The Schutzstaffel (SS) was originally conceived to be a protection force at Adolf Hitler's public mass meetings. It “evolved” into something far more sinister.
Barack Obama has let us know that he dreams of being a dictator and has said that he'd like to bypass Congress. Obama has found a weapon to hammer everyone and anyone without the messy need for Constitutional process. He has found his own SS. It's called the EPA.
Obama quickly amplified the power of the EPA
The Obama administration initially moved quickly to empower EPA regulation. It granted a waiver to California to allow the higher auto emission standards that had long been blocked by the Bush administration. In December 2009 it issued an “endangerment finding” which found that “The current and projected concentrations of the six key well-mixed greenhouse gasses . . . in the atmosphere threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.” That finding triggered steps toward such forms of regulation as a “mobile source rule,” a “trigger rule,” a “tailoring rule,” and a “reporting rule.”
Obama’s brandishing of EPA authority was widely interpreted as a ploy to pressure Congress to pass climate protection legislation. Many advocates of climate legislation regarded Congressional action as a better way to craft national climate policy than Clean Air Act regulation. But some climate protection advocates argued that the EPA could construct an effective climate protection regime either through direct regulation or through requirements on states that would lead to interstate cooperation to put a price on carbon emissions.
The EPA has a history of abusing American citizens:
In Pennsylvania, take the story of John Pozsgai, an immigrant from Hungary, who worked as a mechanic and eventually saved enough money to purchase the land bordering his home in Morrisville, Pa. This land was an old auto junkyard, and Mr. Pozsgai, taking pride in his home, proceeded to clean up this landfill by removing 7,000 old tires and rusted-out automobiles. However, the EPA did not view this effort as a clean-up but rather a violation of the Clean Water Act. You see, Mr. Pozsgai’s property was a wetland, ambiguously defined by the EPA as any property that has some sort of connection to a wetland. That connection to a wetland was a small drainage ditch located on the edge of his property.
Mr. Pozsgai did not need a permit to dump topsoil on an isolated wetland. However, the Army Corps of Engineers insisted he apply for one. Next, the EPA set up surveillance cameras to capture Mr. Pozsgai filling his land with topsoil. EPA agents then arrested him for “discharging pollutants into waters of the United States.” These “pollutants” consisted of earth, topsoil and sand. The EPA openly admits that no hazardous wastes were involved in the case, yet Mr. Pozsgai was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison and fined $202,000. Mr. Pozsgai spent 1 1/2 years in prison, 1 1/2 in a halfway house, and was under supervised probation for five years. His family went bankrupt and was unable to pay its property taxes on the land.
A similar breach of power can be studied in the case of John Rapanos. Federal officials prosecuted Mr. Rapanos for shoveling dirt around on his property in Bay County, Mich. The EPA and Army Corps of Engineers filed charges against Mr. Rapanos for “polluting” the wetlands by leveling the soil on his property. Under the “migratory molecule” rule, the Army Corps claims that any isolated wetland can fall under federal jurisdiction because there is a speculative possibility that a water molecule from one wetland may reach another navigable waterway. In Mr. Rapanos‘ case, the nearest navigable water is roughly 20 miles from his property.
The federal officials had little evidence and U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff threw out the conviction and refused to follow the unjust federal guidelines enforced by the EPA. Unfortunately, Judge Zatkoff was overruled by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. Mr. Rapanos later appealed his conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court, yet the court refused to hear his case. He now faces possible jail time.
James De Long has written a book on the abusive EPA:
What is the rule of law? DeLong quotes (p. viii) F. A. Hayek: “Stripped of all its technicalities, [the rule of law] means that government in all its action is bound by rules fixed and announced beforehand—rules which make it possible to foresee with fair certainty how the authority will use its coercive powers in a given circumstance and plan one’s individual affairs on the basis of this knowledge” (The Road to Serfdom [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, (1944) 1976], p. 72). DeLong shows that planning to assure compliance with EPA regulations is nearly impossible because enforcement officials have so much leeway in their interpretation of the rules the EPA writes.
