HOw many more of these boy-next-door fascists are burrowed in?

[burythehatchet]

William R. Steiger has been identified as the HHS official who blocked the report on global health. (Courtesy Of Global Health Affairs)


Bush Aide Blocked Report
Global Health Draft In 2006 Rejected for Not Being Political

...
The report described the link between poverty and poor health, urged the U.S. government to help combat widespread diseases as a key aim of its foreign policy, and called on corporations to help improve health conditions in the countries where they operate.
...
Three people directly involved in its preparation said its publication was blocked by William R. Steiger, a specialist in education and a scholar of Latin American history whose family has long ties to President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Since 2001, Steiger has run the Office of Global Health Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services.
...
Carmona told lawmakers that, as he fought to release the document, he was "called in and again admonished . . . via a senior official who said, 'You don't get it.' " He said a senior official told him that "this will be a political document, or it will not be released."
...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/28/AR2007072801420.html?nav=rss_politics


What really concerns me is that even with a DEmocratic White House, how in the world are they going to ferret out these snakes that have burrowed deep within the concrete foundations of government agencies?

[dkofos]

1. Check their hire date. If hired after 2001 get rid of them.

[burythehatchet]

2. that's actually pretty good rule of thumb. Though I can't get comfortable

with the idea of "purging"

[sharp_stick]

3. Unfortunately I think a purge

may be our only option right now. I compare the pukes to a termite infestation, they are hiding in every wooden structure just waiting to tear it down.

[salin]

22. can't purge the civil service

though we have learned that the DOJ (and certainly other departments) have been using partisanship to hire throughout the civil service ranks.

Best that can be done is to monitor and take action all over the place. Put the GOP moles on notice that any time they act on partisan bases rather than serving the public basis they will face disciplinary action. Make it a whole lot more attractive of an idea that more money is to be made in the private sector. Only when they leave or are forced out (not purged - but document bad and illegal acts - such as Hatch Act violations) can we feel comfortable that the federal govt isn't operating as a communist-style system where all exists to promote and prop up "the party" and the business of the govt be damned.

[Morereason]

28. Can't purge, but can change their jobs. Put them in a place they cannot damage the country

[salin]

31. very good point

it might cost a little in the short run (because their levels/ranks are higher than the salary) but can we move them into janitorial services, manning the little cafeterias in the office buildings, counting out pencils and other office supplies? Wouldn't cost too much in the long run - as most of them would quit pretty quick.

[Warpy]

7. Exactly, this administration is so corrupt, so partisan

that at the very least, everybody who has been hired during it must submit their resumes again and those resumes must be gone over carefully and checked for accuracy.

That applies to the lowliest file clerk in the system. Clearly, anyone in any sort of official capacity has to go. They simply cannot be trusted to put the needs of the country first.

[annabanana]

15. not a bad idea... Those without solid credentials in the FIELD in which

they've been hired should be let go.

[alphafemale]

4. shit weasels nt

[bluerum]

9. They are all propaganda ministers. Lier's and thieves.

[billyoc]

5. Steiger is a political appointee, he gets gone with the rest of the admin. n/t

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

6. Would that also hold for the Regent minions at Justice?

[burythehatchet]

8. yes, but recall that career positions have also been filled

by Bushies. Remember Monica "I may have gone too far" Goodling at DOJ? Don't you think this is also a possibility in other agencies?

[billyoc]

10. I think it's quite possible. In addition to the political appointees, there

will be a large number of civil servants drummed out for Hatch Act violations.
Unfortunately I doubt that they will all be ferreted out.

[glitch]

16. They'll be taken care of internally. These people only thrived with Bushcult backing.

Each department can do their own cleaning.

[supernova]

30. I bet these people haven't endeared themselves

to the career folks at these agencies.

I'd look for most of them to get the boot at the end of 2008.

[90-percent]

11. Cheney

Cheney has his people woven into every facet of the Federal Government. He's been doing this since 2001 Inauguration Day. Most recent example is that Pentagon guy that told Hillary she was a traitor for daring to ask if the Pentagon has an exit strategy.

Heard recently that Cheney was pizzed Bush fired Rummy. Gates seems like a normal competent high level bureaucrat with at least a pinch of autonomy. But I betcha firing this PNAC-Pentagon-er would get his ass fired by the White House immediately!

-85% Jimmy

[90-percent]

12. also

When this pic was snapped, the photographer, instead of asking "say cheese" must have just yelled "Hitler Youth" then snapped the shutter.

This punk sure does have that young nazi aura going on.

-85% Jimmy

[marmar]

13. If these were the boys next door, I'd pack up and leave......

There goes the neighborhood.

[momster]

14. Most Snakes Go Dormant

they'll dig down into the mud and lurk until the next Republican administration...so that's what...30 yrs? A lot of the minions will probably move into lobbying or the family business as soon as their influence dries up. I am in favor, however, of investigating as many of the upper level guys as we can before, during, and after firing. The problem with the Nixon pardon was that too many of his underlings (like Cheney) got away with no damage, leaving them ready to try again when Volde...er...Bush came along.

