Posted on 07/28/2012 5:36:24 AM PDT by marktwain
In a speech to the Urban League in New Orleans on Wednesday, President Obama decried daily urban gun violenceequal in toll, he said, to an Aurora, Colo., mass shooting every daybut he glossed over what gun-control advocates say is his own record of failing to use existing executive power to tighten access to the deadliest firearms.
Theres talk of new reforms, and theres talk of new legislation, Obama told the Urban League, setting the table for a dont-blame-me-blame-Congress explanation for policy drift. And, too often, those efforts are defeated by politics and by lobbying and eventually by the pull of our collective attention elsewhere.
Gun-control proponents and dozens of congressional Democrats vehemently disagree. Although Obama cant take action that would have prevented the Batman movie shootings, the president has all the power he needs right nowas well as a precedent set by a Republican predecessorto crack down on some assault-weapon sales. And Obama, despite three years of pleas from these Democrats, is not using it.
The president could make three moves:
1. Allow law-enforcement agencies to confiscate more assault weapons like the AR-15 rifle used in the Aurora shootings by reinstituting a tighter definition of sporting purposes when inspecting assault weapons for import. President George H.W. Bush did this in 1989 to ban the import of assault weapons, using powers under the Gun Control Act of 1968, which stipulated that legal rifles had to be suitable for sporting purposes. Bush acted after a serial criminal killed five schoolchildren and wounded 29 others with an AK-47 assault rifle on Jan. 27, 1989, in Stockton, Calif.
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This article appeared in the Saturday, July 28, 2012 edition of National Journal.
Major is a left wing Axelrod front man .
I suspect he got axed at Fox and ended up at this left wing site based on
Obama Axelrod AstroTurf like this .
The same liberals who howled at President Bush’s use of executive orders now encourage President Obama to use them even more.
Liberal hypocrisy on display, folks!
“The same liberals who howled at President Bushs use of executive orders now encourage President Obama to use them even more.
Liberal hypocrisy on display, folks!”
______
It is the one thing they excel at more than anything else.
President Obama decried daily urban gun violence.
It’s blacks who are committing the gun crimes against themselves.
I used to care but after the last couple years of Obama’s racial rhetoric, black congressional congress blaming EVERYONE but themselves , the Knock out game, beat whitey night etc, I have had enough.
Flood the inner cities with AK 47’s and let them commit self genocide.
JMO..
In all fairness, it is essential that a future conservative presidential candidate do something that goes against the grain, to work with congress to diminish the unconstitutional powers that have been gradually taken by the presidents for pragmatic reasons.
1) The most unconstitutional of these is the Presidential Signing Statement, which steals both legislative and judicial powers. With its use, presidents both say how they choose to interpret laws passed by congress, and what parts they intend to enforce, and what parts they intend to ignore.
2) There is a litany of other powers, such as Presidential Proclamations used to steal vast amounts of state lands; Executive Orders in contravention of the constitution, and which often focus on the emergency seizure of dictatorial powers by the president after his declaration of a national emergency; and the refusal of the president to honor either the War Powers Act or the Posse Comitatus Act.
In the Supreme Court case of Marbury v. Madison (1810), the president rejected the idea that the court could issue a Writ of Mandamus, forcing him to act. However, congress and the courts must assert their authority in *preventing* the president from acting, in ways other than impeachment.
3) The end of the appointment of “Czars”, not approved by the US senate. The way of doing this is a law that all executive branch orders must be “signed off” by confirmed cabinet officers, who can also be impeached, though only one ever has been.
4) Congress needs to clarify that ALL treaties must be approved by the senate, and that there are no “binding agreements” the president can make that are “below the status of a treaty”, so can evade senate approval.
5) A conservative POTUS should also save a month of government time by returning to the old tradition of issuing a written State of the Union address to congress, instead of the wasteful dog & pony show it is today.
6) Finally, that congress establish reasonable limits on the time wasting, ceremonial actions performed by the president. Instead, the POTUS should approve a “Master of Ceremonies” or the like, as his representative to such events. And instead of international junkets to meet with foreign leaders, he should send his Secretary of State.
And to think I hated to see Major Garrett leave FOX..
It must be difficult to wake up not knowing what you stand for from one day to the next!
What was the actual executive order because I cannot seem to find it in the Federal Register?
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