"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
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"John R. Carroll" wrote in message
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"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
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"Wes" wrote in message
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Ignoramus22050 wrote:

Those who accused President Barack Obama of soliticing donations
towards Haiti, but only contributing next to nothing, are now proven
wrong.

While I applaude his giving to Fisher house, I have a nagging thought
in the back of my
mind that he is prohibited by law from accepting that 1.4M by ethics
rules. In other
words, he can only accept an award with monetary value if he gives it
away while he is
serving a term as President.

This may be a case of forced charity and if so, it doesn't count.

Wes

Not ethics rules. Constitutional law. Nobody reads the Constitution, do
they? g

Article 1, Section 9. Congress would have to vote to allow the President
to accept any "emolument" from a foreign power. The Nobel committee is
quasi-governmental. It would be a tough call. But no president in his
right mind would accept the money for himself -- even if Congress voted
to allow it.

Especially not one with a seven or eight figure bank balance that was the
result of his own professional efforts.
It's interesting to compare the accomplishments of Obama and Bush at age
46.
Using that yardstick to measure the actual result Bush produced as
President, we ought to expect a pretty fair job from Obama in the end.


JC

Hmm. I'd have to look. I gather that he was still involved in failing
companies at that point. g

BTW, there is a complication to the Constitutional provision, but it cuts
both ways. Congress passed a law that's resulted in a federal statute, 5
USC par. 7342, that essentially says that any gift that would "insult" a
foreign government (at the president's discretion) can be accepted. But it
then becomes government property -- specifically, of the Executive, in
this case.

However, nobody in Congress it going to battle a contribution of such
money to legitimate charities, unless he wants to be made an ass by the
media.

It's a safe bet that OLC weighed in on this one a long time ago and Obama
never recieved any payment - he directed the NC to pay it to the charities
he listed. They could have refused you know. Motives aside, the act itself
was both thoughtful and generous. That ought to be enough for anyone - even
the fair and balanced crowd.

I'm otherwise surprised, however, that it got any ink at all.

Anyway, I've been off the beam a bit. Respiratory failure will do that to a
person but I will say that if you have to be really sick, as in near death,
do it at Pendelton. The jar heads there are pretty fair and Scripps is right
down the street. Those guys can do just about anything.
LOL


JC