Comments on: Is Obama Exchewing Executive Power, Or Just Redirecting It?

By: Scott Wiggins

Scott Wiggins — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 02:14:09 +0000

“When Bush wanted to listen to phone conversations or to hold people incommunicado for years, he could have gone to Congress to seek such authority”. The President did go to Congress…Congressional leadeship and cognizant intelligence committees were repeatedly briefed on extraordinary “legal” actions that were being taken. In essence, the President showed tremendous leadership in finding innovative ways to defeat terrorist and protect the American people. So now, we have another lawyer in the Whitehouse who will apply “juris prudence” to warfighting. Let’s hope it works better than say our criminal justice system. Have you noticed that we have forfeited large portions of urban areas to criminals?

By: Jim Collins

Jim Collins — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:29:39 +0000

I’m getting a good laugh over this. Obama has done nothing, he hasn’t restricted his power at all. Think about it. What is an Executive order? If he changes his mind all Obama has to do is to write another executive order rescinding the first one and we are right back where we started.

By: Franco

Franco — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:00:37 +0000

I’d like to see California be able to enact its own fuel economy standards for the state. Having spent much time in LA, I can tell you people there love their cars. I’d love to see what happens when they’re all told they have to drive a Prius or spend $5,000 per car to modify it to meet the fuel economy standards (to the extent that is even possible which it isn’t). Basically, I want to see them have to eat their own cooking. I say let ‘em enact whatever goofy standards they want. The lunacy will never be exposed unless it is never enacted for real. To the extent the Big 3 are worried about this, they must not have ever been to California – they don’t buy American cars out there.

By: Franco

Franco — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:59:38 +0000

By: DWPittelli

DWPittelli — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:43:15 +0000

And under the “Fairness Doctrine” (actually more of a fascist doctrine), the FCC (part of the Executive branch) will claim authority to effectively ban broadcast content which is “biased” — in the eyes of the FCC. Any station broadcasting Rush Limbaugh would have to provide equal time for some money-losing Air America retread with no ratings; while no doubt NPR and Pacifica Radio will be sacrosanct.

By: Art

Art — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 01:33:45 +0000

The Bush administration individual rights seriously. Bush repeatedly consulted Congress concerning surveillance and interrogation programs. He requested and received legislative support. Time will tell if Obama is doing "good work" here. Bush kept this nation safe following the attacks on Sept. 11. And I have been more secure in my rights while al-Qaeda has had to deal with the NSA and the USMC.

By: Che is dead

Che is dead — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:46:06 +0000

Congress was briefed repeatedly on everything that Bush did. Bush requested and received legislative support for his terrorist programs, and he successfully defended those programs in the courts. The latest decision on wiretapping ( http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/washington/16fisa.html?_r=1&hp) strongly suggests that Bush will prevail in this case as well.

Time will tell what kind of “work” Obama is doing here. Bush managed to keep this nation safe after 9/11. I was more secure in my rights knowing that al-Qaeda and every other scumbag terrorist outfit had their hands full with the NSA and the USMC.

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:49:26 +0000

Why not cut the crap and issue one last executive order saying “I hereby outlaw any further executive orders”? If Mahatma Obama is so concerned about rolling back W’s decrees and restoring the Constitution, it would be a logical move to demonstrate to all his serious intentions.

By: Will H.

Will H. — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:58:10 +0000

What you suggest is to given rights granted by the constitution to US Citizens to all citizens of the world. The enemy combatants held in Gitmo were not US Citizens but was captured in armed conflict with this country and on foreign soil. They were not soldiers protect by the Geneva convention, they were not representing a country and under the rules of the Geneva convention they could have been summary executed. The one American that was caught was tried in the American Judicial system and is serving his sentence in an American jail and was granted all rights.

The phone conversations in question were not domestic calls. They were calls originating in other countries and calling to the US. So the government is monitoring a known terrorist, in another country that call someone in the US and you want the government to hang up.

Also congress did pass authorization

Congress passed legislation, S.J.Res. 23, on September 14, 2001, authorizing the
President to “use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations,
organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the
terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations
or persons….”

Bush acted in a way to protect the American people from an enemy that wanted to kill us all and did succeed in killing 3,000.

Previous Presidents in time of war did far more than Bush.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:06:28 +0000

And, the difference in assuming executive power is clear. The Constitution clearly gives the Execuitive such powers to protect the nation in times of emergency. George W. Bush did not assume these powers because he wanted to listen to people’s telephone converstations, he did this because acquiring real time intelligence is incredibly important in protecting the American people.

Compare this to the tone of Barrack Obama’s grab at executive power. He simply believes that a policy should be followed and so ordered it.

As President Lincoln stated when discussing the suspension of habeus corpus that should he let all of the laws of the nation be violated because he must follow a single law? In times of emergency the Executive must make decisions on how to best preserve American Liberty, even if in some cases he must temporarily reduce them.