Posted on 02/27/2002 2:08:26 PM PST by RCW2001
Judge orders release of Cheney task force records, criticizes Energy Department
PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, February 27, 2002
©2002 Associated Press
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/02/27/national1804EST0818.DTL
(02-27) 15:04 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Energy Department to release thousands of records on Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force, criticizing the government for moving at "a glacial pace."
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler could undermine the Bush administration's effort to keep secret the names of industry executives and lobbyists who met with the White House as it formulated its energy plan last spring.
The General Accounting Office and a conservative group, Judicial Watch, have filed separate lawsuits trying to force the White House to turn over the material.
Starting March 25, the Energy Department must turn over its documents to the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. It must complete the task by April 10.
The department had asked to release the material in stages, beginning March 15 and ending May 15. The environmental group first asked for the documents last April 26 and sued the government in December.
The Energy Department and other federal agencies are subject to the Freedom of Information Act, while the White House is not.
"I don't know that it's possible for certain to tell what the documents will reveal, but obviously the DOE stonewalled us for almost a year and they presumably had a reason to do that," said Rob Perks, a spokesman for the environmental group.
The government says 7,500 pages on Cheney's task force are responsive to the NRDC's request. The department will continue to withhold many documents and will issue a list of them along with the legal reasons they are being kept secret.
"There can be little question that the Department of Energy has been woefully tardy" in processing the nonprofit group's request, wrote Kessler.
"After making a virtually meaningless release of some form letters back in May of 2001, the department has done little of substance -- apart from collecting and organizing responsive documents," the judge added. "What is even more distressing is that" there were at least 11 other requests for the same documents.
The government has no legal justification "for working at a glacial pace."
NRDC attorney Sharon Buccino praised the ruling, saying "the court has protected the public's fundamental right to know what its government is doing."
In a statement, the environmental group expressed confidence that with the court victory in hand, the NRDC "expects to make public -- for the first time since the task force was formed more than a year ago -- the names of participants, dates of meetings, and the topics discussed.
"That information will expose which energy companies or industry lobbyists influenced the work DOE staff did on the Bush-Cheney energy plan," said the environmental group's statement.
©2002 Associated Press
I don't recall reading that passage of the Constitution. Perhaps you can point it out to me.
Opinion is posted HERE (pdf file)
I don't know if it's Kessler's bias or her evident stupidity that brings the most disrepute onto the DC Circuit court.
That's why we have judges. And that's why judges "interpret" the law, rather than the media or other amateurs.
This Act covers "Advisory Committees" set up by the Executive branch (a la Hillary Clinton's Health Care Task Force). If Dick Cheney set up an Energy Task Force headed by, say, his wife, FACA would apply. I think the Executive branch wins on this one.
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Energy Department to release thousands of records on Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force, criticizing the government for moving at "a glacial pace."
"There can be little question that the Department of Energy has been woefully tardy" in processing the nonprofit group's request, wrote Kessler.
"After making a virtually meaningless release of some form letters back in May of 2001, the department has done little of substance -- apart from collecting and organizing responsive documents," the judge added. "What is even more distressing is that" there were at least 11 other requests for the same documents.
The government has no legal justification "for working at a glacial pace."
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July 23, 2001
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Four days after the House briefly debated rival campaign finance reform bills that both overlooked the AFL-CIO's political excesses, Big Labor got another break. A Clinton-appointed federal judge last Monday blocked the Federal Election Commission (FEC) from its scheduled release the next day of thousands of documents that neither the union nor the Democratic National Committee (DNC) wants made public.
Their concerns produced last Monday's injunction by U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler of the District of Columbia, whose career is closely tied to liberal-labor Democrats. Unless reversed, her edict would keep evidence out of the hands of congressional and Justice Department investigators until the five-year statute of limitations for embezzlement under the Landrum-Griffin Labor Reform Act expires in November. Labor appears to be getting another free pass.
