Earlier this week, news media coverage of a major issue appeared in almost every newspaper and on nearly every television and radio broadcast. The extensive coverage pointed out the unbridled arrogance of former President George W. Bush when he was in office, providing readers, viewers and listeners with a number of stunning examples.
One example cited was Bush's recess appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Labor Relations Board. Although permitted by the Constitution to make appointments while the Senate is in recess to allow key positions to be filled, the President made these appointments while the Senate was in pro-forma sessions. Bush clearly stretched the limits of the President's Constitutional power, pushing it further than the framers of the Constitution ever intended.
Another example revealed by the news media was Bush's "kill list," a list of suspected terrorists selected for execution by drones. Without any trial by jury or evidence presented to a judge, the President and his team determined who would die and who would live. If family members or other community members were found with suspected terrorists, Bush and his group of advisors often decided that they were up to no good, too, and ordered a drone strike, killing both the potentially innocent and those strongly suspected of guilt. Dead men, women and children tell no tales.
Did you happen to see any of this coverage? You didn't?
The fact is that there has been little coverage about these issues because the President who has displayed this unequaled disregard for the Constitution, as well as American and international laws, has been Barack Obama, not George W. Bush.
Yes, it was Obama who made the recess appointments while the Senate was still convening. Yes, it was Obama who has developed an ever-expanding list of suspected terrorists to kill, justifying the killing of potentially innocent people who just happen to be near the suspected terrorists. It was also the Obama Administration who closed the gap between Church and State, telling Catholic institutions that they must provide birth control converage as part of the new health care law.
It was the Obama Administration that stretched the limits of the Commerce Clause in the Constitution, telling Americans that they must buy health insurance and would be penalized if they didn't. For the first time in American history, the Commerce Clause is going to be used to penalize Americans for not participating in commerce?
This President and his administration also selectively decided who would be the winners and the losers in the bailout of General Motors, protecting the United Auto Workers and the dealerships of those who supported his election, while distributing pennies on the dollar to shareholders and bondholders and closing GM dealerships for most of those who strongly supported John McCain in the 2008 election. Even in its selection of the "green" companies to support with stimulus dollars, the Obama Administration just happened to pick those who supported his candidacy the strongest. What a coincidence.
But you haven't heard much about any of these issues because the mainstream news media wanted Obama to be elected, and wants him to serve another four years.
But if it had been Bush who had done even half of these shenanigans, you would have seen extensive coverage on the front page of every major newspaper and news magazine, the lead story on every major television station's broadcast, and the main topic of every major radio station's news coverage. The mainstream news media, as well as the Internet, would have been abuzz with coverage and comments about how Bush was acting more like a dictator than a President.
Sadly, the same Americans and members of the news media who vehemently condemned Bush for approving enhanced interrogation techniques on live prisioners are applauding Obama for having the courage to kill suspected terrorists and innocent people who may be near suspected terrorists. The same voters and reporters who vehemently opposed the ability of the Bush Administration to obtain a wiretap quickly from a single federal judge in order to listen in on the phone conversations of suspected terrorists now undoubtedly support the Obama Adminitration's selection of who will be killed, without any legislative or judicial oversight.
To me, this is the height of hypocricy. It's past time for the news media and the electorate to quit giving this President a free pass in terms of accountability and to begin holding him to the same standard as his predecessors.
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