tagged w/ Executive Order
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Fellow American Patriot,
If you're like me, you've been glued to your television and have watched what's going on in Egypt and the Middle East. It's mind-boggling. The demonstrations in Egypt started over high unemployment and a lack of jobs, but spread quickly to encompass the lack of free speech, the lack of honest elections, and police brutality. The protests, organized via the Internet, Facebook and other social communication networks were planned to be a one day protest. The Egyptian government's attempt to silence the people expanded the protest into a melee that caught the eye of the world.
Over-reacting, the Egyptian government triggered the "kill-switch," and shut down access to the Internet by all of its citizens. You might say: "Well, that could never happen here in the United States. We have a Constitution. We have free speech." Granted, Egypt doesn't. Or, rather, it has "free speech" based on the United Nation's International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which means that they possess only those rights allowed by government, as long as government allows them. Free speech rights in the rest of the world are privileges that a government can withdraw at will.
But, make no mistake about it: What happened in Egypt can happen here. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's government enacted a law that gave him the right, in times of a "national emergency," to exercise the "kill-switch" and and shut down the Internet. Barack Obama authorized the FCC to give him that authority---not Congress, mind you, his own underling, gave him the authority to shut down the Internet if the White House perceives there to be a national emergency.
The main components of U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller's Cyber-Security Act of 2009 (which failed to get out of a Senate Committee) were adopted by the current FCC (by a vote of 3-2) when, on December 21, 2010, Mr. Obama's guidelines were voted on for implementation. One of them was the power for the Commander-in-Chief to use the "Internet Killswitch" in the event of a national emergency.
Our Constitutional freedoms are once again at stake! This time, since other nations are exercising the "executive right" to deny their people freedom of speech, the FCC believes that the Executive of the United States should have that power as well.
Muslim protestors in Los Angeles stand in solidarity with Egyptian protestors. Even without Egyptian access to the Internet, LA protestors chant, "We hear you, Egypt!"
When Egyptian President Mubarak cut off ("kill-switched") the Internet into Egypt, Google patched a make-shift system into Egypt which allowed Egyptians to get their message out. When the the Egyptian government realized what had happened, they reopened the onramps to the Egyptian information superhighway.
This new Obama controlled FCC issued regulation has given Barack Obama, or the Department of Homeland Security, the un-Constitutional authority to shutdown the internet in the United States, if the Administration feels there is a "terrorist" threat. He can shut YOU, AND ALL OF US, down!
Click Here for a ready-made letter to fax/email your Representatives: https://secure.conservativedonations.com/usjf_killswitch/preview_fax.htmlFellow American Patriot,
If you're like me, you've been glued to your... more
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Remember when Barry Obama said he would close Gitmo because it wasn’t right to hold people without formal charges and trials? He made the pledge soon after assuming the ceremonial throne. He said he would get it done within 12 months. Barry didn’t really mean it.
Now comes word that Obama will sign an executive order that will formalize indefinite detention without trial of detainees kidnapped on the battlefields of undeclared and illegal wars.
The supposed plan to close Guantanamo is on hold, according to the Washington Post. It could be crippled if Congress bans the transfer of detainees to the United States for trial and sets up steep hurdles to the repatriation or resettlement in third countries of other detainees.
Obama’s cronies are working feverishly on the executive order. “If Congress blocks the administration’s ability to put detainees on trial or transfer them out of Guantanamo… the executive order could still be implemented,” the Post explains.
“I would argue that you still have to go ahead because you can’t simply have people confined to a life sentence without any review and then fight another day with Congress,” said a senior administration official.
Earlier this month, Congress passed on a 212-206 vote a bill that forbids Obama and crew from transferring any detainees held at Guantanamo Bay to the United States and giving them trials. The bill mentions by name the al-Qaeda scary man and poster child for the forever war against mercurial terror, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
KSM supposedly confessed to all aspects of the September 11, 2001, terror attack, including making NORAD stand down and defying the laws of physics.
“KSM’s confession was announced to the world by the very people who routinely torture prisoners, hold secret military trials behind closed doors, and bar all lawyers and reporters from being anywhere near the courtroom,” Nila Sagadevan wrote in 2007.
