It has come to my attention that Republican Grand Inquisitor, Darrell Issa, is taking names. He wants to know who has made every inquiry to the government under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Issa claims that the purpose is to ensure that Americans get good service. If you believe that, please send me a check for $1 million to cover the down payment for a great timeshare at our post new resort: Kansas Alpine Glacier Ski Lodge. Really! When have Republicans ever cared about the quality of service to anyone but millionaires, billionaires and criminal corporations?
Representative Darrell Issa calls it a way to promote transparency: a request for the names of hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens, business executives, journalists and others who have requested copies of federal government documents in recent years.
Mr. Issa, a California Republican and the new chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, says he wants to make sure agencies respond in a timely fashion to Freedom of Information Act requests and do not delay them out of political considerations.
But his extraordinary request worries some civil libertarians. It “just seems sort of creepy that one person in the government could track who is looking into what and what kinds of questions they are asking,” said David Cuillier, a University of Arizona journalism professor and chairman of the Freedom of Information Committee at the Society of Professional Journalists. “It is an easy way to target people who he might think are up to no good.”
Mr. Issa sent a letter on Tuesday asking 180 federal agencies, from the Department of Defense to the Social Security Administration, for electronic files containing the names of people who requested the documents, the date of their requests and a description of information they sought. For those still pending after more than 45 days, he also asked for any communication between the requestor and the federal agency. The request covers the final three years of Bush administration and the first two years of President Obama’s.
“Our interest is not in the private citizens who make the requests,” said Kurt Bardella, a spokesman for Mr. Issa. “We are looking at government responses to these Freedom of Information requests and the only way to measure that is to tally all that information.”… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <NY Times>
Think back, if you will, to how Bush Regime Republicans fired the US Attorneys that refuses to file bogus criminal charges against Democratic candidates immediately before elections. Think back, if you will, to the scam scandal Republicans perpetrated against ACORN to keep them from registering minority voters. Think back, if you will, how Republican congressional aides traveled to Florida to brutally assault Florida election workers to delay the recount long enough for SCOTUS to help Bush steal the 2000 election? There is no crime too sleazy for Republicans to commit in their quest to establish a one-party regime. Mark my words. If you investigate things Darrell and his Republican thugs don’t want investigated, they will take vengeance against you.
19 Responses to “Darrell Issa’s Blacklist”
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Go to the Jan 24 issue of The New Yorker magazine for an eye opener of a profile on this asswipe. The big question is how someone with his borderline criminal background could ever get elected. Oh, but I forgot, he is a Republican.
I wholeheartedly agree – The New Yorker (link at bottom) reporter did a great job of letting us get to know Darrel. But to save time (with apologies for the length), I put together the lowlights of Issa’s past as documented in the article:
Darrell’s Shenanigans – or “Everyone Has a Past”
Lied about receiving “highest possible” ratings in the Army as he claimed, when he actually “received unsatisfactory conduct and efficiency ratings and was transferred to a supply depot.”
Lied when he falsely claimed he had “provided security for President Richard Nixon and had swept the stadium for bombs when Nixon attended a game of the 1971 Pirates-Orioles World Series.” Turns out Nixon never attended any World Series games in 1971
In 1971, a member of Issa’s Army unit, Jay Bergey, accused Issa of stealing his Dodge Charger. “I confronted Issa. I got in his face and threatened to kill him, and magically my car reappeared the next day, abandoned on the turnpike.”
A year later Ohio police arrested Issa and his brother and charged them with stealing a Maserati from a Cleveland showroom.
Later that year Issa was stopped for driving the wrong way down a one-way street, and when asked to produce the registration was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon in the glove compartment. (Issa pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.)
A few years later Issa and his brother were indicted for grand theft auto when his brother sold Darrell’s car to an auto dealer, and then Darrell turned around and reported it stolen.
Couple years pass and Issa was sued after he crashed his truck into a T-Bird, injuring a 40 year-old woman. He settled for an undisclosed sum.
He was investigated for arson after the factory he owned burned down in a fire that was found to be “incendiary.” Issa had been seen by employees oddly removing all the company’s computers and more than quadrupling his fire insurance immediately before it burned down.
The insurance company investigating the arson also noted that Issa was not able to document any financial records showing where the money came from to purchase the factory.
When asked by “The New Yorker” reporter about this, Issa only replied: “Everyone has a past.”
Source:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/24/110124fa_fact_lizza
My nit-pick for the day: It’s Darrell, not Daryl.
Thanks guys!
You have proven one fact beyond doubt. Darrell Issa is a… Republican.
PS Nit-pick fixed.
Republicans investigate to serve their own purposes. Democrats just don’t investigate.
Excellent point, Jerry.
The beginnings of another McCarthy era? If they were truly only interested in how well people were being served, he’d only need a small sampling. Foul. I’m going to check out that Kansas Alpine Ski Lodge thingy. LOL!
That’s the way I see it, Leslie.
Get that money in fast!! 😉
Issa has absolutely no need for that information. His aim is to simply out witchhunt that red-baiting 1950s terrorist Joe McCarthy. Issa, THE RICHEST MAN IN CONGRESS, hates working people and is a con-man to boot. He is an enemy of the people. Somebody had better clip his feathers, and soon! And keep the lousy SOB away from your car!
Jack, I’m safe. I don’t have a car.
You just do not believe me when I tell you they are Fascist Nazi’s and they will kill us. Worst yet we will not do anything to stop them when all the while they are inciting their base to kill Democrats and anyone else who stands up against them.
For Example: Gabrielle Giffords.
It is too late for us now and with the Democrats who stand for nothing the complete takeover of our country will be completed as we become….
AMERICA THE FOURTH REICH…..
AP the fourth Reich lasted 8 years and failed due to complete incompetence.
Progressives fought for the Freedom of Information Act. Republicans are using it to target people for … what? Intimidation? Surveillance? Why am I getting paranoid? Because somebody is out to get me.
When we consider what Republicans did under Bush/Cheney, it’s not paranoia to expect history to repeat, if we let them get away with it.
He looks rather “ethnic” to me, NOT a good fit for the Republican Party…
Nicolai, while that does not really matter, Republicans have a pool of token minority individuals, willing to sell out their people for personal advancement. Consider Clarance Thomas.
How wonderfully republican — a car thief as Grand Inquisitor. What a whacky bunch of guys and gals, huh?
But isn’t it rare to find Republicans steal just cars instead of $millions?