Document ppOGXkv2jJbLB6dbnjmxBJzLB

Message From: Sent: To: Subject: Americans for Limited Government [media@limitgov.org] 4/3/2018 1:11:48 PM Abboud, Michael [/o=ExchangeLabs/ou=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/cn=Recipients/cn=b6f5af791al842fladcc088cbf9ed3ce-Abboud, Mic] If environmental radicals are in full panic mode over Scott Pruitt at EPA, that means he is doing a good job The left is now trying everything to destroy his position and defame his record, but Pruitt must power through, his job is far too important April 03, 2018 Permission to republish original op-eds and cartoons granted. If environmental radicals are in full panic mode over Scott Pruitt at ERA, that means he is doing a good lob The left has spent over a decade trying to expand the influence and oversight of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but the American people voted against this influence when they elected President Trump to prioritize economic advancement. Trump followed through on this promise by appointing Scott Pruitt as EPA Chief. The left is now trying everything to destroy his position and defame his record, but Pruitt must power through, hisjob is far too important. Cartoon: Feed the Hogg Progressives will use whatever vehicle they can to kill the First and Second Amendments David Hogg is a dangerous demagogue leading a mob and should not be underestimated In a very short span of time, David Hogg has become a dangerous demagogue who should not be underestimated, who is exploiting a national tragedy to take away individual rights and to have his critics thrown off the air who disagree. He is leading a mob, and if it is not roundly denounced now, there's no telling where it might end up. The First and Second Amendments couldjust be the appetizer. Diana West: KGB deception is no myth "I set out to describe the impact of the secret honeycombing of the haiis of power and influence in New Deal/wartime Washington, D. C. by an intelligence army of covert agents and communists under Kremiin discipline -- more than 500 have now been identified -- and came up with `for all intents and purposes occupied. ' A goodly number of these secret agents, of whom Aiger Hiss is only the most famous, reached senior policy-making positions in the FDR administration. " Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tier 7 ED 002061 00003449-00001 If environmental radicals are In full panic mode over Scott Pruitt at ERA, that means he is doing a good job By Natalia Castro The left has spent over a decade trying to expand the influence and oversight of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but the American people voted against this influence when they elected President Trump to prioritize economic advancement. Trump followed through on this promise by appointing Scott Pruitt as EPA Administrator. The left is now trying everything to destroy his position and defame his record, but Pruitt must power through, his job is far too important. Last year, nearly every Republican and two Democrats voted to confirm Pruitt. North Dakota Senate Democrat Heidi Heitkamp explained, "Once Mr. Pruitt is confirmed to lead EPA, I'll work to make sure EPA focuses on smart regulation and works with states and local communities to address issues like the unworkable Waters of the U S. rule and the punitive final Clean Power Plan rules." And this is exactly what Pruitt has done. Under Pruitt's leadership in the last year, the EPA has begun receiving public comments to replace the Clean Power Plan and blocked the implementation of the Waters of the U.S. rule . Both of these Obama-era initiatives dramatically expanded the EPA's influence over local waterways and implemented emissions regulations to "combat climate change," and as a consequence, close businesses ruled environmentally hazardous. Pruitt has been integral in implementing the conservative agenda of President Trump, and it terrifies liberals. So the left has resorted to character attacks. Democrats, such as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.l.), have been quick to blast Pruitt for his expenditures on increased security this year, not realizing, they are the reason for the cost. Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tier 7 ED 002061 00003449-00002 Pruitt and his entire family have received an unprecedented number of direct threats to their life. The EPA's assistant inspector general for investigations, Patrick Sullivan, told CNN on Nov. 2017, "We have at least four times - four to five times the number of threats against Mr. Pruitt than we had against [Obama's EPA Chief] Ms. McCarthy... They run the variety of direct death threats - 'I'm going to put a bullet in your brain' - to implied threats - 'if you don't classify this particular chemical in this particular way, I'm going to hurt you.'" Additionally, the Washington Examiner reported on Feb. 2018; the EPA currently has 70 open probes into threats against Pruitt and his family. This has caused the EPA's Criminal Investigations Division to provide Pruitt with a 24/7 security detail to ensure his