-Caveat Lector- >From http://www.thedailyenron.com/documents/20021018090236-48993.asp
Judge Orders Release of Documents Hidden at Presidential Sites Mind Your Business, Part 10 They continue to hide relevant documents. They snub their noses at legal mandates to comply. They repeatedly obstruct attempts to verify their claims. Who? Iraq? No - the Bush administration. Yesterday US District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ran out of patience. Judge Sullivan once again ordered the Bush White House to turn over documents that chronicle Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force meetings last year. The administration has been sued several times over the documents - including one case brought by its own General Accounting Office. Federal judges in those other cases have ordered the Energy Department to turn over thousands of pages of many key documents relating to Cheney's meetings with energy firms - including Enron - that were spirited off to the White House for safekeeping. Yesterday's hearing was especially contentious and was marked by several sharp exchanges between Sullivan and Shannen W. Coffin, the Justice Department attorney handling the case for the White House. Coffin has refused to produce the documents being sought by plaintiffs, the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch, stating that having to do so "would impose upon the executive unconstitutional burdens." But, Coffin did not specify precisely what would be unconstitutional, and he specifically did not declare the documents were "privileged." A clearly infuriated Judge Sullivan told Coffin he could not have it both ways. "You have to produce the non-privileged documents and assert the [executive] privilege for those that are," he told Coffin. "You refuse to assert the privilege and won't respond to court orders." Coffin countered by contending that the document request would place an "undue interference" on executive branch operations, and that "the consideration of undue interference requires special treatment by this court in this context." Sullivan wasn't buying it. He set a November 5 deadline for the White House to either cough up the documents or return to the court with a formal declaration of executive privilege. That's when things got really interesting. As the judge was preparing to adjourn the hearing, Coffin asked for an extension. The reason, he said, was that they could not determine what documents might or might not be privileged since they had not inspected them yet. Judge Sullivan hit the roof. "That is a startling revelation!" the judge said twice. "How can you be asserting this is privileged information if you haven't looked at it?" "We haven't completed the review," Coffin said. "We've done enough to know our arguments" are correct, he said. "How could you misspeak on something as significant as that?" Sullivan shouted back. Now Judge Sullivan knows what it's like to be a weapons inspector in Iraq. First Energy, Now Food? When a politician takes a lot of money from a special interest group it can sometimes impair their reflexes. They move slowly, when they should move fast. That's exactly what happened this week when thousands of consumers were exposed to potentially deadly food poisoning. On October 2, federal food inspectors were led to a New Jersey processing plant after six people died and dozens were sickened after eating cold meats packed by the plant. Tests turned up deadly listeria bacteria in meats processed at the plant - and food shipped nationwide. Pilgrim's Pride announced a voluntary recall of 27 million pounds of turkey and chicken products after tests found listeria in drains at their plant. But wait, where was the USDA? Moving slow. Real slow. You see, Pilgrim's Pride, as part of the poultry and food processing industry, have been large GOP contributors (82% of donations to the GOP, 18% to Dems) They like the regulation-lite policies of Republicans. Candidate George W. Bush was provided with rides on Pilgrim's corporate jets at least five times during his campaign for president. Apparently not wanting to upset their friends in the meat processing business, the Bush administration didn't make a big deal out of this little listeria outbreak. Since Pilgrim's Pride had agreed to a voluntary recall, why make a federal case out it? Right? Well, how about school kids? Might that be a good reason to make a big deal out of it? Apparently not good enough for the Bush administration. It seems in trying hard to be discreet about all this unpleasantness, the USDA failed to warn schools that it had purchased and shipped to them nearly 2 million pounds of the ready-to-eat lunchmeats in question under the federal lunch program. That was not done until Sunday, October 13, eleven days after the outbreak was confirmed. "Isn't it amazing that they didn't look for that (in schools) before now?" said Donna Rosenbaum, spokeswoman for the advocacy group, Safe Tables Our Priority (S.T.O.P.). "I find it unconscionable that they would not jump on that immediately after issuing the recall." S.T.O.P. said the situation was a national emergency and should have been treated as such by the administration. They point out that more than 20 people, including three pregnant women, have died in the past few weeks from this and other listeria outbreaks in the US and that over 120 others have suffered serious illnesses. And those are just the cases reported to hospitals. Many others simply suffered through the painful aftermath of this potentially life-threatening bacterium at home. “People are dying of preventable diseases. We demand the administration take immediate steps to protect the American people,” stated Rosenbaum, co-founder of S.T.O.P. Even the specter of news footage of elementary school kids being rushed from cafeterias to emergency rooms apparently cannot trump campaign contributions. Rather than tighten controls, the Bush administration has actually loosened them. Under the new policy the USDA no longer closes meat factories that fail salmonella tests. Instead it just sends letters of reprimand. When that does not work, they simply stop testing them. Just this past July, Agriculture Secretary Ann Venamen issued a directive telling her inspectors to hold off on new tests when plants twice fail salmonella tests and not to retest them until the plant is capable of passing inspection. Even if the plant subsequently fails the test the only penalty is another nasty letter from the USDA. So, the next time you or your kids feel a little queasy after lunch, you'll know whom to blame. 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