EPA defies subpoena to turn over documents.
By on Apr 17th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
EPA defies subpoena to turn over documents.
In a remarkable show of contempt, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has flatly refused a House Global Warming Committee subpoena. The subpoena for documents relating to the EPA’s refusal to obey the Supreme Court mandate to regulate greenhouse gases was issued by a unanimous, bipartisan vote on April 2, a year after the Supreme Court decision. On April 11, the EPA requested and received an extension to respond, but today the agency has decided not to turn over the documents:
Go to the Wonk Room to read the full letter and learn more.
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Blah… blah blah blah… blah blah blah blah BLAH blah…
BLAH blah blah blah BLAH blah…
Oh, and while we’re at it, F- YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 17th, 2008 at 9:26 pmWelcome to the Kremlin, circa 1950.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:28 pmW = Nikita.
This very loud and offensive smelling fart from the EPA is a violation of the Clean Air Act.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:28 pmNobody from the Bush Administration is going to comply with anything. They are going to string it out until the end of his term. Then Bush will pardon them and they’ll all go back to working for the oil industry, Halliburton, coal, etc,
-AF
April 17th, 2008 at 9:29 pmAndrew Sullivan Is A Fraud
Too f’in bad, EPA. Fork over the documents! The law trumps that crap.
well, one can dream …
April 17th, 2008 at 9:34 pmIn other words, “We’re full of shit, we know it, and we don’t want you to find out the full extent of it.”
April 17th, 2008 at 9:35 pmIn other words, it’s none of your darned business…
This is the democracy Bush aims to export?
April 17th, 2008 at 9:40 pmEnergy company
April 17th, 2008 at 9:41 pmProtection
Agency
So, will any enterprising reporter ask McCain what he thinks about the White House refusing to obey lawful congressional subpoenas?
… yeah, I guess I’m still dreaming.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:46 pmThe House has been unable to enforce any of their subpoenas regarding the US Attorney firings (Miers, Bolten, docs, etc.) for close to a year now, so why should EPA pay any attention to them either?
GROW A SPINE, HOUSE DEMS, THEY’RE ALL LAUGHING @ YOU, WE’RE ALL DISGUSTED WITH YOU.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:50 pmoh in that case……you’re under arrest.
April 17th, 2008 at 10:02 pmP
No they’ll be too busy asking him how often he polishes his flag pin.
April 17th, 2008 at 10:23 pmEPA = Evade Public Accountability
April 17th, 2008 at 10:41 pmThere is no more rule of law…there is only a competition among the well-heeled to see how far the law can be breached and tied into knots.
Meanwhile, Halliburton, Blackwater, and rendition continue unabated. The Republic wanes under the weight of indifference and lack of vigorous enforcement. Why should I pay my taxes and obey the law when the representatives thumb their noses at the law too?
April 17th, 2008 at 10:41 pmSo…what is it george?
Is there a meteorite about to slam into Earth?
Is there a new plague coming that we can’t stop and will wipe us out?
Is there a nearby star about to go supernova?
What george? What?
Because IF you been acting the way you been acting the last 7 yrs due to ANY other reason other than some imminent dire calamity all of mankind….after you get out office WE WILL BE COMING FOR YOU and your enablers.
We the People.
The People you work for. Remember us?
And as you are so fond of saying – “all options will be on the table”………………………
April 17th, 2008 at 10:51 pmWhat’s that you say ?
April 17th, 2008 at 10:51 pmSomething you’ve got going would be ‘injurious’ to the Executive Branch ?
Please, tell me more, this sounds like a brilliant idea !!
Depending on the severity of the injury, we could be talking something that’s very desirable, something the whole planet would support.
After these clowns leave office, they should be prosecuted.
April 17th, 2008 at 10:55 pmYou can’t pardon someone who hasn’t been convicted yet. The real trials will not start until after he is gone.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:20 pm“EPA defies subpoena to turn over documents”
In plain English: Kiss my butt.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:22 pmThis may be the cheney/bush regime’s greatest legacy – subpoenas no longer seem to mean anything.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:27 pmAnd Yet…
GROW A SPINE, HOUSE DEMS, THEY’RE ALL LAUGHING @ YOU, WE’RE ALL DISGUSTED WITH YOU.
I agree 100%. Indeed, the House has the power, use it. Because we are all disgusted, and they continue to do nothing, only goes to prove that the corporation pulls they string for both parties. There is no one in government to protect the Constitution or the People — NO ONE.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:28 pmSubpoena
April 17th, 2008 at 11:30 pmDerives from Sub = under & poena = penalty.
