Free Republic

When Congress won't do what he wants, he ignores it and acts anyway. The ObamaCare litigation is history, with the president's takeover of the health sector deemed constitutional. Now we can focus on the rest of the Obama imperial presidency. when Mr. Obama wants a new program and Congress won't give it to him, he creates it regardless. Congress, including Democrats, wouldn't pass his cap-and-trade legislation. His Environmental Protection Agency is now instituting it via a broad reading of the Clean Air Act. This president's imperial pretensions extend into the brute force the executive branch has exercised over the private...

Allen West on Obama: 'The Resurrection of an Imperial Presidency'1:21 PM, Jun 18, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER Speaking this morning to talk radio host Laura Ingraham, Florida congressman Allen West, a Republican, blasted President Obama's immigration plan to use prosecutorial discretion not to go after young immigrants who came to the United States illegally. Obama announced his new immigration plan on Friday. "What country did we wake up in on Friday?," West asked. "It just causes people to ask, where are we? You know, the last time we had this was with King George III, and we didn't like...

If Barack Obama is re-elected the United States will never be the same, nor will it be able to re-capture its once lofty status as the most dominant nation in the history of mankind. The overwhelming majority of Americans do not understand that Obama's first term was dedicated to putting in place executive power to enable him and the administration to fulfill the campaign promise of "transforming America" in his second term regardless of which political party controls Congress. That is why his re-election team is virtually ignoring the plight of incumbent or prospective Democratic Party office holders. The most...

President Obama’s favorite word, as we’ve learned repeatedly, is “I.” He uses it on a constant basis. He uses it to claim credit and to assign blame. He uses it to cajole and to threaten. He uses it to plead and to prod. But he doesn’t use the word “I” purely out of ego. He does it because for President Obama, “I” represents the executive branch. And the executive branch, in Obama’s view, is the ruling branch of American government. President Obama’s latest attack on the Supreme Court is just the latest evidence of his deep-rooted

US President Barack Obama made no bones about his chances of reelection in an interview with America's largest Hispanic radio service, saying: "I've got another five years coming up." Quizzed by Univision's Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo about his failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform, Obama replied: "Well, first of all, Piolin, my presidency is not over. "I've got another five years coming up. We're going to get this done," he continued, according to a transcript of the interview, which was conducted on Tuesday and broadcast on Univision Radio on Wednesday. Obama's reelection campaign has previously blasted his most likely Republican opponent,...

Want Gingrich To Speak? He Needs ‘First Class Expenses’ and 2 Bathrooms By Dan Eggen December 7 Newt Gingrich, the Republican presidential candidate with a penchant for luxury jets and Tiffany & Co. jewelry, also appears to demand top-notch accommodations when he travels for a speech. The Smoking Gun Web site, which specializes in unearthing revealing documents, has posted a copy of a speaking gig contract apparently signed by Gingrich for an appearance at Missouri Western State University in October 2010. The contract called for payment of “first class expenses,” including the hotel of Gingrich’s choice, and “first class airfare.”...

Official Calls For Riverside, 12 Other Counties To Secede From California Link to Article and Poll New state would have no term limits, part-time legislature July 1, 2011 10:24 AM RIVERSIDE (CBS) — Is the state of California about to go “South”? Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone apparently thinks so, after proposing that the county lead a campaign for as many as 13 Southern California counties to secede from the state. Stone said in a statement late Thursday that Riverside, Imperial, San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino, Kings, Kern, Fresno, Tulare, Inyo, Madera, Mariposa and Mono counties should form the new...

Because that’s what the United State Air Force is there for…no, wait?…Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained new documents from the US Air Force detailing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s use of US Air Force aircraft in 2010. According to the documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Pelosi used Air Force aircraft for 43 flights from January 1 to October 1, 2010. According to documents previously uncovered...Nancy Pelosi logged 47 flights in the prior nine-month period, April 1, 2009, to January 1, 2010. The most recent documents...include a Passenger Mission Activity chart detailing all of former...

In the words of our second president: We are a government of laws, not of men. This key principle, which places our Constitution above our leaders, set young America apart from the governments of monarchical Europe. Regrettably, President Obama is endangering this venerable tradition by deliberately and systematically seeking to expand executive power well beyond its proper boundaries. In the process, he is trampling both the constitutional authority of Congress and the sovereign rights of the states. This bold power grab is directed at immigration, which is predominantly a domestic-policy matter, where unilateral presidential authority is inherently weak. Obama’s efforts...

In 1973, liberal historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. released a book entitled The Imperial Presidency. He updated it in 2004 with a new introduction, in which he wrote: The American Constitution, the book argues, envisages a strong presidency within an equally strong system of accountability. When the constitutional balance is upset in favor of presidential power and at the expense of presidential accountability, the presidency can be said to become imperial.Schlesinger, being the liberal scholar that he was, used this term as a cudgel to wield against every Republican president (others, like Clinton, got easier treatment). But there is no question...

