What a stinking JOKE...

[Johns]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/obama-...221425056.html

"Reprieve"? Give me a break...they're not giving businesses ANYTHING. They are totally unprepared to implement the new system, so they make it look like they are doing us a favor. Talk about a nation founded by geniuses, run by idiots.

What a stinking JOKE...

[MikeAurelius]

IMO this has more to do with the Hobby Lobby judicial claims than anything else. It's a smart move.

[kentmitchell1961]

Yeah, it has more to do with idiot lobbyists for the big money pharma and insurance companies mucking up the works, thus costing the tax payer money and time.

[scriptfiller]

Gotta love the selective implementation/enforcement of laws. I want to try that one for myself, just tell the government I'm not ready for _______ law to take effect give me some more time.

It doesn't seem like this "Affordable Care Act" was an intelligently thought-out piece of legislation, just ran through and in the immortal words of Nancy Pelosi; "we have to pass it to know what is in it".

[Wes]

From a political standpoint, it's pretty smart. Save the pain for after the 2014 elections so the dems can likely keep the senate, because if they lose it, it's a pretty safe bet the house will start the impeachment process.

[kentmitchell1961]

The whole lot should be run out of town......

[Uncle Fester]

Can some employer with 50 or more employees who currently does not provide medical insurance please continue this thread?

[MikeAurelius]

From a political standpoint, it's pretty smart. Save the pain for after the 2014 elections so the dems can likely keep the senate, because if they lose it, it's a pretty safe bet the house will start the impeachment process.

Out of pure curiosity, impeachment on what grounds? As I recall, there is a requirement for 'high crimes and misdemeanors', which, while I do admit I'm somewhat partisan, I've not seen any indication of.

[Uncle Fester]

Out of pure curiosity, impeachment on what grounds? As I recall, there is a requirement for 'high crimes and misdemeanors', which, while I do admit I'm somewhat partisan, I've not seen any indication of.

Let the lies and half truths begin!

[Wes]

Out of pure curiosity, impeachment on what grounds? As I recall, there is a requirement for 'high crimes and misdemeanors', which, while I do admit I'm somewhat partisan, I've not seen any indication of.

Somewhat? Do your own research.

[mdeimler]

It's a trap, Wes...don't fall for it.

[MikeAurelius]

Let the lies and half truths begin!

[MikeAurelius]

Somewhat? Do your own research.

Yes, somewhat.

And apart from "tea party" advocates, there isn't anyone else calling for impeachment, and those who are don't have anything to stand on. There are no "high crimes", there are no "misdemeanors". So apart from playing to the electorate (which, I have to admit, they are pretty good at), they've got nothing.

[Wes]

Yes, somewhat.

And apart from "tea party" advocates, there isn't anyone else calling for impeachment, and those who are don't have anything to stand on. There are no "high crimes", there are no "misdemeanors". So apart from playing to the electorate (which, I have to admit, they are pretty good at), they've got nothing.

So essentially what you're saying is that you've done no research.

[MikeAurelius]

So essentially what you're saying is that you've done no research.

No, that's not what I wrote at all. And let's be straight up here, I asked YOU to back up what YOU wrote.

[Wes]

Slightly off topic but pertinent:
Our lab manager was unhappy with our breakage rate. Rather than institute quality controls and process improvements, he replaced the inspectors, two former NFOS instructors and me, with completely uncredentialed contract workers. (Reported) breakage was cut by two thirds.

The lesson here is, you won't find as many flaws if you don't want to look for them or don't know what you're looking for. Head in sand.

[MikeAurelius]

Slightly off topic but pertinent:
Our lab manager was unhappy with our breakage rate. Rather than institute quality controls and process improvements, he replaced the inspectors, two former NFOS instructors and me, with completely uncredentialed contract workers. (Reported) breakage was cut by two thirds.

The lesson here is, you won't find as many flaws if you don't want to look for them or don't know what you're looking for. Head in sand.

Yep, when all else fails, change the subject.

[Wes]

No, Mike, I am busy today and don't have time to do your thinking for you. Just stick your head back in the sand for a while. I'll get back to you later.

[Steve Machol]

Sigh. For once I would like to see a discussion where people say, "I understand what you are saying and I agree with some of it. But here is why I believe something else...."

I wonder if it's even possible to have a respectful discussion about anything these days. Does anyone think so?

