If like me you think this pre-Christmas move by Obama is totally FUBAR, then you’ll want to go over and read what Mark Tapscott has written today at the Washington Examiner:

Some distressing civil liberties questions must be asked about an ever-lengthening list of decisions, proposals, and observations by President Obama.

To begin, Obama is the first president to give an international law enforcement organization like Interpol free rein within the territorial confines of this nation, presumably not excluding the arrest and exportation of Americans to be charged with crimes under international law.

Put simply, this means the Constitution is no longer the supreme law of the land in America. Thanks to Executive Order 12425 , which Obama signed Dec. 16 without explaining why, the supreme law of the land is now arguably whatever Interpol says it is, most likely as directed by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, in conjunction with the United Nations.

{…}

So tell us, Mr. President, why do you think Interpol should operate with no accountability and no transparency in our country? Is this what you had in mind in your 2008 presidential campaign when you said “we’ve got to have a civilian national security force that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as the U.S. military?

Pentagon generals and admirals answer to the president and Congress. Under Obama, Interpol answers to no American.

In his update, Mark tells us that when asked by the NYT about this executive order White House spokesperson Christina Reynolds replied, “there is nothing newsworthy here.” The White House is still not answering any inquiries on this.

Yesterday Mark’s opinion piece outlined what is most disturbing about this executive order 12425:

There are multiple reasons why this Obama decision is so deeply disturbing. First, the Obama order reverses a 1983 Reagan administration decision in order to grant Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization, two key privileges. First, Obama has granted Interpol the ability to operate within the territorial limits of the United States without being subject to the same constitutional restraints that apply to all domestic law enforcement agencies such as the FBI. Second, Obama has exempted Interpol’s domestic facilities — including its office within the U.S. Department of Justice — from search and seizure by U.S. authorities and from disclosure of archived documents in response to Freedom of Information Act requests filed by U.S. citizens. Think very carefully about what you just read: Obama has given an international law enforcement organization that is accountable to no other national authority the ability to operate as it pleases within our own borders, and he has freed it from the most basic measure of official transparency and accountability, the FOIA.

2010 is shaping up to be the most important election in my lifetime. If the Democrats keep control of both houses of Congress through 2012 there might not be enough of the republic left to matter anymore.

You’re not being asked to go out in the streets and die for your freedom like the Iranian protesters are doing today, just to go out and campaign vigorously for what’s right and then vote responsibly, and to encourage your family and friends to do the same.

If you don’t, then that first option may no longer be just an option . . .

Democratic Senator Max Baucus, author of the gargantuan health care bill, appears to be channeling his inner Teddy Kennedy with this incoherent speech on the Senate floor castigating Senate Republicans for not supporting this monster that the majority of the American people are now rejecting.

The MSM have ignored this — guess what would have been front page news if a Republican Senator had been this obviously impaired on the floor of the Senate. Instapundit highlights that the MSM hasn’t been doing much coverage of the shenanigans of Senator Baucus off the floor either.

Media bias?

Naw — couldn’t be, could it?

It’s a balmy 61 degrees here in Santa Monica and I’m feelin’ badly for the folks back in the heartland. OKC got 14 inches of snow yesterday, Tulsa 6 or so. Both airports have been mostly closed and the highways and turnpikes are treacherous at best. I know that some of the fam was planning to make it to Oilton for Christmas dinner — hope they left on Wed. or early yesterday, although having watched the radars all day yesterday if it wasn’t on Wed. then they’re probably scramblin’ around fixin’ dinner at home. I miss you guys!

I just got the pecan pie in the oven and am going to attempt to make the wife’s mother’s apple pie. Hard to believe that she’s been gone for almost two years now — doesn’t seem possible. Mom’s last Christmas was eight long years ago — now that was an interesting Christmas week. One learns a lot about one’s own self and about life sleeping on a bench in the ICU waiting room. One also learns much tangling with his Mom and losing — learning how to let go and let God.

But, enough of that for now. I just want to wish all a very Merry Christmas and once again leave you with an amazing image from the Hubble telescope that seems so appropriate to the season, along with the Gospel of Luke’s recounting of the announcement of the Christ child’s birth to the shepherds that were tending their flocks.

And, take care and keep warm out there!

