From the WSJ (h/t to Chris Horner)
The Washington Examiner reported Tuesday that the EPA under Ms. Jackson has a history of favoring groups that share the agency’s political agenda. “Conservative groups seeking information from the Environmental Protection Agency have been routinely hindered by fees normally waived for media and watchdog groups, while fees for more than 90 percent of requests from green groups were waived,” according to the report.
Government agencies like the EPA typically waive so-called Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request fees for groups disseminating information for public benefit, but it’s up to the agency to decide whether a fee-waiver is justified. At the EPA, fees were waived for liberal environmental groups like Greenpeace and EarthJustice almost always. Meanwhile, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-market think tank, “had its requests denied 93 percent of the time. One request was denied because CEI failed to express its intent to disseminate the information to the general public. The rest were denied because the agency said CEI ‘failed to demonstrate that the release of the information requested significantly increases the public understanding of government operations or activities.'”
This is important because the White House and Democrats have increasingly used regulators at the EPA to advance a green agenda that they can’t get through Congress.
Full story here
Meanwhile Pierre Gosselin writes that in Germany, something similar is going on:
If we ever needed help, it’s now…
We have a powerful Ministry now directing its full might and resources against people only because they have a different opinion. Chilling to say the least.
Could the famous ‘authorship’ software which strongly implicated His Gleickness a year ago in the phony “Heartland Strategy Document” (which read like it came from the villian’s liar in a Batman comic) also be used in the German language ref. Rahmstorf and Schellnhuber (discussed in P. Gosselin’s post)?
Kurt in Switzerland
Anthony,
A Wisconsin tribe’s waste water treatment plant is the worst WWTP polluter in the state and the EPA is poised to renew their permit?
“A detailed review of EPA records earlier this year showed that the Bad River facility repeatedly and flagrantly violated water quality standards over a period of several years. At times, the tribe would pump water with E. coli levels 5,400% in excess of federal limits into a river that flows into Lake Superior. A 2009 study by the New York Times found the tribe’s facility to be the worst repeat-violator of the Clean Water Act in Wisconsin.”
http://mediatrackers.org/2013/05/13/residents-call-on-epa-to-enforce-clean-water-standards/
Apparently the Clean Water Act only applies to private businesses.
Govt is by it’s nature is corrupt. The absolute best you can hope to do is manage that corruption so it doesn’t destry too many lives. The bigger and more powerful govt becomes, the more that corruption intrudes on our daily lives.
The German Pamphlet is a chilling reminder of Europe’s slide into Fascism nearly a century ago. Where governments outlawed contrary opinions. People were jailed or worse for the crime of speaking out. Free from public comment, governments believed themselves to be above fault. Acting in the name of a Noble Cause, the Madness of Crowds took hold and millions upon millions died across the world. Your family or your neighbor’s likely lost loved ones as a result.
Freedom of Speech is all too often taken for granted. In point of fact it has come at the cost of tens of millions of lives over centuries of struggles. Kings, Queens, Presidents and Prime Ministers are all too ready to snatch it away from you in an efforts to make their own lives easier.
I’m crossing my fingers that the cascade is now finally, finally starting. One whistleblower comes out from the shadows (thank you, Mr. Hicks). The other one’s get there courage up. One by one they come out. And the issues come out. Benghazi. The IRS. The phone records from the AP. And now, the phone records this administration allegedly kept on members of Congress. (Reporters talk to them, don’t they?)
And the EPA harassment of Gibson guitar resurfaces. What else resurfaces? Probably the two most powerful agencies in Washington are the IRS and the EPA. How deeply did this administration use them? Formerly afraid, now people may feel emboldened to expose the maltreatment.
Cross your fingers. And, even if the Obama administration skates on all this at least it’ll be fun to watch them squirm.
“It is indeed warming…”
You can tell by all the ice and snow!
The Founding Fathers of America almost got it right. They recognized the need to Protect the People from Government. So they split the government into 3 parts, and pitted them against each other rather than against the People. They forgot that there is a 4th power in government, the Bureaucracy, with its own agenda, accountable to none except itself. No matter what government is elected, the Bureaucracy remains entrenched, serving its own needs while paying lips service to the needs of the Public. It is the growth of this self-serving Bureaucracy that drives the Public Debt and the need for ever increasing taxes.
Old saying: “A fish rots from the head down.”
’nuff said
Wow, we don’t even have to invoke Godwin’s Law ourselves – its a public service.
“Full story here” if you’re a subscriber.
