The Obama administration is moving to shore up the federal criminal background check system as part of the president’s effort to curb gun violence — with or without help from Congress.
— first, let’s stop right there and parse the way this is phrased by the Hill’s Ben Goad. Congress is not intended to “help” the President move his agenda, but rather to act as a potential check against executive power; and in a system of government that relies on separation of powers and checks and balances, the very idea that a political reporter would not note up front that what the Executive branch is “moving” to do is usurp the authority of Congress and act in ways that are dictatorial — violating the very spirit of our governmental system as founded — is part of a larger problem we face, wherein our very system of government is being undermined, intentionally and with a specific activist bias, by those charged both with protecting it, or acting as a watchdog over those charged with protecting it.
Sorry to interrupt, but that needs to be said as often as possible.
Continues Mr Goad:
A proposed rule meant to improve the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) has landed at the White House Office of Management and Budget for review, records show.
The database is meant to keep guns out of the hands of felons, drug abusers, the severely mentally ill and others who are prohibited from owning firearms. But most states have declined to release certain information to the system, citing restrictions under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that prevent them from sharing medical records.While details of the rule now under consideration have not been released, the administration said in January that it would “begin the regulatory process to remove any needless barriers” preventing states from sharing records.
Note the phrase, “begin the regulatory process to remove any needless barriers,” and consider what it is actually saying: by using regulatory agencies, against the wishes of the states who cite protections to medical confidentiality, and against a Congress that may wind up citing the same concerns when they address the “gun control” measures the left is pushing legislatively, the Obama Administration and its unelected administrative state have determined that they can end-run both Congress and the states — and the will of the people — by declaring that whatever barriers are preventing them from achieving their own ends (in this case, expanding background checks in the hope of defining down mental illness and removing the rights to gun ownership based on speculation about who may or may not be a “danger,” itself to be determined by bureaucrats poring over prescription records and other non-correlative indicators of future behavior) are henceforth “needless,” with “needless” being defined tautologically as “preventing the President and his regulatory agencies from doing whatever it is they wish to do, based on authority they have now granted themselves.”
And we all know why this is. First, because Obama and his cabal of New Left activists respect constitutional checks on power only when it benefits them. At all other times, the Constitution is a “flawed document” that can be safely ignored.
Second, Obama knows that he faces resistance in the Senate, and even more in the House. And because he believes that what he believes should be the law of the land, he can’t in good conscience let some silly old procedural checks on his power stop “progress.” Rules are made to constrain the masses. They don’t apply to the masterminds.
The Senate is poised to take up legislation that would expand background checks on gun purchases, but it is unclear whether it can muster the support to win approval in the upper chamber.
Three Senate Republicans have warned they will filibuster the bill, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) decided against including a new ban on certain semi-automatic weapons with military features within the measure.
>Obama is merely doing what all dictatorial-minded “leaders” do: he is finding ways to thwart checks on his power. And the Senate Democratic leadership, which, like many Democrat-controlled state assemblies, is all in on Obama’s project of fundamental transformation, is willing to cede to him any check on his power for the promise of a society in which an ever-expanding federal government becomes home to a permanent ruling class that remains largely out of reach of voters, who themselves are increasingly relegated to the status of subjects.
And Obama knows this. Consequently, he doesn’t fear impeachment proceedings, and, because he has little regard for the Constitution to begin with, he doesn’t really mind being called a would-be emperor, at least not privately. Because that’s exactly how he thinks of himself, and it’s exactly the kind of leader leftist Utopians and GOP statists desire.
This more than anything is why either we are looking toward some measure of widescale civil disobedience, or else the end of our constitutional republic, which will go out with a whimper and not a bang.
It all depends on just how much the Gramscian long march through the institutions has taken permanent hold.
(h/t sdferr)
Imagine if Bush had done this kind of crap.
UNITARDY EXECUTIVE !!!!!!!!!
So basically, all your medical records belong to the feds now, and they will use them in any manner they see fit. Today, it’s part of “common sense gun safety”, but what will the new use be for your medical data tomorrow?
Privacy is no longer a barrier to federal overreach, whether it’s monitoring your email, readjusting your junk at the airport, surveying your property via drone, or trolling your medical records for an excuse to deny you your right to bear arms.
Time was the political left urged an argument utterly disconnecting the is from the ought. Couldn’t possibly be linked, it was said. (Thinkers always understood this contention was ridiculous, yet the urge persisted regardless of the world.)
But today, when the grasp of all power appears within reach, what do we hear? Make your ought your is. That’s ObaZma’s great message and his mission. That is, his ought, our is. The implications place us in revolt already, and the constitutional republic merely a memory.
Maverick to the rescue!
McCain emerges as key senator in expanding background checks
John McCain can get stuffed.
Thank you for your service, Mr. McCain.
Now kindly FOAD at the earliest opportunity, you unprincipled, statist, narcissistic POS.
