Author Topic: An unconscionable silence  (Read 630 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Online Bigun

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 51,331
  • Gender: Male
  • Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God
    • The FairTax Plan
An unconscionable silence
« on: February 20, 2014, 05:29:27 pm »
An unconscionable silence

   

By Judge Andrew P. Napolitano
Published February 20, 2014
FoxNews.com

The political philosopher Edmund Burke once remarked that all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good folks to do nothing. A glaring example of the impending triumph of a constitutional evil that could be stopped by folks who have been largely silent is the tyranny coming from the White House. And the folks who can stop this and are doing nothing about it are our elected representatives in Congress.

The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. It established the three branches of government, and it delegated “all legislative powers” to Congress. American law rarely uses the word “all.” Yet the Framers chose that word precisely to confine law writing to Congress and to prevent a president from altering federal law by the selective manner of his enforcement of it and thereby effectively rewriting it.
The same Framers sought to guard against the same evils by compelling the president to swear at the commencement of his terms in office that he will “faithfully” enforce the laws.

    These are dangerous times because this is a lawless presidency and a pliant Congress.

The use of the word “faithfully,” like the use of the word “all,” is intended to assure voters that they can count on a president who will do the job they hired him to do by enforcing federal laws, not evading them, and by enforcing them as Congress has written them, not as the president might wish them to be.

To be fair, many presidents, from the sainted Thomas Jefferson to the tyrannical FDR, put their own spin on federal law. Jefferson pardoned all those convicted under the Alien and Sedition Acts because he hated a statute that punished free speech and he boasted that he would not enforce that part of the acts (they expired under his watch). And FDR when barely two weeks in office issued an executive order criminalizing the possession of gold because he foolishly thought it would stabilize the banks, until an adviser reminded him that only Congress can write criminal laws (which he then persuaded Congress to do). Yet in President Obama we have a president whose personal interferences in the enforcement of federal laws reveal his view that he can rewrite them and even nullify them.

Presidential law writing violates the presidential oath of office, steals power from Congress, disrespects an equal branch of the government and, when unchecked, accumulates such power in the executive branch that it effectively transforms the president into a menacing tyrant who rejects his constitutional obligations and limitations.

Obama bombed Libya without a declaration of war from Congress. This arguably brought down the Gadhafi government, which led to the current state of lawlessness there, which produced the environment in which our ambassador was murdered in Benghazi in 2012 and established a dangerous precedent because Congress remained officially silent.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/02/20/unconscionable-silence/?intcmp=HPBucket
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Online Bigun

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 51,331
  • Gender: Male
  • Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God
    • The FairTax Plan
Re: An unconscionable silence
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2014, 05:30:01 pm »
Right on Judge! RIGHT ON!
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Offline Millee

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,076
  • Gender: Female
Re: An unconscionable silence
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2014, 05:40:48 pm »
These are dangerous times because this is a lawless presidency and a pliant Congress.

And a silent press.  **nononono*

Offline aligncare

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 25,916
  • Gender: Male
Re: An unconscionable silence
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2014, 06:03:23 pm »
 goopo

Yep. "Can I get you a pillow, Mr. Pres."

Offline olde north church

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5,117
Re: An unconscionable silence
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2014, 07:55:57 pm »
I wonder why he is no longer on the Bench in NJ.  He should be Chief Justice here.
Why?  Well, because I'm a bastard, that's why.

Offline truth_seeker

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 28,386
  • Gender: Male
  • Common Sense Results Oriented Conservative Veteran
Re: An unconscionable silence
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2014, 08:23:25 pm »
Some congressmen need to get some meaningful cases into courts. More action and less talk.
"God must love the common man, he made so many of them.�  Abe Lincoln

Offline Rapunzel

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 71,613
  • Gender: Female
Re: An unconscionable silence
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2014, 11:17:00 pm »
Some congressmen need to get some meaningful cases into courts. More action and less talk.

No standing.
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline Right_in_Virginia

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 79,320
Re: An unconscionable silence
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2014, 11:58:46 pm »
Good read .... thanks for posting.