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Out of Proportion: Our Government Oversight Agencies have lost it altogether!

The Heartland Of Corrupt Contracts Won’t Do Business With Acorn

 

Link to original:  http://prorev.com/2009/10/heartland-of-corrupt-contracts-wont-do.html

 

 

Jeremy Scahill, Common Dreams - On Tuesday night, US Undersecretary of Defense Shay Assad, the Pentagon's top contracting official, sent a memo to the commanders and directors of all branches of the military instructing them to cease all business with the embattled community organization ACORN and to take "all necessary and appropriate" steps to prevent future contracts with the organization. Assad's brief memo contained the two-page guidelines issued October 7 by Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Orszag's guidelines were issued following the passage of Congressional legislation aimed at "defunding ACORN."

Orszag's guidelines were sent on October 7 to "the heads of Executive Departments and Agencies" and instructed them to "immediately commence all necessary and appropriate steps" to comply with the terms of the Defund ACORN Act. These include: no future obligation of funds, suspension of grant and contract payments and no funding of ACORN and its affiliates through Federal grantees or contractors. "Your agency should take steps so that no Federal funds are awarded or obligated" to ACORN, wrote Orszag.

While the DoD memo sent by Assad is basically a formality initiated by Orszag's guidelines to all federal agencies, it is nonetheless remarkable given that ACORN is not a Defense Department contractor. According to an ACORN spokesperson, the group has not received Pentagon funds, nor has the community group even considered applying for such funds. . .

While the DoD sends out memos regarding an organization that it does not contract with, the Pentagon currently does business with a slew of corporate criminals whose billions of dollars in annual federal contracts make the $53 million in government funds received by ACORN over the past 15 years look like, well, acorns. The top three government contractors-all of them weapons manufacturers-committed 109 acts of misconduct since 1995, according to the Project on Oversight and Government Reform. In that period, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Boeing paid fines or settlements totaling nearly $3 billion. In 2007 alone, the three companies won some $77 billion in federal contracts. There has been no letter sent around to federal agencies instructing them to cancel contracts with these companies that have ripped off taxpayers and engaged in a variety of fraudulent activities with federal dollars.

Also, it is not just the Defense Department that continues to hire corporations with real rap sheets. Contracting fraud and abuse is a corrupt cancer that permeates the federal bureaucracy. Overall, the top 100 government contractors make about $300 billion a year in federal contracts. Since 1995, they have paid a total of $26 billion in fines to settle 676 cases stemming from fraud, waste or abuse. According to the 2008 Corporate Fraud Task Force Report to the President, "United States Attorneys' offices opened 878 new criminal health care fraud investigations involving 1,548 potential defendants. Federal prosecutors had 1,612 health care fraud criminal investigations pending, involving 2,603 potential defendants, and filed criminal charges in 434 cases involving 786 defendants. A total of 560 defendants were convicted for health care fraud-related crimes during the year." Last month, the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer settled a series of cases, including Medicaid fraud and illegally marketing banned drugs, in what the Department of Justice said is "the largest civil fraud settlement in history against a pharmaceutical company." The company has also been ordered to pay a criminal fine of $1.195 billion, "the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the United States for any matter," according to the DoJ. . .

If the law is to be applied equally, then Peter Orszag should be firing off memos instructing all federal agencies to cease business and cancel contracts with massive financial institutions, weapons manufacturers, mercenary firms and pharmaceutical companies. Given the incredible government reliance on corporations, particularly in the defense industry and in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, don't hold your breath waiting for such a memo on DoD stationary any time soon.

New Book on the Failed US Justice System: Behind the Black Robes

A reader sent in this information about a new book regarding the failure of our Justice system.  It speaks to Massachusetts but readers are saying it applies to the whole country.  I thought I'd pass this along.  I expect it may be available on Amazon where I'll be checking soon.  Read in good health!  GFS

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.0 out of 5 stars , BEHIND THE BLACK ROBES: Failed Justice  October 10, 2009
By Paul M. Clements (SOUTH CAROLINA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Barbara Johnson was an attorney in Massachusetts, and gives us a behind-the-scenes look at just how corrupt the legal system in Massachusetts (and elsewhere) really is. Drawing from her own personal experiences with the MA court system, she exposes corruption and violations of law that will seem to some to be unbelievable.
Always an out-spoken critic of the corrupt courts, Johnson was dis-barred in an attempt to silence her. In this book, she takes us into the court room, and explains clearly just how the corruption works, and how the judges are able to get away with their abuses of authority. She names names,and seems to be daring them to challenge her revelations in court. Along the way, she offers some excellent advice for presenting your own case, and cites relevant statutory and case law. The insights she offers should not be missed.
SEE ALSO:Taken into Custody: The War Against Fatherhood, Marriage, and the Family
   Behind the Black Robes: Failed Justice is available for purchase on

www.Amazon.com or directly at
http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Black-Robes-Failed-Justice
/dp/1439241155/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251668088&sr=1-1
www.Abebooks.com

www.Alibris.com

www.BookSurge.com (eventually) and shortly thereafter the book's listing will appear on
www.BooksinPrint.com and
www.GlobalBooksinPrint.com

Please forward this announcement to everyone who you believe would be interested.  Thank you.

