“Great Outdoors Initiative”

[Jolie Rouge]

MM's column today raises bright red flags about a little-noticed, radical green land grab program underway at the White House called the “Great Outdoors Initiative.” Keep in mind my previous coverage of Obama’s War on the West and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s job destruction. http://michellemalkin.com/2010/07/20/why-does-ken-salazar-hate-our-economy/ http://michellemalkin.com/2010/07/23/the-democrats-war-on-the-west/

The War on the West is a war on property rights, a war on the economy, and a war on the American way of life.

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How Obama is locking up our land
August 14, 2010 08:44 AM

Have you heard of the “Great Outdoors Initiative”? http://www.doi.gov/americasgreatoutdoors/

Chances are, you haven’t. But across the country, White House officials have been meeting quietly with environmental groups to map out government plans for acquiring untold millions of acres of both public and private land. It’s another stealthy power grab through executive order that promises to radically transform the American way of life.

In April, President Obama issued a memorandum outlining his “21st century strategy for America’s great outdoors.” It was addressed to the Interior Secretary, the Agriculture Secretary, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency and the chair of the Council on Environmental Quality. The memo calls on the officials to conduct “listening and learning sessions” with the public to “identify the places that mean the most to Americans, and leverage the support of the Federal Government” to “protect” outdoor spaces. Eighteen of 25 planned sessions have already been held. But there’s much more to the agenda than simply “reconnecting Americans to nature.”

The federal government, as the memo boasted, is the nation’s “largest land manager.” It already owns roughly one of every three acres in the United States. This is apparently not enough. At a “listening session” in New Hampshire last week, government bureaucrats trained their sights on millions of private forest land throughout the New England region. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack crusaded for “the need for additional attention to the Land and Water Conservation Fund — and the need to promptly support full funding of that fund.”

Property owners have every reason to be worried. The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is a pet project of green radicals, who want the decades-old government slush fund for buying up private lands to be freed from congressional appropriations oversight. It’s paid for primarily with receipts from the government’s offshore oil and gas leases. Both Senate and House Democrats have included $900 million in full LWCF funding, not subject to congressional approval, in their energy/BP oil spill legislative packages. The Democrats have also included a provision in these packages that would require the federal government to take over energy permitting in state waters, which provoked an outcry from Texas state officials, who sent a letter of protest to Capitol Hill last month:

“In light of federal failures, it is incomprehensible that the United States Congress is entertaining proposals that expand federal authority over oil and gas drilling in state water and lands long regulated by states… Given the track record, putting the federal government in charge of energy production on state land and waters not only breaks years of successful precedent and threatens the 10th Amendment to the United Sates Constitution, but it also undermines common sense and threatens the environmental and economy security of our state’s citizens.”

This power grab, masquerading as a feel-good, all-American recreation program, comes on top of a separate, property-usurping initiative exposed by GOP Rep. Robert Bishop and Sen. Jim DeMint earlier this spring. According to an internal, 21-page Obama administration memo, 17 energy-rich areas in 11 states have been targeted as potential federal “monuments.” The lives of coyotes, deer and prairie dogs would be elevated above states’ needs to generate jobs, tourism business and energy solutions.

Take my home state of Colorado. The Obama administration is considering locking up some 380,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land and private land in Colorado under the 1906 Antiquities Act. The Vermillion Basin and the Alpine Triangle would be shut off to mining, hunting, grazing, oil and gas development and recreational activities. Alan Foutz, president of the Colorado Farm Bureau, blasted the administration’s meddling: “Deer and elk populations are thriving, and we in Colorado don’t need help from the federal government in order to manage them effectively.”

Indeed, the feds have enough trouble as it is managing the vast amount of land they already control. As the Washington, D.C.-based Americans for Limited Government group, which defends private property rights, points out: “The (National Park Service) claims it would need about $9.5 billion just to clear its backlog of the necessary improvements and repairs. At a time when our existing national parks are suffering, it doesn’t make sense for the federal government to grab new lands.”