“And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them,
and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold,
I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe
wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude
of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

Merry Christmas

Yeah, I’m hyperventilating a bit — make that A LOT! While all of us have been freaking out over Obamacare and Copenhagen and the upcoming Cap & Trade nonsense, this administration has quietly handed over the sovereignty of our country to INTERPOL!

Yep — ya read that right ladies and gents. Here’s the deal.

In 1983 President Reagan signed Executive Order 12425 granting INTERPOL “International Organization” status, giving it many of the same rights as embassies, with a few caveats thrown in to protect the rights of US citizens. Just this last Thursday, President Barack Hussein Obama issued an Executive Order — Amending Executive Order 12425 that takes away those caveats and a whole lot more:

EXECUTIVE ORDER
- – - – - – -
AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER 12425 DESIGNATING INTERPOL
AS A PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION ENTITLED TO
ENJOY CERTAIN PRIVILEGES, EXEMPTIONS, AND IMMUNITIES

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 1 of the International Organizations Immunities Act (22 U.S.C. 288), and in order to extend the appropriate privileges, exemptions, and immunities to the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), it is hereby ordered that Executive Order 12425 of June 16, 1983, as amended, is further amended by deleting from the first sentence the words “except those provided by Section 2(c), Section 3, Section 4, Section 5, and Section 6 of that Act” and the semicolon that immediately precedes them.

BARACK OBAMA

THE WHITE HOUSE,
December 16, 2009.

Huh? You say? What’s got the ol’ Okie so all excited? Well, The Patriot Room explains what all that mumbo jumbo means:

What does this mean? It means that we have an international police force authorized to act within the United States that is no longer subject to 4th Amendment Search and Seizure. The “property and assets of [INTERPOL], wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, unless such immunity be expressly waived, and from confiscation.”

INTERPOL, an international criminal police organization, is now poised to reside above the United States Constitution – in a place of sanctity beyond our FBI, CIA, DIA, and all other criminal investigatory domestic organizations.

President Obama has just placed our Constitutional rights under international law.

Got that? NoisyRoom.net breaks it down even further:

Nudge, nudge folks… This seems a minor change but let us break it out for you as we see it. Let’s look at the section from Executive Order 12425.

Here’s the text of 2(c), which this Executive Order now has applying to Interpol:

(c) Property and assets of international organizations, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, unless such immunity be expressly waived, and from confiscation. The archives of international organizations shall be inviolable.

This now says that Interpol is no longer subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Their premises or staff can no longer be searched either. Their files are not subject to legal subpoena or discovery. Our government could just hand documents and files over to Interpol and Americans would no longer have access to them. Interpol can legally keep files now on all citizens of the US with no right to redress.

In reality, we have just handed over our sovereignty. Interpol headquarters in the US is currently headquartered in the Department of Justice. A ‘separate’ Interpol agency has been created in the DOJ – let that sink in for a moment. Interpol has been granted diplomatic immunity now by Obama – they have exemption from being subject to search and seizure by law enforcement, US taxes and immunity from FOIA requests, etc. This action could also be used to divulge American military secrets and a whole host of horrific practices having to do with going after our military. It’s the road to internationalism on steroids.

I contend this is the foundation for an international governing and policing body. A modern day SS here in the US if you like. Remember how Obama wanted to create a civilian police force? Well, it’s here, just from a direction I never saw it coming from. I really believe you will see Interpol police forces on US soil in the near future. It will resemble the Gestapo and their intelligence gathering techniques. This police force would not be subject to our normal Constitutional oversights – remember, no search and seizure etc. You have to admire the evil genius behind all this. Just stunning.

Terrifying! Death by 1000 Paper Cuts gives us even more to be afraid of:

That’s quite a bad scenario. In fact, it’s quite bad–but it’s not the only horrifying scenario.

Now for another scenario.

Here’s an entity–residing in the Department of Justice–to which files, executive branch information, in short, any information that the President does not want Congress or the press to see–where “inconvenient” info can be dumped that’s beyond the power of most to bring to the light of day.

The government has plans which some might see as unconstitutional? Drop the file off at Interpol and–voila!–it’s no longer a problem for congressional subpoenas.

That takes care of any changes in Congressional make-up that might come about due to the 2010 tsunami that’s building off-shore right now.