Millions of people bought into Obama’s change mantra. But some of us knew it would be merely a continuation of policies adopted during the Bush regime, policies built upon a foundation created by Bill Clinton who inherited the agenda from Reagan and George Dubya’s daddy.
Mitt and Sarah or Huck – whomever the elite decide will be the carnival barker next time – will continue and build upon the malodorous edifice constructed by Barry Obama, or rather constructed by the shadow government men behind Obama the teleprompter reader.
Next up – American citizens who are described as white al-Qaeda.
On Tuesday, we learned that Obama’s man at the Justice Department, Eric Holder, stays up at night worrying about miscreant Americans who may plot murder and mayhem in the name of the international jihad formulated by CIA operatives, patsies, and useful idiots.
“The threat has changed from simply worrying about foreigners coming here to worrying about people in the United States,” Holder said. “American citizens raised here, born here. You didn’t worry about this even two years ago.”
“The threat is real,” he added. “The threat is different. The threat is constant.”
Holder was praised by incoming House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King of New York who is pleased that Attorney General Eric Holder and the Obama administration have had an “awakening” about the threat of homegrown Islamist terrorism, according to The Daily Caller.
King plans to open a congressional inquiry into the radicalization of American Muslims once the Republicans take control of the House Homeland Security Committee in the next Congress.
Obama’s latest executive order will come in mighty handy if King’s witch hunt produces a fresh crop of victims.
The Fourth Amendment will not be allowed to stand in the way of the forever war against manufactured enemies who are not permitted to pull off an effective attack on the freedom lovers. Flaming underwear and dud barbeque gas grill canisters will have to suffice – for now.
Holder said officialdom may have missed signals of the next attack. He cited the internet and the Pentagon diner Awlaki who is “able to utilize the web to reach out to an increasingly tech-savvy worldwide population, accessing potential converts around the world,” according to KKTV in Colorado.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/obama-executive-order-targets-fourth-amendment.htmlRemember when Barry Obama said he would close Gitmo because it wasn’t right to... more
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George Soros funds the Center for American Progress, which has been characterized as Barack Obama’s Ideas Factory. John Podesta, its head, led the transition team when Barack Obama became President. The Center has also become a hiring hall for the Obama team, filling its positions with former employees (among these was controversial Van Jones — who now is back at the Center).
Apparently, George Soros and his Center are upset that the American people placed a roadblock in their plans when we rose up and painted the nation red. The Center now is providing a blueprint of ways Barack Obama can do an end run around the people’s will by resorting to methods that will strike many of us as being improper-to say the least. Relying on executive orders, interpretation of regulations, rule -making and the like they are collectively a recipe for even more power being assumed by President Obama.
From Tuesday’s Politico Playbook:
[The] Center for American Progress today is releasing a report, “Power of the President,” proposing 30 executive actions the president can take to advance progressive change in the areas of energy, the economy, health care, education, foreign policy, and national security. “The following authorities can be used to ensure progress on key issues facing the country today: Executive orders, Rulemaking, Agency management, Convening and creating public-private partnerships , Commanding the armed forces, Diplomacy.
The New York Times fleshes out these proposals with some suggestions about policy changes across the board. The ideology of George Soros shines through the Center’s report as it justifies this forceful approach to circumvent Congress when it states that:
[The] legislative battles that Mr. Obama waged during his first two years – notably on health care and financial regulatory reform – have created a weariness among the general public with the process of making laws. And it hints it has not helped Mr. Obama politically in the process.
In other words, when Congress passed a variety of laws Americans became dismayed by the horse-trading and bribes that were resorted to by Democrats to impose these policies on us. Instead of compromise and listening to the American people, Soros counsels that more forceful measures should be used to override the will of the American people.
And this is the man the Democratic Party has as their sugar daddy and who various Democratic leaders over the years have defended and praised (for example, as shown by thisletter from 11 Democratic lawmakers).
He is certainly a dictatorial daddy.George Soros funds the Center for American Progress, which has been characterized as... more
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Obama Issues Executive Order Mandating “Lifestyle Behavior Modification”
Nanny State Liberation Front
June 13, 2010
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is fond of saying, “You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid.” Well, the Obama Administration certainly has not let the British Petroleum (BP) Deepwater Horizon oil rig crisis go to waste, using it as a smokescreen to silently assault and further diminish American citizens’ personal freedom.
