Scott J. Bloch founded the Albert Bloch Foundation in or around 2001 and he heads up or did head up Templeton Productions, the fund-raising arm for the documentary Bloch is or was making about his grandfather, Albert Bloch, an artist(link to 4/7/02 Lawrence Journal-World story, "Grandson making documentary about artist-grandfather", below).
The Albert Bloch Foundation 990s are available online at the Foundation Center's 990 Finder and the EIN# is 481216501.
After skimming through the Albert Bloch Foundation 990s, I have some questions.
In 2001, Anna Bloch who, according to the LWJ story, is Albert Bloch's second wife, contributed paintings, watercolors, etc. by Albert Bloch valued at $24k to the Albert Bloch Foundation. (Albert Bloch died in 1961.)
Anna Bloch's 2001 contribution was the initial and only contribution of Albert Bloch's works made to the Albert Bloch Foundation.
In 2002, the value of Anna Bloch's $24k art contribution was revalued at $2.3 million. A somewhat vague explanation for the dramatic increase in value is offered in Attachment 3 on page 18 of the Foundation's 2002 990.
Attachment 3 seems to avoid attributing Anna Bloch with having made the 2001 contribution of Albert Bloch's art. The 2002 990 also does not provide the names of the foundation's officers including the president although Attachment 3 refers to the president.
Attachment 3 also states that the revaluation of Albert Bloch's art was determined in 2003 by the Foundation's president under the supervision of its Board of Directors, whatever that means. The unnamed Foundaton president again revalued the art collection in 2004 and in 2005. If Scott J. Bloch is the president of the Albert Bloch Foundation, is he qualified to value art?
As far as I can tell, Scott J. Bloch's name is listed only once in the Foundation's 990s. His name and home address are on the 2001 extension request. The corporate registration for the Albert Bloch Foundation does not provide the names of any officers or directors.
Anyone who has followed me so far knows that I am wondering who actually got the $2.3 million charitable tax deduction. I don't have enough information to determine if Scott J. Bloch was up to any monkey businesss but you have to wonder when the inital value of an art collection is increased from $24k to $2.3 million well after the fact.
The Foundation reported selling a Bloch painting, "March of the Clowns", to the Jewish Museum on 1/19/02 for $74,000, the painting's supposed book value. But on its website, the Jewish Museum indicates that the painting was a 2001 acquisition. Which is it?
Two of the three other paintings sold by the Foundation were sold at relatively modest prices. One with a book value of $6.5k sold for $6.5k in 2003 and one with a book value of $5k sold for $10k in 2005. Another painting with a book value of $17k was bought by the "East Huron Street Gallery" in 2004 for $50k.
I'm not a tax expert but I suppose selling one painting anually could lend support to the valuation of the art collection. Again, what's in it, if anything, for Scott J. Bloch?
And how's that documentary coming along, Scottie?
Posted by: Mrs Panstreppon
Date: April 25, 2007 11:35 PM
The Albert Bloch Foundation 2001-2005 990s are available online at the Foundation Center's 990 Finder. The Foundation's 2003-2005 990s are available online at Guidestar(free registration required).
Both the Foundation Center and Guidestar provide an invaluable public service, free to everyone in the world. I once again commend both organizations for their contribution to civil society.
Tips:
When searching for the 990s filed by a tax-exempt organization, check both Guidestar and the Foundation Center.
Guidestar's summaries about a particular organization are useful and worth reading.
In my experience, some organizations are misfiled in the Foundation Center database. If the organization's 990s do not show up in a search by name, try searching by state or EIN# if you have it. E.g, searching for "Americans For Tax Reform' returns only ATR's 2004 990. But the 2005 990 is filed under American For Tax Reform.
I don't know if Scott J. Bloch is guilty of financial malfeasance in connection with the Albert Bloch Foundation but I know he missed the meaning of his grandfather's work.
In either 2001 or early 2002, the Albert Bloch Foundation sold one of Bloch's paintings, "The March of the Clowns" (1941), to the Jewish Museum in New York for $74,000. An image of the painting and some information about it is available on the Jewish Museum website.
From the Jewish Museum website:
"In anticipation of victory over the Nazis, Albert Bloch conjured up this parade of clowns celebrating Hitler's defeat. Looking on are cartoon characters from the 1920s. All is folly in Bloch's sarcastic vision, but nonetheless he sharply contrasts the evil folly of Hitler with the lovable folly of the cartoon characters and clowns. Bloch was the only American-born member of The Blue Rider, a group of artists that contributed greatly to the development of abstract art."
If Scott J. Bloch understood what his grandfather was saying about the Nazis in "The March of the Clowns", how could he refuse to let the federal government protect homosexuals in the workplace?
Scott J. Bloch created the issue about homosexuals not being protected under federal law seemingly all on his own. As far as I know, no one overtly had complained about President Clinton's executive order protecting homosexuals from discrimination in the workplace before Scott J. Bloch decided to change the policy.
"...Since taking office in January 2004, the Bush appointee has been accused of failing to enforce a long-standing policy against bias in the federal workplace based on sexual orientation, unnecessarily reorganizing the OSC to try to run off internal critics, and arbitrarily dismissing some personnel complaints and whistle-blower disclosures in an effort to claim reductions in backlogs..."
I criticize President Bush about many things but my impression is that he is personally not intolerant of homosexuality. Did the president know what was being done in his name to gays?
Scott J. Bloch was also criticized for ordering long time employees to accept long distance transfers or quit.
From the WaPo story:
"...his handling this year of an internal reorganization in which 12 career employees were told that they would be involuntarily transferred to new assignments in Dallas; Oakland, Calif.; and a soon-to-opened field office in Detroit. Bloch initially gave the workers 10 days to accept the moves or be terminated, and he extended the deadline only after receiving complaints from some lawmakers. Several employee advocacy groups accused Bloch of targeting workers who had been critical of his management style -- allegations Bloch strongly denied..."
Yesterday, I read that the 12 targeted employees are gay but I don't know if that is true. I'd like to know if it is true. I'd also like to know if Scott J. Bloch acted unilaterally before he changed the OSC's policy towards homosexuals.
In a 4/7/02 Lawrence (KS)World-Journal story about Scott J. Bloch and his grandfather, "Bloch on Bloch", by Jan Biles, Biles wrote about Scot Bloch's father, Walter Black:
"...Scott Bloch, 43, was born in New York City, where his father, Walter, was a writer for Broadway and New York television. When he was 3, the family moved to Los Angeles, where his father was a contributing writer for such shows as "Gilligan's Island," "Hawaii Five-O," "Adam Twelve," "Bonanza," Johnny Quest," "The Flintstones" and "The Jetsons."
His father changed his last name to Black for professional reasons, so Scott Bloch was known as Scott Black until he was 15..."
Did Walter Black change his name from Bloch to Black because he didn't want people to know he was Jewish? I know Jews who did that. I once dated a very Jewish guy named Reynolds.
I don't care if Scott J. Bloch is a Jew, a Catholic or a Wiccan. My point is that Scott J. Bloch knew what discrimination meant firsthand growing up yet he seems to be insensitive to it if it happens to other people.
"Bloch on Bloch" is worth reading if you are interested in what makes Scott J. Bloch tick so here it is.
Lawrence World-Journal By Jan Biles 4/7/02
"Bloch on Bloch"
Grandson making documentary about artist-grandfather
When he was growing up in California, Scott Bloch didn't hear or know much about his grandfather. It wasn't until he moved to Lawrence in 1976 that he discovered the art and writings of Albert Bloch and their significance.
Now, a quarter century later, Bloch is making a documentary film about his grandfather, the only American who exhibited with the Blue Rider in the early 1910s in Germany. The Blue Rider was a pre-World War I expressionist group that paved the way for modern art.
"Growing up, there was not a lot of talk of him or of Lawrence. I would hear the occasional anecdote," Scott Bloch said. "When I was 10 or 12, I was at his studio on Alabama Street and I asked him, 'Why do you paint?' My grandfather whipped his head around and said, 'Why do birds sing? I paint because I must.' He was a severe, distant figure when I was growing up."
But over time, Scott Bloch, an attorney, has discovered the artistic and literary genius of his grandfather, who died in 1961. And now he wants to share his story with the rest of the world.
The documentary, directed by Kansas University alumnus Tim DePaepe, will wrap up filming in May and post-production work is expected to be done by the end of June.
The film, which will cost about $100,000 to make, will be entered in film festivals next fall and most likely will have a Lawrence screening.
Discovering his roots
Scott Bloch, 43, was born in New York City, where his father, Walter, was a writer for Broadway and New York television. When he was 3, the family moved to Los Angeles, where his father was a contributing writer for such shows as "Gilligan's Island," "Hawaii Five-O," "Adam Twelve," "Bonanza," Johnny Quest," "The Flintstones" and "The Jetsons."
His father changed his last name to Black for professional reasons, so Scott Bloch was known as Scott Black until he was 15.
Scott Bloch surprised his father in 1976 when he announced he was moving to Lawrence to attend KU. His friends were going off to Ivy League schools.
"At the time, I was gong to discover my roots. It made linear sense at the time. Now it makes great poetic sense, but not linear sense," he said, with a smile. "My father had given me a letter of introduction to Anna (his grandfather's second wife). I showed up at her door one day. She was 65 but she looked 45. I was expecting to see (someone who looked like) a grandmother."
Anna Bloch invited him in, and their relationship grew during the time he was an undergraduate studying English at KU and later when he was a law student there.
"I was afraid of her. She scared me, but she doesn't scare me anymore I am in awe of her," he said of Anna, who still lives in Lawrence. "I call her the 'Oracle of Alabama Street.' She has wisdom and clarity, and there's a beauty to her. She was a real support to Albert Bloch, and some of his wisdom and perception flows through her.
"She introduced me to him to the man, the artist, the poet, to my grandfather Albert Bloch. He was a compassionate man, but he didn't try to hide his crusty side either."
One day, Anna showed up at Scott's home with one of his grandfather's oil paintings and presented it to him. The painting, "Winter Sundown 1954," has a spiritual sense and shows a man, woman and baby in a scene that resembles Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus' flight from Egypt. When Anna dies, he will take ownership of his favorite painting, "Summer Night 2," which was painted in 1935.
His grandfather's artistic style has grown on him as he's matured.
"I'm drawn to his sense of the unseen world," Scott Bloch said. "He depicts things in his paintings that we all know exist the joys and the sorrows, the great movements of history, war and famine, humor, mystery, suffering, injustices and makes them visible. These are invisible things that seem to be hidden from us until we see them through art, poetry, spiritual media or prayer.
"There's an other-worldliness and a deep mystery (to his paintings) that I can't get to the bottom of. With Albert Bloch you keep wanting to come back and that's come out in the interviews done for the documentary."
A 'challenging' story
Scott Bloch, his wife and six children moved last weekend to Washington, D.C., where he works with the Bush administration's Task Force for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He is also a founder of the Albert Bloch Foundation, which works to perpetuate the artistic and literary works of his grandfather, and Templeton Productions, the fund-raising arm for the documentary.
Because of the move, he has taken on the role of executive producer of the documentary while DePaepe is finishing the filming and post-production work.
DePaepe said he didn't know anything about Albert Bloch before his involvement in the film, although he minored in art history at KU. Scott Bloch approached him about making the film, and he became even more intrigued after meeting Anna.
"It's a very challenging story," said DePaepe, who is best known for his award-winning documentary "Shades of Gray" and will be moving in July to Los Angeles. "It's not going to be a pedantic Ken Burns-ish film no offense to people who like Ken Burns. It's about the process of looking at painting and the process of painting.
"In many ways, it's a mystery story. It unravels the mysteries of Albert Bloch. Why did he live in Lawrence and paint? If you read Bloch's writing, he had no patience for art historians or academicians. He liked painting and ideas. Painting was the way he expressed his ideas. He had no time or patience with other painters (of his day), like Thomas Hart Benton or John Stuart Curry."
He also would not have much patience with filmmakers focusing on his life and work.
"If I were to see my grandfather today, I would ask him to forgive me for making the film because he was not about promoting himself," Scott Bloch said. "He would say that I was trying to undo everything (he had done).
"(If I were to meet him), I would ask him did he ever feel that he fulfilled his purpose as an artist. He didn't talk about that a lot. He left that open for others to determine. Ultimately, art is not about whether people recognize you or not. He successfully achieved a vision for himself."
The funny thing is that I became interested in Albert Bloch and his work after reading about him. The ArtCyclopedia website has a few references to his work and, as it turns out, there is more than one "The March of the Clowns".
"Albert Bloch, born in 1882 in St. Louis, dropped out of school at age 16 so he could begin taking classes at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts. Even then, he knew he wanted to devote his life to art.
He was hired by the Mirror, a satirical weekly in St. Louis, to supply caricatures, cartoons and covers. In 1908 he moved with his wife, Hortense, and young son, Bernard, to Munich, where he studied art and eventually came in contact with Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky, members of the Blue Rider, an expressionistic group that ushered in modern art.
Bloch was included in several Blue Rider exhibits and had several solo and group shows in Europe and the United States. His paintings were purchased and included in prominent private collections.
