Free Republic

The latest executive order (EO) emanating from the White House October 9 now claims the power to freeze all bank accounts and stop any related financial transactions that a “sanctioned person” may own or try to perform — all in the name of “Iran Sanctions.” Titled an “Executive Order from the President regarding Authorizing the Implementation of Certain Sanctions…” the order says that if an individual is declared by the president, the secretary of state, or the secretary of the treasury to be a “sanctioned person,” he (or she) will be unable to obtain access to his accounts, will be...

Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion dollars on everything from staffing, housing, flying and entertaining President Obama and his family last year, according to the author of a new book on taxpayer-funded presidential perks. In comparison, British taxpayers spent just $57.8 million on the royal family. Author Robert Keith Gray writes in “Presidential Perks Gone Royal” that Obama isn’t the only president to have taken advantage of the expensive trappings of his office. But the amount of money spent on the first family, he argues, has risen tremendously under the Obama administration and needs to be reined in. Gray told The Daily...

Earlier this week, we wrote about how the White House was working on an executive order to act as a "stand in" for cybersecurity legislation that has so far failed to pass Congress (CISPA passed in the House, but a different effort, the Cybersecurity Act, failed in the Senate, and it would have been difficult to get the two houses aligned anyway). Last weekend Jason Miller from Federal News Radio wrote about a draft he saw... but failed to share the actual draft. We got our hands on a draft (and confirmed what it was with multiple sources) and wanted...

BHO has made more liberal (no pun intended) use of executive orders than any president in my memory, perhaps in history. He has, self-admittedly, done things that are not even within the powers of the executive branch to push through regulations that have crippled industries if not destroyed them outright. Here's the easy part: reverse all of them. Every one. Of course the pundits will scream their heads off in way they did not when Obama was making his illegal power grab. Even the conservative-leaning politicians and talking heads will whine about 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater'. Romney...

On July 19, 2012, the House Judiciary Committee asked DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano about the administration's DREAM Act executive amnesty. Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.), who chairs the Immigration Subcommittee, asked Sec. Napolitano how many illegal aliens would receive work permits while millions of Americans were out of work. He had to ask the questions four times before getting an answer. Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith asked Sec. Napolitano if students who qualify would have to provide a certified school transcript. She said, they're "still working on the details."

A venture capital executive with ties to defunct solar company Solyndra has been hired as the new chief of the Defense Department program heading up the Pentagon’s renewable energy push. Arati Prabhakar, a former partner at U.S. Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that backed Solyndra, has been named the new director of DoD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Prabhakaker will administer DARPA’s roughly $3 billion budget, some of which will likely continue funding projects in renewable energy. While there is no indication that Prabhakar was involved with Solyndra during her time at USVP, her appointment to...

Should disaster strike the U.S., the secretary of Homeland Security will be in charge of re-establishing and prioritizing communications to ensure the continuation of the federal government, according to a new executive order from President Barack Obama. The executive order, signed on Friday, once again expands the powers of the Department of Homeland Security — this time to include the handling of communications during a national security event or natural disaster. The order also allows for DHS to re-establish communications “through the use of commercial, government, and privately owned communications resources, when appropriate.”

For Washington, this is definitely not the best of times. The town is suffering from a power outage. The evidence is hard to miss, from Washington’s weeklong struggle to cope with storm damage that knocked out electricity across the region to President Obama’s inability to awaken the economy, as reflected once again in June’s pathetic jobs report. To make matters worse, Washington is out of sync with the country, at least with the noncoastal parts. The usual response is to unleash the president so he can rally America to Washington’s purposes. But the bully pulpit hasn’t been effective since Ronald...

Republicans to press "Fast and Furious" suitWASHINGTON | Sun Jul 1, 2012 1:11pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives plans to file a civil suit in federal court in the next several weeks over the Obama administration's refusal to give Congress documents about a failed gun-running probe, House Speaker John Boehner said on Sunday. The Justice Department said on Friday it would not prosecute Attorney General Eric Holder after he was cited a day earlier by the Republican-led House for contempt of Congress for withholding some documents related to the probe. Holder heads the department. **SNIP**...

“We will be prepared,” said Obama aide Valerie Jarrett this week when asked about White House contingency plans in the event that Obamacare is struck down by the Supreme Court. But on Twitter, Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic said something interesting: that the White House has executive orders ready to go if Obamacare is struck down. “Their content and timing I don’t know,” Marc says. “But they’ve got contingency plans a-plenty.” It’s not clear to me exactly how much of Obamacare can be reinstated via executive order. It’s certainly conceivable that the president could issue costly mandates that affect private...

