Excerpt from Bloomberg:
U.S. in Contempt Over Gulf Drill Ban, Judge Rules
By Laurel Brubaker Calkins – Feb 3, 2011 11:53 AM PT
The Obama Administration acted in contempt by continuing its deepwater-drilling moratorium after the policy was struck down, a New Orleans judge ruled.
Interior Department regulators acted with “determined disregard” by lifting and reinstituting a series of policy changes that restricted offshore drilling, following the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, U.S. District Judge, Martin Feldman of New Orleans ruled yesterday.
“Each step the government took following the court’s imposition of a preliminary injunction showcases its defiance,” Feldman said in the ruling.
“Such dismissive conduct, viewed in tandem with the re-imposition of a second blanket and substantively identical moratorium, and in light of the national importance of this case, provide this court with clear and convincing evidence of the government’s contempt,” Feldman said.
President Barack Obama’s administration first halted offshore exploration in waters deeper than 500 feet in May, after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig off the Louisiana coast led to a subsea blowout of a BP Plc well that spewed more than 4.1 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
full story here: U.S. in Contempt Over Gulf Drill Ban, Judge Rules
h/t to WUWT reader paddylol
Myrrh says:
February 5, 2011 at 12:53 pm
“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face”, Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”
Interesting you bringing this up . . . . There are plenty, out there that think it’s just a piece of paper, when if it’s principles were “real”-ly followed it would be “peace on paper”.
Interesting to hear Americans so willingly admit that the US isn’t a democracy. I have often thought that myself. However my experience has tended to be that Americans will not only stridently claim to have a democracy, but also lay claim to have practically invented the concept.
You admire the constitution. Personally I think it sucks as the basis for a system of governmment. I also think it is dangerous and unhealthy the way that you brainwash your young into adoring this document and tolerate no criticism of it.
The constitution designs a system of government which is deliberately crippled. The purported justification is that power is dangerous, and must be divided so that it cannot be abused. However it is more likely that rich guys who had just won a revolution to avoid paying taxes wanted a weak government that they could control.
However power doesn’t go away in a divided system. It still gets exercised somehow. All that division does is obscure the exercise of power and allow it to be exercise out of the public eye via backroom deals. It is a recipe for corruption. Influence gets peddled. Backs get scratched. Money is exchanged. Decisions get made in secret. And nobody is ultimately responsible for anything.
The tyranny of the majority is an 18th century sound bite. It sounds impressive (and uses a hard to spell word), but I bet you can’t show me an example in a modern democracy.
Back when the constitution was written representative democracy was still rare and the writers of the constitution did a lot of theorising and worrying about it how it might work. The tyranny of the majority was one of the theoretical problems they were concerned about.
But today there are lots of democracies of various flavours in the world. We don’t need to conjecture about how democracy might work. If the tyranny of the majority is a real problem you should have no problem coming up with a few examples – yes?
And as you look for examples of tyranny in other democratic systems to demonstrate how superior your constitution is, you might want to also think about the tyrannies that have existed in your own supposedly tyrrany proofed system. Slavery springs to mind.
Laurie Bowen – we can see by the post following yours that the US Gov in spreading the idea of ‘democracy’ for other countries, those particularly it goes in for smash and grab, has everyone now believing that it was saying that the US was a democracy.. The power of memes.
Ian H. said:
No. That is the definition of a republic. In a democracy people vote on every decision.
Not understanding this explains your comments regarding tyranny of the majority. The reason you won’t find modern examples is that no countries actually implement a democracy precisely because of the tyranny issue. If they did, you’d see it.
It is not strange at all to have cases decided by courts. They are the only protections people have from bad laws.
Mark
I have an excellent excuse for poor spelling, I am an engineer that types directly into this blog with no spell check. I would only add that our admittedly imperfect system of constitutional republic has out performed all the political/economic systems invented to date in terms of prosperity and freedom while never taking true advantage of our ability for domination of others and pulling other other countries’ fat out of the fire at great cost in blood and money. This is one of the reasons we are all doing this blog in English instead of German or Russian or Chinese (yet).
Hear hear.
America is the beacon of hope for all men who wish to be free through their own efforts.
“”””” Mark T says:
February 5, 2011 at 5:29 pm
Ian H. said:
Democracy is electing people to run a country yes?
No. That is the definition of a republic. In a democracy people vote on every decision. “””””
” The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union, a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; …………..”