In 1916, Walter Bloch Scott Bloch's father was born in Germany. In 1921, Albert Bloch and his family returned to the United States, where Albert Bloch got a job teaching at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. He sent most of the money he earned to his wife and family, who were living in St. Louis.
In 1923, Bloch was hired to teach art at Kansas University and moved with his family to 1015 Ala., where he turned the attic and a bedroom into studios. Bloch eventually became head of KU's department of painting and drawing. His students included Robert Sudlow and Robert Berkeley Green.
After he moved to Lawrence, Bloch withdrew from the art world, having no contact with art critics or art promoters. He became fascinated with the writings of Karl Kraus, and in 1927-1928 translated many of his poems.
In the early 1930s, Bloch met art student Anna Francis, who would later become part of KU's art department staff and his second wife. He began to compose poems, continued his painting and drawing and resumed translating the works of Kraus and Georg Trakl.
In 1947, Bloch retired from KU after suffering a heart attack. Two years later, Hortense died, and in 1951 he married his longtime companion, Anna.
Bloch died in 1961. Anna continues to live in the Alabama Street residence."
Very interesting stuff.
Tim DePaepe, the KU Alum selected to produce Bloch's documentary about his grandfather appears to have only one other film credit Shades of Gray which he directed.
A look at five ordinary people leading normal lives in Lawrence, Kansas who just happen to be gay and lesbian. This look at gay life in America's heartland is complicated a bit when the Lawrence city council considers adding sexual orientation to its anti-discrimination policy.
A topic suspiciously close to Bloch's heart?
From what I have been reading, I think Tim De Paepe's "Shades of Gray" was pro-gay or at least not anti-gay. Who knows why Bloch picked De Paepe? Maybe there are just not that many film makers to choose from in Lawrence. Or maybe Bloch heard Fred Phelps starred in "Shades of Gray" and he got the wrong idea about what the movie was about.
"Lawrence, KS, is a left-leaning college town in the middle of America's often conservative heartland, and when local gay rights activists proposed that a clause be added to the city's Human Rights Ordinance that would protect gays and lesbians from political and economic discrimination based on their sexual orientation, it touched off a storm of protest in the usually quiet community.
Leading the campaign against the sexual orientation legislation were Rev. Leo Barbie, an African-American clergyman who contended that gays and lesbians did not constitute a minority who merited protective legislation, and Fred Phelps, a vocal anti-gay activist from Topeka whose infamous slogan is "God Hates Fags."
Shades of Gray is a documentary that examines both the ongoing controversy and the stories behind the participants on both sides of the issue. Directed by Tim DePaepe, Shades of Gray was screened in competition at the 2001 San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide"
Tim De Paepe has been involved in other films as a director and a cinematographer, according tothe IMDb website.
I searched the White Pages for Tim De Paepe, figuring I'd ask him about the documentary about Bloch's gradnfather but he does not appear to be listed. I called one Tim De Paepe in Eugene OR but no go.
On the CounterBias website, Mel Seesholtz provides some information about Scott J. Bloch that I haven't seen elsewhere. Seesholtz is a Ph.D. and a professor of English at Pennsylvania State University.
Seesholtz claims that Bloch was recruiting law school grads at the Ava Maria Law School of which I know nothing about except that it is not on the US News & World Report's list of the top 100 law schools. Someone at the TPM MR told me that Ava Maria Law School is a Catholic school in Michigan founded by arch conservative, Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza.
I'm not ready to assume that Bloch only recruited extreme right wingers for the Office of Special Counsel. In a 10/1/04 Lawrence World-Journal story, "KU graduate shares experiences from D.C., Special Counsel Office", Terry Rombeck wrote about Bloch visiting the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence to speak and conduct interviews with students at the KU School of Law.
Seesholtz also claims that Bloch hired Alan Hicks, his son's former headmaster, for a one-year, $112,000 position that produced one four-page memo. If this is true, i think someone in charge should check whether Hicks got the job in lieu of tuition.
While I was at it, I'd like to know where Bloch's seven children go to school and I'd check whether any of the schools were funded through federal faith-based initiatives. Bloch was in the faith-based initiative business at the DOJ when he first came to DC.
Here is Seesholtz's essay which meanders a bit but is worthwhile reading if you are not familiar with the term, Originalists.
The battle over Bush's judicial nominees, Bill Frist's threatened "nuclear option" and the eleventh hour "bipartisan compromise" have occupied the news recently, and with good reason. Many of the Bush nominees - including those now headed for lifetime seats on the federal bench - are "originalists."
What's an "originalist"? The term refers to the way a jurist interprets the U.S. Constitution. H. Jefferson Powell defined the originalist perspective in his 1987 article "Rules for Originalists" in the Virginia Law Review: "Those who advocate giving normative force to the 'original intent' of the Constitution's framers... adherence to the Constitution's original meaning(s) without locating that (those) meaning(s) in the founders' actual intention."
Failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork offered a functional definition his 1990 book The Tempting of America. An originalist believes "all that counts" for a judge interpreting the Constitution "is how the words used in the Constitution would have been understood at the time [of enactment]." By "the Constitution" originalists mean the document written by the Founding Fathers. Subsequent amendments to the Constitution are not, originalists believe, on a par with the original text.
Applying Bork's definition to the Declaration of Independence, one would have to conclude that "all men are created equal" means exactly that: men, not women. And since slaves were not really considered "human" much less citizens in the eighteenth century, African-Americans and other "minorities" unrecognized then simply don't exist today either, legally speaking. That may be why originalists have such a problem with equality and civil rights.
Originalist William H. Pryor, one of the previously filibustered nominees for the 11th U.S. circuit court of appeals, is a leading proponent of the "federalism" movement, the goal of which is to limit the authority of Congress to enact laws protecting individual and other civil rights. Mr. Pryor is particularly hostile to recognizing - much less protecting - gay Americans' equality or civil rights. His judicial attitude was made clear in the amicus brief he filed with the Supreme Court during the Lawrence v. Texas case. Pryor argued government has a legitimate interest in singling out same-sex relationships for punishment and compared those relationships to "prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession of child pornography... incest and pedophilia."
Scott J. Bloch is another Bush appointee who has a problem with equality and civil rights, especially when applied to gay and lesbian Americans employed by the federal government.
On May 28, 1998, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 13087 prohibiting discrimination against federal employees based on sexual orientation. Enforcement of that order fell to the Office of Special Counsel. From the OSC's official website: "The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency ... OSC's primary mission is to safeguard the merit system by protecting federal employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices, especially reprisal for whistleblowing." That's "whistleblowing" about federal corruption as well as "prohibited personnel practices" (such as sexual harassment) perpetrated against federal employees.
In January 2004, George W. Bush's choice to head the Office of Special Counsel began his reign. Since then, Scott J. Bloch has not only ignored President Clinton's executive order - which the Bush administration said it supported and wanted continued - but Mr. Bloch has removed all protections for gay and lesbian federal employees and, by his actions, condoned and encouraged "prohibited personnel practices" against them. His record with "whistleblowers" is just as bad.
One of Mr. Bloch's first moves as Special Counsel - in February 2004 - was to remove from OSC complaint forms and its official web site all references to "sexual orientation." Is it any surprise that while at the University of Kansas, Bloch enrolled in the Integrated Humanities Program, a curriculum established in 1971 to counter the anti-war and women's movements and the growing demand for greater multiculturalism on campus? Is it any surprise that Mr. Bloch has bluntly refused to investigate any claims of "sexual harassment" involving gay or lesbian federal employees?
Is it any surprise that Mr. Bloch has ignored competitive recruitment practices by unilaterally hiring his investigators from among new graduates of Ave Maria Law School? Is it any surprise that Bloch hired Alan Hicks, his son's former headmaster, for a one-year, $112,000 position that produced one - that's one - four page memo? (Alan Hicks left his headmaster position after the cover-up of a predatory priest scandal had been exposed.)
In early October 2004, five Democratic members of Congress called on President Bush to "take the necessary action" against Mr. Bloch who, they correctly asserted, continues to refuse "to enforce anti-discrimination protections for federal workers [which] contradicts Bush administration policy to uphold former President Clinton's executive order banning discrimination based on sexual orientation."
Nothing happened. Indeed, Mr. Bloch's enforcement of whistleblower protection quickly came to match his enforcement of non-discrimination against gays and lesbians in the workplace. As of spring 2005, over 1000 cases involving whistleblower accusations and protection of employees from retaliation have been summarily dismissed.
Bloch continued his campaign against gay and lesbian federal employees, as Washington Bureau Chief for 365Gay.com Paul Johnson noted in his article "Administration Moves To Remove Gay Protections From Federal Labor Contracts." In several "contracts negotiated [with the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents thousands of federal government employees] over the past few months the list of categories that are protected has been replaced with the more nebulous phrase 'any class protected by law.' While the change will mean little to African Americans or other minorities, it effectively removes LGBT workers from being protected from being fired or harassed on the job." According to a report in GovExec.com, Witold Skwierczynski, the president of AFGE Council 220, charged the Social Security Administration with proposing the elimination of a clause in its labor contract "that allows gay, lesbian and bisexual workers to file discrimination grievances."
To date, nothing has changed. Bloch continues his crusade against gay and lesbian federal employees. In her May 25, 2005 article "Bush Special Counsel: Gay Federal Workers Have No Protections," Doreen Brandt of 365Gay.com's Washington Bureau reported that "The man in charge of protecting the civil rights of federal workers told a Senate Committee that he will not protect LGBT employees. Special counsel Scott J. Bloch was testifying about complaints his office has adopted an extreme conservative position and has reprimanded people in his own office who disagree with him."
Following his senate testimony, calls for Bloch's resignation increased. Chris Barron, political director for the GOP group Log Cabin Republicans, said, "Scott Bloch has made it clear that he is not enforcing the law and is openly defying the president; accordingly he should resign immediately." But so far the White House has had nothing to say about the Special Counsel's actions despite its April 2004 statement: "Longstanding federal policy prohibits discrimination against federal employees based on sexual orientation. President Bush expects federal agencies to enforce this policy and to ensure that all federal employees are protected from unfair discrimination at work."
Could it be that the White House has done nothing because it agrees with (encourages?) Bloch's actions, despite ordering OSC to enforce President Clinton's executive order? Strategic deceptions and lies have been integral parts of the Bush-Rove strategy since the beginning.
But deceptions and lies need supporters and cheerleaders. Both come in the form of the Taliban-like leaders of the evangelical Christian Right - such as Louis Sheldon of Traditional Values Coalition and James Dobson of Focus on the Family - who proclaim they alone know what "God" wants (theocratically speaking) and how everyone should be and live. Like Scott J. Bloch, they and their organizations are dedicated to making sure gay and lesbian American citizens - and their families - have no social or legal recognition.
When the senate "bipartisan compromise" on Bush's judicial nominations was announced, Sheldon and Dobson went bananas:
"Of the seven Republicans who signed the compromise agreement, Sheldon said: 'They didn't have the backbone and the fortitude to stand up for the fact that we are the majority.'
"James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, which had been lobbying GOP senators to hold firm, expressed his 'disappointment, outrage and sense of abandonment.' Come election day, he said, 'voters will remember both Democrats and Republicans who betrayed their trust.'" (LA Times, May 24, 2005)
Interesting phrase: "betrayed their trust."
For decades Americans have placed their trust in the courts - especially the federal courts - to uphold their civil rights and enforce liberty, justice and equality for all. That trust in the courts was betrayed not by the senators who brokered the bipartisan compromise, but by George W. Bush who nominated and renominated only one kind of jurist, originalists, whose federalism poses a direct threat to many Americans.
Scott J. Bloch and the Office of Special Counsel betrayed the trust of all federal employees. What gay or lesbian employee would feel safe coming forward with a complaint? What "whistleblower" would feel safe coming forward with allegations when the Special Counsel himself is so demonstrably devious and corrupt?
Betrayal is also the modus operandi of the leaders of the Christian Right. They have betrayed the philosophy and message Yeshua of Nazareth in favor of their own political agenda and its vitriolic bile. Religion should be a source of comfort and inspiration, not the cesspool of bigotry and hate called for by evangelical Christian leaders such as Randall Terry: "I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good... Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism."
What's happened to "America"? (Sadly, that's a rhetorical question...)
Yikes! Judge Robert Bork himself is on the Ava Maria School of Law faculty. I'm not familiar with the names of the other faculty members but they seem to have solid credentials.
From Dean Bernard Dobranski's message: "...Our graduates have secured a total of 34 judicial clerkships, 28 of these at the federal level..."
"Ave Maria School of Law was granted full accreditation by the American Bar Association in August 2005."
"Members of the Ave Maria Law Faculty bring to the classroom a depth of experiences in private practice, as federal judicial clerks, and expertise in a wide array of legal areas, including Commercial Law, Intellectual Property Law, International Law, Labor and Employment Law, and Legal Philosophy and Canon Law."
"The Ave Maria Lecture Series and the Distinguished Speaker Series bring to the Law School nationally-recognized lawyers and judges. Visitors to the Law School include U.S. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, Judge Ken Starr; and, Former Attorney General Edwin Meese III."