Read the customer reviews as they come in after publication and/or
write your own review!
 
Unsubscribe to delete your email address

Barbara C. Johnson, Advocate of Court Reform and Attorney in Fact
Apdo #404-4013
Alajuela, Atenas, Atenas
20501-Costa Rica

veritas.johnson74@gmail.com
SKYPE ID: barbaracjohnson74
Phone 2446-6724

False Allegations: http://www.falseallegations.com
Participating Attorney: http://www.lawguru.com/cgi/bbs2/user/browse.shtml
Campaign 2002: http://www.barbforgovernor.com
-----
The judicial system is very broken. It must be fixed.
There are four people who can do the job:
Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.
Everybody thinks Somebody will surely do it.
It is a job Anybody can do. But Nobody is doing it.
At least I'm trying. What are you doing?
It is dangerous to be right
when the government is wrong.
--- VOLTAIRE

All truth passes through three stages.
First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
    ---   ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER (1788-1860)

Empowering Oversight Agencies by necessity will make some waves

If you don't break some eggs, there will be no omelet.

 

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SEC Upsets Some as It Tries to Sharpen Teeth
Several Moves Draw In-House Criticism

Link:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/14/AR2009071403468.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

 

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The Securities and Exchange Commission has begun moving far faster to stop financial scams and open investigations into potential wrongdoing than in the past, according to agency data, adopting an aggressive posture after it was sharply criticized about its oversight of Wall Street and failure to uncover Bernard Madoff's massive fraud.

Since Mary Schapiro became chairman in January, for instance, the SEC has launched nearly as many formal investigations as it did in any of the past five years.

At the same time, Schapiro and her enforcement director, Robert Khuzami, have undertaken a series of personnel changes that employees say are causing turmoil within the enforcement division and posing a distraction from its work investigating financial crime. Khuzami has two meetings scheduled today with employees to discuss these moves.

The enforcement division -- the largest at the SEC -- is at center stage as the agency prepares to gain new responsibilities under the Obama administration's proposed reworking of financial regulations. In testimony before Congress yesterday, Schapiro said the agency was keenly aware of its obligations. "There is an invigorating sense of urgency among the staff of the agency to demonstrate that we are up to the job," she said. "Khuzami is reducing bureaucracy by streamlining management within the enforcement division, putting many more talented investigators directly to work on cases."

Schapiro and Khuzami have pushed investigators to close old cases and focus more on those arising out of the financial crisis.

Since January, the SEC has filed several notable cases. It sued former executives of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial for allegedly failing to disclose the risks of its business practices to investors, and the agency has sued Reserve Management for allegedly deceiving investors in the money market fund company. The agency also sued a former executive of Beazer Homes for allegedly manipulating earnings and American Home Mortgage executives for allegedly concealing from investors the truth about the deteriorating condition of that company. And the SEC filed the first case involving credit-default swaps, opaque financial instruments that exacerbated the crisis.

"It's pretty clear that the commission under its new leadership is moving more quickly and more aggressively -- particularly in areas related to the financial crisis," said Mark Schonfeld, a partner at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and a former SEC enforcement official.

The commission has launched 224 formal investigations, more than double the number at this time last year and nearly as many as in any full year since at least 2004, according to SEC data. The number of emergency actions taken to stop fraud has more than doubled since the same period last year.

According to an analysis by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, the SEC has filed cases against 527 defendants in the first six months of this year, compared with 317 last year.

The heightened activity has prompted renewed pride inside the enforcement division even as personnel changes are fueling disenchantment, employees say. One investigator described the feeling as "schizophrenic," with staff concerned about the changes but pleased with Schapiro's support for aggressive enforcement.

Senior SEC officials have decided, among other things, to eliminate a category of managers known as "branch chiefs" and to reduce the staff assigned to another known as "assistant directors."

Agency officials say the changes are designed to direct fewer of the division's resources to management and more to investigations. The SEC is notorious for a labyrinthine reporting structure that can dramatically prolong how long it takes for the agency to decide whether to pursue cases.

Khuzami was known as a deft manager while head of the white-collar unit in the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York. At the SEC, he is planning for specialized groups to focus on particular types of financial wrongdoing.

But some enforcement lawyers say the plans amount to a pointless reshuffling of chairs when the agency is trying to focus its energies on cases linked to the financial crisis. These lawyers also say the plans ignore the merits of the current structure, for example assigning branch chiefs the role of investigating cases as well as managing staff.

Another concern among some enforcement lawyers is that three of the most important positions at the agency -- the enforcement director, the deputy enforcement director and the head of the New York Office -- have been filled this year by people with no SEC experience.