And, when The Anchoress is this worried, I get a lot worried!

A few days ago, I wrote: the Democrats are conspicuously unworried about upcoming elections. Perhaps they are not worried because they know something that all the angry voters do not seem to understand: that they no longer have to give a damn; they will not have to worry about future elections; they will not have to care what anyone thinks of their governance, and they have no worries about the press, either. There are no Woodwards or Bernsteins on their horizons.

Socialism, like the Chicago fog, creeps in on little cat feet. That doesn’t make it less nefarious.

{…}

I know it is very difficult to get anyone interested in this Executive Order, because the dishonest Obamacare bill is dominating the day. This is part of the problem: Obama and his team have started so many fires that while one is being fought in one place, another is taking hold, elsewhere. But the thing is, the fires are all connected, and they come from the same source.

With the White House Christmas Holiday Tree adorned with ornaments featuring Chairman Mao, a famous transvestite and the Chosen One Obama his own self, and with Harry Reid having built a clause into the Senate’s Health Care Bill that ensures that the Health Rationing Panels can NEVER be rescinded, with the Obama administration committing to the world that we’ll curtail our CO2 emissions regardless of the economic fallout we will face — what’s the big deal about silently signing over the sovereignty of this great land to the likes of INTERPOL?

Makes havin’ “sex with that woman” seem like child’s play.

Is this act of Obama covered by the phrase “High crimes and misdemeanors”?

Just asking . . .

Just in time for Christmas, the Democrat-controlled Senate will pass Obamacare and then it will go into that secret sanctum of sickness — the House/Senate Compromise — let’s face it.

On health care, WE be screwed, blued and tattooed!

To quote some passages from the Monday morning column from Clark Judge posted at Hugh Hewitt’s blog:

As one early morning report puts it, the Senate is now “marching” to passage on Christmas Eve of its version of health overhaul.  Three motions preliminary to a cloture vote have passed 60-40, all Democrats for, all Republicans against.  What does this Democrats-only bill do? What are the consequences?

As it stands today, the health overhaul bill is a hoax. We all may know some part of the litany, but it is worth keeping in mind just how many forms this hoax takes.

The administration promised overhaul would come with not a penny of new taxes for Americans earning under $250,000 a year, later lowering that to $200,000 for individuals. Estimates now hold that 25 percent of Americans earning under $200,000 will see their taxes go up. ( http://tiny.cc/SSfFu).

The administration has said repeatedly that if you like your current plan the health overhaul will let you keep it. But the bill includes numerous definitions of care that will act as Federal mandates layered on top of the state mandates that have done so much to drive up health insurance costs. Insurance plans that don’t comply will have to change or close down. Those that change will be the New Coke of health care. Same label. Different formula. Different taste. Current plans in name only.

The administration insists that the bill will lower the deficit over the next decade. That’s because tax increases will kick in early, benefits much later (see http://tiny.cc/UYhLs). But after the government’s planning horizon has expired, the bill will take spending as a proportion of national income permanently beyond the levels reached only in a single year in our history to date – the peak year of spending in World War Two. This will mean not just higher deficits but a fundamental altering of the American economy, with the U.S. embracing the economics of Europe.

Gabriel Malor over at Ace provides the schedule for the destruction of health care in America as we now know it:

Yes, America, this is how laws get made now: written in secret, voted on in the dark of night.

Tonight will be the first of three procedural votes the Democrats need to pass in order to destroy America’s healthcare system.

Assuming they get 60 votes for cloture on the Manager’s Amendment, the Democrats must wait 30 hours for the next vote (roughly until 7am Tuesday) , which will be an up-or-down vote on the Manager’s Amendment. 50 votes required.

Immediately following the vote on the Manager’s Amendment there’s going to be a cloture vote on the Reid Substitute. It also requires 60 votes. Then Democrats must wait 30 more hours for an up-or-down vote on the Reid Substitute (until roughly 1pm Wednesday) . Only 50 votes required.

Immediately after the vote on the Reid Substitute, there will be a cloture vote on the final bill, ReidCare. 60 votes required. Then Democrats must wait 30 more hours for the final up-or-down vote on ReidCare. That requires only 50 votes and it should take place, if everything goes according to schedule, on Thursday, Christmas Eve around 7pm.

