Why all this fear over executive orders?

Executive orders have been around since day one, when George Washington in 1873 instructed his federal officers to prosecute any citizen from interfering with the war between England and France.

Executive orders are not specifically mentioned in the United States Constitution, but presidents have relied on implied references in Article II of the Constitution.

A.  The executive shall be vested in the president of United States.
B.  The president of the United States is commander- in -chief of the Army and Navy.
C.  The president of United States shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed. 

I don't know why the  legislators are whining about executive orders because they can be overruled by the courts or nullified by the legislators.  Until then, they have the full weight of the law.

Executive order 9066 issued by President Franklin Roosevelt was probably the most outrageous one, because it called for sending 122,000 Japanese- Americans to interment camps.  Congress was equally guilty because of months later they passed a law making it a Federal offense to disobey the executive order.

Then there was President Lincoln in 1861, who suspended the leader of a a militia group, John Merryman's right to appear in court (habeas corpus) but in 1863 Congress officially gave Lincoln that power.

President Teddy Roosevelt broke the 1000 mark for executive orders but his fifth 'cause and Franklin D. Roosevelt more than tripled that with 3522 of those bad boys.

I know it  would anger me every time President George W. Bush would sign a law passed by Congress and then attach a signing statement saying that he reserved the right to go around that law is necessary.  I never got upset over the amount of executive orders because was all was about what was in those executive orders.
 
A lot of the anger over President Obama's use of executive orders can be traced back to his winning two consecutive presidential races.  The voters who lost want their representatives to hold the presidency to the fire until reinforcements arrive.  Those voters don't realize that Congress or the  Supreme Court has already given the president the powers to issue those executive orders.  For example, the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA  has the right to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases under the Clean-Air  Act.  To them, it's not how many executive orders President Obama issues because they don't want him to the issue any.  They ignore all the executive orders other presidents have used and say Obama is a monarch or worse yet a dictator because he uses the legal tools at his disposal to get things done. 

You Don't Own Those Words

I remember a while back a friend was explaining conservatism to me. It was if he looked into the dictionary and pulled most of the superlatives and left a few to explain liberalism. I laughed but decided that he could go on thinking that way but then I realized that’s what everyone was doing and then it became an unchallenged opinion.

That was back in the day of family values, traditional values, yellow ribbon patriotism, support the troops, waving a flag of surrender and cutting and running. I never understood why a single-parent household couldn’t be considered a good traditional family value. That doesn’t mean that I don’t favor a two- parent family. It was the same way for wanting the troops to come home meant when some of us were told that we were “waving the white flag of surrender.”

I heard the best explanation of the Arizona gay ban legislation on last night’s Bill Maher and by a conservative no less. Margret Hoover, CNN’s conservative consultant told Bill Kristol and the rest of the audience and panel that a group of religious zealots introduced and voted in the discriminatory bill just to anger the gay community. It wasn’t about religious freedom and the Republican governor said as much“ it does not address a specific or present concern related to religious liberty in Arizona,” and that it was “broadly worded and could result in unintended and negative consequences.”

We will have to wait-and-see but I don’t think Michael Sam is going to run into any kind of trouble nor will the NFL and their fans put up any resistance. I think the media is stirring the pot anticipating trouble but I saw Michael Sam receive a standing ovation at a Missouri basketball game the other night and I saw the same for Jason Collins in Brooklyn. I think people in general don’t like discrimination of any kind any more.

We made it through another war on Christmas that never materialized but even at the local level we still have a lot of gun fanatics who are paranoid about gun confiscation and the politicians pander to them.It'll be that way until President Obama leaves office and a NRA backed president wins the presidency. In the meantime politicians will continue to appease the paranoid.

There is a way to stop all the superficial talking points from becoming a reality and I saw how last night. Bill Maher came prepared for Bill Kristol’s constant call for military intervention. Maher read a laundry list of all the wrong things Kristol said about Iraq causing the audience to laugh. This was the first time that I have seen Bill Kristol embarrassed and rendered speechless.

 For now I will continue to ask for a supporting link because I refuse to live in a " evidence free world."