Bush Bans State Department Officials From Obama Rally
In a flagrant political act, the State Department has barred its employees from attending Sen. Barack Obama's speech in Berlin tonight. Under the pretense that he is maintaining political neutrality, the Washington Post reported today, State Department Undersecretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy has interpreted the Foreign Affairs Manual in the most restrictive way, claiming that he is ensuring that foreign service officials will remain untainted by a "partisan political act." (Spouse and family members, however, have generously been excluded from this ruling.) The U.S. embassy, which is headed by ambassador Robert Timken, a businessman and crony of George W. Bush's from Ohio, who is widely reviled in Germany for his ignorance of foreign affairs, has instructed officials not to attend the rally. The American Foreign Service Association has complained about the edict but there's not enough time to dispute it. Funny that.
The truth is that there would probably be few better opportunities for embassy officials to get a feel for the views of the Germans by mixing with them during the rally. Of course, the sentiments expressed by Germans, who worship Obama as much as they loathe George W. Bush, might not be ones that the administration is eager to hear.
Indeed, the administration has a long and tawdry record of trying to browbeat government agencies into submission, whether it's the CIA or the Centers for Disease Control. The State Department is perhaps highest on the list of conservatives and neocons who see it as the center of disloyalty and treachery. But this latest action represents a new low. If it's going to these lengths, the Bush administration must be really worried about Sen. John McCain's prospects.
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I con only imagine a few brave people took a late lunch or went out on a errand. History in the making is hard to turn away from. Why does Bush feel the need to ban state dept. employees, can you abort a persons free will? I pretty sure it would stop them from voting for Obama at the ballot box.
Once again this Administration trounces basic freedoms..
Perhaps they shouldn't be attending his speeches abroad, either...
I pray that most thumbed their nose at this ludicrous violation.
The real hypocrisy is that US Ambasador to Canada Wilkins not only met John McCain's campaign plane on the tarmac, but had arranged and attended McCain's own foreign speech, to the Economic Club of Canada on June 20 in Ottawa. Which speech McCain's campaign paid for and didn't try to sneak by as some congressional junket. So somehow it's ok for Republicans but not for the Berlin folks? Puhhlease!
Timken? From the ball-bearing family? I'll make a point to never order his bearings from now on.
Speaking of buying, notice how Bush is all desperate for people to spend their rebate checks on consumer items? We are going to do just the opposite, spend nothing except on essentials, until president Obama is sworn in and then it's going to be time to go shopping.
I sent a good portion of my rebate to Obama.
Felt good.
My rebate check went into the pockets of American diesel mechanics to keep my, 25 year old, 50 mpg car running !
Guess the employees at the US Embassy in Berlin were in luck then. If they were still at work, they only would only have to open a window. Sneak off onto the rooftop.
I watched the Obama speech live on TV in the UK and I was delighted with the response to the man, his speech and his comments. The anti Bush feeling throughout Europe has become virulent and is a stain on the reputation of the USA and the many Americans I count as good friends. Tony Blair, Bush's supporter, has gone to earn his millions while his successors have been annihilated in yesterday's election in East Govan, Glasgow by the Scottish Nationalists. This is an area where the average age of death is lower than in many thirld world countries.
Throughout Europe there is contempt for Bush and his repellant administration. Not too long ago they were rushing as many inmates of the Texas Death Row on to the electric chair as they could and in defiance of decisons in Human Rights Courts. Yesterday in Berlin, Scotland and elsewhere it wasn't Obama alone who triumphed: it was hope for a return to compassion, decency and an America the rest of the world needs and wants.
Here here.....
maintaining political neutrality:
Hardee, har dee har har; hardee har dee har har
skyreader7: I second that!!!!
November is not the magic month, January is! Consp*racy theory? Yeah, better safe than sorry.
John McCain should DENOUCE Bush & Company for violating the Hatch Act with these employees.
Bush & Company violate MORE laws ... the Hatch Act which allows federal employees to attend political rallies, organize political fundraisers & even allows them to speak at a political event.
Bush & Co. have NO respect for laws and John McCain should denounce this!
These are highly reactionary comments. What next will President Bush be blamed for? Your bad relationships? Your next health issue?
Meanwhile, the BIG POINT goes missing, totally ignored, as usual:
You all think the current President is 'out-of-touch,' but it's your CHOICE to gripe about somebody so out-of-touch they are campainging IN THE WRONG COUNTRY.
Mr Obama has to campaign in "the wrong country" to repair the damages made by your "heroe" George. That is the reason Mr Obama is there. The insult is our government that preaches "Freedom" around the world is now telling our government employees they cannot participate in democracy. Maybe they should attend the meeting to hear what then Germans are saying about us, then, 'WE DON'T NEED TO LISTEN TO ANY ONE" RIGHT?
Maybe they should attend the meeting to hear what then Germans are saying about us, then, 'WE DON'T NEED TO LISTEN TO ANY ONE" RIGHT?
Unfortunately the bigots and rednecks will do just that, but they weren't going to vote for a person of color anyway. I think the youth, African Americans, women and all people of color have more sense and true integrity. Enough to offset these folks that still live in the dark ages. Goodbye old, white dinosaurs! A new day is dawning
You hit the nail on the head !! Bush has ruined our countrys relationship with once solid allies .McCain bragged about how close he is with European politicans and their Goverment people.So WHY should McCain complain when someone else does the Job that Bush should have been doing for the past eight years?
