Jay LenoNationally broadcast comedian.: "The National Security Agency seized millions of Verizon phone records, and of course this has caused a panic among civil libertarians, constitutional scholars, and cheating husbands everywhere. Oh my God. How ironic is that? We wanted a president who listens to all Americans. Now we have one."
Obama's Power GrabMr. Reynolds is a law professor and nationally known blogger.
06/10/13 - USA Today by Glenn Reynolds [edited]
Our government has used the IRS to attack political enemies. It has gone after journalists who publish unflattering material. It has jailed a filmmaker as scapegoat, hoping to support an election-season claim that al-Qaeda was finished [and avoid explaining the security failures of the Benghazi mission].Would our government have any qualms about misusing the massive power of government-run snooping and Big Data?
We have seen a pattern of abuse. There's little reason to think that pattern will change, absent a change of administration, and quite possibly not even then. Sooner or later, power granted tends to become power abused. Then there is the risk that information might leak, as recent events demonstrate.
Obama's supporters present him as an unusually talented, smart, and articulate man. He has been elected twice to the presidency. His skin color gives him experience for understanding the needs of the common man beyond any possible understanding possessed by a white candidate. He is both academically and politically excellent. He has been called "the One" and a "lightbringer" by his supporters.
He promised a new era. Government would be honest and transparent. It would be everyone's government, and would bridge the differences between Democrat and Republican to bring us all together with scientific reason.
Obama is the counterexample to the repeated claim that centralized government and Socialist policies will work, if only men of good quality are elected. Obama is the best. These scandals and failures show that even an extraordinarily gifted and benevolent person cannot control the dangerous tendencies of a huge government with the power to supposedly correct all problems high and low.
The government under Obama has been doing some very bad things that Obama has loudly denounced. The puzzling part of this is that he has been in charge for 4 1/2 years. He didn't bring the agencies of government under his benevolent control. If Obama is not up to the job, then who would be?
The IRS, Obama, and Plausible DeniabilityClick for the article.
05/24/13 - The Washington Times
Which sounds worse? Obama the Liar who knew everything or Obama the Dense who knew nothing? Obama's surrogates have a hard time choosing the lesser of two evils.“Plausible deniability” manages to avoid both interpretations. Supposedly, Obama was deliberately shielded. His subordinates did not want him to know. They are so loyal, they will take the fall by enabling him to say with a straight face that he was uninvolved in the scandal.
I was sarcastic above describing Obama as the best. I never wanted Obama as president. He delivers a great speech from a teleprompter. He believes things which are uneconomic and unworkable. We will see this in more ways than just the current failures.
So, how can I say Obama proves that big government is unmanageable even by the best? Because, he was presented as the best possible candidate by liberals who also acknowledge the mismanagement of our government. If their "best candidate ever" cannot make it work, then who can? It doesn't matter that I didn't like him. It only matters that they loved him. Where will we find the angels who will rule over us with an ever-more-powerful government?
I don't want big government under any president, whether liberal, conservative, or libertarian. People are too flawed to be given great and unchecked power.
Richard Epstein Discusses Barack Obama04-2009 Easy Opinions
Richard Epstein is a Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. He talked occasionally to Barack Obama when Obama was there as lecturer.
Epstein [edited]: The fundamental mistake of Obama's entire world view is that he treats contracts as devices for exploitation and not as devices for mutual gain, and he assumes that redistribution can take place without any negative impact upon production.If you live in that kind of a fairy land, which I think he does, every one of his major social and economic initiatives are going to misfire. And, if they succeed, God forbid, in getting through, they are going to intensify the downturn that we have already experienced. He is the wrong guy for the job based on his intellectual format. The question is whether you can force him back
Top Twenty Obama Administration ScandalsClick to the original post.
05/31/13 - White House Dossier by Keith Koffler [edited, information added]
Here are some of the accusations against Team Obama's people, policies, and actions. The defenses fall into the categories:
- [silence]
- We don't apologize.
- I want to work with Congress to update the law to prevent us from doing this again.
- No one here knew about this until we read it in the papers.
- My staff, senior managers of government departments (eg. the IRS), and/or my cabinet secretaries knew, but didn't tell me about it until I read it in the papers.
1. The IRS delayed tax-status approval of conservative and pro-Israel groups prior to the 2012 election. Liberal groups were approved promptly. Method: Extended bureaucratic inquisition.
2. The administration failed to protect the US diplomatic site in Benghazi, Libya, did not send military aid to personnel under attack, initially described the attack as a demonstration, and will not say what Obama was doing that evening.
3. The Justice Department collected the phone records of Associated Press reporters as part of a leak investigation.
4. The Justice Department monitored phone calls and emails by Fox News reporter James Rosen and his parents. They obtained a warrant by saying he was a co-conspirator and flight risk for asking about classified information.
5. Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress he had never been associated with a “potential prosecution” of James Rosen. Yet, he had signed the affidavit for the warrant in (4).
6. The ATF “Fast and Furious” scheme sold weapons illegally to go-betweens for Mexican drug cartels. The ATF lost track of hundreds, many of which were used in crimes, including the December 2010 killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
7. Eric Holder told Congress in May 2011 that he had just recently heard about the Fast and Furious scheme. But, he may have known much earlier.
8. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius solicited donations from companies which HHS might regulate. The money would be used to help her sign up uninsured Americans for ObamaCare.
9. "Pigford" is an Agriculture Department effort to compensate black farmers who had suffered discrimination by the agency. It evolved to deliver several billion dollars to thousands of additional minority and female "could have been farmers" who probably didn’t face discrimination.
10. The General Services Administration in 2010 spent $823,000 on a training conference in Las Vegas. It featured a clown and a mind reader. The GSA administrator resigned.
11. The Veterans Affairs agency wasted more than $6 million on two conferences in Orlando. An assistant secretary was fired.
12. Kathleen Sebelius called for the election of the Democratic candidate for governor of North Carolina during an official speech. A US special counsel said this violated the Hatch Act, which prevents politicking using official resources.
13. Team Obama funded and promoted Solyndra to make solar panels, despite warnings of bankruptcy. It allegedly pressed Solyndra to delay layoff announcements until after the 2010 midterm elections.
14. Former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson used the name “Richard Windsor” on unofficial email accounts within the agency, against existing rules.
15. The Justice Department applied a racial double standard. It dropped a case against Black Panthers who appeared to be menacing voters at a Philadelphia polling place in 2008.
16. Obama violated the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution by attacking Libya without the approval of Congress.
17. Vice President Biden’s office has repeatedly interfered with news coverage. It forced a reporter to wait in a closet, made a reporter delete photos, and edited pool reports.
18. The administration paid millions to AKPD Message and Media to promote passage of Obamacare. Was AKPD hired to help pay Axelrod $2 million that AKPD owed him?
19. Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel used Bill Clinton to ask former Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) to drop out of the 2010 primary against former Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA). Sestak could have a prominent, unpaid White House advisory position in exchange.
20. Obama has repeatedly implemented policy by selectively enforcing laws. Had Congress passed the "Dream Act", some illegal immigrants would have gained legal residency. Obama accomplished the same end by refusing to deport those immigrants.
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