Great Letter to the Virginia Review from Fr. Tom...

...on the abuse of power by both unelected bureaucrats and Congress:

Dear Editor,

The revelation of the abuses of power by several departments of the Obama Administration
has raised two fundamental questions about the way we are being governed.

First of all, how is it that Congress can give to unelected bureaucrats powers, which are
not even granted to Congress by our Constitution? By granting to Federal regulators the
power to invade our privacy, to seize our property without due process of law and to violate
our freedom of religion, of speech and of press, Congress has abused or abdicated its proper
Constitutional mandate. We are supposed to be a nation of the people, by the people and for
the people. But over the years, Congress has allowed our government to gradually go through
a fundamental transformation, whereby we have become a nation of the bureaucrats, by the
bureaucrats and for the bureaucrats. And these bureaucrats are so protected by civil service
laws as to be de facto a class of nobility. As a result, our representatives and senators are
often relegated to acting merely ombudsmen/women, who serve us by begging for special
favors or exemptions to be granted to their constituents by these bureaucrats.

EPA Not Above the Law

One of the most high-handed, out-of-control bureaucracies in Washington is the Environmental Protection Agency. If you have a standing puddle in your yard, you're in danger of them declaring your property a protected wetlands and essentially confiscating it. One couple fought back and the Supreme Court recently upheld them. Let's hear it for this couple.

Federal Government Blocks Efforts to Clean up the Gulf

President Obama has been pointing fingers everywhere about the Gulf oil spill, but the biggest obstruction to resolving the problem has been government. Many countries with expertise in addressing oil spills have offered to help and been turned down flat -- mainly because of the Jones Act, a piece of protectionist legislation to give union preference to American workers. The feds have refused to waive the Act and take the help although it's apparently been waived in the past.

Nobody expects the government to fix the problem in the Gulf. (Heck, they can't fix a leaky toilet without assigning a blue ribbon panel); we just want government bureaucrats to get out of the way. Take a look at some of the articles showing how government policies are blocking solutions. But Obama is sure making progress with his "kick a** statement, his new oil spill czar, and his shakedown of BP. This is what happens when you expect a community organizer to deal with real-world problems that need real solutions. Unfortunately, it's above his pay grade.

U.S. not accepting foreign help on oil spill

Here's The Real Reason America Refused International Help On The Oil Spill

Stuck on stupid: Obama’s czar fetish