Posted on 04/10/2009 10:33:06 PM PDT by kellynla
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"?
Real Americans don’t bow to anyone. Nor do we apologise to the World for being the greatest nation in the World.
Odooma is a disgrace. A bumbling incompetent.
Barack Hussein Obama, in my opion, is an enemy of the
United States.
ISLAM ISNT IN AMERICA TO BE EQUAL TO ANY OTHER FAITH, BUT TO BECOME DOMINANT. The Koran ... should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth. Everthing we need to know is in the Koran. We dont need to look somewhere else. OMAR M. AHMAD, CHAIRMAN OF CAIR, the mainsteam Muslim advocacy group.
Quote from Barack Obamas book, Dreams Of My Father:
THE PERSON WHO MADE ME PROUDEST OF ALL, THOUGH, WAS MY [half brother], ROY..HE CONVERTED TO ISLAM.
From Dreams of my Father, IN INDONESIA, I SPEND TWO YEARS AT A MUSLIM SCHOOL ..I STUDIED THE KORAN..
From Audacity of Hope: LOLO (Obamas step father) FOLLOWED ISLAM....I LOOKED TO LOLO FOR GUIDANCE.
From The Audacity Of Hope, I WILL STAND WITH THEM (MUSLIMS) SHOULD THE POLITICAL WINDS OF WAR SHIFT IN AN UGLY DIRECTION..
From The Audacity Of Hope, WE ARE NO LONGER JUST A CHRISTIAN NATION, we are also a Jewish nation, a MUSLIM NATION, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.
http://www.examiner.com/a-534540~Can_a_past_of_Islam_change_the_path_to_president_for_Obama_.html?cid=dc-article-obama
http://www.examiner.com/a-536474~_Trapped_between_two_worlds_.html
In an interview with the New York Times, published on April 30th, Maya Soetoro-Ng, Obamas younger half sister, told the Times, My whole family was Muslim, and most of the people I knew were Muslim.
Obama describes his new found Christian faith as: (1) Suspicious of dogma (2) Without any monopoly on the truth (3) Nontransferable to others (4) Infused with a big healthy dose of doubt, and (5) Indulgent of and compatible with all other religions.
On February 27th, speaking to Kristof of The New York Times, Barack Hussein Obama said the Muslim call to prayer is one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.
In an interview with Nicholas Kristof, published in The New York Times, Obama recited the Muslim call to prayer, the Adhan, with a first-class [Arabic] accent.
The opening lines of the Adhan (Azaan) is the Shahada:
Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that Muhammad is his prophet?
According to Islamic scholars, reciting the Shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith, makes one a Muslim. This simple yet profound statement expresses a Muslims complete acceptance of, and total commitment to, the message of Islam. Obama chanted it with pride and finesse.
He is a puppet and a
street thug pimp.
I am expressing my opinion, which is my right under the
First Amendment.
That I must express this sentiment is an expression of my
lack of trust in my Government at this time.
If I posted what I truely believe about Obubba and his government on here I would probably be banned from FR.
But my opinion comes from my heart and my love for America and our Constitution.
I understand.
It is a shame we have to express ourselves this way.
This is all un-American!!
Good night, FRiend.
‘Europe's leading role in the world”...yeah, we've seen what that is...get the United States to bail us out, that's always their contingency plan.
Frankly, I'm tired of all of this. It's time for Freemen to stand up against the tyrants, while we are still free.
Or, we would have the alphabets knocking down our doors.
I share your love for our Nation and our Constitution and it is frustrating beyond words to see this illegitimate usurper destroy both with impunity.
Good read, BTTT!
Thanks for the post.
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."Question for The Kenyan, Ruth Buzzy Ginsberg, this asshat Koh and the rest of their ilk....
Most countries in the world, and members of the U.N. Ban AbortionHow's that fit into your 'internationalist law' thingy? Not to mention they also execute Homosexuals. But hey, that's another matter and I don't want your heads to explode.
I thought I would feel pain at being in the end time of my life - but the past year of pre-election hatred and now this - after carefully choosing and hoping and studying to become a member of this great nation before I succumbed - I see what the people have chosen.
I rejoice for myself in that I will not have to endure too many years of seeing the United States of America lose all she has sacrificed for, all her people have built with compassion, becoming a leading light on the paths of destiny for so many, opening the fruitful doors of democracy and peace to be ripped apart by so few so quickly, given away as if she has meant nothing in the
history of mankind.
I weep.
It’s a shame that the people of Penn. turned this good man out of office.
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