federal environmental whistleblower rights

* at the risk (ha!) of reopening the public/private debate (here, here and here), here's yubanet (via Uranus?):

" The Bush administration has declared itself immune from whistleblower protections for federal workers under the Clean Water Act, according to legal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As a result of an opinion issued by a unit within the Office of the Attorney General, federal workers will have little protection from official retaliation for reporting water pollution enforcement breakdowns, manipulations of science or cleanup failures.
[]
The opinion and the ruling reverse nearly two decades of precedent. Approximately 170,000 federal employees working within environmental agencies are affected by the loss of whistleblower rights. "

as i wrote at the time (after being accused of running a Black-Op against the govt!):

my only points in that entire discussion were that:
a) i'm not ideologically opposed to the private provision of services,
b) if there's corruption in the process, it might not matter how the services are delivered, and
c) there are blurry lines between private & public anyway that often don't get recongized (e.g. using private contractors to install water pipes, even in an ostensibly publicly-provided water delivery system)

the floor is yours. let the games begin, again.