July, 2017, Part 7, Political Class Insanity: Fourth Amendment Dangers and Obama's Final List Of Insanity (And Failure)

As we do every month, we review the latest idiocy, lunacy, ineptness, and general insanity from the American political class. The members of the political never cease to amaze us with their greed, idiocy, gumption, and criminal activities. And just when we think there is no new way to disappoint us and tick us off, they manage to find a way to do it, wasting our tax dollars and destroying our freedoms in the process.

The political class has been very busy this month so let’s get right to it:

1) One of the best parts of the Bill of Rights is the Fourth Amendment which protects Americans from unreasonable searches by the authorities. While Obama probably had little regard for the Fourth, given how he spied on just about every American’s electronic communications without just cause or warrants, it is still one of the most vital parts of our freedoms.

One of the most controversial recent battlegrounds of the Fourth Amendment has been the political class and all levels of government deploying cameras everywhere in public places. In many cities you can not walk down the street without a camera somewhere capturing your actions and movements, a clear, fertile ground for violating one’s Fourth Amendment rights, possibly a precursor to the worst aspects of Orwell’s “1984” world where the government monitors everything you do, everywhere you go, and everyone you interact with.

But politicians do not see it that way. They say “trust us, we would never abuse this technology (see the Obama reference above for a counter example), we would never spy on you for no reason. We believe the cameras help us to protect you from criminals and unsavory characters.” 

So who to believe: the founders who thought enough of privacy and the danger of an overreaching government bureaucracy of today’s politicians” Well, according to a recent blurb in of all places a Sports Illustrated article, betting on the Funders is the right bet:

• According to a recent Chicago Tribune article, the city of Chicago has installed a whopping 22,000 surveillance cameras throughout the city.
• From 2006 to 2013, the city of Chicago suffered through over one million crimes, a statistics that is unreal and disgraceful by itself.
• However, those 22,000 cameras helped to solve less than .05% of those million crimes, no 5%, .05%.

So ask yourself the following questions:

1. If each of those camera cost $500 to buy, install and maintain, is the $11 million that was spent worth it seeing as how they help solve less than .05% of the city’s crimes.
2. Is it worth our Fourth Amendment rights and privacy to give the political class that much power to snoop, spy, and track us when their promise of helping protect us from crime makes use of the technology less than .05% of the time?

And say that the expense and risk to our rights are not worth the expense and the .05% success rate and the invitation of those in political power to abuse the Fourth Amendment.

2) Let’s close out this month’s political class insanity with a look back at the dubious accomplishments of the Barck Obama Presidency. He has been gone for six months so it is a time to categorize his “accomplishments” and really see what a horrid presidency and unimaginable political class insanity he left behind, with much of the following information gathered by Kirsters Baish from the National Review:

1. First President to preside over a cut to the credit-rating of the United States by a major credit rating agency..
2. First President to violate the War Powers Act and the Constitution, with his illegal, immoral, and un-Constitutional intrusion into the Libyan civil war.
3. First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico by a sitting Federal judge.
4. First President to run roughshod over current and established bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.
5. First President to bypass Congress and implement legislation, i.e., the Dream Act, through executive fiat, legislation that was never enacted by Congress.
6. First President to create a secret amnesty program without the approval of Congress that halted the deportation of illegal immigrants including those with criminal convictions.
7. First President to unilaterally and un-Constitutionally change dates and deadlines in a passed piece of legislation (Obama Care) without the approval of Congress.
8. First President to order a CEO of a major corporation (Chrysler) to resign.
9. First President to kill off America’s ability to put a man in space, handing that responsibility over to the Russians.
10. First President to cancel the National Day of Prayer while claiming America is no longer a Christian nation.
11. First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.
12. First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law (DOMA) unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.
13. First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly spoke out on the reasons for their rate increases in order to protect the disaster known as Obama Care.
14. First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state it is allowed to locate a factory in order to satisfy his union supporters.
15. First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect simply because they disagreed with some of his inane programs: Arizona, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana.
16. First President to side with a foreign nation over one of the American 50 states (Mexico vs Arizona).
17. First President to tell the military men and women that they should pay for their own private insurance because they “volunteered to go to war and knew the consequences” but was more than eager to give taxpayer funded health insurance to illegal immigrants.
18. Then he was the First President to tell the members of the military that THEY were UNPATRIOTIC for balking at the last suggestion.
19. First President to allow Iran to inspect their own nuclear weapons facilities.
20. First President to have blood on his hands from Benghazi to the assassinations of several police officers.
21. First President to trade five terrorists for an Army deserter and traitor.
22. First President to facilitate the Iranians acquisition of nuclear weapons capabilities.
23. First President to have a North Korean strategy called “strategic patience” which essentially meant doing nothing and allowing the North Korean nutcases eight unimpeded years to further develop nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver those weapons.
24. First President to run a trillion dollar annual budget deficit.
25. First President to run four trillion dollar annual budget deficits.
26. First President to drive the country’s national debt to GDP ratio over 100, up from a steady, stable, manageable, and long running 60% or so, endangering the fiscal survival of the country.
27. First President to give out billions of taxpayer dollars to Democratic Party supporters who operated alternative energy companies (e.g. Solyndra, A123, etc.) and get nothing in return for those dollars.
28. First President to create a major terrorist organization, ISIS, and then underestimate the ferocity and horrific nature of said terrorist organization.
29. First President to loudly proclaim a “Red Line” (in Syria and its use of chemical weapons) and then not back up the threat, allowing Russia to become a major player in Mideast affairs.
30. First President to bomb six Muslim countries in the same year, using over 20,000 bombs and missiles to make his point and killing and maiming hundreds, if not thousands of Muslims, and making current refugee situations worse.
31. First President to shred the Fourth Amendment by collecting the electronic communications of just about every American citizen without cause and without warrants.
32. First President to shred the First Amendment by using the Obama Care legislation to attack freedom of religion and weaponizing the IRS to attack freedom of speech.
33. First President to chase after and try to prosecute more government whistleblowers than all previous administrations combined.
34. First president to take time off to film a TV commercial for a comedian (George Lopez) TV show.
35. First President to waste time every year to extensively and publicly work on and publicly proclaim his picks for March Madness.
36. First President in almost 50 years to weaponize the IRS to attack Americans who disagreed with his policies.
37. First President in almost sixty years to play over 300 rounds of golf during his administration.
38. Likely the first President to spend over $100 million in taxpayer wealth for his lavish vacations to Hawaii and around the world.
39. First President to insult every Special Olympics kid in the world when he publicly proclaimed what his bowling skill was, “It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something."
40. First President to allow his Secretary of State to run a crime syndicate out of the State Department, trading U.S. government favors for personal enrichment.
41. First President to go to bed and then go to a political fundraiser while dozens of Americans were fighting for their lives at a U.S. consulate (Benghazi) in a foreign country.
42. First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.
43. First President to have a social security number from a state he had never lived in.
44. First President to formally authorize the assassination of an American citizen without due process of law.
45. First President to keep a dog trainer on taxpayer funded retainer for $102,000 a year.
46. First President to stand in front of the world, via the United Nations, and tell an outright lie, i.e. the Benghazi terror attack was caused by an obscure YouTube video.