Khuzami bypassed an SEC veteran, Scott Friestad, to choose his former colleague, Lorin L. Reisner, as his deputy. He skipped over Andrew Calamari, who was seen by many at the agency as next-in-line in New York, to choose George S. Canellos to head the prestigious office. Both Canellos and Reisner are former Khuzami colleagues from the Southern District of New York.

 

Backwards Justice

I ran across this recently while researching.  It bears some thought.  -GFS

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The Crooks Get Cash While the Poor Get Screwed

Link:  http://www.truthout.org/070609E?n

Monday 06 July 2009

by: Chris Hedges  |  Visit article original @ Truthdig

Jo Ann Gonzalez and her three children live in a common room at a homeless shelter in Ft. Worth, Texas. She was evicted from her home after being unable to find a job for six months. (Photo: Getty Images)

    Tearyan Brown became a father when he was 16. He did what a lot of inner-city kids desperate to make money do. He sold drugs. He was arrested and sent to jail three years later for dealing marijuana and PCP on the streets of Trenton, N.J., mostly to white kids driving in from the suburbs. It was a job which saw him robbed at gunpoint and stabbed in the chest. But it made him about $1,400 a week.

    Brown, when he got out after three and a half years, was done with street life. He got a job as a security guard and then as a fork lift operator. He eventually made about $30,000 a year. He shepherded his son through high school, then college and a master's degree. His boy, now 24, is a high school teacher in Texas. Brown would not leave the streets of Trenton but his son would. It made him proud. It gave him hope.

    And then one morning in 2005 when he was visiting his mother's house the cops showed up. He saw the cruiser and the officers standing on his mother's porch. He hurried down the block toward the home to see what was wrong. What was wrong was him. On the basis of a police photograph, he had been identified by an 82-year-old woman as the man who had robbed her of $9 at gunpoint a few hours earlier. The only other witness to the crime insisted the elderly victim was confused. The witness told the police Brown was innocent. Brown's friends said Brown was with them when the robbery took place.

    "Why would I rob a woman for $9" he asks me. "I had been paid the day before. I had not committed a crime in 20 years. It didn't make any sense."

    He was again sent to jail. But this time he was charged with armed robbery. If convicted, he would be locked away for many years. His grown son and his three young boys would live, as he had, without the presence of a father. The little ones-11-year-old twins and a 10-year-old-would be adults when he got out. When he met with his state-appointed attorney, the lawyer, like most state-appointed attorneys, pushed for accepting a plea bargain, one that would see him behind bars for at least the next decade. Brown pulled the pictures of his children out of his wallet, laid the pictures carefully on the table in front of the lawyer, looked at the faces of his children and broke down in tears. He shook and sobbed. It was a hard thing to do for a man who stands nearly 6 feet tall and weights 210 pounds and has coped with a lot in his life.

    "I didn't do nothing,'" he choked out to the lawyer.

    He refused the plea bargain offer. He sat in jail for the next two years before getting a trial. It was a time of deep despair. Jail had changed since he had last been incarcerated. The facilities were overcrowded, with inmates sleeping in corridors and on the floor. The gangs taunted those who, like Brown, were not affiliated with a gang. Gang members knocked trays of food to the floor. They pissed on mattresses. They stole canteen items and commissary orders. And there was nothing the victims could do about it.

    "See this," he says to me in a dimly lit coffee shop in downtown Trenton as he rolls up the right sleeve of his T-shirt. "It's the grim reaper. I got it in jail. I was so scared. I was scared I wouldn't get out this time. I was scared I would not see my kids grow up. They make their own tattoo guns in jail with a toothbrush, a staple and the motor of a Walkman. It cost me $15, well, not really dollars. I had to give him about 10 soups and a package of cigarettes. On the street this would be three or four hundred dollars."

    Under the tattoo of the scythe-wielding, hooded figure are the words "Death Awaits."

    He had a trial after two years in jail and was found not guilty. The sheriff's deputies in the courtroom said as he was walking out that they "had never seen anything like this." He reaches into his baggy jeans and pulls out his thin brown wallet. He opens it to show me a folded piece of paper. The paper says, "Verdict: Defendant found not guilty on all charges." It is dated Jan. 31, 2008.

    But innocence and guilt are funny things in America. If you are rich and guilty, if you have defrauded banks and customers and investment firms of billions of dollars, as AIG or Citibank has, if you wear fancy suits and have degrees from elite universities that cost more per year than Brown used to make, you get taxpayer money. You get lots of it. You maintain the lavish lifestyle of jets and spas and million-dollar bonuses. You live a life of unchecked greed and have too much in a world where most have too little. If you are moral scum in America we take care of you. But if you are poor, if you are, say, Tearyan Brown and African-American and 39 years old with four kids and no job and you live in the inner city, you are in trouble. No one comes to help you. You don't get a second chance. This is what being poor means.

