You don’t mess with justice
By Tom Quiner
Obama seems to think Lady Justice is a Democrat
Justice is blind.
At least we hope it is. But it isn’t always, is it?
Truth and fairness are the bedrock of creating a stable and credible legal system. When justice and the power of government are applied selectively, citizens lose faith in the government. When that happens, they fear government. They consider it their adversary.
The African-American community has had just cause to fear government through much of their history. Even though anti-discrimination laws have been passed, even though affirmative action policies were implemented to redress discrimination, many in the community still say they fear the sight of a police car.
When justice is not blind, the damage lasts a long time.
Conservatives, Catholics, evangelical Christians, and groups that support limited government fear the IRS. The IRS has admitted they targeted these groups for audits and piled on the red tape to make life difficult for them.
When justice is not blind, the damage lasts a long time.
This morning, I read an Associated Press report that the Obama Justice Department is selectively enforcing endangered species laws. Here’s what is happening: wind farms are killing eagles, hawks, and falcons. The birds get chopped up by the blades when they attempt to fly by. Over a half a million birds have been killed according to best estimates.
The Obama administration has chosen not to prosecute. He has given them a free pass because he likes “green energy.”
On the other hand, the Obama administration has prosecuted oil companies when they have killed endangered species, because he doesn’t like oil energy.
Lady Justice is not blind with the Obama administration. They are using the power of government to help friends and hurt their enemies.
The damage to our nation is profound.
It will be long lasting.
Uh, Bald Eagles are no longer on the endangered species list.
It is the Golden Eagle that the article refers to. However, both the Golden and Bald eagles are protected by a separate piece of legislation called the “Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.”
In looking at the definition of the law, it appears to me that windmills don’t apply. The purpose of the law seems to be targeting individuals who intentionally try to harm them.
You can’t really single out “windmills” as breaking this law, otherwise anyone who was driving their car and an eagle flew into your path would be breaking the law.
“This law, originally passed in 1940, provides for the protection of the bald eagle and the golden eagle (as amended in 1962) by prohibiting the take, possession, sale, purchase, barter, offer to sell, purchase or barter, transport, export or import, of any bald or golden eagle, alive or dead, including any part, nest, or egg, unless allowed by permit Bald Eagle sitting in tree (16 U.S.C. 668(a); 50 CFR 22). “Take” includes pursue, shoot, shoot at, poison, wound, kill, capture, trap, collect, molest or disturb (16 U.S.C. 668c; 50 CFR 22.3). The 1972 amendments increased civil penalties for violating provisions of the Act to a maximum fine of $5,000 or one year imprisonment with $10,000 or not more than two years in prison for a second conviction. Felony convictions carry a maximum fine of $250,000 or two years of imprisonment. The fine doubles for an organization. Rewards are provided for information leading to arrest and conviction for violation of the Act”
The bird in question is the golden eagle, not the bald eagle. There are other protected birds involved. Here is an excerpt from the AP story on the subject in the morning’s Register:
More than 573,000 birds are killed by the country’swindfarmseach year, including 83,000 hunting birds such as hawks, falcons and eagles, according to an estimate published in March in the peer-reviewed Wildlife Society Bulletin. Getting precise figures is impossible because manycompaniesaren’t required to disclose how many birds they kill. And when they do, experts say, the data can be unreliable. When companies voluntarily report deaths, the Obama administration in many cases refuses to make the information public, saying it belongs to the energy companies or that revealing it would expose trade secrets or implicate ongoing enforcement investigations.
Nearly all the birds being killed are protected under federal environmental laws, which prosecutors have used to generate tens of millions of dollars in fines and settlements from businesses, including oil and gas companies, over the past five years. The Obama administration has refused to accept that cost when the fossil-fuel industry is to blame. The BP oil company was fined $100million for killing and harming migratory birds during the 2010 Gulf oil spill. And PacifiCorp, which operates coal plants in Wyoming, paid more than $10.5 million in 2009 for electrocuting 232 eagles along power lines and at its substations. But PacifiCorp also operates wind farms in the state, where at least 20 eagles have been found dead in recent years, according to corporate surveys submitted to the federal government and obtained by The Associated Press. They’ve neither been fined nor prosecuted. A spokesman for PacifiCorp, which is a subsidiary of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. of Des Moines, Iowa, said that’s because its turbines may not be to blame.
“Whatit boilsdownto is this: If you electrocute an eagle, that is bad, but if you chop it to pieces, that is OK,” said Tim Eicher, a former U.S. FishandWildlife Service enforcement agent based in Cody, who helped prosecute the PacifiCorp power line case.
Monte,
Then how do you explain away the fact that the Obama administration charged the oil companies with a federal crime (according to today’s paper) when the birds drowned in their waste pits?
Just as the damage from the repeat mistake of our electorate in November 2012 will be 🙁
Sadly, true.