The EPA will have to find a new crucifixion chief.
The Obama administration’s top environmental official in the oil-rich South and Southwest region has resigned after Republicans targeted him over remarks made two years ago when he used the word “crucify” to describe his approach to enforcement.
In a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson sent Sunday, Al Armendariz says he regrets his words and stresses that they do not reflect his work as administrator of the five-state region including Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.
He can’t even tell the truth on the way out. Armendariz’s words do reflect his work and his attitude. Since Obama appointed him to head EPA’s Region VI, the agency has set about punishing the energy industry every chance it could. What Armendariz committed in that 2010 tape was a Kinsleyan gaffe: He accidentally said what he really thinks.
Armendariz joins Van Jones and Anita Dunn among the radicals hired by Obama and more or less fired by the people, once their radical ideas and associations became widely known.
Update: Armandariz resigned just ahead of being hauled to Congress to testify.
Update: Half an hour after a major EPA official resigns, and MSNBC has yet to report it. Instead, Andrea Mitchell is chatting with Democrat activists about Obama’s Osama-killin’ ads.
Update: CNN is reporting on the “dangers of sitting.” Nothing yet about Armendariz’s departure.
Update: Flashback — one of Armendariz’s big Texas cases led to an embarrassing reversal for the EPA.
Update: When monitoring a story like this, DirecTV’s News Mix comes in handy. I’m watching 7 news channels plus the Weather Channel at the same time. So far, only Fox has reported on Armendariz’s resignation. CNN and MSNBC are both doing the “if we don’t report it, it didn’t happen” routine.
The real story behind all of this is that the EPA stepped in when the state and the Railroad Commission wouldn’t protect a family from huge methane amounts escaping from their water well in Parker County “after” fracking came into the area. Smokescreen at its best, but rest assured the public sees through this. That the verdict did not implicate the driller is yet another sign of the times where big oil throws their fossil fuel dinosaur weight around…its only because they are absolutely threatened by the momentum of folks wanting energy choices that are not mucking up our air and water that they went after Dr Al.
Prepare to die Kim because come 2013, drilling will commence in every fashion known to man…
Yeah yeah. And Cheney flew the airplanes into the twin towers by remote control.
Kim, how about trying a coherent comment?
“The real story behind all of this is that the EPA stepped in when the state and the Railroad Commission wouldn’t protect a family from huge methane amounts escaping from their water well in Parker County “after” fracking came into the area.” Citations? And what’s with the quotes around the word ‘after’? That implies, to those of us who understand written English, that the word is used ironically or to indicate the opposite.
“…its only because they are absolutely threatened by the momentum of folks wanting energy choices that are not mucking up our air and water that they went after Dr Al.” What momentum? Momentum implies energy and movement, qualities sadly lacking at the EPA. You want energy choices? Learn some physics and engineering and invent some. I’m getting really tired of people whining about “clean energy NOW!” as if demanding it will make it so. If you believe it’s possible, get out there and do it.
This is one case. Got any more documentation of Dr. Al’s heroic interventions on behalf of beleaguered victims of Big Oil?
I agree that we all want clean air and water. We also want fuel for our cars and heat for our homes. Only someone suicidal or living in a fantasy world would believe we can have those things now (or in the near future) without relying on “Big Oil.” You can’t just cut off a fuel supply and hope there’s something out there that will replace it. You have to find the replacement first, make it practical, make it affordable, THEN bring it online while weaning yourself off the old, dirty stuff. So far, I’m not seeing anything like that happening.
Think of it this way: Automobiles didn’t replace horses because the government passed regulations making horses illegal, impractical, or expensive. They did so because cars were better than horses. You make a fuel that’s better than oil or coal, people will buy it. Otherwise, you’ll have to bully them into buying something they don’t want. That’s an artificial economy. It’s also wrong.
Come up with a real alternative energy plan and a real alternative energy product, then we’ll talk. Until then – drill, baby, drill.
Kim,,I hate to have to tell you this but mythology has been passe for, oh…two thousand years.
Hey, “Gasland” was right on reality par with Algore’s psychobable/pathological “Inconvenient Truth”.
Birds-of-a-feather, “Kim”?
Kim, ever hear of a “gassy” well? We’ve got them all over Colorado too. Some water wells just have dissolved methane.
You might read the first few grafs of the story Bryan linked as an “embarrassing reversal”:
His resignation comes as Congress started the process to subpeona him. And only for that reason.
Unless congress simultaneously subpeona’s the EPA for all documents he was connected with, all he would be able to say would be things like “I’m sorry, I don’t recall, and I don’t have access to any of my notes during that time frame because they are locked up in the EPA…”
Eh eh eh. Election year, all the radicals under the bus.
But we are not stupid, we know that we must get rid of the Radical In Chief.
Or the Chief Crucifier of America’s might.
Now the EPA is flying without a Pilate.
Ahh…nailed that one.
Out of the door; line on the left; one cross each.
OMG.
Well, we all have our cross to bear.
BTW, how big is Obama’s bus at this point? I’m betting the mileage sucks.
“MSNBC has yet to report it”
After retaining Al Sharpton and “editing” George Zimmerman’s 911 call that news service and its parent company have zero credibility left. Their reporting this matter, or not, is a non-event.