It is amazing we survived the Obama administration from a fiscal, economic, integrity, foreign affairs, and freedom perspective. And today Democrats and liberals are besides themselves because Trump’s idiot son took a single, stupid meeting with a few Russians. Talk about bad priorities. 

More insanity early next month.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Retro 2 - The Obama Presidency - The End Of An Error - Violations Of The Constitution and Laws of the Land

We originally ran this post back in October at around the 100 day mark of the final days of the Obama Presidency. We ended up running about seven blog posts which did a deep dive into the activities, acomplishmentsand failures of this Presidency. We found very little in the way of accomplishments but dozens and dozens of cases of falures and disasters, from the economy to foreign affairs to the basic concept of integrity. We are going to rerun those post over the next week or so as we close in on an end of an error, the Obama Presidency.

Part 2, The Obama Presidency - The End Of An Error -Violations of The Constitution and Laws of The Land

As we near the end of the Obama Presidency, I thought it would be a good idea at the 100 day mark to review what he has done to and for this country over the past eight years. Before we do that, though, let me repeat my previous background statements on my past political actions:

• I have never voted for a Republican Presidential candidate in my life and I have been voting since the the Nixon era. 
• Until 2010, I have never voted for a Republican for national office in my life. 
• I am not affiliated with nor do I associate myself with the Republican Party, conservatives or people like Donald Trump. 

Okay, now that we understand where I am coming from, let me just say that in my opinion Barack Obama has been the most inept, most divisive, most narcissist and worst diplomat in my lifetime to reside in the White House. From the economy, to race relations, to the national debt, to foreign relations to government operations, to blatant disregard for existing laws and the Constitution, in just about any measure we are far worse off as a nation than prior to him coming into office.

We will breaking down the failures and disappointments of this administration into some broad categories that will take us a number of days to cover as we analyze“The Obama Presidency - The End Of An Error.” Yesterday, we reviewed the dozens of lies and broken promises of this President while today we will focus on:

Likely Unlawful and Un-Constitutional Actions Of The Obama Administration

Despite claiming to be a Constitutional scholar, I know of no President who violated more laws and tenets of the Constitution than President Obama: 

He led the United States into a major military action against the country of Libya, spending well over a billion dollars of taxpayer wealth and placing our armed forces in danger without the approval of Congress, violating the War Powers Act and Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.

He refused to fire James Clapper, a high ranking member of the President’s national security team after Clapper lied to Congress about how much electronic information the National Security Agency (NSA) was collecting on every American citizen, becoming an accessory after the fact in Clapper's lying to Congress.

He signed the latest NDAA legislation whose sections 1021 and 1022 allow for the indefinite detention of American citizens, without trial, who the government considers terrorist suspects until the vague “end of hostilities,” which violates the habeas corpus protection of American citizens under Article I Section 9 of the Constitution.

He personally signed off on the assassination of American citizens in foreign lands, e.g. the killing of American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki via a drone attack in Yemen, denying him and other citizens a fair trial by their peers, negating the rights, and lives, of al-Awlaki and at least three other American citizens, violating their right “to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” the Fourth Amendment, and the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution.

He has repeatedly and in varied ways denied members of our armed forces of their right to personally celebrate, follow, and take comfort in their personal Christian religion and faith, violating the First Amendment to the Constitution.

His administration’s development and deployment of the Fast and Furious gun running operation to supply weapons to violent Mexican drug cartels has violated any number of laws including:

• The illegal shipment of weapons to criminal organizations. 
• Violations of international treaties regarding illegal gun smuggling. 
• Abetting the violence of those cartels who used Fast and Furious weapons to kill innocent Mexican civilians and a U.S. border agent, Brian Terry. 
• Denying Congress and Congressional investigators access to pertinent Fast and Furious executive branch documents needed to investigate the alleged transgressions by claiming executive privilege. 

