I want our President to clear out ALL of Cheney's people out of our government. Now!

[Mika]

This is job #1 imo. Cheney's people are the wrecking crew, they and their anti American activities must be stopped.

ENOUGH!


There. I said it. :rant: = off


K&R if you agree.

---

[midnight]

1. I can't think of a better way to get the car out of the ditch.....

[conscious evolution]

2. I agree.They gotta go.

[rudy23]

3. I think we're finding out that fundamentally, their ideologies aren't all that different.

They're both Friedmanites, one just wears it on his sleeve.

[Submariner]

4. I recall a big push by the Bush/Cheney junta to "permanently" place

these people in these civil service positions for life just after Obama was elected. I'm sure Obama is having to deal with incompetent boneheads he can't fire.

[LiberalFighter]

24. I'm sure there are ways to eliminate people.

If they can't find legitimate reasons to fire them they should be able to eliminate jobs requiring those losing their jobs to accept a position elsewhere in the government. Or going back into the civilian job sector. If their jobs were created specifically for them then the work required for that position can either be eliminated or allocated to other positions.

[mrJJ]

5. Easier said then done

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Before leaving office, the Interior Department's top lawyer has shifted half a dozen key deputies -- including two former political appointees who have been involved in controversial environmental decisions -- into senior civil service posts.

The transfer of political appointees into permanent federal positions, called "burrowing" by career officials, creates security for those employees.

As early as 2006, the Government Accountability Office reported that 144 employees in 23 agencies had converted from noncareer to career positions. In some cases, jobs seemed tailored to the strengths of the applicants, if not created for them outright. In others, standard competitive hiring procedures appeared absent. And in three instances, political staffers received career positions even though they lacked the requisite "qualifications and/or experience..."

Between March 1 and Nov. 3, according to the federal OPM, the Bush administration allowed 20 political appointees to become career civil servants. Six political appointees to the Senior Executive Service, the government's most prestigious and highly paid employees, have received approval to take career jobs at the same level. Fourteen other political, or "Schedule C," appointees have also been approved to take career jobs. One candidate was turned down by OPM and two were withdrawn by the submitting agency.

The personnel moves come as Bush administration officials are scrambling to cement in place policy and regulatory initiatives that touch on issues such as federal drinking-water standards, air quality at national parks, mountaintop mining and fisheries limits.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/17/AR2008111703537.html

[totodeinhere]

8. That's what I was afraid of.

The next time the pukes take power we have to be sure that we do the same thing.

[pnorman]

9. Thanks! Here's the link for that:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/17/AR2008111703537.html

[mrJJ]

11. TY

Thanks updated link

[femrap]

14. There has to be a

way to get rid of those who were 'burrowed.'

[depakid]

15. You can get rid of burrowed employees who won't do their jobs

in all sorts of ways.

Just takes the fortitude to do it.

[4lbs]

21. Defining them not doing their job would be difficult.

Otherwise, if they were just dismissed, the Obama admin would have a slew of labor lawsuits about termination without cause.

[depakid]

30. With some of the activities going on at the agencies- not really

and forcing folks to file lawsuits can be strategic in the sense that it costs money for the plaintiff- and also acts as a deterrent for others to engage in similar behavior.

Seen more than a few civil servants get the axe in my day. Some have managed to get their positions back after some considerable effort. Others not.

One of this administrations biggest problems- across the board- is that no one fears them- and no one is worried about being held accountable.

[nxylas]

43. But Republicans don't believe in labor laws!

In most red states, employers can hire at will and fire at will, and any constraint on those rights is viewed as unAmerican socialism. Surely Republican appointees wouldn't preach one law for the rest of us and another for themselves? :sarcasm:

[liberation]

38. Funny how those who make it so easy for the rest of us to get fired....

... have the system rigged so that it is almost impossible for them to get fired?


Again, how is this whole system not a big rip off?

[Jamastiene]

6. K&R

I agree. I wish he had done it before now.

[stray cat]

7. Names?

[Phx_Dem]

10. Agreed! The moles need to go. n/t

[vaberella]

12. How? The GOP bastards in office won't even let half his admin in for working.

He had to issue an executive order to get some of them. And you think he can remove some of these people? Unlikely.

[ensho]

13. agree but Obama and team seem to be afraid of them

nt

[emulatorloo]

17. Seriously, I wouldn't put it past Cheney to engineer a 9/11 type event

[LiberalFighter]

25. Where do you get the perception that they are afraid of them?

[ensho]

55. because they won't say anything at all negative about Israel

they ok every bit of money going to Israel

they prefer silence on all thing Israel

all of which isn't normal

this leads to thinking they are afraid of them but it could also mean they agree 100% with all things Israel

both ways are not normal reactions

[emulatorloo]

16. Agreed - kick and rec n/t

[City Lights]

18. Yes, and why wasn't this done early on?

x(

[4lbs]

20. It couldn't be done easily and early. Remember the burrowing?

BushCo "burrowed" almost 200 people in various places in the federal government before they left.

They were placed in positions where it would be very difficult to remove them, except if those employees did something illegal. Those positions were for up to two years, and those people couldn't be released without cause unless the Obama Administration wanted to face a slew of individual labor lawsuits for termination without cause.