The WSJ tends to paywall linked stories.
In my opinion, the worst thing about the systemic corruption we see is that people are widely aware of it and appear to cheerfully accept it via noble cause syndrome. It’s as if an entire generation grew up without the faintest concept of what principles are.
Sad.
Desperate times ,call for desperate measures.
The true nature of the beast is exposed, funny how asking for evidence from activists, is a capital crime.
Back to burn the witch.
The scam is broken, so all the “Power to the correct people” have left is naked force.
Which there are not enough stupids to condone.
These authoritarians constantly mistake silence for agreement, good manners for fear and always overestimate their own strength.
Lust for power is one of those seven deadly sins?
ferd berple said:
May 16, 2013 at 6:54 am
Absolutely correct! Thus the need for not only term limits for the president but all elected federal officials plus employment limits for all federal employees (and subcontractors). Those employees can then go out and get a real job, like everyone else, when their 10 or 15 yr limit is up.
Or maybe people who have spent their careers in the real world will spend their remaining years as federal employees.
Don’t forget the incestuous law fare,that the EPA and Enviro-Activists have been caught at.
The Richard Windsor emails.
ferd berple says:
May 16, 2013 at 6:54 am
Correct, but don’t forget the state/federal split, which separates powers further, or at least used to.
There can be no greater collection of MINDLESS ZEALOTS THAN THE EPA.
The examples of overreach are overwhelming. They seize on one element, or one compound, and the go absolutely HYPERBOLIC with absolutely no meaningful debate and no oversight from informed or interested parties. Here are very useful two elements on the periodic table that have fallen into this demonic EPA BLACKLIST.
Sulfur is a very useful and REQUIRED element and has been commercially mined for centuries. Sulfur is used in the manufacture of gunpowder, as a fungicide, insecticide, fumigant, in the manufacture of phosphate fertilizers, in Epson salts (magnesium sulfate) and is vital to plant nutrition. YET the EPA insists that there be NO SULFUR in diesel fuel, leading to higher costs and shorter engine life do to loss of the lubrication properties of Sulfur. We have successfully scrubbed Sulfur from coal mining and today, there is MORE atmospheric Sulfur from natural forest fires (remember ‘vital plant nutrition’) than from the 500 PPM of diesel fuel quantity, which the EPA has forced to zero.
Lead no doubt should not be ingested, but the EPA insists that THERE SHALL BE A LEAD FREE ENVIRONMENT. This insane mandate has required manufactures of bronze and brass forgings, used extensively in the water distribution system, be certified “Lead Free”. The tiny PPM of Lead in these alloys with Copper, Tin and Zinc have absolutely ZERO migration potential once the casting is finished and installed in water distribution systems. Removal is costly and REDUCES the service life by as much as one half. There is NO proven health risk and NO possible cost/benefit analysis verification.
The EPA was created by presidential fiat by Tricky Dick and has exceeded any original mandate. It is at present, a perfect example of runaway zealotry.
Where are the attorneys? Surely such bias cannot withstand legal action.
Get the info to your congress before the hearings next week.
I would say something critical of the IRS (or the EPA) but they may be monitoring this blog, thereby making me a target of a politically motivated IRS audit…
So, instead I’ll just say…they’re doing a GREAT job, and I love paying my taxes! (smiles)
“AP, IRS? Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do TO you.”
Bill Gross of PIMCO on twitter today > Sums things up quite frankly!
fred berple,
“The Founding Fathers of America almost got it right. They recognized the need to Protect the People from Government. So they split the government into 3 parts, and pitted them against each other rather than against the People. They forgot that there is a 4th power in government, the Bureaucracy, with its own agenda, accountable to none except itself. ”
How true! Maybe we should take note of the Republic of China that created a government structured on the US model but with the addition of the “Ministry of Audit” with unlimited access to the the other three arms of government.
http://www.cy.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=3161&CtNode=1770&mp=21
The other branches of the government take these audits seriously as the corrupt use of government funds can lead to severe penalties including the death by firing squad.
There is a very simple explanation for this; our government is run by crooks. That one simple statement also explains things like;
Fast and Furious.
IRS targeting of conservative groups.
The entire CAGW scare.
The TARP bill.
The government’s anti-gun agenda (Its easier to fleece the sheep when they’re disarmed).
The sharp increase in opium production in Afghanistan AFTER the US invaded the country.