Labor went to court, and -- as is often the case in the District of Columbia -- found a friendly judge. Before President Clinton named her to the federal bunch in 1995 at age 57, Gladys Kessler had worked for the National Labor Relations Board in the Kennedy administration, for left-wing Rep. Jonathan Bingham of the Bronx, as a labor lawyer for the New York City Board of Education and finally for 17 years as a superior court judge in D.C. appointed by President Jimmy Carter.
Kessler accepted the arguments by AFL-CIO counsel Michael Trister that the publication of the documents would violate the right of "privacy" that is so frequently invoked by liberal litigators. Using Trister's language, she ordered the FEC "not to disclose or otherwise make available to the public or to any individual requester (including Congress, any member thereof or any other government agency) any portion of the investigative files in matters under review."
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The Roman god Janus ain't got nothing on this Clinton appointee Kessler.
As well they should NOT!
I can't believe some of the pubbie cheerleaders here. This isn't about the pubs vs. the dems. This is about the sycophants vs. their employers. Don't you all know government employees are our servants? Their jobs exist ONLY with our consent!
This issue has NOTHING to do with National Security whatsoever. Thousands of citizens like you and me were screwed out of their life savings in this Energy/stock scam. So please do your countrymen a favor. Throw down your Dubya pom-poms, stop defending these arrogant, corrupt bast@rds that are destroying americans lives, and hold our employees accountable. Believe me, I will do the same when some crooked politicos decide destroyed your lives, regardless of whether they're Donkeys or Elephants. ; ^ )
One more time. They ALL work for us, they are ALL acccountable to us, and if they refuse to show us the work we pay them to do, they should be fired. NO EXCUSES PERMITTED!
IMHO, It seems just ludicrous that so many are willing to let themselves (and their fellow citizens) be walked over just because their "representatives" hold the power. I'm certain most of the Dubya cheerleaders here would be demanding the records be turned over if the tables were turned. Our gov is established to protect us all, and non-classified info (as this should be) should be subject to public scrutiny, for all of our benefit. I'm sure there were both dems and repubs harmed by the Enron issue. If the Energy dept was having meetings with these CEOs, records of those meetings should be part of the public record. To withhold this type of information, as a policy no less, leaves wide lattitude for "insider" collusion. And there is plenty of evidence already to believe this may be the case.
Just because the republicans are in the WH now, is no reason to not hold these people accountable for their work. Especially where thousands of citizens have had their lifelong saving evaporate overnite. We need the truth, even if it hurts "our party"
Again, no flames toward you. ;^ )
They were not paid industry lobbyists. Enron advocated things like energy deregulation and emission credit trading from a market efficiency standpoint. I personally sat through many of their presentations in Pennsylvania and California. They had a company line on those issues, and stayed "on message" remarkably well.
This is a witch hunt predicated upon obfuscation and the inability of much of the American public to absorb the substance of a complicated issue:
1. Enron favored politicians who were pro-market and pro-competition. The group that they supported with campaign contributions was largely, but not exclusively, made up of conservative Republicans. The contributions in question were strictly in accordance with U.S. campaign finance laws.
2. Enron advocated deregulation of energy markets. This would benefit consumers of energy. Incidentally, it would also create market opportunities for Enron, but those same opportunities would also exist for many other companies. That's what happens when you allow competition into regulated monopolies - New companies enter the market. That's the damned point.
3. Enron had no shortage of hubris, over-reached, and took a dive. Enron employees apparently engaged in systematic deception to hide the impending collapse of their fortunes.
These things are not related. Nobody has been able to point to any action taken by the administration on behalf of Enron, outside of leaning on the Indian government to live up to the contract they signed with Enron. This kind of diplomatic assistance to U.S. corporations happens every day, and is entirely proper and unrelated to any contributions.
The demonrats are taking a complicated issue, with some nefarious conduct by private individuals wholly unrelated to their interactions with the Administration, and throwing the whole mess of sh*t against the wall to see if they can make anything stick.
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