WASHINGTON — With much of his legislative agenda stalled in Congress, President Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities…

Mr. Obama has already decided to create a bipartisan budget commission under his own authority after Congress refused to do so. His administration has signaled that it plans to use its discretion to soften enforcement of the ban on openly gay men and lesbians serving in the military, even as Congress considers repealing the law. And the Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with possible regulations on heat-trapping gases blamed for climate change, while a bill to cap such emissions languishes in the Senate.

In an effort to demonstrate forward momentum, the White House is also drawing more attention to the sorts of actions taken regularly by cabinet departments without much fanfare. The White House heavily promoted an export initiative announced by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke last week and nearly $1 billion in health care technology grants announced on Friday by Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary, and Hilda L. Solis, the labor secretary.

White House officials said the increased focus on executive authority reflected a natural evolution from the first year to the second year of any presidency.

[…]

But Mr. Obama has to be careful how he proceeds because he has been critical of both Mr. Clinton’s penchant for expending presidential capital on small-bore initiatives, like school uniforms, and Mr. Bush’s expansive assertions of executive authority, like the secret program of wiretapping without warrants.

Already, Mr. Obama has had to reconcile his campaign-trail criticism of Mr. Bush for excessive use of so-called signing statements to bypass parts of legislation with his own use of such tactics. After a bipartisan furor in Congress last year, Mr. Obama stopped issuing such signing statements, but aides said last month that he still reserves the right to ignore sections of bills he considers unconstitutional if objections have been lodged previously by the executive branch.

NY Times article.

Update1: Obama back in May 2008

Update2: Perhaps Obama’s most notorious Executive Order is the Establishment of the Council of Governors, which creates a body of ten state governors directly appointed by Obama who will work with the federal government to help advance the “synchronization and integration of State and Federal military activities in the United States”.

The subject came up in 2009 when the American Bar Association, has called the practice unconstitutional.

• The Treasury prepares a record-setting debt auction.
• The Senate passes a "cash for clunkers" bill.
• The House ponders new revenue streams. Among the options: a new tax on soft drinks, a higher tax on alcohol, an increase in the income tax, an increase in the payroll tax, and a VAT.
• A jury tells a Minnesota woman to pay record labels $1.92 million for swapping 24 songs online.
• The Pentagon perceives public protests as "low-level terrorism."
• Ayatollah to protesters: Cut it out.

With Reason, Hit and Run.

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• New York Times: Obama's health plan will cost $1 trillion, and still leave tens of millions uninsured.
• Khalid Shaikh Mohammed says he made things up—including bin Laden's whereabouts, and falsely implicating others as being members of Al-Qaeda—to get captors to stop torturing him. Meanwhile, the CIA tortured Abu Zubaida for three months before realizing he wasn't the person they thought he was.
• The English-firsters are back.
• None dare call it an earmark. But it's an earmark.

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National Security Agency has ability to collect, read domestic e-mails of Americans on widespread basis... Developing...

Drudge Report
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• American Medical Association announces opposition to Obama's health care plan.
• Washington Post says Holocaust Museum shooter lonely, broke, and seen as a bit nuts . . . even by other white separatists.
• Economic downturn hits members of Congress, too. Also, strip clubs.
• Obama wants to bring back pay-as-you-go.
• Nation's top college grads skipping financial sector, heading to Washington to work for the federal government, instead.
• U.S. will pay Pacific island nation of Palau $200 million to take Chinese Uighurs detained at Gitmo but cleared of enemy combatant status.
• Cintonista Terry McAuliffe gets trounced by relatively unknown state senator Creigh Deeds in the Virginia gubernatorial primary.
• Ten banks to repay TARP loans.
• Gitmo detainee and terror suspect Ahmed Ghailani arrives in New York for appearance in federal court.
• Car bomb kills at least 28 in Southern Iraq.

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A Rebel Reports article:

• 250,000 “Contractors” in Iraq and Afghan Wars, Increases Number of Mercenaries:Newly released Pentagon statistics show that in both Iraq and Afghanistan the number of armed contractors is rising. The DoD says it sees “similar dependence on contractors in future.”

• “Little Known Military Thug Squad Still Brutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama” (AlterNet): The ‘Black Shirts’ of Guantanamo routinely terrorize prisoners, breaking bones, gouging eyes, squeezing testicles, and ‘dousing’ them with chemicals.

• UN Human Rights Council Blasts US for Killing Civilians, Drone Attacks and Using Mercenaries: The UN group is also calling on the US to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate crimes by US officials.

• Obama Wants $736 Million Colonial Fortress in Pakistan:Critics say the White House wants to use the new “embassy” for “pushing the American agenda in Central Asia.”

