Some prime examples:
-Despite White House declarations of "It's. The. Law." regarding the Affordable Care Act, Obama would unilaterally make revisions to the ACA when it was politically expedient to do so.
- Occasional illegal protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline (a project under Federal purview) drew zero response from the Feds, other than an ultimatum that protestors disperse by December 5. When such a toothless demand was not met, the project was shut down indefinitely, essentially rewarding the protestors' lawlessness.
- But a mere four days before he leaves the Oval Office for good, Obama saved this doozy for his final act of proverbially thumbing his nose at law and order.
President Obama on Tuesday commuted the prison sentence of former Army soldier Chelsea Manning, according to the White House.
Manning was convicted in 2013 of leaking classified information about U.S. national security activities that were later disclosed by WikiLeaks.
The 35-year sentence Manning received was the longest ever imposed for a leak conviction. Manning has already served seven years of her sentence and will now be released on May 17, 2017.
She was originally set to be released be released in 2045.
A senior administration official said the president believes Manning has expressed remorse and that her time already served is “sufficient punishment for the serious crimes she committed."
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), who served in Afghanistan, was, to put it mildly, not with the President on this decision.
When I was leading soldiers in Afghanistan, Private Manning was undermining us by leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks. I don't understand why the president would feel special compassion for someone who endangered the lives of our troops, diplomats, intelligence officers, and allies. We ought not treat a traitor like a martyr.
Manning (who served in the military as a male named Bradley) is a transgender, so that demographic of our citizenry seems to be given extra special protections these days. I wonder how long it is before Sen. Cotton is declared a bigot for such a harsh assessment of
Regardless of how you feel about incoming President Donald Trump, he gives the vibe of being a no-nonsense, law & order type. I can't wait to hear all the proggie shrieks of how Trump woefully lacks any compassion simply because he follows the letter of the law.
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My take is that Obama gets the applause of the LGBT lobby, and also probably kills Manning. Think about it; two suicide attempts in the past year, and outside of Leavenworth, he doesn't get VA medical care (dishonorable discharge), he doesn't get a good job, and he's off suicide watch.
ReplyDeleteI hope I'm wrong, but there is a clear Macchiavellian calculus apparent here.