VIDEO: Bart Stupak says YES to health care reform

By GottaLaff



Here is what I could grab so far.

Health Care Watch: What an executive order from President Obama would do

By GottaLaff

The Wonk Room is reporting that Bart Stupak is a likely "yes" vote if President Obama issues an executive order that reaffirms current law on abortion coverage. MSNBC has dialed back their report that Stupak was a definite "yes".

Here are two things we should know about such an order:

[T]he order would likely recognize current law without codifying the Hyde amendment.

Significantly, the promise of an executive order also protects Democrats from losing several pro life votes to a Republican motion to recommit on abortion.

That clarified a few things. Thank you, Wonk Room.

Executive orders fewer under Obama

Yep Haters, just like Bush.

Despite signing an early flurry of major executive orders, President Obama has been restrained in wielding his White House power having produced fewer executive orders than all but one of his five recent predecessors.

Mr. Obama created a fiscal panel Thursday to tackle the nation's staggering deficit problem when issuing his 43rd executive order - that's 17 fewer than President George W. Bush signed in the same time frame and 29 fewer than President Carter.

But Mr. Obama's use of executive power is likely to change now that Senate Democrats have lost their filibuster-proof majority and Republicans are expected to pick up seats in this fall's midterm elections.

"It is easier to get what you want unilaterally than it is to work with Congress," said Christopher S. Kelley, a professor at the Miami University of Ohio, who noted that President Clinton's executive orders spiked after Republicans took control of Capitol Hill in 1994. "They tried to cut him off, but in the end the president has the prerogative to use them."

VIDEO: While Obama Making Plans to Use Executive Power, Rachel Maddow Plans a Filibuster Challenge

By GottaLaff

Here's a thought: A presidential directive to remove all the Rushpublics from Congress.

Okay, daydream over. God I hate reality sometimes. It gets in the way of my fantasies:

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. [...]

“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.

Any president has vast authority to influence policy even without legislation, through executive orders, agency rule-making and administrative fiat. And Mr. Obama’s success this week in pressuring the Senate to confirm 27 nominations by threatening to use his recess appointment power demonstrated that executive authority can also be leveraged to force action by Congress. [...]

But Mr. Obama has to be careful how he proceeds because he has been critical of both Mr. Clinton’s penchant for expending presidential capital on small-bore initiatives, like school uniforms, and Mr. Bush’s expansive assertions of executive authority, like the secret program of wiretapping without warrants. [...]

Another drawback of the executive power strategy is that actions taken unilaterally by the executive branch may not be as enduring as decisions made through acts of Congress signed into law by a president.[...]

But the White House argued that Mr. Obama’s choices have been held up more than Mr. Bush’s and left open the prospect of giving recess appointments to some of those still held up, including Craig Becker, a labor lawyer whose nomination for a seat on the National Labor Relations Board has been blocked.

“If the stalling tactics continue,” said Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, “he’s not ruling out using recess appointments for anybody that he’s nominated.”

Good. About time. Do it. I want Dawn Johnsen in. Now.

Meantime, Rachel Maddow has her own ideas: The Filibuster Challenge.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

President Obama Signs Executive Order Banning Federal Employees from Texting While Driving

Looks like President Obama is setting it up so Sec LaHood gets his national ban.

ABC News has learned that President Obama signed an executive order last night banning federal employees from text-messaging while on government business, driving government vehicles or using government equipment. The executive order also directs executive departments and agencies to encourage contractors and contractor employees to adopt and enforce policies to ban texting while driving on official government business.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will announce the executive order in his closing remarks later today wrapping up the two-day Distracted Driving Summit. "This order sends a very clear signal to the American public that distracted driving is dangerous

BREAKING NEWS White House Drafts Order to Hold Some Detainees Indefinitely

By GottaLaff

More as soon as I can type it up.

Here we go, Friday dump time:

The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close Guantanamo, has drafted an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war. Obama advisers are concerned that bypassing Congress could place the president on weaker footing before the courts and anger key supporters, the officials said.

Fayiz will NOT be happy. Please follow that link. His story needs to be heard. He is stuck in Gitmo until he can get a court date. He's been imprisoned and mistreated badly for nearly 8 years.

After months of internal debate over how to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, White House officials are growing increasingly worried that reaching quick agreement with Congress on a new detention system may prove impossible. Several officials said there is concern in the White House that the administration may not be able to close the facility by the president's January deadline.[...]

One administration official suggested the White House was already trying to build support for an executive order.

And what do civil liberties groups think?

"Civil liberties groups have encouraged the administration, that if a prolonged detention system were to be sought, to do it through executive order," the official said. Such an order could be rescinded and would not block later efforts to write legislation, but civil liberties groups generally oppose long-term detention, arguing that detainees should either be prosecuted or released.

The Justice Department has declined to comment on the prospects for a long-term detention system while internal reviews of Guantanamo detainees are underway. The reviews are expected to be completed by July 21. [...]

Administration officials said the cases of about half of the remaining 229 detainees have been reviewed for prosecution or release. [...]

The other half, the officials said, present the greatest difficulty because these detainees cannot be prosecuted either in federal court or military commissions. In many cases the evidence against them is classified, has been provided by foreign intelligence services, or has been tainted by the Bush administration's use of harsh interrogation techniques.[...]