Mark Bofill says:
May 16, 2013 at 7:02 am
“In my opinion, the worst thing about the systemic corruption we see is that people are widely aware of it and appear to cheerfully accept it via noble cause syndrome. It’s as if an entire generation grew up without the faintest concept of what principles are.
Sad”
Indeed. This is the same generation that also lacks the where-with-all to evaluate research as to it’s real value and any apparent knowledge of history. Educational system?
And while on this subject, a “rogue” IRS employee, upon which that fiasco is being blamed, would by definition, in a left wing administration be persecuting left wing organizations, not conservatives.
Re the German pamphlet, you must be disappointed not to be on the list. I thought a bit of the Mikado might be appropriate but the first youtube that I checked out gives us all a mention. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NLV24qTnlg
Censorship, not new. Selective targeting, not new. Propaganda, not new. Corruption, not new. Blasphemy charges, not new. Noble cause crusaders, not new. Spanish inquisition, history always has a way of repeating itself. But the one thing they can’t control is good ole Mother Nature, not new.
They only have a few short years left before the world enters a longer period of cooling so the propaganda machine has to hit hard and fast. It will only get worse in the next few years. Just waiting for the spin doctors to show up when the the cooling trend really sets in and their position will be forced to change. Let’s hope the Legions of Idiots don’t fall for it when it happens.
All eyes waiting to see what the Sun will do. Will it again become very active in cycle 25 or will it enter another deep minimum? Sun worship, not new.
“Acting EPA chief asks EPA Inspector General to investigate FOIA fee discrimination against conservative groups”
http://junkscience.com/2013/05/16/acting-epa-chief-asks-epa-inspector-general-to-investigate-foia-fee-discrimination-against-conservative-groups/
Defective, agenda driven science is only a symptom of the underlying problem….for the ROOT OF THE ROT is defective government. It is impossible to comprehend the if, how and why of government lies, if you do not understand the manipulating forces that direct these government lies. Readers of WUWT have accepted that we have had government funded science lies with regard to AGW. It does not take much research to see this same fact pattern repeated across the science spectrum….and always to the benefit of the ‘powers that be’. The elites have done an effective job of limiting the visibility of this involvement by controlling not just government, but the education, information and entertainment matrix.
My last three articles, prior to Climategate, explained this defective matrix, which the East Anglia Event Horizon only amplified. Defective science is complimented by defective history knowledge. These articles, in archive at Canada Free Press, are a useful introduction to the history you were not supposed to know.
“One Pleasant Day at Runnymede”….the location of the signing of the original Magna Carta
“Nothing Up This Sleeve”….the IPCC MAGICC and other eco-dung
“Hoodwinked By Hoodlums”….Tiananmen Square is the modern Munich Accord
America was a break from the monarch-monopolist forces of Europe….and as founded, the American meritocracy is the anathema of oligarchy. This is the fundamental conflict of our time. How long will we allow this abuse of honesty and humanity ?
We’re the government. We’re here to help you. Now shut up, pay your taxes, take your medicine, and die when we think it best.
AnonyMoose says:
“Full story here” if you’re a subscriber.
The WSJ tends to paywall linked stories.
Pssst… With paywalled WSJ articles you can often do a google search on the title, and then click on the link to the article in the google search results, and magically it is no longer paywalled.
May 17, 2013 is the 40th Anniversary of Watergate.
Chris4692 says:
May 16, 2013 at 7:21 am
“Correct, but don’t forget the state/federal split, which separates powers further, or at least used to.”
Yes, originally Senators were chosen by the state legislatures (Article 1, Section 3, first paragraph). That was changed by the 17th Amendment which now makes Senators loyal and beholding only to their largest campaign donors.
Punish your enemies, reward your friends. It’s the Chicago way.
The EPA is far more than a rogue agency – it is a criminal enterprise engaged in extortion, theft and wholesale civil rights violations. Its functionaries are criminals deserving of the most draconian penalties
Related to this — I would think that anyone in government that sent an email to “Windsor” knowing it was an alias for Jackson were guilty of violating FOIA rules and should be fired to clean house in an attempt to restore some semblance of integrity.
ferd berple says: May 16, 2013 at 6:44 am
The German Pamphlet is a chilling reminder of Europe’s slide into Fascism nearly a century ago. Where governments outlawed contrary opinions. People were jailed or worse for the crime of speaking out.
________________________________________
Come on, Ferd, we have had that in the UK for more than 15 years.