    Brown found that life had changed when he got out. He had lost his job as a fork lift operator. And there were no new jobs to be found. He had faithfully paid child support until his arrest but, with no income, he could not pay from jail and now he was being hauled into court by the state every few weeks for being in arrears for $13,000. The mother of his three youngest boys goes to court with him. She explains that he paid regularly while he had work. She explains that when she works on the weekends Brown takes the kids. She asks that he be forgiven until he can get a job and begin paying again. But there are no jobs.

    "I would not be in arrears in child support if I had not been incarcerated for something I didn't do," he says. "I will never get above ground owing $13,000. How can I pay $120 a week when I don't have a job?"

    Brown lives on $200 a month in food stamps and $40 in cash. Welfare will pay his apartment for another four months. He is barely making it. I ask him what he will do when he loses the rent subsidy.

    "I'll be homeless," he says.

    "My son says come down to Texas," he adds. "Start a new life with me. But what about my three little boys? I can't leave them. I can't leave them in Trenton. They need a father."

    Brown works out every day. He does calisthenics. He is a vegetarian. He volunteers at a food pantry. He attends the Jerusalem Baptist Church with his little boys. "They are church kids," he tells me proudly. "They are pretty much raised by the church."

    He is trying to keep himself together. But he lives in a world that is falling apart. The gangs on the streets of Trenton carry Glock 9-millimeter pistols and AK-47 assault rifles. When the Trenton police stop a car or raid a house filled with suspected gang members they approach with loaded M-16s. A local newspaper, The Trentonian, reports the daily chronicle of crime, decay and neglect. The lead story in the day's paper, which Brown has with him, is about a young man named James Deonte James, whose street name is "Lurch." James was charged in the death of a 13-year-old girl during a gang shooting. He is reputed to be a "five star general in the Sex Money Murder set of the Bloods street gang." In another story an ex-con and reputed mobster, Michael "Mickey Rome" Dimattia, was arrested in his car after a woman behind the wheel was seen driving erratically. "Mickey Rome," dressed in a black bathrobe with a red scarf around his neck, was found to be wearing a bulletproof vest, with three guns stuck in his waistband, and had a crack pipe, crack cocaine and prescription pills in his pockets. He had been convicted in 1990 of killing a 17-year-old boy with a shotgun blast to the head. He served less than three years for the murder. A feature story on Page 4 of the paper is about a man with AIDS who raped his girlfriend's son 55 times and infected the boy with the virus. The boy was 9 when the rapes took place.

    "There are thousands more guns out there than when I was on the street," Brown says. "It is easier to buy a gun than get liquor from a liquor store."

    He says he rarely goes out at night, even to the corner store. It is too dangerous.

    The desperation is palpable. People don't know where to turn. Benefits are running out. More and more people are out of work.

    "You see things getting worse and worse," he says. "You see people who wonder how they are going to eat and take care of themselves and their kids. You see people starting to do anything to get food, to hustle or rob, to go back to doing things they do not want to do. Good people start doin' bad things. People are getting eviler."

    He pauses.

    "All things are better with God," he says softly, looking down at the tabletop.

    He is reading a book about the Bible. It is about Jesus and God. It is about learning to trust in God's help. In America that is about all the poor have left. And when God fails them, they are on their own.

 

Obama Campaign Promises

Barak Obama’s Campaign Promises

Record of selected areas of concern. 

To read whole list go to:  http://www.nationaljournal.com/campaigns/2008/wh08/promises_obama.htm

How do you think he is doing, particularly on the issues that create and affect whistleblowers?  -GFS

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ADMINISTRATION

Eliminate unnecessary middle managers

"Barack Obama will thin the ranks of Washington middle managers, freeing up resources both for deficit reduction and for increasing the number of frontline workers."—Obama's "The Change We Need In Washington"

Create 'SWAT' unit to improve federal programs

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will create a focused team within the White House that will work with agency leaders and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to improve results and outcomes for federal government programs while eliminating waste and inefficiency."—Obama's "The Change We Need In Washington"

Hire based on merit

"When it comes to hiring people in my administration, the litmus test that will apply will not be based on party or ideology or who's traded the most favors, but on qualifications and experience. We're going to have experienced, competent people in the White House."—05/19/08 Billings, Mont.

