OS is a Fred Thompson fan, has been since the late 1970's when Fred unraveled and took down Ray Blanton's criminal enterprise masquerading as the governorship of Tennessee. Ray was, shall we say, making a bit of money on the side by selling liquor store licenses and criminal pardons, and made the mistake of attempting to ruin the life of one lady serving on the Parole Board. She had a conscience, objected to what she saw happening, and Ray tried to bury her. Fred took her case, took Ray and his machine apart. Ray ended up in the Federal pokey, Fred ended up with an accidental acting career and a term as US Senator. The Democrats, Tennessee's homegrown version of an organized crime syndicate, have never forgiven Fred.
He also was a crucial figure in the Watergate tragedy, as minority counsel to Howard Baker on the Senate committee that uncovered Nixon's complicity and criminal behavior. Fred served his country and the rule of law first and foremost. Another reason the Dems will never forgive him...
Ironically, he was hired by the GW Bush administration in 2005 to help shepherd John Robert's nomination to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. All through those hearings, Fred was at the side of the future Chief Justice.
It has to be an uncomfortable day or two for Fred this week, not because he did anything wrong, but in that his efforts were expended on someone who turned out to be so amoral.
These things happen. Don't ask OS he knows.
Fred ran for President in 2008, and OS does wish he had prevailed, but alas. Fred remains active as a speaker, actor and advocate. In that capacity, he release a brief audio message which does help clarify the issues that face us, and reminds us of what Roberts' about face did not include.
You can find the link here. It's worth a listen.
As always, thanks Fred.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Kicking The Can Down The Road: The Roberts Court Ducks And Runs. Now It's Up To The Voters
A great deal of gloating on one side, and gnashing of teeth on the other over the SCOTUS decision on ObamaCare. OS hasn't had time to read it through, and as of tonight, doesn't have the heart.
Brad DeLong, a liberal blogger, is tracking the story that Roberts changed his vote at the very last minute, after the opinion that was assumed to be the majority (striking the law down) had been sent to the printer.
Which lead OS to conclude that The Fix Was In. Back-door conversations between Obama's people and Roberts likely were underway long ago. With what did they threaten him? What was he promised?
In any case, he is young enough, and will live to be old enough, to see the horrible damage his decision to abandon the Constitution will create. It won't be punishment enough, but it will be a good beginning.
OS thinks, in the end, that Roberts decided to get along to go along. Let the voters and Congress sort it out, kick the can down the road. I live in an untouchable bubble anyway, so none of this affects me.
I'm a non-interventionist, after all. Congress cooked up this turkey, let Congress fix the problem.
So, it's up to us. If this terrible thing is to be repealed, it will require that every state legislature and both houses of Congress is occupied by fire-breathing and freedom-loving men and women who intend to restore the Constitution.
And it will require a Senate that will only appoint a federal bench that upholds the Constitution, from the top down.
It's a long shot, but it's the only one we've got.
Brad DeLong, a liberal blogger, is tracking the story that Roberts changed his vote at the very last minute, after the opinion that was assumed to be the majority (striking the law down) had been sent to the printer.
Which lead OS to conclude that The Fix Was In. Back-door conversations between Obama's people and Roberts likely were underway long ago. With what did they threaten him? What was he promised?
In any case, he is young enough, and will live to be old enough, to see the horrible damage his decision to abandon the Constitution will create. It won't be punishment enough, but it will be a good beginning.
OS thinks, in the end, that Roberts decided to get along to go along. Let the voters and Congress sort it out, kick the can down the road. I live in an untouchable bubble anyway, so none of this affects me.
I'm a non-interventionist, after all. Congress cooked up this turkey, let Congress fix the problem.
So, it's up to us. If this terrible thing is to be repealed, it will require that every state legislature and both houses of Congress is occupied by fire-breathing and freedom-loving men and women who intend to restore the Constitution.
And it will require a Senate that will only appoint a federal bench that upholds the Constitution, from the top down.
