Some consider the Nation’s Capital as “Fantasyland on the Potomac”. Other outsiders are “Fed Up” with the Federal City. It's better to consider D.C. as “the District of Calamity” (sic).
During his remarks before the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), author and conservative radio show host Mark Levin offered a variety of examples of how the Presidency of Barack Obama has contravened the Constitution.
1. “You have violated the Separation of Powers.”
2.”You have seized unto yourself Legislative Power granted unto the Congress alone.”
3. “You have unilaterally appropriated monies to fund your radical agenda.”
4. “You have contravened Congress’ authority over Immigration and Naturalization.”
5. “You repeatedly defy the Senate’s confirmation power over your appointments.”
6. “You have poisoned the independence of the Judiciary by appointing
scores of radical activists to lifetime judicial appointments.”
7. “You have repeatedly evaded the Senate’s role in the adoption of treaties.”
8. “You’ve shown nothing but contempt for the Bill of Rights.”
9. “You’ve shown nothing but contempt for private property rights and free market Capitalism.”
10. “You have nationalized to destroy the greatest Healthcare System on the face of the Earth.”
11. “You have recklessly destroyed the fiscal well-being of this
nation with wild spending schemes, driving up the Federal operating debt
to $18.5 Trillion and unfunded liabilities to over $100 Trillion.”
12. “You have directed Federal Departments, like the EPA, to unleash thousands of regulations. . . “
13. “You have driven the median-income of Americans down. . . “
14. “You have used the Office of the President to balkanize the
American People along lines of race, gender, age and income. . . “
15. “You have showed contempt for our military. . . “
16. “You have failed to take necessary steps to confront Islamic Naziism. . .”
17. “You have undermined our friend Israel to the detriment of our security.”
This list of indictments against the Constitution are meaningless unless the American people stand up for Constitutional principles and elect leaders that truly represent these ideals rather than offer idle talk at the right times which amount for naught.
During the lame duck session of the 112th Congress, House Republicans fully funded FY 2015 budget, with the exception of Department of Homeland Security, in which a short term continuing resolution was applied to allow for a rider which would not Congressionally fund President Obama's Executive Action on illegal immigration.
In the new 113th Congress, Senate Democrats refused to allow cloture to debate the DHS bill, lest the funding bill pass on majority terms. The Obama White House and lackeys in the Lamestream Media and Senate Democrats are striving to frame Republicans for being obstructionists for not rubber stamping Mr. Obama's extra-constitutional effective amnesty.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has suggested bifurcating the Executive Amnesty issue from DHS funding. But this legislative legerdemain was acceptable to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) only if House Speaker John Boehner acceded to Obama's will. So far, Speaker Boehner holds the attitude that Senate Democrats ought to "get off their asses" and vote on the House bill.
The GOP opponents seek to claim that Republicans will endanger the nation due to not funding DHS's $38 Billion budget. Alas, 80% of DHS's 240,000 employees are essential workers, who are required to report to work without a guaranteed pay check (even though all workers have routinely been paid after a budget standoff). So security should not be an issue, even though the Obama Administration has been hyping the Boko Haram and al Shabob threat on the Mall of America and other Jewish owned shopping centers (but this has nothing to do with certain religions).
So now the Obama Administration's tact has shifted to hardball politics. During a townhall meeting telecast on MSNBC and Telemundo, President Obama dared the Republicans to pass the House bill, which would merit another Obama veto.
May the majorities in Congress stick to their principles and not quickly fold to a passive aggressive bully chief executive. No matter what, the Lamestream Media is ready to repudiate Republicans. But the shutdown is so targeted that the public won't shed tears over the World War II monument being shut down as during the Flying Flip shutdown of October 2013.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler refused to testify before Congress before promulgating and voting on his 332 (now 317) page regulation of the internet. The Federal Communication Commission is a creation of Congress so it is curious that the Commission will not share its secret plan to apply most aspects of Title II to internet service providers under the guise of net neutrality. So legislators whose rightful responsibility includes governing the people neither get a heads up on a monumental shift in the internet much less explore the unintended consequences of the FCC move.