Unless there is some penalty for not complying, it should be called a please thumb your nose at us while you flip us off.
Not even the Supreme Court can rule over the Dictatorship of Bush/Cheney. Why bother when the Law Makers don’t have the back bone to do their jobs. We see every White House staffer has lied under oath, AG committed crimes and lied under oath, Bush/Cheney have committed TREASON while the Law Makers just kick the can and give lip service. Leahy is more interested in kicking Senator Byrd out of his job and denying voters their right to vote then taking care the business he was elected to do. Our Economy is in a recession soon to be a depression yet everyone’s talking but doing nothing. Three more US soldiers died today yet our Law Makers could care less and the American people are to busy. Thousands of jobs have been lost and millions more will lose their jobs and homes. McCain can’t remember what he says from one minute to the next. Obama is talking like Americans never lived in America as he tells the story no one has ever heard. Hillary is just a woman and woman don’t have equal rights no matter how qualified they are. Last night Obama talked about the Economy without knowing it was President Clinton who balanced the budget after 30 years. When Obama said he would raise the ceiling for a deficit I knew he was losing it. We’re have a 10 Trillion dollar deficit already and raising it would just make us keep owing money for future generation. It’s so call this country is in a total mess. We have no Justice System and no need to ask the AG Musk Rat he’s not doing anything.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:36 pmWe really do have a government that is in a regressive mindset. I thought we were living in 2008, or maybe 1958. My bad.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:37 pmEPA’s Johnson is so typical of a Bush appointment. So much for state’s rights when they run-against big oil, coal, and utility companies. Johnson is a man without a soul, he’ll grin with only eight month’s left of this Godawful administration.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:39 pmWow, how many angry comments! Wouldn’t the world be better if everbody gives esteem to everybody and surely for nature too.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:02 amexcellent colbert tonight… he really pulled it off…
i don’t want to influence anyone’s perception of the show, much, so all i’ll say is
hillary did great – live, in house – a clever skit – good reception and applause…
patrick murphy was guest… obama appeared on the screen, in real time…
great bit of putting “manufactured political DISTRACTIONS on notice”… funny…
then colbert ends the show, thanking everyone, “…barack obama, hillary clinton
and benjamin franklin” (that cracked me up) …
“WE TOLD YOU HOW TO THINK – NOW GO OUT AND VOTE!”
April 18th, 2008 at 12:15 am.
I wonder what would happen to me if I decided to ignore a subpoena?
April 18th, 2008 at 12:20 am# 19 frantaylor Says:
“Then Bush will pardon them. You can’t pardon someone who hasn’t been convicted yet. The real trials will not start until after he is gone.”
Fran, whilst a sane person such as yourself would reasonably assume that to be the case, there’s certainly one case where a pardon was granted to someone who was NOT convicted of anything.
In his last days in office George H.W Bush pardoned Caspar Weinberger, against whom only IMPEACHMENT proceedings were being brought, but thanks to Bush’s pardon Weinberger never even faced a formal questioning under oath in front of Congress.
You see, Weinberger kept detailed notes on Reagan’s Iran-Contra deal. You should know how that went down: Ollie North went to jail for being too enthusiastic, Reagan was let-down by well-intentioned juniors and oh yeah, couldn;t remember a dsamn thing except that he was sure he was doing anything illegal , but heavens to murgatroyd, apparently he WAS acting illegally, becasue that’s what everybody says and it;s all so confusing and he’s just an old man who likes God and jellybeans.
Meanwhile Bush Sr, who ran the CIA under Reagan, was also utterly innocent. Bush Sr. had NO IDEA that the CIA was negotiating with Iran through the Israelis and that the CIA was then using the cash from the arm’s sales to pay for cocaine which was flown in CIA planes to the US where it was sold so that Reagan/Bush/Weinberger/Negroponte could then buy weapons for the Contras–contravening THE LAW PASSED BY CONGRESS SPECIFICALLY–so they could overthrow a government that the US anticommunists didn’t like.
Bush Sr. was ABSOLUTELY up to his neck in all that, and Weinberger had the documents to prove it. That’s why Weinberger faced impeachment–which had he testified and been forced to reveal his documents, would have found Bush Sr. AND Reagan too, guilty of impeahcable offenses and specific law-breaking on mnay counts.
It had taken until Bush Sr.’s last months in office for the case against Weinberger to be brought to the public, so right at the finishing line Bush Sr. pardoned (or “exonorated”) Weinberger of any “wrongdoing” which delayed things enough for Bush to ‘get out of town’. Congress then dropped the matter as the prioroty was the new Clinton adminstration and its agenda. By pardoning Weinberger, Bush effectively pardoned himself, and Reagan too and saved the three of them and the GOP of course.
