I would love to believe this is true and Obama can start with NSPD-51 and HSPD-20 and Executive Order 14348..as well as the Warner Defense Act which does away with the protection of Posse Comitatus..

Also the restoration of Habeas Corpus would be nice..

The Unitary Executive is nothing less than Dictatorship and thus tyranny and everything our Founding Fathers fought against, which is why Alito and Scalia were all for it since they themselves are enemies of American democracy and our Republic with it's checks and balances..

This should be more of a campaign issue for all involved, but could be a winner for Barack Obama if he maintains this sentiment and keeps this promise and gets more specific...in regard to it..

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But I'll take it. There must more to it than just wanting it done, but I'm sure that once John Yoo is off the scene it won't be impossible. That's good news. ANNA

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THIS is why Obama needs private security for his protection. (Can't trust the Secret Service.) Very powerful people probably don't want him to touch at least some of Bush's executive orders.

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If I remember correctly, Hillary has also made a similar promise. Thus, we can be reasonably certain that regardless of who becomes the Democratic Presidential candidate and the next President of the United States will make a sincere and genuine effort to return the country to "we the people".

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A lot of rhetoric, but anyone name any bad law that has ever been overturned. There is a big difference between 'shall' and 'will' try. Ask any two bit chisler the basics, better yet ask a politician what that exactly means.

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Please stop, you are starting to give me hope. It's becoming more clear every day that Obama will be our next president, so let's all make sure that these promises are not forgotten.

dboy

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That the word "politician" has become, over the years, to be thought of as synonymous with "liar". Maybe we shouldn't be quite so hopeful or gullible.

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If (big IF) this actually happened - no Executive Order has ever been rescinded since the days of FDR - where they originated - I would strongly consider returning to the USofA after living nearly 35 years outside of the country.

And I love my country. I just do not trust the Government. When I see the reality of this promise; then, maybe then I may finally feel safe to come home. Not that I have broken any laws - anywhere - it is just I don't some Fed being able to look at the books I check out at the library.

I am just funny about that.

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Because everywhere in this campaign, Barack's behavior has matched his stated principles.

He was restrained in his defense when he was attacked. He has declared his intention to "talk to our enemies". He has shown himself to be inclusive by declaring that the best government for us will be one in which the best talent is gathered into his cabinet, regardless of position, party or having been his crazed opponent in this presidential race.

Some of these stances are going to get him in trouble with large segments of the population--many who oppose him on general principles and even many so-called progressives are going to go insane should he choose Republicans to closely advise him, but that is the only thing that will ultimately save our government. Die-hard, atherosclerotic America First types are going to implode when he sits down with Iranian leaders, Iraqi insurgents, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban, Israel, the EU, as though they were all worthy of being heard. But doing that is the only thing that's going to save our world.

Right now, he is the only candidate who could say he will restore the balance in government with any credibility.

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Will they just become inoperative after 1/20/09 or is it more complicated than that?

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Do not expect ANYONE who becomes president to "step down" from the thrown of Dictator-King.

We Americans are so predictable.

Not until American's believe that those in the USA Government are in fact our enemy and do not care if we live or die, will they move beyond their cloudy vision of reality.

Yes, there are a few "good ones" out there, that fight and will fight for as long as they can, to help the American people as much as they can, but they too, have to play the "games" and weigh the pros and cons while sometimes allowing their cohorts to coerce them into acting on the behalf of those in power than doing what is good for the "People".

I hope it does not get much worse.

Corey Mondello
Boston, Massachusetts
www.CoreyMondello.com
5-31-08

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I believe Obama would try to roll back some of the "new rules" put in place by this administration. The Supreme Court was a major player. Before he does anything, appointing judges is the most important thing waiting for him and for us. Without fair minded judges we can't expect to change anything. Alito, Scalia & Thomas have their opinions etched in stone before they hear the question. This is what has to change. Thanks, ANNA

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We see his lips moving and lots of words pouring out. Now all we have to do is see just which of these powers of the unitary executive he will actually give up.

I'm not holding my breath.

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This would be a good first step. I've thought for some time that the most sensible thing any incoming President could do would be to issue a single EO, a blanket rescission of any Executive decision document, classified or unclassified, signed since, say, October 2000. That would take care of "signing statements" too.

Every branch in every Bureau in every Department has its own collection of weird neocon-wish-list or interest-group-appeasing programmatic life at this point, and the permanent Civil Service has been stuffed with ideological and political hires (Regents U grads are everywhere, e.g.) who will be doing their very best to shield the nearest little piece of weirdness.

