Finally free from having to constantly defend himself from an overthrow by the back-stabbing little guttersnipe Eric Cantor, House Speaker John Boehner is cranking up the election year outrage. Boehner is filing a lawsuit against President Barack Obama's use of executive orders to bypass a gaggle of paid off obstructionists hellbent at wrecking America. Braying about Obama's circumventing of Congress in issuing the orders to deliberately flout the quaint and antiquated system of checks and balances that is pretty much extinct in the corrupt, lawyered-up and spied upon modern political system is pure hypocrisy on Boehner's part. But when it comes to the day to day operations within the brothel that is housed within the US Capitol building hypocrisy is the coin of the realm.
Boehner's publicity stunt is par for the course - he will inevitably call a press conference and may even break down into one of those fake crying jags that he was famous for prior to his ascension to Speaker - but his ridiculous lawsuit is going nowhere. The issuance of executive orders has always been used and abused by US Presidents although it is particularly dangerous in the era of the Unitary Executive which bestows the powers of a king upon the sitting president. Further exposing Boeher's cynicism and his grandstanding in rolling out this dog and pony show prior to the mid-terms in November is that Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush issued nearly three hundred such orders and I don't seem to recall any objection from the luminous, orange-tinted wino from Ohio. In fact Mr. Boehner himself personally wrote to President Bush requesting an executive order to be issued to exempt the historic steamboat Delta Queen from a certain maritime law so the suit against Obama is more of the same cheap political horseshit.
In fact the hallowed Ronald Reagan, who has become to Republicans what Vladimir Lenin once was to the communists in Russia issued 381 such orders (more than Bush or Obama) with the most dangerous being Executive Order 12333. Reagan, who in signing off on what is referred to by insiders as "twelve-triple-three" could even be tabbed as the father of the modern surveillance state instead of the father of the country that Boehner and the rest of his sleazy criminal syndicate party try to sell him to voters as being. According to a recent McClatchy story, Reagan's 12333 is the basis for all of the ongoing unconstitutional NSA mass warrentless surveillance and data-mining that has been ongoing and exposed by patriotic whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The McClatchy story on 12333 is entitled "Most of NSA's data collection authorized by order Ronald Reagan issued"and I excerpt the following from this story:
The National Security Agency's collection of information on Americans' cellphone and Internet usage reaches far beyond the two programs that have received public attention in recent months, to a presidential order that is older than the Internet itself.
Approved by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, Executive Order 12333 (referred to as "twelve-triple-three") still governs most of what the NSA does. It is a sweeping mandate that outlines the duties and foreign intelligence collection for the nation's 17 intelligence agencies. It is not governed by Congress, and critics say it has little privacy protection and many loopholes. What changes have been made to it have come through guidelines set by the attorney general or other documents.
The result is a web of intelligence law so complicated that it stymies even those tasked with interpreting it. As one former executive official said, "It's complicated stuff."
Confusing though it may be, the order remains the primary authority under which the country's intelligence agencies conduct the majority of their operations.
Neither the office of Attorney General Eric Holder nor that of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper would comment about 12333.
AND
The impact of 12333 is enormous -- and largely unknown. Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden suggest that less than half of the metadata the NSA has collected has been acquired under provisions of the USA Patriot Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the two laws that have received the most attention for permitting NSA programs.
Gen. Keith Alexander, the NSA director, has ratified that impression, saying that the majority of NSA data is collected "solely pursuant to the authorities provided by Executive Order 12333."
Boehner never really challenges the NSA Stasi does he? That is other than the standard lip service that is paid by the pack of thieves, liars, grifters, obstructionists and de-facto lobbyists when it comes to putting an end to bulk collection of metadata (a limited hangout) but not real reform or accountability. He also is one of the many rats in high places who has referred to Snowden as a "traitor" for his act of great service to the American people. Just like the slime-coated Darrell Issa with his abuse of taxpayer funds to conduct his inquisitions into Benghazi and the IRS allegedly targeting right-wing political front groups abusing non-profit status Boehner is all about his own political survival. That is because his survival means a permanent tax payer funded occupation of his congressional seat where he can suckle at the teat of the very big government that he decries for the purpose of his own self-enrichment and aggrandizement. Neither Boehner nor Issa will do one damned thing about the rogue activities of the NSA nor address the executive order that their idol Reagan imposed upon the American people that has led us to the brink of turnkey totalitarianism. No, it is all about sticking it to the BLACK guy in the WHITE House and nothing fires up the rabble in an off year election than some good-old fashioned race baiting, we saw it in 2010 and will see it again in 2014.
In a functional democratic system as was set out by the Founding Fathers the suing an out of control Executive Branch in order to maintain that bygone system of checks and balances would be both right and admirable, too bad that we don't live in one and it is largely due to the corruption and moral bankruptcy of reprobates like John Boehner and his ilk.
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