44 To Reverse 43's Executive Orders

Obama Expected To Shift Policy On Torture, Gitmo And Other Controversial Measures

(The Politico)  This story was written by Ben Smith and Lisa Lerer

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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 Obama's staff told him to expect executive orders rapidly reversing Bush policies on the interrogation and detention of terror suspects, and on keeping the records of past presidents secret. He declined to be more specific.

"I don't know in what order or how fast" Obama’s executive orders could come, he said. "It'll be important that a couple of them be done immediately, and I think they will be, to show there's a strong break from the current policy."

Chris Lu, executive director of Obama’s transition team, told supporters in a conference call earlier this month that Obama’s aides have “started developing executive orders that the pres elect is considering - not only ones the President-elect will sign after January 20, but also ones we will want to repeal."

Obama aides didn't respond to requests for more detail, but the president-elect campaigned against what he called Bush’s abuse of executive authority.

"I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president, I actually respect the Constitution," Obama told an audience at a campaign fundraiser in 2007.

In “Change for America,” a book by the Center for American Progress that was designed as a blueprint for Obama’s presidency, Yale Law School dean Harold Hongju Koh outlined "a package of executive orders, proposed legislation, agency shakeups, and concrete foreign policy actions” the new president should embrace, including “four key executive orders” requiring the closing of Guantanamo Bay and ending the torture of detainees.

The Associated Press reported Monday that transition advisers said Obama could sign an executive order in his first week ordering the closure of Guantanamo Bay, although shuttering the prison and transferring the prisoners somewhere else would take time.

On Sunday, Obama promised to close the military prison, but cautioned that it may not happen as quickly as civil rights advocates would like.

"I think it’s going to take some time, and our legal teams are working in consultation with our national security apparatus as we speak to help design exactly what we need to do," Obama said on ABC’s ‘This Week’. "But I don’t want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantanamo, and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our Constitution."

Responding to a 2007 questionnaire from the Boston Globe, Obama said repeatedly that the president doesn't have the power to disregard Congress in matters of war and national security. But he was vague on the question of executive privilege - his right to keep documents and testimony about White House decisions from Congress.

Obama also defended a president’s right to use signing statements to clarify law, but he criticized Bush’s “clear abuse of this prerogative” to undermine laws he didn’t like.

"He is definitely going to handle signing statements in a very different fashion than Bush," said Norm Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "He'll issue some, no doubt, but he'll do it on a limited basis, and in a much more constrained way - he won't be saying, 'I refuse to execute this portion of the law,' for example."

Obama also may be less inclined to cross Congress as long as both houses are controlled by Democrats.

Although he has said little on the issue since his election, foes of executive power have been encouraged by several of Obama’s hiring choices. John Podesta, who Obama chose to lead the transition, testified before Feingold's hearing on "restoring the rule of law" and made a series of specific recommendations, beginning with an executive order establishing "a presumption against classification in cases of significant doubt" and another revoking some secrecy privileges for vice presidents and for the relatives of former presidents.

Obama’s incoming Attorney General, Eric Holder, also denounced Bush’s policies, telling the American Constitution Society last year that “our needlessly abusive and unlawful practices in the ‘War on Terror' have diminished our standing in the world community and made us less, rather than more, safe.”

Perhaps Obama's most important staff choice on this front was Dawn Johnsen, who will head Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. Johnsen, a law professor at the University of Indiana, was a fierce critic of Bush administration interrogation policies and the legal opinions underlying them. She recently wrote that "the assistant attorney general for OLC and other top Department of Justice officials must also be prepared to resign in the extraordinary event the President persists in acting unlawfully or demands that OLC legitimize unlawful activity."

"I was pleasantly surprised that Obama seems to have picked a head of the Office of Legal Counsel who is willing to tie his hands," said Gene Healy, a vice president at the libertarian Cato Institute.

At the same time, Johnsen served in the Clinton Administration office of legal counsel, which fiercely protected presidential power, and argued that the executive branch did not need authorization to take military actions in Haiti and Bosnia and to strike a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan.