[City Lights]

22. Ah, I'd forgotten about that. Thanks for the reminder.

:-)

[liberation]

39. Yeah, but all those positions are not at the admin office level... they are still bound to policy

and policy is dictated from the top down. That means these people can not go on their own devices, and if they do so... then they are contradicting policy in which case they can be fired for not doing their jobs properly.

Seriously, it is not that f*cking hard. But this requires strong leadership, not milquetoast tap dancing pretty please bipartisanship bullshit.

[burnsei sensei]

50. It should have been done

the second Obama hit the executive chair.
The connections of Cheney and Bush were part of their leadership. They worked for the oil and defense-related industries.
Every person they had in regulatory staff should have come immediately under scrutiny, and most should have been booted.
But the message was never made clear.
The idea that nothing had changed was evident. And so things went on as usual.

[nichomachus]

19. Nice thought, but isn't going to happen

I said, even before the election, that the biggest problem Obama was going to face were the thousands and thousands of fascist "left-behinds" that Cheney and Bush would use to poison the well. They can't be gotten rid of easily, if at all, and the government is filled with them.

A good example is the horrid Mormon left-behind who write the disgusting DOMA brief comparing gays and lesbians to child molesters and rapists. I'm pretty sure Obama never would have done that on his own hook, but once this Mormon activist had written his brief, Obama was blindsided, couldn't undo it, and ended up taking the heat.

I'm not saying Obama is blameless. I don't trust him as far as I can see him -- and not even then -- but I won't blame him for being set up by Cheney and Bush.

[libodem]

23. K&R

:kick:

[butterfly77]

26. This has been the problem all along..

before he was inaugurated they were plotting and planning, for all of the obstacles they could put in his way.

The moles have been leaking and the CONS have been stalling,the blue dogs have been blocking stimulus,and anything that would help the country or the President,in their eyes.

[Enthusiast]

27. K&R nt

[happy_liberal]

28. job #1

I agree completely

oh and lock Cheney up while yer at it. WE need to set a better example. Currently he is an example of how you can get away with murder and mayhem and laugh your ass off all the way to the bank.

[glinda]

29. Fill all the positions with really smart progressives and if the Repubs get back in

they will have to deal with it. Just the way Obama has to deal with the Bushies there right now.

[caveat_imperator]

54. Unfortunately, the rethugs would deal with it

by simply breaking the law. And if there's any uproar they'll simply play the media and make the good guys look like the villains again.

[Lorien]

31. Absofreakinglutely!

Time for a clean sweep!

[bigwillq]

32. K and R (nt)

[donheld]

33. The sooner the better

[lib_wit_it]

34. All vestiges of the Bush Admin should have been fired just as blatantly as Bush fired the Justice

Department "traitors." We have to fight fire with fire!

[boppers]

35. Screw the Unions!.... Wait....

Maybe you haven't thought this through. Many of the "Cheney" people are also AFSCME union employees.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

36. The other day a rep from the DNC called looking for a donation...

I told him, I will never vote for a republican, but I'm very disappointed that the Democrats never held the former administration accountable.

[JDPriestly]

37. K&R

[PinkFloyd]

40. I couldn't believe he held on to them in the first place!

Given how wildly unpopular the former administration was, why on Earth keep even one person around from it. I expected an immediate house cleaning. It was my first Obama disappointment.

[Capitalocracy]

41. That rant was short but to the point

K&R because I agree

[indimuse]

42. BINGO!

these people are dangerous! knr!

[polichick]

44. I'd like to know why he hasn't done that already. nt

[MissDeeds]

45. It's troubling he kept them on

in the first place. It's indefensible, but I'm sure some here will try to excuse it anyway.

K&R

[Lost4words]

46. K & R! I feel abandoned by my party of a lifetime. nt

[swilton]

47. Should have been the first item on the agenda

[ElsewheresDaughter]

48. I've been sreaming this for the past 500 days.the 5th, 4th, and 3rd teirs have to be cleaned ......

should have been done in the 1st week.....hell we haven't even cleared tier 1 yet due to the fucking repukes filibusting every nomination.

[burnsei sensei]

49. This is a highly appropriate and wise

federal response.
It's only a beginning, but the people involved in regulation have to be such that they hold no interest in the profitability of the regulated.
No stock options, no deals, no profit-sharing, no former sweetheart packages.

[ChiciB1]

51. A BIG Kick! Wonder If Any Of Them Are Listening??? n/t

[Historic NY]

52. The easist way is to change their work reporting location...........

to a white room with a desk & chair. Thats all no phone no contact. I say in about 6 months they all would be gone.

[LawnKorn]

53. K&R

[dwilso40641]

56. K&R N/T

[cornermouse]

57. You would have thought that simple common sense would have told him to do that

before he walked through the door of the White House the first time. I guess not.

[mstinamotorcity]

58. Shooter is and always

will be a thorn in America's side. He was corrupt as they come. And he along with every congressmen who voted with the Dubya/Shooter administration need to be voted out of office and thrown in jail for fraud,extortion,torture,crimes against humanity,environmental treason,and any other crime that leads back to their doorstep.