Obama And The Elephant

From The American Spectator:

The Elephant and the Obama Question


By Ben Stein on 6.22.10 @ 6:09AM



Okay, short and sweet. Herewith a few thoughts on the oil spill, President Obama, marine and land life, truth, and consequences.



1.) President Obama has famously asked what he could have done personally about the oil spill. He said he could not swim down there and suck up the oil with a straw, and he's right.



But when Norway and the Netherlands offered to send the world's best oil skimming ships to the Gulf to help, Mr. Obama turned them down flat. He did this entirely to protect his pals in the maritime shipping unions. Okay, that's what we expect from a left-wing Democrat. But if we cannot plug that gusher underwater, wouldn't skimming up the oil be the next best thing? How can Mr. Obama not face serious charges about protecting a few hundred union jobs and killing the Gulf Coast?



And why doesn't he change his mind right now and ask every country in the world to help us?



2.) Mr. Obama has been using this terrible accident to blame and castigate the oil companies. Inasmuch as the big oil companies are literally the only people on the planet who have even a clue about how to deal with the crisis, shouldn't he act nice to them instead of humiliating them? If your house is on fire, you politely ask the neighbors for help. You don't yell at them and call them names. Why not ask them nicely to help and see what response you get? How can that possibly hurt?



3.) The criminal investigation and prosecution powers of the Justice Department are awesome powers. For the President to sic Eric Holder, the Attorney General, and his hounds on BP without even having a clue if there were a criminal violation is way too much like the actions of a Molotov, Stalin's prosecutor in his show trials, and much too little like what we expect under the Constitution, where even the most hated are presumed to have rights (unless they are in the oil business, in which case they are automatically guilty).



4.) I can always tell which people have never read the Constitution and/or have no idea of Constitutional law by who says, "It doesn't matter that the law does not allow Mr. Obama to just extort money out of BP's shareholders -- most of whom are widows and pensioners. He can do it anyway because the situation is urgent and a crisis."



The Constitution makes no exceptions about limiting the President's powers if he deems an event a crisis. The Constitution is a document of enumerated and limited powers for each of the three branches and for the federal government itself. Nowhere does it say, "However, if the President says it's a crisis, he can do anything he pleases and this document means nothing."



The whole point of the Constitution is that it is in control no matter how dire the situation. The fact that Mr. Obama does not recognize this, and that when one lone Congressman points it out he gets spit on by his colleagues, is deeply frightening. The truth that the media almost never calls him on it is even more worrisome.



5.) I get a particularly sick feeling when I see the media talking about how BP and the oil spill is killing precious marine life and rare animal life in the wetlands.



President Obama is the most anti-preservationist President in the postwar world. His administration is the first ever not to sign up for strict anti-whaling laws on a worldwide basis. His administration has refused to join with almost every other civilized nation to require Japan and Norway to stop killing whales. His administration is the first ever not to get behind the worldwide effort to ban the trade in ivory and thereby stop the slaughter of elephants in Africa.



Because of Mr. Obama's explicit contempt for these noble and endangered creatures, African elephants and whales worldwide will be slaughtered almost to the point of extinction. When they are gone, will we remember that their precious blood is on his hands?



If Mr. Obama is so concerned about pelicans and seagulls and beautiful creatures of the wild, will he commit to using his mighty powers to do what every other postwar President has done and pledge to stop the killers of whales and African elephants? Of course not, because he will never stand up to African dictators and Japanese ultra-rightists. He will only bully oil companies who do not fight back.



This man is showing more of who he is day by day and it is a disturbing vision. This is less than two years into his administration. It is later than any dare think.