The bureaucrats behind Obama’s “Great Outdoors Initiative” plan on wrapping up their public comment solicitation by November 15. The initiative’s taxpayer-funded website has been dominated by left-wing environmental activists proposing human population reduction, private property confiscation, and gun bans, hunting bans and vehicle bans in national parks. It’s time for private property owners to send their own loud, clear message to the land-hungry feds:

Take a hike.

[Jolie Rouge]

White House lied, jobs died
By Michelle Malkin • May 11, 2012 09:49 AM

My column today follows up on yesterday’s House Natural Resources Committee release of internal Interior Department Inspector General e-mails detailing the continued White House obstruction and cover-up of Team Obama’s drilling moratorium data manufacturing. I’ve attached relevant e-mails below the column. Note especially the warning from the DOI IG senior agent to his bosses that the “chickens may be coming home to roost” and that he expects the issue to rear its head in a big way “when the R’s take over the House.” Make it happen.

As I write below, the 2012 election is not just about the jobs, jobs, jobs. It’s about the lies, lies, lies — and culture of corruption that permeates every corner of this destructive administration.

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While the White House and its media water-carriers try to distract the American public with gay-marriage talk and half-century-old tales of Mitt Romney’s prep school pranks, the inconvenient truth remains: President Obama is responsible for perpetrating jaw-dropping, job-killing scientific fraud. And his minions are still trying to cover it up.

New internal e-mails disclosed by the House Natural Resources Committee this week show that a supposedly exculpatory report on the administration’s doctored drilling moratorium analysis — issued by the Department of Interior’s Inspector General’s office — was itself incomplete, misleading and unsubstantiated. Even more damning, the documents reveal that the White House actively blocked investigators and refuses to comply with subpoenas.

Now, as one senior IG agent warned his bosses, “the chickens may be coming home to roost.”

A quick refresher: After the BP oil spill in 2010, the White House imposed a radical six-month moratorium on America’s entire deepwater drilling industry. The overbroad ban — inserted into a technical safety document in the middle of the night by Obama’s green extremists — cost an estimated 19,000 jobs and $1.1 billion in lost wages.

The anti-drilling administration based its draconian order on recommendations from an expert oil spill panel. But that panel’s own members (along with the federal judiciary) called out then-eco czar Carol Browner for misleading the public about the scientific evidence and “contributing to the perception that the government’s findings were more exact than they actually were.” Browner and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar oversaw the false rewriting of the drilling ban report to completely misrepresent the Obama-appointed panel’s own overwhelming scientific objections to the job-killing edict.

Federal judge Martin Feldman in Louisiana blasted the Obama Interior Department for defying his May 2010 order to lift its fraudulent ban on offshore oil and gas drilling in the Gulf. He called out the administration’s culture of contempt and “determined disregard” for the law.

Ever since, GOP watchdogs have attempted to hold administration officials accountable for the drilling ban fraud. In November 2010, the DOI Inspector General issued a report cited by Salazar to argue that any editing of the drilling ban report was unintentional and mistaken. But e-mails from IG senior agent Richard Larrabee released by the House Natural Resources Committee flatly contradict Salazar.

“I truly believe the editing WAS intentional — by an overzealous staffer at the White House. And, if asked, I, as the case agent, would be happy to state that opinion to anyone interested,” Larrabee wrote.

He noted that the IG report failed to mention that investigators were unable to independently validate e-mails supplied by Salazar’s office — and that the report was “simply silent” about how the White House blocked investigators’ attempts to interview one of Browner’s chief henchmen, Joe Aldy. “Well, it will be interesting to see if anyone picks up on these things, or cares about them,” Larrabee wrote.

Well, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., cares. In a letter to the DOI Inspector General’s office, Hastings blasted the stonewallers who have hid in the dark for more than a year. “The IG report is being used by the Obama Administration and others as a defense that this matter has already been investigated and resolved. These emails contradict that claim and raise new questions on whether the IG’s investigation was as thorough and complete as it should have been,” Hastings wrote.

The actual drafts of the drilling moratorium report and the communications between senior Interior Department officials and White House political appointees remain out of public view. “To date, the Interior Department has never had to disclose documents to the IG or to Congress,” Hastings noted. “Despite the President’s pledge of transparency, this Administration has not answered questions by anyone on how this decision was made that forced thousands of Americans out of work and cost millions of dollars in lost economic activity.”

