Saturday, February 12, 2011

B.O. Learns A Lesson From O.J.

No, I'm not talking about killing his wife. Obama is the height of non-violence, he loves Michelle, she's too tough, and despite a certain movie, it's difficult to cover up a murder at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I'm talking about the art of the slow-speed chase.

OJ probably didn't originate the concept of the slow-speed chase, but he brought it to a form of high art. Do something that would draw the strong ire of the police and the average human being, then draw attention away from the investigation by doing something very openly that will distract the police, the public and the media from the real crime. Meanwhile, back at the crime scene, you have your cronies cover up the evidence and cry racism about what is left to prove your evil deed. Instead of a white Ford Bronco on an L.A. freeway, Obama is shown cruising down the beltway at 25 mph in the Presidential limousine. The rest is pretty much the same.

While the MSM, the lefty blogs, and much of the public are busy watching Obama diss the Queen of England, bow to the Saudi King, and give a big hug to the Premier of Red China, he is busy having his minions in the regulatory agencies ignore the courts and proceed with minor but heinous acts that it will take years to undo, if they can even be undone. He successfully got Congress to ram a 2700 page health care takeover of a major portion of the American economy down the public's throat. When caught and "shellacked" at the polls and two federal court decisions, he simply has his bureaucrats and czars proceed to implement the Act piece by piece.

The plan is to keep putting portions of the Act into action one at a time, creating a smokescreen (slow speed chase), and hope that by the time Congress or the courts can do anything about it, it will be so deeply embedded in the economy as to be nearly incapable of reversal. White House official blogger Stephanie Cutler takes notice of the Vinson Virginia ruling that declares the individual mandate unconstitutional and inseverable from the rest of the appallingly mislabeled Affordable Care Act. She concedes that a court of competent jurisdiction has effectively voided the Act in twenty-six states, but that's just a minor inconvenience. So her simple announcement following the decision is that "implementation of the Health Care Act will continue uninterrupted."

The White House is banking on Congress being unable to repeal the Act even if the Republicans gain control of the Senate two years hence. It is also banking on the Supreme Court refusing to hear the case until all the federal appellate jurisdictions have ruled on the issue. An expedited petition for immediate hearing before the high court has already been filed, but as yet it is unknown if the Supreme Court will allow the case to be expedited ("grant certiorari") without further decisions at the appellate level. And even if the Supreme Court does hear the case, more time will have passed with pieces of the legislation already in place, and there is no guarantee that the justices will issue a definitive opinion that all actions on the Act be stopped or reversed.

At the same time, Congress refused to pass the Cap and Trade scheme. But multiple actions by federal agencies in slow-speed chase mode may render that meaningless and by the time the high court can rule on the piece-by-piece implementation of an Act rejected by Congress, the damage will already have been done. Recent news indicates that Congress might reverse the CO2 actions taken by the Environmental Protection Agency. Maybe. But when? And how much of each EPA action will be modified or reversed? It's like punching at air. You hit at it, but it just moves aside and puts itself in another position, requiring more wasted effort to punch at it again.

And then there's Ken Salazar, current Secretary of the Interior and former Senator from Andrew Price's home state. Ashton Ellis says "he's turned the Bureau of Land Management into an eminent domain machine." Salazar's department has grabbed huge chunks of land from individual owners for "wilderness purposes" without adequate legal protection, notice and fair compensation. He ordered the mass slaughter of wild mustangs on federal lands in order to preserve the natural environment (huh?). Like the Obamacare defiance, both of these actions were in direct violation of court orders.

The Salazar cases will move on to higher courts, and if and when they make it to the Supreme Court, the actions will likely be declared both illegal and unconstitutional. But the same question has to be asked--when? And the slow-speed chase goes on. By the time a final decision is reached on these piece-by-piece power grabs, what good will their reversal do?

Salazar's department took advantage of another crisis to grab power and implement Obama administration green policies when the Deepwater Horizon caused a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Louisiana's valuable coastline was in immediate danger. While the Obama administration fiddled and fumbled with the spill, Salazar's department ordered the cessation of all oil drilling in the Gulf, particularly singling out American interests anywhere near Louisiana. A federal judge in New Orleans overturned the ban in May of the same year, stating that the action had no rational basis. Salazar then issued a new, and nearly identical order that hasn't yet been litigated. The ban has since been lifted, but his department has yet to issue a single drilling permit.

