Mr. Obama, freed from the political constraints of an impending election in the latter half of his second term, was also moving to put to rest a yearslong fight over the name of the mountain that has pit Alaska against electorally powerful Ohio, the birthplace of President William McKinley, for whom it was christened in 1896.I'd always assumed the mountain got the name as a consequence of the assassination of President McKinley, they way so many things were named after John F. Kennedy. That wasn't the case, and that makes the renaming more apt.
The government formally recognized the name in 1917, and efforts to reverse the move began in Alaska in 1975. In an awkward compromise struck in 1980, the national park surrounding it was named Denali National Park and Preserve, but the mountain continued to be called Mount McKinley....
The mountain came to be known as Mount McKinley after a gold prospector who had just emerged from exploring the Alaska Range heard that Mr. McKinley had won the Republican presidential nomination, and declared that the tallest peak should be named in his honor as a show of support....
August 31, 2015
"President Obama announced on Sunday that Mount McKinley was being renamed Denali, using his executive power..."
"... to restore an Alaska Native name with deep cultural significance to the tallest mountain in North America."
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138 comments:
Denali is eskimo for vagina.
Mr. Obama, freed from the political constraints of an impending election in the latter half of his second term,
I'm bemused by news reports constantly referring to Obama's new "freedom". Why is this something that we should be interested in/encouraged by? Why should he be "freed" from accountability? Why is this the way reporters explain his whims?
I suspect its because reporters have been dreaming of Obama dropping his no red state/blue state act and finally going full progressive. But this is supposed to be news, and we are supposed to be a nation of checks and balances and elections that are based on something (other than lies to get you to the point of being "freed").
I think the MSM has called it Mt. Denali for at least a generation by now.
There is something about this and how it is announced that bothers me. Obama definitely has become a personality cult leader.
ok, so the tallest peak in Alaska/US will be renamed to 'the tallest one' just in the local language.
Here's a second version of the poll, letting you pick multiple answers.
must...criticize...everything.
rhhardin said...
Denali is eskimo for vagina.
If so, it will go well with the Grand Tetons.
I thought it had been called Denali for years.
I guess I don't pay attention.
How stupid--if the guy who first climbed it wanted to name it after McKinley, then McKinley it should be. If Alaskans wanted to name it something else, maybe they should have climbed it first.
So Obama now has the freedom to concentrate on piecemeal bits like this? What an incredible shrinking presidency. It's more sad than anything else.
Americans and probably the rest of the world will soon be calling it Mount Obama.
Grammarians: Is this correct? "the fight that has pit Alaska against Ohio" or should it be "the fight that has pitted Alaska against Ohio"?
If the name is already being fought over in Congress, the President should have stayed out of it, other than recommending that Congress "do the right thing."
Waving his wand and renaming it himself by "executive powers" is just another instance of telling Congress to go blank-blank, he doesn't need them!
I should say ".... needlessly telling Congress ...."
1. It's already in Denali National Park, so the local name lives on.
2. How much money will the park department have to waste changing all the printed materials?
3. How much will local souveneir shops lose in now-wasted merchandise?
4. This should have been the decision of the people of Alaska, not an Executive Order - Why didn't they put it to vote and SEE if they wanted it changed?
5. This is stupid grandstanding without a purpose. Why not use an Executive Order to do something REAL like resettling Syrian Refugees???
6. Continuing to lower the bar for what a Presidential "accomplishment" looks like helps Hillary, in that this is equivalent to touting "miles flown" as an accomplishment.
7. Lowering the bar also makes Trump look more plausible as a candidate, since if "Changing the Name of Tall Things" is your main job, well, Trump has experience in that. Heck, he can even BUILD tall things and name them! Hooray for Tall Things!
8. Obama is once again acting like the OWNER of the US, rather than the SERVANT. Why don't we get servant-leaders anymore?
What can't Obama do by Executive Order?
I guess we will find out soon enough.
rhhardin said...
"Denali is eskimo for vagina. "
Did you know the Eskimos have over 100 words for "vagina"?
A friend of mine used to have two black labs, brothers from the same litter. One was named McKinley, the other Denali.
I saw the admin being quoted as saying Denali is sacred to the native Americans. Since when did the Obama admin give a fuck about anything sacred?
If Presidential aggrandizement is OK, then the name is fine the way it is. If Presidential aggrandizement is not OK, then the President shouldn't get to decide all by his lonesome what the highest mountain on the continent is called.
I would prefer Obama spend his "free" time figuring out a mideast policy.
Washington National Airport is next on the restoration list.
Much more to follow.
I like when the Zero is working on stuff like this and his golf game. It's the other stuff that is killing us.
"Grammarians: Is this correct? "the fight that has pit Alaska against Ohio" or should it be "the fight that has pitted Alaska against Ohio"?"
I prefer pitten.
"If the name is already being fought over in Congress, the President should have stayed out of it, other than recommending that Congress "do the right thing." "
So is Congress allowed to gum up everything in the country by starting a fight about something and never finishing? Power: Use it or lose it.
McKinley would have understood. He was a politician too.
President Trump will use his executive power to build it even higher. It will be beautiful.
"Ann Althouse said...
"If the name is already being fought over in Congress, the President should have stayed out of it, other than recommending that Congress "do the right thing." "
So is Congress allowed to gum up everything in the country by starting a fight about something and never finishing? Power: Use it or lose it."
You teach Constitutional law? You know part of that power is to do absolutely nothing.
The mountain was named by an act of Congress. Presidents shouldn't overrule Congressional acts. If the mountain's name needed to be changed, it needs to be done by Congress. That's how our system works. Or, it's how the system is supposed to work.
They could have renamed it Mt. Tall.
My neighbor's dog just dropped a monster steaming pile. I named it Mt. Obama.
Next he can rename the Animas River the Obama EPA River.
Grammarians: Is this correct? "the fight that has pit Alaska against Ohio" or should it be "the fight that has pitted Alaska against Ohio"?
It's "has done been pitted."
It should be "obama's revenge."
Claiming tectonic guys from Ohio rule Russian territory has to be reversed. The Crimea is back and Alaska comes next.
Did you know the Ute Indians have over 100 words for "toxic heavy metals"?
I'm inclined to give Obama a pass on this one. The mountain had a name used by the locals, it was changed for crass political purposes, in recent years pretty much everybody has switched back to the original name, and now it's been "officially" renamed again for crass political purposes.
And let's face it, Denali is a much cooler name.
Here's a hint, if you haven't noticed it folks: Obama would rather have you ranting about silly things than taking him to task for significant things.
Meade said...
President Trump will use his executive power to build it even higher. It will be beautiful.
It's the MOST beautiful mountain anywhere The GREATEST IN THE WORLD Some people think Everest it the best Let me tell you Everest can't compete Nothing can compete with Mt. Trump IT'S HUGE!!!
Congress said: "Mt. McKinley" stays.
Is there in fact any authority anywhere for the President to name anything whatever not his personal property?
If so, does it matter in the Age of Obama?
Seems to me that this is something they really should have left to the local jurisdiction to me.
That is Teutonic guys. The ones who saw a Manifest Destiny from Ohio to the East Asian shores did not expect to see it reversed by an Autocrat that hates white people on principle.
In other news, some geniuses in New York decided to change the name of the Triboro Bridge to the "Robert F. Kennedy Bridge." Because Democrat. And Dead Kennedy. And Because We Said So.
"So is Congress allowed to gum up everything..."
It's only gummed up if you support the change. If you object to the change then the move was blocked.
Which reminds me, I once heard an Eskimo poem about a vagina blocked with snow. In English it was pretty repetitious, but in Eskimo, I guess it was better.
'Did you know the Eskimos have over 100 words for "vagina"?'
So they have, what, like 10,000 ways to say "frigid?"
Congress should pass a law renaming the President's dog Bo "Checkers."
"Why not use an Executive Order to do something REAL like resettling Syrian Refugees???"
God no ! Don't even mention it !
He is already blocking Christians and admitting Muslims which are sent all over the country so we can't find them. Until, of course, the attack.
I wonder if Obama knows what language Alaskans speak? Alaskan ?
Why not just call it "Cape Kennedy?"
Since when did the Obama admin give a fuck about anything sacred?
Those natives, clinging bitterly to their harpoons and religion!
It might look like the Obama Admin is trolling the nation, but they prefer to call it the stray voltagetactic. You just have to ask yourself: what story are they trying to quash?
The mountain should be Denali.
But what was named by act of Congress should be renamed by act of Congress.
This would have been a trivially easy bill to get passed if Obama thumped the bully pulpit, if the result was what he cared about.
But, yeah... this barely rates on the scale of political shenanigans and scandals.
A bilion dollars in friendly gifts from foreign friends as Secretary of State?
The exposure of all our state secrets to foreign hackers?
The collapse of the middle east, Iranian nukes, Mexican guns?
Immigration policy by executive order?
Obamacare policy set by executive tweet?
Political weaponization of the IRS?
Lots of BIG issues. Renaming a mountain? That's a molehill.
Ann Althouse said...So is Congress allowed to gum up everything in the country by starting a fight about something and never finishing? Power: Use it or lose it.
I have a hard time believing this position represents a principle you actually hold/would defend in other contexts, Professor.
Republican who promises to change it back wins Ohio?
Red state Republicans should begin systematically renaming any geographic features named after democratic politicians to completely unpronounceable native names. Start with Kennedy Space Center. Certainly that swamp had some other name first.
If Mt McKinley was named by an act of Congress subsequently signed by the then current President, it has the force of law and cannot be rescinded by Obama's executive decree.
As long as he's imposing a new name that won't stick, Obama should have auctioned off the naming rights at the same time to help with the deficit-- e.g., "Mount Verizon at Denali".
Wait. I thought "Kennedy Space Center" was one of the many unpronounceable native terms for "vagina".
I imagine Obama telling his minions he needed something to show the little people he was on their side. So his people polled around and found Mt Denali, and told him this was an easy action to take.
So he fires up Air Force 1 and flies to a place he's never been before to show the progressives how much he is down with their struggle.
"Setting the stage on Sunday night, Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in Alaska that climate change skeptics won't be remembered kindly.
"I think the people who are slow to come to this table will be written up by historians as having been some of the folks most irresponsible in understanding and reacting to scientific analysis," Kerry said."
I wonder who thinks to themselves "I am on the wrong side of history. My opinions are null and will be ridiculed with hindsight's 20/20 vision."
I still call it Mile High Stadium.
Republicans will get their undies in a bundle over the most minimal of issues.
And if I know Obama, and I think I do, he'll find some time in his speech (that he is spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to get to) to complain about Republicans on national tv.
8:00 AM Day one of the next Republican president. Declare Obama's re-naming null and note that what was named by Congress can only be re-named by Congress. If Congress wishes to delegate the naming to the people of Alaska, they have the power to do so.
It will be a busy day for the next president--declaring so many executive orders dead letters. And restoring some constitutional order to this country.
"Wait. I thought "Kennedy Space Center" was one of the many unpronounceable native terms for "vagina"."
It is, but Obama is considering an executive order changing the term to "Canaveral".
I support this completely.
I ALSO support the next Republican President trolling Democrats in a similar manner. Tie the hands of the EPA, make the workers all quit and simply refuse to hire anybody else would be nice.
Also, to name any disaster area after Obama.
I would prefer Obama spend his "free" time figuring out a mideast policy.
Looking at his Iran deal...I'd have to respectfully disagree with your desire.
So is Congress allowed to gum up everything in the country by starting a fight about something and never finishing? Power: Use it or lose it.
That's why we have a "legislature" and not a "dictator". So pros and cons can actually be looked at and debated. Don't tell me you're going the route of "We need a benevolent dictator"
Republicans will get their undies in a bundle over the most minimal of issues.
Democrats went nuts over the Feds looking at library records. And when Bush used signing statements (nut care WAY less when Obama does so).
Meade said...
Wait. I thought "Kennedy Space Center" was one of the many unpronounceable native terms for "vagina".
It is native Massachusettsian for vagina hound.
That statement certainly sounds like she is going that route.
I lived in Alaska between 1974 and 1984. Even back then, Alaskans almost always referred to the mountain as Denali.
Yes, those darned Republicans were going to invade the bedroom but the LGBTXYZ folks got there first.
I think we should go back to whatever its name was before the interlopers from Asia imposed the name Denali - because that would be even more authentic.
I think we should go back to whatever its name was before the interlopers from Asia imposed the name Denali - because that would be even more authentic.
We shouldn't name it at all since the first people who saw it likely had no language that we understand.
I'd also decide to rename New York City to New Amsterdam. Just for giggles.
McKinley/Denali is a minor matter that only pertains to future maps issued by the Federal Government, but renaming the mountain by executive fiat after Congress has refused to do so, is not.
And it is the kind of thing that is going to cost the Democrats some votes in Congress on some things that do matter, just for sour feelings and payback.
This is a microaggression against dead, white men--especially overweight ones.......McKinley is vanishing into the Millard Fillmore gloom of obscure American Presidents. The most notable event of his Presidency was his assassination. His immediate successor, Teddy Rosevelt, has all the attention and all the glamour. One notes that TR had about two and a half hours of actual combat experience and that McKinley fought in some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. Posterity sucks.
So the left believes that it is acceptable for the President to not only unilaterally rename things that were named by acts of Congress, but do so in a case where it is a sitting president renaming something that was named for a former president.
This is a useful thing to know.
First there is Denali, then there's no Denali, then there is.
"Red state Republicans should begin systematically renaming any geographic features named after democratic politicians to completely unpronounceable native names. Start with Kennedy Space Center. Certainly that swamp had some other name first."
Ummm..."Kennedy Space Center" is the name of the man-made rocket-launching facility at Cape Canaveral, which had been renamed Cape Kennedy after JFK's assassination. It regained it's prior name of Cape Canaveral in 1973.
Congress can name post offices and other federal buildings. Here President Obama is merely acceding to the wishes of the Alaska state legislature. It's not unilateral renaming by executive fiat, it's an exercise in federalism.
FWIW, the first black kid I met as a child whose family moved in behind my house -- his first name was McKinley.
So, I'm sure the first time I heard of Mt. McKinley I thought it was named after this small black child.
dbp said...
It is native Massachusettsian for vagina hound.
That's going to upset the clitter bingers.
One notes that TR had about two and a half hours of actual combat experience and that McKinley fought in some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. Posterity sucks.
Teddy was an earlier version of John Kerry. Didn't do much militarily but documented the hell out of it.
Here President Obama is merely acceding to the wishes of the Alaska state legislature.
I'm sure it will now go quietly away now that black men are openly declaring that they intend to shoot whites, because white, and hoards are cheering them on twitter... but where was this 'federal government should stay out' attitude when we were supposed to be gearing up to change the name of anything possibly named after a guy who was the second cousin of the best friend of a guy who fought for the Confederacy?
The idea that Obama did this and the news media supports this because they're avid believers that the federal government should follow the locals' lead is brilliant. It's such a big lie I almost believed it myself.
Only people from Ohio called it McKinley
Did you know the eastern Ukrainians have a 100 words to describe "left hung out to dry"?
Did you know Iran has 100 words to describe patsy?
@bbkingfish…. and Friendship Airport as well.
Obama is also going to film an episode of Bear Gryllis while he's in Alaska...
So yeah, he's got the time to do all the important things.
"Ann Althouse said...'So is Congress allowed to gum up everything in the country by starting a fight about something and never finishing? Power: Use it or lose it.' I have a hard time believing this position represents a principle you actually hold/would defend in other contexts, Professor."
As Justice Jackson said in the Steel Seizure Case:
"But I have no illusion that any decision by this Court can keep power in the hands of Congress if it is not wise and timely in meeting its problems. A crisis that challenges the President equally, or perhaps primarily, challenges Congress. If not good law, there was worldly wisdom in the maxim attributed to Napoleon that 'The tools belong to the man who can use them.'"
Not that naming a mountain is a crisis. It's the opposite of a crisis.
I think there's an SUV called the Denali, so I'm suspicious.
I'd last about three days in an advertising agency with an auto account because I'd want to give to SUVs names like "The Transporter."
Not that naming a mountain is a crisis. It's the opposite of a crisis.
So what are you trying to say?
I think it's kinda awesome that President "Climate Change" just named a mountain after the luxury version of GMC's largest SUV.
http://www.gmc.com/yukon-denali-full-size-luxury-suv.html#Exterior
Looking at his Iran deal...I'd have to respectfully disagree with your desire.
Hallelujah. The more time Obama spends on the golf course the better off the whole world becomes.
If the mountain was named Mt. McKinley by act of Congress (I don't know if that's so),the executive order is unconstitutional. Presidents are bound by valid statutesm
Anything to rile up republicans.
Why is Congress voting down a proposal not just as legitimate as voting to adopt it?
I voted for option #1, but I'm much obliged for the last option in the list. Mount Palin indeed! But shouldn't that be a twin peak?
(Beat you to it, Laslo!)
Agitators got to agitate. It's what they do.
"Denali" is an anagram for "denial." The idea of buying a GMC Yukon Denali and swapping the letters on its nameplate has always appealed to me.
Now it would be apt to attract Native Americans to visit Denali, which we seem not to do in the case of Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon or even Mesa Verde or Chaco Canyon, which are still run as white country clubs:
http://www.yosemitethisyear.com/assets/images/Orcutt_Presbyterian_Church_High_school_Youth_Group.png
If it was named McKinley by a Congressional act and signed into law by the president, which it all was in 1917, it makes no constitutional sense for Obama to be able to now rename it by executive order, unless that 1917 act was repealed. Was it?
A very good point.
U.S. Statutes at Large, Vol. 39, Part 1, Chap. 121, pp. 938-39. "An Act To establish the Mount McKinley National Park, in the Territory of Alaska." S. 5716; Public Act No. 353. Signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson in 1917.
The descendants of William McKinley should bring a lawsuit. Nothing in the Constitution empowers a president to repeal a law without Congress.
Mount Denali is a stupid name anyway. If the Koyukons couldn't think of anything better than "tall" to describe the mightiest peak in North America, then they should be ashamed of themselves.
Congress should pass a law mandating that the public school that averages the lowest test scores in each school district that takes Federal education funds be renamed "Barack H. Obama Elementary School." (Probably that will happen anyway in Democratic Party-dominated districts.)
William, President McKinley successfully waged a two-front war, wrapped up the Indian wars, sent US Marines to Peking to suppress the Boxer Rebellion, and didn't get in the way of an economic recovery from a financial panic. He had plenty of accomplishments, even if you don't remember them.
If I were president I would re rename the Mountain to "Obama's Asshole"
damikesc said at 8/31/15, 8:56 AM...
...Don't tell me you're going the route of "We need a benevolent dictator"
Being a law professor, she be down with it as long as it's a benevolent liberal/progressive dictator...
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/08/the-most-liberal-entertainment-civil-rights-personal-injury-and-conservative-oil-gas-ma-energy-lawye.html
Look at some of President Obama's recent activities:
1. Normalize relations with Cuba, run by unelected dictator (Castro)
2. Iran Deal -- gives $150 Billion in sanction relief to unelected dictators (various Mullahs) seeking Nukes
3. Bowe Bergdahl trade -- release 5 high-ranking Islamic terrorists, get 1 deserter
4. Mt. McKinley -- change name (Republican President to Eskimo word for "Tall"), despite Act of Congress
Any pattern emerging? From what I can see, he delights in doing things that help the bad guys or endanger the good guys. Mt. McKinley- Denali renaming is a trivial "poke in the eye" of traditionalists, but it follows the same format.
If all Obama did was rename mountains, it would have been a safe 8 years.
@jr565, maybe Carlsbad Caverns instead?
Isn't every rock, or mound of dirt, or anything they decide, sacred to the Indigenies? All they have to do is say something is sacred, and it is. In fact, it only takes one of them to say it's sacred, and then it suddenly is, like magic.
I don't believe that it is historically significant to the majority of native Alaskans. I do believe it has been an issue on which to play the victimized native card for a generation or two.
Alaska is really big. Alaska is very cold. Land travel is still very difficult and dangerous. I have my doubts that most historic Alaskan peoples thought much or even knew of the existence of a really big mountain hundreds of miles away when they were trying to figure out where the next seal was coming from.
The Greeks had Olympus. The Greeks had a dense communication network among themselves in a land area 13 times smaller. But this would be like saying ancient Britons had a spiritual connection with the Alps!
Then, finally, some white man showed up and climbed the thing. Generations later, the mountain became a cause for which to claim victimization. Mission accomplished.
How about all the streets renamed after Martin Luther King. Can we change those back...PLEASE!
The Gaelic phrase for big mountain is mckinley so it's all good.
@Quaestor
Nobody has ever called it "Mount Denali". It's just "Denali".
Denying Americans' heritage. Dreams of Obama.
All hail the Totalitarian Prince.
In other news from out of the offices of Obama's beautifully managed, Serene Police State: "China and Russia are aggressively aggregating and cross-indexing hacked U.S. computer databases — including security clearance applications, airline records and medical insurance forms — to identify U.S. intelligence officers and agents, U.S. officials said."
Ann Althouse said..."there was worldly wisdom in the maxim attributed to Napoleon that 'The tools belong to the man who can use them.'"
Not that naming a mountain is a crisis. It's the opposite of a crisis."
Admitting up front that this isn't a crisis (and not an example of a Congress gumming up the works and needing to be overcome extra-Constitutionally) undercuts the use of this situation as an example, no?
Justice Jackson's quoted maxim (say that quickly 10 times) specifically references "the tools." If "the tools" are any powers within a branch's Constitutional authority, fine, no argument. If "the tools" mean anything a person or branch can get away with temporarily, then you've got a big problem, in that if you believe that you can't simultaneously believe in a constrained goverment/gov. of laws--which as I said I am not sure I buy you believe.
Is "might makes right" ok as a legal doctrine as long a someone waves the "crisis wand?" Given how frequently our political leaders invoke crises--equating nearly every political objective as "the moral equivalent of war," for example--does anyone who believes in a Constitutionally-bound system of government really think that's a recipe for stability (or prosperity, happiness, etc)?
Anyway I think I detect some sly-ness in using a quote from a concurring opinion in that particular case, Prof, it being one in which the Court struck down a bald Pres. overreach.
I think there's some irony, too, in Jackson's confident assertion, since in fact many Courts from that time through the relatively recent past were at least somewhat successful in reining in the Executive (w/r/t separation of powers issues).
I'm not sure how seriously you're being, though--if you are reasoning in the vein of your earlier point about a situation wherein the draft is reinstated being so extraordinary that other normal rules wouldn't apply, for instance, then you might really believe that a crisis (of that sort anyway) would justify extra-Constitutional action.
This the right thing to do. After taking Native land the whites renamed everything too as a way of marking the territory. Of course, it's been called Denali by most people for years anyway so the change is simply 'official'. But it won't stop conservatives from crying about Obama abusing executive orders. If anyone feels abused by changing the name of a mountain back to what it WAS before then they must not have much of a life.
If you can find someone with standing to sue over this matter, go ahead. Alaska, through its congressional representatives, has been trying to change the name on the federal sites since 1975. Each time the efforts have been blocked by the Ohio representation all to protect the name of an Ohio resident who never went there. The law under which the executive order was issued was passed in 1947 and while there is a good case to be made that this order may not be proper, who really gives shit?
Alaska has already changed the name for the state, anyone who goes to the mountain calls it Denali, and Congress has better things to do while the Ohio delegation licks its wounds over an issue most Ohioans care little about.
For the record the naming only changes it to Denali on federal documents. Ohio can still call it Mt. McKinley if it wants to, in fact it can pass a law to do so and I am sure the governor will sign it.
Boy this will be a room service issue if the The Donald succeeds. He could rename every historical outhouse after Barry, every swamp and every closed coal mine.
As an aside, the shortsightedness of this administration (and the left) continues to mystify me - they seem to think there will no successor that undue this crap.
Humperdink
Alaska has been trying since 1975 to change the name back to Denali. But the legislation was blocked by representatives in Ohio since then. So this isn't a 'renaming' at all. Naming the mountain McKinley was a renaming. Obama is simply letting Alaska have their right to name the mountain back.
So it's their mountain? I thought it was in a NATIONAL park.
Now that I've learned of the history, I approve of the change, but I do not think the method of the change was appropriate. Obama had no need to do this without getting buy in from the public.
For a guy that's supposed to be a community organizer, he sure doesn't like to convince people to support his ideas. He's a thug and that's the only way he operates, even when he doesn't have to. It's like Hillary lies, even when there's no purpose to lying. The scorpion stings, because that is its nature.
@Skyler. I completely agree. It's not the name change, it's the "I am king and I will do what I want, when I want and screw you".
The only way Obama reaches across the aisle is with a weapon in his other hand.
What's really ironic is Boehner and Triple Chin would cave anyway.
The mountain's name is an act of Congress.
Obama has as much authority to officially rename the mountain as I do.
Obama and Congress have zero authority to tell anyone else what to name the mountain. Want to call it Denali? Fine with me.
Unless our Constitutional Republic has completely broken down - sadly, not something I can aver with confidence at this point - Obama is just trolling.
Obama had nothing to do with the name change. He is trying to take credit for something already processed through the US Board of Geographic Names, and approved by Alaskan voters. OTOH, it's fair to blame him for something he didn't do since he's taking credit for something he didn't do.
I don't care one way or another on the name.
But the level of hypocrisy is stunning. He's going to talk about climate change, while this one trip probably has a bigger carbon footprint than a year of my life.
Record a little speech renaming the mountain. Upload it to YouTube. Done.
"OTOH, it's fair to blame him for something he didn't do since he's taking credit for something he didn't do."
I don't care about the name. I've been there and called it "Denali." It's just that Obama, like Bill Clinton, has to be "the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral."
I trust then that Obama will take a 'respect the locals' approach to other named locations, such as - and I'm just throwing things out there - the Falkland Islands.
We'll just go on calling whatever we want, not what he wants. Democracy in action.
Since this is a law blog, show me where in the 1917 act where Congress named this geographic feature "Mt. McKinley." It does authorize a national park "in the region of Mt. McKinley" but does not name it by act of congress as the name was already established. This is the perfect troll for President Obama as it has caused ridiculous fireworks from his political opponents while everyone else is just bemused.
Mt. McKinley have de facto been Denali for a generation or more, just like a number of landmarks in New Mexico and Arizona that were named after US military officers or politicians in the years after the Mexican landgrab of 1848 have quietly been renamed in the years since the cultural Revolution.
Obama just could not resist taking credit for something that had already happened.
The two Republican Senators from Alaska applauded the President's move. Republican politicians in Alaska already routinely referred to the peak as Denali:
http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/09/13/denali-north-americas-highest-peak-is-now-83-feet-shorter/
Humperdink said...
So it's their mountain? I thought it was in a NATIONAL park.
Humperdink, you have highlighted the very moment in history when I became a conservative. In 1978, after failing to get the State of Alaska to knuckle under to Federal demands relating to the resolution of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, Jimmy Carter unilaterally and vindictively designated 104 million acres of Alaska land as national parks and monuments. Lands Alaskans had relied upon for hunting, fishing and mining were closed by Carter's fiat. It particularly annoyed me because in Glacier Bay, one of my favorite haunts, it was now forbidden to carry a firearm. Nobody in his right mind would gallivant around Glacier Bay without at least a .30-'06. As if to demonstrate this, an (unarmed) friend of mine got killed and eaten there a couple of years later.
Carter's action was intended to punish the State of Alaska for failing to do as he wished. At that moment the young Tyrone realized what a tyrant was the federal government.
Denali denial.
@Tyrone Don't misunderstand me, I am mocking Matt's response to Obozo's unilateralism. I am hoping the next president chooses to let the states do what they want w/respect to the National Forest/Parks.
I live 3 miles from the Allegheny National Forest. It was privately held, sold to the feds, with the understanding the subsurface rights would be retained and utilized by the private owners. That would be the extraction of oil and natural gas.
The feds have continued to put up virtually insurmountable roadblocks every step of the way.
"Carter's action was intended to punish the State of Alaska for failing to do as he wished."
Oh yes. Carter is a vindictive individual of little or no charm. He hates Israel because Menachem Begin didn't bow low enough to suit him. Carter is like JFK's description of DC as "Southern efficiency and Northern Charm."
He is probably the meanest and nastiest man ever to be elected President. Obama is next.
I say No, because there is no reason to do it; there is no movement or drive to do it, this is nothing but a distracting waste of time, and whatever the Obama Whitehouse team is trying to get you to NOT notice with this will be MUCH MORE IMPORTANT.
I believe the Antiguans have already named a mountain there after President Obama.
Oh, ha ha--Adding to my comment of a minute or so ago: I just looked it up: Yes, there is now a Mount Obama on Antigua. The previous name was ( . . . wait for it . . . ) Boggy Peak.
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