Obama's Amnesty Gamble, Ferguson's Not Selma, #Grubergate, Palestinians Celebrate Slaughter
As we wait for this firestorm to erupt, let me knock down the latest attempt by Obama to hijack Ronald Reagan's legacy.
The White House is spinning some revisionist history by suggesting that Ronald Reagan did the exact same thing Obama is threatening to do. The gist of Obama's argument is, "See I've got that power because Reagan did it too."
No, Reagan did not do it and, no, Obama does not have that power. In fact, Obama has repeatedly acknowledged that he lacks such power. For example, while referring to immigration reform in 2011, Obama said:
"I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own. . . . But that's not how our system works. That's not how our democracy functions. That's not how our Constitution is written."
That's the critical difference between what Reagan did and what Obama is proposing to do now. Reagan wasn't acting on his own. He was acting as head of the executive branch to enforce legislation passed by Congress in 1986.
In contrast, Obama is acting in the absence of legislation -- thereby changing the laws on his own -- in defiance of Congress and the American people.
While I am angry at Obama's distortion of Reagan's record, I can't help but comment on what it says about the place of Reagan in our national life.
The left hated Reagan when he was in office. But it grudgingly pays homage to him every time it tries to cover itself by claiming the mantle of the most beloved president in modern history.
It seems some liberals are getting anxious about Obama's overreach on amnesty, and with good reason.
You'll recall that just before the election, Obama said that while he wasn't on the ballot his policies -- every single one of them -- were. That said, it's hard to see the results as anything but a complete repudiation of Obama's policies, including amnesty.
On his MSNBC show last night, lefty Lawrence O'Donnell pressed Vermont's Rep. Peter Welch (D) to explain what legal authority allows Obama to issue work permits to as many as five million illegal immigrants. O'Donnell said:
"No one at the White House has been able to give me the legal justification for the following component of the president's plan. . . Can you tell me -- and has the White House told you -- what is the legal justification for the president to create a new category of beneficiaries for work documents? How can that be done without legislation?"
Welch couldn't answer for the obvious reason that there isn't a legal justification for Obama's amnesty. Watch the exchange here.
It's not every day that I will applaud a self-described socialist like O'Donnell. But he deserves kudos for at least questioning Obama's abuse of power, which is more than can be said of most of the media right now.
Ferguson Is Not Selma - If tensions weren't high enough already, Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) threw gasoline on the fire yesterday calling for nationwide protests if the Ferguson grand jury refuses to indict Officer Darren Wilson. Whatever happened to respect for the rule of law and our judicial system in this country?
But Lewis went even further, comparing the events in Ferguson, Missouri, to the famed civil rights march in 1965 across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The non-violent protest for voting rights became known as "Bloody Sunday" when marchers were attacked and beaten by police. Lewis said:
"When we were beaten on that bridge in Selma, people couldn't take it, for they saw it, they heard about it, they read about it, and it lit a sense of righteous indignation. When we see a miscarriage of justice in Ferguson, they're going to have the same reaction they had towards Selma."
What happened on that Selma bridge in 1965 was disgusting. The police brutality seared the conscience of white and black Americans. The congressman was beaten for a noble cause. I regret that I was not there marching with him. (I was only 19 years-old.)
The racism and bigotry so obvious in Selma was a violation of our Constitution and a clear indictment that America was not fulfilling the founding principle of our nation -- that we are all created equal and endowed by our Creator with certain rights.
But with all due respect to Rep. Lewis, there is no equivalence between Ferguson and Selma. Michael Brown robbed a convenience store and reportedly assaulted a police officer. What right was he martyred for? The right to rob stores? The right to assault police officers?
The confrontation that took place in Ferguson, Missouri, has nothing to do with other incidents where police use deadly force. Each of these cases involves split second decisions where someone's life is at risk. They should be individually investigated.
Undoubtedly some incidents are criminal and the police are prosecuted. In other cases, they are not and courts find that the police are acting in the best interests of society. And, yes, I do give the men and women on the thin blue line, risking their lives every day, the benefit of the doubt.