Require new hires to deny cronyism

"Obama will issue an executive order asking all new hires at the agencies to sign a form affirming that no political appointee offered them the job solely on the basis of political affiliation or contribution."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

Deliver fireside chats online

"He will personally deliver occasional fireside chats via webcast."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

 

 

DEFENSE

Safeguard all nuclear material within four years

"I will lead a global effort to secure all nuclear weapons and material at vulnerable sites within four years."—4/23/07, Chicago

Keep nonproliferation commitment

"We will not pursue unilateral disarmament. As long as nuclear weapons exist, we'll retain a strong nuclear deterrent. But we'll keep our commitment under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty on the long road towards eliminating nuclear weapons."—10/2/07, Chicago

Strengthen nonproliferation treaty

"Obama will crack down on nuclear proliferation by strengthening the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty so that countries like North Korea and Iran that break the rules will automatically face strong international sanctions."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

Stop development of new nuclear weapons

"He will stop the development of new nuclear weapons; work with Russia to take U.S. and Russian ballistic missiles off hair-trigger alert; seek dramatic reductions in U.S. and Russian stockpiles of nuclear weapons and material; and set a goal to expand the U.S.-Russian ban on intermediate-range missiles so that the agreement is global."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

Open "America Houses" in Islamic countries

"We will open 'America Houses' in cities across the Islamic world, with Internet, libraries, English lessons, stories of America's Muslims and the strength they add to our country, and vocational programs."—8/1/07, Washington, D.C.

Support a global education fund

"I will support a $2 billion global education fund to counter the radical madrassas."—8/1/07, Washington, D.C.

Ban torture

"When I am president, America will reject torture, without exception."—8/1/07, Washington, D.C.

Close Guantanamo Bay detention center

"As president, I will close Guantanamo, reject the Military Commissions Act and adhere to the Geneva Conventions."—8/10/07, Washington, D.C.

Establish quadrennial review of homeland security threats

"I will establish a Quadrennial Review at the Department of Homeland Security—just like at the Pentagon—to undertake a top-to-bottom review of the threats we face and our ability to confront them."—8/10/07, Washington, D.C.

Increase funding to train police to gather intelligence

"I will increase funding to help train police to gather information and connect it to the intelligence they receive from the federal government."—8/1/07, Washington, D.C.

Address al Qaeda prison recruitment efforts

"I will address the problem in our prisons, where the most disaffected and disconnected Americans are being explicitly targeted for conversion by al Qaeda and its ideological allies."—8/1/07, Washington, D.C.

Expand Army and Marine Corps

"I will add 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 Marines to relieve the strain on our ground forces."—8/21/07, Kansas City, Mo.

Provide soldiers with necessary equipment

"As president, I will ensure that every service member has what they need to do the job safely and successfully."—8/21/07, Kansas City, Mo.

"Obama will give our troops new equipment, armor, training, and skills like language training."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

Set fixed term for director of national intelligence

"I will make the director of national intelligence an official with a fixed term, like the chairman of the Federal Reserve."—10/2/07, Chicago

Consult national security experts in Congress

"I will call for a standing, bipartisan consultative group of congressional leaders on national security. I will meet with this consultative group every month and consult with them before taking major military action."—10/2/07, Chicago

Consult military commanders

"When I am commander in chief, I will seek out, listen to and respect the views of military commanders."—3/12/08, Chicago

Target every source of fear in the Americas

"That is why there will never be true security unless we focus our efforts on targeting every source of fear in the Americas. That's what I'll do as president of the United States."—5/23/08, Miami

Create information declassification center

"He will institute a national declassification center to make declassification secure but routine, efficient and cost-effective."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

Ensure military has enough training

"Obama will rebuild trust with those who serve by ensuring that soldiers and Marines have sufficient training time before they are sent into battle."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

Strengthen civilian agencies

"He will also strengthen our civilian capacity, so that our civilian agencies have the critical skills and equipment they need to integrate their efforts with our military."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

Give National Guard appropriate equipment, rest

"He will permit them adequate time to train and rest between deployments and provide the National Guard with the equipment they need for foreign and domestic emergencies."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

Add National Guard chief to Joint Chiefs

"[Obama] will also give the Guard a seat at the table by making the chief of the National Guard a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

Combat terrorism

"Obama will fight terrorism and protect America with a comprehensive strategy that finishes the fight in Afghanistan, cracks down on the al Qaeda safe haven in Pakistan, develops new capabilities and international partnerships, engages the world to dry up support for extremism and reaffirms American values."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

Require national security officials to hold broadband town halls

"Obama will bring foreign policy decisions directly to the people by requiring his national security officials to have periodic national broadband town hall meetings to discuss foreign policy."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

Create international anti-terrorism network

"As president, I will launch an effort across our government to stay ahead of this threat [bio-terrorism].… I've proposed a Shared Security Partnership that invests $5 billion over three years to forge an international intelligence and law enforcement infrastructure to take down terrorist networks." —7/16/08 West Lafayette, Ind.

Make cyber-security a federal priority

"As president, I'll make cyber-security the top priority that it should be in the 21st century. I'll declare our cyber-infrastructure a strategic asset, and appoint a National Cyber Advisor who will report directly to me." —7/16/08 West Lafayette, Ind.

 

 

ETHICS REFORM

Increase protections for whistleblowers

"Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government."—Obama's The Change We Need In Washington"

Ban executive employees from taking gifts from lobbyists

"Barack Obama will issue an executive order banning registered lobbyists or lobbying firms from giving gifts in any amount or any form to executive branch employees."—Obama's The Change We Need In Washington"

Stop misuse of no-bid contracts

"I will end the abuse of no-bid contracts in my administration."—6/22/07, Manchester, N.H.