By the way, where do they find these attractive blond young people to work for them...and are their eyes dead *before* they start or is that a consequence of being asked to lie, spin, and cheat for your overlords?

[glitch]

17. Good question. And sad. Some psychologist should do a study on the dead eye effect.

My guess would be early childhood from authoritarian abuse. Cults could be the only place they feel "safe".

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

27. Off topic ~ But I love the way the lexicon of the internets

crosses into teevee land. I have heard the word Minion so many times on the MSM, I just love it. Has it been used on the Hill I wonder? Seems to me somebody used it this week in the House or Senate.

[spanone]

18. E V E R Y W H E R E.....Monica Goodling in trousers.....

[CanonRay]

19. Can anybody photoshop him into an SS uniform? I think he'd look great.

[bigbrother05]

20. Should be fairly easy, none in lower positions

Any of them with any clout started at or near the top of their department. All those Under-This or Assistant-That in their 20s overseeing folks that have been career civil service will be either replaced as political appointees or move on to the lobby/think tank/corporate jobs they have been setting up for the last six years.

There are bound to be entry level folks that are true believers, but without the cover provided by the BFEE at the top, they will be a handled locally by the system that's been in place since Garfield's assassination. The spoils system doesn't work unless it's a top down priority.

The hard part will be rebuilding the trust of the American people in their government and the dismantling of the corporate welfare/laissez-faire oversight that is the current standard. It will get better immediately under any Democrat, but the rebuilding will take years if not a full generation of hard work.

[Enrique]

21. wasn't he in "Silver Spoons"?

[Kansas Wyatt]

23. Democrats KNOW the social circles these snakes are in and who they are connected with.

They have the ability to get outraged, call a spade, a spade, and inform the American people every chance they get. Never give any of them an inch anymore.

[mopinko]

24. one more reason impeachment is necessary, and stolen elections

must be revealed. the entire illegitimacy of this administration must be dragged through the public square. and the judges at every level that have been appointed must be examined, as well.
nuremberg impeachment.

[struggle4progress]

25. He's GHWB's godson, and he's played this BS game before:

The sugar daddy bites back

WHO calls for ban on junk-food ads aimed at kids. In
retaliation, the US sugar lobby urges their gov't to suspend funding

By Henry Peters

In a leaked confidential letter to the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Lee Jong-Wook, the US government has rejected decades of nutritional research and denied that there is any evidence of a link between junk food and obesity. The letter, from William R Steiger, special assistant at the Department of Health and Human Services and godson to George Bush Sr, is the United States' official response to an April 2003 report by the WHO and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). That report, entitled "Diet, Nutrition, and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases," argues that governments should take steps to limit children's exposure to junk-food advertising, and says that added sugar should comprise no more than 10% of a healthy diet.

The report was released last spring, prompting American food manufacturers' groups to begin frantic lobbying in Washington. The Sugar Association wrote to Gro Harlem Brundtland, then WHO director-general, threatening to "exercise every avenue available to expose the dubious nature" of the report. Congressmen recruited by the food industry urged the Secretary of Health, Tommy Thompson, to cut off the $406 million annual US contribution to the WHO. ~snip~

http://www.nationalreviewofmedicine.com/issue/2004_02_15/features06.html

[Harry Monroe]

26. He looks pretty young

Why isn't his smirking ass in Iraq??

[supernova]

29. The Plumb Book

If they were appointees then they will have to leave at the end of Bushies' term.

There's a book called the Plumb book listing all the appointee positions that affect policy at the various agencies. When a candidate wins the election, this is what his or her supporters use to apply for jobs with the admin.

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/plumbook/2000/index.html

[salin]

32. I am much more concerned with all of the civil service hires .... dollars

to donuts it was not just the DOJ violating civil service code and using political reasons to hire and promote certain candidates. Being a part of the civil service makes it much harder to be 'gotten rid of.'

Maybe we need a Hatch Hunt... massive review to look for Hatch Amendment violations followed by criminal procedings. It would get some out and scare the rest out, except for those that really do have a calling for civil service and do not use political ideology to guide their actions in their job.

[burythehatchet]

33. and here is a timely example...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003809770_aliciacol28m.html

On July 23, Matthew McKeown, a political appointee under the Bush White House, began a new job as a high-ranking civil-service employee at the Department of the Interior.

...

In October 2004, McKeown called the Endangered Species Act a form of "permanent hospice care" at an annual conference of the Property Rights Foundation. He also pushed the Healthy Forest Initiative, which environmental proponents say would let loggers cut more trees.

...

McKeown, who knew Griles, worked for Griles' girlfriend, a lead lawyer in the solicitor's office. Griles became part of the scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff in 2006. He pleaded guilty to lying to Congress this year and was sentenced to 10 months in prison.

...

"As a close associate of Mr. Griles, I think that Mr. McKeown's conversion from political appointee to career lawyer in the solicitor's office raises some real questions about whether the ethical climate at the Interior Department is really changing," Wyden said in a statement.