This one is more instructive...
Posted on 11/18/2010 10:10:08 AM PST by My Favorite Headache
The liberal Center for American Progress doesn’t believe significant GOP gains in the House and Senate should stop the President from implementing more of his polices. The group released a report Tuesday suggesting ways Obama can bypass Congress to accomplish a progressive agenda, and it cites the president’s power as commander-in-chief to make its point.
“I think most of the conversation since the election has been about how President Obama adjusts to the new situation on Capitol Hill,” Center for American Progress head and former Bill Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta told the Daily Caller. “While that’s an important conversation, it simply ignores the president’s ability to use all levels of his power and authority to move the country forward.”
How does one “move the country forward”? In the center’s report, Podesta explains that Obama can use executive orders, rulemaking, and even the armed forces “to accomplish important change” and that such means “should not be underestimated.”
What exactly does Podesta think the president should use such powers to “accomplish”? Among others, the report suggests “job creation,“ ”quality affordable health care,“ ”sustainable security,“ and ”a clean energy future.”
The report cites specific goals such as mitigating the effects of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, supporting a Palestinian state, and reducing greenhouse gasses by 17 percent by 2020.
“The U.S. Constitution and the laws of our nation grant the president significant authority to make and implement policy,” Podesta writes. ”Congressional gridlock does not mean the federal government stands still.”
Statement from John D. Podesta November 15, 2010
In the aftermath of this month’s midterm congressional elections, pundits and politicians across the ideological spectrum are focusing on how difficult it will be for President Barack Obama to advance his policy priorities through Congress. Predictions of stalemate abound. And some debate whether the administration should tack to the left or to the center and compromise with or confront the new House leadership.
As a former White House chief of staff, I believe those to be the wrong preoccupations. President Obama’s ability to govern the country as chief executive presents an opportunity to demonstrate strength, resolve, and a capacity to get things done on a host of pressing challenges of importance to the public and our economy. Progress, not positioning, is what the public wants and deserves.
The U.S. Constitution and the laws of our nation grant the president significant authority to make and implement policy. These authorities can be used to ensure positive progress on many of the key issues facing the country through:
* Executive orders * Rulemaking * Agency management * Convening and creating public-private partnerships * Commanding the armed forces * Diplomacy
The ability of President Obama to accomplish important change through these powers should not be underestimated. President Bush, for example, faced a divided Congress throughout most of his term in office, yet few can doubt his ability to craft a unique and deeply conservative agenda using every aspect of the policymaking apparatus at his disposal. And, after his party lost control of Congress in 1994, President Clinton used executive authority and convening power to make significant progressive change. For instance, he protected more great spaces in the lower 48 states than any president since Theodore Roosevelt, established for the first time significant protections for Americans’ medical privacy, and urged the creation of the Welfare-to-Work Partnership that enlisted the help of 20,000 businesses in moving more than 1 million welfare recipients into the workforce.
The upshot: Congressional gridlock does not mean the federal government stands still. This administration has a similar opportunity to use available executive authorities while also working with Congress where possible. At the Center for American Progress, we look forward to our nation continuing to make progress.
Read the full report (pdf)
Download the executive summary (pdf)
Download the report to e-readers and mobile devices from Scribd
To speak with our experts on this topic, please contact:
Print: Megan Smith (health care, education, economic policy) 202.741.6346 or msmith@americanprogress.org
Print: Anna Soellner (foreign policy and security, energy) asoellner@americanprogress.org
Print: Raúl Arce-Contreras (ethnic media, immigration) 202.478.5318 or rarcecontreras@americanprogress.org
Radio: Laura Pereyra 202.741.6258 or lpereyra@americanprogress.org
TV: Andrea Purse 202.741.6250 or apurse@americanprogress.org
Web: Erin Lindsay 202.741.6397 or elindsay@americanprogress.org http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/11/executive_orders.html/#statement
“Wow. Unbelievable. Two more years and out they go. That is unless the “powers of the President” can be used to cancel elections and/or ignore their results.”
Or attempt to overturn them.
“Soros’s Role in Kenya Chaos”
“...Following Kenya’s disputed elections of December 2007, activists funded by Soros’ Open Society Institute demanded that the election be overturned. The country erupted into violence, leaving more than 1,100 people dead and some 350,000 homeless. Thousands were injured, tortured, mutilated and raped...”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2625777/posts
A two-thirds vote of both houses (i.e., both the Senate and the House of Representatives) is required to overturn an executive order.
self ping
Perhaps Podesta should really take a good look at both the blue/red map and the new governor controlled state maps and think long and hard on what he says. No way states like Indiana, Texas, and a whole bunch of others would ever allow this to happen without having a say in matters.