A pardon without conviction, without actually even a normal legal indictment.
SOrry to disabuse you of your faith in logic and law, but that’s what happened–15-16 years ago. Today, the rules of logic and law apply even less!!
)Ongress a while for the case against Winber
April 18th, 2008 at 12:26 amWonder when the last time is that a federal agency refused a Congressional subpoena ?
Not to mention that the EPA told Congress they were too stupid to interpret the documents.
April 18th, 2008 at 1:29 amThis is deeply unsettling. Not because the Bush Crime Family rejects any hint of adherence to law or the Constitution. We have know that for seven years. What REALLY feels ominous is we are about to see how the system will respond. And, given recent displays of meniality, I see it groveling in a ditch.
If the Global Warming Committee does not immediately use Inherent Contempt, bypassing the DoJ cabal, and throw their miserable bodies (EPA, Bush/Cheney) into the foulest jail in DC – any residual sense of Democracy is lost. Any future administration will know that the world is theirs to rule at will of the top sociopath. The USA will have lost any illusion that the people or their Representatives have any role to play other than slaves.
April 18th, 2008 at 1:55 amEndless
April 18th, 2008 at 2:55 amPollution
Agency
Hmm…they don’t want to turn over the information because they’re afraid that people will find out what’s REALLY going on.
.
.
.
Which is exactly the purpose of a subpoena, right?
IMHO, the EPA has already had too much time to handle this issue properly…since they didn’t, I think we deserve an accounting of whatever pathetic progress they HAVE made (which, I suspect is a lot less than what everyone expected.)
April 18th, 2008 at 5:59 amEvery single part of this administration is completely corrupted, absolutely lawless and unaccountable.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:16 amPentagon institute calls Iraq war ‘a major debacle’ with outcome ‘in doubt’
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20080418/wl_mcclatchy/2913186;_ylt=Al3IZILVDtoBTlhaDTEj8WMUewgF
April 18th, 2008 at 7:20 amps. Hi Brad, hope life has treated you well since our time at Amherst!
April 18th, 2008 at 7:20 amNo accountability, still no checks and balances.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:21 amEggcellent! Adherence to the rule of law is optional, across the board. Things will get so bad the Decider must take measures to restore order and lift us out of the chaos by implementing martial law and the powers of the “patriot” act. Those that don’t like it, and people of color, will be shipped to those detainment centers built by Halliburton and run by Blackwell. Long live the Republic of Gilead!
April 18th, 2008 at 7:41 amwatergate era republican backs obama:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/04/17/watergate-era-republican-backs-obama/#more-6511
April 18th, 2008 at 8:12 amThe holders of the purse-strings should cut 100% of funding for the EPA at this point, and set up a replacement agency.
If the EPA refuses to play by LAWS, then they don’t deserve to exist anymore, and should be 100% de-funded and dismantled.
Granted, I wouldn’t want this to happen without a replacement agency which WILL follow the rules, otherwise we’d wind up in Ron Paul corporate-anarchy land.
Which would suck.
April 18th, 2008 at 8:30 amI think a precedent has been established whereby subpoenas issued by the Senate or the House can be ignored without any penalty whatsoever. If pressed, executive privilege will be invoked, and that will never be questioned, no matter how absurd the context.
Our legislative branch needs to start finding people in contempt, and now. And if, due to our corrupt justice system, this has no teeth, then inherent contempt must be employed.
April 18th, 2008 at 8:38 amOur legislative branch needs to start finding people in contempt, and now. And if, due to our corrupt justice system, this has no teeth, then inherent contempt must be employed.
I predict this will become an issue of great importance to republicans next year, when they are casting about for things to re-energize their base. Look for a “Contract for America, II,” which attacks democrats for their weak attempts at reining in Bush, while saying nothing about their own absence of moral/ethical willpower.
April 18th, 2008 at 9:02 amMost of us probably remember the mantra during the late 1990s, surrounding the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky affair, when Repukes constantly invoked their duty to uphold “the rule of law.”
Seems that, like Gonzo’s reference to the Geneva Conventions, the rule of law has become a “quaint” notion.
April 18th, 2008 at 9:55 am41. Piltdown,
I used to work for the environmental regulatory agency in South Carolina. Basically, some folks planned to work for the agency. Others, wanted to be upwardly mobile.
The upwardly mobile path was give sweet deals to the EPA and to the corporations. Then after a few years you left the state and moved to the federal agency. In a few more years of softening things for the corporations, you left the feds and got a sweet job from the corporations.
April 18th, 2008 at 2:28 pm