Posted on 06/01/2012 3:46:37 AM PDT by IbJensen
Sometimes a small incident says volumes about a large government agency. In this case the Environmental Protection Agency.
Around 1.45 PM on May 23, Ashville, North Carolina resident Larry Keller was in the midst of an international call which he had to cut short in order to answer his front door. He found two armed agents of the EPA who were accompanied by an Ashville Police officer.
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According to a May 24 news story in the Ashville Tribune, a weekly newspaper to which I am a contributing columnist, the agents had blocked his and his neighbor’s driveways with their cars. They had driven all the way from Raleigh to confront him.
What had he done? The unannounced visit had been occasioned by news that Dr. Al Armendariz, a regional EPA administrator whose 2010 lecture had been videotaped and been released by the office of Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) on April 25th. In the lecture, Dr. Amendariz had said that the agency’s “general philosophy” was to “crucify” oil and gas producers.
He compared the agency’s “philosophy of enforcement” to the way, as a Wall Street Journal editorial reported, “Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean. “They’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they would crucify them, And then you know that town was really easy to manage for the next few years. The point is to ‘make examples’ of alleged lawbreakers.”
The case in point had been Range Resources, a driller who had been exonerated of charges of water pollution as the result of fracking. As the Wall Street Journal noted, the reference to executions “raise(d) questions not only about” not only Dr. Arnendariz’s comments “but the EPA’s larger impartiality and judgment.”
Keller, who describes himself as “a bit of a political activist” had emailed the EPA Director of External Affairs, Dr. David Gray, saying “Hello Mr. Gray. Do you have Mr. Armendariz’s contact information so we can say hello?”
That was enough to dispatch two armed agents to his front door. He was told by one agent that “…my choice of words in the email could be interpreted in many ways.” They did not identify themselves, but asked if he had ever been arrested. He responded swiftly that he had not. When he asked for a copy of his email, they refused to provide it because “the case was still under investigation.”
His wife arrived home and the agents did not want a witness so “They left in a big hurry.”
The Ashville Tribune by Catherine Hunter quoted Keller who described their attitude as "accusatory" reporting that he compared "their tactics to those of Nazi Germany SS methods.”
Keller contacted the agent’s supervisor, Michael Hill, and was told that the incident with Dr. Armendariz “had prompted so many emails and calls that authorities in Washington, DC ordered an investigation.”
Keller’s email inquiry to contact Dr. Armendariz was treated as a threat when it clearly was not. Since when is trying to contact an EPA administrator a crime?
“I want the world to know,” said Keller, “the government is reaching into the privacy of our homes and computers. I’ve never been so offended by the power of government in my life.”
Do we really want an EPA that uses such tactics against a citizen who has merely indicated an interest in contacting one of their administrators to comment on what he had said during a lecture?
Do we really want an EPA whose working “philosophy” regarding the oil and gas industry is to “crucify” it in order to regulate it and, as we know, is trying to thwart drilling, as well as to end the coal industry that provides an energy resource that produces one half of all the electricity in the nation?
It is, as noted, just one small incident, but it reflects the way the EPA functions in a presumably free society. Over the years I have read of many incidents in which the EPA has asserted powers to impede the most innocent actions of citizens and it is long past the time when this agency is reined in by Congress.
The only option at this point is to rid the nation of the Obama administration, crack down on the EPA, and rid us of the threat it poses in its efforts to deny entire industries from providing the energy the nation requires and attacks our agricultural and ranching communities for practices that reflect its normal operation.
As they used to advertise horror films, “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” An EPA that operates on the basis of intimidating its chosen enemies and that seeks to intimidate citizens inquiring about it, is reason enough to be afraid.
It's a little late to complain. And don't insult my...or your own...intelligence by acting surprised.
A second Obama term will improve the EPA’s tactics.
First they came for my pot...
Then they came for my hookers...
Then they came for my guns...
Then they came for my toothpaste at the airport...
Then they came for the creek that runs through my property...
Then they came for my raw milk...
Now they are coming for my opinions...
