The Environmental Protection Agency. It sounds so good. So …
fabulous.
But, as we have seen in this series, “It Ain’t Necessarily
So.”
Run by ideologues isolated from the real world and ruled by
an obsessive desire to create the impossible perfect world, the EPA is
increasingly at odds with what is in the best interest of the American people,
pursuing an agenda that has successfully proved immune to both common sense and
to the wreckage and pain it leaves in its wake.
From declaring war on the most abundant and most-relied-upon
energy sources to imposing water quality standards that common bottled water
and commercial apple juice cannot pass, the EPA is likely the most oppressive
and out-of-control agency in the federal government, and that, dear readers, is
saying a mouthful.
Now the agency has begun using military-style aircraft to
spy on Nebraska and Iowa farmers to be sure they are not violating the Clean
Water Act. “Nebraskans are rightfully skeptical of an agency which continues to
unilaterally insert itself into the affairs of rural America,” Nebraska Rep.
Adrian Smith said.
Nebraska’s congressional delegation expressed concerns about
the surveillance violating the privacy of cattle farmers and questioned its
legality in a joint letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.
The spy drones operate in EPA’s Region 7, which responded to The Omaha World-Herald’s questions about the legality of the spy flights, saying that “courts,
including the Supreme Court, have found similar types of flights to be legal,”
and offering the assurance that the agency will only use such flights to
protect people and the environment from violators of the Clean Water Act. But
who assures the people the EPA will act appropriately?
And then there is the following situation.
If you happened to have stumbled on this story in the
blogosphere, which is about the only place you would have seen it, you might
recognize the name Al Armendariz, the director of EPA Region 6 who revealed the
way EPA bureaucrats view their jobs.
Mr. Armendariz was addressing colleagues about EPA
enforcement methods, using the following example from Ancient Rome to
illustrate how the agency operates. “The Romans used to conquer little villages
in the Mediterranean,” he said. “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.”
Of course, the term “crucify” was merely a figure of speech,
not a literal plan, but his little homily exposes the EPA’s fondness for
gleefully intimidating folks into submission. Here in the Land of the Free and
the Home of the Brave people don’t take kindly to that kind of imperious behavior
from those hired to serve us.
The video of this comment outraged many of those who saw it,
one of whom was Asheville, North Carolina resident Larry Keller. Trying to
reach Mr. Armendariz, Mr. Keller sent an email to an EPA external affairs
director that read, "Do you have Mr. Armendariz's contact information so
we can say hello? – Regards - Larry Keller."
Well, you can imagine the revulsion that must have engulfed the
external affairs director, faced with a mere citizen daring to attempt to
personally contact a government official and express his opinion, especially an
EPA official with a PhD. How dare he ask for the mailing address, email and
phone number of the exalted Mr. Armendariz and possibly intend to interrupt him
in the midst of planning crucifixions.
In such cases of peaceful rebellion by an uppity citizen there
was only one possible course of action, and that is exactly what the EPA
external affairs director and/or his/her fellow public servants did: they sent not
the requested contact info, but armed federal agents to visit Mr. Keller. But at
least he wasn’t crucified! Not yet, anyway.
Mr. Keller, however, was undeterred by this act of
intimidation, and contacted NC Sen. Richard Burr's office. Sen. Burr has agreed
to look into the matter, and his office says he "intends to pursue this
matter vigorously."
Warning to Sen. Burr: Be careful, lest armed agents visit your
home.
One piece of good news has come from this sordid tale of
official abuse: Al Armendariz has resigned his post. One down; hundreds to go. The
citizens won the Battle of Armendariz; they are losing the war with the EPA.
They are also losing the war against growing authoritarianism
from the federal government. From over-zealous regulators without regard for
the effects of their excessiveness to agencies like the Department of Education
that send in SWAT teams to break down the doors of people who may – may – have some
irregularities with their student loans, our government is increasingly intolerant
of the individual freedoms our nation is based upon, and puts its own interests
ahead of protecting those freedoms and serving the people.
What madness allows the Department of Education to believe
it ever needs
a SWAT team?
Thomas Jefferson said: “When the people fear their
government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is
liberty.”
It is time for a change.
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