Humph. I've seen both Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Justice Ruth Ginsberg speak at Touro Law School in Huntington NY. None of this left-wing or right-wing only stuff at Touro which, imho, is the way it should be.
Bork at Ave Maria...
Ashcroft over at Regent...
All we need is just one of the rumors swirling around Scalia to be true. Just how much money did William Bennett owe the AC casinos anyway?
Justice Ginsberg or her staff could knock off one of my questions. I want to know how the Joseph "Joey Boom-Boom" Massaro case got on the docket. Did one of the justices push it?
We already know that Clarence Thomas accepts "gratuities" in the form of car tires, etc. Tacky, tacky, tacky.
"Along with his responsibilities as the headmaster, Mr. Hicks teaches sophomore world history and senior logic classes. Mr. Hicks, his wife who is also a member of the faculty, and their five children reside on the campus."
I don't know when or why Hicks stepped down from the headmaster's position nor do I care. But I'd sure like to know if Scott Bloch gave Hicks a $112k no-show government job. I'd like a $112k government job and I could generate more than an annual four-page memo if I had one.
Mel Seesholtz's information about Alan J. Hicks came from a news release from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a national alliance of local state and federal resource professionals. PEER provides original docs related to the Hicks consulting agreement.
PEER For Immediate Release: April 12, 2005 Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337
Washington, DC — U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch, who is responsible for enforcing civil service rules, hired his son’s former Catholic boarding school headmaster as an expert consultant, in apparent violation of civil service rules, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In addition, Bloch gave the ex-headmaster a one-year appointment under which he would be entitled to receive as much as $111,966.40 but the only work produced was a four-page memo.
On March 16, 2004, Bloch hired Alan Hicks, a former headmaster of St. Gregory’s Academy, a Catholic boarding school, who left in the wake of allegations concerning priests sexually preying on young students, to serve as a consultant for a one-year period. Hicks was paid at an hourly rate of $53.83 for work not to exceed 2080 hours but Bloch has refused to divulge the total amount Hicks received.
In documents obtained by PEER under the Freedom of Information Act –
Hicks’s sole work product consisted of a single four-page memo to Bloch dated September 16, 2004. Bloch’s office withheld the entire text of the memo on the grounds that its contents are “predecisional”[sic];
Although the total amount that Hicks was paid was not disclosed, Hicks was also reimbursed $598.75 for travel, food and lodging to attend two OSC staff retreats in April and May, 2004; and
The nature of Hick’s special expertise is not stated. A “Consultant Statement of Work” dated July 15, 2004 states that Hicks will “review and analyze …current policies and procedures for its program offices…to determine whether they effectively facilitate the accomplishment of work.” In addition, Hicks was supposed to “advise on curriculum of future Office of Special Counsel training program.”
“It is beyond ironic that Scott Bloch heads the office that is supposed to enforce the rules against nepotism and favoritism,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, whose organization has had to sue Bloch to extract records about Hicks and other no-bid consultant deals. “While Bloch blocked its release, for what it cost the taxpayers, it must be one heck of a memo.”
Under federal regulations, expert consultants, such as Hicks, may be hired on a non-competitive basis only if he is “a specialist with skills superior to those of others in the same profession, occupation or activity.” Moreover, Office of Personnel Management guidance warns, “Agencies may not use expert and consultant appointments to avoid employment procedures.” Apart from his past work as a school headmaster, Hicks briefly taught philosophy at the University of Kansas – neither of which would qualify him as an expert under terms of the federal rules.
Since becoming Special Counsel in January 2004, Bloch has not made a single hire through the competitive merit system, including the selection of recent graduates of the ultra-conservative Ave Maria law school to fill slots formerly occupied by civil servants. In addition, Bloch has conducted a controversial re-organization that forced the removal of several career staff. His conduct while in office is now under investigation by the Government Accountability Office, the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency and a Senate committee.
“Bloch has crippled the Office of the Special Counsel at precisely the time when an independent watchdog is most needed,” Ruch added, noting that OSC staff members have also complained about the fact that Hicks was given access to confidential whistleblower case files. “This case perfectly illustrates why Scott Bloch has no business remaining Special Counsel.”
The fact that Scott J. Bloch's Alexandria house was sold in March 2002 and then again in July 2002 to the Blochs is very curious.
I don't usually post property records but I am going to make an exception in this case because someone else might be able to give us a hand. Besides, the info already was published in the Washington Post.
PROPERTY RECORD FOR FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA
ESTIMATED ROLL CERTIFICATION DATE JANUARY 1, 2003
Owner: BLOCH SCOTT J; BLOCH CATHERINE A; Owner Occupied
Mailing Address: 8408 STOCKADE DR, ALEXANDRIA, VA 22308
Property Address: 8408 STOCKADE DR, ALEXANDRIA, VA 22308
SALES INFORMATION
Recorded Date: 07/11/2002
Book/Page: 13104/2129
Prior Sales Date: 03/27/2002
Prior Sales Price: $ 425,000 (Full Amount)
ASSESSMENT INFORMATION
Assessor's Parcel Number: 102-3-16-0004
Legal Description: LOT: 0004; DISTRICT: 06-01-00; CITY: MT. VERNON #1; SUBDIVISION: 16; CENSUS TRACT: 0158.02
Scott J. and Catherine A. Bloch own undeveloped property in McKinley County, New Mexico.
Brief Description: A TRACT OF LAND IN 22 13 16, S1/2S1#2-093-075-398-032
!!!!
scott bloch is on the cspan call in programme now -- at 8 am -- give him a call!! we've got questions.
I caught the last forty minutes of the show. Bloch looked taken aback when Brian Lamb asked him what it would take to remove him from office before his term expires (which is in 2009). I don't think Lamb cares much for Bloch. I don't either - Bloch comes across as an obnoxious blowhard.
I found two companies registered to 8408 Stockade Dr in Alexandria.
One is Templeton Productions which we know is supposed to be the vehicle that Bloch used to raise money for a documentary about his grandfather. But the Templeton filing date is 1998 which is three years before the Albert Bloch Foundation was formed and four years before the story about the documentary was in the Lawrence World-Journal.
I have no idea what the other one, Putting on the Fritz, is about.
#1 KANSAS SECRETARY OF STATE
Company Name: TEMPLETON PRODUCTIONS, L.L.C.
Name Comment: DUNS NO. 022669100
Mailing Address: ATTN: SCOTT J. BLOCH 8408 STOCKADE DR ALEXANDRIA VA 22308
Status: FORFEITED-FAILED TO FILE TIMELY A/R
State or Country of Incorporation: KANSAS
Filing Date: 5/21/1998
Registered Agent: SCOTT J. BLOCH
Registered Office: 1137 MARK BLAIR CT LAWRENCE, KS 66049
#2 KANSAS SECRETARY OF STATE
Company Name: PUTTING ON THE FRITZ, LLC
Mailing Address: 8408 Stockade Dr ALEXANDRIA, VA 22308
A quick google of "putting on the ritz" brings back references to a pony and some deceased show dog award winner. I wonder if the Blochs are into dog shows -- that's something suitably 'middle American' and could be an interest of an upper-middle-class homemaker with seven kids.
Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Bloch was in private practice in Lawrence, KS.
On the C-SPAN Washington Journal program today 4/27/07, Bloch said he had no connection to the Bush Administration prior to being brought on as a political appointee. I find this hard to believe.
I note that DOJ Civil Rights Division deconstructionist and just-departed US Attorney for Missouri Bradley Schlozman (he's supposedly on the lam) was a clerk for a Chief US District Judge US Judge G Thomas Van Bebber (deceased) in Kansas in the late 1990's.
I wonder if Schlozman pulled Bloch into the administration?
The Blochs also seem to support Senator Brownback -- Catherine Bloch gave $1,000 to Brownback's presidential campaign in 2006. Maybe Brownback's recommendation brough Scott to DC? After all, Bloch started off in the Office of Faith Based Initiatives at DOJ -- a topic very close to the Senator's heart.
I phoned Carolyn Swift today and asked her if Scott Bloch is or ever was an officer or director of the Albert Bloch Foundation. Swift is a Foundation director and the Foundation's books are in her care, according to the Foundation's 990s.
Swift told me that Bloch family members are not permitted to serve as officers or directors, according to the Foundation's by-laws. I got the impression that I was not the first person to ask this question.
Swift told me that Scott Bloch was instrumental in setting up the Foundation which is why his name and address is on the 2001 990 extension request.
We still do not know whether Scott J. Bloch benefitted financially in any way from the $2.3 million revaluation of Albert Bloch's art collection.
Carolyn Swift seemed like a nice lady on the phone but she doesn't know all that much about Scott J. Bloch's association with the Albert Bloch Foundation or she fibbed to me about the foundation's by-laws and Scott Bloch's positions with the Foundation.
According to the biographical information that Bloch submitted to the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs (see page 19 of the PDF file), Bloch was Secretary/Treasurer and a director of the Albert Bloch Foundation from June 2000 until December 2001.
The problem with Bloch's service dates is that the Albert Bloch Foundation was not registered as a non-profit corporation with the state of Kansas until 6/19/01. According to the 2001 990 filed by the Foundation, the 990 covered the period from June 1 to December 31, 2001. Anna F. Bloch contributed Albert Bloch's art works on 6/9/01.
When Tina M. Patzel, CPA, submitted the 990 extension request to the IRS on 8/7/02, the Foundation name and address was in care of Scott Bloch at his Virginia address.
Was Scott J. Bloch merely careless about the dates he served as an officer and director of the Albert Bloch Foundation? Or did he deliberately obfuscate the extent of his involvement with the Foundation?
I read an article on the Working For Change website about Scott J. Bloch which referred to the Washingon Blade's report that "Bloch has hired at least two religious conservatives "and offered the No. 2 post at the OSC to a college professor from Wyoming who helped form an anti-gay campus group," who turned him down."
I haven't found the Washington Blade article yet that refers to the Wyoming professor but I did come across the name, Cathy Deeds. Cathy Deeds is Director, Congressional and Public Affairs, at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, according to a reference on the Zoom website.
Prior to becoming OSP spokeswoman, Deeds was Deputy Director, Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to another Zoom reference.
Again on Zoom, I found a 1/21/01 Washington Catholic Radio reference to a Catherine Deeds, public policy analyst with the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Do people like Bloch and Deeds check their belief that homosexuality is immoral at the door when they come to work?
I'd like to know more about the Lawrence, KS filmmaker that did the Bloch film, but appears to be very gay friendly.
Tim De Paepe? Me, too, but I can't find him. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I called a couple of Tim De Paepes I found in the White Pages but no luck. I would have thought a filmmaker in Kansas would go out of his way to be accessible.
In the bio info that he submitted to the Senate (PDF file - p.19), Bloch claimed that he was a "member" of Templeton Productions, LLC which was "dedicated" to the production of a documentary about his grandfather, artist Albert Bloch.
According to the corporate registration I posted above, Templeton Productions was formed in 1998.
On 11/12/03, Bloch told the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs (p. 21) that production of the documentary was nearing completion.
Bloch also told the committee that he was a "passive investor" in Templeton. But in April 2002, Bloch told the Lawrence World-Journal that "because of the move [to DC] , he has taken on the role of executive producer of the documentary while DePaepe is finishing the filming and post-production work."
On the last page of the 2002 Albert Bloch Foundation 990, it states that one of the purposes of the Foundaton is to "hire a production company to produce a documentary film suitable for public television, and other similar venues, on the life and works of Albert Bloch, one of America's foremost artists."
But that doesn't appear to be the case. The Foundation does not appear to have financed any portion of the documentary. In 2003, the reference to the documentary was dropped and the Foundation did not report any direct charitable activities.
From the Lawrence World-Journal: "He is also a founder of the Albert Bloch Foundation, which works to perpetuate the artistic and literary works of his grandfather, and Templeton Productions, the fund-raising arm for the documentary."
The fund-raising arm" is an odd way to describe a production company. I wonder how Bloch raised funds for the film - public funding, friends and family, the Anna F. Bloch Revocable Trust, maybe? Did Bloch draw a salary from Templeton?
Wait a sec. I just re-read the 4/02 Lawrence WJ story. Tim De Paepe told the LWJ that he was moving to Los Angeles in July 2002. That narrows our search for Tim De Paepe, doesn't it?
As an aside, I see that Bloch was a Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute in 2002. Isn't that the one that the Powerline people are associated with? LOL - I'd rather go to the dentist than read Powerline, it is so badly written and b-o-r-i-n-g.
Looks like Tom Hamburger LA Times found Tim De Paepe and according to De Paepe, Bloch offered to finance his 2001 documentary about gay life in Kansas, "Shades of Gray." I wonder if Tim De Paepe accepted Bloch's offer and that is why Templeton Productions was formed in 1998.
According to this story, Bloch and De Paepe are still working together on the Albert Bloch documentary. If Bloch owes De Paepe money, I can't see De Paepe publicly criticizing Bloch about his views on homosexuality.
Prosecutor Scott J. Bloch, a committed conservative, is turning heads with his investigation of the administration's political operation, which is headed by Karl Rove.
WASHINGTON — At first glance, Scott J. Bloch seems to fit the profile of the "loyal Bushie," the kind of person the White House salted through the Washington bureaucracy to make sure federal agencies heeded administration priorities.