Also what exactly do we hope to accomplish by talking AT each other instead to TO each other? Do threads like this serve any purpose other than to demonize and beat someone else over he head with? No one is listening to anyone else who has the slightest different perspective. No wonder this country has deteriorated so quickly.

[Wes]

Bruce Fein
Constitutional scholar Bruce Fein

Bruce Fein is the legal scholar who is best known for having drafted articles of impeachment against former President Bill Clinton for perjury after he lied under oath about having sexual relations with an intern.
Fein also drafted articles of impeachment against former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney. In 2011, he drew up formal articles of impeachment against President Obama for his use of military action against Libya without congressional authorization.
Fein was a top Justice Department official under the Reagan administration. He graduated with honors from Harvard Law School in 1972. Fein clerked for a prestigious federal court, and has served in top positions in the Office of Legal Counsel and the Office of Legal Policy. He has served as visiting fellow for constitutional studies at the Heritage Foundation, adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and guest lecturer at the Brookings Institute.
Fein specializes in constitutional and international law and is a frequent witness before Congress. He is chairman of the American Freedom Agenda, founder of Bruce Fein & Associates Inc. and The Lichfield Group and author of “Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for our Constitution and Democracy.”
As for his political persuasion, Fein told WND, “I criticized Nixon. I criticized Clinton. I criticized Bush and Cheney. I criticize Obama. I don’t have any reluctance because I view myself as an American first.”
Herbert Titus
Constitutional scholar Herbert Titus

Herbert Titus, counsel to the law firm William J. Olson, previously taught constitutional law, common law and other subjects for 30 years at five different American Bar Association-approved law schools. From 1986 to 1993, he was the founding dean of the College of Law and Government at Regent University.
And before that, he was a trial attorney and special assistant U.S. attorney with the Department of Justice.
Titus’ degrees are from Harvard and the University of Oregon, and he’s admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, appellate courts in the 6th, 7th, 9th, 10th and other districts. His practice has taken him into courts more than a dozen different states. He has testified on constitutional issues before Congress. Titus has also testified on state and federal constitutional issues before several state legislatures.
Titus has written numerous articles, book chapters and constitutional studies and analyses. He is author of “God, Man, and Law: The Biblical Principles,” a text on American common law.
Louis Fisher
Constitutional scholar Louis Fisher

Constitutional expert Louis Fisher is scholar in Residence at the Constitution Project. Previously he worked for four decades at the Library of Congress as senior specialist in separation of powers and specialist in constitutional law. During his service with CRS, he was research director of the House Iran-Contra Committee in 1987, writing major sections of the final report.
Fisher is author of dozens of books specifically on constitutional law. He received his doctorate in political science from the New School for Social Research and has taught at Queens College, Georgetown University, American University, Catholic University, Indiana University, Johns Hopkins University, the College of William and Mary law school and the Catholic University law school. Fisher has been invited to testify before Congress about 50 times on constitutional issues.
Fisher’s specialties include constitutional law, war powers, budget policy, executive-legislative relations and judicial-congressional relations.
Fisher told WND he voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012, but he and doesn’t let partisan politics cloud his judgment when it comes to constitutional issues.
“I had plenty of criticism toward George W. Bush and Richard Nixon,” he said. “I’ve been just as harsh about Bill Clinton and Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson and the rest. I’m not partisan, but I don’t flinch from saying what the evidence is.”attacks.


