Bush’s house homophobe

[meegbear]

THREE MILLION EMPLOYEES of the federal government rely on one fairly obscure office for protection against job discrimination, retaliation for whistle-blowing, political hackery, secrecy, and partisanship. Tragically, the man who runs that agency, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), is a gay-hating, secretive, partisan, political hack.

That man, Scott Bloch, is decimating the ability of government employees to turn in their bosses for wrongdoing — which is apparently the way George W. Bush wants it. After all, Bush has spent five years replacing the government’s inspectors general — each agency’s watchdog for investigating whistleblower complaints — with partisan hacks. (See Representative Henry Waxman’s report at reform.democrats.house.gov/Documents/20050111164847-37108.pdf.) That means more waste, more fraud, and more abuse of taxpayer dollars. It also means less accountability for Bush-administration appointees who pursue their own ideologically driven prejudices.

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THE OSC is known mostly for helping whistleblowers who have suffered retaliation, but it also investigates discrimination — in fact, it has long been the one and only place for most federal employees to get help in cases of alleged discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. (The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission does not redress sexual-orientation discrimination.)

Now, thanks to Bloch, victims of sexual-orientation discrimination have no recourse — people like Michael Levine, a gay, 32-year Forest Service employee in California. Levine says he was harassed and suspended after co-filing a complaint against a fellow employee’s personal use of office resources. According to a witness, the personnel officer who came after Levine said during the process, "Don’t you just hate these fucking faggots?"

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:grr:

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/multipage/documents/04669647.asp

[TaleWgnDg]

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