Seriously...

Is anybody surprised that they're trying to force a reconcilliation bill through?

On the Nature of Executive Powers.

I apologise in advance for the boredom that this will cause.

Anyway, I wandered across this article from the NY Times Online:

Obama Making Plans to Use Executive Power

And of course, I had to go read up.

My first instinct was to say they're executive orders not executive powers, but actually the orders are part of the executive powers. And while there may not be anything specifically stated about them in the Constitution, people have pointed to Art. II Sections 1 and 3 for authorization to issue them.

But that's really beside the point. Executive orders have been issued since practically the founding of our government to help officers and agencies manage the operations within the federal government.

Also Executive Orders do have the full force of a law, but that's only because they're issued in pursuance of certain Acts of Congress.

Did you get that. Congress passes a law and the President can issue orders to help facilitate enforcing that law. This limit was put to the test when then President Truman tried to nationalize the US Steel Industry via executive order. Read Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer if you want the details. That's very important. The President's use of executive orders is limited to the laws passed by congress. He can't just willy nilly whip out the old pen and make onsies mandatory bed time attire. No matter how much he likes them or how convinced he is that they are so so sososo soooooo gonna be good for the American Peons Serfs People.

What the great anointed one wants and is planning to do is use the power of the executive order to enact laws. Because he's not happy that his agenda hasn't been whole heartedly embraced by those of us who didn't drink the koolaid (Chris Matthews, sorry couldn't resist that. It sent a thrill up my leg.) He wants to try an end run around our system of government and try the autocratic system for a bit.

Just to try it on and see how it looks. Honest Injum. I'll put it all back where I found it. Pinky swears.

And he's not going to let a little thing like legal precedence against this sort of thing stop him.

I can see several things possibly happening here.

1. The adminstration realizes that they're overstepping their authority and refrain from trying this.
2. They announce it and the outcry from the hill and their own handlers shouts them down.
3. They go ahead and it spends years in the courts before being struck down.

Option 1? HA, yeah right.

Option 2? Well, it's more likely than Option 1 anyway.

My money is on option 3, but by that time the damage will already have been done.

I bet...

The folks in DC are wishing they had a president who could effectively redistribute the snow evenly through out the population...

This tickeled my funny.

More importantly does anyone care if they ever go back?

Aside from the socialists of course.

This news article about the shutdown of DC and the cancellation all legislative voting for the rest of the week has me laughing up my cuffs, so to speak. Of course the IRS won't shut down. I mean really, the .gov must must must get it's money. Which is funny, because it's not their money. It's ours.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President.

Not him, a good one.

Ronald Reagan was born on Feb 6th, 99 years ago.

ah hab a code...

So, to make my life easier. It's linky-no thinky time.

Palin's Tea Party Speech Zingers.

Still think we "tea baggers" are astroturf Ms. Garafolo?

h/t to The Bredalucion for the link.

Sometimes they never learn...

I hear a rolled up newspaper works. But that's mean and the ASPCA would get involved.

I know this is old news. I purposely wait to let the real facts have a chance to come out. But there's no denying it now. The mighty leader of the free world, the commander in chief of the best armed force on the planet, the hopes and dreams of millions will bow to anybody. And I mean anybody. Last week he reportedly bowed to the Mayor of Tampa. A freakin' mayor. Not some other head of state, not even a governor of the state he was visiting. He bowed to a mayor. Hey, there's a position open for dog catcher in one of the rural towns near me. Maybe I should run for that so I can get the Presi-fucking-dent of the United fucking States to bow to me.

Irony, The Space Edition.

On the anniversary of the Challenger disaster Obama kills the Return to the Moon Program. Ah the irony.

Of course the big plus is in the second to last paragraph. A proposed 6 billion over 5 years to promote private space vehicles that NASA could rent. Aside from the fact that the 1.2 billion per year, hell the entire 6 billion, is not even a drop in the bucket compared to the 3.8 Trillion proposed budget just for 2011. That's 3,800 billion compared to 6 billion, or 0.03 % for one years spending and if you did it lump sum, 0.15%.

And that's not even my biggest hang up. I like imagine that if we'd gone private from the beginning of the space program back in the 40's and 50's, we'd have orbiting casinos at all 5 Lagrange points and yearly junkets to Mars by now.

But it's all really just a pipe dream anyway. Even if a privatized space industry was selected, the .gov would just regulate it out of existence or the green meanies would ban it for fears it would destroy the ecology of space or something.