Illegally conducting war against Libya
Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war.
The U.S. launched combat operations in Libya on March 19, 2011. For several weeks before the U.S. combat operation in Libya, CIA operatives had been deployed to the area to gather intelligence for military airstrikes and support Libyan rebels in the overthrow of Gaddafi. The New York Times reported in March 2011 that Obama had “signed a secret finding authorizing the C.I.A. to provide arms and other support to Libyan rebels.”
The U.S. military had been reportedly monitoring Libyan troops with U-2 spy planes, a high-altitude Global Hawk drone and a JSTARS aircraft to track troop movements.
Fox News’ Mike Huckabee raised the issue of impeachment over Obama’s order to bomb Libya, stating, “I think frankly, if this issue really gets traction that it deserves, and let it say it deserves, go back. Richard Nixon was forced out of office because he lied. And because he covered some stuff up. I will be blunt and tell you this. Nobody died in Watergate. We have people who are dead because of this. There are questions to be answered and Americans ought to demand to get answers.”
As WND reported in March 2012, Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., introduced House Concurrent Resolution 107, which stated, “[I]t is the sense of Congress that, except in response to an actual or imminent attack against the territory of the United States, the use of offensive military force by a President without prior and clear authorization of an Act of Congress violates Congress’s exclusive power to declare war under article I, section 8, clause 11 of the Constitution and therefore constitutes an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor under article II, section 4 of the Constitution.”
Jones’ bill had 12 co-sponsors, but it never made it past the House Committee on the Judiciary.
What the experts say …
“In the case of Libya, the president had no congressional authority whatsoever,” Fein said. “The whole thing is insane. And the executive doesn’t care because all the time that conflict ensues, that just means more executive power. That’s exactly what the Founding Fathers feared.
“President Obama just totally flouted the whole thing and basically said through his various memos, ‘I don’t need congressional authority to go to war.’ That was clearly an impeachable offense. It’s clearly gross usurpation of the war power. Both the Republicans and Democrats have acquiesced in that.”
Fisher told WND he found Obama’s actions in Libya “constitutionally offensive.”
“I think it’s completely unconstitutional,” he said. “It’s extremely offensive for a president to claim he can use military force against another country, like Libya, that didn’t threaten us. I find that appalling.
“Of course, the Office of Legal Counsel sent out a memo. It claimed there’s no war because there were no legal casualties. If that’s your legal reasoning, you could absolutely pulverize another nation. If anyone did anything to us like what we did to Libya, we’d obviously call it war. That was a complete and total outrage.”
Titus added, “I think Libya is the strongest argument for impeachment. That’s the one that stands out. It’s unprecedented. It doesn’t even fit within any of the precedents that have been set since Korea.
“If you’re going to talk impeachment, you have to find something that Obama has done that is so distinctly different than what other presidents have done before him that people can resonate with it. The difficult, of course, is that people have forgotten about Libya.”



Obama’s U.S. citizen ‘hit list’

In 2010, Obama ordered the assassination of a radical American-born Muslim cleric who became an avowed member of al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen. Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in a drone strike in September 2011, along with naturalized U.S. citizen and al-Qaida propagandist Samir Khan. Awlaki’s 16-year-old American-born son, Abdulrahman, was killed in a similar strike two weeks earlier.

While there is little argument that Awlaki was involved in terrorist activity, the Obama administration failed to provide due process to the U.S. citizens targeted for the use of deadly force. Awlaki had reportedly communicated by email with Maj. Nadal Hasan, the U.S. Army psychiatrist who murdered 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas. He had also been tied to the so-called “underwear bomber” who attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound plane with plastic explosives sewn into his undergarments on Dec. 25, 2009. The FBI suspected Awlaki had purchased airplane tickets for three of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers before the terrorist attacks.
Anwar al-Awlaki

However, Awlaki was born in New Mexico, and his son was born in Denver, Colo. There has been no reported evidence that Awlaki ever renounced his U.S. citizenship. In fact, Rep. Charles Dent, R-Penn., introduced a 2010 resolution in the U.S. House to strip Awlaki of his citizenship, but the legislation never made it out of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law.
Awlaki spent years in the U.S. as an imam and a Muslim chaplain at George Washington University before moving to Yemen. He had been in U.S. custody twice and released before he was killed by the drone strike. Awlaki was detained in 2002 at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City for passport fraud. A Judicial Watch investigation revealed that he had been released by the FBI. He was also held for at least eight months in 2006 and 2007 and subsequently released.
In 2002, Awlaki reportedly led Muslim prayers on Capitol Hill.
Anwar al-Alwlaki's son, 16

He also reportedly dined at the Pentagon as part of the U.S. military’s outreach to the Muslim community just months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
In 2010, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights sued the U.S. government on behalf of Awlaki’s father, challenging the federal government’s authority to conduct “targeted killings” of U.S. citizens who are not in an armed conflict zone. A federal district court dismissed the case in 2011.
In January this year, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan ruled that the Obama administration is not required to provide legal justification for its targeting killings to the public.
So how does the Obama administration determine who’s a terrorist for the purpose of compiling its hit list?
Samir Kahn

