Posted on 04/09/2009 7:12:18 AM PDT by greyfoxx39
Watching President Obama apologize last week for America's arrogance - before a French audience that owes its freedom to the sacrifices of Americans - helped convince me that he has a deep-seated antipathy toward American values and traditions. His nomination of former Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh to be the State Department's top lawyer constitutes further evidence of his disdain for American values.
This seemingly obscure position in Foggy Bottom's bureaucratic maze is one of the most important in any administration, shaping foreign policy in the courts and playing a critical role in international negotiations and treaties.
Let's set aside Koh's disputed comments about the possible application of Sharia law in American jurisprudence. The pick is alarming for more fundamental reasons having to do with national sovereignty and constitutional self-governance.
What is indisputable is that Koh calls himself a "transnationalist." He believes U.S. courts "must look beyond national interest to the mutual interests of all nations in a smoothly functioning international legal regime. ..." He thinks the courts have "a central role to play in domesticating international law into U.S. law" and should "use their interpretive powers to promote the development of a global legal system."
Koh's "transnationalism" stands in contrast to good, old-fashioned notions of national sovereignty, in which our Constitution is the highest law of the land. In the traditional view, controversial matters, whatever they may be, are subject to democratic debate here. They should be resolved by the American people and their representatives, not "internationalized." What Holland or Belgium or Kenya or any other nation or coalition of nations thinks has no bearing on our exercise of executive, legislative, or judicial power.
Koh disagrees. He would decide such matters based on the views of other countries or transnational organizations - or, rather, those entities' elites.
Unsurprisingly, Koh is a strong supporter of the International Criminal Court, which could subject U.S. soldiers and officials to foreign criminal trials for their actions while fighting for our security. He has recommended that American lawyers work to "undermine" official American opposition to the court.
If only Koh's transnationalism ended there. Our Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment? Koh believes it should be reinterpreted in light of foreign and international law to pay "decent respect to the opinions of humankind."
Old fogies like me believe we ought to pay more attention to the opinions of the Founders who wrote the Constitution and the people who have lived under it. If Americans want to end the death penalty, they can do so through their elected state representatives.
If foreign opinions trump those of Pennsylvanians on capital punishment, why not on other issues? Why not, indeed: Koh thinks "international comity" trumps American sovereignty. He believes that, since certain nations recognize a right to same-sex marriage, our courts should, too. He wrote that "the principles of human dignity and autonomy that are the essence of the modern right-protecting democracy demand that civil marriage be available to all couples and that the equality of all citizens triumph over historical attitudes."
What's beneath this legal jargon? Simply this: Even if marriage in Pennsylvania has always been understood as involving one man and one woman - even if Pennsylvanians, through referendum or constitutional amendment, decide it should remain so - none of that should count. What should count are the views of courts in other nations or international bodies.
"I'd rather have [Supreme Court Justice Harry] Blackmun, who used the wrong reasoning in Roe to get the right results," Koh wrote of the landmark abortion case, "and let other people figure out the right reasoning."
Stunning and revealing: Koh tells us it doesn't matter if the right to abortion can be found in the Constitution. In fact, he concedes that Blackmun's reasoning was wrong. But it is up to others to get it right. How? By finding out what the United Nations, European Union, or particular European nations think.
Koh tops the list of Obama's potential Supreme Court nominees. Is this what Sen. John Kerry meant when he once suggested that American policy must pass a "global test"? Or what Barack Obama meant when he said last week that we have failed to "appreciate Europe's leading role in the world"? Or when he spoke of "change we can believe in"? And just who are "we"?
Good scripture verse. We DO need to repent as a country. Israel often refused to repent in the OT and suffered the consequences.
And just what would you expect of a Kenyan Muslim who spent his formative years in Indonesia and then was taken under the wing of radical Communist in his teens?
Why is any of this a surprise to anyone?
Obama has a deep-seated antipathy toward American values and traditions
I agree, because he was not raised here, educated here, or been exposed to patriotic love of America. 0 doesn’t understand we Americans.
Just reading Judges now...
full of falling away, mostly because of “false tolerance” of totally corrupt cultures (Canaanites) and taking on their religions and their traditions & culture,
followed by captivity,
followed by crying out to God,
followed by a judge sent to free them,
followed by years of prosperity,
followed by falling away,
repeat cycle.
http://www.martindale.com/Harold-H-Koh/328512-lawyer.htm
Lawyer Profile: Harold H. Koh
Harold H. Koh
Yale Univ.
P.O. Box 208215
New Haven, Connecticut
(New Haven Co.)
Profile Visibility
#199 in weekly profile views out of 1,060 lawyers in New Haven, Connecticut
#150,754 in weekly profile views out of 938,109 total lawyers Overall
Experience & Credentials
Education Harvard University, J.D., Harvard University, B.A.
Admitted 1981
ISLN 905794646
All options must stay on the table when one faces tyrany!
Maybe Lon Horiuchi can put a quick end to all this nonsense by killing the hostage with one well placed shot.
Nope. They had no clue what the difference between capitalism and socialism is according to this poll.
[FR thread] Just 53% of Americans Say Capitalism Better Than Socialism
He only lived abroad for 4 years.
Well, we got December 21, 2012 going for us...
In seriousness, I think that if 2010 doesn't go well, the United States of America will no longer be.
I'm concerned for my children. I have had 40 years. If I make 50, I'll be happy. I want better than what's in store, however, for my children. They'll be the ones who suffer the most if America fails.
He was heavily influenced by this man:
Frank Marshall Davis, alleged Communist, was early influence on Barack Obama
I don’t think 2010 is going to do us any good. I don’t seem the ‘Pubbies getting any traction or developing any leadership.
DRAM
Isnt that something to do with booze ???
You have really said here, all that needs to be said. All talk in the world has about as much power as using a ping pong ball for a cue in billiards.. the rack ain’t gonna budge! Anyway, I completely agree with you.. good post!
>”I’d rather have [Supreme Court Justice Harry] Blackmun, who used the wrong reasoning in Roe to get the right results,” Koh wrote of the landmark abortion case, “and let other people figure out the right reasoning.”
There’s a term for when wrong reasoning produces correct results: “coincidental”. Wrong reasoning CANNOT be counted upon to produce correct results, ever.
That’s what I think. obama needs to be in a psychiatrist’s office working out his identity crisis about being white, but looking black (or whatever else his problem is).
Instead he keeps getting positive reinforcement on this American Idol-type stage in this odd search for his meaning and identity at our expense.
Every criticism of the U.S. exposes his outlook on the world based on his crazy up-bringing.
Amen!
The common problem as I see it with this nomination, and virtually all others Obama has made, is the Ivy League background. In Obama’s narrow, ideological view, only people from the Ivy League are capable of running the US. Unfortunately for the rest of us, I don’t believe there is an individual who graduated from an Ivy League law school who could find his as* with both hands. These are seriously leftist indoctrinated, flawed people who believe they are all-knowing, starting with Obama.
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