JUST ONE MANS OPINION

by Dr. Robert Owens 

The Last Comic Standing August 7, 2014

At one time if you had said that an African-American would be president of the United States people would have thought you were crazy.  Praise God those days are behind us.  At one time if you had said there would be a rogue president violating the Constitution at will and daring Congress to impeach him you would have been accused of either taking drugs or needing some.   Sad to say those days are upon us.
Some will ask how is President Obama violating the Constitution?

• He made recess appointments to the National labor Relations Board (NLRB) while the Senate was in session.  This was found to be unconstitutional by a rare unanimous Supreme Court decision.
• Obama Administration uses IRS to target conservative, Christian and pro-Israel organizations, donors, and citizens.
• In an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment, the Obama Justice Department ordered criminal investigations of FOX News reporters for doing their jobs during the 2012 election year.
• President Obama, throughout his Presidency, has refused to enforce long-established U.S. immigration laws. For example .

More than 300,000 captured illegal aliens had been processed and were awaiting deportation. But, incredibly, Obama stopped these deportations and ordered the U.S. border patrol to release many of these illegal aliens in violation of law and without explanation.
Congress rejected Obama’s so called DREAM ACT – which would have granted permanent residency to many illegal aliens. So Obama enacted his own version of the DREAM ACT by Executive Order, thus directly defying Congress. According to Obama’s Executive Order, illegal aliens can stay in America if they are under the age of thirty, have been in America for at least five years, are enrolled in school or have graduated from high school, and have committed no felonies.

• Obama has refused to build a double-barrier security fence along the U.S.-Mexican border in direct violation of the 2006 Secure Fence Act. This law requires that “at least two layers of reinforced fencing” be built along America’s 650-mile border with Mexico. So far, just 40 miles of this fence have been built – most of it during the Bush Administration.

• Obama’s Health and Human Services Department has, on its own (without Congressional approval), issued a mandate that all health insurance plans must include coverage for abortion-inducing drugs. As a result, pro-life employers and taxpayers are now effectively required by law to pay for abortions.
  

This mandate is an unconstitutional attack on the protections for freedom of religion and freedom of conscience in the First Amendment and the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This mandate also directly violates the ObamaCare law enacted by Congress, which prohibits any and all taxpayer funds from being used to pay for abortions.
Operation Fast & Furious.
“Operation Fast & Furious” was the Obama Administration’s gun-running scheme that put thousands of American-made semi-automatic weapons in the hands of Mexican drug cartels and resulted in the death of at least one U.S. Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry. Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder lied to Congress and the public, claiming he didn’t know about his Justice Department’s Fast & Furious operation.
Congress has now held Mr. Holder in contempt for defying congressional subpoenas and refusing to turn over thousands of Justice Department documents on Fast & Furious. President Obama asserted Executive Privilege to try to protect Holder. But for Executive Privilege to apply, Obama would have had to have known about Fast & Furious, making the President as culpable as Holder.

Investigators suspect that Fast & Furious was an effort by the Obama Administration to discredit lawful gun ownership in America by purposefully creating gun crimes, thus inducing public outcry for gun control. When it put thousands of semi-automatic weapons in the hands of Mexican drug cartels, the Obama Justice Department knew these guns would be used to commit crimes, perhaps even kill some Americans. Then Obama could say: “See how dangerous these guns are. We must ban them.”