That in case you don’t know it is from Article IV, Section 4 of the US Constitution. Good luck on getting any of that protection against invasion. My apologies if I didn’t get the correct punctuation or capitalizations; I can only remember so myuch stuff.
“”””” Myrrh says:
February 5, 2011 at 12:53 pm
http://consumercal.blogspot.com/2011/01/4th-amendment-takes-another-hit-phone.html
Lots more nibbling away at this since the Patriot Act. At least you haven’t yet given away your sovereignty to another. Ireland simply gave it all away to the EU, second time around after being forced to have another referendum and after ballot papers were ‘taken into custody’ for a while by the police before being returned..
“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face”, Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bush_administration_vs._the_U.S._Constitution “””””
You should verify your facts before posting them here at WUWT.
Why don’t you find an AUDIO clip, Of former President Bush actually saying that. Nobody else can, or in any other way, verify that he said that. Can you find any other AUDIO clip about anything else Bush ever said, in which he used the ‘GD’ term.
Whether he believed it’s a piece of paper (which it isn’t) or not; he nevertheless took an oath to uphold and protect it. I can even believe he might think it is just a pice of paper. The wording of that alleged statement is more like an Oliver Stone script; that something he would say.
“”””” Ian H says:
February 5, 2011 at 2:58 pm
Interesting to hear Americans so willingly admit that the US isn’t a democracy. I have often thought that myself. However my experience has tended to be that Americans will not only stridently claim to have a democracy, but also lay claim to have practically invented the concept.
You admire the constitution. Personally I think it sucks as the basis for a system of governmment. I also think it is dangerous and unhealthy the way that you brainwash your young into adoring this document and tolerate no criticism of it. “””””
Well then you obviously have no understanding of us.
We ARE a Republic; well a Union of Sovereign Republics actually.
BUT, we do make use of Democratic principles, in selecting our government. The People by Democratic vote elect the members of both houses of the Congress. On the Other hand, the several States , elect the President of The United Sates; by means of the Electoral College. Each State in turn chooses its electors to that Electoral College, by means that are separately determined by the laws of each State; and from a slate of candidates, that are likewise chosen. Democratic voting of the people of each State ends up choosing the distribution of the electors, according to the traditions and laws of that State; but it is up to the electros in the electoral college to make the final choice.
So what are the ten top countires in the world that DO have a Democratic form of Gevernment ?
Think how wonderful everything would be, when major decisions are made by people who have NO vested interest in the outcome of their deliberations; no skin in the game so to speak.
As for tolerating no criticism of the Constitution; that simply is not a true statement; and the document includes within it; all the machinery required to amend it as that is deemed to be necessary; and that has taken place at least 26 times; that I am aware of; including at least in one case, the going back and forth to restore a status quo, as in the Prohibition case.
Other Countries can choose their own poison from oppressive dictatorships, to free love, as far as I am concerned. Some of those have stood the test of time; others haven’t and won’t.
The British system, stems from a long history of evolution; a most interesting process that has had its ups and downs. It is now on its way to being destroyed by multiculturalism; in a somewhat similar manner to the way the USA is going. It used to be called Balkanization.
The Biblical Tale of the Tower of Babel, is an example of multiculturalism at its finest.
Actually, you can’t meaningfully discuss the US Constitution, without first understanding the Declaration of Independence; which is where Americans actually declare the scope of the rights of the people.
The Constitution adds nothing to those rights; it actually gives upo some of them to the Government; “in order to form a more perfect Union…” But it does specifically tell the Government in no uncertain terms of certain issues it is to butt out of completely, and defines what The Congress is authorised to do; which is a list of maybe 20 things; 17 of which are specified in Article I, Section 8.
Myrrh said . . . . “those particularly it goes in for smash and grab, has everyone now believing that it was saying that the US was a democracy.. The power of memes.”
If you are talking about, the fascists, and communist statements . . . are they not “laissez-faire”, no rules, capitalists . . . of and by the those in control of the “State”? . . .
and could you tell me what is “memes”? Is that like mine, mine, all mine?
George E. Smith said “As for tolerating no criticism of the Constitution; . . . . ”
I just say, if you can’t burn the flag . . . . you may as well just burn the flag . . . .
GES
Heh, heh.
You must be thinking of Technocracy!
I assume the “electros” are battery-operated robots.
😉