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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Obama's first Executive Orders

Now that the Bush/Cheney regime is gone, the work of undoing the harm they have caused to the United States has begun. The president has the power to issue Executive Orders, which have the force of law but are not actually laws.

One of the most important things President Obama is doing is revoking some of the Bush executive orders that promoted torture and secrecy.

One of the first executive orders was about ethics. It requires every Executive Branch appointee or member sign a pledge that he/she will not be beholden to lobbyists. This is crucial to ensuring a more open government.

The second executive order mandates the release of presidential records at the end of a term. This repeals Executive Order 13233 approved by Dubya, allowing historians a comprehensive look at a vast array of documents. Scholars deserve the freedom to judge a President based on that person's actions.

Americans have the right to see what our government does and to critique it at will. Thank you, President Obama, for making government more transparent.

The third reiterates the Fourth Amendment and the Geneva Conventions by ensuring lawful interrogations and getting rid of Bush's inconsistent policy that permitted torture.
Section 1. Revocation. Executive Order 13440 of July 20, 2007, is revoked. All executive directives, orders, and regulations inconsistent with this order, including but not limited to those issued to or by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from September 11, 2001, to January 20, 2009, concerning detention or the interrogation of detained individuals, are revoked to the extent of their inconsistency with this order. Heads of departments and agencies shall take all necessary steps to ensure that all directives, orders, and regulations of their respective departments or agencies are consistent with this order. Upon request, the Attorney General shall provide guidance about which directives, orders, and regulations are inconsistent with this order.
This protects our Constitutional rights and reaffirms that America is a country which does not torture. After eight years of abuse of our civil liberties, President Obama is bringing back the inalienable rights espoused in the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.

A fourth order is meant to initiate a review of how we jail enemy combatants. The introduction states:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order to develop policies for the detention, trial, transfer, release, or other disposition of individuals captured or apprehended in connection with armed conflicts and counterterrorism operations that are consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice.
In other words, the order seeks to clarify how we deal with people we catch up with who have harmed Americans or are threatening to do so.

A fifth order instructs the military to prepare to close the detention centers at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order to effect the appropriate disposition of individuals currently detained by the Department of Defense at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base (Guantánamo) and promptly to close detention facilities at Guantánamo, consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice.
At last, we'll be shutting down this infamous prison where we have been indefinitely holding people in violation of our tradition of due process. Kudos to President Obama for ordering Guantánamo's closure.

In addition to the above mentioned executive orders, President Obama issued a proclamation calling January, 20, 2009 a "National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation." And after eight years of divisive politics that is exactly what we need.

We at NPI applaud President Obama for taking steps to reinvigorate our American freedoms and restore our country's moral standing in the world.

Comments:

Blogger mike doty said...

I believe President Obama should have gone much farther. He should have made "lobbying" our government officials for profit,or for an entity that hopes to earn profit from the lobbying efforts, illegal. Lobbyists should become an antiquated job title just like assembly line worker is, in America. Until "for profit" groups are barred from contact with our elected officials, in any manner that might be construed as an attempt to influence the government to increase their profit, we will still have a corporate owned government.

January 25, 2009 5:49 AM  

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