Be open with American people

"But I can promise you this: I will always tell you what I think and where I stand."—9/3/07, Manchester, N.H.

Restrict lobbyists

"When you walk into my administration, you will not be able to work on regulations or contracts directly related to your former employer for two years. And when you leave, you will not be able to lobby the administration throughout the remainder of my term in office."—6/22/07, Manchester, N.H.

Put agency meetings with lobbyists online

"When there are meetings between lobbyists and a government agency, we won't be going to the Supreme Court to keep it secret like Dick Cheney and his energy task force. We'll be putting them up on the Internet for every American to watch. And instead of allowing lobbyists to slip big corporate tax breaks into bills during the dead of night, we will make sure every single tax break and earmark is available to every American online."—6/22/07, Manchester, N.H.

Disclose contractor lobbying

"Obama will create a 'contracts and influence' database that will disclose how much federal contractors spend on lobbying, and what contracts they are getting and how well they complete them."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

Put federal spending information online

"We'll put government data online and use technology to shine a light on spending."—6/16/08, Flint, Mich.

Post bills online before signing them

"When there is a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you will have five days to look online and find out what's in it before I sign it."—6/22/07, Manchester, N.H.

Fight for independent oversight of congressional ethics violations

"Obama will use the power of the presidency to fight for an independent watchdog agency to oversee the investigation of congressional ethics violations so that the public can be assured that ethics complaints will be investigated."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

Require Cabinet members to hold broadband town hall meetings

"Obama will bring democracy and public policy directly to the people by requiring his Cabinet officials to have periodic national broadband town hall meetings to discuss issues before their agencies."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

Disclose regulatory conversations between officials and outsiders

"Obama will amend executive orders to ensure that communications about regulatory policymaking between persons outside government and all White House staff are disclosed to the public."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

Require public meetings

"Obama will require his appointees who lead the executive branch departments and rulemaking agencies to conduct the significant business of the agency in public, so that any citizen can watch these debates in person or on the Internet."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

 

GOVERNMENT SPENDING

Restore earmark spending to pre-1994 levels

"Barack Obama is committed to returning earmarks to less than $7.8 billion a year, the level they were at before 1994."—Obama's "The Change We Need In Washington"

Cut federal contract spending by at least 10 percent

"Barack Obama will reform federal contracting and reduce the number of contractors, saving $40 billion a year."—Obama's "The Change We Need In Washington"

Improve contracting operations

"Barack Obama will hire more contract managers and improve training."—Obama's "The Change We Need In Washington"

Cut waste in federal budget

"I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less..."—8/28/08, Denver

Pay for job programs by cutting spending elsewhere

"I'll pay for every part of this job-creation agenda by ending this war in Iraq that's costing us billions, closing tax loopholes for corporations, putting a price on carbon pollution, and ending George Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans."—2/24/08, Lorain, Ohio

Reinstate PAYGO

"Obama will reinstate pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) budget rules, so that new spending or tax cuts are paid for by spending cuts or new revenue elsewhere."—Obama's Blueprint for Change

 

 

 

Help DOE Employees Occupational Illness Program Be Reformed!

Joe is a tireless crusader on behalf of whistleblowers.  Visit OSC Watch, one of his sites and if you can help with this petition for DOE employees, please visit the link below his letter.  -GFS

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My whistleblowing about serious workplace health and safety issues in Dept. of Energy in 1990's contributed to the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA) of 2000  About 180,000 claims have been filed by DOE sick workers or their survivors under it, about 50,000 claims of $150,000.00 have been paid.

I would appreciate your consideration to join the petition to reform aspects of the EEOICPA, at website below.

Joe Carson, PE

www.coldwarpatriots.org

New Head of FCC Identified

I wonder if he will stand against the consolidation of the media control?  Maybe reverse the damage?  -GFS

 

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Obama's Tech Adviser To Be Tapped for FCC

By Cecilia Kang
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 13, 2009; D01

President-elect Barack Obama will name Julius Genachowski, a high-tech policy veteran and venture capitalist, to head the Federal Communications Commission, according to sources close to the transition team and key lawmakers.

A spokesperson yesterday for the transition team declined to confirm Genachowski's nomination. But one source close to the transition said an announcement will probably be officially made in the next few days. Two sources close to the staff of key members of the House of Representatives said Obama's transition team called Democratic lawmakers and their aides yesterday to tell them of the nomination.

Genachowski, 46, served as chief counsel for Reed Hundt, then FCC chairman, during the Clinton administration. He also has business experience as an executive at the Internet firm IAC/InterActive and currently as a venture capitalist at Rock Creek Ventures in the District.