He unilaterally delayed the small business (SHOP) mandates from his own Obama Care legislation, without Congressional approval, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

He unilaterally delayed the employer mandates, without Congressional approval, from his own Obama Care legislation without Congressional, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

He allowed so-called "sancturary cities" to illegally protect illegal immigrants from arrest and deportation, in defiance of existing Federal laws, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

He unilaterally decided, without Congressional approval, that Obama Care enrollees in states using only the Federal health care exchange, i.e. those states that did not set up their own Obama Care exchange, would also be eligible for Obama Care subsidies, violating his own Obama Care legislation and violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

He unilaterally decided, without Congressional approval, that those personal insurance policies that insurance companies had to legally terminate as a result of Obama Care could indeed stay in effect, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

He unilaterally decided, without Congressional approval, to change out many more tenets and deadlines of the Obama Care legislation (e.g. delaying the caps on out of pocket medical expenses, waiving the income proof requirement for subsidies, waiving the criminal background checks on Obama Care navigators, etc.), violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

His administration has hassled, spied on, harassed, and threatened a multitude of journalists including, but not likely limited to, Bob Woodward, Lanny Davis, Fox News employees James Rosen and Mike Levine, Sheryl Atkinson, Audrey Hudson (whose home was ransacked by Department of Homeland Security armed personnel who confiscated her journalistic files despite serving a court order that was restricted to only looking for guns), Associated Press reporters, and others, violating their First Amendment rights.

When the Egyptian military staged a coup and overturned a democratically elected government, he refused to cut off aid to that military ruling junta as required by U.S. law, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

His administration allowed lucrative taxpayer funded financial credits to Congressional members and their staffs to pay for Obama Care policies in violation of the Obama Care legislation, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

His Obama Care legislation forced individuals, companies, and charities to violate their own religious beliefs relative to contraception and birth control, violating those citizens’ and organizations’ First Amendment rights.

He illegally made government appointments to high level government positions while the Senate was still in session, violating Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution.

He ignored the ruling of a Federal judge in Louisiana regarding the administration’s illegal moratorium on Gulf oil drilling, resulting in the following stinging rebuke from the judge:

“Each step the government took following the court’s imposition of a preliminary injunction showcases its defiance, Such dismissive conduct, viewed in tandem with the re-imposition of a second blanket and substantively identical moratorium, and in light of the national importance of this case, provide this court with clear and convincing evidence of the government’s contempt.”

His administration’s unparalleled invasion of citizens’ privacy via the warrantless and groundless interception and storage of just about every citizens’ electronic and other communications via the National Security agency and other government entities is a gross violation and insult to every citizens’ First and Fourth Amendment rights.

He unilaterally decided not to enforce the DOMA law, without Congressional approval, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

He illegally violated immigration laws by forbidding the deportation of illegal aliens, without the approval of Congress, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

His administration illegally used the IRS to harass and minimize the impact and activities of conservative and other contrary political action organizations, violating those citizens’ First Amendment rights.

He illegally created a “shadow government” by establishing a so-call “czar” system in order to bypass the Constitutionally required Congressional approvals of high ranking government positions, violating Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution. 

His administration violated existing laws by failing to produce a Federal budget proposal on time in four of the first five years of this administration, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

His administration illegally demanded monetary kickbacks (often exuberant kickbacks) from American organizations requesting government documents under the Freedom of Information Act, (FOIA), requests that by law have to be provided for free or for a very small processing cost, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

His administration demanded that the Ford Motor company stop showing a Ford television commercial that mentioned that its competitors, General Motors and Chrysler, had received Federal bailout money, a violation of the company’s First Amendment rights.

His administration coldly ignored the request for military help, help that was readily available, when the U.S. Benghazi consulate and nearby adjacent annex were under siege by terrorists, a siege that endangered the lives of about 24 American citizens and resulted in the unnecessary death of four of those brave citizens violating their pursuit of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

His administration illegally used resources of the Federal government to inhibit and harass companies (e.g. Gibson Guitar, Boeing’s planned move of jobs to South Carolina, etc.) whose political agenda did not line up with the President’s political agenda, abusing the power of his office and the executive branch for political gain, violating Section 2, Articles 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

His administration intentionally violated the WARN act by telling companies to not announce layoffs that were in compliance with the WARN Act prior to the 2012 Presidential election, promising to pay any fines incurred in the future with taxpayer money that those companies may incur as a result of violating the WARN as requested by the Obama administration.

He refused to fire Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States, after Holder testified before Congress that he was unaware that the Justice Department was harassing journalist James Rosen even though Holder had signed off on the harassing investigation, becoming an accessory after the fact of the crime.

His administration directly harassed and pressured insurance companies and insurance company executives not to publish or discuss the very disappointing number of people that had signed up for Obama Care insurance policies, violating their First Amendment rights.

His administration asked and/or forced contractors to disclose their political contributions before being allowed to bid on Federal contracts and projects, violating those contractors’ First Amendment rights.

He failed to fire Kathleen Sebelius after she violated the Hatch Law when she campaigned/endorsed a Democrat for office in North Carolina, becoming an accessory after the fact after the fact of the crime.

He allegedly told the EPA to unilaterally set emissions standards and bypass Congress, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

His destruction of citizens’ privacy via the massive and illegal spying of the National Security Agency and other government entities destroys the underpinnings of the Roe Vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling which was based on the principle of privacy. If this concept of privacy is destroyed by NSA and other government spying, i.e. if there is no privacy now in this country given that the government spies on every citizens’ electronic and other forms of communication, there is no right to an abortion in this country.

