Obama: Above The Law

I live in Los Angeles and we recently experienced an epic storm that gave us about a year’s worth of rain in a week.  It broke several records, caused major damage and was so bad that Governor Schwarzenegger declared a State of Emergency.  I woke up one morning during this storm to find a chunk of ceiling on the hood of my car in the garage due to a leak. Fortunately, I am the President of my Homeowner’s Association (HOA), so I could see to it that the damages in my home were resolved promptly.

After thumbing through our CC&Rs and By Laws, I found that the HOA pays for all damages and maintenance to the common areas – areas shared by all the owners – such as our gardens, the swimming pool and roofs; however, my garage is not covered by the roof, it is covered by my private balcony.  Assuming the leak in my garage enters from the balcony, it would not be covered by the HOA.  Now our bills are really beginning to pile up, so the last thing we need is yet another expense for this repair and maintenance.

As a result, I was presented with a moral and ethical dilemma.  I could submit these damages and have the HOA foot the bill, or I could do the right thing and take care of it myself.  On one hand, I would be saving myself money and there is a great chance that few would ever find out.  On the other hand, I would absolutely be ignoring all local, state and federal laws, as well as our CC&Rs and By Laws that govern our HOA.  For me, it really wasn’t a struggle to do the right thing and to find a way to take care of the issue myself.  I don’t see myself as “above the law” or that I can play fast and loose with the interpretation of the documents others produced before me.

J.C. Watts, the great Oklahoma Sooners’ quarterback who went on to serve in Congress, said, “Character is doing the right thing when nobody’s looking.  There are too many people who think that the only thing that’s right is to get by, and the only thing that’s wrong is to get caught.”  I won’t claim sainthood, but I did the right thing.  So why is it that in our local, state and federal government, we find so many public servants who don’t do the right thing?  Is it desperation?  Greed?  Or is it just plain old arrogance?  Maybe they just believe they are above the law?

• In 2002, Ohio Representative James Traficant was convicted of taking bribes, filing false tax returns, racketeering, and forcing his aides to perform chores at his farm in Ohio and on his houseboat in Washington, D.C.

• In 2003, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore refused to remove a 5,280 pound monument of the Ten Commandments from the state courthouse despite orders to do so from a federal judge.

• In 2004, the mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, directed the San Francisco city-county clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, in violation of the current state law.

• In 2006, approximately $90,000 in cold hard cash was found in his home freezer of Louisiana Representative William J. Jefferson.  He was charged with bribery, racketeering, conspiracy, money laundering, obstruction of justice and other offenses after he solicited a bribe in a Congressional dining room in 2004.

• In 2007, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine felt seatbelt laws were for the citizens of the state, but not for him.  After a car accident seriously injured the Governor, his administration tried to blame the incident on a hit and run driver.  It was later determined that the Governor’s vehicle was speeding, driving recklessly and that he was not wearing his seat belt.

• In 2008, Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens was indicted for bribery when he received gratuities and gifts from executives, had work done on his home illegally and steered federal dollars to a longtime friend.

• In 2009, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested by federal agents and charged with corruption after soliciting the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama.

• In 2010, New York Representative Charles Rangel was charged with thirteen ethics violations that included solicitation of donations for a public service center at the City College of New York, his failure to report income and assets, his use of a rent-stabilized apartment for campaign offices, and taxes he did not pay on rental income from a Dominican Republic beach villa.

These are just a few highlights of our politicians feeling that they are “above the law” over the past decade.  Some are relatively tame and others are downright egregious.

So what could possibly be more outrageous or shocking than our mayors, senators, congressmen, and governors defying the law and the Constitution of the United States?  The answer is simple… It’s when the President of the United States believes they are above the law.

In 1972, President Nixon aides broke into and taped a Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. in an effort to gain valuable information during his re-election campaign.  Two years later, House Judiciary Committee began impeachment proceedings for obstruction of justice.  President Nixon resigned before the conclusion of the impeachment and was soon thereafter pardoned by President Ford.