and his family's safety. Now, the left has cooked up a new conspiracy against Pruitt. It has recently been revealed that Administrator Pruitt and his family stayed in a Capitol Hill condominium partially owned by the wife of an energy lobbyist several times over the last year. The lease has sparked controversy because of its "unconventional" term, Pruitt paid for the space by the day at a rate of $50 a night. His payments amounted to $6,100 over the course of six months, according to documents shared with Bloomberg News. Pruitt received approval in advance for the arrangement by the EPA Ethics office, but in spite of this okay, Democrats have been quick to call "corruption!", claiming that the lobbyist wife's ownership of the condo makes it a "gift" to Pruitt. In a March 30 memo, Kevin Minoli, a career attorney, and the EPA's designated ethics official explained, "Market value for rental apartments is commonly thought of in terms of rental cost per month. Under the terms of the lease, if the space was utilized for one 30-day month, then the rental cost would be $1500, which is a reasonable market value... "The lease authorized use by the administrator and his immediate family, specifically including his spouse and children, and consistent with that provision of the lease his immediate family did stay there when they were in Washington, D.C." Minoli continued, "Entering into the lease was consistent with federal ethics regulations regarding gifts, and use of the property in accordance with the lease agreement did not constitute a gift as defined in those regulations." Minoli is the second EPA ethics official to come to Pruitt's defense. Justina Fugh, an ethics lawyer at the EPA for a dozen years, told BuzzFeed News this story was causing "so much drama" for what she believes to be an above board living arrangement. Scott Pruitt has done his job, and he has done it well. All the left's continued attacks prove is that it is willing to dismiss facts in favor of pushing an agenda. Pruitt must continue charting the EPA's path toward a balance between environmental concerns and economic development and security, rather than be distracted by the baseless attacks from political opponents, and President Trump needs to stand behind this stalwart of his administration, who is big part of what is needed to make America great again. Natalia Castro is a contributing editor at Americans for Limited Government. Cartoon: Feed the Hogg By A.F. Branco Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tier 7 ED 002061 00003449-00003 Click here for a higher resolution image. David Hogg is a dangerous demagogue leading a mob and should not be underestimated By Robert Romano Parkland surviving student David Hogg has now expanded his national gun control campaign to seek to silence dissident voices, including Fox News' Laura Ingraham, after Ingraham mocked Hogg's rejections from some colleges. Hogg then threatened to wage a national boycott of prominent advertisers on Ingraham's program, resulting in 17 advertisers pulling out the program as of this writing. Fortunately, so far, Fox is holding its ground. Jack Abernethy, co-president of the 21st Century Foxowned cable outlet, issued a statement declaring, "We cannot and will not allow voices to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts. We look forward to having Laura Ingraham back hosting her program next Monday when she returns from spring vacation with her children." Good for Fox, and good for Abernethy. Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tier 7 ED 002061 00003449-00004 Still, the speed that advertisers are backing out is frightening. Our free press system relies on financial resources to hold prominent public figures, like Hogg, accountable for their words and actions. But wait, isn't Hogg just a high school student? Yes, he is. Who survived a national tragedy and who now is leading a campaign that in fact endangers constitutional rights beyond the Second Amendment individual right to keep and bear arms. Even though he is not a government official, through fear, Hogg's attack on Ingraham indirectly endangers First Amendment freedoms including the right to speak out and criticize public officials. Agree or disagree with Ingraham on a host of issues, she is a voice who tries to hold government officials and politicians accountable. The intimidating tactics Hogg is using are usually reserved for silencing dissidents in non-free countries. In a very short span of time, David Hogg has become a dangerous demagogue who should not be underestimated, who is exploiting a national tragedy to take away individual rights and to have his critics thrown off the air who disagree. He is leading a mob, and if it is not roundly denounced now, there's no telling where it might end up. I hesitate to guess but the implications are real enough. The First and Second Amendments could just be the appetizer. Since the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre on Feb. 14, there are already calls, for example by former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, to repeal the