Forget about the Unitary Executive; forget all high-mindedness. Any President who doesn't flip over the Etch-a-Sketch and clear the boards will never be able to manage what's going on in his administration. There are just too many tiny spores and maggots larded throughout the Federal government -- you could easily spend a whole term finding and neutralizing them, and still not get them all.

I was a Fed for many years, and I've seen how tiny program bits too small to see from the top -- even from the top of a fairly small organization -- can burrow in and become immortal, especially if they're classified. And every tiny program has its beneficiaries, inside and outside government, who will defend it passionately.

It's much more efficient just to de-gauss the whole thing and restore what seems worth saving. That way, a new President might stand a chance of achieving some of their own agenda, instead of having to spend years trying to deal with the residue of the Bush years.

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GWB rescinded or reinstated 3 executive orders in the first weeks of his administration.

1. Between taking the oath of office and going out to inaugural balls Bush reinstated the Reagan era "global gag rule" that Clinton must himself have rescinded.
The "global gag rule" forbids any family planning or women's health organization around the world from receiving any US $$ if they ever mention the word abortion. NOT if they perform abortions, if they mention the WORD. Hence "gag."
Personally I gag on the "right-to-life" censorship.

2. In the next week or two Bush rescinded a Clinton executive order aimed at protecting workers against ergonomic injuries.

3. Bush upped by 5 times the amount of arsenic that could be allowed in public drinking water. This was so contrary to scientific evidence that the lower standard itself had to be reinstated. This, of course, was before 9/11, after which time Bush had a free rein.

If Pres. Obama (or Clinton) does not walk into the Oval Office with at least a short list of the most egregious Bush era executive orders then he/she is not prepared to lead the country. Whether a new president will go further and undo some of the hyper-aggregation of executive power that Cheney and Addington have been piling up in the basement of the White House is something else. But maybe Obama should have to go on the public rhetorical record as planning to restore the balance of power.

Changing laws is something else, longer and much more complicated.

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http://www.audacityofhypocrisy.com/

2.) I Won Michigan - LIAR, no you didn’t.

33.) I won Nevada - LIAR, no you did not.

34.) I Want All Votes To Count - LIAR, you said let the delegates decide.

35.) I Want Americans To Decide - LIAR, you prefer caucuses that limit the vote, confuse the voters, force a public vote, and only operate during small windows of time.

36.) I passed 900 Bills in the State Senate - LIAR, you passed 26, most of which you didn’t write yourself.

37.) My Campaign Was Extorted By A Friend - LIAR, that friend is threatening to sue if you do not stop saying this. Obama has stopped saying this.

38.) I Believe In Fairness, Not Tactics - LIAR, you used tactics to eliminate Alice Palmer from running against you.

39.) I Don’t Take PAC Money - LIAR, you take loads of it.

40.) I don’t Have Lobbysists - LIAR, you have over 47 lobbyists, and counting.

41.) My Campaign Had Nothing To Do With The 1984 Ad - LIAR, your own campaign worker made the ad on his Apple in one afternoon.

42.) My Campaign Never Took Over MySpace - LIAR, Tom, who started MySpace issued a warning about this advertising to MySpace clients.

43.) I Inspire People With My Words - LIAR, you inspire people with other people’s words.

44.) I Have Passed Bills In The U.S. Senate - LIAR, you have passed A BILL in the U.S. Senate - for Africa, which shows YOUR priorities.

45.) I Have Always Been Against Iraq - LIAR, you weren’t in office to vote against it AND you have voted to fund it every single time, unlike Kucinich, who seems to be out gutting you Obama. You also seem to be stepping back from your departure date - AGAIN.

46.) I Have Always Supported Universal Health Care - LIAR, your plan leaves us all to pay the 15,000,000 who don’t have to buy it.

47.) I Only Found Out About My Investment Conflicts Via Mail - LIAR, both companies you site as having sent you letters about this conflict have no record of any such letter ever being created or sent.

48.) I Am As Patriotic As Anyone - LIAR, you won’t wear a flag pin and you don’t put your hand over your heart during the Anthem.

49.) My Wife Didn’t Mean What She Said About Pride In Country - LIAR, your wife’s words follow lock-step in the vein of Wright and Farrahkan, in relation to their contempt and hatred of America.

50.) Wal-Mart Is A Company I Wouldn’t Support - LIAR, your wife has received nearly a quater of a million dollars through Treehouse, which is connected to Wal-Mart.

51.) Treehouse Is A Small Company - LIAR, the CEO of Treehouse last year, made more than the CEO of Wal-Mart, according to public records.