Not long ago Obama EPA appointee Al Almendariz pried off the top of the Pandora's box that is Obama's EPA:
Confirming what many in the industry long suspected, a video surfaced Wednesday in which Al Armendariz, an official at the Environmental Protection Agency, promotes the idea of crucifying oil companies. Armendariz heads up the EPA’s region 6 office, which is based in Dallas and responsible for oversight of Texas and surrounding states. The former professor at Southern Methodist University was appointed by President Obama in November 2009.
In a talk to colleagues about methods EPA enforcement, Armendariz can be seen saying, “The Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they would crucify them. And then you know that town was really easy to manage for the next few years.”
And not only has Armendariz talked about crucifying oil companies, he’s tried to do it. In 2010 his office targeted Range Resources, a Fort Worth-based driller that was among the first to discover the potential of the Marcellus Shale gas field of Pennsylvania — the biggest gas field in America and one of the biggest in the world. Armendariz’s office declared in an emergency order that Range’s drilling activity had contaminated groundwater in Parker County, Texas. Armendariz’s office insisted that Range’s hydraulic fracking activity had caused the pollution and ordered Range to remediate the water. The EPA’s case against Range was catnip for the environmental fracktivists who insist with religious zealotry that fracking is evil. Range insisted from the beginning that there was no substance to the allegations.
An Obama official has plainly said that the intent of the EPA is to destroy the coal industry:
Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe plans to highlight a little-known speech by an EPA regional administrator who admitted on video that the Obama’s administration’s air regulations will kill the coal industry.
“Lisa Jackson has put forth a very powerful message to the country. Just two days ago, the decision on greenhouse gas performance standard and saying basically gas plants are the performance standard which means if you want to build a coal plant you got a big problem. That was a huge decision,” Region 1 EPA Administrator Curtis “Curt” Spalding says, in footage filmed at Yale University.
“You can’t imagine how tough that was,” Spalding continued. “Because you got to remember if you go to West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and all those places, you have coal communities who depend on coal. And to say that we just think those communities should just go away, we can’t do that. But she had to do what the law and policy suggested. And it’s painful. It’s painful every step of the way.”
Now word comes that Barack Obama intends to use the EPA to enforce all legislation, starting with the Paycheck Fairness Act.
Announced by senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, who also chairs the White House Council on Women and Girls, as “a true champion for America’s women and girls” Obama spoke of the absolute necessity to pass the legislation — for more than just “fairness.”
“If Congress passes the Paycheck Fairness Act, women are going to have access to more tools to claim equal pay for equal work,” Obama said. ”If they don’t — if Congress doesn’t act — then women are still going to have difficulty enforcing and pressing for this basic principle.”
Pay close attention to how this would be enforced:
“The Chamber strongly supports equal employment opportunity and appropriate enforcement of the Equal Pay Act (EPA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in an opposition letter. “However, this bill would, among other things, expand remedies under EPA to include unlimited punitive and compensatory damages, significantly erode employer defenses for legitimate pay disparities, and impose invalid tools for enforcement by the Labor Department.”
If somehow this was to pass the EPA would truly become Obama's SS. Proposing that the Paycheck Fairness Act be enforced by the EPA is not just of dubious legality it is sheer idiocy, but I do not doubt that Adolf Hitler would be loving it.
As for that Paycheck Fairness Act-
Reid: GOP doesn't want equal pay for women
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday that Senate Republicans oppose equal pay for women, citing as evidence their expected opposition to the Democrats' Paycheck Fairness Act in a scheduled Tuesday vote.
“They don't agree with this, they don't want women to make the same amount of money, so they're filibustering this,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “They are filibustering us even getting on the bill.”
But it turns out that women working for democrats in the Senate make $6500 less than their male counterparts. And what does Nancy Pelosi have to say about that?
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday condemned companies that pay women less than men, but was unwilling to condemn Senate Democrats who pay their female staffers less than male staffers, saying that the Senate is “another world.”
With democrats, it always is.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
And in the end, they will pay. Lisa Jackson belongs in a trumbril on her way to the guillotine. Her crimes are capital. We can only hope the Romney administration investigates and punishes those who violated our constitution.
