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As was revealed in a breathtaking New York Times opinion piece today, many of Barack Obama's top advisers feel alienated from him. There is a sense within the White House that President Obama's theory of government is that "he is the government". Apparently, President Obama has personalized the presidency to such an extent that it is now seen as more about the man than about the position. Certainly that is not how the American Founding Fathers viewed the presidency. The author of this article, David Rothkopf, characterizes the president as a poor manager who is also aloof and a poor...

Departing White House deputy chief of staff Nancy-Ann DeParle said in an interview out Thursday that President Barack Obama will be “flexing his authority” more in his second term. “I think you’ll see more of his flexing his authority to use executive action, to take executive action in areas so he can do everything he can,” she told Reuters.

The following is a list, provided by the White House, of executive actions President Obama plans to take to address gun violence. - Followed by my observations on their relevance. 1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system. - Why aren’t they already doing this? And are you including illegal aliens, because something tells me you aren’t. 2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system. - Must be...

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system. 2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system. 3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system. 4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks. 5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full...

The following is a list, provided by the White House, of executive actions President Obama plans to take to address gun violence. 1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system. 2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday told a group of Johns Hopkins students that President Obama ought to sidestep the wishes of Congress and order swift new executive gun control measures. “There are steps that President Obama can take without congressional approval at any time he chooses with just one stroke of the pen,” Bloomberg told the mixed audience of students and scholars, speaking at the “Gun Policy Summit” at Johns Hopkins University. Bloomberg’s remarks came hours before President Obama argued in a rare press conference that executive privileges afforded him the power to implement some federal gun...

MARK LEVIN: I'm not into imperial presidents who act imperial and speak imperial and Obama forgets there's a Constitution. Yes, he keeps telling us he won reelection. Congratulations, but guess what? The Constitution wasn't up for election, it's not up for a referendum. He has to comply with it, too. He was sent back to Washington, but he's got a strict list of rules that he has to follow as president. When he gets up there and starts saying, if Congress doesn't do this, I'm going to do this unilaterally, it violates separation of power a lot of the times....

Shocked journalists this afternoon were quick to react to the Drudge Report’s controversial header photo comparing President Obama to Hitler and Stalin. The item linked to a Weekly Standard article reporting that President Obama was willing to address the gun issue with an executive order. “Hitler and Stalin!” exclaimed BuzzFeed Editor Ben Smith on Twitter alerting most of his followers by linking directly to the Drudge Report. “Drudge rules our world,” responded Slate journalist David Weigel to Smith’s post on Twitter, later adding sarcastically, “SOMETHING SHOCKING HAS BEEN POSTED ON THE INTERNET.” “Our right is nuttier than your right (US...

Congress has done such a beautiful job handling the fiscal cliff and debt ceiling that president Obama felt it mandatory to issue an Executive Order Giving Biden, Congress Pay RaisesPresident Barack Obama issued an executive order to end the pay freeze on federal employees, in effect giving some federal workers a raise. One federal worker now to receive a pay increase is Vice President Joe Biden. According to disclosure forms, Biden made a cool $225,521 last year. After the pay increase, he'll now make $231,900 per year. Members of Congress, from the House and Senate, also will receive a little...

Alert; possible executive order information I wanted to share with everyone here what I heard today from a very well placed source inside the firearms industry- word is the Obama administration had the ATF a couple months ago do a study to see the feasibility of making all semi auto assault rifles NFA items- meaning they would be handled in the same way as an SBR in terms of procuring one; it is assumed there would be an amnesty period for current owners to register the assault rifles they already have then any transfer down the line would be the...

OK, so I briefly bought into the Internet hype that Obama had signed 927 executive orders. Not true. Just 139. But, I still view him as the "executive order" president who arrogantly treats Congress as irrelevant and does whatever he wants. Just today, the Wall Street Journal ran a piece on Harry Reid's subterfuge in scotching a bipartisan cyber-security bill so that Obama could just write his own version via executive order, a version more friendly to centralized federal government control. And I know that he used executive orders cynically leading up to the election, like the one stopping the...