"It will be very interesting to see which person we are going to see," said a lawyer familiar with Johnsen's work. "Will it be like more like views of OLC of the 1990s, or has she decided that Clinton OLC went too far?"

Indeed, not all of Obama’s appointees are reflexive skeptics of executive authority. A potential White House counterbalance to Johnsen is Cass Sunstein, a longtime Obama advisor from their University of Chicago days who will head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Although he's best known as a prolific, and liberal, legal scholar, Sunstein defended Bush's stand on his power to resist Congress - though not of his claims of sweeping national security powers.

And observers agree that Obama will be sorely tempted to expand presidential power, not curtail them, once the secrets he's keeping and the policies he's defending are his own, not his predecessor's.

"Some people expect (Obama) to repudiate some executive powers, and it's certainly possible he could say that," said Eric Posner, a law professor at the University of Chicago School of Law. "I just don't think presidents voluntarily give up power ... The last president who cut back on presidential powers was Taft."

Obama's critique of executive power, and discussions about it in the Bush years, have focused largely on foreign policy, but the new president takes office amid the largest-scale government intervention in the American economy since the middle of the last century. The presidents of that era - Roosevelt and Truman -found themselves restrained by the courts in their attempts to meddle in the economy, and some scholars suggested that Obama may be seeking to expand his powers more at home than abroad.

"On the one hand, he's dialing back some of the national security powers that have been controversial over the last eight years," said Cato's Healy. "On the other hand, he seems very comfortable redesigning the economy by executive fiat."

[mbourn2]

It is all good until someone flys a jet into a building.

[rafterman1]

As Bush was compiling all his illegal powers, I had said that it was a bad precedent because no future president, Dem or Repub, is going to willingly give away power they already have. It was a slipery slope.

I am glad to see that Obama has proven me wrong - that he cares more about restoring the integrity of the Constitution than he does about collecting power. Combined with his choice of selecting qualified people, even if they are rivals, over sychophant loyalists, Obama proves, day by day, all the neocons'' dire predictions wrong.

[ekucrew]

You gotta love the fake, smiley pics between President-Elect Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid on the various CBS photo galleries. Pelosi and Reid will be burrs under Obama''s saddle the first chance they get.

[rafterman1]

===It is all good until someone flys a jet into a building.===
Posted by mbourn2

Which can be prevented with common sense security precautions. We do not need to unravel the Constitution because of fear.

[johndevinejr]

It is all good until someone flys a jet into a building.


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Posted by mbourn2 at 11:50 AM : Jan 13, 2009

Hmmmm.......lemme see, didn''t that happen on Bush''s watch?

[johndevinejr]

I hope Obama looks at the Patriot Act. That''s the one that needs to be fixed.

[johndevinejr]

The first time the World Trade Center was bombed, all of the perpetrators were caught and imprisoned.

After the second time NONE of the perpetrators or their accomplices were caught or tried.

Everyone got away free. Thank you George Bush.

[mbourn2]

Posted by mbourn2 at 11:50 AM : Jan 13, 2009

Hmmmm.......lemme see, didn''''t that happen on Bush''''s watch?




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Posted by johndevinejr

Actually yes, just months after he took office. Many of the things Obama is talking about changing are steps that were taken to fix failings of the Clinton Administration.

[lemonskink]

The Patriot''s Act, FISA (spying on Americans)the complete and total investigation of Bush/Cheney, are just a few things needed to be done.

[welshwoman-2009]

What makes you think a socialist is going to return integrity to the Constitution when the man won''t pledge his allegiance to the flag? And I hope you enjoy the fact that beginning next week you will no longer be as safe as you were in this country. Check out some of the terrorist websites. They''re laughing they''re fannies off at how ignorant and stupid the American public is to put Obama in office. They know the borders will be open and Americans sitting ducks for their attacks.

[nanc12]

Posted by Welshwoman

Well, Welshwoman - where do I start with a post like that? Obama, of course, does pledge allegiance to the US - that is one of the loony far right fantasies. You could check out the youtube video of him leading the pledge in the Senate, for example. And check out the terrorist websites? You have them bookmarked on your computer or something?

[actornaught]

Posted by Welshwoman at 12:10 PM : Jan 13, 2009

YOU are a liar, repeating old tired campaign hyperbole.