McCain offers his assistance to Dems while Cruz and Paul threaten to derail any such deal with a filibuster. Looks like we’re in for another spectacle of McCain whigging out.
The database is meant to keep guns out of the hands of felons, drug abusers, the severely mentally ill and others who are prohibited from owning firearms.
Because Adam Lanza and all the gangstas who shoot up the place bought their firearms legally, in front of God and everyone, and nobody could do anything about it because THERE WAS NO DATABASE!
“I suffered years under the tender mercies of socialist torturers. Now it’s your turn.”
And how, pray tell, would one get one’s name removed from said database if it there in error?
How does McCain find the time? Isn’t he supposed to be busy pushing for the damn fence to be built?
Too many laws with too many contradictory aims, allowing the executive to fundamentally alter the character of the country simply by choosing a different way to prioritize the laws.
Burn the Federal Register and make Congress start over from scratch every two years.
A properly compliant Congress would be preferable to using piles of the Federal Register as fuel to burn Congressmen pyre-like on the National Mall. But, things being what they are, choices will be choices.
And how, pray tell, would one get one’s name removed from said database if it there in error?
Same process you use to get your name off the no-fly list.
Looks like we’re in for another spectacle of McCain whigging out.
Wacko Birds 2.0
Nevada looking to include more in what they report to NICS about your “mental health”.
Psychologism, must we note(?), is a pernicious bit of business committed to I wot not what, save that it stands in final opposition to constitutional republicanism. Embrace any such thing at your own peril.
Dave,
I’m afraid Arizona is under seige from its own Hickenloopers right now.
McCain is a product of that same moneyed, penny loafer wearing class you see on I-17 driving in their $110,000 BMW between gated communities from Scottsdale to Sedona to Flagstaff. Most have a home in Crested Butte, too. Just for kicks!
These guys have been on top so long, they’ve no idea where the ground is!
On the topic: What is it with rich ranchers and the Democrats (a cursory poll in the Grand Canyon area suggests, the bigger the cowboy hat, the more likely the rancher wearing it voted for Obama)? It’s on their watch that the Grand Canyon area has gone to the Dogs. I swear, it has become California, but without the palms.
And, off the topic, Dicentra, I’m curious, do Colorado, Idaho and Utah offer Homestead Act protections to its home/land-owning residents? Folks should check into using them if they do.
I like the idea put forth in “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” of having a third branch of congress that only repeals laws, and only needs a 1/3 vote in favor of repeal to get it done.
Otherwise, we need to start over from scratch, as does the SC.
Obama is all about removing needless barriers, and by “removing” I mean “ignoring” and by “needless barriers” I mean “the Constitution and laws in general.”
McCain is doing it for his daughter’s payoff. Not that anyone would have to push him too hard to get his RINO Maverick but this is the cherry on top.
Go-Go you Luckey complex girl you.
Maverick”on”.
the complex and accomplished Meghan McCain
I threw up in my mouth a little bit at this part.
Mark “I Was Just Kidding About Buying That Evil AR-15” Kelly is in the news::
Mark Kelly Pulls Daughter’s Dog Off Baby Sea Lion After Kill
Not pleasant to watch, and I suspect one or more laws were broken (are sea lions endangered species?). Where is the outrage?
Is the dog going to have to do time?
“Obozo would be the greatest Prezdent evah if only the stupid rethugs would stop cock-blocking him.”
So I’m told.
Federalism? P’shaw.
And there lies our country, a-burnin’ and a smolderin’
Sunset everything, and let them spend the ensuing time figuring out what needs keeping. Two years might be a bit brusque, though, what with all of this having to be done by videoconference.
Mark Kelly’s had a very bad week. Maybe he should stay in bed for the next month or two.
The man is jinxed, I tell you.
It’d be a fine comeuppance (sp?) if the California Coastal Commission were to dogpile on his ass for this one.
I’ve had dogs more complex and known smackheads more accomplished.
Meghan should play to her strengths. Since Jessica Simpson is expecting again, Meghan could step in as a Weight Watchers spokesgal.
“I, like lost, like a ton of weight on Weight Watchers! And it was, like, totally easy!”
Maybe she’s not really dumb. Maybe she just blogs to a dumb audience and knows what they want. Sort of like Stan Lee.
I’ve seen her on teevee. She really is that dumb.
quite the shotgun
Newtown shooter killed victims within 5 minutes
Lemme guess, they’re counting each pellet separately.
Either that, or they’re just idiots.
“quite the shotgun
A loaded 12-gauge shotgun was also found in the passenger compartment of the car Lanza drove to the school containing 70 shotgun rounds.”
‘CANTO is Russian for SAIGA ‘ giggled the press. I thought they found it in the trunk though and speculated that it was an assault rifle until they found out it was a semi-auto shotgun with a detachable magazine.
The claim it was two 35 round magazines. I think SAIGA has some 30 round drum magazines but it does sound wrong/sloppy for a 12 gauge unless it was a .410 or something other than a 12/20