Lawyers for the administration are now in negotiations with Sens. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) over separate legislation that would revamp military commissions. A senior Republican staff member said that senators have yet to see "a comprehensive, detailed policy" on long-term detention from the administration.

"They can do it without congressional backing, but I think there would be very strong concerns," the staff member said, adding that "Congress could cut off funding" for any detention system established in the United States.

Concerns are growing among Obama's advisers that Congress may try to assert too much control over the process. This week Obama signed an appropriations bill that forces the administration to report to Congress before moving any detainee out of Guantanamo and prevents the White House from using available funds to move detainees onto U.S. soil. [...]

Under one White House draft that was being discussed earlier this month, according to administration officials, detainees would be imprisoned at a military facility on U.S. soil but their ongoing detention would be subject to annual presidential review. U.S. citizens would not be held in the system.

Such detainees -- those at Guantanamo and those who may be captured in the future -- would also have the right to legal representation during confinement and access to some of the information that is being used to keep them behind bars. Anyone detained under this order would have a right to challenge his detention before a judge.

Officials argue that the plan would give detainees more rights and allow them a better chance to one day end their indefinite incarceration than they have now at Guantanamo.

But some senior Democrats see longterm detention as tantamount to reestablishing the Guantanamo system on U.S. soil. "I think this could be a very big mistake, because of how such a system could be perceived throughout the world," Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) told Holder. [...]

Instituting long-term detention through an executive order would leave Obama vulnerable to charges that he is willing to forsake the legislative branch of government, as his predecessor often did. Bush's detention policies suffered successive defeats in the courts in part because they lacked congressional approval and tried to exclude judicial oversight.

"There is no statute prohibiting the president from doing this through executive order, and so far courts have not ruled in ways that would bar him from doing so," said Matthew Waxman, who worked on detainee issues at the Defense Department during Bush's first term. But Waxman, who waged a battle inside the Bush administration for more congressional cooperation, said the "courts are more likely to defer to the president and legislative branch when they speak with one voice on these issues."

UPDATE: mcjoan and I were talking over at DKos, and she wonders if this is a trial balloon.

How To Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell

By GottaLaff

Via an e-mail from Think Progress:

Korb, Duggan, and Conley have laid out a five-step solution to repealing DADT that starts with the Obama administration setting the agenda:

1) Sign an Executive Order banning further military separations based on DADT and send a legislative proposal on DADT repeal to Congress;

2) Form a presidential panel on how to implement the repeal;

3) Repeal DADT in Congress and change the Uniformed Code of Military Justice;

4) Change other necessary military guidelines to conform to the new policy; and

5) Follow-up to ensure that the armed forces implement the policy changes.

The CAP report says that "careful examination of the laws outlining the president's powers as commander in chief show that the executive branch has the authority to suspend homosexual conduct discharges without legislative action." This provision, commonly known as a "stop loss" order, grants the president authority to suspend the release of military members during any period of national emergency in which members of a reserve unit are serving on active duty.

But because Congress originally passed the ban, an executive suspension will have to be followed up with legislative action that reverses DADT. CAP also recommends forming a DADT advisory panel modeled after the Gates Commission, which was established by President Nixon in 1969 and outlined a plan for transitioning the military to an all-volunteer structure.

The commission's charge should be to consider "how" to end DADT, not "whether" to make the change.

77

By GottaLaff

Don't ask, don't tell?

Do tell:

"In the most vocal plea yet for the White House to take the lead in pushing for gays and lesbians to be allowed to serve openly in the military, 77 Democratic lawmakers today urged President Obama to use his executive powers to order a halt to military discharges under the controversial 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' law and work aggressively with Congress to pass new legislation to overturn what they describe as a discriminatory policy that harms national security," reports the Boston Globe.

Unlocking Bush secrets with Obama's key

By GottaLaff

Via TPM:

A former White House lawyer who handled executive privilege issues for Bill Clinton tells TPMmuckraker that in his view Obama's executive order on presidential records was specifically intended to bolster pending legal efforts aimed at unlocking some of the secrets of the Bush years, such as the White House role in the U.S. attorney firings.

If President Obama manages to open this door...

... he'll have our undying gratitude.

Explaining Executive Orders on Fox News

Man, all the stuff they're planning to do sounds great. Nicely laid out in easy to understand (aka Fox viewers) style.

Does BushCo have a secret succession plan?

By GottaLaff

Now that my computer is gone forever, and until I can load a new one (or even buy one), I can't upload videos. Go here to see a clip of Jane Mayer on CNN, and to read the rest of this piece:

Mayer's book contains myriad shocking revelations about the Bush administration's war on terror policies, but it also lets some questions linger. For example, has President Bush issued a secret order cutting Congress out of the line of succession in case the Bush and vice president Dick Cheney were simultaneously killed.

Slate's Bruce Ackerman lays out the possibility.

Apparently sometime in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan issued a "secret executive order" that in the event of the death of the president and the vice president "established a means of re-creating the executive branch." Reagan's order violated the express terms of the Constitution and governing statutes.

Does a similar order exist today? We aren't told. But we do know that Dick Cheney participated in the secret "doomsday" exercises under the Reagan order, and given his central role at present, it is imperative for Congress to find out.

Can we keep the pressure on John Conyers please?