You lost, move along.

[matrixrx2003]

7 Days left and the Worst President in US History will be heading back to Crawford Texas.

Everybody Sing Hallelujah sing it !

[actornaught]

Posted by ghostfighter at 12:42 PM : Jan 13, 2009

Good grief that''s nothing, his facial expressions showed his deep contempt for all of us. The only way anything he says makes sense is keep "permanent campaign" in mind. Lies, all lies.

[daffy64]

They''''re laughing they''''re fannies off at how ignorant and stupid the American public is to put Obama in office. They know the borders will be open and Americans sitting ducks for their attacks.

--

Yes, once the Canadian/US border is "open" as you put it, we have a plan to storm in and steal your Frankenbery. Ya just can''t get it up here any more!

[misha128-2009]

7 Days left and the Worst President in US History will be heading back to Crawford Texas.

Everybody Sing Hallelujah sing it !

Posted by MatrixRX2003 at 12:20 PM : Jan 13, 2009

Minor correction the Bush''s bought a new home in the Dallas area and are using Federal tax dollars to secure the street he lives on.

[actornaught]

Posted by misha128 at 12:51 PM : Jan 13, 2009

The dallas house is probably a ruse. Look for that new villa in Dubai...

[pb433]

Posted by Welshwoman at 12:10 PM : Jan 13, 2009
And I hope you enjoy the fact that beginning next week you will no longer be as safe as you were in this country. They know the borders will be open and Americans sitting ducks for their attacks.

You have got to be kidding! I''ve got news for you, our borders have been open for the past 8 years. In my area, in 2008, there were 28 American citizens killed by illegals in robberies and DWI cases. Police are on the hunt for a hit and run killing yesterday.
Secure borders? Give me a break!

[centerfall94]

we need to call for the impeachment of Obama if his actions help facilitate terrorist action on American soil during his watch.


Posted by gctomajtom at 12:04 PM : Jan 13, 2009

LOL! I love it! Obama isn''t even in office yet and the poor bitter neocons are calling for his impeachment!!! LOL!!!! They must REALLY be hurting these days!!! *chortle*

[clathrate]

Dear Obama: please finally ban asbestos once and for all. It is a totally needless tragedy: there are plenty of other SAFE alternatives available today.

Yes, America, asbestos is only banned for "new uses". What a joke, it''s still used in large quantities for brake pads, cement products, and roofing mastic.

Slowly the darkness recedes and slowly the light is dawning...

[mytoosense]

Check out some of the terrorist websites. They''''re laughing they''''re fannies off at how ignorant and stupid the American public is to put Obama in office. They know the borders will be open and Americans sitting ducks for their attacks.
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Posted by Welshwoman

FBI Warning, Welshwoman admits to viewing terrorist web sites, tap her phones, look in her closets, check her citizenship, put her on the no-fly list. We can''t be too careful!!

[briannorwood]

"I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president, I actually respect the Constitution," Obama told an audience at a campaign fundraiser in 2007.

What he really should have said is "Unlike the current president, I actually can read the Constitution."

[clathrate]

Obama should be tried for federal treason and punished accordingly for helping Al Quaida plot against the citizens of the US.


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Posted by Yngwie9184

You mean along with Condoleeza Rice, *** Cheney, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsefeld, and George Tenet, all of whom ignored an intelligence memorandum warning that Al Qaeada was going to hijack planes?

[notmudrose1]

Power to the people! Power to the people!
Power to the people! Power to the people, right on!

Finally, a president that understands the U.S. Constitution.

[notmudrose1]

6 days, 23 hours, 37 minutes until the Bill of Rights are restored.

[notmudrose1]

6, days, 23 hours 36 minutes until the Nazis are kicked out.

[clathrate]

Check out some of the terrorist websites. They''''''''re laughing they''''''''re fannies off at how ignorant and stupid the American public is to put Obama in office. They know the borders will be open and Americans sitting ducks for their attacks.
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Posted by Welshwoman

Talk to a Border Patrol agent. Thanks to Bush, they''re already wide open. Viva la amnesty sayeth the Connecticut Yankee!

