Obama Czar Cass Sunstein Resigns

Remember Obama Czar, Cass Sunstein? He wanted to give animals the right to sue people. Well, we have good news. If animals were pinning their hopes on Cass, he has failed them.

Via Daily Caller:

President Barack Obama’s regulatory czar Cass Sunstein is resigning his position in the Obama administration, the White House announced on Friday.

Sunstein, until now the administrator of the Office of Management and Budget’s powerful Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, will return to Harvard Law School to resume the position he held before he joined Obama’s administration three and a half years ago. He will be Harvard’s Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law and Director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy.

Sunstein and Obama first met when they both taught at the University of Chicago Law School. Sunstein is viewed as a progressive number cruncher who was supposed to rejuvenate regulation to maximize benefit and minimize cost. Essentially, his role was to economically facilitate the Obama administration’s big government plans.

Check out the bald-face lies told about Sunstein in a statement from Obama:

“From putting in place lifesaving protections for America’s families, to eliminating tens of millions of hours of paperwork burdens for our nation’s citizens and businesses, Cass has shown that it is possible to support economic growth without sacrificing health, safety, and the environment,” Obama said.

“Cass has shepherded our review of existing rules to get rid of those that cost too much or no longer make sense, an effort that is already on track to save billions of dollars. With these reforms and his tenacious promotion of cost-benefit analysis, his efforts will benefit Americans for years to come,” Obama said. “I can’t thank him enough for his friendship and for his years of exceptional service.”

Yeah, because if the Obama administration has done anything, it's reduced paperwork and regulations.

Using that logic, this is Sunstein's version of an organized office.

Obama Thumbs his Nose at Boehner, keeps Czars, Breaks Another Promise

One of the knocks on House Speaker John Boehner is that he caves and doesn't have the political courage to confront Obama and the Democrats. His response to Obama's refusal to honor the terms of the budget deal reached at the 11th hour - relative to the part about the elimination of 'Czars' - will either assuage some of those concerns about Boehner OR it will reinforce them. There are four 'Czar' positions in the Obama administration that were to be eliminated as part of the terms of the deal. Obama has chosen, instead, to thumb his nose at Boehner.

Via the Daily Caller:

In marked contrast to vows as a candidate not to use presidential signing statements as “an end run around Congress,” President Obama released a statement on the just-signed spending bill saying despite the law’s restrictions on “czars,” he will “construe” the law not to interfere with “presidential prerogatives.”

The move is an aggressive power play by Obama to gain an added advantage from the deal struck a week ago between the president, Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to narrowly avert government shutdown.

The legislation prohibits government money being spent on four Obama “czars,” newly created positions with far-reaching sway over federal agencies but facing no confirmation vote in the Senate.

However, some of the czars banned in the bill have already stepped down, and it is unclear whether replacements will be appointed.

Obama in his signing statement says the provision in the legislation prohibiting funding for the salaries of the four czars runs afoul of the president’s “well-established authority to supervise and oversee the executive branch, and to obtain advice in furtherance of this supervisory authority.”

The DC piece has one short excerpt on Boehner's reaction to the thumb in his eye that made a pass by Obama's nose first.

A spokesman for Boehner, Michael Steel, said “It’s not surprising that the White House, having bypassed Congress to empower these ‘Czars’ is objecting to eliminating them.”

Nowhere in that statement do I see any kind of commitment from Boehner that he will refuse to accept the signing statement. If that's all he's going to say or do about this, we have yet another indicator that Boehner is not willing to pick a righteous fight. Doing so here would be symbolic, yes, but the crying Speaker really does need to instill some voter confidence in his ability to do this job. So far, he's not having much luck.

Here is Obama in 2008, saying he will not issue signing statements to get his way. At minimum, Boehner and company should be hammering Obama on this. Breathe freely because holding your breath in hopes that Boehner will go after Obama on this is hazardous to your health.



Read it all.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS ISSUE BILL TO REPEAL 'CZARS'

For those wondering about the effectiveness of the Tea Party, this is clearly some of its fruit. On the same day the 112th Congress was sworn in, a group of House Republicans introduced a bill that would eliminate all 39 of Obama's czars. In the wake of the recent election, it became clear that Obama was going to attempt to push his agenda by using executive fiat and going around congress. The passing of this legislation is unlikely but it is a shot across the bow and will shine a light on these czars, putting the administration on defense.