Obama's pick for the nation's head telecommunications regulator has served as the president-elect's top technology adviser and was a classmate of Obama's at Harvard Law School. Genachowski is credited for spearheading Obama's online campaign strategy, which used social networking and other tools to spread the candidate's campaign message and raise record contributions.

Sources close to the transition team said last month that Obama was prepared to give Genachowski either the job of FCC chairman or chief technology officer, a new position that has not yet been clearly defined. When it became clear to Genachowski that the chief technology officer job would not include policy-making authorities, sources said yesterday, he agreed to take the FCC position. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been officially announced.

"If Julius is indeed the selection for FCC chair, he has the right mix of experience in government and business to give him a unique perspective on the job," said Ben Scott, policy director for the public interest group Free Press. "He has been very influential in the Obama campaign in linking their innovative uses of technology in the electoral politics and organizing with a very forward-looking tech-policy agenda."

Genachowski would take over the FCC at time when decisions made at the agency have greatly expanded its original role as a regulator of broadcast licenses. Today, the FCC oversees areas including Internet policy, the transition from analog to digital television scheduled for next month, and radio and TV indecency complaints. Multibillion-dollar mergers and wireless policies have brought Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Google's founders and media tycoon Rupert Murdoch to lobby the FCC for their business interests.

Obama has made the deployment of high-speed Internet networks as a central part of his plan to create jobs and better compete with global economies offering much faster broadband Internet speeds, often at lower prices.

 

Retirements Delayed Due to Economic Disaster

This is also going on at the state level.  I am told in Washington State, the Governor has talked of cutting state workers and teacher salaries in order to deal with the huge deficits.  I expect it will hit most everyone, government or not, who isn’t working in certain industries, that have been making out like bandits, socking away investments and savings, the past decade.  -GFS

 

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Federal Workers Delaying Retirement Because of Economic Crisis

By Steve Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 12, 2009; 6:21 PM

After 31 years of federal service, Cynthia Bascetta was set to retire.

In preparation for leaving her job with the Government Accountability Office, she and her family moved last year from Arlington to Fredericksburg, Va., drawn by the lower cost of living and no longer in need of a short commute to work. She informed her managing director of her intent to leave federal service in January.

Well, January has arrived, and Bascetta is still at her desk. After the bottom dropped out of the economy last fall, Bascetta, director of Health Care at GAO, reconsidered her plans to leave a job she still enjoyed. "It just didn't seem like a very good time to stop working," she said.

Now Bascetta is taking the commuter train from Fredericksburg to get to her job at the GAO, in downtown Washington.

Bascetta, 56, is not alone. Some of her older colleagues at the GAO have also changed their plans because of the economic crisis and tumbling retirement accounts, she said. "At least two people here who were thinking of retiring can't, because they've lost too much of their children's college funding," Bascetta said.

Across the federal government in the last several months, fewer employees have been retiring than previously projected. "We are seeing a decline in the rate of retirement," said Nancy Kichak, associate director for Strategic Human Resources Policy for the Office of Personnel Management. "We think it's driven by the economy."

Retirements of federal workers in the third quarter of fiscal 2008 numbered 12,013, down about six percent from the same quarter a year earlier, according to OPM figures.

In recent years, federal officials have been bracing for a wave of retirements brought on by the aging of the federal workforce -- the "retirement tsunami," as Lynn A. Jennings, executive vice president for the Council for Excellence in Government, puts it.

OPM has projected that close to one-fifth of the federal government's full-time permanent workforce will retire over the next five years, and that 36 percent of the Senior Executive Service will retire by 2012.

"Our projections are going to be changing," said Kichak. Revised figures are expected by later this month or early February.

Despite the slowdown in retirements, Kichak said the increasing average age of the federal workforce -- 46.2, up from 41.6 two decades ago -- means that a substantial portion of the government workforce will be retiring later this decade. "They may delay it a little, but people are just plain not not going to retire," said Kichak.

OPM has been expecting a peak in retirements between 2008 and 2010, Kichak said, and that has not changed. "We still think we will peak between 2008 and 2010, but the peak will be lower," she said.

Jennings said hopes of better times for the federal workforce under the Obama administration may be contributing to a decision by some to put off retirement. "Given the economic realities and the excitement over the Obama administration, we may not see the tsunami," said Jennings.

"The economic turmoil certainly changes that equation, as does the change in administration," said Max Stier, president and CEO of the non-profit Partnership for Public Service.

Stier added that the aging of the federal cohort points inexorably to the departure of a large number of retiring federal workers. "At some point, we're going to be seeing people leaving. I don't think there's any question we're seeing a substantial exodus of talent."

They include people like Mary Levy, who retired Jan. 2 as division director for the General Services Administration's Consumer Information and Education office after 35 years of government service. Leaving the federal government after so many years was a hard decision. "It's become part of who I am," Levy, 60, said of her job. "I'm a wife and a daughter and an aunt, and I'm a federal employee."

