“National Defense Resources Preparedness” executive order: Power grab or mere update?

Hot Air ^ | March 18, 2012 | Ed Morrissey

[QT3.14]

We’re getting a lot of e-mail this weekend about an executive order issued on Friday afternoon by President Obama titled “National Defense Resources Preparedness.” While the timing of the EO is curious — why send it out on a Friday afternoon when an administration is usually trying to sneak bad news past the media? — the general impact of it is negligible. This EO simply updates another EO (12919) that had been in place since June 1994, and amended several times since.

[lentulusgracchus]

I’m going to agree with the general assessment of the linked article, that this EO is little more then mere boilerplate changes, and doesn’t grant any additional powers that the administration did not already have.

The huge difference is, Dwight Eisenhower, Dick Nixon, and Jimmy Carter were not power-mad Mau-Mau's planning a bloodsoaked Red revolution.

These extraordinary "standby powers", granted under the shadow of a giant mushroom cloud, were badly conceived and unwisely granted, with insufficient opportunities for Congress to "clog" (Madison's word), delay, impede, or restrict use of them by the Executive Branch. These laws were not written with the People's liberty interest at the fore, and it shows. That's why these passages read like Nazi decrees, or like rescripts from the court of the Emperor Majorian.

[lentulusgracchus]

.....the thing they tried to sneak through Friday night was the addition of "non-emergency" to the not so mundane EO!!!

Did they succeed?

[eak3]

of course they succeeded in sneaking this through. besides here very few places are talking about it. So I would say about 99.5% of the population has no idea this took place and 99% will still have no idea this happened 6 months from now. Even better about 98% of the population probably has no idea what an Executive Order even is.

[opentalk]

Obama Preps for a `Non-Emergency' Named Iran