• US Colonel Advocates US ‘Military Attacks’ on ‘Partisan Media’ in Essay for Neocon, Pro-Israel Group JINSA: “The point of all this is simple: Win,” writes Col. Ralph Peters. “In warfare, nothing else matters. If you cannot win clean, win dirty. But win.”

• Military Admits "Errors" in Civilian Bombing in Afghanistan, But Still Defends the Attacks

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It was 20 years ago today that the Chinese government killed 2,000 to 3,000 of its own citizens for the crime of demanding their own liberty. This iconic photo is about all that’s left of them.

So how is protesting after 20 years in Tiananmen Square?

• China shuts down social networking sites ahead of Tiananmen Square anniversary.
• Chinese police storm Tiananmen Square to stave of anniversary protests.
• Chinese officials use umbrellas to prevent BBC journalist from filming at the square.
• Moving photos from a commemorative vigil in Hong Kong.
• New photo emerges of “tank man.”
• Another first-hand remembrance, from the Wall Street Journal’s Claudia Rosett.
• Nicholas Kristof of NY Times looks back in his column today to the events of 1989.

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• U.S. Senators to micromanage GM, Chrysler plans to close dealerships.
• Dana Milbank: Sotomayor begins important meetings with senators—important in the sense that it allows senators to show how important they are.
• Cheney personally oversaw CIA briefings of Congress on torture techniques.
• Obama's right aproach to Iran: "should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities..."
• 1 of every 6 dollars of Americans' income is government check or voucher
• Texas cop tasers 72-year-old woman for refusing to sign a traffic ticket.
• Weirdest attack on libertarianism.
  
• Cop damages photographers camera, wrongly arrests him for videotaping an accident scene.

With Reason, Hit and Run
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• Previous year of federal spending comes to $55,000 per household.
• Pentagon prepares new military command for cyberspace, "to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare."
• European countries growing cold to taking in released Gitmo detainees, citing American politicians' refusal to take any into the U.S.
• Oklahoma state troopers pull over ambulance as it was taking a patient to the hospital. Officer is then caught on tape choking an EMT in the ensuing altercation.
• San Diego City official tells couple they must apply for permit to host Bible study sessions in their home.
• Off-duty NYPD officer chasing man he thought was breaking into his car is then shot and killed by other plainclothes cops.
• Government, accounting board give banks the okay to fudge numbers in quarterly reports to make themselves look stronger than they actually are.
• Headline: “Black Hawk chopper to scare shit out of suburban grade schoolers.” It’s the drug war, of course.
• Mixed news on Obama and transparency.

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• Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) calls out Obama over preventative, indefinite detention.
• Last week, Obama signed four more bills without first posting them on the web for five days, as he promised during his campaign.
• Off-duty Chicago cop who struck and killed a boy on a bicycle was allowed by other cops to sober up for four hours before they gave him a breath test.
• Supreme Court loosens restrictions on when police can interrogate a suspect without his lawyer present.
• Next up for the British Nanny State: mandatory single-file queues at pubs, two-drink maximums, and rope barriers. The U.K. is turning into a Pink Floyd video

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• The unintended consequences of the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights.
• Former Bush officials cash in.
• Withdrawing from Iraq: the latest way to delay it.
• The Cheney/Obama partnership.
• Life in San Antonio's underground economy.
• Has Canada become a beacon of free markets? (For some historical context, see this classic from Jeet Heer.)
• A sharp essay on the myth of "virgin nature."
• Class and transportation subsidies.

With Reason, Hit and Run
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• Mancow subjects himself to waterboarding to show it isn’t torture. Like Christopher Hitchens, the experience changed his mind. Wasn’t Sean Hannity supposed to do something like this?
• It seems that an equity firm that includes the pension funds of Los Angeles police officers owns a stake in the San Diego Union-Tribune. So the police union is demanding the paper’s editorial staff be fired, because they don’t like the positions the paper has taken over the years. They’re not even pretending not to be bullies, are they?
• Another call for drug legalization from an unlikely source, this time former Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo.
• Man calls state highway department to report a road defect that gave him a flat tire. Bureaucratic hell ensues, culminating with the state of Ohio threatening to seize the man’s home.
• British Muslims say government agents told them to either become spies or they would be considered possible terrorists.

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• Yes, there are still innocent people at Gitmo.
  
• Joshua Claybourn summarizes why the Chrysler deal brokered by the Obama administration is much, much scarier than you think.
• Retired Catholic archbishop says he was unaware of the fact that it’s illegal to have sex with children.
  