His administration violated the Federal Information Security Information Act (FISMA) by giving the Obama Care information systems infrastructure “authority to operate” even though it failed the required FISMA’s security control assessment.

According to a Federal judge’s ruling, his administration illegally tried to avoid disclosure of a foreign aid directive.

He allowed multiple high ranking members of his administration to use mutiple false email accounts in violation of Federal sunshine laws and regulations.

His administration illegally intruded into the General Motors bankruptcy proceedings to illegally rob General Motors bondholders of their due while protecting his politically friendly union interests.

His administration violated the Solyndra loan agreement and illegally moved an Obama financial political backer ahead of the Federal government and American taxpayer in the Solyndra bankruptcy proceedings, resulting in the American taxpayer getting less out of those proceedings than legally permissible.

Well over three dozen instances where this administration violated the law, the Constitution or judicial rulings. This gives you an idea how corrupt Washington has become that a President can violate so many laws and the Constitution and not get thrown out of office. More examples of the worst Presidency in my lifetime in the next few days.

Note: While the above list covers many of the most egregious examples of law breaking by this President, please go to the following link for dozens more of examples that have links to the original news stories that broke the infractions:

http://www.infowars.com/75-times-obama-broke-law-during-presidency/

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

July, 2015, Part 2, Politicians Say The Darndest Things: Presidential Edition

Ever so often we run a series of posts under the theme, “Politicians say the darndest things.” It is a parody of an old television show, “House Party,” where host Art Linkletter would ask simple questions of young kids and wait for their often funny responses. This segment of his show was called “Kids Say The Darndest Things.” 

Unfortunately when kids say silly or dumb things, it is funny. When politicians say silly or dumb things, there are usually serious ramifications across the land that often involve stupid laws, wasteful spending, self delusion of a politician’s intelligence or abilities, or a continued lack of faith that today’s politicians are smart enough to get anything right.

So let’s take a look at the latest darndest things that an American politician is saying, President Barack Obama. The President recently spoke in front of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and had the following words and quotes: 

“When I came into office, we were going through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. And over the last six and a half years, not only have we taken the unemployment rate from 10 percent down to 5.4, creating close to 13 million jobs, over five years of consecutive job growth — an all-time record; not only did the stock market double, helping people with 401(k)s make sure that their retirement accounts hadn’t been completely devastated; not only have we provided 16 million people with health care who didn’t have it before, and, by the way, driven health care inflation down to its lowest level in 50 years; not only have we doubled the production of clean energy, increased solar energy by 20 percent, reduced the pace of our carbon emissions, doubled fuel efficiency standards in cars, produced more traditional energy than ever before so that we’re weaning ourselves off of foreign oil and doing something about climate change, which is going to be a critical issue for Drew and Rachel’s daughter, and all our children and our grandchildren; but we did all that while cutting the deficit by two-thirds.”

“We’ve ended two wars. We have reestablished our alliances around the world in ways that make them stronger than they ever have been before. High school reading, high school graduation, college attendance — on almost every metric, the country is significantly better off than we were when I came into office.”

Yes, politicians say the darndest things and this President is the king of darndest things. Now, some of what he says is true in the above comments:

• The country was going through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
• He has reduced the unemployment rate from over 10% to just over 5% if one uses the increasingly obsolete U3 unemployment rate calculation.
• We have seen five years of job growth.
• The stock market has recovered nicely from the Great Recession.
• The country has reduced the amount of carbon emissions.
• We have likely increased the use of clean energy sources.

But a lot of what he says qualify for this rendition that politicians say the darndest things:

- Yes, we were in the middle of a great financial meltdown but a lot of that was do to Obama’s Democratic friends and allies over the years:

• http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2009/08/blame-game-part-2.html
• http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/05/who-really-caused-great-recession-part.html

- Yes, the U3 unemployment rate is down to 5% or so but the more realistic unemployment rate, the U6 rate, is still about 10%. This is the more realistic rate since bad economic policies and decisions from Washington have caused millions and millions of Americans to become too discouraged to even look for work, forcing them to drop out of the workforce, a reality not captured by the U3 unemployment rate.

- Yes, there has been five years of steady, if undramatic job growth, but those newly created jobs have either been mostly in low paying economic sectors that offer very little long term financial reward or have been part time jobs. Recent government economic data estimated that over 6 million Americans are stuck in part time jobs even though they would like full time employment. These two factors have resulted in anemic wage and household income growth since the recession ended.

- Yes, the stock market has recovered but tens of millions of Americans do not participate in the stock market so that aspect of the weak economic recovery does not even affect them. On a side note, the chairman of the board of Goldman Sachs, one of the investment banks that were likely a driving force that created the recession’s causes, recently became a billionaire as a result of the Obama administration’s economic policies.

- Yes, over 16 million Americans have gotten health insurance coverage as a result of Obama Care but according to a Rand Corporation study, about 8.5 million Americans lost their existing healthcare insurance as a result of Obama Care so the real net gain is about half of what Obama lays claim to. In addition, many of those that got insurance as a result of Obama Care not only signed up because Obama Care made their existing, preferred plans go away but they have to pay more for their new coverage while getting less coverage and less choices of medical care in return. In other words, quantity does not equal quality.

- Yes, the healthcare cost inflation curve may have been reduced but that trend started before Obama Care came into existence and underlying analyses of the cost trend show that many people are delaying healthcare costs, which also reduces the growth in costs. Not because they have insurance or because they are healthier but because they cannot afford their Obama Care insurance deductibles and co-pays, not because they got well. All of which still does not explain the Obama promise that healthcare insurance costs for the typical American family could go down by as much as $2,500 a year.