A confidential Justice Department “white paper,” which is not an official legal memo, was released just last week to NBC News. It states that the U.S. government can order targeted killing of American citizens if they are believed to be “senior operational leaders” of al-Qaida or “an associated force.”
In response to the memo, a bipartisan letter from 11 top-ranking senators to President Obama stated, “It’s vitally important for Congress and the American public to have a full understanding of how the executive interprets the limits and boundaries of this particular authority.” The senators asked Obama for “any and all legal opinions” that clarify the basis of his perceived power to “deliberately kill American citizens.”
Judge Andrew Napolitano warned, “This 16-page white paper was written so vaguely that the logic from it could actually be extrapolated to permit the president to kill Americans here in the United States.”
Napolitano noted that Obama also violated another federal statute: “When the president ramps up the war on terror or decides to move into another area or use the CIA to engage people, whether to arrest them or to kill them, he’s required to tell the Senate and House intelligence committees ahead of time and get their consent. He apparently didn’t do that, and so [Congress is] burned by this.”
What the experts say …

“Some people argue, ‘Well, he’s only killing terrorists,’” Fein told WND. “Oh really? How do you know? There’s no accountability. Was Mr. al-Alwaki’s son, a 16-year-old teenager having dinner, a terrorist? So whenever the president says someone’s a terrorist, are they convicted? If the president says conservatives are terrorists, is he going to kill them?
Fein argued that the killings were “tantamount to murder.”
“We know at a minimum there have been three, but perhaps many more. We’re just guessing. You can’t have democracy and the rule of law if you never get to know what the facts are and you just have to accept what the government says they are. If you don’t have a trial, that’s the definition of tyranny.”
Because there was so much evidence against Alwaki, critics argue a conviction could have been easily obtained by the Obama administration.
“It isn’t like they didn’t have evidence,” Fein said. “They had confession, admission against interest. Any of them might plead guilty. Only an uncivilized, savage people convict people without trial and sentence them to the gulag. That’s what we read about in the Soviet Union under Stalin and Khrushchev and Brezhnev. That’s what we read about in China under Mao. Is that what we want to be?”
Fein also blasted the fact that the Obama administration’s justification for the killing remained confidential until now.
“There’s a huge, strong legal case here, absolutely,” he said. “I worked in the Office of Legal Counsel. I worked on impeachment of Nixon. The idea that I would write a secret memo on something that’s an impeachable offense would be insane. A legal rationale now becomes classified because it would tell the enemy what constitutional theory you’re using justify this killing? You’ve got to be kidding!”
Fisher agreed with Fein: “There are no possible grounds for ever keeping legal reasoning secret. If a legal memo has sources and methods, just strike it out and the reasoning must be made public. If you’re not willing to give your reasoning, I’d ask, what’s going on? It’s probably that your reasons are not very good.”
Titus told WND, “It’s quite remarkable that Congress has basically abandoned this issue to the president, primarily by not addressing the issue in the National Defense Authorization Act not only in 2012 but also in 2013, where it basically gives the president carte blanche to detain any person that he suspects to be guilty of aiding people involved in terrorism. The fact that Congress won’t take a stand on that indicates that it wouldn’t intervene in the president’s use of drones to assassinate people he suspects are actively engaged in acts of terrorism even inside the United States.
“Basically, Obama is claiming the right to be the prosecutor on the grounds that the whole world is a war zone. I think it’s an impeachable offense because he’s neither using the civilian courts nor is he bringing them before our military courts. What the president has done is simply defined the whole world as a battleground.”
Upon reviewing the recently released “white paper,” Titus and attorney William J. Olson wrote, “Now, we can see why the Department of Justice has been so reluctant to share the basis for its legal analysis. It is deeply flawed – based on a perverse view of the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause.
“Additionally, the white paper completely ignores the procedural protections expressly provided in the Constitution’s Third Article that were specifically designed to prohibit the president from taking the law into his own hands, serving as prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner.”

[Wes]

Benghazi-gate
On Sept. 11, 2012, a U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were brutally murdered at a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi.
Just three days after the attack, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney accused an anti-Muslim video on YouTube of inciting the attack. On Sept. 16, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice made five television appearances in which she claimed the attacks were spontaneous reactions to the obscure film. Obama mentioned the YouTube video six more times at the U.N. on Sept. 25.
However, there was never any kind of protest at the Benghazi compound that night.