President Barack Obama may have actually asserted executive privilege once before to protect Attorney General Eric Holder from congressional scrutiny, documents and congressional records obtained by The Daily Caller indicate. During Holder’s 2009 confirmation hearings, Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn pressed Holder for details on the role he played in helping get Puerto Rican terrorists — members of the violent Armed Forces for National Liberation, who set off 120 bombs throughout the U.S. killing at least six Americans and permanently harming others — clemency during the Bill Clinton administration. (Snip) Since Clinton had waived such executive privilege, it appears as

"I think the issue of executive power and executive privilege is one that is subject to abuse and in an Obama presidency what you will see will be a sufficient respect for law and the co-equal branches of government that I hope we don't find ourselves in a situation in which we would have aides being subpoenaed for what I think everything acknowledges is some troublesome information out there," then-Senator Barack Obama told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in a 2007 interview.

DEVELOPING ... President Obama has granted an 11th-hour request by Attorney General Eric Holder to exert executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents, a last-minute maneuver that appears unlikely to head off a contempt vote against Holder by Republicans in the House. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is expected to forge ahead with its meeting on the contempt resolution anyway.

President Obama’s claim that he can refuse to deport 800,000 aliens here in the country illegally illustrates the unprecedented stretching of the Constitution and the rule of law. He is laying claim to presidential power that goes even beyond that claimed by the Bush administration, in which I served. There is a world of difference in refusing to enforce laws that violate the Constitution (Bush) and refusing to enforce laws because of disagreements over policy (Obama).

Obama Has Signed ANOTHER Martial Law Executive Order — Click below to DEMAND Congress STOP Obama’s “Emergency Powers” Executive Order: https://secure.conservativedonations.com/rm_martial-law/?a=2565 ALERT: Obama’s preparations to institute MARTIAL LAW IN AMERICA are coming together quickly — he has now signed ANOTHER “Executive Order”, this time to take control of America’s domestic natural gas production! It’s getting WORSE — we MUST STOP HIM NOW! SEND A MESSAGE TO EVERY SINGLE U.S. CONGRESSMAN, DEMANDING THEY STOP BARACK OBAMA’S “EMERGENCY POWERS” MARTIAL LAW EXECUTIVE ORDER: SEND YOUR MESSAGE NOW!

And how is funding the terror-supporting Palestinians in our national security interests?

On Monday morning, my coffee was tainted, thanks to Drudge, by a story he posted in large letters at the top of his site. It was a stomach-turning, New York Times piece from Sunday that crowed about the Dear Leader Barack Obama (or whatever his name is) unilaterally deciding that he is proudly using his Executive powers to bypass Congress. Never mind that the Executive branch does not have the power to bypass Congress in matters unrelated to the limited confines of Executive authority, and even among the Executive powers, the President must have the consent of Congress in certain...

Candidate for Senate Dan Liljenquist (left) pledged to The New American that should he be elected to the U.S. Senate he will offer legislation explicitly repealing the indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In a press conference held on April 24 at 2:00 p.m. (MDT), the former Utah State Senator and current GOP challenger to six-term Senator Orrin Hatch described the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA as “an overreach and a violation of the Bill of Rights.” He said that had he been in office when Congress voted to pass the NDAA he would have...

In today’s NYT, Charlie Savage reports on how President Obama evolved from a fierce critic of unilateral exercise of executive power to a proponent. As a senator and presidential candidate, he had criticized George W. Bush for flouting the role of Congress. And during his first two years in the White House, when Democrats controlled Congress, Mr. Obama largely worked through the legislative process to achieve his domestic policy goals. But increasingly in recent months, the administration has been seeking ways to act without Congress.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A finance executive at MF Global Holdings Ltd invoked her right against self-incrimination as lawmakers heard from officials who played critical roles in the final days of the futures brokerage, when a huge and still unexplained shortfall in customer money surfaced. Assistant Treasurer Edith O'Brien, believed to have been involved in authorizing a $175 million transfer that may have included customer funds, three days before MF Global's bankruptcy filing on October 31, declined to testify on Wednesday. "On advice of counsel I respectfully decline to answer based on my constitutional right," she told subcommittee chairman Randy Neugebauer...