It's a long shot, but it's the only one we've got.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
The Orders To Nullify Any Adverse Consequence From The Court Were Already Drafted, or, How The Obama Administration Is Shredding The Constitution One Provision At A Time...
Roy Beck from Numbers USA, obviously not a disinterested commenter, weighs in on today's ruling:
In his dissent, Justice Scalia was much more specific, citing the Obama administration’s announcement just two weeks ago that it would refuse to enforce the law against illegal aliens who would benefit from the DREAM Act amnesty that Congress has rejected three times.
"After this case was argued and while it was under consideration," Scalia wrote, "the Secretary of Homeland Security announced a program exempting from immigration enforcement some 1.4 million illegal immigrants under the age of 30.
"The president said at a news conference that the new program is 'the right thing to do' in light of Congress’s failure to pass the Administration’s proposed revision of the Immigration Act. Perhaps it is, though Arizona may not think so. But to say, as the Court (majority) does, that Arizona contradicts federal by enforcing application of the Immigration Act that the President declines to enforce boggles the mind."
As if to underscore Scalia’s assessment of the current administration as a nullifier of congressionally-passed laws, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano only hours after the ruling, announced that she would suspend yet another enforcement required under federal immigration laws. Because the Court ruling will result in a lot more illegal aliens being brought to the attention of the feds, she said, her department will suspend the 287(g) program in Arizona, and pledged that nothing in the ruling will interfere with the administrative amnesty announced last week.
Only hours after the ruling...which says in effect--Screw the Congress, screw the States and their prerogatives, screw the Constitution, screw the Rule of Law, and screw you if you disagree with us.
If we don't like some provision of the law, we'll just ignore it!
Screw you!
(By the way, we'll always enforce the collection of taxes...)
In his dissent, Justice Scalia was much more specific, citing the Obama administration’s announcement just two weeks ago that it would refuse to enforce the law against illegal aliens who would benefit from the DREAM Act amnesty that Congress has rejected three times.
"After this case was argued and while it was under consideration," Scalia wrote, "the Secretary of Homeland Security announced a program exempting from immigration enforcement some 1.4 million illegal immigrants under the age of 30.
"The president said at a news conference that the new program is 'the right thing to do' in light of Congress’s failure to pass the Administration’s proposed revision of the Immigration Act. Perhaps it is, though Arizona may not think so. But to say, as the Court (majority) does, that Arizona contradicts federal by enforcing application of the Immigration Act that the President declines to enforce boggles the mind."
As if to underscore Scalia’s assessment of the current administration as a nullifier of congressionally-passed laws, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano only hours after the ruling, announced that she would suspend yet another enforcement required under federal immigration laws. Because the Court ruling will result in a lot more illegal aliens being brought to the attention of the feds, she said, her department will suspend the 287(g) program in Arizona, and pledged that nothing in the ruling will interfere with the administrative amnesty announced last week.
Only hours after the ruling...which says in effect--Screw the Congress, screw the States and their prerogatives, screw the Constitution, screw the Rule of Law, and screw you if you disagree with us.
If we don't like some provision of the law, we'll just ignore it!
Screw you!
(By the way, we'll always enforce the collection of taxes...)
Monday, June 25, 2012
Peter Hitchens On US Interventionism
This just posted by Mr. Hitchens, and is well worth the time taken to read.
A most cogent portion states:
Personally, it fits very well with my own experience of the true nature of the Anglo-American Unspecial Relationship, which I have discussed here in the past, in the light of Bill Clinton’s decision to back the provisional IRA against the British government. Un unwise official from the West Wing told me, without meaning to, that the White House regarded Britain as fundamentally no different from Serbia.
This is why I shudder at US behaviour in Syria. It is, once you have stripped away the rhetoric, interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation. And if, one day, our sovereign nation, Britain, asserted its independence, might we, too find ourselves under attack first from international interventionist TV stations telling lies about us, then from a rabble of ‘activists’ who had mysteriously acquired arms and whose faults would be ignored or overlooked, then from ‘NATO’ airpower and special forces, intervening to ‘protect’ these ‘activists’ from the ‘repression’ of our government, which would be referred to by everyone as a ‘regime’? A ’No Fly Zone’ over East Anglia, to protect pro-EU ‘activists’ , anyone?