Regarding federal regulatory agencies like the EPA, please consider the following. The Founding States made Sections 1-3 of Article I of the Constitution to clarify that all federal legislative power are vested in the elected members of Congress. In other words, Congress has a constitutional monopoly on federal legislative powers whether it wants it or not. So when Congress establishes constitutionally undefined agencies like the EPA, BLM, FR, etc., Congress is wrongly delegating federal legislative powers to non-elected bureaucrats who have no constitutional authority to tell anybody what to do imo. The bottom line is that Congress ignores Sections 1-3 of Article I, wrongly protecting federal legislative powers from the wrath of the voters, when it establishes agencies like the EPA.
And what’s worse than constitutionally-ignorant citizens unthinkingly putting up with constitutionally undefined federal regulatory agencies is this. Given that the states have never delegated to Congress via the Constitution the specific power to address environmental issues for example, not only is Congress wrongly delegating federal legislative powers to rogue federal agencies like the EPA, but Congress is delegating powers that the states have never granted to Congress in the first place. In fact, establishing agencies like the EPA is arguably a smoke-and-mirrors way for corrupt Congress to bypass its Article V requirement to petition the states to ratify proposed amendments which would grant Congress specific new powers.
Same basic problem with Obamacare.
What a mess! :^(
@B. Johnson:
It isn’t so much that Congress has ”delegated” powers to the Executive as that the Executive has usurped those powers.
And Congress hadn’t insisted on keeping them.
However, there have been a few showings of balls by this Congress (House, actually).
They have ordered Obama to stop paying 4 times the price for military (green) fuel just to give his green cronies big sales numbers.
Now we’ll see what happens if Obama ignores them.
They have insisted on knowing how many thousand ”Palestinian refugees” were born where they claim to be refugees from vs how many millions are children and grandchildren and great grandchildren who have never know another home but Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and all those other places that keep calling all of them ”refugees,” instead of natural born citizens or subjects.
Just a historical note that Hitler actually rose to power with the help of the SA (Sturmabteilung) or the Brown Shirts as they were known and were supplanted by the SS under Himmler to consolidate power under the German Army and the SS. They basically did all the dirty little deeds that Hitler needed done to gain and keep power. Persecution of people especially the Jews were all specialities of the SA, Kristallnacht was one of their events to imtimidate jewish shop owners.
I can see the EPA cornies wearing the brown shirts and marching in order to the praise of their new leader.
EPA met the goals set for it withing something like ten years as far as air and water quality as I recall. Good job, now go away! Ever since it’s been serious “mission creep” in the name of maintaining and growing the bureaucracy.
Why can’t the House just defund it? Preferably along with the Department of (mis-)Education, BLM, DEA and HUD.
You’re seriously suggesting that Hitler’s S.S.–which was responsible for setting up the Nazi extermination camps that systematically murdered millions of innocent people–was somehow similar to the Environmental Protection Agency? And that the Equal Pay Act is somehow related?
I think you’re connecting dots that aren’t even on the same blackboard. The blackboards aren’t even in the same room.
Wait a minute…
“expand remedies under EPA to include unlimited punitive and compensatory damages,”
I read that as EPA=Equal Pay Act. This has nothing to do with expanding the powers of the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Agency is bad enough already. Let’s not add false information to the fire.
You’re correct, Petercat. The Environmental Protection Agency has no connection with the proposed Paycheck Fairness Act. The EPA referred to in the Daily Caller article is the 1963 bill signed into law by JFK, the Equal Pay Act of 1963. The US Chamber of Commerce was complaining that this is an expansion of remedies under that decades old law, which already allowed for litigation for gender abuse in earnings.
Lisa Jackson and the Environmental Protection Agency are not getting into the business of creating and enforcing labor law. False alarm.
Good to see you again Mata!
And you, HR. Been busy… not much time for blog commenting, let along authoring any posts. Not to say there hasn’t been stuff I’ve been compiling, wishing I had that time to post!
