Posted on 11/10/2008 11:45:53 AM PST by andrew roman
It won’t be just a matter of rearranging the furniture, hanging up different souvenir vacation plates and throwing some newspaper on the floor for the new puppy. President-elect Barack Obama is going to put his “Executive Order” game-face on the moment the word “elect” is dropped from his title. Expect an orgy of “undoing” from the earliest moments of a new Obama administration, reversing a slew of Bush-era Executive Orders.
As Steven Ohlemacher of the Associated Press writes:
Bush used his executive power to limit federal spending on embryonic stem cell research, a position championed by opponents of abortion rights who argue that destroying embryos is akin to killing a fetus. Obama has supported the research in an effort to find cures for diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Many moderate Republicans also support the research, giving it the stamp of bipartisanship.
On drilling, the federal Bureau of Land Management is opening about 360,000 acres of public land in Utah to oil and gas drilling. Bush administration officials argue that the drilling will not harm sensitive areas; environmentalists oppose it.
Having already said that the first thing he would do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) – which would effectively nullify restrictions on killing the unborn while allowing “Joe the Plumber’s” tax dollars to be shuffled over to fund on-demand abortions – don’t hold your breath for a heck of a lot of “centrism” (whatever that means) coming from President Obama’s Oval Office.
Rather, expect an Obamacraticly bastardized definition of centrist – i.e. hard-left positions sold with tickle-me-Elmo reasonability, embraced by an excited and aroused media machine – to once again redefine the terms of the cultural landscape. As long as the demonization of conservatism can continue, peddled with those soul-soothing pipes of President Obama’s, reinforced by hypnotized neo-Beatlemaniacs swooning before his first chord is even played, traditional steadfasts (like me) will be continually characterized as more and more extreme – even though we’ve done nothing more than maintain our value system (the American value system).
Hey, if Obama says something is centrist – and says it enough - then by golly, it is. If Obama says traditional American values are in need of changing – or fundamental transforming – then, jeepers, they must be.
Messiahs don’t lie.
Besides, the Obamunist mindset is one of simply disregarding and shrugging off the very real cultural battles being waged in this country - those that matter to conservatives. Only whack job right-wingers, obsessed with automatic weapons and God gobbledygook, stuck in a world of tie-wearing bag boys and supper-preparing Stepfords, expend any thought or energy on antiquated social matters like same-sex marriage and abortion – at least according to the next President of the United States.
As Obama once said in front of a Planned Parenthood get-together:
I am absolutely convinced that the ‘culture wars’ are just so 90s. Their days are growing dark. It’s time to turn the page. We want a new day heer in America. We’re tired of arguing about the same old stuff.
“Same old stuff?!?”
Yes, Virginia, those words can from the lips of a Democrat.
The pot and the kettle need to spend more time together.
Everytime he speaks I get sick. But what we need is a coherent strategy, pretty much everyone here disagrees with BoB. But my most important issue is how our party fights effectively like Pelosi did for 4 patient years.
Sure, they appear to focus on a single topic, e.g. embryonic stem cells, flying airplanes too low over DC, answering phones, retention of seniority when transferring from USPS to another federal government agency, etc., but they actually contain little clauses here and there that are absolute dynamite.
Starting with the first Executive Order to the last one, there have been entire bureaucratic empires built based on regulations that draw on the "meanings" assigned words and common government expressions used in those orders.
You pull one Executive Order out of the pile, the regulatory rule books crumble, programs languish, constituent groups are no longer replenished with budgeted funds, and sometimes actual harm is done to someone ~ usually the intended beneficiary of the original removal!
Disaster is on the way ~ I wait with bated breath.
Klinton ruled by Executive Order, why should Nobambi be any different?
We need an itemized list of what to expect on the first day via executive order, and in the first 100 days via action in Congress. We need preemptively target the media and Congress with our proactive action against this list, rather than wait until BoB takes office and we react.
1. Bush tax cuts.
2. Executive actions on abortion
3. Executive actions on gay marriage.
4. Stem cell research.
5. Private property confiscation enabled by Kelso
6. 401K confiscation
7. Nationalization of health care
8. Further nationalization of financial industry
9. Nationalization of mortgage industry
10. Undermining of gains in Iraq and Afghanistan
11. Judicial appointments, lower courts
12. Judicial appointments, Supreme Court
13. Tax increases to large businesses
14. Tax increases to small businesses
15....
16....
Gonna be a lot of new cases of bulimia popping up.
When Bush was signing Executive Orders and Signing Statements, most people here cheered his actions. I was one of the few to say “Hey wait a minute, the next guy or girl (likely a Democrat) will be using the same powers when they walk into the Oval Office.”
Executive Orders and Signing Statements are far to much power to be granted to one person but the time to oppose such Presidential Power was four or eight years ago.
Now the opposition to such action looks partisan.
I don’t disagree with you, in principle. I do think that Executive Orders bestow too much power on the President.
However, two points here ...
One, I am more concerned with the leftist slants of his potential Executive Orders than with the right or wrong of the existence of Executive Orders. (That’s a different issue).
Two, I am decidedly partisan, yes. I am a conservative - and generally support the Republican Party.
I am, Indeed, happy and proud to espouse my partisanship and conservatism. I am not particularly happy with the Republicans right now, but I don’t run from my partisanship.
I admit that I would be less concerned with the Excutive Orders of Barack Obama were they pointedly more conservative in nature.
Andrew Roman
Brooklyn, NY
Yes, I understand that.
However, you cannot cheer Executive Orders when done by a Republican President and then condemn the same use of power when done by a Democrat.
The time to oppose Executive Orders was under Bush and limit their use by Bush and all future presidents.
I disagree.
I can cheer for anything that promotes or furthers the agenda I support - as long as it is Constitutional.
For instance, a bill signed by President Bush into law that I happen to agree with has nothing to do with whether or not I support the “act” of signing the bill. (Of course, I do, because it is one of the President’s roles as defined in the Constitution).
I would NOT support a liberally slanted bill signed by Obama, but would STILL not be attacking the function of signing the bill.
I will support Executive Orders that promote Conservative agendas.
I will not support Executive Orders that promote liberal agendas.
I do not see a contradiction.
We will have to agree to disagree.
Thanks!
Andrew Roman
Brooklyn, NY
Presidents have always used the so-called Executive Order. If you wanted to stop the practice you should have talked to George Washington.
Actually, the number of Executive Orders and Signing Statements have increased under 42 & 43 and I expect 44 to continue the trend.
All of it has not yet been supplanted with civil service laws.
Today the government bought $40 billion more in that insurance company. Just a matter of time until some court decides the federal payscale and civil service laws apply to their workforce
Those guys might just walk into federal government retirement plans.
bookmark bump
You know not what you say.
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/disposition.html
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