NC Dept. of Ag Official Pleads Guilty to Obstruction of Justice -- Gets 2 Week Vacation

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Wednesday February 15, 2012 · 8:08 PM PST

2012/02/15 · 20:08

So, here's how they roll down at Commissioner Steve Troxler's (R) NC Department of Agriculture:

1. Tip off the industry (you're supposed to be regulating) about a law enforcement investigation into alleged animal cruelty;
2. When investigators question you -- deny it;
3. When investigators confront you with information that contradicts your denial -- admit it;
4. Stay on the job while Commissioner Troxler calls you an "exemplary employee";
5. Extend arm for perfunctory slap on the wrist -- 2 weeks without pay;
5. Plead guilty to obstruction of justice; and . . .
6. Nothing. That's it. You expected more? We're done.

Dr. Sarah Jean Mason, Director of Animal Health Programs with the NC Department of Agriculture -- please return to work.

Department spokesman Brian Long said the guilty pleas wouldn't affect Mason's employment. "We have taken our disciplinary action. We knew going in that she could be charged with something," Long said.

Video and more after the jump.

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Saturday July 10, 2010 · 1:16 PM PDT

2010/07/10 · 13:16

This spring, the Supreme Court struck down a ban on video depictions of dog-fighting and violence against animals. The original law had been enacted to stop the sale of "crush" videos.

Crush videos appeal to a certain sexual fetish by depicting the torture of animals -- cats, dogs, monkeys, mice and hamsters, according to Congress -- or showing them being crushed to death by women wearing stiletto heels or with their bare feet.

Earlier this week, a lobbyist for the NC Pork Council, Angie Whitener, explained that the group's opposition to a bill regulating "puppy mills" was "solely based on the proponent of the bill," the Humane Society of the United States. As a followup to this candid and revealing statement, Raleigh's News & Observer has posed a rather shrewd question to Ms. Whitener:

Does the Pork Council also oppose renewed efforts by the Humane Society to ban "crush" videos?

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Thursday July 08, 2010 · 2:22 PM PDT

2010/07/08 · 14:22

[This diary provides additional background and analysis of a story Christian Dem in NC covered last week.]

As the General Assembly prepares to adjourn, lobbyists for the North Carolina Pork Council, the NRA, the Farm Bureau, and N.C. Agribusiness have cause to celebrate. For a second year, they have staved off legislation that has nothing to do with pork, rifles, or hunting -- the bill they killed simply set minimum standards of care for commercial dog breeding operations, unregulated businesses commonly referred to by a name the industry hates, Puppy Mills.

Personally, I find that term a little too cute when what we are talking about is overbreeding so abusive that some dogs "actually had parts of their internal organs that were hanging out". These aren't puppy mills; they are Dog Farms.

I'm pissed that our lawmakers caved, and clearly, I'm not alone.

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Monday March 08, 2010 · 6:58 PM PST

2010/03/08 · 18:58

On Friday, Judge Wayne R. Anderson, United States District Judge for the Norther District of Illinois, denied Donald Rumsfeld's motion to dismiss a Complaint filed by two U.S. citizens who claim they were tortured in Iraq. While the lawsuit is still in the very early stages -- Rumsfeld has not even filed an answer to the Complaint -- the court's decision portends not only the possibility that Rumsfeld could be subject to personal liability, but also the possibility that a federal court might might rule directly on the question of whether the Bush administration's euphemistically termed "enhanced interrogation techniques" constitute torture as a matter of law.

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Tuesday July 14, 2009 · 8:01 AM PDT

2009/07/14 · 08:01

Let’s imagine, if we can, the Republican outrage that we would be hearing if, as a U.S. District Judge, Sonia Sotomayor had commuted the sentence of, let’s say, a Hispanic woman who wanted to attend her daughter’s graduation after hearing her defense attorney argue – "Your honor, she’s suffered greatly. We’re begging for the court’s mercy."

Can you picture it?

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Wednesday February 11, 2009 · 5:32 AM PST

2009/02/11 · 05:32

I first met Wahkeed and Red six months ago. Wahkeed had just turned 12; Red was about 8 months old. Wahkeed had done really well in school that spring, and his sister let him have a puppy from her dog’s litter as a reward. Wahkeed chose Red, a tan, female pit-bull. As Wahkeed said, “I picked her out because she was so beautiful, I liked her skin and she was so energetic. So I got her, ‘cause I’m energetic too, and playful.”

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