GLOUCESTER, MA (February 2, 2009) – For two days last week, officials with the National Marine Fisheries Service — high on the list of the federal government's most collectively arrogant and unaccountable agencies — were apparently speechless after being knocked down by a federal judge's ruling against their heavy-handed fishing regulations and enforcement. U.S. District Court Judge Edward Harrington's ruling — which chastised NMFS for wrongfully dismissing any alternatives to its mandates that wrongly limit the entire fishery based on its weakest stock — indeed drew no initial response at all from this federal regulatory agency.
Could NMFS officials be so brazen as to ignore a ruling from a federal judge? No. On the third day, NMFS officials did something much worse. They issued a response that runs so contrary to the judge's ruling that it showed — very publicly this time — just how this regulatory gang views its overblown policing role.
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