The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

If Tyranny Moves Slowly Enough, Then Americans Might Not Notice

Posted on | March 19, 2012 | 18 Comments

by Smitty

Prof. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection:

HR 347 was recently signed into law by President Obama. This statute had wide support amongst both parties of Congress. In essence, it criminalizes disruptive behavior upon government grounds, at specially designated national events (Super Bowl, nominating conventions, etc.) and anywhere that Secret Service is protecting “any” person. Obviously, the goal of this law is to enhance the ability of the Secret Service to protect those persons it is charged to do so; but in extending this power, this law eviscerates the citizens’ rights to assemble and petition under the First Amendment.
The major flaw in this law is it vests too much discretion with the executive branch – Secret Service – in cordoning off public venues in order to carry out their protective services function. Ignore their dictates and become a criminal. This expanded authority will eventually run afoul of the First Amendment; the question remains if the First Amendment will be protected by the courts.

I submit that the issue here is that the federal government in general, and the Presidency in particular, has become too powerful. Separation of powers, inexorably and unexpectedly collapses upward to DC and inward to the Executive.

I’m sure that our GOP candidates will identify the need to reverse this decline in liberty, and equal protection under the law, and set about doing specific things to unwind the ills of the last century. Because it is as though we are engaged in a decades-long fight to the death to preserve the founding ideals of the country.

Redistribute Power, Not Wealth

Category: Progressivism

Comments

18 Responses to “If Tyranny Moves Slowly Enough, Then Americans Might Not Notice”

  1. Bob Belvedere
    March 19th, 2012 @ 1:46 pm

    Oh it is a fight to the death, I assure you.

  2. Steve Burri
    March 19th, 2012 @ 1:50 pm

     It actually was Louis Lombardi that wrote that on Legal Insurrection. On an earlier post, Professor Jacobson didn’t think it was much of a big deal.

    Nonetheless, the President is issuing executive orders far beyond his necessary powers.

  3. Adjoran
    March 19th, 2012 @ 1:50 pm

    Don’t look for any help from this guy:  http://youtu.be/y-WezrKqUBQ

  4. Finrod Felagund
    March 19th, 2012 @ 2:12 pm

    Pardon me for bringing up this issue, but I want to get the word out that PETA is evil.

    PETA for political purposes with the help of the ASPCA made false claims about a cat rescue farm in Florida and got it shut down; now several hundred cats that were getting food, shelter, and medical care have been caged up as ‘evidence’.  To add insult to injury,  PETA is using the owner’s personal cat that he rescued and nursed back to health in their promotional lies.  Reading this story has put me about two steps from getting some firearms and going Keyser Soze on PETA and everyone who enables them:

    http://www.caboodleranch.org/

    http://caboodleranch.livejournal.com/

  5. Pathfinder's wife
    March 19th, 2012 @ 2:29 pm

    Welcome to the fight brother.  I’ll catch you up to date: HSUS is also evil as they have been infiltrated by PETA and have been reduced to a friendly faced front. They’ve been at this for at least 30 years and are very well organized, and their goals are not at all what they say (think more: really evil reading of the Georgia guidestones with them as the worthy ones).

    Anyone who wants to do nice things for animals had best go local (but do your research!) or check out the ASPCA (which hasn’t been as infected yet).

    And I got to hear ol’ Ingrid Newkirk in person once: she is the penultimate limousine liberal brahmin hateful *(&(( ever put on this planet (heh, say that five times fast, but it’s all true; she’s a truly hateful nihilist and self absorbed special cupcake).

  6. Finrod Felagund
    March 19th, 2012 @ 2:36 pm

    Thank you very much.  Unfortunately, the ASPCA was complicit at a minimum in the destruction of the Caboodle Ranch cat rescue farm, so I don’t feel like I can trust them any further than I can kick them, either.

  7. StrangernFiction
    March 19th, 2012 @ 2:41 pm

    No worries, Romney will save us.

