at Yellowstone!!

If someone enters the park service as a profession more than likely it's not to pursue financial riches. They do it because they love the work and get to work in some of the country's most beautiful places. Some of them supplement their income by getting "Red Cards", a certification for fighting wildfires.

F_____G typical of this neocon death cult! This is just a broader symptom of the infection of our government!!

[confludemocrat]

94. In my federal agency, we were out-of-the-blue told "you work for the Prez"

Nearly everyone in the room was a civil service hiree, who had applied, made a list of qualified applicants, was interviewed and were selected by a rating system of qualifications, yet we were told "to be careful" about what we said about the President or his policies, and that again, we work for him.

Never happened in all the Clinton years where the right wing employees were never less than extremely derisive about the President then, and none of the same managers ever did anything but let it slide. Now we were told not to criticize his policies or him, not that anyone post-9/11 did vocally. But they are just paranoid and Fascist enough to make this point in an unprovoked gratuitous way.

So supposedly we owed him some "loyalty". I thought we worked for the people, for the taxpayers and that we were free to speak our minds as citizens, however conscientous we were in doing our jobs.