In 1999, President Clinton was held in contempt of court for giving “intentionally false” testimony about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky in the Paula Jones lawsuit and was the first time that a sitting president has been sanctioned for disobeying a court order.  Clinton was impeached by the House, but saved by the Senate.

Then came Barack Obama.

On January 20, 2009, President-elect Barack Obama took the following oath: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

However, back in 2001, Obama was a guest on Chicago Public Radio’s Odyssey program where he lamented the fact “generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can’t do to you. Says what the Federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what the Federal government or State government must do on your behalf.”  Did he really believe the oath he was taking?

Any educated person knows that the Constitution of the United States is the framework for the organization of our government and it established the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments that limited the power of the government.  In other words, the Constitution ties the hands of the federal government from intruding on the citizen’s liberty and property.  This is what Obama calls a charter of “negative liberties.”  He went on in his interview to say that he hopes one day, through the legislative process, the Constitution can be expanded to bring about “redistributive change.”

So that when Obama took the oath to uphold the Constitution, is it too far fetched to believe that he really had no intention to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” as he swore, but rather he wanted to change it… radically change it?  I don’t think so.

One of Obama’s major accomplishments was passing Obamacare.  This radical far reaching law provided Obama with what he would consider a “positive liberty,” one in which the federal government says what is must do on your behalf… insuring health care for every single person in the United States.  This law no longer made health care an individual responsibility, it made it a right.

On January 31st, Judge Roger Vinson disagreed with this notion and declared the individual mandate of Obamacare, the part of the law that instructs every single person in America to purchase health insurance under threat of fine and imprisonment, to be unconstitutional.  Also, he determined that this part of the law could not be severed from the entire law, so the entire law would be unconstitutional.  Therefore, Obamcare is no longer the law of the land and every single administrator and bureaucrat implementing Obamcare must cease their operations immediately.

We all agree that this issue will be resolved in the Supreme Court in the near future, but at the current moment the law is unconstitutional and there is no immediate appeal coming out of the White House or Justice Department.  Meanwhile, White House Adviser Stephanie Cutter stated that “implementation will continue” and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Donald Berwick stated after the ruling that they are currently working on regulations for implementing Obamacare.

Does Obama believe he is above the law?

Perhaps the following will shed some light on that question.  Two days after Judge Vinson made his ruling nullifying Obamacare, Judge Feldman out of Louisiana found the Obama Administration to be in contempt for its “determined disregard” of his June 2010 ruling that reversed Obama’s execution of a moratorium on deepwater off-shore oil drilling.

Apparently Obama feels that if he cannot impose his world view legislatively, he must ignore his Presidential oath to uphold the Constitution and press forward with his “change” using his executive powers.  The main stream media seems to be asleep at the wheel with regard to these issues of arrogance and lawlessness, but it’s not being ignored by the alternative media outlets and right wing political commentators.  Back in October 2010, Charles Krauthammer declared, “If Obama gets more arrogant, he’ll be Napoleonic.”  Well Charles, welcome to France circa 1812.

If character is doing the right thing when nobody’s looking, then what does a person possess when they do the wrong thing when everybody is looking?  My ethics and morals precluded me from having the repairs done in my garage at the expense of my neighbors in my HOA.  I never felt I was above the law.  What are Obama’s ethics and morals when he maintains a determined disregard for law imposing his will onto the American people and spending our tax dollars to implement an unconstitutional law?   Who is this person that took an oath to uphold the Constitution, but has shown that he intends to change it or defy it?  Who is this person that believes they are above the law?

I know who this person is… This person isn’t fit to preside over the country; this person isn’t even fit to preside over my HOA.

Tags: blago, blagojevich, centers for medicare, chicago public radio, clinton, cms, constitution, corzine, donald berwich, hoa, j.c. watts, judge feldman, krauthammer, law, negative liberty, newsom, Nixon, oath, Obama, Obamacare, rangel, roger vinson, roy moore, schwarzenegger, stephanie cutter, ted stevens, traficant

This entry was posted on February 7, 2011 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Domestic Policy, Economy, Tim Ross. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.