Full Story And VIDEOS...“Baby Hitler” Pres. Obama Issues Executive Order Mandating “Lifestyle Behavior Modification”…WAKE UP AMERICA!!!...http://ctpatriot1970.wordpress.com/2010/06/13/baby-hitler-pres-obama-issues-executive-order-mandating-%E2%80%9Clifestyle-behavior-modification%E2%80%9D-wtf/
While the nation has its eyes and ears focused on the blame game ping-pong match between President Obama and BP top brass, President Obama on Thursday, June 10, quietly announced a new Executive Order establishing the “National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council.”Obama Issues Executive Order Mandating “Lifestyle Behavior Modification”... more
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Notice: I am not encouraging violence, but I feel the need to say that I might violently resist if forced vaccinations are upon me or forced microchipping because the US Government has never cared about diseases or curing them unless theres a profit in them so I won’t ever trust all judgments to be made by the US Government or any Government. Also factual evidence is after my civil war and other political prophecies area where you can read the facts that point us towards the possibility that civil war can happen against the US Government soon.
I am not usually considered a prophet and shouldn’t be because theres so much going on it’s easy to usually figure out whats going on. I know that a civil war is coming soon, even though for years I felt like that was going to be some form of a civil war, and now evidence is popping up that civil war is eminent in the United States because of the rising violence against the health care law, and even I am now making threats against forced vaccinations on facebook that if they force inject me I would join a revolution and resist the vaccines. People have replied that I should comply with forced vaccinations but I refuse and rather die because the vaccines harm my behavior patterns and cause my anger to increase at high levels.
Even I feel the increasing rage against the Obama Administration not just in myself but in many Americans around the whole country. I have to get this out or else I will probably explode with fear and rage against the Obama Administration for socializing health care and student loans. I feel as if a civil war is about to happen if the health care law is not repealed or if the US Government doesn’t give us our rights to free will, you know to freely refuse drugs and vaccines as we see fit with our bodies. If that does not happen, you know where I have the right to simply refuse vaccinations under good reason, and also if they force vaccinations I can’t guarantee that I won’t violently rebel because I rather die as a free man then as a poisoned slave and a robot.
Now here is why I am now bringing out my past prophecy that there will be a civil war against the US Government, because it will happen if the US Government that keeps failing it’s people keeps pushing it’s people, takes away their rights to their free will, because free will alows people to be able to make decisions on our own and suffer the consequences for our actions instead of going to prison over every little control law, and if the US Government ever forces people into tyranny without the right to protest or speak out it will lead to violent confrontation instead of diplomacy which is essential to a peaceful republic.
More and more the US Government is relying less and less on diplomatic solutions and relying more and more on brute force techniques, torturing to get the truth out of terrorism suspects, and going to war with many different countries and thus making it very easy to slip into war.
The country is on the verge of collapse yet the US Government acts like the economy is going to get better yet is nothing but a big lie to cover up the fact that the economy is in freefall.
Now the rest of my predictions that have come true were that the Internet was going to become more controlled (prophecy correct), the Internet was going to be shut down by the US Government (Hasn’t happened yet), Barack Obama was going to bring back the racial segregation because of his preacher to divide and conquer this nation (prophecy partially correct due to the Ibama racial college policy article and prophecy was stated last year on a unreleased recorded video) in the war of freedom fighters against the US Government, Obama was going to be shot in the head to gather sympathy for his deceitful cause and to jumpstart martial law (Hasn’t happened yet), Obama will reveal his true colors to the people as they find out the truth about him slowly (Happening right now so not really a prophecy), a civil war will emerge against the US Government for taking away body rights and approving a genocide bill as law (Prophecy coming true cause of increased violence, threats against members of congress, local militias being targeted by the Government under US Government propaganda that militias are planning to kill police officers then waste their weapons to attack funerals), the Taliban or Islam plan to pass a sheria law in the USA to oppress womens rights to freely walk on her land that she must stay indoors forever unless she is with her husband (Hasn’t happened yet), US Citizens will be held at gun point by mind controlled military combatants and then taken to FEMA Camps(Hasn’t happened yet), and more prophecies I have made but can’t think of them right now because I am overwhelmed with fear due to the health care disform law passing.