But Bloch, 48, is a man who defies expectations.
The lifelong Republican runs an agency — the Office of Special Counsel — that is turning its investigative spotlight on the White House, in particular the political operation headed by Karl Rove.
His office is investigating whether Bush administration personnel violated civil statutes by inserting GOP electoral politics into Cabinet agency meetings, firing at least one U.S. attorney, and discussing some of the activities in private e-mails that are missing.
When Bloch was recommended for the post by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), few imagined his tenure would turn controversial among Bush Republicans. Although Bloch is a committed conservative, he says — displaying his Office of Special Counsel badge with a dash of drama — "I am a prosecutor."
Bloch says he felt compelled to initiate the broad investigation after reviewing results from two seemingly separate inquiries.
The first was a preliminary interview with the fired U.S. attorney from New Mexico, David C. Iglesias, who said, among other things, that his termination might have resulted from his failure to swiftly pursue a corruption case against Democrats.
The second involved a PowerPoint presentation highlighting upcoming battleground election races that a Rove aide, J. Scott Jennings, made at the General Services Administration this year.
"We are the ones who draw the line at putting the people's business into a political machine," Bloch said in an interview last week. "I consider myself a very tough cop because I consider enforcement of the Hatch Act, which is what we do, an effort to keep government clean and accountable."
Most alarming for the White House is that if the inquiry proceeds as Bloch outlines it, his agency will focus on political strategist Rove's broad effort to harness the federal bureaucracy in service of Republican goals. Even if the investigation does not result in criminal charges, the process of discovery could expose the inner workings of the White House political operation.
Bloch has demonstrated a willingness to go after Rove, at least on the small stuff: The Times has learned that Bloch investigated complaints that Rove's politically related travel had been improperly billed to the government. Bloch's action resulted in a reimbursement to the Treasury Department for what some described as a bookkeeping error.
There is some skepticism about whether a Republican appointee can really investigate the White House, and some have called for the inquiry to be taken out of Bloch's purview.
Critics say Bloch has been soft on Republicans in the past, issuing warning letters instead of taking a hard line in some high-profile cases. They also say that Bloch's investigation is compromised because internal complaints about his management of the Office of Special Counsel have led to a probe by the Office of Personnel Management — putting him in the awkward position of investigating an administration that is investigating him.
"This should be viewed in the context of Bloch's past history, which is one filled with allegations of politicization, reprisal and efforts to use the agency to promote pet causes," said Debra Katz, a Washington lawyer. Katz has filed a lawsuit on behalf of former Bloch employees who allege, among other things, that Bloch stifled dissent as he pushed aside longtime employees and hired friends and political allies.
Bloch disputes the complaints, and the Democratic chairmen of congressional oversight committees provided statements last week expressing general support for his agency's investigation.
But there is no denying that since he was appointed by President Bush to run the obscure Office of Special Counsel in early 2004, he has proved controversial, infuriating government-watchdog and gay rights groups and annoying the White House in the process.
A deeply religious conservative, Bloch came to Washington from Kansas in 2001 through connections to then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and worked on the president's faith-based initiatives in the Justice Department.
He was born in New York City, the son of a television scriptwriter. The family moved west from Brooklyn when Bloch was 3, and he grew up in Los Angeles while his father penned scripts for hit shows including "The Flintstones," "The Jetsons," "Gilligan's Island," "Gunsmoke" and the "The Mod Squad."
His father was a Republican, and as a boy Bloch worked for Ronald Reagan's his first gubernatorial bid.
Bloch surprised his family after graduating from William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills by opting for the University of Kansas instead of UCLA or UC Berkeley.
He chose Kansas, he said, because his deceased grandfather, an acclaimed artist who the young Bloch barely knew, had taught and lived there.
"There was a mystery and cachet" about returning to a familial home, he said. "I was attracted by the search for my roots."
What he discovered was the rich legacy of a pioneering German expressionist painter, a man who would become intensely interested in spiritual and religious themes. Although the paintings of Albert Bloch are now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, the painter eschewed commercialism during his lifetime, telling his students that art "was a search for the truth."
At first, Scott Bloch seemed to be following the path of his father and grandfather, choosing the creative arts. He majored in English, and an emeritus professor, James Gunn, recalls his former student as an assertive and curious participant in a fiction-writing class who seemed destined to be a writer.
In his undergraduate years, Bloch joined a select group of students in a humanities seminar taught by three professors, all Catholic, who urged their students to study Latin and, according to Gunn, think about "traditional values." At least one student in the seminar converted to Catholicism, Gunn said.
Bloch said the course, which emphasized classical education, was a memorable part of his college career, but he declined to discuss any religious effect it might have had.
"I don't really want to talk about that," he said, his face reddening and voice rising. "I think it is an intrusion into my privacy … for people to have an interest — a prurient interest, I would add — into whether I am a religious conservative or not. I think it is offensive and uncalled for." Some of his critics, he says, have cast his beliefs "into some kind of caricature."
After college, Bloch attended law school and became a litigator for an established Lawrence, Kan., law firm, where he specialized in employment, discrimination and civil rights law — and investigated lawyers charged with ethical violations.
Bloch also dabbled in politics. He managed a friend's failed congressional campaign and was active with the GOP at the precinct level. After George W. Bush won the 2000 election, Bloch sought a federal government job.
Although the Justice Department's task force on the faith-based initiative was not his first choice — he had hoped to be named a U.S. attorney or work in counter-terrorism — he apparently performed well there. Because of his experience in employment law, he was later recommended for the Office of Special Counsel, a quiet backwater in the federal bureaucracy that enforced discrimination bans, whistle-blower protections and the Hatch Act, the 1939 statute that generally prohibits use of government resources for campaign purposes.
The tranquillity vanished almost as soon as Bloch arrived. In one of his first official acts, Bloch created controversy by ordering his staff to remove references to the agency's jurisdiction over "sexual orientation discrimination" from the agency's website and publications. His action pleased religious conservatives, infuriated lesbian and gay activists, and annoyed some people in the White House, which had informally pledged not to roll back discrimination enforcement on behalf of gays and lesbians.
Bloch informed the White House of his plans and was insistent, arguing that the statutes governing his agency did not authorize treating gays and lesbians as a "protected class" entitled to special protection like that awarded to ethnic minority groups.
He said he opposed discrimination of all forms and was not singling out gays and lesbians, just carefully interpreting the statute.
Nonetheless, his actions got him tagged among some gay activists and other critics as being homophobic.
Among his friends back in Kansas, the charge didn't resonate.
"Absolutely not," said one of Bloch's friends, Tim De Paepe, an independent filmmaker and liberal Democrat, who is best known for his award-winning film "Shades of Gray," a sympathetic story about being gay in Kansas.
De Paepe, who is not gay, said Bloch offered support for the film, and De Paepe never detected anti-gay sentiments. The two are working together on a documentary about Bloch's grandfather.
Controversy continued at the once quiet Office of Special Counsel as Bloch transferred some senior employees and replaced them with lawyers he had selected — often on the recommendation of others — from conservative law schools and other federal agencies.
Advocates for whistle-blowers complained that Bloch was not representing concerns of federal bureaucrats who crossed their superiors to report wrongdoing. Some in Bloch's office complained that he would not tolerate staff members who disagreed with him.
Bloch denies the charges, saying he was bringing a different management style to an agency that suffered from bureaucratic malaise and a long backlog of cases. He cites internal statistics showing a big jump in productivity, including whistle-blower protection and discrimination cases.
(Katz disputes his data in her lawsuit, saying the prior case backlog has been exaggerated.)
"We were mired in bureaucracy," Bloch said. "I wanted to bring a freshness to this place, open the windows, bring in some air.
"I am not conventional," he said. "My grandfather was not conventional. My father was not conventional.
"I do things the way I do them in the interest of doing them effectively, creatively, and doing them with an end in mind, achieving good things, good government and accountability."
It also meant displaying new office decor to signify change. He placed a bust of President Theodore Roosevelt outside his office. And near the entrance to the downtown Washington office suite, he hung a portrait of President James Madison with a quote underneath:
"Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty — but also by the abuse of power."
tom.hamburger@latimes.com
*
(INFOBOX BELOW)
Scott J. Bloch
• Name: Bloch was born Scott J. Black; he changed his name in 1975
• Age: 48; born Sept. 19, 1958, in New York
• Experience: Special counsel, U.S. Office of Special Counsel, 2004-present; associate director, deputy director and counsel for the Justice Department's Task Force for Faith-based and Community Initiatives, 2001-2003; partner in Stevens & Brand LLP, Lawrence, Kan., 1989-2001; graduate teaching assistant, University of Kansas School of Law, 1986; law clerk in various offices, 1984-86; various jobs as copywriter, painter, independent contractor and Wal-Mart assistant manager, 1980-84
• Education: Bachelor of arts, University of Kansas, 1980; law degree, University of Kansas School of Law, 1986
• Family: Wife, Catherine; seven children
Source: Associated Press
I wonder if Hamburger is reading our research threads.
We were right on a lot of stuff. From the article, Bloch's political patron is Brownback, hence the donation.
Still, curious about DePaepe. Is he covering for Bloch in saying that Bloch offered to finance "Shades of Gray?" Or can a devout Christian conservative who is rolling back LGB protections in the federal government have some sentimentalities for gay issues? Is there some family thing going on here that I'm missing (maybe a gay kid?)
Or is Bloch one of those Ashcroft holdovers I've been reading about who is disaffected with the Gonzales DOJ?
Sure, Hamburger could have read this thread if he checked Google News for "Scott Bloch." That Hamburger interviewed Tim De Pepe probably means he did because I don't think anyone else has been talking about De Paepe and Bloch recently.
Fred Phelps not withstanding, "Shades of Gray" gave both sides of the story, according to the NYT review. The other side of the story might have interested Bloch or Bloch may have just been interested in getting into the movie business.
I don't know if Bloch is a disaffected Ashcroft holdover but he seems to be following a recent trend by conservatives to disavow George W. Bush as a conservative and claim that the Bush administration as not being a conservative one.
Bullshit. The conservatives held absolute power in this country for six long years and they made a royal mess of things. George W. Bush is one of theirs and we have to make sure the voters never forget it. The Iraq War was started by conservatives and fucked up by conservatives.
Tom Delay is a conservative. John Doolittle is a conservative. Jack Abramoff is a conservative. Randall Tobias is a conservative. Scooter Libby is a conservative. And so on.
The Democrats should hammer the GOP candidates every day for being conservatives, imo. Conservatism=war, reckless spending, corruption, hypocrisy, etc
citizen92, Mrs. panstreppon, thanks for the terrific work you've done here and for inviting me to observe and contribute. You seem to have Mr. Bloch about ready to pin down to the insect-collection display board I must say. :)
However my particular field of concern is the illegal, behind the scenes, out of the jurisdiction of the National Archives communication system we've been calling "gwb43.com", also known as "RNCHQ.com". While some of Bloch's shenannigans may have been conducted through this nefarious network, I can't see that the two otherwise have a whole lot of overlap. That could change if we could finally get somebody (YOU LISTENING REP. WAXMAN??) to subpoena these records from Smartech of Chattanooga TN, or their backup recordkeepers at Coptix, also of Chattanooga.
In reference to which I have just found an absolutely fascinating analysis of the mails from this system that Greg Palast has been touting (no, don't roll your eyes, keep reading.)
This is not otherwise related to Mr. Palast's work, but is rather an analysis done of JUST THE AADDRESSES, charted by who-sent-what-to-whom, on this "RNCHQ.com"/Smartech com system. These are the mails which were accidentally sent to "INSERT-ANYTHING-HERE]@georgewbush.org". At the time of these mailings the "georgewbush.org" address was not included in the Smartech system; the mails were supposed to go to "georgewbush.com" but the addressors screwed up.
I've just received this so haven't had a chance to look into them in any depth, but I implore everyone to go look at them. Hell, they're worth more as works of art than the stuff in most galleries today. :)
Also, the author wrote them on a website run by George Mason University, which means they may very well disappear at any time if GMU catches flak about this. It would be nice if several of us could copy and capture this data for further study, both in its present and its enlarged form.
More later after I've had a chance to look over it. The material (not sure how to do hotlinks here, besides it isn't long) can be found here:
Here are the links for the Scott Bloch nomination:
PDF of the hearing and supporting documents
Text delimited file of the hearing and supporting documents
April 26, 2007 9:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
From TPMM, Mrs. Panstreppon
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003102.php
Well, well, well. What have we here?
Scott J. Bloch founded the Albert Bloch Foundation in or around 2001 and he heads up or did head up Templeton Productions, the fund-raising arm for the documentary Bloch is or was making about his grandfather, Albert Bloch, an artist(link to 4/7/02 Lawrence Journal-World story, "Grandson making documentary about artist-grandfather", below).
The Albert Bloch Foundation 990s are available online at the Foundation Center's 990 Finder and the EIN# is 481216501.
After skimming through the Albert Bloch Foundation 990s, I have some questions.
In 2001, Anna Bloch who, according to the LWJ story, is Albert Bloch's second wife, contributed paintings, watercolors, etc. by Albert Bloch valued at $24k to the Albert Bloch Foundation. (Albert Bloch died in 1961.)
