Moving Ever Closer

Power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts. Our nation was founded on a hallowed document called the United States Constitution. Looking back on history, the founding fathers crafted a document that was specifically designed to insure that a tyrant couldn't seize the reins of power and rule their lives ever again, nor their heirs either, and that would be us. During the past three plus years I have watched as the nation has struggled under the likes of Barack H. Obama. Lately I am seeing some grave signs that I shouldn't ever be seeing emanating from the executive branch of our nation. One of the problems associated with this is that many people don't see some of the warning signs of how things can go totally wrong in a hurry. Either that or they are just ignoring them.

James Madison was a brilliant man and a patriot. Our founding fathers lived under a tyrant and they knew that power of such sorts is truly devastating to mankind and its plight in life. Americans have become soft but not as Obama defines softness. The federal government has created too many cushions to rest your haunches on whether you need to rest them there or not. Where we are seeing the federal government go is exactly where our founding fathers intended it not to go. They didn't want a large centralized government, especially an all powerful executive branch, to dictate to the people. They believed in self-determination and "We, the People..." had the ability to make decisions for ourselves on how our life was to be led. We have lost much of that. We need to regain our footing as individuals, not as some collective mass of sheeple.

I, for one, will not remain silent. There is a continuing pattern that is evolving in this nation that has to do specifically with Obama and the Executive Branch of our government. Go back up and read Madison's words one more time. "The accumulation of all powers, executive, legislative and judiciary, all in the same hands..." Is that what we have witnessed and continue to witness during the course of this administration? Do we have a chief executive who has publicly stated that he "will not take NO for an answer?" Are we to be treated as mere children who has a parent who doesn't understand man's free will?

The signs have been there all along. It started with Obamacare which Obama was determined, no matter what, was going to be implemented. It was unpopular then and remains even more so today. Too much power over the people has now been put in the hands of the HHS. Just the other day Kathleen Sebelius, using that flawed law, dictated that free surgical sterilization would be made mandatory in health care policies. The ruling applies to all female college students. Any college aged female, whether a student or not, will also receive this "free" care if they are covered under an employer policy, their parent's coverage or a government subsidized plan. That last part is what Obamacare is really all about. Now I ask you as this is just the tip of the iceberg. What is this really all about? Should the executive branch have that much power over anyone or anything?

Next is the National Defense Authorization Act. This legislation allows for the indefinite detention of American citizens based upon some rather vague wording of who can be detained and for what reasons. Our founding fathers I can assure you would have been detained indefinitely at this point under this administration. They would have been classified as terrorists because they were intent on insuring that a tyrant was disposed of as tyrants should be. They didn't elect King George III, they were just stuck with his yoke around their necks.

I hope you listen to the video below closely. Chris Floyd wrote the following in a commentary about the NDAA: "And whatever the outcome of this particular bill, the reality will remain the same: the President of the United States will continue to claim -- and exercise -- absolute arbitrary power over the life and liberty of every person on earth. As we've said here before, not even Adolf Hitler or Josef Stalin at their most megalomaniacal ever dreamed of asserting the kind of universal power now asserted by American presidents and the lickspittlish lackeys in the United States Congress."

Executive Orders are unquestionably unconstitutional. There is not one word in the US Constitution that allows for the practice. Three days ago on March 16th, when most people werre distracted by other absurd events in the nation, Obama signed an Executive Order that should alarm anyone with any common sense in view of what James Madison warned above. The National Defense Resources Preparedness Order gives the President of this nation the absolute authority over our nation's natural resources in time of natural disaster or war. Sounds innocent enough, doesn't it? Then stop and think about it and think about "I will not take NO for an answer."

Basically, in that order, Obama has granted himself the absolute power to approve the distribution of all energy resources, transportation, food and water. In other words, the essentials of life as we know it. Now go back up and read Madison's warning one more time. So lets get into the meat and potatoes of the powers Obama has bestowed upon himself. The wording I highlighted is specific dangerous wording.

"Section 101. Purpose. This order delegates authorities and addresses national defense resource policies and programs under the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (the "Act").

Sec. 102. Policy. The United States must have an industrial and technological base capable of meeting national defense requirements and capable of contributing to the technological superiority of its national defense equipment in peacetime and in times of national emergency. The domestic industrial and technological base is the foundation for national defense preparedness. The authorities provided in the Act shall be used to strengthen this base and to ensure it is capable of responding to the national defense needs of the United States.

Sec. 103. General Functions. Executive departments and agencies (agencies) responsible for plans and programs relating to national defense (as defined in section 801(j) of this order), or for resources and services needed to support such plans and programs, shall:

(a) identify requirements for the full spectrum of emergencies, including essential military and civilian demand;

(b) assess on an ongoing basis the capability of the domestic industrial and technological base to satisfy requirements in peacetime and times of national emergency, specifically evaluating the availability of the most critical resource and production sources, including subcontractors and suppliers, materials, skilled labor, and professional and technical personnel;"

I'm sure not trusting enough of anyone, much less Barack Obama, to give the powers he has granted himself to have the very power of life and death over the citizens of this nation. It seems unreasonable to me unless there is that hidden tyrannical agenda I have been seeing glimpses of as we moved along. How much power is too much power? Take a look for yourself again at this part of the order.

Sec. 201. Priorities and Allocations Authorities. (a) The authority of the President conferred by section 101 of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2071, to require acceptance and priority performance of contracts or orders (other than contracts of employment) to promote the national defense over performance of any other contracts or orders, and to allocate materials, services, and facilities as deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense, is delegated to the following agency heads:

(1) the Secretary of Agriculture with respect to food resources, food resource facilities, livestock resources, veterinary resources, plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment and commercial fertilizer;

(2) the Secretary of Energy with respect to all forms of energy;

(3) the Secretary of Health and Human Services with respect to health resources;

(4) the Secretary of Transportation with respect to all forms of civil transportation;

(5) the Secretary of Defense with respect to water resources; and

(6) the Secretary of Commerce with respect to all other materials, services, and facilities, including construction materials

The moves we have been seeing should be worrisome to any freedom loving American who values their life, their liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Power is an aphrodisiac of the worst sort. It corrupts. That is what we have been witnessing for too long in our nation's Capitol. Obama has brought it to new heights. I reckon I just have trouble with the idea of having a centralized government intent upon seizing and maintaining power over the people at any cost. That is called tyranny in most people's book. The cost of freedom has never been cheap, nor will the maintenance of those freedoms come at a discount.

Below is one of the source articles I read as I researched this Hub. Just Google "National Defense Resources Preparedness Order." Obama cites The Defense Production Act of 1950 as his authority to sign such an order. I see it as a further power grab myself. That act is a law passed by Congress. His latest move isn't a law, it is an order and the US Constitution specifically states that Congress shall enact the laws by which we are governed.

Two hundred and thirty six years ago a nation was born. It was born on the strength of patriots who wanted to be free and the citizens of a free country where they determined their own destiny. It's now time for a rebirth of those principles. If you haven't been really paying attention recently, it is high time that you start and have discussions with your friends, neighbors and relatives about the course the nation is on and why.

As always,

The Frog Prince