{"id":11249,"date":"2014-01-12T14:05:45","date_gmt":"2014-01-12T22:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=11249"},"modified":"2014-01-12T14:05:46","modified_gmt":"2014-01-12T22:05:46","slug":"fox-nation-vs-reality-obama-seizes-control-of-courts-by-following-the-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=11249","title":{"rendered":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: Obama ‘Seizes’ Control Of Courts By Following The Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hillary Clinton once said that if President Obama walked on water he would be criticized by Republicans for not being able to swim. Sadly, the point Clinton was making about the knee-jerk hostility of the right does not go nearly far enough. For example, this week the Fox News community website, Fox Nation, took a swipe at Obama’s judicial nominations with an article titled “Obama Seized Control Of ‘Second Highest Court’ In The Nation.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Fox<\/a>
\n

For more than 50 documented examples of blatant lies by Fox Nation,
\nRead the acclaimed ebook, Fox Nation vs. Reality<\/a>, available at Amazon.<\/center><\/p>\n

The Fox Nationalists cribbed this item from the ultra wingnut brigade at Newsmax, who nurtured a conspiracy out of the rather routine process of filling vacancies on federal courts. Writing for Newsmax, John Gizzi said<\/a> that…<\/p>\n

“In November, Obama effectively gained control of the 11-member court when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid triggered the ‘nuclear option’ \u2014 reducing the threshold needed to stop a filibuster from 60 votes to a simple majority.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Putting this assertion into the context of reality, a state of consciousness that conservatives deliberately avoid, one would first have to recognize that Harry Reid only moved to modify the Senate rules because Republicans had abused them in an unprecedented manner<\/a>. While filibusters were once employed as a last ditch effort to derail legislation that a member simply could not abide on principle, today’s GOP made it a routine procedure by filibustering virtually everything that came up for a vote. This was particularly egregious when it came to the confirmations of administration appointees and judges. It was a tactic aimed at gutting the authority of the executive branch of government that, for the first time in history, was headed by an African-American.<\/p>\n

As a result of the filibuster reform, Obama’s nominees for judicial posts were able to be confirmed by a majority vote in the senate. This is sometimes called “democracy.”<\/em> Subsequent to confirmation, however, Obama has no control over the decisions by his appointees who are independent and have lifetime tenure. So there is no truth to the assertion that Obama has seized control of anything.<\/p>\n

Newsmax went on to quote the rightist Heritage Foundation lawyer, Hans von Spakovsky (a cartoon villain name, if there ever was one), complaining that by filling the court’s vacancies, it would then have a majority of jurists appointed by Democratic presidents. In the view of von Spakovsky that was some sort flaw that artificially prejudiced the judiciary. To the contrary, that is precisely how the Framers intended the system to work. Over time the courts would represent the political diversity of the populace as democratically expressed by their vote for the presidency.<\/p>\n

All that Obama has done, with help from the senate, is to carry out his duties as stipulated by the Constitution. It is the president’s responsibility to place nominees before the senate for confirmation when a vacancy is created. There is no reference whatsoever to filibusters in the Constitution. So the charge that is being made that Obama has “seized control”<\/em> of the courts is unarguably false. But that never stops Fox Nation from publishing such charges. In fact, it probably makes it all the more likely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hillary Clinton once said that if President Obama walked on water he would be criticized by Republicans for not being able to swim. Sadly, the point Clinton was making about the knee-jerk hostility of the right does not go nearly far enough. For example, this week the Fox News community website, Fox Nation, took a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[183,123,256],"class_list":["post-11249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-barack-obama","tag-justice","tag-newsmax"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnation-reality-seized-court.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-2Vr","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5939,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5939","url_meta":{"origin":11249,"position":0},"title":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: Obama’s Marxist College Mate","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/12\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Once again Fox Nation has ventured into the realm of make-believe in order to slander President Obama. In this episode the Fox Nationalists posted as their featured headline story an article with the title: College Mate: Obama Was an 'Ardent' 'Marxist-Leninist' In order to fabricate this wholly dishonest smear, Fox\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19975,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=19975","url_meta":{"origin":11249,"position":1},"title":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: Romney Would CRUSH Obama If Fantasy Ruled The World","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/27\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A new CNN poll was released that asked a frivolous little question that has no real bearing on anything. They asked who respondents would vote for in a hypothetical rematch between President Obama and Mitt Romney. However, the coverage of this poll by Fox Nation not only ignores the broader\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox Nation","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnation-reality-poll-obama-romney.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnation-reality-poll-obama-romney.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnation-reality-poll-obama-romney.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10321,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10321","url_meta":{"origin":11249,"position":2},"title":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: Clinton Polling Ahead Of Every Republican Is “Underwhelming”","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/7\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"While it is still more than three years before the next presidential election, Fox News is desperately spinning polling results in order to diminish the broad popularity of Hillary Clinton. In an article on Fox Nation (the notoriously dishonest Fox News community site), a poll conducted (pdf) by Monmouth University\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30492,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=30492","url_meta":{"origin":11249,"position":3},"title":"Desperate Headlines: Fox Nation Skips Over Obama To Report Second Most Admired Man","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/28\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"You know that a news organization has completely given up on the practice of journalism when they sink to dishonest (and hilarious) levels as low as this: This is the actual headline of a featured article on the Fox News community website, Fox Nation: \"Trump Ties With Pope Francis In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Obama Clinton Most Admired","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/obama-clinton-most-admired.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/obama-clinton-most-admired.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/obama-clinton-most-admired.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5662,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5662","url_meta":{"origin":11249,"position":4},"title":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: Ugly For Obama In Ohio","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/26\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing the \"Fox Nation vs. Reality\" series, this episode has the Fox Nationalists declaring that things are \"Ugly For Obama In Ohio.\" And to support their declaration, Fox Nation referenced a poll by Quinnipiac University that shows Obama out-polling every leading Republican challenger. Obama beats: Cain: 47 - 39 Romney:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4011,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4011","url_meta":{"origin":11249,"position":5},"title":"Fox Nation Is Religion And Race Baiting – Again","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/7\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"If you had the stomach to visit Fox Nation this morning you would have seen some more of the repulsive prejudice that is such a staple of their brand. Let's start with the article on Spanish language jerseys for NBA teams. I'm not sure exactly what the Fox Nationalists have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11249"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11252,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11249\/revisions\/11252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}