But the FCC is supposed to be an independent regulatory agency. Yet after President Barack Obama issued his "modest proposal" on net neutrality in November, FCC Chairman Wheeler changed his tune to craft his policy. No doubt, the Democrat majority on the Committee will vote for a proposal which will mirror President Obama's dictat.
Vice President Joe Biden is known for his egregious gaffes, his colorful metaphors as well as his uncouth social graces while in the spotlight. Last year, Biden channeled "White Men Can't Jump" for his Black History Month event. This year, Mr. Biden hosted a Black History Month dinner at the Naval Observatory (the Vice President's official residence) in which he fused class envy with racial politics.
It is unclear if the man who is one heartbeat away from the Oval Office is trying to outflank Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on progressive economic appeals in a fledgling bid for the Democrat presidential nomination, or if Biden is just tone deaf by once again invoking the "chains y'all" rhetoric famously used during the 2012 re-election bid.
A fortnight ago, the media worked itself into a tizzy when it discovered the old news that Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) dropped out of Marquette University during his senior year and never graduated. Biden makes an inflammatory and insensitive appeal and the Lamestream Media will not cover it since it's just "Joe being Joe".
It is not the conscience of the American public that needs emancipation as much as the news needs emancipation from a progressive lamestream media which will not report things which do not fit into their favored narrative.
As he vetoed the Keystone XL Pipeline, President Barack Obama purported that: "[T]his act of Congress conflicts with established executive branch procedures and cuts short thorough consideration of issues that could bear on our national interest — including our security, safety, and environment — it has earned my veto."
Funny that Mr. Obama is worried about conflicted with established separation of powers procedures yet is trying to scare Congress from asserting its constitutional power of the purse regarding homeland security funding.
Another laughable point from the White House Keystone XL veto statement is that the Executive nullification was done to protect America's safety and environment.
Last week, the Washington Post reported that in 2012, trains carried 40 times more oil than they did in 2008, which increased the potential for hazardous spills and wrath of God accidents like the Quebec CSX fireball crash in July 2013 which killed 47 people.
Flemming Rose is the editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, who created controversy in 2005 by publishing cartoons of the prophet Mohammed which caused unrest worldwide amongst some offended Islamists.
Rose wrote a book recounting some of his concerns for free speech in Tyranny of Silence (2014) and summarized his thoughts about free speech in a globalized world during the 2014 Oslo Freedom Forum
Pamela Geller, the publisher of Atlas Shrugged blog, is revisiting this subject by sponsoring a "Draw the Prophet" contest with a $10,000 prize to be awarded in Garland, Texas on May 3rd, 2015.
Flemming Rose's fear of the tyranny of silence may be heightened in America by the FCC's usurpation of the internet through Title II regulations said to address net neutrality issues, but may end up with a politically correct and highly regulated product which could be called "Obamanet".
The Reverend Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam in America, took umbrage at Rudy Giuliani's assessment of Barack Obama's formative years. In response, Farrakhan launched into a pejorative racial ad hominem attack on America's Mayor as well as all Americans of European descent.
This invective is rather ironic as President Obama's lineage does not include ancestry of slavery. Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was a Kenyan and Stanley Ann Dunham was a white woman hailing from Wichita, Kansas. So the Reverend Farrakhan is conflating the struggle against someone who neither suffered from the disadvantages of slavery nor really lived in society which did not seek to redress those iniquities.
Rudy Giuliani could point to Barack Obama's two autobiographies, which chronicle how the future President was raised in Indonesia during formative years in which the love of country tended to be instilled.
"America's Mayor" Rudy Giuliani created a media firestorm after his remarks on patriotism before Republican donors and Presidential hopeful Governor Scott Walker (R-WI).
Some of President Obama's appeal in the 2008 Democratic primary was that he was raised during his formative years in Indonesia, where love of America was not inculcated. However exploring this credential created cries of bigotry and partisan politics.
Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers tried to bridge the gap between seemingly insurmountable points with their tune "Atheists Don't Have No Songs".
Over the last four years, Republicans have been painted as obstructionists as House bills have been passed and died in the Democrat controlled Senate because Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) as Senate Majority Leader did not want votes which would embarrass the President and force a veto. In the six years of the Obama Administration, the Senate only passed a budget from regular orders once, the rest being Continuing Resolutions.
In the 113th Congress, the House passed a budget early in the cycle, but which contained a rider which prohibits the Department of Homeland Security from expending funds from the Obama Administration's extra legal Executive Amnesty program. Senate Democrats refuse to allow debate on the budget, much less block a final vote, as they hope to pressure the Republican Majority to cave in order to avoid an entire shutdown of DHS at the end of February . Of course, most of DHS are essential workers so a hypothetical shutdown would just involve 33,000 administrative workers.
Judging from the tough talk from Speaker Boehner, the House majority won't back down. But the Lamestream Media will still find a way to frame Republicans as being dangerous obstructionists.
Ajit Pai, a Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission, has become outspoken in his objections to the political imposition of Net Neutrality by what is supposed to be an independent Federal commission.
Commissioner Pai noted that: “It’s no wonder that net neutrality proponents are already bragging that
it will turn the FCC into the “Department of the Internet. For that reason, if you like dealing with the IRS, you are going to love the President’s plan."
Many progressives have rallied around the concept of Net Neutrality thinking that it is hurting corporations and encouraging competition. What Commissioner Pai points out is that applying Title II regulation to the internet, which was designed for railroads and Ma Bell, will stifle competition and favor behemoth businesses because of the regulatory burdens.
Another alarming feature of such broad regulation by the FCC is the relative obscurity in which the rules are being cobbled together. President Obama pressured the FCC in November 2014 about Net Neutrality. Chairman Tom Wheeler, who had been a big Obama fundraiser, is complying but promises to make some changes in Title II to make it better. Oh, so a regulatory schemata which was drawn up in 1934 can be tweaked to apply to the internet age. Right. FCC Commissioner Mike O'Reilly warned the public about the dangers of forbearance as applied to Title II Common Carriers.
There is the larger issue, however, about whether Congress ceded its legislative mantle to the FCC to strictly regulate the internet. If we hold fast to living in a constitutional democratic Republic, shouldn't our elected representatives, not bureaucrats who are unaccountable to the people (or for that matter Men in Black) be crafting such momentous law?
UPDATE 01/23/2017 President Trump is poised to name Ajit Pai as Chairman of the FCC, replacing Democrat activist FCC Chair Tom Wheeler. Pai has been a critic of the Commission's impetus to impose net neutrality and thereby expand the FCC's role into regulating the Internet.
Prior to the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on the nomination of Loretta Lynch to succeed Attorney General Eric Holder, there were concerns about the independence of the A.G. nominee. During pre-testimony meetings, Senator David Vitter (R-LA) noted: “I found her responses in the conversation about executive amnesty not just frustrating . . . but sort of unbelievable.”
Loretta Lynch's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmed this assessment. Lynch proclaimed: "[T]he Constitution, the bedrock of our system of justice, will be me lodestar." Yet during challenging question from Senate Republicans, Ms. Lynch did not voice legal concerns over President Barack Obama's Executive Action on amnesty. In fact, Lynch told Senator Jeff Sessions that she preferred everyone who is America should be able to work, regardless of their legal status.
The Senate has the Constitutional duty of Advice and Consent. Ms. Lynch's answers demonstrate that she makes no legal distinction of Executive Action on immigration. So if the Senate rubber stamps her nomination, it both validates President Obama's usurpation of the Constitution on immigration and ignores the power of check and balances. Moreover, such an Advice and Consent blank check moots the strategy of using the budgetary process to thwart abuses by the Department of Homeland Security.
If Loretta Lynch is going to be the judicial equivalent of a mini-me, why should we sell ourselves short for an Eric Holder Mini Me.
