John Beal, a high-ranking EPA official, has pleaded guilty to defrauding the government of some $900,000. He claimed he was on special assignment for the CIA in Pakistan. In truth, he was relaxing at home. The CIA never heard of him. He obtained a special parking spot because he had contracted malaria in Vietnam. He never had malaria, and he was never in Vietnam. Below is the report from the Huffington Post with a video of an MSNBC news report.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/27/john-beale-guilty_n_4003499.html
Here is what the Huffpo and MSNBC omitted:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/dec/16/epa-climate-change-expert-cia-fraud
"The scandal could rebound against the current administrator of the EPA, Gina McCarthy, and her efforts to carry out President Barack Obama's climate-change agenda. Last week, an official investigation found that she knew of the fraud for more than a year."
In addition, it seems Mr Beal was one of EPA's top climate change experts.
At least he didn't make off with an Oscar and Nobel Prize.
Were you under the impression that climate change experts were incapable of committing crimes for their personal benefit?
ReplyDeleteI don't recall the Republican Party imploding because now and then, a top expert on this, that or the other is charged with embezzlement.
Maybe we should have dissolved the FBI when Richard Hanson was arrested for espionage?
(It is true that Jonathan Pollard should have had his sentence reduced somewhat after Hanson and the Ames spy rings were uncovered, because his sentence was stiffened on the understanding that much of the damage they facilitated had been his fault).
Let me break it down for you, Siarlys. Given the scope of this guy's lies to EPA, how much credibility would you give him on anything he says about climate change?
ReplyDeleteBTW: How's that Affordable Care Act workin' out for you? Are you registered yet?
Him? I wouldn't give him credibility on anything. But the fact that he mastered some area of science, then embezzled money, doesn't cast any doubt on all the other people in his field.
ReplyDeleteSecond question: Nope. I got one phone call who said she was from "The Marketplace" calling about "your appeal," but I was out working all day. The weeks before Christmas are a good time to make some extra money. She didn't leave a phone number, and hasn't called back.
I've read that in Kentucky, when someone says "I hear the web site isn't working," state workers out publicizing the opportunities can respond "That doesn't matter, because we have our own web site and its working just fine." I wish my state could say that.
Overcentralization is always ominous, but it seems that is exactly what Republicans are pushing, in more ways than one.
I have Siarlys on IGNORE and his comments go directly to my trash box. Nevertheless, sometimes I see on the blog site something of his so stupid I can't refrain from commenting, even though I know the biggest waste of time imaginable is arguing with some idiot on the internet.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, Pollard gave intelligence information to Israel, our ally. Both Hanson and Ames spied for the Soviet Union, our enemy at the time.
There is no connection between them whatsoever and no "understanding" that anything they facilitated had been his fault.
You are an antisemitic ignorant prick who sees Jews being responsible for anything bad that happened.
Siarlys,
ReplyDeleteOne thing the Republicans are not pushing is Obamacare. The Dems own that lock, stock and barrel.
Miggie, you're lying -- you respond to my comments all the time because they get under your skin.
ReplyDeleteFurther, you are betraying both your ignorance and your intellectual distance from American Jewish discourse.
The significance of Ames and Hanson to Pollard's sentence is this: Caspar Weinberger went to the judge to set forth that as a result of Pollard's espionage, Soviet moles in Israeli intelligence got all kinds of information on valuable American assets, who were arrested and executed. Thus, Pollard got a much longer sentence than he might have otherwise.
LATER, when Ames's ring, and Hanson, were detected and arrested, a number of prominent Jewish voices raised that the magnitude of Pollard's crime had been inflated erroneously. But his sentence was not reconsidered.
When one spies on an "ally," it does call the strength of the "alliance" into question, but many "allies" do that, and 25 years is a rather long sentence for that type of espionage.
Gary: If every state had its own exchange up and running, the excessive centralization to the federal level would not be happening, and more states would be humming like Kentucky (with its own web site working just fine). Republicans contributed a great deal to this mess by deliberate sabotage.