Via The Hill:

A group of House Republicans introduced a bill on Wednesday to rein in the various "czars" in the Obama administration.

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and 28 other House Republicans introduced legislation to do away with the informal, paid advisers President Obama has employed over the past two years.

The legislation, which was introduced in the last Congress but was not allowed to advance under Democratic control, would do away with the 39 czars Obama has employed during his administration.

The bill defines a czar as "a head of any task force, council, policy office within the Executive Office of the President, or similar office established by or at the direction of the President" who is appointed to a position that would otherwise require Senate confirmation.

If the 39 czars - which would include Cass Sunstein, Donald Berwick, Kevin Jennings, John Holdren, and others - were to be sent packing, how many of them would end up at Center for American Progress (CAP), home of Van Jones? My guess - most of them.

More here.

VIDEO: CASS SUNSTEIN HEARTS ANIMALS

In a word, Inexplicable. Obama's newly confirmed Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein actually compares the plight of animals to that of black slaves from the 18th and 19th centuries. You will find no better example of how the left's words and rhetoric are exactly the opposite of what they mean.

How on earth can anyone call the equating of animals with humans a "progressive" idea? Uh, sounds a little like a "retrograde" idea to me.

Aaron Klein at WORLD NET DAILY has a story about how Sunstein appears to revere the views of an 19th century writer named Jeremy Bentham, who is considered an animal rights pioneer. Check out this written quote from Sunstein in 2002:

"I suggest that Bentham and Mill were not wrong to offer an analogy between current uses of animals and human slavery,"

What's next, Cass? Reparations paid to all dogs because of people like me who have canines we keep penned in our back yard when they're not inside enjoying the air conditioning, good treatment, warm beds, clean water and food? I know they enjoy such things because they have this ability of communicating by wagging their tails.

If you're a Christian, this notion is an overt slap on one of your already beat red cheeks.

Question: If God worked out of an office, do you think it might be a little bit more organized than this? My dog is more organized than Sunstein appears to be so maybe he does have a point. I've seen neater chicken coops. I wonder if the person on the other end of the phone is asking Cass if he remembers ever getting the TPS Report Memo.

GENESIS 9:2-3

2And the fear of you and the dread and terror of you shall be upon every beast of the land, every bird of the air, all that creeps upon the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are delivered into your hand.

3Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green vegetables and plants, I give you everything.

Sunstein's personal views and beliefs on spiritual matters notwithstanding (I don't know what they are) I simply find no way to reconcile the views expressed by Cass with the first book in Scripture without finding Sunstein in opposition to the Judeo-Christian God, Yahweh's teachings or on record as discarding the notion of Him altogether. I'd love to know his thoughts on that.



Be sure to read Klein's ENTIRE ARTICLE.

NEW CZAR! THIS ONE IN CHARGE OF CREATING JOBS

And you thought Van Jones' departure couldn't be trumped by this White House. Before the Obama bus had completely run over Van, his team was hard at work getting another Czar to fill the void. In a blatantly laughable display of distractionism, it's been discovered that a man name Ron Bloom is being tagged by Obama to create manufacturing jobs.

Small problem. Ron Bloom is a union guy with strong connections to the SEIU. He also negotiated for the United Steel Workers (USW). Putting a union guy in charge of job creation is like putting a dog in charge of your garbage. Respectively, both jobs and garbage mysteriously vanish.

Check out what the WALL STREET JOURNAL had to say about Bloom back in February.

Both inside and outside the USW, Mr. Bloom is known as a financially savvy negotiator — with a tendency to spout profanities. In a 2007 article depicting Mr. Bloom’s role in the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corp. takeover battle, The Wall Street Journal wrote some USW members thought Mr. Bloom is “too cozy with the moneymen.”

My personal favorite in this article is the term, "Union-friendly" when referring to a company called Esmark. Note where Esmark is from.