Full title: Just before Hurricane Sandy, Obama signed executive order merging Homeland Security with private sector to create virtual dictatorship While all eyes were on Hurricane Sandy in the days leading up to the storm's breach on the mainland of the Northeast, the White House was busy devising new ways to enslave Americans under the guise of protecting national security. On October 26, 2012, Barack Obama quietly signed an Executive Order (EO) establishing the so-called Homeland Security Partnership Council, a public-private partnership that basically merges the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with local governments and the private sector for the...

For Immediate Release October 26, 2012 Executive Order -- Establishing the White House Homeland Security Partnership Council EXECUTIVE ORDER - - - - - - - ESTABLISHING THE WHITE HOUSE HOMELAND SECURITY PARTNERSHIP COUNCIL By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to advance the Federal Government's use of local partnerships to address homeland security challenges, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Policy. The purpose of this order is to maximize the Federal Government's ability to develop local partnerships in the United States...

"[Y]ou can have a president you love, but if you don’t have a Congress that’s willing to work, you know, you wind up stalled in so many ways,” First Lady Michelle Obama said Wednesday on Tom Joyner’s radio program. “And I think that Barack has done a phenomenal job working around a Congress that has never been willing to help move the country forward on so many different issues,” she said. “But I think he’s done everything humanly possible to get things passed around the margins. But, you know, just imagine where this country will be when we have Barack...

MICHELLE OBAMA ON The TOM JOYNER MORNING SHOW: Well, we’re understanding that, you know, you can have a president you love, but if you don’t have a congress that’s willing to work, you know, you wind up stalled in so many ways. And I think that Barack has done a phenomenal job working around a congress that has never been willing to help move the country forward on so many different issues. But I think he’s done everything humanly possible to get things passed around the margins. But, you know, just imagine where this country will be when we have...

President Obama told author Bob Woodward that he didn't know Rep. Paul Ryan was going to attend at a major speech he delivered last year on spending and debt, and says in retrospect that it was "a mistake" to dress down Ryan and his budget plans to his face in that setting. -SNIP- "I'll go ahead and say it – I think that I was not aware when I gave that speech that Jack Ryan was going to be sitting right there," -SNIP- "I do think that they felt like we were trying to embarrass him," Obama continued. "We made...

The theater was packed. "2016: Obama's America" was playing at the local Midway theater in Lewes, Delaware. The movie run began the Friday before Labor Day and I rejoiced. No one goes to the movies "downey ocean" on Labor Day weekend. I decided to go on Labor Day proper. Let the tourists stay at the beach, I was going to the movies. The place was packed. Oh there were a few empty seats but believe me, I go to those movies all the time, granddaughter in tow, and usually about the same time, a middle of the day hour, a...

A senior Democratic lawmaker is urging President Barack Obama to issue an executive order aimed at protecting the nation's critical infrastructure against cyber threats. In an open letter to the President on Tuesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called on Obama to use his authority to get government agencies and critical infrastructure owners to implement better controls for protecting their computer networks. "While efforts to reach consensus continue, I fear that the Congress will be unable to pass meaningful cybersecurity legislation this year," said Feinstein, who is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "Therefore, I believe the time has come...

Between conservatives focusing all their attention on the successes/failures of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., and the left having a meltdown over the supposed “racism” and unprecedented disrespect of Clint Eastwood’s “Empty Chair” routine, little attention has been given to an executive order issued last Thursday by President Barack Obama that targets industrial “efficiency” and carbon emissions. “Today, we are taking another step to strengthen American manufacturing by boosting energy efficiency for businesses across the nation,” said President Obama. “This action will cut costs, increase efficiency, and help our businesses create strong, middle class jobs. We’ll continue to...

Obama Calls for Amendment Limiting Free-Speech Rights By Matt Cover August 30, 2012 (CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama endorsed a constitutional amendment that would restrict the free-speech rights of political activist groups by overturning the Supreme Court decision in the landmark Citizens United v FEC case that granted First Amendment rights to corporations. “Over the longer term, I think we need to seriously consider mobilizing a constitutional amendment process to overturn Citizens United,” Obama wrote during a question and answer session on the website Reddit on Wednesday. “Even if the amendment process falls short, it can shine a spotlight of...