Anna Bloch's 2001 contribution was the initial and only contribution of Albert Bloch's works made to the Albert Bloch Foundation.
In 2002, the value of Anna Bloch's $24k art contribution was revalued at $2.3 million. A somewhat vague explanation for the dramatic increase in value is offered in Attachment 3 on page 18 of the Foundation's 2002 990.
Attachment 3 seems to avoid attributing Anna Bloch with having made the 2001 contribution of Albert Bloch's art. The 2002 990 also does not provide the names of the foundation's officers including the president although Attachment 3 refers to the president.
Attachment 3 also states that the revaluation of Albert Bloch's art was determined in 2003 by the Foundation's president under the supervision of its Board of Directors, whatever that means. The unnamed Foundaton president again revalued the art collection in 2004 and in 2005. If Scott J. Bloch is the president of the Albert Bloch Foundation, is he qualified to value art?
As far as I can tell, Scott J. Bloch's name is listed only once in the Foundation's 990s. His name and home address are on the 2001 extension request. The corporate registration for the Albert Bloch Foundation does not provide the names of any officers or directors.
Anyone who has followed me so far knows that I am wondering who actually got the $2.3 million charitable tax deduction. I don't have enough information to determine if Scott J. Bloch was up to any monkey businesss but you have to wonder when the inital value of an art collection is increased from $24k to $2.3 million well after the fact.
The Foundation reported selling a Bloch painting, "March of the Clowns", to the Jewish Museum on 1/19/02 for $74,000, the painting's supposed book value. But on its website, the Jewish Museum indicates that the painting was a 2001 acquisition. Which is it?
Two of the three other paintings sold by the Foundation were sold at relatively modest prices. One with a book value of $6.5k sold for $6.5k in 2003 and one with a book value of $5k sold for $10k in 2005. Another painting with a book value of $17k was bought by the "East Huron Street Gallery" in 2004 for $50k.
I'm not a tax expert but I suppose selling one painting anually could lend support to the valuation of the art collection. Again, what's in it, if anything, for Scott J. Bloch?
And how's that documentary coming along, Scottie?
Posted by: Mrs Panstreppon
Date: April 25, 2007 11:35 PM
April 26, 2007 9:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Albert Bloch Foundation 2001-2005 990s are available online at the Foundation Center's 990 Finder. The Foundation's 2003-2005 990s are available online at Guidestar (free registration required).
Both the Foundation Center and Guidestar provide an invaluable public service, free to everyone in the world. I once again commend both organizations for their contribution to civil society.
Tips:
When searching for the 990s filed by a tax-exempt organization, check both Guidestar and the Foundation Center.
Guidestar's summaries about a particular organization are useful and worth reading.
In my experience, some organizations are misfiled in the Foundation Center database. If the organization's 990s do not show up in a search by name, try searching by state or EIN# if you have it. E.g, searching for "Americans For Tax Reform' returns only ATR's 2004 990. But the 2005 990 is filed under American For Tax Reform.
April 26, 2007 10:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know if Scott J. Bloch is guilty of financial malfeasance in connection with the Albert Bloch Foundation but I know he missed the meaning of his grandfather's work.
In either 2001 or early 2002, the Albert Bloch Foundation sold one of Bloch's paintings, "The March of the Clowns" (1941), to the Jewish Museum in New York for $74,000. An image of the painting and some information about it is available on the Jewish Museum website.
From the Jewish Museum website:
"In anticipation of victory over the Nazis, Albert Bloch conjured up this parade of clowns celebrating Hitler's defeat. Looking on are cartoon characters from the 1920s. All is folly in Bloch's sarcastic vision, but nonetheless he sharply contrasts the evil folly of Hitler with the lovable folly of the cartoon characters and clowns. Bloch was the only American-born member of The Blue Rider, a group of artists that contributed greatly to the development of abstract art."
If Scott J. Bloch understood what his grandfather was saying about the Nazis in "The March of the Clowns", how could he refuse to let the federal government protect homosexuals in the workplace?
Scott J. Bloch created the issue about homosexuals not being protected under federal law seemingly all on his own. As far as I know, no one overtly had complained about President Clinton's executive order protecting homosexuals from discrimination in the workplace before Scott J. Bloch decided to change the policy.
Christopher Lee wrote about Bloch's policy change in a 5/25/05 Washington Post story, "Official Says Law Doesn't Cover Gays - Counsel Cites Lack of Authority to Enforce Discrimination Ban", a story which did not get enough media attention, in my opinion.
From the WaPo story about Bloch:
"...Since taking office in January 2004, the Bush appointee has been accused of failing to enforce a long-standing policy against bias in the federal workplace based on sexual orientation, unnecessarily reorganizing the OSC to try to run off internal critics, and arbitrarily dismissing some personnel complaints and whistle-blower disclosures in an effort to claim reductions in backlogs..."
I criticize President Bush about many things but my impression is that he is personally not intolerant of homosexuality. Did the president know what was being done in his name to gays?
Scott J. Bloch was also criticized for ordering long time employees to accept long distance transfers or quit.
From the WaPo story:
"...his handling this year of an internal reorganization in which 12 career employees were told that they would be involuntarily transferred to new assignments in Dallas; Oakland, Calif.; and a soon-to-opened field office in Detroit. Bloch initially gave the workers 10 days to accept the moves or be terminated, and he extended the deadline only after receiving complaints from some lawmakers. Several employee advocacy groups accused Bloch of targeting workers who had been critical of his management style -- allegations Bloch strongly denied..."
Yesterday, I read that the 12 targeted employees are gay but I don't know if that is true. I'd like to know if it is true. I'd also like to know if Scott J. Bloch acted unilaterally before he changed the OSC's policy towards homosexuals.
April 26, 2007 11:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
In a 4/7/02 Lawrence (KS)World-Journal story about Scott J. Bloch and his grandfather, "Bloch on Bloch", by Jan Biles, Biles wrote about Scot Bloch's father, Walter Black:
"...Scott Bloch, 43, was born in New York City, where his father, Walter, was a writer for Broadway and New York television. When he was 3, the family moved to Los Angeles, where his father was a contributing writer for such shows as "Gilligan's Island," "Hawaii Five-O," "Adam Twelve," "Bonanza," Johnny Quest," "The Flintstones" and "The Jetsons."
His father changed his last name to Black for professional reasons, so Scott Bloch was known as Scott Black until he was 15..."
Did Walter Black change his name from Bloch to Black because he didn't want people to know he was Jewish? I know Jews who did that. I once dated a very Jewish guy named Reynolds.
I don't care if Scott J. Bloch is a Jew, a Catholic or a Wiccan. My point is that Scott J. Bloch knew what discrimination meant firsthand growing up yet he seems to be insensitive to it if it happens to other people.
"Bloch on Bloch" is worth reading if you are interested in what makes Scott J. Bloch tick so here it is.
Lawrence World-Journal
By Jan Biles
4/7/02
"Bloch on Bloch"
Grandson making documentary about artist-grandfather
When he was growing up in California, Scott Bloch didn't hear or know much about his grandfather. It wasn't until he moved to Lawrence in 1976 that he discovered the art and writings of Albert Bloch and their significance.
Now, a quarter century later, Bloch is making a documentary film about his grandfather, the only American who exhibited with the Blue Rider in the early 1910s in Germany. The Blue Rider was a pre-World War I expressionist group that paved the way for modern art.
"Growing up, there was not a lot of talk of him or of Lawrence. I would hear the occasional anecdote," Scott Bloch said. "When I was 10 or 12, I was at his studio on Alabama Street and I asked him, 'Why do you paint?' My grandfather whipped his head around and said, 'Why do birds sing? I paint because I must.' He was a severe, distant figure when I was growing up."
But over time, Scott Bloch, an attorney, has discovered the artistic and literary genius of his grandfather, who died in 1961. And now he wants to share his story with the rest of the world.
The documentary, directed by Kansas University alumnus Tim DePaepe, will wrap up filming in May and post-production work is expected to be done by the end of June.
The film, which will cost about $100,000 to make, will be entered in film festivals next fall and most likely will have a Lawrence screening.
Discovering his rootsScott Bloch, 43, was born in New York City, where his father, Walter, was a writer for Broadway and New York television. When he was 3, the family moved to Los Angeles, where his father was a contributing writer for such shows as "Gilligan's Island," "Hawaii Five-O," "Adam Twelve," "Bonanza," Johnny Quest," "The Flintstones" and "The Jetsons."
His father changed his last name to Black for professional reasons, so Scott Bloch was known as Scott Black until he was 15.
Scott Bloch surprised his father in 1976 when he announced he was moving to Lawrence to attend KU. His friends were going off to Ivy League schools.
"At the time, I was gong to discover my roots. It made linear sense at the time. Now it makes great poetic sense, but not linear sense," he said, with a smile. "My father had given me a letter of introduction to Anna (his grandfather's second wife). I showed up at her door one day. She was 65 but she looked 45. I was expecting to see (someone who looked like) a grandmother."
Anna Bloch invited him in, and their relationship grew during the time he was an undergraduate studying English at KU and later when he was a law student there.
"I was afraid of her. She scared me, but she doesn't scare me anymore I am in awe of her," he said of Anna, who still lives in Lawrence. "I call her the 'Oracle of Alabama Street.' She has wisdom and clarity, and there's a beauty to her. She was a real support to Albert Bloch, and some of his wisdom and perception flows through her.
"She introduced me to him to the man, the artist, the poet, to my grandfather Albert Bloch. He was a compassionate man, but he didn't try to hide his crusty side either."
One day, Anna showed up at Scott's home with one of his grandfather's oil paintings and presented it to him. The painting, "Winter Sundown 1954," has a spiritual sense and shows a man, woman and baby in a scene that resembles Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus' flight from Egypt. When Anna dies, he will take ownership of his favorite painting, "Summer Night 2," which was painted in 1935.
His grandfather's artistic style has grown on him as he's matured.
"I'm drawn to his sense of the unseen world," Scott Bloch said. "He depicts things in his paintings that we all know exist the joys and the sorrows, the great movements of history, war and famine, humor, mystery, suffering, injustices and makes them visible. These are invisible things that seem to be hidden from us until we see them through art, poetry, spiritual media or prayer.
"There's an other-worldliness and a deep mystery (to his paintings) that I can't get to the bottom of. With Albert Bloch you keep wanting to come back and that's come out in the interviews done for the documentary."
A 'challenging' storyScott Bloch, his wife and six children moved last weekend to Washington, D.C., where he works with the Bush administration's Task Force for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He is also a founder of the Albert Bloch Foundation, which works to perpetuate the artistic and literary works of his grandfather, and Templeton Productions, the fund-raising arm for the documentary.
Because of the move, he has taken on the role of executive producer of the documentary while DePaepe is finishing the filming and post-production work.
DePaepe said he didn't know anything about Albert Bloch before his involvement in the film, although he minored in art history at KU. Scott Bloch approached him about making the film, and he became even more intrigued after meeting Anna.
"It's a very challenging story," said DePaepe, who is best known for his award-winning documentary "Shades of Gray" and will be moving in July to Los Angeles. "It's not going to be a pedantic Ken Burns-ish film no offense to people who like Ken Burns. It's about the process of looking at painting and the process of painting.
"In many ways, it's a mystery story. It unravels the mysteries of Albert Bloch. Why did he live in Lawrence and paint? If you read Bloch's writing, he had no patience for art historians or academicians. He liked painting and ideas. Painting was the way he expressed his ideas. He had no time or patience with other painters (of his day), like Thomas Hart Benton or John Stuart Curry."
He also would not have much patience with filmmakers focusing on his life and work.
"If I were to see my grandfather today, I would ask him to forgive me for making the film because he was not about promoting himself," Scott Bloch said. "He would say that I was trying to undo everything (he had done).
"(If I were to meet him), I would ask him did he ever feel that he fulfilled his purpose as an artist. He didn't talk about that a lot. He left that open for others to determine. Ultimately, art is not about whether people recognize you or not. He successfully achieved a vision for himself."
April 26, 2007 11:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
The funny thing is that I became interested in Albert Bloch and his work after reading about him. The ArtCyclopedia website has a few references to his work and, as it turns out, there is more than one "The March of the Clowns".
Here is a 4/7/02 story from the Lawrence World-Journal, "Bloch was sole American Blue Rider" about Albert Bloch:
"Albert Bloch, born in 1882 in St. Louis, dropped out of school at age 16 so he could begin taking classes at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts. Even then, he knew he wanted to devote his life to art.
He was hired by the Mirror, a satirical weekly in St. Louis, to supply caricatures, cartoons and covers. In 1908 he moved with his wife, Hortense, and young son, Bernard, to Munich, where he studied art and eventually came in contact with Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky, members of the Blue Rider, an expressionistic group that ushered in modern art.
Bloch was included in several Blue Rider exhibits and had several solo and group shows in Europe and the United States. His paintings were purchased and included in prominent private collections.
In 1916, Walter Bloch Scott Bloch's father was born in Germany. In 1921, Albert Bloch and his family returned to the United States, where Albert Bloch got a job teaching at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. He sent most of the money he earned to his wife and family, who were living in St. Louis.
