(Special Counsel) Bloch to be probed on anti-gay bias

[highplainsdem]

http://www.southernvoice.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=3061


Bloch to be probed on anti-gay bias
Employees, gay rights
groups charge misconduct
By ELIZABETH WEILL-GREENBERG | Oct 20, 3:30 PM


After more than a year of protests from gay federal employees and members of Congress, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management has opened an investigation into Special Counsel Scott Bloch, who has said that federal employees are not protected from discrimination based on sexual orientation.

As special counsel, Bloch is charged with upholding anti-discrimination laws and protecting whistleblowers. But Bloch is guilty of violating the very rules he is supposed to enforce, according to a complaint filed in March against him by the Human Rights Campaign, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and some of Bloch’s staff members.

<snip>

Claims based on sexual orientation discrimination were not the only ones dismissed without investigation, according to the complaint.

More than 1,000 whistleblower complaints were dismissed without investigation, said Jeff Ruch, executive director of PEER. Employees were barred from speaking with a whistleblower if the complaint appeared unclear, he said.

<snip>

[YDogg]

1. LOL! Sorry, but that headline cracked me up.

Sorry.

[highplainsdem]

2. It cracked me up, too -- great headline. But it's a serious story,

an important one.

[YDogg]

4. “The town arsonist has been appointed chief of the fire department.”

That line sums up much of what we are seeing now. I hope the guy will be removed if it can be shown that he has exercised an anti-gay practice. I am certain this bias is much more prevalent that some of us would care to believe.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. LOL!!!

Yeah, the mental picture I got involved a Leather Top, a sling and a 55 gallon drum of vegetable shortening...:D

[cosmicdot]

5. this Bu$h-appointee needs to go

can't believe he's still on the job ... it's going to take a big broom to sweep Washington clean ... I'm guessing he's from the Karl Rove School of College Republicans.

A number of lives have been affected by this guy.


~snip~ "From 2001-2003, Mr. Bloch served as Associate Director and then Deputy Director and Counsel to the Task Force for Faith-based and Community Initiatives at the U.S. Department of Justice.." ~snip~

http://www.osc.gov/bloch.htm




~snip~ "On a Senate disclosure form required for his confirmation, Bloch lists the Claremont Institute, an ultra-conservative think tank in California, which boasts of 'fighting the gay rights movement' as one of its mottos, as one of the organizations with which he has been affiliated as a research fellow." Bloch has not returned several calls from the Blade seeking an interview.

"Bloch has already hired at least two religious conservative advocates to his staff and offered the No. 2 post at the OSC to a college professor from Wyoming who helped form an anti-gay campus group. The professor, Robert Carlson of Casper College, turned down the job, saying he preferred not to move to Washington. Bloch listed membership in other groups, including a staunchly conservative Catholic organization, and noted that he helped organize the opening of a Catholic monastery in Oklahoma." ~snip~

http://www.washblade.com/2004/3-19/news/national/council.cfm

* On Claremont's Board of Directors is Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr., the Dominionist and Council on/for National Policy (CNP) member whose money gave birth to Diebold and ES&S. Ahmanson is also a chief contributor to the Chalcedon Institute, headedy by Mark R. Rushdoony, which supports the Christian reconstruction movement. The movement’s philosophy advocates, among other things, “mandating the death penalty for homosexuals and drunkards.”


(hey, how did he get here) :P

taking the law in his own hands ... not the fox one wants minding the hen house ... like someone wrote in another thread tonight: it's like hiring the town arsonist to head the fire dept.


~snip~ "Soon after his 2004 appointment, in one of his first official acts, Bloch removed the words 'sexual orientation' from the OSC’s Web site, training materials and official documents as a category protected from discrimination in the federal workforce.

"Bloch took this action despite interpretations of U.S. law under Democrat and Republican presidents dating back to Ronald Reagan stating that such discrimination was prohibited.

"Back then, in interviews with both the Los Angeles Times and Federal Times, Bloch said that he disagreed with that interpretation.

"The OSC is an independent federal agency charged with protecting federal workers who have been discriminated against either because of their status as individuals or for revealing corruption or gross mismanagement, what is commonly called whistle-blowing." ~snip~

"The latest troubles for Bloch stem from his decision to open a Detroit-based Midwest field office. In January, in what some OSC employees claim was whistleblower retaliation, Bloch abruptly ordered the transfer of 12 Washington OSC office staff members to offices in Oakland, Detroit and Dallas. They were given ten days to decide to accept the transfers or face termination. ~snip~

"The Detroit office was created under Bloch’s direct instruction.
~snip~

"Ironically, even though the OSC was created to protect government whistle-blowers, Bloch last year issued a gag order in his own office regarding the 'sexual orientation' policy. This gag order extended to employees discussing the matter with members of Congress." ~snip~

http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn_411/newtroblesforscott.html

[annabanana]

6. kickin' in the am............n/t

[Deja Q]

7. Probed? Get some ID brand lubricant. Many people are allergic to it...

:hurts: