RON FOURNIER: The Case Against Obama’s Nuclear Option: Even if reform is needed and legal, endowing the presidency with new, unilateral powers is a dangerous precedent. “Obama’s party is partly responsible for this mess, because of the cynical choices made during his first two years in office to punt on reform, in part because the Democrats who ran Congress wanted to be able to portray the GOP as anti-minority in the 2010 elections. Obama denies culpability, but the record is clear, and almost any Democrat in Washington will concede, privately, that the president broke his promise to make immigration reform a top priority in 2009-10.”

THE QUESTION IS, WHO WILL STOP HIM? Megan McArdle: Mr. President, You Can’t Do Whatever You Want.

On Sunday, Ross Douthat of the New York Times wrote an uncharacteristically blistering attack on the plan being floated by the Barack Obama administration to quasi-legalize the status of almost half the immigrants who are now in the country illegally. The details remain somewhat vague, but according to the Washington Post, “Ideas under consideration could include temporary relief for law-abiding undocumented immigrants who are closely related to U.S. citizens or those who have lived in the country a certain number of years — a population that advocates say could reach as high as 5 million.”

This is not the first time that the administration has floated this trial balloon, so I think it’s safe to say that it is contemplating sweeping unilateral executive action that would grant millions of undocumented immigrants protection from deportation and issue work permits that would allow them to earn a legal living while they are here — at least, unless the news media or the public pushes back.

I quite agree with Ross: The media and the public should push back. I say this as someone who is broadly supportive of greater legal immigration, and who has tangled with immigration opponents in the past. Whatever your opinion on immigration policy, I hope it doesn’t involve supporting giving the president extremely broad powers to simply rewrite any law that he thinks ought to be different. To see why, you need only ask yourself a simple question: Would you like to give this power to a president from the opposing party on a law where the two of you disagree?

I’m sure Ted Cruz already has a list drawn up. Plus:

The defenses that have so far been mounted of this proto-plan are so far completely underwhelming. There is, for example, the argument that we have to expect this, because Congress is so dysfunctional that the president can’t get any laws passed. But this is a terrible example of congressional dysfunction; immigration bills have been failing in Congress for years now, not because Congress is gridlocked, but because this is a difficult and contentious issue, and there’s not really a ton of political support for increased immigration. Furthermore, polls on this issue seem to be moving in the wrong direction for the president. In this environment, the most functional Congress in the world might well politely decline to pass a bill that does what the president is proposing.

Indeed.

“SMART DIPLOMACY:” Inviting a continent to dinner insults African reformers.

The African leaders summit in Washington and the coverage thereof perpetuated a number of unhelpful myths about the countries that attended.

Most visibly, when Vice President Joe Biden uttered his gaffe about the “nation of Africa,” it demonstrated the compulsion to treat the continent as one undifferentiated mass. Miriem Bensalah Chaqroun, executive director of the Oulmes Water Co. and president of the Moroccan Confederation of Businesses, told me, “Perception is important. These are 54 countries and each one has specific [characteristics]. You can’t address an entire continent.” But that is precisely what Biden and President Obama did, speaking as if the same prescriptions apply everywhere. . . .

We don’t treat “Asia” as one entity, nor do we invite “South America” for dinner at the White House. It is vaguely demeaning and certainly misguided to treat African countries any differently and to, in effect, send the message that these leaders are interchangeable.

Yes, Africa is huge, and very diverse. Then there’s the dictator-friendliness of the thing:

The guest list featured some of Africa’s nastiest tyrants, including autocrats such as Angola’s Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who traveled to Washington for the summit, which included an official dinner at the White House.

Usually, leaders with such dismal records on democracy and human rights aren’t welcomed at White House galas. This time, however, Obama excluded only four of the continent’s leaders (Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe along with the leaders of Eritrea, Sudan and the Central African Republic).

That left some of Africa’s most admirable democratic presidents, such as Ghana’s John Dramani Mahama and Tanzania’s Jakaya Kikwete, having to compete for attention with some of its most authoritarian. Obiang, for example, who recently celebrated the 35th anniversary of the military coup that brought him to power in 1979, has jailed or killed virtually all of his political opponents.

Indeed.

ROGER SIMON: Obama’s Border Plans And Some Guys Named Al.

SCREW IT, I’M STILL EATING LIONFISH: Is Concern About “Invasive Species” Racist?

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WELL, THIS ISN’T PROMISING: Malaria Cases Mix With Ebola Amid ‘Slow Motion Disaster.’

As the death toll rises in West Africa amid the worst Ebola outbreak on record, a separate threat is compounding the problem: the rainy season and the malaria cases that come with it.

In Sierra Leone, with the most Ebola cases in the epidemic, a fearful population is failing to seek medical attention for any diseases, health officials say. If they have malaria, the feeling is they don’t want to go near a hospital with Ebola cases. If it’s Ebola, they don’t believe the hospitals can help them anyway.