This is why I am against the war on drugs. This is what it started, and this is the end result.
Those that are willing to sacrifice liberty for security will end up with neither one
Drip...Drip...Drip...
this is an interesting topic.
the article is not easy to follow - but i think the guy Keller [the ordinary citizen affronted by the epa visit] got in trouble by emailing someone not in the epa?
There was a movie called “Reefer Madness”. All my contemporaries laughed at it.
The Swiss and Swedish government did decade long studies of teenagers and who smoked pot and what happened to them as adults.
600% chance of developing schizophrenia as an adult.
See: http://www.schizophrenia.com/prevention/streetdrugs.html
Yes, our government reserves the right to protect the health and welfare of its citizens. What they can’t protect you from is your own stupidity.
My my SD..aren’t we a little bootlicker...
George Washington was growing hemp at Mount Vernon three years
later—presumably for its fiber, though it has been argued that
Washington was also concerned to increase the medicinal or
intoxicating potency of his marijuana plants.*
The asterisk footnote:
* The argument depends on a curious tradition, which may
or may not be sound, that the quality or quantity of marijuana
resin (hashish) is enhanced if the male and female plants are
separated *before* the females are pollinated. There can be no
doubt that Washington separated the males and the females. Two
entries in his diary supply the evidence:
May 12-13 1765: “Sowed Hemp at Muddy hole by Swamp.”
August 7, 1765: “—began to separate (sic) the Male from
the Female Hemp at Do—rather too late.”
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_George_Washington_grow_weed_in_his_garden#ixzz1wXXLMkQ8
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_George_Washington_grow_weed_in_his_garden
Free Men don’t have to deal with this $%it...
Government does not have rights. Only people have rights and being stupid is one of them.
Not a bootlicker, sweetie. I have a sister and BIL who are addicts and leaching off of the Federal Government and the State of Oregon. I reared their son, who they abandonned to follow a life of drugs, sex and rock n’ roll.
Why the Hell should the taxpayer foot the bill for worthless scum? They made good money at one time, avoided paying taxes, and now expect to get all kinds of entitlements.
Oh, and they sure consider themselves free. Why not?
As for me, I would like to see every drug user and trafficker put up against a wall and executed. That’s a satisfying solution.
Why did he talk to the agents?
Did they have a warrant? No, then screw them. Don’t even answer the door.
You are correct. Government has the power to protect the health and welfare of its citizens. We expect that because we, the people, cannot possibly know EVERYTHING.
Interesting book out related to this subject: it’s called The Poisoner’s Handbook. This story details the developement of forensic medacine in New York City during Prohibition, and how that department dealth with the huge number of poisonings which occurred.
Not to nitpick...but its Asheville.
“Hello”, he threatened.
Amen!
I will hold my nose and vote for the "lesser of 2 evils" as at least Mittens has (at least to my knowledge and those who hate him are welcome to correct me with documented evidence to the contrary) never said or done anything which would indicate his HATRED or INTENT on harming (if NOT destroying) our Republic.
At this point, if forced to vote for Dear Leader or Beelzebub, I'd have to toss a coin as I could not tell the difference.
Would that include everyone who has gotten hocked on prescription meds provided by a doctor?
So every teenager who smoked pot got six cases of schizophrenia as an adult?
Fascinating science.
This is one of many examples demonstrating that even a liberal who values freedom should demand a smaller federal government constrained by the enumerated powers. If they don’t want a bloated conservative presidency trampling individual rights, they should oppose the precedent being set today by the bloated Obama Administration’s thuggish tactics.
[Romney] “never said or done anything which would indicate his HATRED or INTENT on harming (if NOT destroying) our Republic.”
Romney signed a permanent AWB whilst governor of Mass.
FAIL on the 2nd amendment.
Amen.
I sure hope this wasn't the most credible threat that EPA received as a result of Armendariz’s comments.
Also, way over in Ashville - well outside of Al's sphere of influence in Texas-based Region 6... I'd bet that the armed agents were actually FPS goons that were there at the EPA's behest. Which is equally chilling.
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