- Yes, usage of solar energy might be up a lot but the cost of achieving a 20% growth on a small base might not have been cost effective when you remember that this administration has already wasted tens of billions of taxpayer dollars on dozens of failed alternative energy projects, (e.g. Solyndra, Beacon, A123, etc.). Almost all of those wasted taxpayer dollars were paid out to Democratic Party donors and supporters, plain old crony capitalism that failed to provide an societal benefits in return.

- Yes, this administration did declare that car efficiency would double but that has nothing to do with reality. Saying it does not make it happen.

- Yes, this administration has been worried about climate change but as readers of this blog know, that is a probably a phony, power grab by the political class. Type in “I am a global warming doubter” in the search box above to find out why this is an empty suit claim and accomplishment.

- Yes, he withdrew American troops from two wars but he did not end them. He has rushed thousands of U.S. troops back into Iraq to fight ISIS even though his military advisers advised him not to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq back in 2011 just to satisfy a political campaign boast. Just this week the Pentagon reported that U.S. jets flying missions in Afghanistan killed a terrorist leader. Flying bombing runs seems contrary to the boast that he ended two wars. U.S. troops remain on the front lines of the war against the Taliban, that war has not ended.

- Our alliances are not stronger around the world. Relations with Russia and China are at the lowest levels in decades. We have ticked off our allies by spying on their leaders and governments. Former Middle East allies like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Gulf nations are looking to Russia and China for sources of weapons, a process that we used to own 100%. When the leaders of the six Persian Gulf nations were invited to a White House summit, more than half refused, with one leader going to a horse show in Britain rather than come to the summit. There is so much truth to the following statement regarding Obama’s foreign policy: “Our enemies no longer fear us and our allies no longer trust us.” 

- On almost every metric, the country is NOT better off when Obama came into office:

• The national debt level will likely double during his Presidency, placing severe financial and economic pressure on future generations.
• This administration has no plan on how to get runaway Federal government spending under control. 
• More than one in five American kids live below the poverty line, up significantly from when Obama took office.
• Long term unemployment levels are at record levels.
• The Federal government is obese, dysfunctional, and broken, wasting hundreds of billions of dollars every year due to waste and criminal fraud.
• Over 45 million Americans are still receiving Federal food assistance every month.
• This has become the most lawless administration ever, from Fast and Furious to IRS harassment of Obama’s political opponents to unilaterally changing laws without the consent of Congress to unwarranted spying on all communications of all Americans to selectively enforcing only the laws it likes (e.g. allowing sanctuary cities to exist, DOMA, etc.), to using executive orders to bypass Congress, etc., possibly destroying the Constitution and the rule of law for a long time in this country.
• Despite the economic tailwinds of an $800 billion economic stimulus program, energy procurement breakthroughs, and the Fed printing up trillions of paper dollars,this administration could manage only anemic economic growth over the past five years.
• There is no plan to fix Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, three Federal programs that are heading directly into financial insolvency in a very short time.
• There is still no plan to fix America’s under performing schools, seal our leaky borders, implement a coherent national energy plan, attack the true underlying root causes of our high healthcare costs, or finally tackle the plight of America’s poor besides keeping them addicted to government handouts and a life with no hope.
• If anything, race relations have deteriorated during this administration despite a long term trend to improving relations prior to this Presidency.

Yes, politicians say the darndest things, most of which are usually pure lies, pure spin, or pure delusions. You just have to scratch below the surface and look at facts, not rhetoric.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:www.loathemygovernment.comIt is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.Please visit the following sites for freedom:http://www.reason.com/http://www.cato.org/http://www.robertringer.com/

http://realpolichick.blogspot.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

The Failed Presidency of Barack Obama, Part 4: Abusing The Constitution and The Rule Of Law

We are spending week or so reviewing the performance and results of the Obama administration from a number of different perspectives. We will be covering some new ground besides reposting some previous reviews in different areas that we have done on this administration.

I will be honest upfront and tell you that I see very little positive coming out of this administration. I believe, based on the discussion that we will have over the next week or so, that this is the most inept, corrupt, illegal, and dysfunctional Presidential administration in my lifetime, worse even than the Carter administration. General categories of incompetence include the following broad categories:

• Promises not kept or that were originally never meant to be kept and were just deceptions from the start.
• Government functions that are dysfunctional, obese, inefficient, and ineffective but very expensive from a taxpayer perspective.
• Constitutional violations that are widespread and destructive.
• Law breaking by many different members of this administration that are widespread and destructive.
• Government spending that is out of control, threatening the fundamental existence of this country; economy and democracy.
• Major issues that have not been addressed in any strategic or tactical way, e.g. failing public education, leaky borders, a lots war on drugs, crumbling infrastructure, etc.
• A Presidential leadership team that would rather play golf, attend political fund raisers, appear in nonsensical videos, host athletic teams, and take worldwide and expensive vacations but not resolve ANY issue facing the country.

Now, before any readers get crazy partisan and start accusing me of a hatchet job, consider the following:

• I have never voted for a Republican for President in my life.
• Up until 2010, I had never voted for a Republican for national office in my life (I am over 60 years old). 
• Most of my votes through the decades for local, county, and state offices have not been Republican.