The Senate ought to reject Loretta Lynch on policy considerations. That will have the effect of Attorney General Eric Holder staying in office until a suitable replacement is found. More likely, the President will make a recess appointment when Holder wants to leave the government. But at least the Senate will not acquiese to what is forthright expressions of lawlessness.
Brian Williams has been the chief anchor and managing editor of the NBC Nightly News for ten years. The 55 year old news personality also hosted a prime time news magazine show titled "Rock Center", which tried to capitalize on NBC's identification with the Manhattan landmark Rockefeller Center. Alas, Brian Williams "Rock Center" was cancelled after two seasons in 2013 for the lack of interest.
Perhaps the memory of Rock Center not being interesting enough encouraged Brian Williams to conflate his combat zone correspondent stories. Williams original report from Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 seemed close to the truth (without revealing that William's Chinook helicopter was a half hour behind the bird under fire).
When Williams went on Late Night with David Letterman in 2013, the story had been embellished to having rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) and AK47s fired at William's helicopter and the pilot getting a purple heart for a wounded ear (which never happened).
Williams revisited his war stories when paying an on the air tribute to Sgt. Major Tim Terpak who had been honored at a New York Rangers hockey game. This caused the New York Times to scrutinize Williams ever evolving escapade.
After Navy veterans who eyewitnessed the operation called Williams out in Stars and Stripes for the inaccuracies in this reportage, Brian Williams claimed that he misremembered:
“On this broadcast last week in an effort to honor and thank a veteran
who protected me and so many others following a ground-fire incident in
the desert during the Iraq War, I made a mistake in recalling the events
of 12 years ago. It didn't take long to hear from some brave men and women in the air
crews who were also in the desert. I want to apologize: I said I was
traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a
following aircraft. We all landed and spent two harrowing nights in a
sandstorm in the desert. This was a bungled attempt by me to thank one
special veteran, and by extension: our brave military men and women -
Veterans everywhere -- those who have served while I did not. I hope
they know they have my greatest respect… and also now my apology.”
Alas, veterans do not readily accept Williams half-hearted apology as a Fog of War mistake as the story had grown significantly in a dozen years. Williams Chinook story had been likened to Stolen Valor as Williams claimed to be in combat in which he was not involved.
NBC has officially refused to investigate the Chopper Whopper incident and is allowing Brian Williams to handle it himself. Presumably this is because Brian Williams has been the face of a successful NBC Nightly News operation for a decade and the network would literally and figuratively lose face by calling their star into question. Howard Kurtz analogized that NBC is treating Brian Williams as if he was too big to fail.
In response to Conflate-Gate, Williams supposedly self imposed a brief hiatus from the anchor chair, so he is not the center of the news. In other words, he is waiting for the media storm to blow over. But now that Williams is established as a self-aggrandizing reporter, he may have lost his gravitas as a truth teller.
Brian Williams coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 has been impeached. Williams claimed that he saw dead bodies floating outside of his window. Well, the Ritz Carlton is in the French Quarter, which is the highest point in New Orleans, which FEMA disputes the flooding to be low to nonexistent. Williams claimed to have gotten dysentery from drinking floodwater, but the New Orleans Advocate quotes Dr. Brobson Lutz, who was treating people near the French Quarter: “I saw a lot of people with cuts and bruises and such, but I don’t
recall a single, solitary case of gastroenteritis during Katrina or in
the whole month afterward." Three separate individuals have disputed William's claim that gangs of thugs had overrun his posh pied-de-terre in the French Quarter.
At present, Brian Williams and by extension NBC News has become the butt of jokes, questioning their credibility in truth telling. An effective internet series of memes places Brian Williams as a Zelig like figure in anachronistic poses, like being present for the lunar landings.
If Saturday Night Live were not a left leaning NBC property, it might even satirize William's tall tales. But that is not how the Lamestream Media works today.