Also these are the factual evidence and not prophecies why civil war is imminent in America.
First of all theres a CNN Video I mirrored and re-encoded on my site as a self flash player showing the violent threats against the congressmen and congresswomen and that ones believes he may be a dead man, strawberry farmers are spitting at the Governments face by destroying strawberries in front of the camera, militia getting ready to start war against the US Government and preclaiming they are going to war against the anti-christ but got arrested before they could start up a civil war, increasing threats against US Congress, and more.
So it seems like civil war is now imminent as people are afraid of forced microchipping, forced vaccinations, forced health insurance, and if Obama now uses an executive order to pass CO2 then gas prices will go up by 77%, 50% more on our household utilities and our country will lose more jobs. If that happens our only hope may be a civil resistance war against the US Government because trying to remain peaceful will be too late when everyone is kicked out of their homes, and the whole countries economic system
finally collapses for good.
We’re in a crises and during times where death happens to a country it’s civil war for survival because by then the government may not save you or help your family.Notice: I am not encouraging violence, but I feel the need to say that I might... more
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Obama has filled his new 'debt commission' with Wall Street insiders determined to gut Social Security.
March 28, 2010 |
A decade of wars, tax cuts for the wealthy, and the fallout from Wall Street's housing bubble have almost tripled U.S. public debt since 2001, from $5 trillion to $14 trillion. Big, scary numbers like this, along with carefully timed downgrade warnings from Wall Street's obedient rating agencies and continuing worries about the financial collapse of Greece, Portugal and other nations have changed the political climate in Washington, breathing new life into decades-old schemes to slash Social Security and Medicare entitlements.
And defending Social Security does indeed sound like yesterday's issue — a fight the people won when they defeated Bush's attempt to privatize the system in 2005. Our Social Security program is currently solvent through 2037, while millions of Americans are unemployed, millions more are losing their homes, and still millions more are struggling to meet soaring health insurance costs after watching their retirement accounts dwindle in the financial collapse. Would the entitlement wolves -- primarily Wall Street executives who stand to reap billions from Social Security privatization -- really have the gall to go after Social Security now? In a word, yes.
Global deficit jitters and U.S. political uncertainties associated with Scott Brown's surprise Senate victory in Massachusetts have helped fuel the fire at propaganda campaigns like IOUSA and the Wall Street tycoon-funded Fiscal Times. The White House is now either on the budgetary defensive, or exploiting the moment to exact unpopular entitlement cuts it was already preparing to make. Regardless, this week's New York Times' front page confirms that "reforming" Social Security could very well be a top priority for Obama in 2010. According to anonymous White House officials and budget analysts, because the Medicare cut under the health care reform bill "effectively takes those fast-growing entitlement programs off the table for deficit reduction … [Social Security] now stands as the likeliest source of the sort of large savings needed to bring projected annual deficits to sustainable levels."
In other words, because rapidly rising Medicare costs were not effectively contained by health care reform -- it would have hurt the health care industry -- slowly rising Social Security costs will instead have to get the axe. Instead of weaning corporations—banks, insurance companies, war contractors—off the federal teat, the administration is seriously considering punishing seniors.
The Debt Commission
In January, pressure from a broad spectrum of activist groups killed an amendment by senators Kent Conrad, D-North Dakota, and Judd Gregg, D-New Hampshire, to create a special bipartisan commission that would submit a broad deficit-reducing plan to Congress for an up or down vote by year-end. The commission's bipartisan makeup, its procedural restrictions in Congress, and the timing of its recommendations – arriving just after the midterm elections – were all designed to insulate the decision-makers from popular pressures that might take entitlement "reform" off the table. Moreover, because the 18-member commission (10 Democrats, eight Republicans) would require 14 votes for in order to report its recommendations, giving both parties veto power, cuts to Social Security and Medicare were widely assumed to be a necessary component of any consensus. In order for the commission to accomplish anything, Democrats would have to concede such cuts to Republicans in return for tax increases.
After the defeat of the Conrad-Gregg commission, groups defending Social Security had little time to rejoice before Obama resuscitated the plan, creating the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform by executive order. While the Commission's proposals will not be limited to an up or down vote in Congress, it's otherwise exactly as Conrad-Gregg envisioned, and Pelosi and Reid have promised to put them to a vote before the end of the current session of Congress.Obama has filled his new 'debt commission' with Wall Street insiders... more
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Obama Declares He Will Rule by Authoritarian Decree
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
February 13, 2010
The Obama administration has announced it will now rule by fascist decree and ignore Congress and the American people.
“With much of his legislative agenda stalled in Congress, President Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities,” reports The New York Times. “We are reviewing a list of presidential executive orders and directives to get the job done across a front of issues,” said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff who is fond of cracking his knuckles in Obama’s face.
For the Full Story on Obamas Executive Orders (Scary) and A Video History of Our Freedoms Dying with each Executive Order...Must See ....http://ctpatriot1970.wordpress.com/2010/02/14/just-like-bush-obama-declares-he-will-rule-by-executive-ordersvideo-no-bs-must-read/Obama Declares He Will Rule by Authoritarian Decree
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com... more
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WASHINGTON — The Obama administration issued new rules on Friday that promise to improve insurance coverage of mental health care for more than 140 million people insured through their jobs.
In general, under the rules, employers and group health plans cannot provide less coverage for mental health care than for the treatment of physical conditions like cancer and heart disease.
Insurers cannot set higher co-payments and deductibles or stricter limits on treatment for mental illness and addiction disorders. Nor can they establish separate deductibles for mental health care and for the treatment of physical illnesses.
Such disparities are common in the insurance industry. By sweeping away such restrictions, doctors said, the rules will make it easier for people to obtain treatment for a wide range of conditions, including depression, autism, schizophrenia, eating disorders and alcohol and drug abuse.
For decades, many health plans have had limits on hospital inpatient days and outpatient visits for mental health treatments, but not for other types of care.
Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said the rules guaranteed that people with debilitating mental disorders would not suffer “needless or arbitrary limits on their care.”
The rules, which take effect on July 1, carry out a 2008 law that was adopted with bipartisan support. They significantly expand the rights of people with mental illness, much of which goes untreated because of insurance restrictions.
Under the rules, insurers can still review claims for “medical necessity,” can still require prior approval of some services and can still charge consumers more for using doctors and hospitals that are not on a list of preferred providers.
But under the rules, insurers cannot use these techniques in a more restrictive way for mental health care than for other medical services.
The administration said the new requirements could increase premiums by four-tenths of 1 percent, or $25.6 billion over 10 years. Businesses with 50 or fewer employees are exempt.
The rules apply to group health insurance plans of the kind typically offered by employers. Federal health officials said the rules did not apply to the individual insurance market, where policies are sold directly to individuals and families. However, some states have laws that apply to the individual market.
Irvin L. Muszynski, a lawyer at the American Psychiatric Association, praised the government’s decision to require a single deductible for mental health and medical-surgical coverage.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/health/policy/30mental.htmlWASHINGTON — The Obama administration issued new rules on Friday that promise to... more
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Everyone wants to know: will Obama order investigations into the Bush administration's abuses of power? But, perhaps the new question should be: if he doesn't, who will?
House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) is at least going to try.
Conyers published a nearly 500-page report (PDF link) Tuesday titled, "Reining in the Imperial Presidency: Lessons and Recommendations Relating to the presidency of George W. Bush."
Conyers' report makes 47 recommendations "designed to restore the traditional checks and balances of our constitutional system," reads the foreward. Recommendations include the establishment of a 'blue ribbon' commission to fully investigate the Bush administration, and the launch of criminal probes.Everyone wants to know: will Obama order investigations into the Bush... more
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President-elect Barack Obama is expected to move swiftly to reverse executive orders regarding torture of terror suspects, the military prison at Guantanamo Bay and other controversial security policies, sources close to his transition said, in dramatic gestures aimed at reversing President Bush’s accumulation of executive power.
Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) said he’s been informed that President Obama will support his proposed legislation to make public some opinions from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, which issued some of the Bush Administration's most sweeping claims of executive power. Obama also has promised to limit President Bush's practice of using "signing statements" to amend legislation.
"Every day we get indications that they're serious about reversing the abuses of the Constitution," Feingold, a harsh Bush critic, told Politico. Feingold said he thinks Obama is likely to issue executive orders rapidly reversing Bush policies, and others have indicate that those will likely cover the interrogation and detention of terror suspects, and keeping the records of past presidents secret.