In a way it has already happened in miniature in Northern Ireland. Most Americans (and many continental Europeans) believed propaganda lies about what was happening there. The USA gave its backing to the ‘activists’ of the IRA. And we surrendered to pressure, stopped ‘killing our own people’ , as the British Army’s actions against the IRA would no doubt nowadays be described. Then we withdrew from the disputed territory (though most people haven’t yet realised that this is what has happened). In a way we were lucky that 24-hour TV and liberal interventionism were in their infancy in the 1980s, or NATO might have bombed London in support of the IRA. We would also never have been able to retake the Falklands.
A most cogent portion states:
Personally, it fits very well with my own experience of the true nature of the Anglo-American Unspecial Relationship, which I have discussed here in the past, in the light of Bill Clinton’s decision to back the provisional IRA against the British government. Un unwise official from the West Wing told me, without meaning to, that the White House regarded Britain as fundamentally no different from Serbia.
This is why I shudder at US behaviour in Syria. It is, once you have stripped away the rhetoric, interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation. And if, one day, our sovereign nation, Britain, asserted its independence, might we, too find ourselves under attack first from international interventionist TV stations telling lies about us, then from a rabble of ‘activists’ who had mysteriously acquired arms and whose faults would be ignored or overlooked, then from ‘NATO’ airpower and special forces, intervening to ‘protect’ these ‘activists’ from the ‘repression’ of our government, which would be referred to by everyone as a ‘regime’? A ’No Fly Zone’ over East Anglia, to protect pro-EU ‘activists’ , anyone?
In a way it has already happened in miniature in Northern Ireland. Most Americans (and many continental Europeans) believed propaganda lies about what was happening there. The USA gave its backing to the ‘activists’ of the IRA. And we surrendered to pressure, stopped ‘killing our own people’ , as the British Army’s actions against the IRA would no doubt nowadays be described. Then we withdrew from the disputed territory (though most people haven’t yet realised that this is what has happened). In a way we were lucky that 24-hour TV and liberal interventionism were in their infancy in the 1980s, or NATO might have bombed London in support of the IRA. We would also never have been able to retake the Falklands.
The Executive Orders Are Drafted Already, Ya'll--Don'tChewWorry
This will be a big week for Himself.
Likely, he will lose on ObamaCare, since it is a 2700-page pile of unconstitutional offal.
Likely, he will lose on his dispute with the State of Arizona, again because he is in the wrong.
Eric Holder has been caught with his pants down so often that the contempt vote will not go Obama's way. The assertion of executive privilege will not hold water.
So...on Friday, OS expects a three-fer, in the manner of the ImmigrationReformByFiat stunt pulled earlier this month.
The executive orders have been drafted for several contingencies, and will be tweaked once the Supremes and Congress act. They will be issued Friday afternoon, under the radar, and this administration will commence to do what they wish to do, Congress and the Supremes be damned.
It's how Himself rolls, after all.
Chin-straps on, ever'body.
Likely, he will lose on ObamaCare, since it is a 2700-page pile of unconstitutional offal.
Likely, he will lose on his dispute with the State of Arizona, again because he is in the wrong.
Eric Holder has been caught with his pants down so often that the contempt vote will not go Obama's way. The assertion of executive privilege will not hold water.
So...on Friday, OS expects a three-fer, in the manner of the ImmigrationReformByFiat stunt pulled earlier this month.
The executive orders have been drafted for several contingencies, and will be tweaked once the Supremes and Congress act. They will be issued Friday afternoon, under the radar, and this administration will commence to do what they wish to do, Congress and the Supremes be damned.
It's how Himself rolls, after all.
Chin-straps on, ever'body.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)