This election isn’t just about jobs, jobs, jobs. It’s about the lies, lies, lies that have led to massive job destruction — and the ruthless corruptocrats using our tax dollars to whitewash their radical green agenda.

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http://michellemalkin.com/2012/05/11/white-house-lied-jobs-died/

Related:

The high priests of eco-destruction
One measly deepwater drilling permit: Hoo-freaking-rah
Culture of contempt: Interior Department spanked yet again
The Interior Department’s culture of contempt
Obama jobs death toll: Coal, oil, gas workers on the chopping block
Obama jobs death toll: Killing the drilling industry
Omnibus double whammy: The Dems’ lame-duck land grabs
Another Obama stealth land grab: Salazar and the NLCS
Throw Carol Browner under the bus; Update: Senate GOP calls for probe
Confirmed: Obama job-killlers Salazar, Browner lied about drilling ban rationale
Another ass-kicking: Judge rejects Obama drilling ban again
Obama’s Beltway Chainsaw Massacre
The White House War on Jobs
Pushing back: Thousands of Obama’s drilling moratorium victims rally in La.
Why does Ken Salazar hate our economy? Update: Western Energy Alliance calls for reinstating oil leases
Ken Salazar needs another ass-kicking
Another ass-kicking: 5th Circuit rejects White House drilling ban appeal
Ken Salazar gets an ass-kicking. Over to you, Capitol Hill. 6/24 update: Judge refuses White House drilling ban stay request; judge gets death threat
Breaking: Judge rules against Obamatorium on drilling; link to decision added; Interior Secy Salazar roasted
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[Jolie Rouge]

By Michelle Malkin • July 13, 2012 10:08 AM
Obama’s Interior Department still going rogue


The Obama administration’s loathsome cowboy, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, won’t take no for an answer. He’s been smacked down repeatedly by federal courts for imposing a draconian, junk science-based moratorium on the oil and gas industry. Yet, the job-killing zealot and his boss just introduced another ruinous offshore drilling ban two weeks ago.

The White House rationale for the renewed crackdown? Because we said so.

Thomas Pyle of the D.C.-based Institute for Energy Research reports that the Salazar scheme “reinstitutes a 30-year moratorium on offshore energy exploration that will keep our most promising resources locked away until long after President Obama begins plans for his presidential library.” Instead of working to enhance our energy independence and free up abundant natural resources, the Obama administration has worked tirelessly to close off access to nearly 86 billion barrels of oil on America’s Outer Continental Shelf alone.

The latest plan involves the interior secretary’s authority to auction oil and gas leases and to oversee oil and gas research and exploration on the OCS. Pyle explains that the “2012-17 plan leaves out the entire Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the vast majority of OCS areas off Alaska. It cuts in half the average number of lease sales per year, requires higher minimum bids and shorter lease periods, and dramatically reduces lease terms.”

The official Obama for America slogan may be “Forward,” but the Salazar-Obama anti-drilling regime leaves America behind. National Ocean Industries Association President Randall B. Luthi told the Oil and Gas Journal (an industry publication http://www.ogj.com/articles/print/vol-110/issue-7a/general-interest/doi-announces-proposed-final.html ):
“This deeply disappointing ‘no new access’ plan does not reflect the comprehensive, ‘all of the above’ energy policy touted by the administration, nor does it keep pace with the energy policies of foreign nations that are expanding their offshore access to develop badly needed oil and gas.”

No surprise. Salazar is an unrepentant glutton for punishment — of America’s energy producers. He’s had the unwavering support of President Obama ever since the aftermath of the BP oil spill in 2010, when the administration implemented a radical six-month freeze on America’s entire deepwater drilling industry. Republicans must forcefully counter the campaign fables being spun by Team Obama with the truth about these rogue overlords.

When the president’s Chicago flacks boast of their noble commitment to transparency, remember: The overbroad drilling ban was stuffed into a technical safety document in the middle of the night by Obama’s unaccountable green extremists.