Merry F***ing Christmas.

Mark Steyn has been warning us all along that these Dems are willing to take a big hit in 2010, because they know that passing this bill is the GAME CHANGER!

I’ve been saying for a year now, in NR and NRO, that the object for savvy Dems is to get this thing passed in whatever form because, once you do, there’s no going back. Kim Strassel in yesterday’s Journal gets it:

So why the stubborn insistence on passing health reform? Think big. The liberal wing of the party — the Barney Franks, the David Obeys — are focused beyond November 2010, to the long-term political prize. They want a health-care program that inevitably leads to a value-added tax and a permanent welfare state. Big government then becomes fact, and another Ronald Reagan becomes impossible. See Continental Europe.

Just so. And that’s worth whatever hit they have to take in 2010. Every time I make the point, someone says, oh, Jim Webb this or Byron Dorgan that, or have you see Harry Reid’s numbers in Nevada? Oh, please. We’ve just seen what happens when you make Ben Nelson your Maginot Line. The Dems are thinking strategically; the Republicans are all tactics.

Michelle Malkin has updated her Democrat Bribe List that has made all this possible:

If you ever wondered what revolution actually looks like — this is it. And we, the American people, are on the losing side. Take a good long look at the malaise, chaos and moral decadence of today’s western Europe — ’cause that is gonna be us, sooner rather than later. My whole generation grew up on this revolution philosophy crap, perfectly captured by the Beatles song of the same name:

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it’s evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don’t you know that you can count me out
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right
all right, all right

You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We’d all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We’re doing what we can
But when you want money
for people with minds that hate
All I can tell is brother you have to wait
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right
all right, all right
Ah

ah, ah, ah, ah, ah…

You say you’ll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it’s the institution
Well, you know
You better free you mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right
all right, all right
all right, all right, all right
all right, all right, all right

Nope, Virginia — It ain’t gonna be all right, in fact, I’m feelin’ a lot more like this one at the moment . . .

. . . Hmmm, someone’s seeing an even bigger picture.

The only thing worse than gettin’ your tit caught in the wringer, is gettin’ both tits caught in the wringer. If you thought that Climategate was going to be bad news for the anthropogenic global warming hysterics, check out this news from a Russian economics institute:

Climategate has already affected Russia. On Tuesday, the Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) issued a report claiming that the Hadley Center for Climate Change based at the headquarters of the British Meteorological Office in Exeter (Devon, England) had probably tampered with Russian-climate data.

The IEA believes that Russian meteorological-station data did not substantiate the anthropogenic global-warming theory.

Analysts say Russian meteorological stations cover most of the country’s territory, and that the Hadley Center had used data submitted by only 25% of such stations in its reports.

Over 40% of Russian territory was not included in global-temperature calculations for some other reasons, rather than the lack of meteorological stations and observations.

The data of stations located in areas not listed in the Hadley Climate Research Unit Temperature UK (HadCRUT) survey often does not show any substantial warming in the late 20th century and the early 21st century.

The HadCRUT database includes specific stations providing incomplete data and highlighting the global-warming process, rather than stations facilitating uninterrupted observations.

On the whole, climatologists use the incomplete findings of meteorological stations far more often than those providing complete observations.

IEA analysts say climatologists use the data of stations located in large populated centers that are influenced by the urban-warming effect more frequently than the correct data of remote stations.

The scale of global warming was exaggerated due to temperature distortions for Russia accounting for 12.5% of the world’s land mass. The IEA said it was necessary to recalculate all global-temperature data in order to assess the scale of such exaggeration. [Emph: mine]

OK, let’s recap:
Climate-change-”believing” scientists cherry picked data from the 25% of the Russian meteorological stations and observatories that support their claims of global warming and totally ignored the data from the 40% that showed no warming for the last 100+ years. They also chose to use data from sources that were incomplete rather than those that supplied “uninterrupted observations”, once again because the interrupted data sets show warming while the contiguous ones do not.

Wow — Sounds like science fiction, not science.

Actually, to me it sounds like collusion and corruption and global fraud. Isn’t there a RICO act provision to use against these criminals? Not that the Obamanaughts would ever . . .

But hey, just askin’.