Judge says EPA may have tried to skirt information law with 'secret' email accounts

A federal judge says the Environmental Protection Agency's use of personal email accounts may have been aimed at skirting public disclosure requirements.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled Wednesday that a conservative public interest law firm, the Landmark Legal Foundation, can question and obtain records from EPA officials as part of the firm's Freedom of Information lawsuit against the federal agency. 

The judge granted Landmark the right to seek the information to determine whether top EPA officials used personal email accounts to conduct official business -- and whether the agency initially excluded those accounts from Landmark's Freedom of Information request.

"The possibility that unsearched personal email accounts may have been used for official business raises the possibility that leaders in the EPA may have purposefully attempted to skirt disclosure under the FOIA," wrote Lamberth.

He said the possibility that the agency purposefully excluded the top leaders of the EPA from the FOIA search, at least initially, "suggests an unreasonable and bad faith reading of Landmark's FOIA request and subsequent agreement to narrow its scope."

In the lawsuit last year, the foundation asked for any records that indicated the EPA was delaying the announcement of new environmental regulations until after last year's presidential election.

Via: Fox News

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How to Make Mark Levin's Vision of Constitutional Reform a Reality

Mark Levin, the well-known constitutionalist talk show commentator, has written still another very good book.  This book, called the Liberty Amendments, is essentially an operator's manual on how constitutionalists in America might restore constitutional government while bypassing the entrenched federal interests in Washington DC. 

Levin's strategy lies in taking advantage of Article 5 of the US Constitution that gives the power to the states to call a convention, propose amendments, send the amendments out to the state legislatures for passage and all the while, the states can completely ignore the powers in Washington DC.  (See Thomas Lifson's book review.) Levin provides a list of suggested amendments which, if passed, would force the federal government to reverse its century old expansion of federal power and gradually restore a more balanced form of constitutionalist government that the Founders originally intended. 

But there is a serious risk in Levin's strategy that lies in the phrase "Article 5 convention."  Never in American history have the states invoked their Article 5 powers --and for good reason.  State legislators have always been afraid that such a national convention might slip from their control and become a "rogue convention."  Constitutionalists in particular conjure up the nightmare image of statist progressive convention delegates pushing through an agenda that would shed what is left of the protections of the original Constitution.  If you bring up the subject of an Article 5 convention to most state officials, you can see their minds close faster than they can blink.  If you don't believe me try it yourself on your own state assemblyman and witness for yourself the reflexive pavlovian reaction.

Via: American Thinker

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Hoekstra: Mideast 'Ablaze' While US Has 'Little Credibility' in Region

Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra told Newsmax on Thursday that "we have a Middle East that is ablaze" and that the situation reflects "a diminished U.S. influence" in the region.

"It's chaos, and the U.S. and this administration have very, very little — if any — leverage to help resolve the crisis in Egypt," the Michigan Republican told Newsmax amid news reports that as many as 638 people were killed in the country’s deadliest day since the Arab Spring began in 2011.

"We now have chaos throughout Libya, radical jihadists on the doorstep of getting into Western Europe," Hoekstra said. "That was not possible under [Moammar] Gadhafi.

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"You've got a dead American ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, and you've got Egypt ablaze," he added. "You've got total chaos in Syria, and I don't think that's it yet. Who knows what's going to happen in Jordan? Who knows what may happen in Turkey? And you've got chaos in Iraq.

"It's like: 'Wow! What a huge mess we have!' It's been a long time since we've had such little credibility in the Middle East as what we have today," Hoekstra said.

A crackdown by the Egyptian military that began on Wednesday against the mostly Islamic supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi has caused 638 deaths and more than 4,500 injuries throughout Egypt.

President Barack Obama was among the world leaders condemning the bloody crackdown. On Thursday, he canceled joint U.S.-Egyptian military maneuvers.

Via: Newsmax

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