U.S. official apologizes over racial costume

[Judi Lynn]

Source: MSNBC/Associated Press

U.S. official apologizes over racial costume
Immigration chief hailed white employee in prison stripes, dark makeup
updated 9:55 p.m. ET Nov. 5, 2007

WASHINGTON - A top immigration official has apologized after awarding “most original costume” to a Homeland Security Department employee who dressed in prison stripes, dreadlocks and dark makeup for a Halloween gathering at the agency.

Julie Myers, assistant secretary overseeing Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, was part of a three-judge panel that lauded the costume, worn by a white employee, last Wednesday. She also posed for a photo with him.

Myers apologized to employees last Friday in an e-mail, saying some costumes were found to be offensive. On Friday, she called the National Association of African Americans in DHS to inform the group of what had happened, according to a letter sent to association members by the group’s vice president, Sjon Shavers.
(snip)

The employee who wore the costume was not identified, but ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said he was counseled by his supervisor. He was not wearing blackface but makeup that was a darker color than his skin, Nantel said.





Julie Myers

Julie L. Myers is the assistant secretary of homeland security for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In that role, Ms. Myers leads the largest investigative component of the Department of Homeland Security and the second largest investigative agency in the federal government, with more than 15,000 employees, including 6,000 investigators, and an annual budget of more than $4 billion. ICE is comprised of four integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities.

Prior to her appointment by President Bush on Jan. 4, 2006, Ms. Myers served as special assistant to the president for presidential personnel. Before that, she was nominated by President Bush and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate to serve as assistant secretary for Export Enforcement at the Department of Commerce. As assistant secretary, Ms. Myers supervised a nationwide law enforcement agency that specialized in export control violation, both civil and criminal.

http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/biography_0149.shtm



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21645714/

[superconnected]

1. Everyone at any workplace I've ever worked at would

see there's a problem.

Where do people like Julie Meyers come from?

[lurky]

3. Anyone who wore that costume at any place I've ever worked...

would be handed a box full of their belongings and escorted out by security.

The fact that he was the hit of the party and was given an award by a three-judge panel tells me there is a serious problem with the culture there.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

4. credit where it is due...

atleast she is a REAL lawyer,

[ClintonTyree]

6. They're raised on special farms....

in Idaho. Raised from birth by Reich-wing surrogate mothers, suckling from the teats of the United States Treasury. The only texts they're taught from are written by Ayn Rand, David Duke, Pat Buchanan and Steven Forbes.

Also raised on these farms are the employees of the Department of Motor Vehicles.

All true. I saw it on the pages The Weekly World News. ;)

[tanyev]

10. I'm sure Uncle Richard, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, put in a good word for her.

[JackRiddler]

26. Is that true?

She's related to Richard Myers?

[tanyev]

27. Yes, and even worse--she's married to Chertoff.

Bush Appointments Avert Senate Battles

By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 5, 2006; Page A13

President Bush yesterday made a raft of controversial recess appointments, including Julie L. Myers to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau at the Department of Homeland Security, in a maneuver circumventing the need for approval by the Senate.

Myers, a niece of former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Richard B. Myers and the wife of the chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, had been criticized by Republicans and Democrats who charged that she lacked experience in immigration matters.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/04/AR2006010401953.html

[JackRiddler]

28. His chief of staff, you mean, unless they have a 3-way thing...

That information, plus the picture - tell a whole story, do they not?

[tanyev]

29. Oops! Thanks for the catch.

I'm sure none of this gang would ever commit bigamy. God knows what else they might get up to, but never bigamy.

[saigon68]

31. No she's not Skeletor's wife

She is also the niece of former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Richard Myers, and is the wife of John F. Wood, the current U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri and the former chief of staff for the Secretary of Homeland Security

[girl gone mad]

32. this administrtion is like a hillbilly wedding party..

everyone's related to each other.

[saigon68]

37. They are just "Kissing Cousins"

LOL

[saigon68]

14. They are from Bigoted Fundamentalist Colleges

They receive training in the concept that poor people and minorities are lazy and sub-humanoid types

[guitar man]

30. from the bottom of the barrel

same place these pukes get everybody that works for them :(

[lurky]

2. Holy moly!

I don't even know where to start...

[truthisfreedom]

5. "He was not wearing blackface but makeup that was a darker color than his skin, Nantel said." Umm..

You mean he was wearing "brownface?"

[brentspeak]

38. That quote is an instant keeper

[goclark]

7. I cry for our country!

Day after day after day we see that leadership starts at the top.

This is beyond---

[chelsea0011]

8. As I read this story I wonder why there was no outcry about

the Cleveland Indian fans who wear red face and dress up looking like the smiling Chief Wahoo. When the tv showed these guys I kept thinking that if they were in blackface there would be an outcry but looking like they did brought no comments.