Do you see the plan? Draw attention away with big deal public battles like Obamacare and Cap and Trade. At the same time, knowing you will be facing lengthy litigation and/or slow or no action from Congress, put your agenda into action piecemeal through federal agencies. Ignore the courts if you need to. Appeal if you lose. But keep acting, piece by piece, until the goals of the original acts are like concrete that has already set. Another name for this kind of plan is "death in small doses."

If you think it doesn't work consider the following: Assume that ultimately every single action is found invalid by the high court, or Congress repeals the Acts upon which the actions were taken. Say, five years from now (and in some cases, a mere six months from now). What effect will that have on the actions which have been declared invalid?

The mustangs won't be brought back to life. The owners of the property have already been ruined and have moved on. 5,000 jobs in Louisiana have already been lost, probably forever. American companies in or dependent on the oil industry have already moved many of their operations overseas. The chaotic effects of the early plans to go forward with Obamacare are destabilizing the economy, throwing Medicare into panic-mode, and wreaking havoc with the medical profession. It will be small comfort that we won every court battle while we're standing in bread lines. Or like the Brits, standing in National Health Service lines waiting for inadequate medical care, or at home trying to make an appointment with a doctor to treat the cancer that's killing you.

This is a political crisis, not a legal crisis. The law will go on either way. And 100% decisions against the actions of the Obama administration some time in the future will set legal precedents. But the political precedent being established right now is to ignore, dance around, defy, appeal and mangle the meaning of court decisions while the political policies become self-actuating and permanently cast in concrete.

The last best hope for the time being is that the Republican House will set another precedent--de-fund any agency that willfully acts after Congress and/or the courts have told it not to. Whether the Republican Party has the will, the guts and the votes to do so is a question for the future. I can hope, but I'm not holding my breath.

14 comments:

Tennessee Jed said...

Hawk - maybe the conservatism that seems to be enveloping the country will permit a majority capable of taking out this stuff piece by piece. If it comes to it, hold E.P.A. hearings and then defund the damn thing. Or, if we have the presidency and both houses, simply reverse the rulings.

Tehachapi Tom said...

Hawk
I think you are giving more credit to bo than bo is worthy of. If the moving forward plan is in place it has to be the handlers who are guiding the bronco. Just like oj had a driver so does bo I think.

Joel Farnham said...

LawHawk,

We are up against the wall. Either Congress acts, or the country dies piecemeal.

Never before has the country been under this type of assault. Even FDR wasn't this stupid.

Anonymous said...

Tennessee: I'm not feeling very optimistic, but I haven't given up either. The key is that the Republicans have to move fast and move decisively. Otherwise, the "too late to do any good" factor kicks in.

Anonymous said...

Tehachapi Tom: Obama is not bright enough to have planned everything this well, starting with his sudden mystery-shrouded appearance on the academic scene at Columbia. You have it right. Does anybody truly believe that OJ Simpson could actually have pulled off his coup without orchestration by a large gaggle of handlers who were far smarter than he? The only credit I give either Obama or Simpson is that they are the public faces of something very dark and sinister being perpetrated in bits and pieces in the background.

The only significant difference between Simpson and Obama is that OJ is a knuckle-dragging football player from USC and Obama is a teleprompter-toting pseudo-intellectual from Columbia and Harvard (maybe).

Anonymous said...

Joel: It truly is quickly evolving into a do-or-die situation. The death will be America's economy and our freedom to live our lives our own way. Roosevelt created most of the alphabet agencies that have impeded American progress for decades, even after the Supreme Court struck down the National Recovery Act (NRA) as unconstitutional. But let's not forget that the EPA was created on Nixon's watch, and the ADA on Bush I's watch. The Department of Education was created under the Carter administration, but ballooned into gargantua under Bush II.

FDR had a skewed version of the role of the federal government, but for all his wrong moves, he loved America and believed in capitalism. The same cannot be said of Obama. FDR used agencies and bureaucracies to save America. The cure was worse than the disease, but he genuinely meant well. Obama uses the agencies and bureaucracies to dismantle the Constitution, defy the law, and destroy everything that has made America great. Nobody in his right mind will ever accuse Obama of being a patriot.

FDR gave America hope and avoided the fascism taking place in Europe. Obama is destroying hope and enabling the Islamo-fascism that is taking place in the Middle East.

