From the Stars & Stripes - DOD personnel system unjust

[Lowell]

I am a vet and often read the Stars & Stripes just to keep a finger on the pulse of the news the military are getting. I remember reading the filtered news while in Vietnam, Korea and Germany from the Stars & Stripes. Well things have changed a lot in thirty years. A letter to the editor I found interesting follows -

The Department of Defense�s proposed National Security Personnel System of rewarding employees considered �worthy� threatens to undermine workers� collective bargaining and due process rights in the name of �national security.� This is Bush cronyism at its finest, designed to promote a system of amiable sock puppets, like those coached by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Allison Barber during President Bush�s scripted videoconference propaganda stunt last month. It�s a system reminiscent of 1933 Berlin, when Adolf Hitler held a massive May Day celebration for workers as a ruse to outlaw free labor unions.

Let�s apply the NSPS to Bush, evaluating his administration on its goal to end �the politics of personal destruction,� unite the country with compassion, and bring honor and dignity to the White House. In fact, the Bush administration has smeared those with opposing views, a foreshadow of the NSPS�s hidden agenda � conformity or else. Recipients of Bush�s smear campaign include Rep. John Murtha, Joseph Wilson, CIA agent Valerie Plame, John McCain, Max Cleland, Richard Clarke, Eric Shinseki, Anthony Zinni, John Kerry, the National Education Association, Gold Star Mothers and residents of New Orleans. So much for unity and �Christian� compassion.


Vice President Dick Cheney�s chief of staff, I. Lewis �Scooter� Libby Jr., remained on the federal payroll up until his indictment for perjury and obstruction of justice during a war that resulted from the worst national security breach in U.S. history � Sept. 11. Karl Rove, under investigation for passing classified information about Plame to the media � information that goes to the heart of America�s security � remains Bush�s most trusted adviser.

As a retired veteran and civilian employee, I�m treated as a national security threat, yet Libby and Rove aren�t. Cheney can advocate the torturing away of America�s national security, Bush can make �a mistake� of killing/maiming more than 100,000 innocent people � Iraqi and �coalition� � while I�m either to march in lock step or find work elsewhere.

Just as the Patriot Act has nothing to do with patriotism, Bush�s regressive labor proposal, the NSPS, has nothing to do with national security. Furthermore, it is unjust and un-American, and must be rejected.

--- snip ---

You would have never seen such candor in the old days. It is refreshing to hear first hand that our citizens in uniform are not all brain dead Bush automatons.

This gentelman's letter, and others can be found at:

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=33244

[Solo_in_MD]

1. It was a LTE not an article

and the writer did nothing to support his case.

NSPS is a first cut at trying to improve Civil Service rules in the DoD, and is not inherently evil. There are several other places in the DoD where pilot programs have been underway and considered very successful. NSPS looks a lot like them.

Though no longer in civil service, I am yet to see why NSPS is such a bad thing. The current rules are nearly insufferable so it would be hard IMO to make things much worse. That said there is at least one lawsuit pending from the Fed unions, but it should not have a major impact outside of bargaining units.

[Lowell]

2. I made it pretty clear it was a letter in my first paragraph

I think the writers service in both the military and DoD gave him a lot of credence. It was his other views about the general political atmosphere I found most interesting. Those and the fact that the Stars & Stripes actually prints letters showing such dissent.

[Solo_in_MD]

3. It was the post title that I was responding to...

Credentials are meaningless without any context and description of what he found so intolerable. Note that I have similar credentials (military an civilian service) and from what I have read NSPS will be an improvement over the current system for most if not all.