[notadmblnd]

9. Why are grown ups dressing for halloween at work.

In my 28 years of corporate servitude, no one ever dressed up for Halloween. Ms Myers and her co-workers should have left that shit back in high school.

[douglas9]

11. General Meyers'(Medal of Freedom Winner 2005) niece, what would you expect?

Costumes run in the family.

[JackRiddler]

12. Speaking of scary costumes...

Can't she manage not to broadcast that I'm-totally-whacked-in-the-head nightmare boss look long enough to sit for the official picture?!

[quiet.american]

25. Hello! You hit the nail on the head. nt

[Gormy Cuss]

13. So what was so original about the costume, that he didn't do blackface?

"Myers apologized to employees last Friday in an e-mail, saying some costumes were found to be offensive."

FOUND to be offensive? By whom? Obviously not Ms. Myers or the other two costume judges.

[neoteric lefty]

15. BLACKFACE!

she didn't realize that it was a problem for her to award (let alone tolerate) an employee dressing up like that. And the fact that this employee dressed up as a prisoner of all things. Do they really want to make it this easy for us?

[XemaSab]

16. Why is that not universally recognized as being in bad taste?

:shrug:

[143tbone]

17. This is a perfect example

of why I don't believe there is any common ground to be found with these people. These, meaning anyone associated with this administration.

[Robbien]

18. This proves there are no good decent employees in DHS

Any employee with half a brain would have raised the problem during this party. It took a release of the story to the public at large before DHS responded with this fake apology.

[IndianaGreen]

19. What if the employee had dressed as Frito Bandido?

Or had worn a Cleveland Indians baseball uniform?

I find our outrages to be rather selective.

[onelittleindian]

33. costumes

you are right Indianagreen, atlanta brave, cleveland indian, fla state semanholes, nobody cares about them but blackface, the world is coming to an end! these mascots have got to go. you can keep the fighting irish, I know a few irish and they drink and fight like republican rednecks in the south!

[lanlady]

20. Head of DHS agency apologizes for staffer's Halloween costume

Source: Associated Press

Head of DHS agency apologizes for staffer's Halloween costume
By Suzanne Gamboa, Associated Press November 6, 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A top immigration official has apologized after awarding "most original costume" to a Homeland Security Department employee who dressed in prison stripes, dreadlocks and dark makeup for a Halloween gathering at the agency.

Julie Myers, assistant secretary overseeing Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, was part of a three-judge panel that lauded the costume, worn by a white employee, last Wednesday. She also posed for a photo with him.

Myers apologized to employees last Friday in an e-mail, saying some costumes were found to be offensive. On Friday, she called the National Association of African Americans in DHS to inform the group of what had happened, according to a letter sent to association members by the group's vice president, Sjon Shavers.

Read more: http://govexec.com/dailyfed/1107/110607ap1.htm

---

Can you believe this stereotyping sh*t still goes on? What's wrong with these people?

[Dhalgren]

21. They are missing some essential part of their humanity. They simply

do not recognize bigotry in any form. There are some DUers who have the same problem...

[ixion]

22. most original costume? what the hell is oringal (or funny or scary) about that?

really it shows their racist tendencies and their complete lack of imagination.

[tabasco]

23. The Bush mafia has packed our government full of incompetent stooges.

How long must we suffer this ignominy?

[onelittleindian]

34. bush

about a year, one looonnnggg year!

[kwassa]

35. that costume was the "most original"????????

aside from racism, it says something about the contest.

[Sabriel]

24. I can't wait for the DHS "April Fool's Day" memos!

Those should also be a real scream.

Is this a government agency or a badly led middle school club? Honestly!

[RamboLiberal]

36. When I googled Myers found even Michelle Malkin considered

her unqualified for the job and this was nothing but nepotism! Aren't you glad the grownups are in charge? :sarcasm: 440 more days of Chimpy and his circus of idiots!

Her appointment was opposed on both the left and by such far right scions as Michelle Malkin, because her appointment, despite her youth and lack of experience, was a clear case of nepotism, in the tradition of former FEMA head Michael Brown, an unqualified lawyer and horse showing association official from Colorado, who bungled the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

Myers is as a 37 year old lawyer who previously headed the 170 employee federal government office with a $25 million budget, in charge of cracking down on international money laundering in the Commerce Department. ICE has 20,000 employees, a $4 billion budget, and involves matters of immigration and customs enforcement that Myers has little experience handling prior to taking the top job.

Many observers believe that a bigger factor in her appointment was her status as niece of Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, the departing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and wife of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's chief of staff, John F. Wood. Also important may have been the face time she had in front of the President as an assistant handling his personal affairs, and her established partisan loyalty as associate under independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr.

http://coloradoconfidential.org/showDiary.do?diaryId=1178&view=print