  8. Well, Of Course We Can’t Actually Have That…. | Daily Pundit
    March 19th, 2012 @ 3:08 pm

    […] We Can’t Actually Have That…. Posted on March 19, 2012 12:07 pm by Bill Quick If Tyranny Moves Slowly Enough, Then Americans Might Not Notice : The Other McCain I’m sure that our GOP candidates will identify the need to reverse this decline in liberty, and […]

  9. Quartermaster
    March 19th, 2012 @ 3:19 pm

    Yep. He will save us from teh consequences of freedom by making sure the encroachments enacted by the Dimocrats get set in stone.

  10. richard mcenroe
    March 19th, 2012 @ 4:30 pm

    Smitty, I brought this point up in the Piven thread.  Where’s my tenured chair?

  11. Pathfinder's wife
    March 19th, 2012 @ 5:41 pm

    It’s been at least 5 years since I had any direct dealings with ASPCA, so things may have changed.
    I know HSUS is completely dominated by Peta and their fellow travellers and has been for a while.  They hadn’t made such inroads into ASPCA, but I’m sure they were working on it.

    Main thing is: these folks hate domesticated animals (and don’t really care all that much for the wild ones either) and they hate us proles even more.  To be honest, I really don’t know of anything they don’t hate…except perhaps themselves, or power…

  12. McGehee
    March 19th, 2012 @ 6:38 pm

    So all it will take to break up a peaceable assembly to petition the government for a redress of grievances, is for a Secret-Service-protected dignitary to decide to attend.

  13. Pathfinder's wife
    March 19th, 2012 @ 6:53 pm

    Well, to be honest, after checking out that website: this is a good example of how people give the gov’t. an opening into overreach by not policing up themselves.  And it plays right into group’s like PETA’s propaganda agenda.

    I”ve been called out to dog and horse “rescues” that were similar, and there is no way that such a large concentration of animals, living in the conditions they are living in (with such shorthanded caretaking) is going to be ideal.  It is walking up to the line of hoarding and saluting it, and the situation can quickly get out of hand (believe me, I know — I’ve been called out to clean up the messes).

    A lot of those people have good intentions, but again everybody should know where that road can sometimes lead.

  14. Finrod Felagund
    March 19th, 2012 @ 7:32 pm

    It just so happens that I know someone who took two kittens that she couldn’t keep to them.  She investigated no-kill shelters and chose this place because they had plenty of land for the animals to roam and they took good care of them.  To her it was worth the drive from Atlanta to there to see that they got a good home.

    Those poor cats are almost certainly either dead or locked in a cage now because of PETA and the ASPCA, and I will never ever forgive them for it.

  15. Quartermaster
    March 19th, 2012 @ 7:51 pm

    Like I’ve been saying, he’s a Neocon. Bob Belvedere’s Operation Whig is some very badly needed medicine. Santorum might as well be a Democrat.

    Mittens vs Santorum, what a choice. We are well and truly screwed.

  16. richard mcenroe
    March 19th, 2012 @ 7:55 pm

     Remember Pelosi and the CBC’s “racist comments” promenade?  That would have done it, right there.

  17. Pathfinder's wife
    March 19th, 2012 @ 10:56 pm

    First off, there is no such thing as a “no kill” shelter — if they really are then you run for the hills because they will wind up eventually as a hoarding situation and horribly overcrowded, understaffed, and without the proper funds to pay for necessities…which is what was going to happen to this place (and sounds like it was already starting to).

    Sorry, but this was a crappy set up and would eventually lead to animals getting sick, injured, and dying — plenty of room to roam about is not taking care of animals…that’s essentially wild living, and then people are out of the equation.

    I feel pretty strongly about this: when we domesticated animals we made an unspoken pact with them — they gave up their freedom to be used by us, and we were supposed to take care of them; this is people ego tripping or making up for some soul deficiency of their own, not caretaking.

    And of course it plays right into peta people’s hands…gah!

  18. Bob Belvedere
    March 20th, 2012 @ 7:53 am

    We’ve got to do something.  This situation with the GOP has become intolerable.

    I watched an interview with Mark Levin on Book-TV over the weekend and he started to comment on the GOP Leadership in the Congress.  He stopped himself because it was a distraction from the question being asked, but he managed to get out one word: ‘Timid….’.