The economic downturn did give her pause. "It certainly made me stop and think," said Levy. "Fortunately, I'm covered under the old civil service system. If I were under the new system, it would probably be a deterrent."

Retirees covered by the old system receive a defined benefit based on their years of service. Workers covered by Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), which was introduced in 1987, receive some of their benefits from a thrift savings plan similar to a 401 k plan, and are therefore more vulnerable to the decline in the stock market.

"They may be less inclined to retire these days," said Jennings.

"The economic downturn was something that gave me second thoughts," said Susan Jacobs, who retired Dec. 31 from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, and is covered by FERS. "I wanted to be sure that I was sure."

How much of an impact the economic crisis will have on federal retirements, and for how long, is unknown. "We're just like everybody else," said Kichak. "We don't know when the economy is going to get better."

Despite the slowdown in retirements, federal agencies need to continue efforts to combat a feared "brain drain" as experienced employees leave the service, Kichak said. "Those things are things we still need to be working on," she said.

Don Drach, 59, who retired January 2 as director of international relations for the GAO after 28 years in government service, helped develop a "knowledge transfer program" to retain institutional knowledge and relationships.

"People feel an obligation not just to leave, but to leave it in good shape," he said.

Though she has delayed retirement, Bascetta has continued to prepare her staff for her departure. "The last six months, I've been much more conscious of not just giving comments, but trying to explain my thought process," she said.

Retirement remains a viable option for her because she is covered by the civil service system. "If I were in the new system, I could not retire," she said. Bascetta now thinks she will likely retire next January, a year later than intended.

For Bascetta, there is consolation over the fact that she now faces a two-hour door-to-door commute from Fredericksburg via Virginia Railway Express versus her old 20-minute drive from Arlington. "It turns out I love the train," she said.

Communicate: Go to Change.gov

Dear G.Florence,

We wanted to tell you about a new feature on Change.gov which lets you bring your ideas directly to the President.

It's called the Citizen's Briefing Book, and it's an online forum where you can share your ideas, and rate or offer comments on the ideas of others.

The best-rated ones will rise to the top, and after the Inauguration, we'll print them out and gather them into a binder like the ones the President receives every day from experts and advisors. If you participate, your idea could be included in the Citizen's Briefing Book to be delivered to President Obama.

Visit the Citizen's Briefing Book now and share your ideas:

Throughout this Transition, a truly inspiring number of citizens have gotten involved. We hope that you remain involved through the Inauguration and beyond.

Thank you,

Valerie

Valerie Jarrett

Co-Chair

Obama-Biden Transition Project

Senior Executive Selection Process Set to be Modified.

OPM to modify senior executive selection process

Link to Original:  http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41808&dcn=e_gvet

By Brittany R. Ballenstedt bballenstedt@govexec.com January 15, 2009

The Office of Personnel Management is adjusting the process federal agencies use to select members for the Senior Executive Service, following a pilot project that won high praise from applicants.

In a Jan. 12 memorandum to agency human resources heads, acting Director Michael Hager said OPM is developing an improved version of a new selection process tried out at eight agencies from June 1, 2008, to Nov. 15, 2008.

During the test run, agencies advertised 61 vacancies by asking applicants to submit a record of accomplishments or a résumé in lieu of narratives focused around five broad executive core qualifications. Applicants had characterized the narratives as too cumbersome and some had hired experts to help write them.

Agencies advertised 34 of the SES vacancies using the accomplishment record approach, in which job-seekers were asked to submit a more streamlined application that targets selected competencies of the five core qualifications. The remaining 27 vacancies were announced using the résumé-based approach, in which applicants were asked to submit only a standard résumé. Both methods drew heavily on structured interviews of well-qualified candidates.

"These interviews to a large degree took the place of the lengthy [executive core qualifications] narrative statements typically required of candidates under the traditional SES selection process," Hager said. "In this way, the pilot attempted to make the hiring process more inviting to applicants by shifting some of the burden from them to agency staff."

The project also tested the use of virtual qualification review boards, OPM-administered independent panels of senior executives that assess the qualifications of Senior Executive Service candidates. Using an automated system, board members were able to review candidates without actually convening at OPM. "This method seems to hold considerable promise as a way to streamline this critical OPM function without diminishing the quality of the decisions rendered," Hager said.

Results from the pilot project indicate that it was successful in shifting the burden from the applicant to human resources staff, he said. The pilot produced a 50 percent increase in applicants compared to the traditional method, with the résumé-based approach attracting more than twice as many non-federal applicants.

Still, HR staffers said they found the new approaches somewhat unwieldly, noting that the streamlined applications and structured interviews required extra work. But for agencies with the most hires under the pilot project, there were fewer objections as staff became more practiced in the processes. Those agencies included the Homeland Security Department.

Hager said OPM will improve the pilot methods, taking into account some of the concerns of staff and applicants, and will provide training within the next few months to agencies that want to use the new approaches. After completing the training, he said, agencies will be able to choose between the new processes and the traditional method.