American Thinker | by Ed Lasky | 3/29/2010

The government in the Age of Obama has gone beyond the big brother that watches out and cares for us. Instead, it has becomes the big brother that torments and bullies us and then takes what is rightfully ours: our savings, our freedom, and our futures.

Liberals are often labeled as wanting to bring out the nanny state (the feminine version of a big brother). This is wrong. A nanny cares for her wards so that they can mature into responsible adults able to take care of themselves.

But a bully has other desires. A bully cares only about himself and his own greedy will to power. A bully taunts and threatens. A bully holds others in contempt. A bully disregards not only the wishes of those around him, but also the rules that may his restrain his power. A bully takes what is not his.

A bully will not stop until people rise up and put an end to him.

Has our government become a big bully? Let us count the ways.
Very early in 2009, the troika of Pelosi-Reid-Obama sought to expand the power of the federal government over states, businesses, and us. They all but nationalized the American auto industry (save Ford), overriding debtor rights and decades of law. They have also taken over chunks of the financial industry and, via their control over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, much of the housing industry. Many salaries will be set by the White House. Education, a local matter, is increasingly becoming a federal one. The student loan industry has also been brought in-house — the White House, that is. That was merely a warm-up.

The smash-and-grab style of governing has since run rampant: rules, regulations, taxes, and mandates; the proliferation of unelected czars; the orders and commands; the abuse of power; the diktats-all stuffed down our throats.

Does it feel like we are all being waterboarded?
The Department of Justice has hired a legion of lawyers for its Civil Rights Division. They will be busy investigating businesses across America for violations of civil rights laws. Fine — but they will be using what is called a “disparate impact” standard. Under that criterion, any business that has job standards — even legitimate ones — that happen to result in fewer minorities being hired than the DOJ sees fit will be hit with the full might of the Justice Department, which has been staffed with a coven of radical lawyers. Not to be outdone, the Education Department will also be sending out investigators to ensure that schools do not discriminate, either. Discrimination is often in the eye of the beholder, and under Eric Holder, I can guarantee you that those eyes will see racism across the breadth of America (because, after all, we are a nation of racists). Businesses, local government, schools — all will be bullied in the years ahead.

But wait…there’s more.

The Environmental Protection Agency has gone mental — off the deep end.
Eager to expand its power to bully businesses, the EPA is busy trying to regulate every carbon molecule out of existence (except those burned by Al Gore, John Edwards, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and their friends and allies, what with those massive homes, private flights, and hothouse White House), even if it means circumventing Congress to do so. The climate con is being used to seize sweeping power over much of the economy.

Cap-and-tax is coming, as are shortages and price increases — even though climate change (fictitious or not) is dead last in a list of public priorities in a recent Pews survey.

The Interior Department has all but killed drilling offshore and in vast parts of onshore America, despite Americans’ overwhelming desire to tap our nation’s bounty of our concerns and of us. Adding insult to injury, the feds now may seek to seize vast swaths of land via “presidential proclamation.”

The old smash-and-grab.

The bullies running our country don’t care. They care only about themselves.

. . . more