During congressional hearings in January in which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finally was questioned about the calamity on her watch, Clinton claimed she didn’t see a classified State Department cable sent Aug. 16 that said the Benghazi mission could not defend against a “coordinated attack.”
However, the State Department’s Charlene Lamb reportedly observed the attack in near real time.
Lt. Col. Tony Schaefer told Fox News that Obama watched the attack from the situation room: “I hate to say this, according to my sources, yes, (the president) was one of those in the White House situation room in real-time watching this. And the question becomes, ‘What did the president do or not do in the moments he saw this unveiling?’ He — only he — could issue a directive to Secretary of Defense Panetta to do something.”
However, in their testimonies before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said they only spoke with Obama once during the attack in a phone call. Obama spent the following day fundraising in Las Vegas.
In response to questions from Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., Panetta said Obama didn’t ask about military options or deploying assets.
“He just left that up to us,” Panetta said.
The New York Post confirmed that a U.S. military drone had been relaying real-time data to Washington, D.C.
After the administration had blamed the YouTube video for sparking the assault, columnist and pundit Pat Buchanan wrote, “[I]if there was no protest, who sent Carney out to blame the attack on the protest? And if there was no protest, who programmed Rice and put her on five separate Sunday talk shows to attribute the massacre to a protest that never happened?
“If real-time intelligence and U.S. agents at the scene knew it was premeditated, preplanned terrorism by Sept. 12, who told Rice to deny specifically on Sept. 16 that the attack was premeditated or preplanned?”
As WND reported, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., charged that the Obama administration appears to be covering up a gun-running scheme that fell apart when jihadists attacked the U.S. mission in Benghazi.
Andrew McCarthy is a former assistant U.S. attorney who served as the lead prosecutor of the terrorists behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
He wrote, “I do think Benghazi could be an impeachable scandal, and I don’t think this is an extreme position.
“We do not yet have the answers about what happened on September 11 – most significantly, when did the commander-in-chief learn of the terrorist attack on the compound and what action did he take to defend Americans who were besieged for over seven hours under circumstances where there were U.S. military assets an hour away? We also do not know how the Mohammed movie cover-up was orchestrated, although the evidence and common sense point to the White House. With four Americans killed and the nation appallingly misled in the stretch-run of a presidential campaign, this is a far more consequential matter than those that led to the Watergate and Lewinsky investigations. A commander-in-chief’s dereliction of duty and his administration’s intentional lying to the American people – to say nothing of its overbearing prosecution of the filmmaker in a transparent effort to shift responsibility to him – would be impeachable offenses if they are proved.”
Nearly five months after the attack, Americans still have more questions than answers.
What the experts say …
“Benghazi is an example of the administration being deceitful, but they do this all the time,” Fein said. “They obviously just proclaimed we defeated al-Qaida and thought, ‘Do we really want to expose the fact that we’ve got the return of al-Qaida?’ Those things happen all of the time. It’s like saying when Bush announced that we had a weapon of mass destruction about the yellowcake uranium in Nigeria, he should be impeached. It’s wrong, but on the scale of things, it’s not worth shouting about.
“In my judgment, what’s so ridiculous is that members of Congress were so busy screaming and yelling about Benghazi, and yet they did nothing when the president illegally commenced war against Libya – when he created the conditions that led to Benghazi. They didn’t care anything about that.”
Fein continued, “It had everything to do with the timing of the election. It had nothing to do with principle. When all of your priorities are solely political maneuvers, that’s the end of the country.
“Politics is about trying to make the country great and hoping everybody wins. It’s not the red team and the blue team and the yellow team, where one team wins and the others lose. That’s what juveniles do and people involved in games. We have an adolescent mentality in Congress and the White House. There’s no statesman who will stand up and say, ‘Enough!’”
Fisher said, “People duck responsibility and accountability. It’s just amazing what’s happened, particularly after 9/11. Obviously the administration erred in not properly protecting U.S. officials in Benghazi.”
Titus added, “I think that’s one of those kinds of situations where, if you’re going to impeach anybody, you impeach the secretary of state. The problem is, she has left office. But I don’t think that prevents the House from impeaching her. Impeachment carries the penalty of not being allowed to serve in the future.”