When White House operatives tout their miraculous economics, remind them: The cost of the original Obama-Salazar edict is an estimated 19,000 jobs and $1.1 billion in lost wages. The new ban takes both coasts off the table and throws Alaska oil and gas sales into uncertain delay.

When Democrats tout their adherence to sound science, don’t forget: The administration’s own expert panel disavowed Salazar and former eco-czar Carol Browner’s claims that they had secured a scientific consensus for the drilling ban. In fact, Salazar and Browner completely perverted the experts’ consensus against the sweeping offshore drilling ban.

When Vice President Joe Biden takes to the stump to tout the “character of his (boss’s) convictions,” make it known: Louisiana federal judge Martin Feldman rebuked the Obama Interior Department for its “determined disregard” for the law. http://bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view/20120712biden_tells_naacp_obama_stands_by_convicti ons

And the stench deepens. In May, the House Natural Resources Committee released e-mails quoting a senior whistleblower who directly contradicted Salazar’s claim that doctored support for the ban was unintentional. Where is the Interior Department inspector general to look out for taxpayers’ best interests? She’s knee-deep in ethics problems herself.

A federal panel that oversees government watchdogs took up a conflict-of-interest complaint against Interior Department Acting Inspector General Mary Kendall this week. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-07-06/deepwater-drilling-investigation/56068600/1 USA Today first reported in May “that Kendall had attended meetings where top Interior officials discussed drafts of a peer-reviewed report on deepwater drilling.” Later, she was enlisted to investigate how White House officials cooked up the scientifically manufactured report that resulted from those very meetings.

Instead of haranguing GOP opponent Mitt Romney with questions about his offshore bank accounts, this search-and-destroy White House should start accounting for its offshore drilling obstructionism. Salazar’s reign has been a shady, secretive and rotten deal for America.

http://michellemalkin.com/2012/07/13/obamas-interior-department-still-going-rogue/

[Jolie Rouge]

The latest on Obama’s rogue Interior Department:
Stone walls and revolving doors
By Michelle Malkin • July 17, 2012 12:56 PM

House GOP watchdogs continue to chip away at the stonewall surrounding the reckless, politicized White House drilling ban.

House GOP Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings announced plans yesterday to summon more Obama officials to testify after they refused to agree to transcribed interviews: http://naturalresources.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=303186


After Interior Dept. Fails to Agree to Transcribed Interviews, Hastings States Intent to Call Officials to Testify at Drilling Moratorium Hearing

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) on Friday, July 13 sent a letter to Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar regarding the Committee’s request for transcribed interviews with five Department officials who were personally involved in developing the May 2010 Interior Department report that falsely stated independent engineers had peer reviewed and supported a drilling moratorium.

In this follow-up letter, Chairman Hastings states that he intends to invite the five Department officials, and possibly other Department officials, to a Full Committee oversight hearing so they can answer questions on the record. Discussions were held between Committee and Department staff regarding the requested interviews, but no interview schedule was agreed upon. The Committee offered a significant compromise to conduct transcribed interviews with only two Department officials and with Steve Black. However, this offer was rejected by the Department, which only offered off-the record interviews away from public scrutiny. The Committee has been actively investigating the matter for over a year and has issued a subpoena to the Interior Department for documents, to which the Department has almost entirely failed to fully comply.

“As explained in the July 6 letter, the Department’s continuing refusal to provide all documents covered by the April subpoena has left the Committee no choice other than to continue to pursue compliance with the subpoena, including to seek necessary information directly from the officials who were most involved in interacting with the peer reviews and drafting and editing the Drilling Moratorium Report,” wrote Chairman Hastings. “For many months, indeed for well over a year, the Committee has sought to be clear, patient, and reasonable, but there are few options that remain where subpoenas for documents are not complied with and requests to interview witnesses in an accountable and transparent manner are uniformly refused. Because of the Department’s unwillingness to date to make Mr. Black and other officials available for transcribed interviews, the Committee intends to invite these witnesses, and possibly other Department officials as necessary, to an oversight hearing of the full Committee so that their testimony and answers to questions may be received on the record.”