In 1923, Bloch was hired to teach art at Kansas University and moved with his family to 1015 Ala., where he turned the attic and a bedroom into studios. Bloch eventually became head of KU's department of painting and drawing. His students included Robert Sudlow and Robert Berkeley Green.
After he moved to Lawrence, Bloch withdrew from the art world, having no contact with art critics or art promoters. He became fascinated with the writings of Karl Kraus, and in 1927-1928 translated many of his poems.
In the early 1930s, Bloch met art student Anna Francis, who would later become part of KU's art department staff and his second wife. He began to compose poems, continued his painting and drawing and resumed translating the works of Kraus and Georg Trakl.
In 1947, Bloch retired from KU after suffering a heart attack. Two years later, Hortense died, and in 1951 he married his longtime companion, Anna.
Bloch died in 1961. Anna continues to live in the Alabama Street residence."
April 26, 2007 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Very interesting stuff.
April 26, 2007 1:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tim DePaepe, the KU Alum selected to produce Bloch's documentary about his grandfather appears to have only one other film credit Shades of Gray which he directed.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0359961/plotsummary
A topic suspiciously close to Bloch's heart?
April 26, 2007 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
From what I have been reading, I think Tim De Paepe's "Shades of Gray" was pro-gay or at least not anti-gay. Who knows why Bloch picked De Paepe? Maybe there are just not that many film makers to choose from in Lawrence. Or maybe Bloch heard Fred Phelps starred in "Shades of Gray" and he got the wrong idea about what the movie was about.
From the NY Times movie database:
"Lawrence, KS, is a left-leaning college town in the middle of America's often conservative heartland, and when local gay rights activists proposed that a clause be added to the city's Human Rights Ordinance that would protect gays and lesbians from political and economic discrimination based on their sexual orientation, it touched off a storm of protest in the usually quiet community.
Leading the campaign against the sexual orientation legislation were Rev. Leo Barbie, an African-American clergyman who contended that gays and lesbians did not constitute a minority who merited protective legislation, and Fred Phelps, a vocal anti-gay activist from Topeka whose infamous slogan is "God Hates Fags."
Shades of Gray is a documentary that examines both the ongoing controversy and the stories behind the participants on both sides of the issue. Directed by Tim DePaepe, Shades of Gray was screened in competition at the 2001 San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide"
Tim De Paepe has been involved in other films as a director and a cinematographer, according to the IMDb website.
I searched the White Pages for Tim De Paepe, figuring I'd ask him about the documentary about Bloch's gradnfather but he does not appear to be listed. I called one Tim De Paepe in Eugene OR but no go.
April 27, 2007 12:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
On the CounterBias website, Mel Seesholtz provides some information about Scott J. Bloch that I haven't seen elsewhere. Seesholtz is a Ph.D. and a professor of English at Pennsylvania State University.
Seesholtz claims that Bloch was recruiting law school grads at the Ava Maria Law School of which I know nothing about except that it is not on the US News & World Report's list of the top 100 law schools. Someone at the TPM MR told me that Ava Maria Law School is a Catholic school in Michigan founded by arch conservative, Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza.
I'm not ready to assume that Bloch only recruited extreme right wingers for the Office of Special Counsel. In a 10/1/04 Lawrence World-Journal story, "KU graduate shares experiences from D.C., Special Counsel Office", Terry Rombeck wrote about Bloch visiting the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence to speak and conduct interviews with students at the KU School of Law.
Seesholtz also claims that Bloch hired Alan Hicks, his son's former headmaster, for a one-year, $112,000 position that produced one four-page memo. If this is true, i think someone in charge should check whether Hicks got the job in lieu of tuition.
While I was at it, I'd like to know where Bloch's seven children go to school and I'd check whether any of the schools were funded through federal faith-based initiatives. Bloch was in the faith-based initiative business at the DOJ when he first came to DC.
Here is Seesholtz's essay which meanders a bit but is worthwhile reading if you are not familiar with the term, Originalists.
"Originalists, Federalism and Scott J. Bloch"
By Mel Seeshotlz
May 30, 2005:
The battle over Bush's judicial nominees, Bill Frist's threatened "nuclear option" and the eleventh hour "bipartisan compromise" have occupied the news recently, and with good reason. Many of the Bush nominees - including those now headed for lifetime seats on the federal bench - are "originalists."
What's an "originalist"? The term refers to the way a jurist interprets the U.S. Constitution. H. Jefferson Powell defined the originalist perspective in his 1987 article "Rules for Originalists" in the Virginia Law Review: "Those who advocate giving normative force to the 'original intent' of the Constitution's framers... adherence to the Constitution's original meaning(s) without locating that (those) meaning(s) in the founders' actual intention."
Failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork offered a functional definition his 1990 book The Tempting of America. An originalist believes "all that counts" for a judge interpreting the Constitution "is how the words used in the Constitution would have been understood at the time [of enactment]." By "the Constitution" originalists mean the document written by the Founding Fathers. Subsequent amendments to the Constitution are not, originalists believe, on a par with the original text.
Applying Bork's definition to the Declaration of Independence, one would have to conclude that "all men are created equal" means exactly that: men, not women. And since slaves were not really considered "human" much less citizens in the eighteenth century, African-Americans and other "minorities" unrecognized then simply don't exist today either, legally speaking. That may be why originalists have such a problem with equality and civil rights.
Originalist William H. Pryor, one of the previously filibustered nominees for the 11th U.S. circuit court of appeals, is a leading proponent of the "federalism" movement, the goal of which is to limit the authority of Congress to enact laws protecting individual and other civil rights. Mr. Pryor is particularly hostile to recognizing - much less protecting - gay Americans' equality or civil rights. His judicial attitude was made clear in the amicus brief he filed with the Supreme Court during the Lawrence v. Texas case. Pryor argued government has a legitimate interest in singling out same-sex relationships for punishment and compared those relationships to "prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession of child pornography... incest and pedophilia."
Scott J. Bloch is another Bush appointee who has a problem with equality and civil rights, especially when applied to gay and lesbian Americans employed by the federal government.
On May 28, 1998, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 13087 prohibiting discrimination against federal employees based on sexual orientation. Enforcement of that order fell to the Office of Special Counsel. From the OSC's official website: "The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency ... OSC's primary mission is to safeguard the merit system by protecting federal employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices, especially reprisal for whistleblowing." That's "whistleblowing" about federal corruption as well as "prohibited personnel practices" (such as sexual harassment) perpetrated against federal employees.
In January 2004, George W. Bush's choice to head the Office of Special Counsel began his reign. Since then, Scott J. Bloch has not only ignored President Clinton's executive order - which the Bush administration said it supported and wanted continued - but Mr. Bloch has removed all protections for gay and lesbian federal employees and, by his actions, condoned and encouraged "prohibited personnel practices" against them. His record with "whistleblowers" is just as bad.
One of Mr. Bloch's first moves as Special Counsel - in February 2004 - was to remove from OSC complaint forms and its official web site all references to "sexual orientation." Is it any surprise that while at the University of Kansas, Bloch enrolled in the Integrated Humanities Program, a curriculum established in 1971 to counter the anti-war and women's movements and the growing demand for greater multiculturalism on campus? Is it any surprise that Mr. Bloch has bluntly refused to investigate any claims of "sexual harassment" involving gay or lesbian federal employees?
Is it any surprise that Mr. Bloch has ignored competitive recruitment practices by unilaterally hiring his investigators from among new graduates of Ave Maria Law School? Is it any surprise that Bloch hired Alan Hicks, his son's former headmaster, for a one-year, $112,000 position that produced one - that's one - four page memo? (Alan Hicks left his headmaster position after the cover-up of a predatory priest scandal had been exposed.)
In early October 2004, five Democratic members of Congress called on President Bush to "take the necessary action" against Mr. Bloch who, they correctly asserted, continues to refuse "to enforce anti-discrimination protections for federal workers [which] contradicts Bush administration policy to uphold former President Clinton's executive order banning discrimination based on sexual orientation."
Nothing happened. Indeed, Mr. Bloch's enforcement of whistleblower protection quickly came to match his enforcement of non-discrimination against gays and lesbians in the workplace. As of spring 2005, over 1000 cases involving whistleblower accusations and protection of employees from retaliation have been summarily dismissed.
Bloch continued his campaign against gay and lesbian federal employees, as Washington Bureau Chief for 365Gay.com Paul Johnson noted in his article "Administration Moves To Remove Gay Protections From Federal Labor Contracts." In several "contracts negotiated [with the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents thousands of federal government employees] over the past few months the list of categories that are protected has been replaced with the more nebulous phrase 'any class protected by law.' While the change will mean little to African Americans or other minorities, it effectively removes LGBT workers from being protected from being fired or harassed on the job." According to a report in GovExec.com, Witold Skwierczynski, the president of AFGE Council 220, charged the Social Security Administration with proposing the elimination of a clause in its labor contract "that allows gay, lesbian and bisexual workers to file discrimination grievances."
To date, nothing has changed. Bloch continues his crusade against gay and lesbian federal employees. In her May 25, 2005 article "Bush Special Counsel: Gay Federal Workers Have No Protections," Doreen Brandt of 365Gay.com's Washington Bureau reported that "The man in charge of protecting the civil rights of federal workers told a Senate Committee that he will not protect LGBT employees. Special counsel Scott J. Bloch was testifying about complaints his office has adopted an extreme conservative position and has reprimanded people in his own office who disagree with him."
Following his senate testimony, calls for Bloch's resignation increased. Chris Barron, political director for the GOP group Log Cabin Republicans, said, "Scott Bloch has made it clear that he is not enforcing the law and is openly defying the president; accordingly he should resign immediately." But so far the White House has had nothing to say about the Special Counsel's actions despite its April 2004 statement: "Longstanding federal policy prohibits discrimination against federal employees based on sexual orientation. President Bush expects federal agencies to enforce this policy and to ensure that all federal employees are protected from unfair discrimination at work."
Could it be that the White House has done nothing because it agrees with (encourages?) Bloch's actions, despite ordering OSC to enforce President Clinton's executive order? Strategic deceptions and lies have been integral parts of the Bush-Rove strategy since the beginning.
But deceptions and lies need supporters and cheerleaders. Both come in the form of the Taliban-like leaders of the evangelical Christian Right - such as Louis Sheldon of Traditional Values Coalition and James Dobson of Focus on the Family - who proclaim they alone know what "God" wants (theocratically speaking) and how everyone should be and live. Like Scott J. Bloch, they and their organizations are dedicated to making sure gay and lesbian American citizens - and their families - have no social or legal recognition.
When the senate "bipartisan compromise" on Bush's judicial nominations was announced, Sheldon and Dobson went bananas:
"Of the seven Republicans who signed the compromise agreement, Sheldon said: 'They didn't have the backbone and the fortitude to stand up for the fact that we are the majority.'
"James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, which had been lobbying GOP senators to hold firm, expressed his 'disappointment, outrage and sense of abandonment.' Come election day, he said, 'voters will remember both Democrats and Republicans who betrayed their trust.'" (LA Times, May 24, 2005)
Interesting phrase: "betrayed their trust."
For decades Americans have placed their trust in the courts - especially the federal courts - to uphold their civil rights and enforce liberty, justice and equality for all. That trust in the courts was betrayed not by the senators who brokered the bipartisan compromise, but by George W. Bush who nominated and renominated only one kind of jurist, originalists, whose federalism poses a direct threat to many Americans.
Scott J. Bloch and the Office of Special Counsel betrayed the trust of all federal employees. What gay or lesbian employee would feel safe coming forward with a complaint? What "whistleblower" would feel safe coming forward with allegations when the Special Counsel himself is so demonstrably devious and corrupt?
Betrayal is also the modus operandi of the leaders of the Christian Right. They have betrayed the philosophy and message Yeshua of Nazareth in favor of their own political agenda and its vitriolic bile. Religion should be a source of comfort and inspiration, not the cesspool of bigotry and hate called for by evangelical Christian leaders such as Randall Terry: "I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good... Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism."
What's happened to "America"? (Sadly, that's a rhetorical question...)
April 26, 2007 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yikes! Judge Robert Bork himself is on the Ava Maria School of Law faculty. I'm not familiar with the names of the other faculty members but they seem to have solid credentials.
From Dean Bernard Dobranski's message: "...Our graduates have secured a total of 34 judicial clerkships, 28 of these at the federal level..."
From Ava Maria at a glance:
"Ave Maria School of Law was granted full accreditation by the American Bar Association in August 2005."
"Members of the Ave Maria Law Faculty bring to the classroom a depth of experiences in private practice, as federal judicial clerks, and expertise in a wide array of legal areas, including Commercial Law, Intellectual Property Law, International Law, Labor and Employment Law, and Legal Philosophy and Canon Law."
"The Ave Maria Lecture Series and the Distinguished Speaker Series bring to the Law School nationally-recognized lawyers and judges. Visitors to the Law School include U.S. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, Judge Ken Starr; and, Former Attorney General Edwin Meese III."
Humph. I've seen both Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Justice Ruth Ginsberg speak at Touro Law School in Huntington NY. None of this left-wing or right-wing only stuff at Touro which, imho, is the way it should be.