True, but it’s fun to watch a news network not report the news.
Which is why I refer to them as the “Mushroom Media” (hint: the other part is “feed me bulls*%&”)
But wait, you said “MSNBC”.
This guy needs to become the poster child for the EPA and by extension, the rest of the un-elected Federal Leviathan.
His attitude did not occur in a vacuum. I would bet that it represents the prevailing attitude among most of the beauracratic ruling class.
And they richly deserve to be taken down because we are not serfs.
– Pilate?
Honestwy, Centuwion! I am suwpwized that you woud be wattled by a wowdy wabbwe of buweaucwat!
This is from the last Presidential campaign, but it still works:
Under the Bus Wheels
—with apologies to the Drifters, and “Under the Boardwalk”
Oh when the campaign heats up and reveals unpleasant truths
And even the papers can’t avoid reporting inconvenient proofs.
Under the bus wheels, away from me
Giving me deniability is where you’ll be.
(Under the bus wheels)
Safely hidden from view.
(Under the bus wheels)
I will sacrifice you.
(Under the bus wheels)
I will take the high road.
(Under the bus wheels)
You’ll be bearing the load under the bus wheels,
Bus wheels.
From the crowds you hear the happy sounds of the hopes I sell,
If you try to interfere with my pitch you won’t get a chance to tell.
Under the bus wheels, away from me
Giving me deniability is where you’ll be.
(Under the bus wheels)
Safely hidden from view.
(Under the bus wheels)
I will sacrifice you.
(Under the bus wheels)
I will take the high road.
(Under the bus wheels)
You’ll be bearing the load under the bus wheels,
Bus wheels.
Under the bus wheels, away from me
Giving me deniability is where you’ll be.
Under the bus wheels, away from me
Giving me deniability is where you’ll be.
You know, just because you resign from an appointed office, doesn’t mean Congress cant call you to testify before a committee. It doesn’t seem to be that resigning changes much of anything at all. I still want his emails read in into the congressional record. However, it probably does limit what the Executive branch can do to help you legally.
It’s still important to make an example of any man who wished to rule by governmental terror–and there are enough of the Imperial types in government of all levels that a little cruxification of the people’s own would be in order.
Thus–Make the rubble bounce. Continue with the hearing. Those disposed to similar things can learn the easy or hard way that the power they hold is a trust to be used in humility, and nothing else. One can be mad at those one thinks are malefactors. One cannot make such anger the routine starting position of any investigation, because it means pre-judgment and pre-conviction. Prosecutors have juries and judges as sanity checks on whatever personal animosities or biases they may have. The EPA semingly too often does not. That has to change.
The time to crucify is after the conclusive proof has been discovered, not before. I have no problems with a “Roman Peace”, which is what the gentleman in question was actually trying to talk about. But the Romans in general only did it if you rebelled or fought on too long, or fought when you really never had a chance to start wth and thus caused a lot of problems (perhaps Corinth). They usually tried “mercy” before that, because it worked for them in Italy, and then the rest of the world (i.e., they assmiliated you politically and made it somewhat win-win, as with the Socii). The true ability of the Roman Republic to rise post-203 B.C. rested in the sure knowledge of opponents that they a.)*would* be eventually defeated, b.) would be treated somewhat well (people, if not rulers), and c.) would be crushed and crushed hard if they tried to cross swords again.
There is nothing wrong for a government in that. There is something wrong with doing the last bit as the first step, and is proof that too many Democrats have no respect for any sort of business activity but show business. The business with the most egos, the most bacchanalias and both the most subtle and the most overt attempts to manipulate public opinion. Nothing could be more representative of what ails the poor excuse for a political belief system that is called the Democratic Party than Hollywood seemingly being the business they routinely get supported by the most.
– point: he is now on his own and the White House should not try to stop his being called to testify. Whether he says anything remains to be seen, however.
A nerdish add-on–decimation might be a better description of what it sounds like the EPA was doing, but a preemptive one vice reactive one in nature.
Overall, though, now that I think about it, it sounds more like a Persian Empire/Darius thing, where the sons of kings of conquered states had their balls cut off so as to end royal lines (and hence future sources of rebellion).
Of course, why the American people might have an issue with a philosophy based on such things is beyond me….
I mean, maybe it should be a game show–”Name that Ancient World Barbarity, brought to you by the EPA!”, or maybe “Wheel of Misfortune, starring Barack Obama”. I just hope no one in the administration has ever heard of “blood eagles”. Wouldn’t want them to give their #OWS friends ideas….
The way things are going, perhaps we should start calling America “Thunderdome”…..
How soon for the leftoids to start claiming there is no point to him testifying, he has been punished enough?
I’ll wager we start hearing “old news, nobody interested” in one month.
I wouldn’t worry too much about Mr. Armendariz. Just like his fellow denizens of the underbus Dunn and Jones, he’ll land on his feet–their types always do. And it’s not as if the administration doesn’t have at its disposal any number of other fanatics to appoint in his stead.
– says “Lean Forward” (so we can slap you for asking snarky Maddow to report the news).