Posted on 06/15/2010 8:59:29 PM PDT by Qbert
(CNSNews.com) - In his first-ever address from the Oval Office on Tuesday night, President Barack Obama said he was going to “inform” the chairman of BP that he must surrender the company’s money to an independent party that will distribute it to people and businesses determined to have been harmed by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The president’s declaration raises a serious constitutional question about his authority: Where does the president get the lawful power to order any private-sector company—BP or any other—that it must surrender its money? Should not courts and normal legal proceedings determine who is responsible, who has been harmed, and who owes what to whom in regards to the Gulf oil spill? Leaving aside BP's relative popularity or lack of it today, if President Obama, on his own initiative, can tell a corporation to surrender its money because he has determined its culpability in an oil spill, under what other circumstances can Obama or any future American president tell a corporation or a private citizen to surrender money?
What rights do the stockholders in BP have to due process of law to protect their property? The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution says: "No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
Does Obama think he can “inform” persons and corporations to surrender or exchange their property without due process of law?
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Michele (one “l”, two “n”s) was magnificent on Levin today. She said that so many people she’s spoke to want the presidency to be on the ballot THIS November, and that they are just sick of it. Old news around here, but I love hearing that kind of truth on the airwaves.
"The oil spill is not the last crisis America will face."
I don’t know- he’d do some thuggish thing in response, for sure. Probably cancel all of their US drilling and exploration leases for starters.
"Now, there are costs associated with this transition."
Personally I don’t really care what Obama does to BP. What’s the saying that BP should have learned a long time ago, “Lie down with dogs, wake up with flies.”
BP sold us out a loooooooong time ago.
LOL...flies = fleas.
I think that there probably has been at least a hundred lawsuits on the Kenyan's birth certificate so far. Most have been thrown out because of "lack of standing", really cowardice on the part of the judge.
Hard to do when they have all the lawyers.
BS! To BHO, not you, Cindy!
If BP surrenders ANYTHING to this thug, their leadership all needs to be hanged.
This is the United States, a free country, not Venezuela. We don’t do fascism here.
Organized theft is a core principle of leftism.
It’s not that the announced members of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling Commission have fully vetted liberal/envio bonifides, its that the need for a Commission shows how weak the current govt. brain trust (e.g. Salazar, Chu, Napolitano, etc) really is.
Other Freepers have described the President’s capabilities adequately. I’ll only add that the more he makes a mockery of real leadership, the more he is known and feared for what he is.
So true. That theft has never been so rampant in America.
Ditto and bump.
The present day Pattons- I like it! Need more of ‘em.
“...We are advancing constantly and we’re not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy. We’re going to hold onto him by the nose and we’re going to kick him in the ass. We’re going to kick the hell out of him all the time and we’re going to go through him like crap through a goose...”
he has no LEGAL authority
Obummer is creating 20 Billion slush fund for Acorn to spend on political items in the Gulf region. Anything to win for Obummer and the rat party
If they don’t give up their money it is not because Obama doesn’t have the authority to command it ...
it is because they are evil money grubbing capitalist racists who kept Bush in office.
(had to toss in the bush fault thing just to cover all the bases)
>I think that there probably has been at least a hundred lawsuits on the Kenyan’s birth certificate so far. Most have been thrown out because of “lack of standing”, really cowardice on the part of the judge.<
true, but there is one man who has standing an d could have prevented all of this before it even happened. Buthe didn’t.
McCain ... I am so dissappointed in him. He better not be the GOP favorite in ‘12
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