April 26, 2007 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bork at Ave Maria...
Ashcroft over at Regent...
April 26, 2007 2:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
All we need is just one of the rumors swirling around Scalia to be true. Just how much money did William Bennett owe the AC casinos anyway?
Justice Ginsberg or her staff could knock off one of my questions. I want to know how the Joseph "Joey Boom-Boom" Massaro case got on the docket. Did one of the justices push it?
We already know that Clarence Thomas accepts "gratuities" in the form of car tires, etc. Tacky, tacky, tacky.
April 27, 2007 6:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Alan J. Hicks is the former headmaster of Saint Gregory's Academy in Moscow PA:
"Along with his responsibilities as the headmaster, Mr. Hicks teaches sophomore world history and senior logic classes. Mr. Hicks, his wife who is also a member of the faculty, and their five children reside on the campus."
I don't know when or why Hicks stepped down from the headmaster's position nor do I care. But I'd sure like to know if Scott Bloch gave Hicks a $112k no-show government job. I'd like a $112k government job and I could generate more than an annual four-page memo if I had one.
April 27, 2007 7:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mel Seesholtz's information about Alan J. Hicks came from a news release from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a national alliance of local state and federal resource professionals. PEER provides original docs related to the Hicks consulting agreement.
PEER
For Immediate Release: April 12, 2005
Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337
"SPECIAL COUNSEL HIRED SON’S BOARDING SCHOOL HEADMASTER — Consultant Deal Worth $112,000 Produces Only a Four-Page Memo"
Washington, DC — U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch, who is responsible for enforcing civil service rules, hired his son’s former Catholic boarding school headmaster as an expert consultant, in apparent violation of civil service rules, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In addition, Bloch gave the ex-headmaster a one-year appointment under which he would be entitled to receive as much as $111,966.40 but the only work produced was a four-page memo.
On March 16, 2004, Bloch hired Alan Hicks, a former headmaster of St. Gregory’s Academy, a Catholic boarding school, who left in the wake of allegations concerning priests sexually preying on young students, to serve as a consultant for a one-year period. Hicks was paid at an hourly rate of $53.83 for work not to exceed 2080 hours but Bloch has refused to divulge the total amount Hicks received.
In documents obtained by PEER under the Freedom of Information Act –
“It is beyond ironic that Scott Bloch heads the office that is supposed to enforce the rules against nepotism and favoritism,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, whose organization has had to sue Bloch to extract records about Hicks and other no-bid consultant deals. “While Bloch blocked its release, for what it cost the taxpayers, it must be one heck of a memo.”
Under federal regulations, expert consultants, such as Hicks, may be hired on a non-competitive basis only if he is “a specialist with skills superior to those of others in the same profession, occupation or activity.” Moreover, Office of Personnel Management guidance warns, “Agencies may not use expert and consultant appointments to avoid employment procedures.” Apart from his past work as a school headmaster, Hicks briefly taught philosophy at the University of Kansas – neither of which would qualify him as an expert under terms of the federal rules.
Since becoming Special Counsel in January 2004, Bloch has not made a single hire through the competitive merit system, including the selection of recent graduates of the ultra-conservative Ave Maria law school to fill slots formerly occupied by civil servants. In addition, Bloch has conducted a controversial re-organization that forced the removal of several career staff. His conduct while in office is now under investigation by the Government Accountability Office, the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency and a Senate committee.
“Bloch has crippled the Office of the Special Counsel at precisely the time when an independent watchdog is most needed,” Ruch added, noting that OSC staff members have also complained about the fact that Hicks was given access to confidential whistleblower case files. “This case perfectly illustrates why Scott Bloch has no business remaining Special Counsel.”
###
See the pay scale and terms of Alan Hicks consultant appointment
View the redacted work product of Alan Hicks
Read the “Consultant Statement of Work”
Look at unfolding developments in the troubled tenure of Scott Bloch as Special Counsel
April 30, 2007 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
The fact that Scott J. Bloch's Alexandria house was sold in March 2002 and then again in July 2002 to the Blochs is very curious.
I don't usually post property records but I am going to make an exception in this case because someone else might be able to give us a hand. Besides, the info already was published in the Washington Post.
PROPERTY RECORD FOR FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA
ESTIMATED ROLL CERTIFICATION DATE JANUARY 1, 2003
Owner: BLOCH SCOTT J; BLOCH CATHERINE A; Owner Occupied
Mailing Address: 8408 STOCKADE DR, ALEXANDRIA, VA 22308
Property Address: 8408 STOCKADE DR, ALEXANDRIA, VA 22308
SALES INFORMATION
Recorded Date: 07/11/2002
Book/Page: 13104/2129
Prior Sales Date: 03/27/2002
Prior Sales Price: $ 425,000 (Full Amount)
ASSESSMENT INFORMATION
Assessor's Parcel Number: 102-3-16-0004
Legal Description: LOT: 0004; DISTRICT: 06-01-00; CITY: MT. VERNON #1; SUBDIVISION: 16; CENSUS TRACT: 0158.02
April 27, 2007 6:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Scott J. and Catherine A. Bloch own undeveloped property in McKinley County, New Mexico.
Assessor's Parcel Number: 2-093-075-398-032
Legal Description: SEC/TWN/RNG/MERIDIAN: SEC 22 TWN 13N RNG 16W
Brief Description: A TRACT OF LAND IN 22 13 16, S1/2S1#2-093-075-398-032
April 27, 2007 6:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
!!!!
scott bloch is on the cspan call in programme now -- at 8 am -- give him a call!! we've got questions.
April 27, 2007 7:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
I caught the last forty minutes of the show. Bloch looked taken aback when Brian Lamb asked him what it would take to remove him from office before his term expires (which is in 2009). I don't think Lamb cares much for Bloch. I don't either - Bloch comes across as an obnoxious blowhard.
April 27, 2007 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I found two companies registered to 8408 Stockade Dr in Alexandria.
One is Templeton Productions which we know is supposed to be the vehicle that Bloch used to raise money for a documentary about his grandfather. But the Templeton filing date is 1998 which is three years before the Albert Bloch Foundation was formed and four years before the story about the documentary was in the Lawrence World-Journal.
I have no idea what the other one, Putting on the Fritz, is about.
#1
KANSAS SECRETARY OF STATE
Company Name: TEMPLETON PRODUCTIONS, L.L.C.
Name Comment: DUNS NO. 022669100
Mailing Address:
ATTN: SCOTT J. BLOCH
8408 STOCKADE DR
ALEXANDRIA VA 22308
Status: FORFEITED-FAILED TO FILE TIMELY A/R
State or Country of Incorporation: KANSAS
Filing Date: 5/21/1998
Registered Agent: SCOTT J. BLOCH
Registered Office:
1137 MARK BLAIR CT
LAWRENCE, KS 66049
#2
KANSAS SECRETARY OF STATE
Company Name: PUTTING ON THE FRITZ, LLC
Mailing Address:
8408 Stockade Dr
ALEXANDRIA, VA 22308
Status: ACTIVE AND IN GOOD STANDING
Filing Date: 12/28/2005
State or Country of Incorporation: KANSAS
Registered Agent: TIMOTHY J. ALLEN
Registered Office:
2332 Haskell Ave ; Ste A
LAWRENCE, KS 66046
April 27, 2007 7:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
A quick google of "putting on the ritz" brings back references to a pony and some deceased show dog award winner. I wonder if the Blochs are into dog shows -- that's something suitably 'middle American' and could be an interest of an upper-middle-class homemaker with seven kids.
April 27, 2007 9:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Bloch was in private practice in Lawrence, KS.
On the C-SPAN Washington Journal program today 4/27/07, Bloch said he had no connection to the Bush Administration prior to being brought on as a political appointee. I find this hard to believe.
I note that DOJ Civil Rights Division deconstructionist and just-departed US Attorney for Missouri Bradley Schlozman (he's supposedly on the lam) was a clerk for a Chief US District Judge US Judge G Thomas Van Bebber (deceased) in Kansas in the late 1990's.
I wonder if Schlozman pulled Bloch into the administration?
The Blochs also seem to support Senator Brownback -- Catherine Bloch gave $1,000 to Brownback's presidential campaign in 2006. Maybe Brownback's recommendation brough Scott to DC? After all, Bloch started off in the Office of Faith Based Initiatives at DOJ -- a topic very close to the Senator's heart.
April 27, 2007 9:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
I phoned Carolyn Swift today and asked her if Scott Bloch is or ever was an officer or director of the Albert Bloch Foundation. Swift is a Foundation director and the Foundation's books are in her care, according to the Foundation's 990s.
Swift told me that Bloch family members are not permitted to serve as officers or directors, according to the Foundation's by-laws. I got the impression that I was not the first person to ask this question.
Swift told me that Scott Bloch was instrumental in setting up the Foundation which is why his name and address is on the 2001 990 extension request.
We still do not know whether Scott J. Bloch benefitted financially in any way from the $2.3 million revaluation of Albert Bloch's art collection.
April 27, 2007 12:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Carolyn Swift seemed like a nice lady on the phone but she doesn't know all that much about Scott J. Bloch's association with the Albert Bloch Foundation or she fibbed to me about the foundation's by-laws and Scott Bloch's positions with the Foundation.
According to the biographical information that Bloch submitted to the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs (see page 19 of the PDF file), Bloch was Secretary/Treasurer and a director of the Albert Bloch Foundation from June 2000 until December 2001.
The problem with Bloch's service dates is that the Albert Bloch Foundation was not registered as a non-profit corporation with the state of Kansas until 6/19/01. According to the 2001 990 filed by the Foundation, the 990 covered the period from June 1 to December 31, 2001. Anna F. Bloch contributed Albert Bloch's art works on 6/9/01.
When Tina M. Patzel, CPA, submitted the 990 extension request to the IRS on 8/7/02, the Foundation name and address was in care of Scott Bloch at his Virginia address.
Was Scott J. Bloch merely careless about the dates he served as an officer and director of the Albert Bloch Foundation? Or did he deliberately obfuscate the extent of his involvement with the Foundation?
April 27, 2007 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I read an article on the Working For Change website about Scott J. Bloch which referred to the Washingon Blade's report that "Bloch has hired at least two religious conservatives "and offered the No. 2 post at the OSC to a college professor from Wyoming who helped form an anti-gay campus group," who turned him down."
I haven't found the Washington Blade article yet that refers to the Wyoming professor but I did come across the name, Cathy Deeds. Cathy Deeds is Director, Congressional and Public Affairs, at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, according to a reference on the Zoom website.
Prior to becoming OSP spokeswoman, Deeds was Deputy Director, Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to another Zoom reference.
Again on Zoom, I found a 1/21/01 Washington Catholic Radio reference to a Catherine Deeds, public policy analyst with the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Do people like Bloch and Deeds check their belief that homosexuality is immoral at the door when they come to work?
April 30, 2007 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd like to know more about the Lawrence, KS filmmaker that did the Bloch film, but appears to be very gay friendly.
April 30, 2007 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tim De Paepe? Me, too, but I can't find him. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I called a couple of Tim De Paepes I found in the White Pages but no luck. I would have thought a filmmaker in Kansas would go out of his way to be accessible.
In the bio info that he submitted to the Senate (PDF file - p.19), Bloch claimed that he was a "member" of Templeton Productions, LLC which was "dedicated" to the production of a documentary about his grandfather, artist Albert Bloch.
According to the corporate registration I posted above, Templeton Productions was formed in 1998.
On 11/12/03, Bloch told the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs (p. 21) that production of the documentary was nearing completion.
Bloch also told the committee that he was a "passive investor" in Templeton. But in April 2002, Bloch told the Lawrence World-Journal that "because of the move [to DC] , he has taken on the role of executive producer of the documentary while DePaepe is finishing the filming and post-production work."
On the last page of the 2002 Albert Bloch Foundation 990, it states that one of the purposes of the Foundaton is to "hire a production company to produce a documentary film suitable for public television, and other similar venues, on the life and works of Albert Bloch, one of America's foremost artists."
But that doesn't appear to be the case. The Foundation does not appear to have financed any portion of the documentary. In 2003, the reference to the documentary was dropped and the Foundation did not report any direct charitable activities.
From the Lawrence World-Journal: "He is also a founder of the Albert Bloch Foundation, which works to perpetuate the artistic and literary works of his grandfather, and Templeton Productions, the fund-raising arm for the documentary."
The fund-raising arm" is an odd way to describe a production company. I wonder how Bloch raised funds for the film - public funding, friends and family, the Anna F. Bloch Revocable Trust, maybe? Did Bloch draw a salary from Templeton?
Wait a sec. I just re-read the 4/02 Lawrence WJ story. Tim De Paepe told the LWJ that he was moving to Los Angeles in July 2002. That narrows our search for Tim De Paepe, doesn't it?
As an aside, I see that Bloch was a Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute in 2002. Isn't that the one that the Powerline people are associated with? LOL - I'd rather go to the dentist than read Powerline, it is so badly written and b-o-r-i-n-g.