Click here to read the entire letter. http://naturalresources.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=303186

Meanwhile, the revolving door turns for a top Interior Department flack.

Via The Hill: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/238055-interior-spokesman-joins-obama-campaign?utm_campaign=E2Wire&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter


Interior Department press secretary Adam Fetcher is joining President Obama’s reelection campaign as a deputy national press secretary.

Fetcher will enter the political fray with plenty of seasoning after parrying near-daily GOP attacks against Interior Department energy policies.

Mitt Romney, the presumptive GOP White House nominee, has made criticism of White House energy policies a staple of his stump speeches, so Fetcher’s background will likely be put to use in coming weeks and months.


Voters, especially those in the West who have been disproportionately harmed by these imperial bureaucrats, should make sure the stonewalls and revolving doors at the Obama Interior Department are converted into a permanent exit way.

http://michellemalkin.com/2012/07/17/the-latest-on-obamas-rogue-interior-department-stonewalls-and-revolving-doors/

[Jolie Rouge]

Yet another Obama Interior Department scandal unfolds
By Michelle Malkin • November 26, 2012 04:16 PM

The fish rots from the head down. And boy, are things smelling extra-pungent at the U.S. Interior Department.

The book-cooking, brass-knuckle antics of President Obama’s loathsome cowboy, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, have been meticulously documented on this blog, in my columns, and in Culture of Corruption. Salazar made headlines most recently with his thug threat to punch a Colorado Springs Gazette reporter for asking tough questions about his wild horses policy. The Interior Department’s inspector general, Mary Kendall, is herself under investigation for conflict of interest. Stonewalling and job-killing are the order of the day.

And now there’s this: The Interior Department’s Assistant Secretary for Insular Affairs, Tony Babauta, has been placed on administrative leave — reportedly over travel and grant irregularities.


The news trickled out over the Thanksgiving holiday:



Guam -The Interior Department’s Deputy Director of Communications, Blake Androff has issued the following statement confirming an investigation concerning Assistant Secretary for Insular Affairs, Tony Babauta.

READ Androff’s statement below:

The Interior Department’s Inspector General is currently conducting an investigation concerning the Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas.

While the Department has not reached any conclusions, the Assistant Secretary has been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation.

Eileen Sobeck has been named Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas and will lead the Insular Affairs team during this period. She previously served as Interior’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks.

Blake Androff
Deputy Director of Communications
U.S. Department of the Interior


Details from the Saipan Tribune (I know. Why do we have to get this info from the Saipan Tribune, right?): http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?cat=1&newsID=123578


Babauta is currently the highest ranking native Pacific Islander serving in the U.S. government. He is the first person of Marianas/Micronesian descent appointed by a U.S. President, the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs website says.

His office has oversight over U.S. insular areas such as the CNMI, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

…[Guam delegate] Bordallo, in a separate statement yesterday, said she is “aware of the ongoing Department of Interior Inspector General review of travel in the Office of Insular Affairs as well as the review of a specific grant that was awarded by the office.”

She said the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee is aware of this ongoing process and of the allegations.

“There are not a lot of details right now and it would be inappropriate to comment on specific allegations until they have been fully reviewed and reported on by the IG. The Department of the Interior is following a well established process for IG reviews. I respect this process and look forward to receiving the full IG report when it is completed,” Bordallo said.

…“I have confidence in his integrity and in the work he has performed as the Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas. He has used his expertise on insular issues to fully engage leaders from across the Pacific and in the Caribbean. Our islands are better positioned because of his leadership. I believe that he has always exercised sound decision making and I hope this will be reflected in the IG results,” Bordallo said.

Other sources said the investigation could be more than travel spending and procurement.


Takeaway quote from Babauta, August 2012, who commented at the time on a taxpayer abuse scandal involving stimulus cronyism: http://www.pacificnewscenter.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=26205:babauta-says-oia-qawareq-and-qwatchingq-cnmi-opas-corruption-case-against-attorney-general-buckingham&catid=45:guam-news&Itemid=156


“Public corruption is intolerable.”

Do as they say…

http://michellemalkin.com/2012/11/26/yet-another-obama-interior-department-scandal-unfolds/