The USW helped block Brazilian steel giant CSN’s attempt to merge with Wheeling-Pitt by finding a more union-friendly bidder in Esmark — a Chicago upstart that got bought by Russia’s OAO Severstal in 2008.

You know it's bad when loyal union members are skeptical of their negotiator. What to do, what to do? Make him a Czar in the Obama Administration! The inherent premise behind unions is control through bully tactics and ultimately killing its members' golden goose.

Leave it to Chicago to be home to a "union-friendly" company. Doesn't such a moniker warrant further probing into why Esmark would be so "union-friendly"? Curiously though, you wouldn't know where ESMARK is located by visiting their website as they don't list a mailing address, phone number, or even an email address.

Jake Tapper over at his ABC BLOG has more on Bloom.

A former vice president of Lazard Freres & Co. LLC, Bloom was a restructuring expert for the U.S. Steelworkers. In his new position, Bloom will work with the National Economic Council, and the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, Energy, and Labor.

The U.S. Steelworkers? Can anyone point to a productive result of their endeavors? Unions are about seizing control of workers and imposing limits on management. Profit for the company is merely a secondary concern (despite Union bosses' income stream coming indirectly from those profits in the form of dues earned by its members who pay those dues directly from their earnings). Incidentally, individual workers' earnings come in return for contributions they make in the form of labor toward the efforts of the company to earn a profit. Do the math. As the economy contracts, there are less union workers available to pay dues. As company profits decrease, so do union dues. Then again, union advocates understand where money comes from about as much as Democrats do. That fact explains perfectly why they're allies.

Tapper includes an excerpt from Bloom's statement about his new position.

"A strong manufacturing sector is a cornerstone of American competitiveness and a critical part of President Obama’s economic strategy. As we meet the challenges of globalization and technological change, it is vital to have a concerted effort across the Administration to support an innovative, vibrant manufacturing sector.”

Remember that in the eyes of union bosses, a strong manufacturing sector includes union dues and limits being placed upon managers and workers. The result is decreased output and a heirarchy in which the union bosses' concerns are strongly considered by the man soon to be in charge of creating jobs.

Gee, I wonder what kind of jobs we can start expecting to see created.

HELP WANTED: Thugs needed to physically intimidate those who disagree with us. Salary comensurate with experience and paid by those you will be intimidating. SIGN UP TODAY!

h/t to GATEWAY PUNDIT

GLENN BECK STATEMENT ON VAN JONES RESIGNATION

We now have a statement from Glenn Beck on the resignation of Green Jobs Czar Van Jones. Just like Ivan Drago in 'Rocky IV' and Xerxes in '300', Beck has shown that Barack Obama is NOT immortal and can be defeated politically.

"You cut him! You see! He's NOT a machine! He's a man!"
- Rocky's trainer

"Before this day is over, the world will know that even a god king can bleed."
- Leonidas

DISCLAIMER: the aforementioned quotes are meant exclusively in a metaphorical and political sense.

Here is Beck's statement:

Glenn Beck statement on resignation of Van Jones
September 6, 2009 - 3:00 ET

The American people stood up and demanded answers. Instead of providing them, the Administration had Jones resign under cover of darkness. I continue to be amazed by the power of everyday Americans to initiate change in our government through honest questioning, and judging by the other radicals in the administration, I expect that questioning to continue for the foreseeable future.

Beck also has a list of Obama's Czars available. Word in the blogosphere is that Beck's next targets are FCC Diversity Czar Mark Lloyd, Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein, and Environment Czar Carol Browner.

Being in radio, my preference would be Lloyd, who seems to have been more politically wounded than the other two. That said, exposing any one of these far left whack jobs is fine with me.

Here is a list of OBAMA'S CZARS courtesy of Glenn Beck.

h/t to FREE REPUBLIC

VIDEO: DEMOCRAT REP. HEARS ABOUT CZARS

You only see a shot of Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) once but it's right after the speaker slams him and it's obvious he doesn't like it. The bottom line though is that Obama's czars are unconstitutional and VERY SCARY, Van Jones notwithstanding.

Note that as the speaker gets a standing ovation, the Obamautomatons just sit there looking like.........well.......Obamautomatons.



h/t to HOT AIR