Did I Wake Up in the Old Soviet Union?

Someone please wake me!  I feel like I am either dreaming, or I went to sleep in the United States of America and woke up in the old Soviet Union.  Our Department of Justice seems to have turned into the KGB.  I can understand the Obama administration’s extreme dislike for Fox News Channel.  After all, Fox, which just happens to be the highest rated cable news network, is the only major news outlet that isn’t afraid to ask the hard questions of the Obama administration.

I do believe, however, that even the Obama administration has gone too far this time.  As if the apparent cover-up of the Benghazi fiasco and the IRS fiasco were not enough, now the Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Eric Holder, chose to violate the constitutional rights of James Rosen, a Fox News investigative reporter, who was investigating how the Obama administration was handling the nuclear situation in North Korea.  In an effort to determine which State Department employee(s) leaked information to Rosen, the Department of Justice obtained a warrant from the court to obtain James Rosen’s telephone records.  To do so, however, DOJ named Rosen as a co-conspirator in what they termed a case of espionage.

It is a shame that our Attorney General lacks knowledge of the law.  As a former holder of a TOP SECRET security clearance with access to special intelligence information, I thoroughly understand that the responsibility of safeguarding sensitive or classified information rests with the government employee possessing the information.  It is the responsibility and duty of the reporter to ask the questions.  If answering the questions would result in divulging sensitive or classified information, then the possessor of the information is bound by law not to release the information.  All he/she has to do is decline to answer the question, explaining that he/she is unable to answer because the information is classified.  It’s quite simple.

It appears to this writer that this is not truly a matter of an espionage investigation, at least not as far as James Rosen is concerned.  Instead, it appears that this is simply a heavy-handed, terribly clumsy attempt to intimidate Fox News and anyone else who dares to investigate the Obama administration.

The Obama administration in general, and the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service in specific, have gone way over the line this time.  It is past time that someone inform Mr. Obama and his cohorts that this is still the United States of America, still governed by the Constitution of the United States (not Chicago politics), and Mr. Obama and his administration need to abide by the law.  Mr. Obama is the President of the United States, not King (or dictator) of the United States!

It's the Fault of the Congress

President Obama, when he is not blaming former President George W. Bush for the problems in America, tends to blame Congress. At first, I thought it a bit curious that he would blame Congress, since his party, the Democrats, control one house of Congress—the Senate. Then it dawned on me. Most people, primarily due to lack of knowledge, believe that the Congress is controlled by the Republicans. Others believe that the House of Representatives, under control of the Republicans, is the Congress.

Folks, if you took Civics or Social Studies, depending on what it was called when you took it, you should remember, the Congress is made up of two houses—the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House members serve two-year terms. The Senate members serve six-year terms. The Speaker of the House, Representative John Boehner, is a Republican, and the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Harry Reid, is a Democrat. Mr. Boehner, as Speaker of the house, runs the House. His predecessor, in control of the House from 2006 until 2010, was Representative Nancy Pelosi, from California (San Francisco area), a very liberal Democrat. Senator Reid, as Majority Leader of the Senate, runs the Senate, and the Democrats control the Senate.

Mr. Obama would like for us all to believe that the Congress (House and Senate) has stopped all of the things he has tried to do to cause the economy to improve. For his first two years as President, his party, the Democrats, controlled both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Remember, they shoved Obamacare down our throats. They were able to do so, because the Republicans did not have enough people in either house of Congress to stop it.

The Republican Party, in control of the House of Representatives, has passed over twenty bills aimed at enabling American industry to create jobs. Harry Reid (DEMOCRAT), as Majority Leader of the Senate, has refused to bring a single one of them to the floor for a vote. The SENATE (read Democrats and Harry Reid) has blocked everything the Republicans in the House of Representatives have tried to do. If either Mr. Obama or Mr. Reid were serious about creating real jobs, they would bring these bills to the floor for an up or down vote.

Since the Democrats gained control of the House and Senate in 2006, they have failed to pass a federal budget, instead voting in “stop-gap” measures to keep the government running. Mr. Obama has not submitted a serious budget to the Congress (the House of Representatives and Senate) since he took office over three years ago. What he has submitted, Mr. Reid and the Democrats defeated in the Senate.

If you want to blame anybody for the ills of the American economy, and you don’t want to blame Mr. Obama, then you need to blame Senator Reid and the Democrats in the Senate. That is where the bottle neck is located (once you get past the bottle neck in the White House). They can ram through Obamacare, and they can take time to file lawsuits against Arizona, Alabama, and South Carolina to overturn their immigration laws. They can take the time to block South Carolina’s attempt to inject some integrity into our elections by requiring a photo I.D. to vote. Mr. Obama can find the time to take nineteen vacations in three years (at enormous taxpayer expense), but Mr. Obama and the Democrats in the Senate can’t seem to find time to pass a budget. It seems to this writer that the problem resides in the White House and the Senate. I would say it’s time to clean house in both houses—the Senate and the White House! Unfortunately, as long as our government robs Peter to pay Paul, they will always have Paul’s vote. When Paul outnumbers Peter, we will go down the drain.