What’s looming big on my mind right now is the inevitable battle of the big EU experiment. From conception, the common Euro currency was a stepping stone concession to a centralized govt. What with the Eurozone falling apart, Greece potentially bolting and Spain on the horizon, the renewed calls for the cure being more “bailouts” and a demand for a Euro central government with the powers of taxation are the cream rising to the top as “the only alternative”. It’s a real clusterf#*k. Everyone’s bond yields are at record lows, including ours. Investors are beginning to bolt to the safety of some currencies not to make money, but hope they at least get most of it back. Meanwhile Schilling’s stated he thinks house prices will decline another 20%. Actually that’s a healthy number because that puts us right at the number values they would be if this nonsense never happened. But for all those involved in some way with the purchase or refinances inbetween, it’s going to be a huge blow. Overall, more foreclosures, short sales and definitely no help on the employment/job market.
As far as I can see, it’s rocky roads for the global economy… and we are part of that globe. Hard to keep my attention on some of this other stuff when most of Europe is perched on the proverbial ledge… LOL
Nein.
Nein.
Es is nicht Schutzstaffel.
Es ist Geheime Statz Polizei. (with a little help from the Sturmabteilung).
Knock on your door in the middle of the night. Take you away. You are never seen again.
No civil rights. No right to a lawyer. No right to a hearing. Locked up, key thrown away. Loss of all property.
Never hear from YOU again.
State is always right. State cannot err. Therefore if you are accused, you are guilty. See? No need for trial. No need for lawyer. No need for hearing. You have no rights. Only the State has rights, and the State has the right to do whatever it wants. See? It is simple. Of course it will all collapse. But only after the death of tens of millions.
And it is for your own good, anyway.
Gleichschaltung – (Nazi Germany) the smothering by bureaucracy. Literally translates as coordination. But more precisely means subordinating independent institutions to state authority.
The targets of such gleichschaltung can be ranked by value and likely resistance. We’ve seen it before with Mussolini’s “Battle of the Grain” and Mao’s Five Year Plan.
According to Roger Kimball, gleichschaltung means two things, ‘First, bringing all aspects of life into conformity with a given political line. And second, as a prerequisite for realizing that goal, the obliteration or at least marginalization of all opposition.’ This, then, is the politicization of all discussions and then kind of an enforced sameness in the discussion.
Now in the United States under Obama we have the US Wildlife and Fisheries raiding Gibson Guitar, the SEC examining hydraulic fracturing fluids, NASA seeking to build bridges with Muslims, and the Department of Education attacking Rick Perry.
These are just a few examples. Others abound. Consider that the EPA has strayed into map-remaking with its new “navigable waters” standard, the IRS is Obamacare’s bouncer, the formerly domestic ATF now has the ability to instigate hostilities on foreign soil through operations like Fast and Furious, and Health and Human Services is funding abortions.
Totalitarians have a history of recasting representative governments into reflections of their own personal madness. Whether in the case of Communists, Fascists, Progressives or modern liberals, day-to-day government is retooled into an incarnation of their dear leader’s obsessions and justified by a vain and unsupportable assertion of higher intelligence.
EPA et al above are just a reflection of Obama’s vision of his top-down planned society.
Mostly a cut and paste job. Keith Riler: American Thinker
@MataHarley:
I had hoped work was keeping you too busy and in the green stuff to post. Sounds like that’s the case. 🙂
I’ve been trying to watch Europe as well. It’s like watching a drunk sway his way down the street, knowing it’s only a matter of time before he falls. The problem is that he has the potential to take other people down with him. Now the voters of France have rebelled against even modest “austerity” measures that have yet to take effect. We certainly live in “interesting” times.
Take care, Mata.
ah… lots of work doesn’t always translate to green, HR. But I keep my nose to the grindstone none the less.
The swaying drunk… LOL That pretty much says it. Unfortunately, the Euro problem is timed nicely for Obama, who is busy blaming our lackluster recovery on them. You know, finger pointing is his greatest talent. Thing is Europe will recover faster than the US. We’re busy still building up (and ignoring) our debt while they are going to be forced to face it, and implement solutions. So there by the grace of the currency gods go we in the future.