Hey, your boy McCain campaigned in Canada & even held a fundraiser in Canada and another fundraiser in England. Then he went to the MidEast as a presidential candidate & then to Columbia as a presidential candidate.
yes, because complaining about the POTUS breaking Federal Laws
is completely akin to blaming him for my broken toe
Uh, just so you know, Americans are allowed to live elsewhere. Part of the event in Berlin was registering American citizens to vote.
I was raised to believe that participation in the democratic process is a civic virtue. Why do Republicans have such contempt for it?
http://www
Do you use copies of the US Constituion for toilet paper, by chance?
Had they scrutinized Clinton, Bush and now McCain as they are Obama's every move, then America would not be in the shape it is in today. Unfortunately, it is a double standard once more in this so called Mosaic Society. Such Hypocrisy
The day my boss tells me where I can or cannot go on my own time and of my own free will, is the day I tell him to stick it up his.......
That would be the last straw for me; and it should be for those State Department staff.
As State Department employees in another country, they are bound by mutual treaties negotiated between the United States and whatever host country the employees serve in. In this case, the state department has rules (based in public law and in treaty law) which forbid US diplomatic personnel from attending partisan political rallies in their host country.
These diplomats sign an annual Statement of Understanding in which they acknowledge this and agree to it. It's not a "precision timed attack," it's a matter of public law and treaty law which has been on the books for years.
When diplomatic personnel attend a partisan political rally in another host country, they violate treaties with the host countries and jeopardize future relations with those countries. I suspect I'm wasting my breath here. Such diplomatic fine-points, such subtleties are often lost to those who've drunk the kool-aid.
Kwijibo -- YOU LIE LIKE A RUG DUDE. State Dept. employees have rights TO attend political rallies, partisan rallies under the Hatch Act. Not to mention, Obama gave a totally NON PARTISAN SPEECH.
Stop lying so much - you're turning red.
Read the Hatch Act kwijibo. It specifically allows attending political meetings and rallies http://www
If you know some "public law and treaty law" that prohibits a State Department employee from attending a public rally (which would be illegal according to the 1993 amendments to the Hatch Act), you should reference it (please be specific). And the last paragraph is rich - you claim to understand diplomatic fine points and subtleties and yet you clearly don't know anything about the law that governs the activities in question. But its typical for the right wing. Make an ideology-based decision and state it loudly while denigrating anyone that might disagree. Hey, at least you can spell better than most right wingers.
Oh, and those kool-aid drinkers that don't understand your interpretation of "diplomatic fine-points" and "subtleties" includes the American Foreign Service Association, which has objected to the ruling, calling it an “unnecessarily narrow interpretation” of the Foreign Affairs Manual. And they were being kind!
This seems to be a point in the Rush Limbaugh/ Bill O'Reilly handbook today. Have *you* got *your* brown shirt on too?
Just remember, all of those who wanted to go, and were prevented from going....
will vote.
Funny how they'll remember what happened. Do you think you could shred all those ballots? Or are Rush and Bill on the shredder this year?
Those "partisan political rallies" -- that means they can't attend for candidates running for office IN THE COUNTRY THEY ARE STATIONED IN! Or any country OTHER than the US. Because that could be interpreted as getting involved in the internal politics of an host country.
It does NOT mean they give up their rights to be involved, as US law will allow, in an AMERICAN political event.
Now, what was that about 'diplomatic fine points and subtleties' again?
Petty and desperate. They're losing their grip, so they try grasping tighter. So much for the right to assembly.
I'm not sure Germany has this "right to assembly" that you're referring to. Remember, the rally is not in the USA, it's in Germany.
Even if Germany did have an identical right to assembly for their own citizens, diplomats are a breed apart and they must be incredibly scrupulous in obeying the laws of their host country and in obeying the rules required of them under US treaty obligations, of which this rule is a part.
I agree... To clarify, I was referring to our State Department upholding our values, regardless of where their employees are based. State Department employees peacefully attending this event on their own time doesn't seem problematic to me from a security (personal or national) or foreign relations standpoint. I am unware that there are any treaties with Germany prohibiting our foreign service employees from attending these types of events in a non-official capacity.
Cheers.
To follow up on my first reply... Here is an outline regarding federal employees and partisan activity under the Hatch Act: http://www
And here's a more complete account of the American Foreign Service Association's take:
"calling it an “unnecessarily narrow interpretation” of the Foreign Affairs Manual. “The fact that you are working for the U.S. government overseas should not preclude political activity that you could engage in in the United States,” one retired senior Foreign Service officer said....
AFSA representatives met with Kennedy and State Department legal representatives Tuesday after two unnamed embassy employees complained to the union that the prohibition -- in an internal statement issued after some stationed there had asked about attending the rally -- violated their civil rights..."
More at: http://www
I've been fired for disobeying a direct order that I found morally repugnant before...I think if I were a State Department employee in Germany, even if I'd not been planning to attend, I would move heaven and earth to get there as an "UP YOURS!!!!"
LAND OF THE FREE, HOME OF THE BRAVE ???
God Help America, My Home Sweet Home ..........
I can't wait until this dictator is ousted. And I worry about how long, how many decades it's going to take before the US and it's citizenry aren't despised.
That can all change with one election. Go O.
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