The great problem facing black Americans is not out of control police. There is no doubt that too many black children are afraid to walk to school because of thugs and drug dealers. Too many grow up in broken homes without fathers. Too many inner city teachers can't pass basic competency exams. The gang and hip hop culture is sending all the wrong messages about life, love and virtue to minority children.
The John Lewis who bravely walked across that bridge in Selma would show much more courage today speaking out against those things -- taking on the teachers unions and rap artists, indicting minority men who break their promises to the women they impregnate and the children they create. But that wouldn't be a good liberal thing to do, would it? It is so much easier to stoke the fires of racial discord.
Yes, tensions in the St. Louis area are building as everyone awaits an announcement from the grand jury investigating the shooting death of Michael Brown by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson.
The New York Times recently reported that President Obama met privately with protest organizers, including Al Sharpton, the day after the election to encourage them to "stay on course." Just what "course" is that?
I wonder if the president has met with the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police or reached out to the business owners who had their stores burned and looted.
This has gone way beyond a confrontation between a policeman and the young man who was shot. The Ferguson demonstrations were hijacked by far left radicals advocating every cause from Palestinian statehood to anti-capitalism.
The group Justice for Mike Brown has published a map of potential demonstration targets, such as city hall and the Ferguson courthouse, if the grand jury fails to indict Officer Wilson. But why would the targets also include Boeing, Peabody Energy, Anheuser-Busch and Emerson Electric? It looks like Occupy Wall Street has set up shop in Ferguson.
Once again the left is doing its best to stoke racial divisions with the help of our attorney general and our community organizer-in-chief.
Grubergate - It's clear now that we were misled about the policies in Obamacare and it's it equally clear that Democrats are lying about Dr. Jonathan Gruber's role in helping them hide the truth. Watch this video. Unbelievably, some liberal apologists in the media are still struggling to understand what all the fuss is about.
But CNN's Jake Tapper deserves credit for realizing the news value of Gruber's deceptions. Watch this video explaining how Obamacare's tax scheme will eventually eliminate all employer provided healthcare plans.
Yes, that was the plan and, as you will see, Obama lied about that too.
We've known for a while that Obamacare was sold to us on a foundation of lies. "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it." That was Politifact's Lie of the Year. And there were others like Obama's oft-repeated promise to cut family premiums by $2,500 a year. Instead, premiums went up by at least $2,500.
Conservatives were mocked and ridiculed for suggesting that many of Obama's claims were untrue. In recent days, several videos have emerged of MIT economist Jonathan Gruber essentially admitting that conservatives were right -- that Obama and Democrats lied to us and counted on the lack of transparency and the "stupidity of the American voter," in Gruber's words, in order to ram Obamacare through Congress on a party-line vote.
Now Democrats are lying about their lying. Nancy Pelosi has denied ever knowing Gruber, even though she has previously praised him.
President Obama was asked earlier this week about Gruber's arrogant and unflattering comments. "Go look back at your stories," he said incredulously. "The one thing we can't say is that we did not have a lengthy debate about healthcare in the United States of America, or that it was not adequately covered."
It certainly wasn't a fair debate -- Obama was lying to us the whole time!
Then Obama tried to dismiss Gruber as just "an adviser who was never on our staff." But Gruber wasn't just an adviser. While technically not on the White House staff, he visited the White House more than 20 times and was paid nearly $400,000 for his advice and counsel. In 2006, Obama praised Gruber, saying he had "liberally" stolen from his ideas.
If you have any doubt at all about who is telling the truth now, consider this statement from Steve Rattner, a major Democrat fundraiser who manages Michael Bloomberg's financial assets and who managed Obama's bailout of the auto industry. Referring to "Grubergate" this morning on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Rattner said:
"Jonathan Gruber was . . . the guru on health care. I remember that when I was in the White House, he was certainly viewed as an important figure in helping to put Obamacare together. I think if you go back and look at . . . anything from that period you will find Jonathan Gruber's name all over it."
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Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families
Tags: Obama's Amnesty Gamble, Ferguson, Not Selma, Grubergate, Palestinians Celebrate SlaughterGary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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