April 30, 2007 4:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Looks like Tom Hamburger LA Times found Tim De Paepe and according to De Paepe, Bloch offered to finance his 2001 documentary about gay life in Kansas, "Shades of Gray." I wonder if Tim De Paepe accepted Bloch's offer and that is why Templeton Productions was formed in 1998.
According to this story, Bloch and De Paepe are still working together on the Albert Bloch documentary. If Bloch owes De Paepe money, I can't see De Paepe publicly criticizing Bloch about his views on homosexuality.
LA Times
By Tom Hamburger
5/1/07
"A Bush appointee goes after the White House"
Prosecutor Scott J. Bloch, a committed conservative, is turning heads with his investigation of the administration's political operation, which is headed by Karl Rove.
WASHINGTON — At first glance, Scott J. Bloch seems to fit the profile of the "loyal Bushie," the kind of person the White House salted through the Washington bureaucracy to make sure federal agencies heeded administration priorities.
But Bloch, 48, is a man who defies expectations.
The lifelong Republican runs an agency — the Office of Special Counsel — that is turning its investigative spotlight on the White House, in particular the political operation headed by Karl Rove.
His office is investigating whether Bush administration personnel violated civil statutes by inserting GOP electoral politics into Cabinet agency meetings, firing at least one U.S. attorney, and discussing some of the activities in private e-mails that are missing.
When Bloch was recommended for the post by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), few imagined his tenure would turn controversial among Bush Republicans. Although Bloch is a committed conservative, he says — displaying his Office of Special Counsel badge with a dash of drama — "I am a prosecutor."
Bloch says he felt compelled to initiate the broad investigation after reviewing results from two seemingly separate inquiries.
The first was a preliminary interview with the fired U.S. attorney from New Mexico, David C. Iglesias, who said, among other things, that his termination might have resulted from his failure to swiftly pursue a corruption case against Democrats.
The second involved a PowerPoint presentation highlighting upcoming battleground election races that a Rove aide, J. Scott Jennings, made at the General Services Administration this year.
"We are the ones who draw the line at putting the people's business into a political machine," Bloch said in an interview last week. "I consider myself a very tough cop because I consider enforcement of the Hatch Act, which is what we do, an effort to keep government clean and accountable."
Most alarming for the White House is that if the inquiry proceeds as Bloch outlines it, his agency will focus on political strategist Rove's broad effort to harness the federal bureaucracy in service of Republican goals. Even if the investigation does not result in criminal charges, the process of discovery could expose the inner workings of the White House political operation.
Bloch has demonstrated a willingness to go after Rove, at least on the small stuff: The Times has learned that Bloch investigated complaints that Rove's politically related travel had been improperly billed to the government. Bloch's action resulted in a reimbursement to the Treasury Department for what some described as a bookkeeping error.
There is some skepticism about whether a Republican appointee can really investigate the White House, and some have called for the inquiry to be taken out of Bloch's purview.
Critics say Bloch has been soft on Republicans in the past, issuing warning letters instead of taking a hard line in some high-profile cases. They also say that Bloch's investigation is compromised because internal complaints about his management of the Office of Special Counsel have led to a probe by the Office of Personnel Management — putting him in the awkward position of investigating an administration that is investigating him.
"This should be viewed in the context of Bloch's past history, which is one filled with allegations of politicization, reprisal and efforts to use the agency to promote pet causes," said Debra Katz, a Washington lawyer. Katz has filed a lawsuit on behalf of former Bloch employees who allege, among other things, that Bloch stifled dissent as he pushed aside longtime employees and hired friends and political allies.
Bloch disputes the complaints, and the Democratic chairmen of congressional oversight committees provided statements last week expressing general support for his agency's investigation.
But there is no denying that since he was appointed by President Bush to run the obscure Office of Special Counsel in early 2004, he has proved controversial, infuriating government-watchdog and gay rights groups and annoying the White House in the process.
A deeply religious conservative, Bloch came to Washington from Kansas in 2001 through connections to then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and worked on the president's faith-based initiatives in the Justice Department.
He was born in New York City, the son of a television scriptwriter. The family moved west from Brooklyn when Bloch was 3, and he grew up in Los Angeles while his father penned scripts for hit shows including "The Flintstones," "The Jetsons," "Gilligan's Island," "Gunsmoke" and the "The Mod Squad."
His father was a Republican, and as a boy Bloch worked for Ronald Reagan's his first gubernatorial bid.
Bloch surprised his family after graduating from William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills by opting for the University of Kansas instead of UCLA or UC Berkeley.
He chose Kansas, he said, because his deceased grandfather, an acclaimed artist who the young Bloch barely knew, had taught and lived there.
"There was a mystery and cachet" about returning to a familial home, he said. "I was attracted by the search for my roots."
What he discovered was the rich legacy of a pioneering German expressionist painter, a man who would become intensely interested in spiritual and religious themes. Although the paintings of Albert Bloch are now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, the painter eschewed commercialism during his lifetime, telling his students that art "was a search for the truth."
At first, Scott Bloch seemed to be following the path of his father and grandfather, choosing the creative arts. He majored in English, and an emeritus professor, James Gunn, recalls his former student as an assertive and curious participant in a fiction-writing class who seemed destined to be a writer.
In his undergraduate years, Bloch joined a select group of students in a humanities seminar taught by three professors, all Catholic, who urged their students to study Latin and, according to Gunn, think about "traditional values." At least one student in the seminar converted to Catholicism, Gunn said.
Bloch said the course, which emphasized classical education, was a memorable part of his college career, but he declined to discuss any religious effect it might have had.
"I don't really want to talk about that," he said, his face reddening and voice rising. "I think it is an intrusion into my privacy … for people to have an interest — a prurient interest, I would add — into whether I am a religious conservative or not. I think it is offensive and uncalled for." Some of his critics, he says, have cast his beliefs "into some kind of caricature."
After college, Bloch attended law school and became a litigator for an established Lawrence, Kan., law firm, where he specialized in employment, discrimination and civil rights law — and investigated lawyers charged with ethical violations.
Bloch also dabbled in politics. He managed a friend's failed congressional campaign and was active with the GOP at the precinct level. After George W. Bush won the 2000 election, Bloch sought a federal government job.
Although the Justice Department's task force on the faith-based initiative was not his first choice — he had hoped to be named a U.S. attorney or work in counter-terrorism — he apparently performed well there. Because of his experience in employment law, he was later recommended for the Office of Special Counsel, a quiet backwater in the federal bureaucracy that enforced discrimination bans, whistle-blower protections and the Hatch Act, the 1939 statute that generally prohibits use of government resources for campaign purposes.
The tranquillity vanished almost as soon as Bloch arrived. In one of his first official acts, Bloch created controversy by ordering his staff to remove references to the agency's jurisdiction over "sexual orientation discrimination" from the agency's website and publications. His action pleased religious conservatives, infuriated lesbian and gay activists, and annoyed some people in the White House, which had informally pledged not to roll back discrimination enforcement on behalf of gays and lesbians.
Bloch informed the White House of his plans and was insistent, arguing that the statutes governing his agency did not authorize treating gays and lesbians as a "protected class" entitled to special protection like that awarded to ethnic minority groups.
He said he opposed discrimination of all forms and was not singling out gays and lesbians, just carefully interpreting the statute.
Nonetheless, his actions got him tagged among some gay activists and other critics as being homophobic.
Among his friends back in Kansas, the charge didn't resonate.
"Absolutely not," said one of Bloch's friends, Tim De Paepe, an independent filmmaker and liberal Democrat, who is best known for his award-winning film "Shades of Gray," a sympathetic story about being gay in Kansas.
De Paepe, who is not gay, said Bloch offered support for the film, and De Paepe never detected anti-gay sentiments. The two are working together on a documentary about Bloch's grandfather.
Controversy continued at the once quiet Office of Special Counsel as Bloch transferred some senior employees and replaced them with lawyers he had selected — often on the recommendation of others — from conservative law schools and other federal agencies.
Advocates for whistle-blowers complained that Bloch was not representing concerns of federal bureaucrats who crossed their superiors to report wrongdoing. Some in Bloch's office complained that he would not tolerate staff members who disagreed with him.
Bloch denies the charges, saying he was bringing a different management style to an agency that suffered from bureaucratic malaise and a long backlog of cases. He cites internal statistics showing a big jump in productivity, including whistle-blower protection and discrimination cases.
(Katz disputes his data in her lawsuit, saying the prior case backlog has been exaggerated.)
"We were mired in bureaucracy," Bloch said. "I wanted to bring a freshness to this place, open the windows, bring in some air.
"I am not conventional," he said. "My grandfather was not conventional. My father was not conventional.
"I do things the way I do them in the interest of doing them effectively, creatively, and doing them with an end in mind, achieving good things, good government and accountability."
It also meant displaying new office decor to signify change. He placed a bust of President Theodore Roosevelt outside his office. And near the entrance to the downtown Washington office suite, he hung a portrait of President James Madison with a quote underneath:
"Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty — but also by the abuse of power."
tom.hamburger@latimes.com
*
(INFOBOX BELOW)
Scott J. Bloch
• Name: Bloch was born Scott J. Black; he changed his name in 1975
• Age: 48; born Sept. 19, 1958, in New York
• Experience: Special counsel, U.S. Office of Special Counsel, 2004-present; associate director, deputy director and counsel for the Justice Department's Task Force for Faith-based and Community Initiatives, 2001-2003; partner in Stevens & Brand LLP, Lawrence, Kan., 1989-2001; graduate teaching assistant, University of Kansas School of Law, 1986; law clerk in various offices, 1984-86; various jobs as copywriter, painter, independent contractor and Wal-Mart assistant manager, 1980-84
• Education: Bachelor of arts, University of Kansas, 1980; law degree, University of Kansas School of Law, 1986
• Family: Wife, Catherine; seven children
Source: Associated Press
May 1, 2007 10:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder if Hamburger is reading our research threads.
We were right on a lot of stuff. From the article, Bloch's political patron is Brownback, hence the donation.
Still, curious about DePaepe. Is he covering for Bloch in saying that Bloch offered to finance "Shades of Gray?" Or can a devout Christian conservative who is rolling back LGB protections in the federal government have some sentimentalities for gay issues? Is there some family thing going on here that I'm missing (maybe a gay kid?)
Or is Bloch one of those Ashcroft holdovers I've been reading about who is disaffected with the Gonzales DOJ?
May 1, 2007 11:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sure, Hamburger could have read this thread if he checked Google News for "Scott Bloch." That Hamburger interviewed Tim De Pepe probably means he did because I don't think anyone else has been talking about De Paepe and Bloch recently.
Fred Phelps not withstanding, "Shades of Gray" gave both sides of the story, according to the NYT review. The other side of the story might have interested Bloch or Bloch may have just been interested in getting into the movie business.
I don't know if Bloch is a disaffected Ashcroft holdover but he seems to be following a recent trend by conservatives to disavow George W. Bush as a conservative and claim that the Bush administration as not being a conservative one.
Bullshit. The conservatives held absolute power in this country for six long years and they made a royal mess of things. George W. Bush is one of theirs and we have to make sure the voters never forget it. The Iraq War was started by conservatives and fucked up by conservatives.
Tom Delay is a conservative. John Doolittle is a conservative. Jack Abramoff is a conservative. Randall Tobias is a conservative. Scooter Libby is a conservative. And so on.
The Democrats should hammer the GOP candidates every day for being conservatives, imo. Conservatism=war, reckless spending, corruption, hypocrisy, etc
May 2, 2007 7:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
citizen92, Mrs. panstreppon, thanks for the terrific work you've done here and for inviting me to observe and contribute. You seem to have Mr. Bloch about ready to pin down to the insect-collection display board I must say. :)
However my particular field of concern is the illegal, behind the scenes, out of the jurisdiction of the National Archives communication system we've been calling "gwb43.com", also known as "RNCHQ.com". While some of Bloch's shenannigans may have been conducted through this nefarious network, I can't see that the two otherwise have a whole lot of overlap. That could change if we could finally get somebody (YOU LISTENING REP. WAXMAN??) to subpoena these records from Smartech of Chattanooga TN, or their backup recordkeepers at Coptix, also of Chattanooga.
In reference to which I have just found an absolutely fascinating analysis of the mails from this system that Greg Palast has been touting (no, don't roll your eyes, keep reading.)
This is not otherwise related to Mr. Palast's work, but is rather an analysis done of JUST THE AADDRESSES, charted by who-sent-what-to-whom, on this "RNCHQ.com"/Smartech com system. These are the mails which were accidentally sent to "INSERT-ANYTHING-HERE]@georgewbush.org". At the time of these mailings the "georgewbush.org" address was not included in the Smartech system; the mails were supposed to go to "georgewbush.com" but the addressors screwed up.
I've just received this so haven't had a chance to look into them in any depth, but I implore everyone to go look at them. Hell, they're worth more as works of art than the stuff in most galleries today. :)
Also, the author wrote them on a website run by George Mason University, which means they may very well disappear at any time if GMU catches flak about this. It would be nice if several of us could copy and capture this data for further study, both in its present and its enlarged form.
More later after I've had a chance to look over it. The material (not sure how to do hotlinks here, besides it isn't long) can be found here:
http://www.css.gmu.edu/rovebots/
May 31, 2007 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink