Not enough scandals for you? Here, have four more!

**Posted by Phineas

Via Gabriel Malor at Ace’s, who laments that the misbehavior at the EPA has largely flown under the radar, overshadowed so far by the IRS, NSA, Rosen, and so many other stories. He collects them allΒ in a handy post, but here’s a summary:

  • Remember former Administrator Lisa Jackson’s hidden email account using a fake identity? Well, that non-existent person somehow wonΒ a departmental award.
  • The Freedom of Information Act is supposed to enhance government transparency by establishing procedures by which people can demand access to information. But, in the bureaucratic Mandarin Land of today’s EPA, only conservative groups have to pay for the information — andΒ pay a lot. Naturally, leftist groups regularly get waivers.
  • Contractors turning public property intoΒ man-caves.
  • This is the bad one: the EPA released the personal information ofΒ 80,000 farmers and ranchersΒ to radical environmentalist groups. But, don’t forget, we can trust the government with our private information.

Read the rest ofΒ Gabe’s postΒ for more, and some acerbic analysis.

Meanwhile, I’m adding EPA to the list of government agencies that Congress needs to have taken out back and shot (1). It seems to be growing by the day (2).

Footnotes:
(1) DearΒ PRISM: that’s called aΒ figure-of-speech. Don’t flag me, bro!
(2) Phineas’ List of Government Departments To Scrap, A Work In Progress:

  • EPA
  • IRS
  • HUD
  • HHS
  • Commerce
  • Labor
  • Education
  • Transportation
  • Energy
  • Agriculture
  • Homeland Security

Some of these may well have necessary functions worth preserving — the Census, for example — but I’m willing to bet 80-100% of each could be dumpstered, saving us a lot of money and headache.

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)

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