-Here comes the transparency we've been lacking over the last 8 years. Brace yourselves. This is going to be ugly.- BansheewailPresident-elect Barack Obama is expected to move swiftly to reverse executive orders... more
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President-elect Barack Obama will order the closing of the Guantanamo Bay US military prison, his advisers say, according to Lara Jakes of The Associated Press:
That executive order is expected during Obama's first week on the job — and possibly on his first day, according to two transition team advisers. Both spoke Monday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.President-elect Barack Obama will order the closing of the Guantanamo Bay US military... more
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WASHINGTON – President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.
John Podesta, Obama's transition chief, said Sunday Obama is reviewing President Bush's executive orders on those issues and others as he works to undo policies enacted during eight years of Republican rule. He said the president can use such orders to move quickly on his own.
"There's a lot that the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we'll see the president do that," Podesta said. "I think that he feels like he has a real mandate for change.
We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set."
I believe Barack Obama will in fact use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office. Essentially, Bush has slit the throat of the Constitution and with it he endangered many of the rights so treasured by the American people.
During the period of time that this took place, a great deal of fear had been instilled into the minds of American people. To stand up against anything the Bush administration put out was considered unpatriotic and was border line treason. The American public gradually managed to sidestep this SS troop type of tirade.
The media and the public are finally free to express their 1st Amendment rights. This election screamed loud and clear the will of the people.
The first 100 days of Barack Obama’s presidency should and I am sure it will be to stop the bleeding caused by Bush’s attack on the Constitution.
To see the rest of the article above go to url:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081109/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama
WASHINGTON – President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an... more
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President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.
John Podesta, Obama's transition chief, said Sunday Obama is reviewing President Bush's executive orders on those issues and others as he works to undo policies enacted during eight years of Republican rule. He said the president can use such orders to move quickly on his own.
"There's a lot that the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we'll see the president do that," Podesta said. "I think that he feels like he has a real mandate for change. We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set."
Podesta also said Obama is working to build a diverse Cabinet. That includes reaching out to Republicans and independents — part of the broad coalition that supported Obama during the race against Republican John McCain. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been mentioned as a possible holdover.
"He's not even a Republican," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said. "Why wouldn't we want to keep him? He's never been a registered Republican."
Obama was elected on a promise of change, but the nature of the job makes it difficult for presidents to do much that has an immediate impact on the lives of average people. Congress plans to take up a second economic aid plan before year's end — an effort Obama supports. But it could be months or longer before taxpayers see the effect.
Obama could use his executive powers to at least signal that Washington is changingPresident-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact... more
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bshipp
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10/27/2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (202) 675-2312 or media@dcaclu.org
Plan Offers Guide To Recovering Freedoms Lost Under Bush
WASHINGTON – In anticipation of the presidential election, the American Civil Liberties Union today released a set of detailed recommendations on steps that the new president should take to “clean house,” renew freedom, and restore the nation’s reputation.
“This past administration has left us with a disastrous legacy of bad policy, abuse of power, and civil liberties violations,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington Legislative Office of the ACLU. “The next president, whoever he is, must immediately begin the process of undoing this far-reaching assault on our nation’s freedoms and core values, and the ACLU’s ‘to do’ list provides a detailed roadmap for achieving that.”
The new ACLU document, entitled, ”Actions For Restoring America,” recommends actions to be taken by the next president on his first day in office, in his first 100 days, and in his first year. The ACLU’s list consists of actions that the executive branch could take on its own.
On Day One, the next president should, by executive order, direct all agencies to prohibit the use of torture and abuse; direct the new Attorney General to appoint an outside special counsel to investigate, and, if warranted, prosecute any violations of federal criminal laws; close down Guantánamo and either charge and try detainees in criminal or traditional military courts or transfer them to countries where they won’t be tortured; and end the practice of extraordinary rendition.
In his first 100 days, the president should take actions, as detailed in the ACLU document, to end illegal spying and surveillance, to protect Americans from privacy violations and discrimination, to end the federal death penalty, and to increase government transparency.
For the new president’s first year, the ACLU proposes actions across a broad variety of areas that are needed to undo the Bush legacy.
