Monday, June 4, 2012

When the EPA knocks on your door

Via Wizbang comes this ominous story about an innocuous email and the subsequent visit paid to the home of the sender by armed EPA investigators and a local police officer.

One of the first orders of business for President Romney should be to bring this outfit to heel. The police and judicial (or extrajudicial) powers of federal agencies should not be allowed to expand without clear justification – and certainly not without tough, regular oversight by a Congress that is paying attention.

12 comments:

Isophorone said...

The EPA directory is on its public web page:

http://cfpub.epa.gov/locator/index.cfm

Employee e-mail addresses tend to be lastname.firstname@epa.gov. If two or more employees share the same name the Agency will put a middle initial with the first name, allow nicknames for the first name, etc.

Michael Lonie said...

Amen Brother Paco. When EPA agents go around armed and when the Department of Education has a SWAT team, there has been far too much discretion and power allowed to our local versions of Sir Humphrey Appleby.

JeffS said...

That the EPA (not to mention other regulatory agencies) has armed agents is waste, fraud, and abuse.

rinardman said...

The next advancement in EPA enforcement: tactical nuclear weapons.

Incinerate those pesky coal-fired power polluters!

RebeccaH said...

Obama wanted a private army, and he's building one.

Paco said...

R-man: Well, the EPA is using drones to spy on cattlemen in Nebraska.

Steve at the Pub said...

He's lucky he's not living in the age of the evil oppressive Bush regime...
... In those days, a simple email saying "hello" to a federal employee would be met with a most sinister visit from armed operatives, who despite refusing to provide any ID or credentials, would claim to be from an innocent ecological dept.

Gee he sure should be glad that dumb but evil horse's ass Bush is now voted out, & that really good hopey changey feller that is on his side got voted in instead.

Paco said...

Steve: Absolutely. Under the evil Bush, it would have been a shot in the nape of the neck, for sure.

Steve at the Pub said...

Paco: Under Bush he'd have gotten let off with being redacted to Gitmo, or Egypt or somewhere.
Clandestine assassination wouldn't have happened unless he'd escalated his email attack to a threat level higher than "I'd like to say hello"

Steve at the Pub said...

Were the mysterious callers
Presidentially Authorised Censorship Operatives
Powerfully Armed Clandestine Operators,
Publicly Allocated Communications Observers, or
Privately Arranged Coercion Overlords?

Paco said...

Steve: I think reps from each organization were there (can't be too careful).

Steve at the Pub said...

You can't be too careful when National Security is at serious risk!
If the authorities don't respond in a heavy duty manner when someone threatens to say "hello", you never know just how far things may escalate.
Why, you could end up with members of the public to.... *gasp*.... see a hot chick who happens to work at the EPA, & want to take her out on a .... date!! (or something)