If it seems to you that things have been very quiet around the Bush White House, keep in mind the horror movie adage: "It's quiet. Maybe just a little tooooooo quiet."

The sound of nothing you hear is not that the Bushies have all given up the ghost and decided to take an extended summer vacation through, say, January 20, 2009. No, they have gone underground and are busily producing stealth rules, including Occupational Safety and Health  rules, that will make our workplaces much less safe.

And, the best part about this is that the reason they give for making these changes is?  . . .

That's the theme of a long overdue campaign to reclaim the dignity of public service.

crossposted from unbossed

If it's late summer 2008, then Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels must be running for re-election.

crossposted from unbossed

In the case of privatization at the USPS, the latest GAO report reads more like a big April Fool's joke than reality and contains such ludicrous excuses for privatization that any competent person  would be embarrassed to make them.

crossposted from unbossed

Gosh, the puns are just there, softballs, really, when you learn that Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormones known as Posilac a/k/a rBST or rBGH- a product developed to boost milk production in cows - is now being marketed as a way to increase the yield of farmed tilapia.

You would think that amidst the GWOT we would be taking national security seriously and that seriousness would be demonstrated by a meaningful security clearance process. But not so.

crossposted from unbossed

They're just criminals  - so why should we care about how they are treated in The Big House?

In fact, if we can get "Onshore outsourcing at offshore prices" by using prison labor, what's the problem?

crossposted from unbossed

A few years ago, Frontline aired an investigative report into the use of private contractors, including private security contractors mercenaries. link

That report was devastating in its findings, primarily that the use of private security contractors mercenaries was contributing to unrest and was taking the military away from its mission in order to protect the private security contractors mercenaries.

Crossposted from unbossed.

It is not only former White House employees who are declining invitations to appear before Congress. Battles on similar fronts are occurring on the labor and employment fields. There are two primary battles. One involving a secret regulation issued by the Department of Labor

The second one reported here - concerns the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). After a very negative report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Rep. Miller demanded that the PBGC turn over documents related to that GAO report. So far PBGC has not provided the documents. PBGC says that it will comply but first it has to get a report from its consultant.

crossposted from unbossed

It is not only former White House employees who are declining invitations to appear before Congress. Battles on similar fronts are occurring on the labor and employment fields. There are two primary battles. One involving a secret regulation issued by the Department of Labor

The second - and the one reported on here - concerns the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). After a very negative report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Rep. Miller demanded that the PBGC turn over documents related to that GAO report. So far PBGC has not provided the documents. PBGC says that it will comply but first it has to get a report from its consultant.

crossposted from unbossed

Reading the latest Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo on how do do federal privatization is more than wading through and obfuscatory sea of acronyms. The language reminds me of nothing so much as a slave auction. Take, for example, the wording used to mean federal employees who will lose their jobs to private contractors - Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act workforce inventory.

Workers as inventory. Things. Who can care about the fate of mere inventory? Especially when it is all done in a FAIR way.

crossposted from unbossed

The Senate Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure finally, finally held a hearing this past week, on July 24 on the role of tax subsidies in creating the boom in states leasing their highways. Tax and Financing Aspects of Highway Public-Private Partnerships. The hearing was before the Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure. Senator Bingaman's opening statement may be found here. It was not linked at the hearing website, so it took some searching to find it.

Here is what the witnesses had to say.

crossposted from unbossed

crossposted from unbossed

According to her report to Congress,  National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson reports that the IRS has gone back on its promises and is using private debt collectors on complex cases.

crossposted from unbossed

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) website is an interesting one to check in on to see what is going on in government. NTEU represents about 150,000 federal employees working in 31 federal agencies and departments.  The NTEU has also been an aggressive opponent of privatization.

Here is a the NTEU take on the battle over privatizing Homeland Security's Human Resource work. The lucky Privateer is Lockheed-Martin.

crossposted from unbossed

Ever have an epiphany about the meaning of everything and how it all fits together? Well, I can't say I have quite achieved that, but at least part way along. It all happened as I was washing my hands in a very up-to-date restroom.

crossposted from unbossed

Yawn! So what else is new? Another Bush agency transformed from one that fulfilled its mission to protect the powerless and to crack down on law-breaking employers into one that completely refuses to do its job. Just another example of our unitary executive - make that uni-tarry executive - at work. Talk about your energy in the executive the ultra conservatives tout! I guess the WHD folks have found a burning bush to tell them what their life's mission is about.

crossposted from unbossed

This is about privatization. About five years ago, IT privatization was all the rage in the federal government. For reasons that have always escaped me, pro-privatization groups argued - successfully (and this is the part I find unbelievable) - that contracting out an agency's IT work is a no-brainer and would lead only to good.

crossposted from unbossed

For years, I have warned that pensions are at high risk A few months ago, unbossed noted that the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) was engaged in a dangerous strategy for financing pension shutdowns. Now it is ready to take additional actions you need to be aware of. They will affect defined benefit pensions and most likely have an impact on other retirement benefits.