“For starters, the next president should immediately put an end to torture, shut down Guantánamo and the military commissions and ban ‘extraordinary rendition,” said Fredrickson. “All of these practices are abominations – violations of our nation’s dearest principles and a blot on America’s good name. He must then proceed vigilantly to restore our other precious rights and values that have been trampled upon, including freedom from unchecked government surveillance, racial and gender equality, and government transparency.”
“The actions we are calling for are steps that the next president can take easily – in many cases with the stroke of a pen – but which will carry great weight in restoring our nation’s true place as a beacon of liberty, rights and justice in the eyes of others and ourselves,” said Fredrickson. “Many things the next president will need to do will be hard. But these will be easy.”
The ACLU’s 83-page document proposes actions across a wide variety of topics, including national security, human rights, women’s rights, civil rights, drug policy, the rights of LGBT Americans, immigrants and prisoners, privacy and free speech.
“Presidents have enormous power not only to set the legislative agenda, but also to establish policy by executive order, federal regulation, or simply by refocusing the efforts and emphases of the executive agencies,” said Fredrickson. “The new president must use all of these tools to restore our freedoms and move the country forward.”
“The American people still need to be reminded why grants of unchecked power do not actually make us safer,” said Fredrickson. “And why Americans must stand firm in protecting the values that at our best we have always represented and defended at home and around the world.”
To download and see the entire ACLU transition plan including suggested executive orders, mandates and directives from the president, go to http://www.aclu.org/transition10/27/2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (202) 675-2312 or media@dcaclu.org
Plan... more
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On June 4, 1963, a virtually unknown Presidential decree, Executive Order 11110, was signed with the authority to basically strip the Federal Reserve Bank of its power to loan money to the United States Federal Government at interest.
With the stroke of a pen, President Kennedy declared that the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank would soon be out of business.
The Christian Law Fellowship has exhaustively researched this matter through the Federal Register and Library of Congress. We can now safely conclude that this Executive Order has never been repealed, amended, or superceded by any subsequent Executive Order. In simple terms, it is still valid.
When President John Fitzgerald Kennedy - the author of Profiles in Courage - signed this Order, it returned to the federal government, specifically the Treasury Department, the Constitutional power to create and issue currency - money - without going through the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank.On June 4, 1963, a virtually unknown Presidential decree, Executive Order 11110, was... more
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jkw077
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Bazelon and Wilson created a list of the worst executive orders from the Bush administration. "Without negotiating with Congress to pass a law, or even going through the notice-and-comment period that precedes a new federal rule, the president can change the music that federal agencies dance to." But whoever becomes president in January has the power to scrap them. "If they can be conjured by a stroke of the pen, they can also quickly be made to vanish - presidents show little reluctance to excise their predecessors' dictums." So, which 10 deserve to be tossed? The list includes Bush's orders to gut the Presidential Records Act, to limit federal funding for embryonic-stem-cell research, to offer broad legal protection for US corporations dealing in Iraqi oil, and seven others.Bazelon and Wilson created a list of the worst executive orders from the Bush... more
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In order to bring Panamanian Law in alignment with the countries international human rights treaties, constitution and Ministry of Health policy President Martin Torrijos Espino signed an executive order striking down the 1949 sodomy ban. The law imposed a $500 fine on those found to be in violation.
Panama's MOH policy dictates that the ministry “maintain respect for the sexual preferences of each person, without the existence of any type of discrimination”
This conflict brought on protest from gay rights group New Men and Women of Panama and other human-rights defense groups.
This brings the total of Central American/Caribbean states that criminalize gay sex down to 11.In order to bring Panamanian Law in alignment with the countries international human... more
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President Bush approved an order that rewrites the rules governing spying by U.S. intelligence agencies, both in the United States and abroad, and strengthens the authority of the national intelligence director, according to a U.S. official and government documents.
Executive Order 12333, which lays out the responsibilities of each of the 16 agencies, maintains the decades-old prohibitions on assassination and using unwitting human subjects for scientific experiments, according to a power point briefing given to Congress that was reviewed by The Associated Press. The CIA notoriously tested LSD on human subjects in the 1950s, which was revealed by a Senate investigation in 1977.
President Bush approved an order that rewrites the rules governing spying by U.S.... more
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