Personally, I could take a bit less “interesting” these days… but it is what it is, right? Take care your bad self.
I loved how one of the heads of the EPA (the enforcement lady?) came out and said we don’t have a ”Way Of Life Act” to enforce ….. yet.
So, his or her point was, people who are impacted (+ or -) by a lot of trucks, or noise, or big factories (all LEGAL) DESERVE all of that to be done away with so they can enjoy an idyllic life surrounded by ponds and trees and leas or meadows.
Of course, those of us who PAID to live in such sweet surroundings deserve all this, too…..if our wealth can be redistributed so everybody can have it.
But somehow we are going to all live like philosopher-kings with a tree to lay under and think deep thoughts.
Our infrastructure is the only thing standing in the way of this dream.
This ”Way Of Life Act” dream.
See this whole thing, you will NOT believe it!
Speaking of “Way of Life Act”, Nan G, Inohofe is doing advance planning for EPA’s (the Enviromental Protection Agency) Al Armendariz’s testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday by releasing a montage of his, and others’ statements. Armendariz had the misfortunate judgement of comparing his plan for gas and oil company enforcement to the Romans, picking out a few guys to crucify first to scare others into compliance.
Jay Carney was cornered on this back in late April at a WH press conference. Carney was obviously prepared to counter the ill-chosen (if not true…) choice of language used by Armendariz… stating that he had apologized, and that Obama’s record of increased production (due to policies set in place prior to his swearing in) was proof that the crucifixions were not taking place…
Dunno… Carney doesn’t sound too convincing to me. But he does appear to be well prepared with numbers.
MATA
yes nice to have you here after a while, THE ZIMMERMAN affair is heating up,
with the CRUMP HAPPY TO sink him more. and the JUDGE OUTRAGE at a money small mistake
decide to get him in solitary jail WHERE A BUNCH OF CREEPS ARE READY TO REALLY HURT HIM BAD, I’m not sure if they got him secure enough for quite a while to agree with the PROSECUTOR DRAGON TONGUE WHO IS FUMING BECAUSE THE BOUND WAS NOT WHAT HE WANTED OF 1000000000
bye
I am always amazed at how many people either cannot, or will not, look beyond the surface of any idea.
They want an idyllic, carefree life but…
They do not want the things which make that life possible.
Industrial capacity.
Electrical power.
The possibility of profit.
Our transportation system.
Even the concept that more effort means more rewards seems to be beyond them.
You might as well attempt to explain color to a blind man as explain to a liberal the source of all money with which corporations pay taxes. They can or will not understand, no more than they can or will understand the source of all liberty.
Nor can or will they understand that with liberty, some might suffer more than others, but with tyranny all will suffer to a much greater degree.
To attempt to force equality of results upon us all is to attempt to make me warmer by forcing you to burn your jacket.
Modern day Lotus Eaters, liberals are.
Petercat
hi, yes that was well said, I like the line when you said;
WITH LIBERTY some will suffer more than other,
but with tyranny all will suffer to a much greater degree, and all the comment around it,
it is a wise line for them to learn how to lead a NATION SO GREAT AND YET SO HUMBLE AND SO TOLERANT,
ENOUGH TO PATIENTLY WAIT OUT THE THE ABUSE FROM A WRONG LEADER WHICH THEIR OWN NEIGHBORS ELEVATED TO POWER WITH NO CLOTHS ON HIS BACK, NO FLAMES IN HIS SOUL,
AND NO SPARKS OF LIGHT IN HIS BRAIN.
BYE
@ilovebeeswarzone, not to muddy the subject waters any further than they already are, my comment is on the other thread… #132. Just because I haven’t been submitting posts or commenting, doesn’t mean I haven’t been following news in general.
MATA
YES I just answered on it, thank you again.
bye
If the EPA is charged with protecting wetlands and the life that inhabits it, then shouldn’t it be busy closing down abortion clinics and arresting those working there? After all, until the water breaks, the womb is a natural wetland for the growing fetus within.
I think my argument is more logical and compelling than the unchartable, haphazard and hypothetical migration paths of a single water molecular.