Thus, by no stretch of the imagination am I anti-Obama because I am a Republican. I am an American who has looked at the facts and realities of this Presidency, facts and realities that we will lay out over the next week, and have come to the conclusion that this has been the worst, most secretive, most ineffective, most destructive, and most illegal Presidential administration my lifetime and possibly in the country’s lifetime. As someone recently said, the Obama Presidency is a Presidency that Nixon aspired to from a corruption and illegality perspective, certainly not a compliment.

Yesterday we looked at the many email scandals of this administration where high ranking members of the government blatantly violated Federal law to conceal their activities from America. Two days ago we looked at the many,many broken promises,lies, and deceptions of this Presidency, rendering its integrity and ability to lead useless.

Over yesterday, today, and tomorrow we will be revisiting previous posts from early 2014 where we laid out over a hundred reasons why this Presidency is a failure and quite possibly impeachable. Even after these first five posts we will have more material and proof that this is likely the worst Presidential administration of all time, criminal, inept, and vindictive.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2014

Grounds For Impeachment, Part 2: The Obama Administration's Fire, Smoke, and Kindling Abuse Of The Constitution and the Rule of Law

Yesterday, we presented the first set of potential impeachment charges against President Obama for alleged crimes and violations of existing laws, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. That first set of allegations can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/01/grounds-for-impeachment-part-1-obama.html

That post followed three other posts where we laid out over 60 reasons and failures that do not rise to the levels worthy of impeachment and removal from office. The first post in that three part series can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/01/part-1-first-twenty-failures-of-obama.html

We reminded readers in those three posts that you cannot remove a President from office:

• For having ineffective and/or stupid policies. 
• For being ineffective in executing his duties of office. 
• For being arrogant, narcissistic, and pompous.
• For waging class warfare and dividing the nation into voting blocs.
• For lying about his past or his promises.
• For presiding over an economy where over 20 million Americans are under employed or unemployed and where almost 50 million Americans receive Federal government food assistance are not grounds for impeachment.
• For running up astronomical national debt levels so that the debt burden in the country is over $50,000 per person is not grounds for impeachment.
• For having an effective foreign policy strategy is not grounds for impeachment.
• For failing to rein in wasteful government spending is not grounds for impeachment.
• For lying about how things are or will be in the Presidential administration are not grounds for impeachment.
• For dissing our veterans in so many ways are not grounds for impeachment.

However, while those 60 or so failures are not grounds for impeachment and removal from office, there are numerous breeches of laws, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights that have emanated out of this Presidential administration. And it is those actions that we started reviewing yesterday and we will continue to review, discuss, and present today and tomorrow, actions that we believe warrant and require the Congress to institute impeachment proceedings against this President.

Our grounds for impeachment are to be presented in three categories:

1. Fire: obvious grounds for impeachment that require very little additional research and analysis before being presented to the Senate as articles of impeachment.
2. Smoke: probably grounds for impeachment that require some additional research and analysis before being presented to the Senate as articles of impeachment.
3. Kindling: possibly grounds for impeachment that require a lot of additional research and analysis before being presented to the Senate as articles of impeachment but if true, would easily end the current Presidential administration.

Today we continue with potential impeachable offenses in each of the “Fire” category and tomorrow we will conclude our impeachment discussion with the “Smoke” and “Kindling” categories:

The “Fire” reasons why President Obama should face impeachment proceedings, a continuing discussion that was started yesterday with the first five "fire" reasons:

6) He unilaterally delayed the small business (SHOP) mandates from his own Obama Care legislation, without Congressional approval, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

7) He unilaterally delayed the employer mandates, without Congressional approval, from his own Obama Care legislation without Congressional, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

8) He unilaterally decided, without Congressional approval, that Obama Care enrollees in states using only the Federal health care exchange, i.e. those states that did not set up their own Obama Care exchange, would also be eligible for Obama Care subsidies, violating his own Obama Care legislation and violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

9) He unilaterally decided, without Congressional approval, that those personal insurance policies that insurance companies had to legally terminate as a result of Obama Care could indeed stay in effect, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

10) He unilaterally decided, without Congressional approval, to change out many more tenets and deadlines of the Obama Care legislation (e.g. delaying the caps on out of pocket medical expenses, waiving the income proof requirement for subsidies, waiving the criminal background checks on Obama Care navigators, etc.), violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

11) His administration has hassled, spied on, harassed, and threatened a multitude of journalists including, but not likely limited to, Bob Woodward, Lanny Davis, Fox News employees James Rosen and Mike Levine, Sheryl Atkinson, Audrey Hudson (whose home was ransacked by Department of homeland Security armed personnel who confiscated her journalistic files despite serving a court order that was restricted to only looking for guns), Associated Press reporters, and others, violating their First Amendment rights.

12) When a the Egyptian military staged an coup and overturned a democratically elected government, he refused to cut off aid to that military ruling junta as required by U.S. law, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

13) His administration allowed lucrative taxpayer funded financial credits to Congressional members and their staffs to pay for Obama Care policies in violation of the Obama Care legislation, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

14) His Obama Care legislation forced individuals, companies, and charities to violate their own religious beliefs relative to contraception and birth control, violating those citizens’ and organizations’ First Amendment rights.

15) He illegally made government appointments to high level government positions while the Senate was still in session, violating Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution.

16) He ignored the ruling of a Federal judge in Louisiana regarding the administration’s illegal moratorium on Gulf oil drilling, resulting in the following stinging rebuke from the judge:

“Each step the government took following the court’s imposition of a preliminary injunction showcases its defiance, Such dismissive conduct, viewed in tandem with the re-imposition of a second blanket and substantively identical moratorium, and in light of the national importance of this case, provide this court with clear and convincing evidence of the government’s contempt.”

