You're Fired

In 2008, on the heels of the US Attorney's firing "scandal", the Democrats on Capital Hill put together legislation to add further protections to the Inspector Generals corps as these federal employees are supposed to be more insulated from the political winds of change than US Attorneys (who serve at the pleasure of the President) are. That Legislation, the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008, was sponsored by Senator Claire McKaskill and one of the 11 co-sponsors was none other than then Senator Barack Obama! The bill (which has not made it out of committee in the House) was designed to:

• Require Congressional notification on the removal of an inspector general;
• Expand the reporting requirements for IG budget requests;
• Require IGs to have their own legal counsel;
• Establish an IG Council;
• Provide IGs with some additional investigative, law enforcement, and personnel
  authorities and require additional reports by IGs and the Government Accountability
  Office (GAO).

Another requirement of the bill was:

(Sec. 3) Requires the President, the heads of designated federal entities, the Librarian of Congress, the Capitol Police Board, and the Public Printer to communicate to Congress in writing the reasons for removing or transferring an IG no later than 30 days before such removal or transfer.

However, since this bill was not passed out of the House, the law that applies to Mr. Walpin's firing is the Inspector General Act of 1978. One of the provisions of that law is that when an IG is removed from office or transferred that the head of the federal entity doing that (in this case that would be the head of the Executive Branch - ie President Obama) must notify both Houses of Congress - something President Obama has not done according to Sen. McKaskill!

“The White House has failed to follow the proper procedure in notifying Congress as to the removal of the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service,” McCaskill said. “The legislation which was passed last year requires that the president give a reason for the removal.”

McCaskill, a key Obama ally, said that the president’s stated reason for the termination, “Loss of confidence’ is not a sufficient reason.”

Another provision of the existing law is that the President must give the Inspectors General 30 day advance notice of their firing - something else this President did not not considering he gave Mr. Walpin 1 hour to resign or be fired. Only after Walpin refused to resign did this President decide to follow the law and tell Congress of his intent to fire the IG - but by then the die had been cast and it was too late for the President to abide by the intent of the law.

Regardless of whether you are applying the existing law, or the amendments to that law that then Senator Obama co-sponsored, it is clear that PRESIDENT Obama broke the intent of the law in his firing of Gerald Walpin. This is in no way akin to President Bush's wholesale firing of US Attorney's - a faux scandal created by the left-o-sphere to discredit President Bush. This is a real and legit scandal and something that the media and Congress need to bring light to. However, I suspect that will not happen with this President. It will be swept under the rug by a besotted media and a hyper-partisan congress.

So much for the "politics of change" that we were promised.

Well Now.....

Well, well, well.....

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he has lost confidence in the inspector general who investigates AmeriCorps and other national service programs and has told Congress he is removing him from the position.

Obama's move follows an investigation by IG Gerald Walpin finding misuse of federal grants by a nonprofit education group led by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who is an Obama supporter and former NBA basketball star.

Now half of me is curious as to how the people who called for President Bush's impeachment for doing the same thing are going to react to this, the other half of me realizes that I already know what the response will be.....stone, dead, graveyard silence.

And before you all cry "but wait you defended Bush when HE did it" let me just remind you that there is a little bit of difference between the two situations. These cases no where NEAR identical....when President Bush fired the AG's a few years back he fired a large number of them and NONE of the fired AG's were investigating supporters of the then President. While the larger point that the IG and the AG's before him serve at the pleasure of the President remains, when the President fires an IG or AG when he is in the middle of an investigation that just HAPPENS to center around a support of said President, you know a few eyebrows SHOULD be raised in the media - and you expect it in the blogosphere.

That said, I have no doubts that the left will remain deadly silent on an issue that had them HOWLING with indignation a short two years ago. Which again shows exactly where their priciples (and their priorities) really are...

Cue The Crickets...

To all of you on the left (and on the right to be fair) who were so bent out of shape about the Patriot Act, I have a question....

What is your thoughts about this? Is there any concern or consternation here??????

Swine Flu 'Pandemic' Martial Law Passes MA Senate

5-4-9

"While Massachusetts residents were sleeping, our Legislature rushed through a bill- in response to the recent "Swine flu" outbreak.

This bill has been on the shelf but (the) state government felt this was the perfect time to slip this bill through.

What is the big deal about the bill- S18? It gives the Governor power to authorize the deployment and use of force to distribute supplies and materials.

It gives local authorities the permission to enter private residences for investigation and to quarantine individuals.

Basically during any "emergency" our state can and will declare martial law; you lose your Constitutional rights.

Emphasis mine.

Now that the "Democrats" are in complete control, we are hearing more and more rumblings about legislation to strip away the rights of the American people. Whether it is the re-emergence of the Fairness Doctrine, revoking the press credentials of media reps that disagree with you, threats of siccing the White House Press Corp on businesses who don't agree with the President's plans, annulling the voting rights of legit voters by engaging in voter fraud or threatening life long government workers with legal action just because they did their job, the "Democratic" Party office holders have done more, in the past 100+ days to remove the civil rights of the American people than the writers of the Patriot Act ever dreamed.....

I'm curious to hear the response, but I won't be at all surprised to hear.....

From The Inbox: A Tale Of Two Houses

This has been around the 'net a time or three but it is a fun little bit of green trivia.

House #1

A 20 room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2400 per month. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern 'snow belt' area. It's in the South.

House #2

Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university. This house incorporates every 'green' feature current home construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground.

The water (usually 67 degrees F) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.

~~~~~
HOUSE #1 is outside of Nashville , Tennessee ; it is the abode of the 'environmentalist' Al Gore.

HOUSE #2 is on a ranch near Crawford , Texas;
it is the residence of the former President of the United States , George W. Bush.

An 'inconvenient truth.' which can be verified at Snopes.com

Can't A Guy Eat His Waffles in Peace?

Oh me, oh my.....what are the Code Pinks going to think about this?

The Obama administration is moving toward reviving the military commission system for prosecuting Guantánamo detainees, which was a target of critics during the Bush administration, including Mr. Obama himself.
Officials said the first public moves could come as soon as next week, perhaps in filings to military judges at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, outlining an administration plan to amend the Bush administration’s system to provide more legal protections for terrorism suspects.

This is yet another one of those campaign promises that President Obama has waffled back and forth on in his short 100 days in office.

Continuing the military commissions in any form would probably prompt sharp criticism from human rights groups as well as some of Mr. Obama’s political allies because the troubled system became an emblem of the effort to use Guantánamo to avoid the American legal system.

Damm - this governing thing is harder than it looks. HILLARIEEEEEE - can Bill come help me?

Obama administration officials — and Mr. Obama himself — have said in the past that they were not ruling out prosecutions in the military commission system. But senior officials have emphasized that they prefer to prosecute terrorism suspects in existing American courts. When President Obama suspended Guantánamo cases after his inauguration on Jan. 20, many participants said the military commission system appeared dead.

But in recent days a variety of officials involved in the deliberations say that after administration lawyers examined many of the cases, the mood shifted toward using military commissions to prosecute some detainees, perhaps including those charged with coordinating the Sept. 11 attacks.

What???? You mean President Bush was RIGHT???? Your base is not going to like that at all Mr. President. Neither is Speaker Pelosi. Better watch your back sir.....