52.) University Of Chicago Hospital Pay Is Fair - LIAR, your wife’s pay raise was nearly 150% her already bloated rate and the hospital is a Non-Profit Hospital, which made $100,000,000 in the last 3 years. They overcharge blacks VS whites for services, and overcharge everyone in general by 538%!


THAT IS JUST A PARTIAL LIST. Why is anyone still believing anything this person says?

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He will be far better than the Worst preisdent ever and I will be glad to a return to Consitutional rights and liberties.

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From Naomi on her endorsing Obama:

What is leadership? Leadership means getting out in front of where people are and waking them up. Right now, given these violent possible threats to us and our families, we are sleeping.

Which is why I am formally coming out of the closet with my support for Senator Barack Obama. Of all the candidates running now, he is the leader on understanding the threat to the Constitution and actually taking action, not just mouthing soundbites, on the need to deny torturers space in our nation and to restore the rule of law.

"Lawyers for Gitmo detainees endorse Obama," read a recent headline on the Boston Globe's political blog. In the article, reporter Charlie Savage notes that "More than 80 volunteer lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees today endorsed Illinois Senator Barack Obama's presidential bid. The attorneys said in a joint statement that they believed Obama was the best choice to roll back the Bush-Cheney administration's detention policies in the war on terrorism and thereby to 'restore the rule of law, demonstrate our commitment to human rights, and repair our reputation in the world community.'"

The lawyers who signed this letter -- prominent names on the list included Washington lawyer Thomas Wilner, retired federal appeals court judge John Gibbons, and retired Rear Admiral Donald Guter, who was the Navy's top JAG officer from 2000 to 2002 -- applauded Obama for having stood up in 2006 against aspects of the Military Commissions Act. Unfortunately, his fight was ultimately unsuccessful -- which is why we are all still in danger. But unlike other candidates he truly fought and he understood the nature of the danger: "When we were walking the halls of the Capitol trying to win over enough Senators to beat back the Administration's bill, Senator Obama made his key staffers and even his offices available to help us," the lawyers wrote. "Senator Obama worked with us to count the votes, and he personally lobbied colleagues who worried about the political ramifications of voting to preserve habeas corpus for the men held at Guantanamo. He has understood that our strength as a nation stems from our commitment to our core values, and that we are strong enough to protect both our security and those values. Senator Obama demonstrated real leadership then and since, continuing to raise Guantanamo and habeas corpus in his speeches and in the debates."

These are times that should try men's souls -- and women's also. In a closing society, a leader has to be willing to face down evil, engage it and call it by its name.

Remember: when activists started to push hard to raise awareness of the dangers of torture and indefinite detention, many on the Hill were scared to join the fight because it was then politically unpopular. But to me, if you are not really against torture -- always and under every political change in climate, and let us note that former torture victim and prisoner of war John McCain shamefully dropped his fight against the torture loopholes in the law as well -- then you are not really, in my view, fit to be an American President.

Gender has nothing to do with it. Race has nothing to do with it.

Integrity has something to do with it.

That is why Barack Obama has my vote. Of all the leading candidates, he is the only one on these issues who has consistently acted like a true American.

Naomi Wolf is the author of The End of America (Chelsea Green) and the co-founder of the American Freedom Campaign.

linked text

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This is the breath of fresh air that is needed if this federal republic is to survive. At the same time, Obama, should purge every Neo-Con from the federal government and every political hack appointed by Bush. Anything short of that, would be like a doctor, leaving living cancer cells in a patient, when performing surgery to remove that very cancer.
It is up to the American voter, to stop the likes of Bush/McCain/Cheney. If, again, the American public, chooses wrong, as they did in 2000 and 2004, then, just forget about true representative government.

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So someone with the resources make a list of all these unconstitutional acts and we will check them off as Obama reverses them.

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A search on this story plus CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, New York Times, AP, Yahoo News, AOL, Chicago Tribune and the DesMoins Register produced no hits, but it was carried by Reuters!

Please cut the News Chain Alert below, remove spaces from the url, and email it to your address list:

** (snip) **

“They must think we’re mushrooms…”

NEWS CHAIN ALERT: The following important news item received little or no coverage in the “Major Media”. If you received this from someone you trust, open and read it and then, if you agree that it should have been “on the news” and you didn’t see it there, please forward it to your list.
**This news article doesn’t necessarily reflect the opinions of the sender.**
………………………………………………..

Bush’s laws will be scrutinized if I become president, Obama says

http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/2008/05/28/bu shs-laws-will-be-scrutinized-if-i-bec ome-president-obama-says/"
………………………………………………..

ABOUT NEWS CHAIN ALERTS:
“News Chain Alerts” are a response to the problem of important news stories not being covered by the “Major Media”. If on average half the people who get this “News Chain Alert” forward it to 20 people on their list who haven’t yet received it, it will take only 8 steps to reach 100 million people!