17) His administration’s unparalleled invasion of citizens’ privacy via the warrantless and groundless interception and storage of just about every citizens’ electronic and other communications via the National Security agency and other government entities is a gross violation and insult to every citizens’ First and Fourth Amendment rights.

18) He unilaterally decided not to enforce the DOMA law, without Congressional approval, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

19) He illegally violated immigration laws by forbidding the deportation of illegal aliens, without the approval of Congress, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

20) His administration illegally used the IRS to harass and minimize the impact and activities of conservative and other contrary political action organizations, violating those citizens’ First Amendment rights.

21) He illegally created a “shadow government” by establishing a so-call “czar” system in order to bypass the Constitutionally required Congressional approvals of high ranking government positions, violating Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution. 

22) His administration violated existing laws by failing to produce a Federal budget proposal on time in four of the first five years of this administration, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

23) His administration illegally demanded monetary kickbacks (often exuberant kickbacks) from American organizations requesting government documents under the Freedom of Information Act, (FOIA), requests that by law have to be provided for free or for a very small processing cost, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

24) His administration demanded that the Ford Motor company stop showing a Ford television commercial that mentioned that its competitors, General Motors and Chrysler, had received Federal bailout money, a violation of the company’s First Amendment rights.

25) His administration coldly ignored the request for military help, help that was readily available, when the U.S. Benghazi consulate and nearby adjacent annex were under siege by terrorists, a siege that endangered the lives of about 24 American citizens and resulted in the unnecessary death of four of those brave citizens violating their pursuit of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

26) His administration illegally used resources of the Federal government to inhibit and harass companies (e.g. Gibson Guitar, Boeing’s planned move of jobs to South Carolina, etc.) whose political agenda did not line up with the President’s political agenda, abusing the power of his office and the executive branch for political gain, violating Section 2, Articles 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

27) His administration intentionally violated the WARN act by telling companies to not announce layoffs that were in compliance with the WARN Act prior to the 2012 Presidential election, promising to pay any fines Act in the future with taxpayer money those companies may incur as a result of violating the WARN as requested by the Obama administration.

28) His administration violated the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 by illegally allowing able bodied welfare recipients not to fulfill the weekly work requirements of that legislation.

That's enough for today, 28 pretty good slam dunk reasons why impeachment proceedings and eventually removal from office proceedings should commence for this Presidential administration. 

But we are not done. Tomorrow we will present dozens of other likely reasons for impeachment, reasons that may not be quite as strong as these 28 but strong enough to warrant investigation and probable inclusion in the eventual final list of charges. As you will see both today and tomorrow, we are witnessing the most lawless Presidential administration in the history of our nation, an administration that needs to be stopped.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Part 4, Why The Obama Adminsitration Deserves The Ranking As The Worst Presidency Since 1945

A recent public opinion poll conducted by Quinnipiac University, a traditional and unbiased source of public opinion, asked a sample of Americans who they thought operated the worst Presidency since 1945. Barack Obama won a plurality of votes in that poll for being the worst U.S. President since 1945. 33% of respondents named him as the worst President over the past seven decades with George W, Bush finishing second at 28%. 

Both of them far outpolled who I generally consider the two worst Presidents of the past hundred years, Jimmy Carter (8%) for being a President who was clueless and totally ineffective, and Richard Nixon (13%) for simply being a vindictive crook. America has to be pretty disgusted with your Presidential administration when you are mentioned 2-4 more times than either Carter or Nixon as the worst president since 1945.

Over the next few days we are going to explore the overwhelming number of reasons while this result for President Obama is not only rational but is well deserved. Before anyone starts with their counter arguments or disputing my list of Obama policy failures, criminal acts, economic ignorance, violations of the Constitution, and broken promises, keep in mind the following facts:

• I have never voted for a Republican for President in my life and I am over 60 years old.
• Up until November, 2010, I had never voted for a Republican for national office.
• In the first two years of his Presidency, Obama’s party was in control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate with filibuster proof majorities in both places, I.e. he could have done anything he wanted politically and legislatively without any assist from any Republican.
• I am not saying that anyone else would have resolved all of the issues listed below but it is difficult to think that at least some of these issues would have been resolved by people such as Truman, Kennedy, or Reagan. The Obama Presidency has been so bad that just about every issue and problem listed below is actually far WORST rather than BETTER since the onset of the Obama administration.
• Consider an old saying: “Don’t tell me how rough the seas were, just tell me you brought the boat safely into the harbor.” In other words, a true leader takes the blame and gives the credit. No one forced Obama to become President, he knew the situation he was getting into. He should be judged on how well he managed the situation he inherited going forward. Unfortunately, instead of leadership and looking forward, he chose instead to whine, look backwards, and to blame others for his failures rather than focusing on moving forward from whatever adverse situation he inherited.

Okay, so that sets out the preliminaries: I am not a conservative, a Republican, or a neocon trying to tear down this President. This President could have done anything he wanted in the first two years of his tenure, he cannot blame the Republicans for blocking anything he failed at since he had a historic window of political opportunity. Instead of leveraging the window and leading the country, he chose to blame the previous President, the Japanese tsunami, ATM machines, and a whole host of other factors in the absence of Presidential leadership.