I’m saying that it doesn’t have to come to shooting. Communists only resort to shooting during the “normalization” phase. And that doesn’t usually come until the avenues for resistance have already been mostly closed off through covert operations that don’t appear to be illegal.
That’s what I think Podesta is talking about. He’s not going to tell soldiers to shoot. The country’s not quite ready for that yet. First he’s got to demoralize the military - which is being done right now as the elements of Article 92 are being written out of courts-martial proceedings and as soldiers are being trained to look only at the lawfulness of their particular specific orders.
I once gave a variation of this example, which was not well-received at all by the people arguing against Lakin: Soldier A is ordered to move the prisoners to the “shower” area. Soldier B is ordered to turn on the “shower”. Soldier C is told to remove the dead bodies from the “shower” area. What soldier’s individual orders were unlawful? Whch orders could be disobeyed and on what justification?
The military’s answers to those questions determine exactly what Obama can do through our military. What I hear the military “experts” saying does not reassure me in the slightest. They apparently have not learned at all from WWII. The minute regulations are so Lilliputian that a soldier is never allowed to see the big picture and evaluate the net result of him following his individual, “lawful” orders.
Another approach that Podesta/Obama/Soros can have is to incite the public to rebellion/resistance. And if we the people ever resort to shooting/rebellion, whoever is POTUS can call in the military to put down the rebellion.
I asked a military friend of mine whether SCOTUS was evading the eligibility issue because they feared riots and he said no, riots wouldn’t be a problem. He said in the bigger cities where the riots would occur, the military could be called into a martial law scenario and establish order in no time.
It was a comfort at the time he said that, but it also made me realize that if a soldier’s friends and relatives just happen to be on the wrong side of a “riot” - like maybe resistance to the TSA stuff or whatever unconstitutional move Obama makes next - soldiers will not even have time to think about who they are suppressing.
In that event, all bets would be off, unless each soldier had already planned out ahead of time what they would do if called to quash a rebellion in the area where they knew they had friends and loved ones. But how would that be different than the Shiite forces deciding which areas of Baghdad they will refuse to really patrol? See what a mess we’d be in?
This is why the bigger issue of a Constitutional president and the ability of the people to hold their government to the rule of law and the Constitution is so vital. If we ever reach this level of confrontation the nation will be sunk. I’m afriad we’re getting there faster than any of us thought possible even just a year ago.
“Remember, you are the 1st Marines! Not all the Communists in Hell can overrun you!”~Lt. Gen. “Chesty” Puller
How many Chesty Pullers do we have today?
Absolutely agree and thought about posting that. Decided I’d get the message across with the one I posted. :)
Not necessarily . . . there's a gray area there. After going over a whole program of study which included an examination of stuff like Calley and even Ollie North, we were taught to consider the whole of the action and then let our moral compass be the guide.
“There’s that “domestic military” Obama said he wanted.”
He’s forgetting about the REAL domestic military that will awaken the instant he tries to enact Martial Law using his panty-waste Acorn-Black Panther ‘military’ boobs. Every FReedom-loving American I know will fight his takeover at all cost.
We ain’t goin’ down easy, Mr. Zero.
GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!!!
Get these books, folks, and start reading. It will scare you to death.
Plenty. Never underestimate the quality of the men and women who serve in our armed forces.
Okay, except for the Air Force . . . they're all a bunch of fags.
Those who participated were criminal thugs who were not fighting for their freedom but bent on destruction of property and some were arrested, not shot by the military. Also note that Korea town was virtually untouched due to the fact the residents took up arms. IIRC, no military or guard was even sent there because he people had it under control.
As an aside, I also lived in Northridge when the quake of 94 hit and the national guard was deployed because of the mass looting that was occurring, no one was shot.
I don't think your analogy really fits.
Has the “moral compass” guide been tested in court-martial?
How many Chesty Pullers do we have today?
Plenty. Never underestimate the quality of the men and women who serve in our armed forces.
Okay, except for the Air Force . . . they’re all a bunch of fags.
I had no doubt when I served from 1963-1984. No doubts about the Marines either. Not sure about the Army.
Back in the 1930’s in Germany?
No answer required.
ANd this is ANOTHER reason I think SWAT police teams are dangerous to liberty.
Plus you may be sure that the internet and news services will be the first things to be seized or shutdown in the event the tyrants decide the time is ripe.
All those opposing the birthers are enablers of an illegal fraudulent president.
Well they do make for easy targets:
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