SUGGESTED RULES FOR NEWS CHAIN ALERTS:
1. Anyone can start a News Chain Alert, and each person who receives one gets to decide whether to keep it going.
2. The article should be a NEWS story - not opinion or analysis - from a credible source, of general interest, and not being covered by the Major Media. The ultimate test is your answer to the question “Should this story have been on the national news?”
3. The content of a News Chain Alert is just a headline, a link to a recent news article, and an explanation of “News Chain Alerts”. Nothing else. That way nobody’s trying to push their opinions on anyone, and no one is starting an argument.
4. Before starting a new News Chain Alert, check whether it really is being given the “silent treatment”. Go to Google News, and search on key words from the story, followed by “news source” (e.g.: “key words ABC”, “key words CNN”, etc.)

“… because they feed us manure and keep us in the dark!”

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funny Ms.Feminist & Mcsoldier have not uttered such thoughts, along with NOT mentioning th eCrimes this admin has committed and seeking Justice For US.Granted he does not say these things Often - but when you own party Opponent is Requesting you get Knocked off- Who would?
This Old Bill supporter Has re-evaluated the 'death of Foster' following her 3 time 'Mis Speak' of the 'RFK' assassination. Media can continue to grant her 'Passes' I Do NOT!'3rd times a Charm' Hillary? that was not just 'wishful thinking' That is a Request. Surprised she didn't use it at the NRA meeting TOO!

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Going through Obama's head right now that he needs to keep quiet about for the time being, so as not to alarm the criminals, both visible and invisible, responsible for the mess they created and the imperilled status of our democracy. The time for action is Jan 20th, 2009; then the neocon scumbags had better watch out. How I would love the sorry lot of them getting a comeuppance!

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Senator Clinton , can relly mess up the truth.

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Once again the immature have spoken.
Senator Obama is the best candidate that Rupert Murdock can buy.

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All these campaign promises - Obama and Hillary say they will end the war - WHY NOT end it NOW, but they keep voting to fund it. Now Obama is saying that he will hold Bush accountable for illegal signing statements etc..WHY NOT NOW? And WHY HASN'T Obama (or Hillary), been holding Bush's feet to the fire for the last 8 years? They've barely spoken out against the criminal behavior of the Bush regime for the last 8 years, have they been helping Congressman Wexler at all, have they given public credence to anyone fighting against the Bushies - How did Obama and Hillary treat Kucinich who was asking for impeachment investigations - They treated him w/contempt because they have no intention of holding anyone accountable. Think back to Bush's campaign promises, or how about Bill Clinton's campaign promises. Any of them come to fruition? Or were they just BS talking points to get you to vote for them? Think about it. If Obama is elected and doesn't deliver on these promises - the war, the constitution, closing Guantanamo, ending torture, and doesn't hold those who broke the law accountable either - what then? What are we as a country going to do then? Is Obama (or Hillary), just a better looking face on the same Bush agenda? There's no need to ask what a McCain presidency would look like - it'll just be more of the same Bush agenda and America's slide into ruin will go on unchallenged w/o a slowdown.

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...that whoever the Dem nominee ends up being, since they're both in the US Senate, they form a Constitutional Committee, to especially look at Bush's beloved warrantless wiretaps, extraordinary renditions, signoffs on torture, and most especially this one sentence by Bush which says it all.

When asked about the Constitutionality of questioning by torture, Bush actually said:

"What about the Constitution? It's just a goddammed piece of paper."

That, for any would-be Democratic candidate, impeaching and trying Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors against the American people would, even now, be effective.

A scenario whereby Clinton and Obama join forces and, even before battling McCain, begin and fast-track impeachment proceedings against the two crooks in the White House. I bet that Dennis Kucinich would be only to glad to spearhead that effort. God only knows he has plenty of experience from his own previous efforts.

With that begun, McCain--now all but President--would have to fold his tent and go away. And Bush and Cheney would have to run away to Switzerland or wherever, like the filthy cowards that they both of them are.

And Clinton and Obama--or the reverse--would RULE.

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Javljon1: Be savagely outraged, not humble. Bush's dismissive rejection of his oath of office by calling the Constitution a piece of paper is such an obvious reason for impeachment that anyone who refuses to recognize it as such must themselves be deserving of impeachment.

But only the simple minded like Kucinich and Wexler seem capable of looking past a parsing of "high crimes and misdemeanors" to see the obvious. Conyers and Pelosi cast wild glances to see who might be watching.

But then they're skilled politicians--right?

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