[notmudrose1]

President Obama should keep Git''mo just for all the republicans that voted for Bush and helped kill 4,200 American soldiers in Iraq.

[used2bfedup1]

A light on a new day!! Birds are chirping. Its like an evil blanket is being pulled off of the USA.

Hallelujah Bush is gone :)

[mavnomore]

cont

On a more amusing note (or maybe just sad), Milbank also references a bulletin to the White House press corps issued prior to the press conference. The memo set a tone importance and fanfare for the event. But, when the moment of the event rolled around, there was apparently such a dearth of reporters and spectators in the room that White House interns were conscripted to fill the empty chairs.

The White House had high expectations for yesterday''s final, historic news conference. "ONE CORRESPONDENT PER ORGANIZATION," proclaimed the bulletin sent to reporters. "STANDING ROOM ONLY FOR NON-SEAT HOLDERS." But when the appointed hour of 9:15 a.m. arrived, the last two rows in the seven-row briefing room were empty, and a press aide told White House interns to fill those seats.

[clathrate]

President Obama should keep Git''''mo just for all the republicans that voted for Bush and helped kill 4,200 American soldiers in Iraq.


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Posted by notmudrose1

Unfortunately there isn''t enough room for 49% of the voting public.

Instead, what we should do is retroactively privatize the Social Security accounts of all Republicans, since that''s such an important Bush objective. That way, they can retire in style with their -50% returns over the last 8 years.

[mavnomore]

Bush''s Final Press Conference: White House Interns Forced To Fill Seats

The Huffington Post | Stuart Whatley | January 13, 2009 11:22 AM

Bush''s final press conference was, at best, a maladroit, awkward, and typically belated attempt at final fence-mending before the president leaves office for good. As Dana Milbank notes in Tuesday''s Washington Post, Bush seemed well-rehearsed and ready to discuss the myriad issues upon which he often draws the most criticism -- the economy, Katrina, Abu Ghraib, the "Mission Accomplished" banner, and more. Milbank writes:

By the time he finished, it was hard to imagine why only 23 percent of Americans are able to see the Bush years for the unqualified success that they are. "I thank you for giving me a chance to defend a record that I am going to continue to defend, because I think it''s a good, strong record," the president declared.

cont

[misha128-2009]

President Obama should keep Git''''mo just for all the republicans ...

Posted by notmudrose1 at 01:24 PM : Jan 13, 2009

Actually since Obama has better than an 80% approval rating on his transition process it appears 1/2 or more of the Republicans that voted against him are now on his side -- Gitmo should close.

[used2bfedup1]

Check out some of the terrorist websites. They''''''''''''''''re laughing they''''''''''''''''re fannies off at how ignorant and stupid the American public is to put Obama in office. They know the borders will be open and Americans sitting ducks for their attacks.
--------------------
Posted by Welshwoman

Talk to a Border Patrol agent. Thanks to Bush, they''''re already wide open. Viva la amnesty sayeth the Connecticut Yankee!


Posted by clathrate at 01:23 PM : Jan 13, 2009

The terrorists can hop in the Semis that cross the border with impunity thanks to Bush deregulation.

[ldvuong]

We are doomed, here comes a socialist and ungodly society.

[dbaker13-2009]

we are sitting ducks with obama and dem cronies.i hope i am wrong but i dont think so.

[clathrate]

We are doomed, here comes a socialist and ungodly society.


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Posted by LDVUONG

Hmm, seems to me the socialism started with Bush''s 700 Billion bailout plan.

I guess you''re just upset the money might actually go towards something useful like infrastructure redevelopment, education, research and development, and scientific research.

I suppose I''d be upset too if I lacked the ability to think critically.

[clathrate]

Obama is a hard criminal who is addicted to cocaine. The man has no place in the public, and as far as Im concerned, no place in the US. I spit on any flag that he represents.


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Posted by Yngwie9184

I never thought I''d see the day when Republicans were flag-defacing cowards, but hey, anything''s possible with these idiots.