• Federal Communications Commission (FCC): Regulated the Internet despite a court order from the Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. stating that the FCC does not have the power to regulate the Internet.
• Department of Justice (DOJ): Rejected state voter ID statutes that are similar to those already approved by the Supreme Court of the United States. DOJ ignored section 8 of the Voting Rights Act which calls for protections against voter fraud, and used section 5 to administratively block measures to protect the integrity of elections passed by state legislatures.
• DOJ: In violation of 10th Amendment, sued to prevent Arizona from using reasonable measures to discourage illegal immigration within its borders. Arizona has a large number of illegal immigrants, compared to other states, and needs to be able to act to reduce the number.
• DOJ: Went to court to stop enforcement of Alabama’s immigration reform laws, which require collection of the immigration status of public school students, require businesses to use E-Verify, and prohibit illegal immigrants from receiving public benefits
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC): Interfered with a Michigan church’s selection of its own ministers by trying to force the church to reinstate a minister who was discharged for her disagreement with the religious doctrine of the church
• Department of Energy (DOE): In 2009, the Obama Administration arbitrarily broke federal law, violated various contracts, and derailed the most studied energy project in American history at Yucca Mountain by denying it a license, thus costing the American people more than $31 billion.
• Without Congressional approval, Obama gutted the work requirement for welfare recipients passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
• In the bailout of General Motors and Chrysler, Obama illegally shortchanged bond holders in favor of Labor Unions, despite U.S. bankruptcy laws that specify that bond holders be first in line to be paid back.
• Eager to use the killing of Osama bin Laden for political gain, Obama exposed the identity and method of operation of the Navy SEALs team that conducted the operation in Pakistan, thus exposing its members to a lifetime of risk because they have been targeted for assassination by Islamists. A short time after Obama exposed the Navy SEALs’ method of operation, 22 SEALs were shot down and killed in Afghanistan. It is a violation of law for the President or any American to reveal classified military secrets.
• President Obama established an extra-constitutional top secret “kill list” of people (including Americans) who can be summarily killed on sight – presumably by drones — without due process. Once on Obama’s kill list, an American citizen can be targeted and executed on the opinion of a single government bureaucrat.
• Obama Administration officials twisted the arms of defense contractors to not issue layoff notices in October of 2012 so as to avoid causing bad news for Obama right before the election — even though federal law (the “WARN Act”) requires such notices. Not only is this a violation of the WARN Act, it’s also an unlawful use of federal officials for campaign purposes.
• President Obama intervened militarily in Libya in 2011 without the Congressional approval required by the War Powers Act.
• Obama knowingly lied to Congress and the American people about the killing of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya. The President and his representatives repeatedly said an anti-Islamic video sparked a spontaneous uprising in Libya that resulted in the killings even though Obama knew that the attack was a well-planned military-style assault by al Qaeda on the anniversary of September 11.
• Michelle Obama’s family trip to Africa in June of 2011, including a private safari at a South African game reserve, cost American taxpayers $424,000 for air travel alone. Mrs. Obama brought along her makeup artist and hairstylist, as well as her mother, a niece and nephew, and her daughters, who were listed as “senior staff members.”
  

This is a long list.  Obviously there are those who will dispute some if not all of them.  There are others who will want to add more.  Either way there seems to be a consensus that our president has decided that he can rule without Congress and that the laws don’t apply to him or his administration.  When Congress won’t pass the legislation the president wants he gets in their face by announcing “I have a pen and I’ve got a phone.”  He is declaring that he will use public pressure and executive orders to effect the changes Congress refuses to legislate.
Even though the House, through its republican leader Speaker John Boehner, has already declared that it will abdicate its Constitutional responsibility and not even consider impeachment, the President and his fellow-travelers are barnstorming the country daring or as some say begging them to impeach.  This is a unique situation.  Why would a president even speak of impeachment?

The democratic machine is using it for fundraising.  They are also using it gin up support among their base and to advance their call for even more executive orders.  How sad that the best strategy our rulers can come up with to seek for continued electoral victory is a straw man called impeachment.  That is the best they have.  They can’t point to successes in the economy, foreign relations or healthcare.  They can offer nothing better than “Don’t let them impeach our guy.”  This is the theater of the absurd come to life.
This reminds me of a story about a wake held for the meanest man in town:  The minister gave a short eulogy and then asked if anyone wanted to say anything nice about the deceased.  After a lengthy and awkward silence a voice from the back of the room shouted, “His brother was worse.”
Ever since BHO was elected all we have heard is that everything is George Bush’s fault.  Is that it?  Is that the best that can be said for this president, someone else was worse?  And now that this timeworn mantra has lost its effectiveness is the only rallying cry of his supporters/donors, “Stand by our guy or he might get impeached”?   How pathetic. The successor to Washington, Jefferson, and Madison is doing a stand-up routine with one-liners such as, “So sue me,” and “You’re not going to get me impeached are you?”

This has become so bizarre it makes one wonder, is this administration really a comedy routine?