While the world focuses its attention on the revolt against the dictator in Egypt, we’ve got an American president exhibiting his own dictatorial tendencies.
Over the past week, Obama’s signature “achievement,” the monstrous ObamaCare, was ruled unconstitutional by a second federal judge. In his opinion, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson stated that his declaratory judgment that the entire law be voided was a de facto injunction. In other words, without an administration request for a stay, Judge Vinson’s ruling stands. The federal and state governments should thus cease and desist. The current status of ObamaCare is that it’s been declared unconstitutional and all implementation must stop.
Obama’s reaction? “What? Did someone say something?”
As The Wall Street Journal reported this week, “The Obama administration said it has no plans to halt implementation of the law.” A senior administration official said, “We will continue to operate as we have previously.”
In other words: Up yours, judicial branch!
In another stunning example of the executive running roughshod over the judiciary, another federal judge, Martin Feldman in New Orleans, ruled this week that the Obama administration was in contempt for blowing off his ruling lifting the deepwater drilling moratorium. After the Deepwater Horizon spill, Obama halted offshore drilling. Feldman struck down the moratorium. Obama’s Interior Department went ahead with another moratorium, which was rescinded in October, but replaced with onerous new drilling safety rules. Feldman struck those down as well.
This week, the judge found that the Interior Department acted with “determined disregard” for his ruling when it deliberately reinstituted policies that restricted offshore drilling. “Each step the government took following the court’s imposition of a preliminary injunction showcases its defiance,” Feldman said in the ruling. “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,” Feldman said.
“The government’s contempt.” Wow.
Also, several weeks ago, Rep. Darrell Issa, the new Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent the Department of Homeland Security a Freedom of Information Act request for documents. Obama’s DHS blew him off. This was no mere oversight (pardon the pun). According to Issa, “I was disappointed to learn that on or about Jan. 20, 2011, DHS’s Office of General Counsel instructed career staff in the Privacy Office not to search for documents responsive to my request,” Issa says in the Feb. 1 letter.
Not content to disregard just the judicial branch, the executive branch is now actively disregarding the legislative branch too. Can you say “Constitutional trainwreck?”
For all of the legitimate criticisms leveled at Hosni Mubarak for his cavalier disregard of his people, we’ve got a similar thing going on right here. Constitution? Bah! Three co-equal branches of government? Please. Checks and balances? Don’t bother me.
The world is full of power-abusing pharoahs. But while everyone is focused on the one half a world away, we’ve got one of our own right here.
It’s President MuBarak Obama.