Illegal-alien amnesty by executive order
In June 2012, Obama issued an executive order declaring that illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. before they turned 16 and who are younger than 30 would not be deported. They are eligible for a two-year work permit that can be renewed indefinitely under the program called Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
Arguing that children of illegal aliens “study in our schools, play in our neighborhoods, befriend our kids, pledge allegiance to our flag,” Obama said, “it makes no sense to expel talented young people who are, for all intents and purposes, Americans.”
Obama’s executive order mimics some of the provisions in the DREAM Act, which has failed to pass in Congress.
What the experts say …
“I definitely think it’s a very troublesome precedent because the president basically said, ‘Listen, even though the statute doesn’t just carve out an automatic exemption from deportation for this category of individuals, I’m just going to decide unilaterally that I will not deport them.’ Really?” Fein said. “Could you decide you don’t want to enforce the homicide statute for a certain category of people as well?
“That seems to me to fall into a serious category of failure to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’ It’s one thing, given limited resources and the number of illegals, to just say, ‘We’ve got limited resources, and as a matter of practical discussion, we’ve got to look at 1, 2, 3, 4.’ But you still have an individualized determination. That happens in the U.S. Attorney’s office all the time when crimes are committed. But just as a wholesale statement: ‘We just don’t want to enforce the law’?”
“Could the president stand up and say, ‘You know what? I just don’t want to enforce the Voting Rights Act anymore. It’s just too much of a hassle’?”
However, Fein added, “There are stronger cases for impeachment” than the executive order blocking deportation of young illegal aliens.
Fisher told WND, “Impeachment? I think it’s a stretch. Reagan did a deal where 1 or 2 million people illegally here would be made citizens. That was supposed to be a solution. Now we have something like 12 million. Both parties are guilty, and the national government is certainly guilty. I was certainly sympathetic with Arizona trying to cope with this under its own means. There’s a certain amount of vandalism and crime associated with these rates. States should be able to protect themselves.”
Titus added, “One of the problems with impeaching President Obama is that much of what he’s doing, he’s doing because Congress has allowed it or authorized it. So Congress is not in a position to review Obama’s actions and, in the House, to charge him with a high crime and misdemeanor. It’s very difficult.”


Operation Fast & Furious
In June 2012, the Obama administration invoked executive privilege to stop disclosure of documentation to Congress following Operation Fast and Furious, a gun-walking scheme that resulted in the deaths of as many as 100 people, including U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
During the botched operation, the Justice Department’s subdivision of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms lost approximately 2,000 weapons, allowing many of them to flow freely across the U.S.-Mexico border and into the hands of members of Mexican drug cartels.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, but U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen chose to ignore the criminal resolution and not bring charges against Holder.
The Obama administration filed a motion on Jan. 11 to block a lawsuit by Judicial Watch demanding enforcement of a June 22, 2012, Freedom of Information Act request seeking all documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious, and “specifically all records subject to the claim of executive privilege invoked by President Obama on or about June 20, 2012.”
What the experts say …
“That also probably could be an impeachable offense for Eric Holder,” Fein told WND regarding the administration’s stonewalling on release of the missing documents. “That’s ridiculous. In my judgment, Congress is entitled to any scrap of information it wants for oversight. Some of it they may wish, for prudential purposes, to keep in executive session. But Congress spends the money.
“I’ve gone up there and proposed statutes: ‘No moneys of the United States can be expended by the executive branch to gather or collect information unless it’s shared with Congress.’ That’s the end of the matter. If you don’t want to share with Congress, you can’t collect. Congress, in my judgment, has a preliminary right, whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, to see anything in the executive branch.”
Fein said Holder should stop stonewalling and immediately present the requested information to Congress.
“If he had any brains, he’d go ahead and reveal the documents,” he said. “The executive branch is a servant of Congress. Congress is not the serf of some lord of the manor in the White House.”
Fisher agreed with Fein. He told WND, “I was on the first panel testifying about congressional access. I testified before Chairman Issa with three other people, and we said congressional committees have full need for oversight to get access to executive branch documentation. They can’t be told by the Justice Department, ‘Sorry, we’re doing our own investigation’ or ‘Sorry, there’s some sort of litigation.’
“Agencies get into trouble and usually the smart thing, and what they didn’t do, is to say, ‘We made a terrible mistake and we apologize.’ They don’t do that, so there’s more obstruction. The Inspector General report from the Justice Department was like 5 inches of pages, and it was a devastating critique of the Justice Department on how it behaved.
“I would have expected Obama to say, ‘Keep that cr-p away from me. I don’t want to get near it.’ But he invoked executive privilege,” Fisher said. “Obstruction by the government is very, very serious.”
However, Titus told WND, “I would be less inclined to think that we ought to hold the president directly responsible for that – primarily because it was not really a policy that was developed initially during the Obama administration. It was an inherited one, and apparently some of this was going on during the Bush administration.
“It seems to me that the proper target of an investigation with regard to this is the attorney general. He’s the one who’s directly responsible for continuing the program. While President Obama is ultimately responsible, strategically you don’t go after Obama when you have a target as easily identified as Holder.”