Second Amendment and ban semi-automatic firearms. When I brought this to my wife's attention, who is neither a gunowner nor really all that interested in politics, her initial reaction was that without the Second Amendment, who would protect individuals' First Amendment rights when the government started cracking down on those, too? Her implication was that without the right to keep and bear arms, the American people would lack the means to defend themselves, not simply against criminals like the killer at Parkland Nikolas Cruz, but potentially against a tyrannical government. She's right. After the Massachusetts rebellion broke out in 1775, one of the British government's first acts was to seize the gunpowder from the magazine in Williamsburg, Va. and put it on a Royal Navy ship. It is what governments do when it views its own citizens as a threat. Since the Stevens' oped, Hogg and others in the March for our Lives movement have clarified they are not in favor of repealing the Second Amendment. Which really is not of any comfort. It's a dodge. And the zeal Hogg has engendered in his followers, already three quarters of a million on Twitter, is truly alarming. What makes it more so is the disingenuousness of the platform Hogg stands upon, that pretends, as he did on March 22, that this is not about banning guns: "I think that a lot of people that are out there that are fearing what we're saying right now think that we're going to try to take their guns and we're not. The Never Again movement and March for our Lives is not trying to take your guns, we're trying to take back our lives because just as much as you have a right to own a weapon, we have the right to liberty, we have the right to peace and we have the right to live." But on March 24 on NPR, Hogg told the world what he really thinks, explaining to host Scott Simon he was calling for "a ban on high-capacity magazines and an assault weapons ban." Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tier 7 ED 002061 00003449-00005 Since fully automatic weapons have been illegal since 1986, all an assault weapons ban could possibly mean is a prohibition on the sale and possession of semi-automatic rifles and perhaps handguns, too, as Stevens called for. You see, we're left to surmise since Hogg is not nearly specific enough for somebody who's supposed to be leading a national movement on gun control. So, by his own words, Hogg is a liar. On March 22 he declared "The Never Again movement and March for our Lives is not trying to take your guns" and on March 24 he called for "an assault weapons ban," implicating semi-automatics owned by millions of Americans. In fact, there are approximately 85 million semi-automatic firearms in this country out of more than 300 million guns. Leaving aside what for Hogg must be a footnote that such a ban and then confiscation would be blatantly unconstitutional -- what part of "keep and bear arms" is ambiguous? -- and the fact that such a move could conceivably tear this country asunder, that's a lot of guns for the government to take away that he promised wouldn't be. On March 11 on Twitter, Hogg implored, "Can we please not debate this as Democrats and Republicans but discuss this as Americans?" Yes, let's discuss this. Which is it, Mr. Hogg, confiscating 85 million semi-automatics or not? Please discuss your obvious contradiction. A free people are those who are armed, and those who forget that will not long remain a free people. Now, by making an example of Ingraham, Hogg and his adherents hope to use fear for one's livelihood to silence critics who favor gun rights. Good luck with that. Fox News should continue to stand by Ingraham, or more heads will be put into these public guillotines. It won't end with her. Yes, we all have a right to live. And as a part of that, we all have a right and in fact a duty to oppose the likes of demagogues like Hogg who might one day seek higher office and really do a number on individual rights and have his critics removed from public view. Now is the time to speak up against his misguided agenda because later, it might be too late. Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government. ALG Editor's Note: In the following special report from The American Spectator, Diana West publishes a rebuttal to a Washington Post hit piece on the book American Betrayal she wrote in 2013: f y THE AMERICAN : SPECTATOR K G B deception is no myth By Diana West Removing a few blinders from the Washington Post's "Outlook. " On March 18, 2018, the Washington Post Outlook section categorized KGB influence operations and my book, American Betrayal, both as "myth." In response, I sent in the following essay, which Outlook has turned down. Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tier 7 ED 002061 00003449-00006 I am the author of that unnamed "book written in 2013" whose research and argumentation, anchored in nearly 1,000 endnotes, were labeled a "myth" by Mark Kramer ("Five Myths about Espionage," Outlook, March 18, 2018). Here's how Kramer made his case in "Myth No. 5": A surprisingly common misconception about spies is that they set out to change policy in the countries where they operate. A book published in 2013, for example, alleged that Stalin's spies in the 1940s had effectively "occupied" the United States and guided the policies of the Roosevelt administration. Since Kramer forgot to mention it, the title of that "book published in 2013" is: American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation's Character (St. Martin's Press). On page 68, I set out to describe the impact of the secret honeycombing of the halls of power and influence in New Deal/wartime Washington, D C. by an intelligence army of covert agents and communists under Kremlin discipline -- more than 500 have now been identified -- and came up with "for all intents and purposes occupied." A goodly number of these secret agents, of whom Alger Hiss is only the most famous, reached senior policy-making positions in the FDR administration. In Kramer's telling, however, all they really did as they inched closer and closer to the Secretary of the Treasury or State or the President was filch classified documents. Questions concerning whether/how these secret agents and ideological communists influenced the direction of U.S. policy- and even war-making to the Kremlin's advantage -- questions my book explores -- are to be dismissed as what Kramer describes as a "surprisingly common misperception." Given that Kramer wrote an op-ed last year about the long history of "Moscow's active measures to influence U.S. politics and undermine U.S. foreign policy," perhaps it is his own recent Outlook statement that is surprising; however, it is no myth. That there exist "spies" -- better known as agents of influence, for example -- who seek to "change," or, more realistically, influence policy-making and other activities of rival nations is a fact. It is an especially salient fact in the case of the fronts, networks and sophisticated campaigns of deception directed by the KGB, and overseen, at least in the post-Stalin era, as renowned Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky reminds us, by the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Moscow. Lest there be any confusion, this has been going on for one hundred years -- not only in "the 1940s." My own book aside, I am afraid that when Mark Kramer, as director of Cold War Studies at Harvard, dismisses all of this and more as "myth," it is akin to the Army Corps of Engineers dismissing as "myth" the presence of water in the Mississippi River. The late Soviet expert Joseph D. Douglass, Jr. put it this way: "The Soviets live and breathe deception. You cannot understand what they are doing without understanding this. Indeed, you can't even begin to understand communism without understanding deception, which is very rarely mentioned in textbooks on communism." I am guessing deception is very rarely mentioned in textbooks on espionage that Professor Kramer assigns in his "Cold War Studies" courses. What follows, then, is a chance for him to bone up. The late intelligence expert Herbert Romerstein, also a seasoned congressional investigator, could not have expressed it more simply. In the first sentences of his 1991 monograph, titled, nonmythologically, "Soviet Agents of Influence," he wrote: Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tier 7 ED 002061 00003449-00007 An intelligence service has two main functions in a target country. One is to collect information from either classified or unclassified sources. The second is to influence the situation in that country. Ex-Communist and ex-Soviet-agent Whittaker Chambers knew all about that effort to "influence the situation" from the Other Side. In his real-life experience, influence was paramount. A courier for the Communist Underground in New Deal Washington, Chambers served as a Soviet military intelligence operative until 1939 when he broke with the movement. Later, working with the FBI and then Congress, he would become the 20th century's most famous public witness to Soviet espionage and American treason. In what Mark Kramer would probably call "a book published in 1952," a.k.a. Witness, Chambers explained: That power to influence policy has always been the ultimate purpose of the Communist Party's infiltration. It was much more dangerous, and, as events have proved, much more difficult to detect, than espionage [stealing secrets], which beside it is trivial, though the two go hand and hand. There is nothing magical, let alone mythical, about any of this. Hope Hale Davis was a lesser-known member of the evolving communist underground Chambers worked with in D C. In 1994, Davis, a lifelong Woman of the Left, published her memoir of the period, Great Day Coming. From the book jacket: "As underground members their job was to infiltrate high policy-making levels of government..." (Many of their doings in situ are also set forth in a book published in 2012, Stalin's Secret Agents: The Subversion of Roosevelt's Government by M. Stanton Evans and Herbert Romerstein.) Click here for the full story. 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