While the furor may subside, if Williams remains as anchor at Rockefeller Center, trust in NBC may fall like a rock. In 1992, Dateline NBC aired a report "Waiting to Explode" which questioned the safety of GM's Chevy trucks. To make more dramatic television, NBC strapped incendiary devices during the crash test. After this became exposed and General Motors threatened a defamation lawsuit, then NBC News President Michael Gartner admitted to the mistake and had Jane Pauley (who had no connection to the story) give a 3 1/2 minute on air apology. In the end, Gartner and three producers lost their positions as NBC News struggled to keep their bone fides as reputable reporters.
If NBC News dared to drop anchor, there might be other roles in which Brian Williams would be the perfect person. Williams would have been perfect for 30 Rock but alas the comedy series has been cancelled. Perhaps as a correspondent for the Onion. Maybe Steven Colbert needs a jocular sidekick for his stint on CBS's Late Night.
Then there is the question of what NBC News would do to fill the empty anchor chair. When NBC was considering a replacement in October 2014 for David Gregory on Meet the Press, the execs at 30 Rock promised Daily Show comedian Jon Stewart a truckload of money to take the serious gig. Stewart declined the NBC offer by saying: "News and entertainment have melded in a way. But they would be
overcompensating on the entertainment side. That’s certainly not an
outlandish decision, although I don’t necessarily think that’s the best
direction for it.”
Jon Stewart did not want NBC News to become a joke. So what do they do now with their credibility falling like a rock?
Contrast the clear statement which the King of Jordan made about the barbarically brutal burning of their prisoner of war with the convoluted comment made by President Barack Obama.
Jordan has promised a swift, "earth-shaking" response to ISIS immolating their hostage. No doubt that "the leader of the free world" will be happy to lead from behind providing logistics and support to an effort to eradicate this inhumane organization.
When speaking before the Forum Club in Palm Beach and the Palm Beach County (Florida) Bar Association, Associate Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor dismissed concerns about judicial activism by denying that it exists. She later elaborated: "What you will find out is that both sides always base it on a legal
analysis. We don't come to our conclusions willy-nilly or arbitrarily. There won't be any decision you read where you will think
that a judge is an activist." But Sotomayor's pithy quip raises questions about her judicial philosophy.
While the "Wise Latina" has occasionally uttered allegiance the rule of law and that the role of a judge is not to make the law but to apply it, Sotomayor sometimes seems content to include herself in the process.
Sotomayor earned the moniker during her Senate confirmation hearings when she refused to renounce her inspiring words about being a "Wise Latina" judge who would make better decisions. Sotomayor tried to walk back the exclusivity of the exclamation, but that is hard when you say: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a while male who hasn't lived that life."
“It is my great hope that I’ll be a great justice, and that I’ll write opinions that will last the ages. But that doesn’t always happen. More importantly, it’s only one measure of meaning in life. To me, the more important one is my values and my impact on people who feel inspired in any way by me....Serving as a role model is the most valuable thing I can do.”
But does a consciousness on being a role model make for a sort of judicial activism which inserts the self into a rendering of justice?
Justice Sotomayor has been candid about how her unconventional background permeates her position. As she has said: "Since I have difficulty defining merit and what merit alone means - and in any context, whether it's judicial or otherwise - I accept that different experiences in and of itself, bring merit to the system." Moreover, Sotomayor has mused that: "Personal experiences affect the facts which judges choose to see." And Tea Party types hold that silly thought that justice is blind.
Justice Sotomayor has even reached out to the crumb chasers with her appearance on Sesame Street in which the dialogue sounded as leaden as the cafecita.
While the baby talk explanation of what her job is works for the kinder care sect, one wonders if it reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of Justice Sotomayor's role on the Supreme Court. Sotomayor describes her duties as being a judge who solves arguments by giving his or her opinion. Really? As the nation's highest court, SCOTUS determines the law not solving arguments. Is this done through giving one's opinion or through judicial interpretation (her opinion on the law)?
No wonder Justice Sotomayor does not believe in judicial activism as it seems like the root of her judicial philosophy with a veneer of the rule of law and the spiff of class conscious inspiration.