T_Rav said...

Jeez, LawHawk, way to get me all depressed for the weekend! Guess it goes to prove Glenn Beck's point: "Always watch what the other hand is doing."

Anonymous said...

T_Rav: I know what you mean. I'm not yet ready to take on the role of prophet of doom, but the prospects are pretty scary. Still, unlike Obama, I have an infinite faith in the ability of the American people to correct their own mistakes and be a great nation despite its politicians. If we can get the bureaucracies out of our way, and get government off our backs, we can still exercise that unique American creativity and bring the nation back from the brink. And even though it's scientifically incorrect, I still like the phrase: "It's always darkest before the dawn."

"Fear not; For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." I may not live to see it, but I believe America will ultimately throw off the chains of oppressive government and restore herself to her former glory. I hope that brings a little cheer back to your weekend.

Joel Farnham said...

LawHawk,

I do have faith. When Clinton was in power and welfare had to have some type of reform, Clinton signed welfare reform into law. Now, stop and think about that for a bit. Welfare was imbedded very deep. Hard to root out. Yet, reform came.

My sense is that as Obama and Company works harder to remake the United States, people are taking notice, make notes, avoiding the pitfalls and designing an agenda that not only will reverse Obama's efforts but most of the horrendous ideas from past administrations. It will astonish only true believers in liberalism and cynical inside the beltway types. The rest of us will be triumphant and totally reject liberalism and liberal ideas.

In the meantime, defund government when an alphabet bureaucracy oversteps it's bounds and set it up for eventual dissolution. Make sure Congress lets the various bureaucracies know that when they overstep it means that have committed job suicide.

Joel Farnham said...

Threadjack....

It looks like there is going to be an orderly transition in Egypt. Suleiman didn't assume control. A military council with a Tantawi in charge. The council reaffirmed commitment to the peace treaty with Israel. They have a long road ahead, but this is a good first step.

Threadjack over

StanH said...

This has been the plan all along, Barry is the face of the cabal, the Manchurian Candidate if you will. Brains are not Barry’s responsibility, that’s where his Czars, folks like Cass Sunstein, Craig Becker, and other Soros acolytes come in who have been allowed to infest the Executive Branch of this country. Be certain these scoundrels are up to no good, but for once their actions are getting the scrutiny they deserve, take your article for example. When Barry told us that he’s the one we’ve been waiting for, that’s one I’ll agree with the a$$hole, he’s focused the American electorate on Washington like a laser beam, that by the way identifies itself as 60% conservative, and though I see dark days ahead, “it’s always darkest before the dawn.” The 2010 elections where a conservative earthquake, and Washington knows it.

Another anecdote of the change was last week at the beginning of the week, the republicans talked about $35 billion in cuts 1% people burned up the switch boards in congress, me included, and before the week it was back up to a paltry $100 billion but what they promised. Also Rep. Steve King proposed defunding Barrycare as the democrats did in ’74 with the Vietnam War. We are their courage, burn the phones up, fight on every front, and maybe, just maybe, we vanquish these pricks once and for all. I see this as an opportunity, my two cents.

Anonymous said...

Joel: Well said. I think it boils down to average liberal/moderate people coming to the realization of what Obama meant when he said he would fundamentally transform America. They were foolish enough to believe he meant to use American institutions to create a better America. They now know he means to transform America into just another Euro-style socialist state with no gumption, no sense of its historical self, no pride in its exceptionalism, and no backbone in the face of vicious enemies.

Time is short before the damage becomes irreversible. But this is also the nation whose ability to fight a war was nearly destroyed at Pearl Harbor, and yet a scant four months later was dropping bombs on Tokyo. We slept for far too long, but when the sleeping tiger awakes, it is awesome how quickly he comes to full determined readiness.

Anonymous said...

Joel: I'm keeping my fingers crossed. But in an abundance of caution, I think of Franklin. They will now have a stable government with the promise of a quick transition to western-style democracy. If they can keep it.

Anonymous said...

Stan: There are positive signs all over the place. The people have both parties on the run, and must continue to hold the pols' feet to the fire. I agree with your assessment, and would only add that time is of the essence. We can't give the festering cancer of government control of every facet of our lives any more time to metastasize. If we wait too long, the condition will become inoperable. Which is, of course, the main point of the article.

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