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Is the President Incompetent or Lawless?
Townhall.com ^ | July 31, 2014 | Judge Andrew Napolitano

Posted on 07/31/2014 5:15:00 AM PDT by Kaslin

It has been well established under the Constitution and throughout our history that the president's job as the chief federal law enforcement officer permits him to put his ideological stamp on the nature of the work done by the executive branch. The courts have characterized this stamp as "discretion."

Thus when exercising their discretion, some presidents veer toward authority, others toward freedom. John Adams prosecuted a congressman whose criticism brought him into disrepute, an act protected by the First Amendment yet punishable under the Alien and Sedition Acts, and Thomas Jefferson declined to enforce the Acts because they punished speech, and pardoned all those convicted. Jimmy Carter asserted vast federal regulatory authority over the trucking and airline industries, and Ronald Reagan undid nearly all of it.

The president has discretion to adapt law enforcement to the needs of the times and to his reading of the wishes of the American people. Yet that discretion has a serious and mandatory guiding light -- namely, that the president will do so faithfully.

The word "faithfully" appears in the oath of office that is administered to every president. The reason for its use is to assure Americans that their wishes for government behavior, as manifested in written law, would be carried out even if the president personally disagrees with the laws he swore to enforce.

This has not always worked as planned. President George W. Bush once famously signed into law a statute prohibiting federal agents without a search warrant from reading mail sent to persons other than themselves -- and as he was literally holding his pen, he stated he had no intention of enforcing it. That was a rejection of his presidential duties and a violation of his oath.

But today, President Obama has taken the concept of discretion and so distorted it, and has taken the obligation of faithful enforcement and so rejected it, that his job as chief law enforcer has become one of incompetent madness or chief lawbreaker. Time after time, in areas as disparate as civil liberties, immigration, foreign affairs and health care, the president has demonstrated a propensity for rejecting his oath and doing damage to our fabric of liberty that cannot easily be undone by a successor.

Item: He has permitted unconstitutional and unbridled spying on all Americans all the time, and he has dispatched his agents to lie and mislead the American people and their elected representatives in Congress about it. This has resulted in a federal culture in which the supposed servants of the people have become our permanent and intimate monitors and squealers on what they observe.

Item: He has permitted illegal immigrants to remain here and continue to break the law, and he has instructed them on how to get away with it. His encouragement has resulted in the flood of tens of thousands of foreign unaccompanied children being pushed across our borders. This has resulted in culture shock to children now used as political pawns, the impairment of their lives and the imposition of grievous financial burdens upon local and state governments.

Item: His agents fomented a revolution in Libya that resulted in the murder of that country's leader, the killing of the U.S. ambassador and the evacuation of the U.S. embassy. His agents fomented a revolution in Ukraine that resulted in a Russian invasion, an active insurgency, sham elections and the killing of hundreds of innocent passengers flying on a commercial airliner.

Item: He has dispatched CIA agents to fight undeclared and secret wars in Yemen and in Pakistan, and he has dispatched unmanned drones to kill innocents there. He has boasted that some secret reading of public positive law permits him to kill whomever he wishes, even Americans and their children.

Item: His State Department has treated Hamas -- a gang of ruthless murderers whose stated purpose is the destruction of Israel -- as if it were a legitimate state deserving of diplomatic niceties, and this has encouraged Hamas to persist in attacking our only serious ally in the Middle East.

Item: His Department of Veterans Affairs has so neglected patients in government hospitals that many of them died, and it even destroyed records to hide its misdeeds. His Internal Revenue Service has enforced the law more heavily against his political opponents than against his friends, and it has destroyed government computer records in order to hide its misdeeds.

Item: He has relieved his friends of the burdens of timely compliance with Obamacare, and he has burdened his enemies with tortured interpretations of that law -- even interpretations that were rejected by the very Congress that enacted the law and interpretations that were invalidated by the Supreme Court.

He has done all these things with a cool indifference, and he has threatened to continue to do so until the pressure builds on his political opponents to see things his way.

The Framers could not have intended a president so devoid of fidelity to the rule of law that it is nearly impossible to distinguish between incompetence and lawlessness -- and I am not sure which is worse. Archbishop Fulton Sheen often said he'd prefer to deal with a smart devil than a stupid one.

But the Framers did give us a remedy, and the remedy is not a frivolous lawsuit that the federal courts will no doubt reject as a political stunt. The remedy is removal from office. This is not to be undertaken lightly, as was the case when this remedy was last used. But it is the remaining constitutional means to save the freedoms the Constitution was intended to guarantee.

The choice is between two more years of government by decree or two years of prosecution. It is a choice the president has imposed upon us all.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: 0bamaadmin; constitutionallaw; lawlessness; swine; worstpresidentever
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To: Kaslin
My observation and vote is for incompetence. He is not intelligent. His grades do not reflect a brilliant mind (or we would have seen them a long time ago). He is indifferent to everyone who does not support him and seeks to punish them if he can. He is extremely lazy and easily bored with anyone and anything that does not praise him... and in that regard he is highly narsiccisic.

How do you get to him? Make fun of his intelligence (call him incompetent). Make fun of his performance both as president and as a person (if I played golf even half as much as he has I would have a single digit handicap... he will not advertise his because it is so bad). Treat him like the joke he is and be ready for the obvious backlash... you Racist!