[Wes]

And before anyone starts thinking I'm a die-hard Republican, I left the military, giving up a 12 year career, rather than serve under that maniac, GWB. Corrupt politicians are corrupt politicians...

[MikeAurelius]

As I said before, same-old same-old tea party B.S. Nothing new here, move along.

[Wes]

The "Tea party":

Constitutional scholar Bruce Fein

Bruce Fein is the legal scholar who is best known for having drafted articles of impeachment against former President Bill Clinton for perjury after he lied under oath about having sexual relations with an intern.
Fein also drafted articles of impeachment against former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney. In 2011, he drew up formal articles of impeachment against President Obama for his use of military action against Libya without congressional authorization.
Fein was a top Justice Department official under the Reagan administration. He graduated with honors from Harvard Law School in 1972. Fein clerked for a prestigious federal court, and has served in top positions in the Office of Legal Counsel and the Office of Legal Policy. He has served as visiting fellow for constitutional studies at the Heritage Foundation, adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and guest lecturer at the Brookings Institute.
Fein specializes in constitutional and international law and is a frequent witness before Congress. He is chairman of the American Freedom Agenda, founder of Bruce Fein & Associates Inc. and The Lichfield Group and author of “Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for our Constitution and Democracy.”
As for his political persuasion, Fein told WND, “I criticized Nixon. I criticized Clinton. I criticized Bush and Cheney. I criticize Obama. I don’t have any reluctance because I view myself as an American first.


Constitutional scholar Herbert Titus

Herbert Titus, counsel to the law firm William J. Olson, previously taught constitutional law, common law and other subjects for 30 years at five different American Bar Association-approved law schools. From 1986 to 1993, he was the founding dean of the College of Law and Government at Regent University.
And before that, he was a trial attorney and special assistant U.S. attorney with the Department of Justice.
Titus’ degrees are from Harvard and the University of Oregon, and he’s admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, appellate courts in the 6th, 7th, 9th, 10th and other districts. His practice has taken him into courts more than a dozen different states. He has testified on constitutional issues before Congress. Titus has also testified on state and federal constitutional issues before several state legislatures.
Titus has written numerous articles, book chapters and constitutional studies and analyses. He is author of “God, Man, and Law: The Biblical Principles,” a text on American common law.



Constitutional scholar Louis Fisher

Constitutional expert Louis Fisher is scholar in Residence at the Constitution Project. Previously he worked for four decades at the Library of Congress as senior specialist in separation of powers and specialist in constitutional law. During his service with CRS, he was research director of the House Iran-Contra Committee in 1987, writing major sections of the final report.
Fisher is author of dozens of books specifically on constitutional law. He received his doctorate in political science from the New School for Social Research and has taught at Queens College, Georgetown University, American University, Catholic University, Indiana University, Johns Hopkins University, the College of William and Mary law school and the Catholic University law school. Fisher has been invited to testify before Congress about 50 times on constitutional issues.
Fisher’s specialties include constitutional law, war powers, budget policy, executive-legislative relations and judicial-congressional relations.
Fisher told WND he voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012, but he and doesn’t let partisan politics cloud his judgment when it comes to constitutional issues.
“I had plenty of criticism toward George W. Bush and Richard Nixon,” he said. “I’ve been just as harsh about Bill Clinton and Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson and the rest. I’m not partisan, but I don’t flinch from saying what the evidence is.”


But hey, you didn't see it on Communist News Network, so it's invalid, right? Are you aware that virtually all, as in more than 90% of the so-called Main Stream Media are controlled by six guys? Do you suppose they ever get together and talk?

[Wes]

http://www.businessinsider.com/these...america-2012-6