[mytoosense]

We are doomed, here comes a socialist and ungodly society.
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Posted by LDVUONG

There is now hope for the future, the Evangelical Dim-Wits and the Repupublican Carpet Baggers are being thrown out of Washington before being able to completely destroy America.

[wtcmedic911]

6 day, 23 hrs till socialism rules

[ddaryl1]

Bush should be impeached for the travesty he regined upon our constitiution.

I''ll take my chances against the terrorist beofre I trust some dim witted sothern white man to take control of our country. I never approved of much of anything Bush did, and to know Obama is going to reverse many of the executive orders which were a precursor to the endo fo democracy makes me very happy.

For those who are unhappy about this, let me tell you what a bunch of conservatives neo-con right wing nutjobs told me 5 years ago. "If you do not like the direction this ocuntry is going then move to another country that supports your beliefs..." Ironically you will find that the Middle East is where you will find strong conservative belief systems, and IMO that shoe fits you right wingers just right

[misha128-2009]

Posted by TexHillGirl at 01:34 PM : Jan 13, 2009

The 80%+ is a scientific poll conducted by CNN -- not some unscientific web survey you continue to spam about.

[centerfall94]

I never thought I''''d see the day when Republicans were flag-defacing cowards, but hey, anything''''s possible with these idiots.

Posted by clathrate at 01:36 PM : Jan 13, 2009

Republicans/neocons have pretty much used our flag as toilet paper since 2001 so I''m not surprised by anything these traitors come up with.

[clathrate]

6 day, 23 hrs till socialism rules


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Posted by wtcmedic911

If you really were at the WTC after 9/11, you''d better hope for some socialism if you don''t want to go broke paying your health bills. 70% of WTC rescuers now have chronic respiratory impairment.

[mytoosense]

...I spit on any flag that he represents.
-------------------------------------------
Posted by Yngwie9184

Spitting on the American Flag, very nice.

I bet you are also one of those who support a constitutional ammendment making it illegal to burn the American Flag.

Neocons are such hippocrates.

[misha128-2009]

Posted by TexHillGirl at 01:34 PM : Jan 13, 2009

The 80%+ is a scientific poll conducted by CNN -- not some unscientific web survey you continue to spam about.


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Posted by misha128

Oh ...

Posted by TexHillGirl at 01:41 PM : Jan 13, 2009


For anyone interested the story

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/12/24/cnn-poll-obama-transition-draws-approval-of-4-in-5-americans/

[briannorwood]

"When 44 decides to abide by our Constitution and and prove up his qualifications to hold that office...then he MIGHT have a least a thimbleful of credibility..."
--TexHillGirl

------

Great idea! I think he should begin by charging George W. Bush and Richard Cheney as war criminals!

Then he can end the Bush "torture" doctrine and illegal wiretaps.

That would be a great beginning!

[wtcmedic911]

If you really were at the WTC after 9/11, you''''d better hope for some socialism if you don''''t want to go broke paying your health bills. 70% of WTC rescuers now have chronic respiratory impairment.
Posted by clathrate at 01:40 PM

CLATHRATE
Please show me where you obtained those stats as they appear to be much great then those reported to my care providers at mt. sinais wtc clinic. I am sure they would like to see the numbers you have obtained.
In every county that has lived under socialism it has failed to thrive. period..... its a great concept however its just thats. a concept. centuries have proven mankind does far better when it is forced by self determination to overcome. having the nanny state as we are now going to enter will only breed more of what has failed. look at ANY URBAN hood. you will see the effects of goverment handouts. its not enough to give someone a meal you have to teach them the skills to earn and make their own meal.
we do need help in this country in the medical sector however the trail lawyers would be the best place to start. reducing the millions in damaged to instead thousands or hundres of thousands is more appropriate. not when an md saws off the wrong leg of course. however if the e.r. doctors doesnt make a wound all nice and pretty when the e.r. is packed then sueing for damages.

[misha128-2009]

Posted by TexHillGirl at 01:47 PM : Jan 13, 2009

The resident Queen of Fabrication and insults seldom of ever backs up her inflammatory assertions with credible sources -- she generally prefers the fringe conspiracy theory web sites when she choses on the rare occasion to provide a source.