A certain person** in the UK complained about paedophile gang rape within ‘certain communities’, so the government took him to court for incitement to hatred. During the trial that certain person gave incontrovertible evidence that what he was talking about was true. But the judge ruled that in cases of incitement to hatred, telling the truth was NOT a defence in law. Interesting, eh? Now, some 7 years later, the UK papers are full of trial cases about paedophile gang-rape, because what he had said was true.
But the scene has already been set. The liberal elite have wormed their way into academia, the judiciary, the media and parliament, and they know that they can get away with their distortion and manipulation of society. It happens all the time now, be it though teachers force-feeding Global Warming to children, or politicians subsidising windelecs (wind turbines).
** Self snip, because of UK censorship laws.
.
I’m sorry to say but nothing will be done, the best you can do is sit back and watch a documentary about the corrupt EPA.
http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/
Not just on FOI. Also wind farms.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2013/05/14/wind-farms-bird-deaths_n_3270691.html
Same over here- look at the Liberal bias (read swivel-eyed left-wing loonies) in the BBC.
Here’s a list I showing the “revolving door” between BBC & Labour:-Labour supporters and the postions they’ve occupied at the BBC since the early 90’s:-
Chairman Gavin Davies (later Labour adviser)
Chairman Sir Michael Lyons (previously Labour council chief)
Director General John Birt (later Labour adviser)
Director General Greg Dyke (previously Labour donor and candidate)
C.O.O Caroline Thomson (previously Roy Jenkin’s aide)
Head of Political Research Bill Bush (later Labour spin doctor)
Deputy Head of ditto Catherine Rimmer (later Labour spin doctor)
Director of Strategy Ed Richards (later Labour spin doctor)
Head of Corporate Planning James Purnell (now Labour Minister)
Head of Northern Ireland News Tom Kelly (later Labour spin doctor)
Scottish News Editor Tim Luckhurst (previously Labour spin doctor)
Political News Editor Joy Johnson (later Labour spin doctor)
Political Editor Andrew Marr (student Labour organiser)
Home News Editor Celia Barlow (now Labour MP)
Head of European Affairs Chris Bryant (now Labour MP)
Newsnight Producer Phil Woolas (now Labour Minister)
Foreign Correspondent Martin Sixsmith (later Labour spin doctor)
Current Affairs Reporter Ben Bradshaw (now Labour Minister)
Current Affairs Reporter Lance Price (later Labour spin doctor)
“Question Time” Editor Gill Penlington (previously Labour researcher)
Many of them actually worked for the Labour party before, after and even during their BBC employment.
Kon Dealer says:
May 16, 2013 at 12:58 pm
Missed out – St. Andrew [Marr], married to Jackie Ashley, the daughter of Jack Ashley, Baron Ashley of Stoke [a life peer and former Labour MP], and ten-year veteran of ‘The Guardian’ (not the most right-wing paper in the UK, shall we say).
They may be more . . . .
Auto
Moderator:
profusely sorry for the two links above, somehow ‘magic’ at wordpress morphs links to the ‘front’ of the paywall. Anyway, delete both above, and if you may, leave this one intact:
This is truly disgusting, but the slant of such actions have been evident for years now, to those following the AGW agenda of fraud. I so want this ( EPA, IRS, State Dept, AP ) all to reduce the current president to nothing more than an apologizing nitwit who has time for only trying to stop the government HE empowered.
And, yes, someone above rightly noted the ‘secret’ to bypassing the paywall at WSJ.
“The rest [of the requests for records] were denied because the agency said CEI ‘failed to demonstrate that the release of the information requested significantly increases the public understanding of government operations or activities.’”
The agency just cares about the public understanding and the public good, apparently, so go fly a kite.
“One Pleasant Day at Runnymede”….the location of the signing of the original Magna Carta.
WOW.I am impressed that at least one other person over here in the colonies know the proper way it is used. One of my pet peeves; putting “the” in front of Magna Carta.Ranks right up there with irregardless,and improper usage of its and it’s.
Zeke. Yeah. As if the EPA,or any gubermint outfit,wants their actions released. Now excuse me,please. I got to go measure the increase in level of the lake I am camped. It was quite a nice thunder storm.
Sure there can. Just pick any religion.
Well, something similar is appening here in Italy…. the bad thing is, each of the 20 “Regions” that form Italy, has her own “little EPA” (in fact, NOT so little…).
Actually, I believe the Media is more widely considered the “4th Estate”, though in most cases it would be better considered a “Fifth Column”. The bureaucracy pretty much runs the first three…