41 posted on 07/31/2014 5:48:44 AM PDT by RedEyeJack
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To: MrB

He knows what he wants to do, knows how to do it, but has to follow the schedule exactly; the reason for the hesitation.

Even the best architect has to consult the plan regularly.

IMHO


42 posted on 07/31/2014 5:50:24 AM PDT by ripley
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To: Kaslin
The answer is of course YES!
43 posted on 07/31/2014 5:54:10 AM PDT by Phlap (REDNECK@LIBARTS.EDU)
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To: rarestia

He’s a marionette dancing on the strings of the barbarians on the other end of his BlackBerry.


44 posted on 07/31/2014 5:54:20 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Gay State Conservative
I suppose it's a matter of perspective, and definitions given in on-line dictionaries as somewhat ambiguous as to the distinction between "immoral" and "amoral" ...

My understanding, FWIW, is that "amoral" refers to ignoring any moral code and "immoral" refers to deliberately rejecting any moral code. And I think Bam-Bam is doing the latter.

45 posted on 07/31/2014 5:55:35 AM PDT by NorthMountain
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To: Kaslin

He is trying to make white the minority.
50 Shades of Brown.


46 posted on 07/31/2014 6:12:42 AM PDT by Vinnie
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To: Kaslin

He is an arrogant and lawless bastard who knows exactly what he’s doing.


47 posted on 07/31/2014 6:21:20 AM PDT by madmominct
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Click The Pic To Donate

Donate

48 posted on 07/31/2014 6:22:15 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: Kaslin

All of the above.


49 posted on 07/31/2014 6:25:32 AM PDT by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
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To: Kaslin

So Napolitano is singing the Democrats’ current impeachment song. It’s good to get the public used to the idea, but let’s steer clear of panicking Obama’s bovines before November. Once the D’s lose massively this Fall, they will all sharpen their knives and turn their gaze on Obama.

Now is the time to make sure the votes are there in the Senate after November, and prepare the ground, by establishing impeachment as the only reasonable option. First exhaust the alternatives. Boehner’s lawsuit serves this purpose if little else. The Republicans need to put forth numerous, clean, reasonable bills to curb Obama’s jets. All will fail in the Senate or be vetoed. Turn up the heat on investigations of IRS, Benghazi, VA, and venal corruption.

I never thought I would say this, but groom President... Biden. He is such an ambitious egomaniac that he would work actively behind the scenes to convict and remove Obama once he smells blood. With Republican majorities in the Senate and House, Biden would be relatively controllable, and imminently impeachable, yet would be the ultimate lame duck. His idiotic blunders would finish off the Democrats until 2020. They will put up a sacrifice candidate in 2016.


50 posted on 07/31/2014 6:28:44 AM PDT by Chewbarkah
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To: rarestia

So you are saying that arrogant pos is competent and was very qualified to be president?


51 posted on 07/31/2014 6:29:17 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: ChildOfThe60s

correct


52 posted on 07/31/2014 6:29:43 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Kaslin

Is he a commie, or a muslim?


53 posted on 07/31/2014 6:31:52 AM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: Vinnie
He is trying to make white the minority. 50 Shades of Brown.

Southern male Caucasians, definitely. He'll tolerate Boehner and Reid (for now). Boehner must think that heavy golf tan of his makes him an honorary mulatto.
54 posted on 07/31/2014 6:35:33 AM PDT by Resettozero
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To: Kaslin
Is the President Incompetent or Lawless?

The choices given are not mutually exclusive, now, are they.

55 posted on 07/31/2014 6:44:05 AM PDT by RobinOfKingston (Democrats--the party of Evil. Republicans--the party of Stupid.)
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To: Kaslin
He is both, but it's much more complicated than that.

A big part of him is like the monstrous little boy in "The Twilight Zone" movie.

Sort of like a Pee Wee Herman with a malicious streak who uses his power to ruin every thing he touches.

56 posted on 07/31/2014 6:45:37 AM PDT by Lakeshark
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To: Kaslin

Evil traitor. Does that clarify it enough?


57 posted on 07/31/2014 6:47:57 AM PDT by Tolkien (Grace is the Essence of the Gospel; Gratitude is the Essence of Ethics.)
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To: Gay State Conservative

Sorry, but he’s just not smart enough to do this all on his own.


58 posted on 07/31/2014 7:07:01 AM PDT by nuconvert ( Khomeini promised change too // Hail, Chairman O)
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To: Kaslin
So you are saying that arrogant pos is competent and was very qualified to be president?

Arrogant: Check
Competent: X
Qualified: X

I was insinuating that he knows exactly what he's doing. As you've seen with recent events in the Ukraine, it doesn't take intelligence to do something monumental. It requires simple determination and the means to effect change.

Obama's very title confers the ability to move figurative mountains. His handlers simply provide the orders, he parrots them to his subordinates, and the wheels are set in motion.

Obama is America's Joffrey (Baratheon). He's a spoiled little putz who enjoys torturing people, but we all know his mother Cersei (or in this case Valerie Jarrett) is pulling the strings.

59 posted on 07/31/2014 7:16:57 AM PDT by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: Kaslin
But the Framers did give us a remedy, and the remedy is not a frivolous lawsuit that the federal courts will no doubt reject as a political stunt. The remedy is removal from office.

"The remedy is removal from office."

First, save the patient and worry about the procedure after..............

60 posted on 07/31/2014 8:05:25 AM PDT by varon (Para bellum)
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