Fealty and the Constitution | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: Jim Bispo's weekly column appears in the Beaufort Observer.

    Has anyone ever heard of Chester Barnard?? Probably not, so I'll tell you who he was. He was the President of New Jersey Bell a long time ago. Actually he went to work for Ma Bell (American Telephone and Telegraph which became AT&T but finally died several years after the breakup of the AT&T conglomerate) in 1907. He became President of NJ Bell in the mid-twenties. So now you know who he is.. He also turned out to be a respected author in the area of management.

    He wrote a book entitled Functions of the Executive. In it (among a lot of other things) he suggested that as a manager if your employees do not give you any authority, you don't have any. I believe it's just as true today as it was then. It is not a large leap of faith to accept the notion that as long as your cohorts go along, you have authority to do all manner of things.

    It seems unlikely that the Anointed One or any of his spear carriers studied Barnard as they absorbed the "wisdom" of the Cloward-Piven strategy which called for overloading the welfare system so as to cause a crisis that could then be "solved" by providing a guaranteed annual income to all thus ending poverty.

    In any case, whether Barnard was part of the curriculum or not the Anointed one certainly is proving just how true was Barnard's thesis.

    In the face of a Congressional rejection of his Dream Act proposal, he proceeds to implement a large piece of it through an Executive order. He tells Executive Departments to not bother apprehending or deporting certain "illegals" This is greeted with a lot of grumbling about that not being legal or constitutional, but that was about all. In the meantime, after three and a half years of virtually ignoring them, he has provided a powerful incentive for the Hispanic community to support his candidacy for reelection. Surely the timing was only a coincidence.

    He makes "recess appointments" to the NLRB when there is no congressional recess. A lot of folks complain that "recess appointments" are inappropriate and invalid unless congress is actually in recess. The only thing that happens is that the newly constituted Dem majority on the Board proceeds to tilt the playing field strongly in favor of the unions and their ability to organize previously non-union companies. Do you suppose that has any effect on keeping the union money and support coming his way?? Hmmm...

    The latest affront is the Anointed One instructing Defense Contractors to ignore the requirements of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act). which requires employers to give employees at least 60 days advance notice of upcoming layoffs. As a matter of interest the WARN Act became law without Pres Reagan's signature. It was enacted by a veto proof Dem. Congress. As a matter of further interest then Senator Obama was reportedly pushing for a 90 day advance notice requirement instead of the skimpy 60 day notice requirement that made it into the final legislation. But now, he is offering to pick up the legal tab for any company that gets sued for not complying with the advance notice requirement. I suppose it is only a coincidence that complying with the "WARN Law" would result in a whole lot of folks (many of them in so called "swing" states) getting the bad news of an impending layoff just a few days before the upcoming election. Coincidence?? Of course it is.

    In the olden days it was the Congress that was responsible for reviewing and approving government programs and expenditures. Nowhere in the Constitution do I find authority for the Executive Branch to override duly enacted legislation - like the WARN Act. Who do you suppose will be the real beneficiary of the Anointed One's override of the WARN Act and his promise to pay any attorney fees that may be experienced by those companies that agree to violate the law. Could it possibly be the Anointed One??

    Ignoring the law will keep a lot of voters from getting the bad news of potential pending layoffs just before an election. Do you suppose that getting a notice of impending layoff a few days before the election would impact the way anyone would vote?? If it did, it would surely be a coincidence.

    And what do you suppose would be the impact of the offer for the taxpayers to pick up the tab for any legal fees that may accrue to the big Defense Contractors who may accede to the "request" (as if the Chicago school of negotiation included anything even vaguely resembling a legitimate "request"). Do you suppose the NLRB sop the Anointed One handed to the Unions will be enough to keep them from kicking up any sand over his overriding the WARN Act which amounts to "poking his thumb in their eye"??

    Those are but three examples of the Anointed One "ruling" by Executive Order and seeming to get away with it. There are plenty more...

    What do you suppose ever became of the "balance of power" and the "checks and balances" built into our constitution by its framers?? The entire notion seems to be evaporating rather quickly under the current deluge of "overriding" Executive Orders flowing from the Anointed One.

    As long as we let the Anointed One get away with making his own law and then ruling according to that law, he will continue to do so. (Barnard was right!) It is time to bring that type of behavior to a screeching halt!! It is certainly time to restore the balance of power and the checks and balances so carefully crafted into our constitution by the fathers of our country.

    D'ya Think??.