Sen. Barbara Boxer of California instructs Brigadier General Michael Walsh not to call her "ma'am," the sign of respect shown by members of the military towards non-military ... she wants to be called "Senator," because gosh darn it, she worked hard for that position. No further comment necessary, but I'm looking forward to them anyway. Words fail.

The Russian invasion of Georgia has not changed the balance of power in Eurasia. It simply announced that the balance of power had already shifted. The United States has been absorbed in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as potential conflict with Iran and a destabilizing situation in Pakistan. It has no strategic ground forces in reserve and is in no position to intervene on the Russian periphery.

Martyrs or Imperial Guard? May 15, 2008 by Sarah Yeomans New discoveries in the catacombs of San Pietro and Marcellinus Details of faces—7th century fresco devotional fresco (The Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology) When a sinkhole opened up after a pipe broke underneath the convent and school of the Instituto Sacra Famiglia on Rome's Via Casilina, the sisters there received a surprise--about 1,200 surprises, in fact. The partial collapse of the building's foundation revealed five large chambers in which the remains of more than a thousand individuals had been interred almost simultaneously sometime at the beginning of the third century...

Researchers enter Imperial tomb The Yomiuri Shimbun NARA--The Japanese Archaeological Association and 15 other academic bodies inspected Gosashi tomb, the burial place of Empress Jingu, in Nara for the first time on Friday. The inspection came after the Imperial Household Agency granted a request by the academic bodies dating back to 1976 to inspect the tombs of emperors and other Imperial family members. Experts hope the move will lead to a full-scale investigation of Imperial tombs and the opening of the burial chambers to the public. The Empress Jingu's tomb has a 270-meter keyhole-shaped tomb mound, built between the late...

Archaeologists granted access to Japan's sacred tombs The divine origins of Japan's imperial family come under scrutiny as it allows limited access to two burial sites. Justin McCurry in Tokyo Thursday September 20, 2007 Guardian Unlimited (UK) Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko attend the opening ceremony of the World Athletics Championships in Osaka last month. Photograph: Michael Steele/Getty Images Japan's imperial household agency is to open the doors to some of the country's mysterious imperial tombs early next year after decades of pressure from archaeologists, in a move expected to anger ultra-conservatives. Experts have long been denied access to the...

Victory for Britain's metric martyrs as Eurocrats give up the fightBy BENEDICT BROGAN and PAUL SIMS - More by this author » Last updated at 00:05am on 11th September 2007  Brussels will today give up the fight to make Britain drop pints, pounds and miles. The right of Britons to use imperial weights and measures will be enshrined in EU law under plans being announced by the European Commission. Traditional measures will remain legal "until Kingdom come", the Commissioner responsible for the move told the Daily Mail last night. Scroll down for more...Vindicated: The 'Metric Martyr' Steve Thoburn, who...

Did Hirohito play an active part in planning and conducting the war? Japanese emperor Hirohito expressed doubts about going to war with China in the 1930s and 40s, extracts from a diary of one of his advisers reveal. They show Hirohito was afraid the Soviet Union would intervene. The diary by Kuraji Ogura, who worked as a chamberlain to Hirohito in World War II, was found recently and parts have been published in Japan's media. The full text may help solve the debate about how much responsibility the emperor had for Japan's wartime action. South Pacific visit The document...

NEW HAVEN -- A dozen Guatemalan workers filed a federal lawsuit Thursday accusing one of the nation's largest nurseries of engaging in human trafficking by forcing them to work nearly 80 hours per week, paying them less than minimum wage and denying them medical care for injuries on the job. The workers, who filed the lawsuit against Imperial Nurseries in Granby and its labor recruiter, say they were promised jobs planting trees in North Carolina for $7.50 per hour. Instead, they say they were taken in a van to Connecticut without their consent, had their passports confiscated so they would...

(02-08) 09:45 PST WASHINGTON D.C. -- A political odd couple, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and White House spokesman Tony Snow, today slammed critics of Pelosi's bid to use a government plane that can fly her nonstop between Washington and her home district in San Francisco. "This is a silly story, and I think it's been unfair to the speaker,'' Snow told reporters. E-mail Edward Epstein at eepstein@sfchronicle.com.

Critics charge that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is abusing the perks of power by asking for a jumbo military jet with sleeping accommodations for her flights across the country. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Pentagon agreed to provide the speaker, who is second in the line of presidential succession, with a military plane for added security during trips back home. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, flew in a small commuter-sized Air Force jet. Pelosi wants a larger aircraft that can fly to her San Francisco district without stopping to refuel. Some sources are claiming that Pelosi...