Thus, without any further delay and in no particular order, consider the following, next set of reasons why the Quinnipiac public opinion poll is probably an accurate view of why America rates the Obama administration as the worst Presidential administration in the past 70 years or so. Beware that these reasons carry a lot more weight than the first 62 reeasons we discussed over the past three days. Those reasons deal with Presidential administration indifference, incompetence, and vindictiveness. The following 60 reasons discussing why this is deservedly ranked as the worst administration since 1945 points out the many, many instances of Presidential behavior that are truly grounds for impeachment and removal from office:

63) President Obama led the United States into a major military action against the country of Libya, spending well over a billion dollars of taxpayer wealth and placing our armed forces in danger without the approval of Congress, violating the War Powers Act and Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.

64) He refused to fire James Clapper, a high ranking member of the President’s national security team after Clapper lied to Congress about how much electronic information the National Security Agency (NSA) was collecting on every American citizen, becoming an accessory after the fact in Clapper's lying to Congress.

65) He signed the latest NDAA legislation whose sections 1021 and 1022 allow for the indefinite detention of American citizens, without trial, who the government considers terrorist suspects until the vague “end of hostilities,” which violates the habeas corpus protection of American citizens under Article I Section 9 of the Constitution.

66) He personally signed off on the assassination of American citizens in foreign lands, e.g. the killing of American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki via a drone attack in Yemen, denying him and other citizens a fair trial by their peers, negating the rights, and lives, of al-Awlaki and at least three other American citizens, violating their right “to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” the Fourth Amendment, and the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution.

67) He has repeatedly and in varied ways denied members of our armed forces to their right to personally celebrate, follow, and take comfort in their personal Christian religion and faith, violating the First Amendment to the Constitution.

68) His administration’s development and deployment of the Fast and Furious gun running operation to supply weapons to violent Mexican drug cartels has violated any number of laws including:

• The illegal shipment of weapons to criminal organizations. 
• Violations of international treaties regarding illegal gun smuggling. 
• Abetting the violence of those cartels who used Fast and Furious weapons to kill innocent Mexican civilians and a U.S. border agent, Brian Terry. 
• Denying Congress and Congressional investigators access to pertinent Fast and Furious executive branch documents needed to investigate the alleged transgressions by claiming executive privilege.

These actions ignore and/or break existing laws and thus, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

69) He unilaterally delayed the small business (SHOP) mandates from his own Obama Care legislation, without Congressional approval, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

70) He unilaterally delayed the employer mandates, without Congressional approval, from his own Obama Care legislation without Congressional, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

71) He unilaterally decided, without Congressional approval, that Obama Care enrollees in states using only the Federal health care exchange, i.e. those states that did not set up their own Obama Care exchange, would also be eligible for Obama Care subsidies, violating his own Obama Care legislation and violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

72) He unilaterally decided, without Congressional approval, that those personal insurance policies that insurance companies had to legally terminate as a result of Obama Care could indeed stay in effect, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

73) He unilaterally decided, without Congressional approval, to change out many more tenets and deadlines of the Obama Care legislation (e.g. delaying the caps on out of pocket medical expenses, waiving the income proof requirement for subsidies, waiving the criminal background checks on Obama Care navigators, etc.), violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

74) His administration has hassled, spied on, harassed, and threatened a multitude of journalists including, but not likely limited to, Bob Woodward, Lanny Davis, Fox News employees James Rosen and Mike Levine, Sheryl Atkinson, Audrey Hudson (whose home was ransacked by Department of homeland Security armed personnel who confiscated her journalistic files despite serving a court order that was restricted to only looking for guns), Associated Press reporters, and others, violating their First Amendment rights.

75) When a the Egyptian military staged an coup and overturned a democratically elected government, he refused to cut off aid to that military ruling junta as required by U.S. law, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

76) His administration allowed lucrative taxpayer funded financial credits to Congressional members and their staffs to pay for Obama Care policies in violation of the Obama Care legislation, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

77) His Obama Care legislation forced individuals, companies, and charities to violate their own religious beliefs relative to contraception and birth control, violating those citizens’ and organizations’ First Amendment rights. 

78) He illegally made government appointments to high level government positions while the Senate was still in session, violating Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution. 

79) He ignored the ruling of a Federal judge in Louisiana regarding the administration’s illegal moratorium on Gulf oil drilling, resulting in the following stinging rebuke from the judge: 

“Each step the government took following the court’s imposition of a preliminary injunction showcases its defiance, Such dismissive conduct, viewed in tandem with the re-imposition of a second blanket and substantively identical moratorium, and in light of the national importance of this case, provide this court with clear and convincing evidence of the government’s contempt.” 

80) His administration’s unparalleled invasion of citizens’ privacy via the warrantless and groundless interception and storage of just about every citizens’ electronic and other communications via the National Security Agency and other government entities is a gross violation and insult to every citizens’ First and Fourth Amendment rights. 

81) He unilaterally decided not to enforce the DOMA law, without Congressional approval, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

82) He illegally violated immigration laws by ignoring certain aspects of standing immigration law and forbidding the deportation of illegal aliens, without the approval of Congress, violating Article II, Sections 3 and 4 of the Constitution. 

83) His administration illegally used the IRS to harass and minimize the impact and activities of conservative and other contrary political action organizations, violating those citizens’ First Amendment rights.

84) He secretly exchnaged five high ranking Taliban terrorists for one Army deserter without notifying Congress at least thirty days in advance of such a transacton, violating a law that he himself signed several years ago.

The reasons listed out today are much more serious than what we had been discussing up to this point. These reasons fall into the spectrum of illegal activities and impeachable offenses, probably even stronger reasons why law abiding and Consitution loving Americans continue to downgrade this Presidency to a point where a plurality of them rank it as the worst since 1945.

And the truly depressing news, we still have another set of reasons to review tomorrow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w