In addition to presidential appointment in responsible posts, the 8,600 include the three highest grades under Classification Act; the three highest grades in the postal field service, comparable grades in the foreign service, general officers in the military service, and similar classes in Other special services and in agencies or positions excepted from the Classification Act.
There is no complete inventory of positions or people in federal service at this level. The lack may be explained by separate agency statutes and personnel systems, diffusion among so many special services, and absence of any central point (short of the President himself) with jurisdiction over all upper-level personnel of the government.
The committee considers establishment and maintenance of a central inventory of these key people and .positions to bean elementary necessity a first step in improved management throughout the Executive Branch.
Top presidential appointees, about 500 of them, bear the brunt of translating the philosophy and aims of the current administration into practical programs. This group includes the secretaries and assistant secretaries of cabinet departments, agency heads and their deputies, heads and members of boards, and commissions with fixed terms and chiefs and directors of major bureaus, divisions and services. Appointments to many of these politically sensitive positions are made on recommendation by department or agency beads, but all are presumably responsible to Presidential leadership.
One qualification for office at this level is that there be no basic disagreement with presidential political philosophy, at least so far as administrative judgments and actions are concerned. Apart from the bipartisan boards and commissions these men are normally identified with the political party of the president) or are sympathetic to it, although there are exceptions.
There are four distinguishable kinds of top presidential appointees including
-Those whom the President selects at the outset to establish immediate and effective control over the government (e. g. Cabinet secretaries, agency heads, his own White House staff and Executive Office personnel).
-Those selected by department and agency heads in order to establish control within their respective organizations (e. g. assistant secretaries, deputies, assistants, and major line posts in some bureaus and divisions).
-High-level appointees, who--though often requiring clearance through political or interest group channels, or both-must have known scientific or technical competence (e.g. the Surgeon General, the Commissioner of Education).
-Those named to residual positions traditionally fdled on a partisan patronage basis. These appointees are primarily regarded as policy makers and over-seers of policy execution. In practice, however, they usually have substantial responsibilities ill line management, often requiring a thorough knowledge of substantive agency programs.
The revamped service, scheduled to debut Wednesday, is the latest evolution for the pioneering retailer, the first to sell digital music files online in the late 1990s.
eMusic eschews copy protection technology as consumer-unfriendly, and caters to people whose tastes are largely ignored by mainstream music retailers.
"We're going after the minority of the market who doesn't want to wade through Britney Spears or OutKast," said David Pakman, eMusic's Chief operating officer.
The major online music retailers, such as Napster, MusicNet and market-leader iTunes Music Store, sell tunes by mostly major label acts.
The eMusic revamp has been in the works for the better part of a year, since the company was acquired from Vivendi by New York-based Dimensional Associates Inc. , the private equity arm of JDS Capital Management Inc.
When Dimensional took over, it began adding staff with experience running subscription-based businesses and immediately changed the pricing model so subscribers could no longer download an unlimited number of tracks.
"That was a negative gross margin business," Pakman said. "The company was losing money."
While eMusic's pricing model remains the same-subscriptions start at $ 9.99 per month for 40 downloads-what's changed is the means by which users can search and discover new music. So the service has added its panel of so-called music curators.
"What was missing from the eMusic service was a bunch of tools and features to really aid you in (the) discovery process," Pakman said. "What was missing was the curators."
Among the roster of music experts hired by eMusic are former Rolling Stone writer and author Michael Azerrad, former New York Times music critic Ann Powers and Justin Davidson, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of classical music.
The critics will write album reviews, columns, and communicate with subscribers on a message board.
Users will also be able to discuss or swap song recommendations with other subscribers through the message boards and other online community features.
By avoiding tracks from major labels, who only make their content available in file formats that come with licensing and copy protection safeguards, eMusic has also been able to sell its content in the MP3 file format.
MP3s can be played on most if not all digital music players on the market, and can be copied to other computers or burned to CDs without the limits imposed by record companies on other online retailers.
eMusie offers more than a half-million tracks. The service continued to operate in the months since the new management took over and currently has 70,000 subscribers, Pakman said.
eMusic was taken over by ______.
A.Vivendi Universal
B.Dimensional Associates Inc.
C.Rolling Stone
D.New York Times
A.Government entities support AIBS's effort to defend the theory of evolution.
B.School boards oppose AIBS's effort to defend the theory of evolution.
C.AIBS and school boards advocate the teaching of the theory of evolution.
D.The theory of evolution and that of creationism co-exist peacefully in schools.