It’s a widening problem complicated by the fact that Ebola, malaria and cholera share common symptoms early on, including fever and vomiting, which can cause confusion among patients, said Cyprien Fabre, head of the West Africa office of the European Commission’s humanitarian aid department.

“We now have increased mortality for these other diseases” as well, Fabre said by telephone from Freetown, the country’s capital, after visiting Ebola treatment centers in Kenema and Kailahun near the eastern border. “This is a slow-motion disaster.”

Ugh.

BECAUSE WITH CHRIS CHRISTIE, THEY WERE LAUNCHING A SPOILING ATTACK ON A GOP CANDIDATE, while Andrew Cuomo is a Democrat favorite. Why is scandal-plagued Andrew Cuomo not getting the Christie treatment in the press? Next question?

IT’S COME TO THIS: Jewish Kids On School Bus Told Throats Will Be Slashed, Subjected to “Heil Hitler” Chants.

PAUL BEDARD: Charge: Obama plan to legalize millions of immigrants ‘disastrous’ to blacks.

President Obama’s much-rumored executive order granting legal status to potentially millions of illegal immigrants will be “disastrous” to African-American job seekers and a slap in the face to others proceeding through the tedious legal immigration process, charges a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Peter Kirsanow, a black commissioner on the eight-member panel, warned in a letter (below) to Obama this week that giving legal status to undocumented workers will pave the way for them to take the few jobs that blacks, especially African-American men, need.

“I write to remind you of the disastrous effect of illegal immigration on the employment of all Americans, but particularly black Americans,” he wrote to Obama.

“Any grant of legal status will serve as a magnet to prospective illegal immigrants and further depress employment opportunities and wages for African Americans. Given that the labor force participation rate is at an historic low, the unemployment rate is 6.2 percent, and there has been a precipitous decline in household wealth, the timing for such a grant of legal status could not be worse,” he wrote in the letter, provided to Secrets.

Obama hasn’t formally decided what to do on immigration reform, but is planning some form of executive action after he returns from his extended vacation on Martha’s Vineyard Island in Massachusetts.

When we had a (very modest) crackdown on businesses hiring illegals here in Knoxville, businesses quickly replaced Mexican workers with black workers.

ROGER KIMBALL: Announcing the Society for Equal-Opportunity Offenders. “Elsewhere in the world the virus of political correctness and socialistically-inclined torpor has been successfully rebuffed. The dynamo that is Canada under Stephen Harper is one example. Australia under Tony Abbott is another.”

IMMIGRATION: Wall Street Journal Poll: Majority Want Illegals ‘Returned Immediately.’

ROLL CALL: Inside House Democrats’ Expanding Ground Game.

In the face of a challenging midterm environment, Democrats are relying on money and an expanding get-out-the-vote effort to avoid losing any more ground in the House. But what does that souped-up ground game look like?

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s fundraising advantage over the National Republican Congressional Committee is well-documented by this point. And DCCC Chairman Steve Israel said his party plans to out-organize Republicans in the fall.

The DCCC has 444 field staff on the ground in 48 districts, according to an official spokesperson, with another 219 scheduled to start later this month. The committee started August with at least 20 field staff in 11 districts.

The field effort is starting earlier than in previous cycles. The first permanent staffer started in early January in a competitive California district, which is about six months earlier than before.

The GOP needs to do better.

DAMON ROOT: Why the I.R.S. Should Receive No Deference from the Federal Courts.

WELL, HE’S NO GOOD AT DEALING WITH CONGRESS: Obama defends executive action.

LIKE DRAWS LIKE: Obama’s monsters ball: How the White House opened its doors to some of Africa’s most evil dictators and homophobes and turned blind eye to their human rights record.

Obama’s not a dictator, of course. As he’s explained, he’s constrained by the constitution. He gives every sign of resenting those constraints, though. And he certainly seems to regard all opposition as illegitimate. So he probably found the company congenial.

BLOGGER AND AUTHOR CLAYTON CRAMER had a heart attack today. It’s not entirely clear from this account how he’s doing, but if you want to hit his PayPal button it couldn’t hurt. I did.

MARK TAPSCOTT: If there is no ‘war on whites,’ what is the ‘White Privilege Conference’ about?

WELL, IT’S GOTTA BE BETTER THAN USING HOWARD ZINN: Using Rush Limbaugh to Teach the Civil War to 3rd Graders.

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HE’S A LEFTY. THEY ONLY SUPPORT HIGH TAXES FOR OTHER PEOPLE: Greedy Robert Redford Sues to Avoid Tax Bill.

#WARONMEN: Michelle Obama: ‘Women Are Smarter Than Men.’

ANDREW MCCARTHY: Jimmy Carter and Mary Robinson: The Hamas Jihad’s Useful Idiots. They’re part of a societal autoimmune disorder.

WELL, THEY ALSO DEFEND THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, SO: Slate: In Defense Of Back Hair.