• Cop drives 109 in a 45 mph zone, no lights, no siren. Wasn’t wearing his seat belt, either. He plows into a pick-up truck trying to make a left turn. Cop dies. Police arrest the driver of the pick-up for failing to yield to an emergency vehicle. They’ve also charged the guy with DUI, even though his blood test came back at .03, less than half the legal limit.
• Congressmen from Ohio and Oklahoma introduce bill to ban gay marriage in D.C.
• Another write-up in the local Mississippi paper about the Motorhome Diaries incident. This one’s much more sympathetic to the MHD crew.
• Amen to Mario Rizzo: “I do not believe that the philosophy of freedom has much to do, in an essential way, with conservatism. The relationship is largely due to historical accident. Furthermore, analytically speaking, the moral, political and economic basis of freedom does not fit coherently in the conservative intellectual framework.”

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• U.S. arms given to friendly forces in Afghanistan ending up in the hands of Taliban.
• Senate Democrats block funds Obama requested to close Gitmo.
• California voters overwhelmingly reject proposals aimed at balancing the state's budget.
• Obama demands new efficiency standards; expected to add $1,300 to the cost of a new automobile.
• One in four Bush administration officials now lobbying or consulting to influence agencies they once worked for or oversaw.
• Report says GPS could black out, cause massive failures next year.
• The future is now: Cyanide-laced computer chips could track, eliminate undesirables!
• Since 2006, the U.K. has apparently had a program called “Too Much Bling?” which asks citizens to anonymously turn in neighbors who seem to have possessions beyond their means.
• The New York Times reports that it is likely “that munitions procured by the Pentagon have leaked from Afghan forces for use against American troops."

With Reason, Hit and Run
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Conflict of interest, anyone? In addition to managing $1.3 trillion of its private clients’ funds, money manager BlackRock is a government adviser, helping with the rescues of Bear Stearns, Citigroup, and AIG, running a Federal Reserve program to reboot the housing market, and helping to evaluate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “BlackRock has become so ubiquitous that some lawmakers, federal auditors and watchdog groups are now asking if the firm does too much, and if its roles as government adviser, giant federal contractor and private money manager will inevitably collide,” writes The New York Times. “The potential for a conflict of interest is great and it is just very difficult to police,” said Senator Chuck Grassley. Writes the Times, “Without naming BlackRock, federal auditors have warned that any private parties that purchase distressed assets on the government’s behalf could use generous federal subsidies to overpay, artificially pushing up the price of similar assets that they manage for their own portfolios.”

Read it at The New York Times

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Obama nominating hardcore Nanny Statist to head up the CDC. The guy enthusiastically backed the trans-fat, smoking bans and calorie count requirements in New York.

Jack Shafer on the Maureen Dowd plagiarism kerfuffle.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford self-identifies as a libertarian, scolds Sen. Lindsey Graham for mocking them.

U.S. Copyright Office implements new system to speed up process, ends up taking three times as long to approve applications.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley move to repay TARP money.

U.S. Supreme Court narrowly rejects lawsuit against former Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller by man who says he was detained and beaten shortly after September 11 because of their policies.

Facebook shutting down accounts of users with unusual-sounding names. Why?

Canada’s economy getting freer, may soon be freer than the U.S. Might explain something about why they’re handling the recession better than we are.

Speaking of Canadians, police in Montreal recently handcuffed and arrested a woman for not holding on to the handrail while riding on an escalator.

With Reason, Hit and Run
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• The Tamil Tigers give up.
• More prisoner abuse photos leak.
• The "worst episode of civilian casualties in eight years of war in Afghanistan."
• Doctor Who's Bilderberg Vacation.
• An effort to impose copyright law on the design industry.
• Obama's allies in the corporate world.
• Entrepreneurship lives in the airline industry.
• How likely is a terrorist attack on the food supply?
• A pretty good Victor Davis Hanson column.
• Former Texas prosecutor writes about what it was like to convict an innocent man.
• What the...? They’ll do this to their own kids.

With Reason, Hit and Run

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Meet the post-9/11 Scouts.

The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence — an intense ratcheting up of one of the group’s longtime missions to prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.

“This is about being a true-blooded American guy and girl,” said A. J. Lowenthal, a sheriff’s deputy here in Imperial County, whose life clock, he says, is set around the Explorers events he helps run. “It fits right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts.”

The training, which leaders say is not intended to be applied outside the simulated Explorer setting, can involve chasing down illegal border crossers as well as more dangerous situations that include facing down terrorists and taking out “active shooters,” like those who bring gunfire and death to college campuses. In a simulation here of a raid on a marijuana field, several Explorers were instructed on how to quiet an obstreperous lookout.

“Put him on his face and put a knee in his back,” a Border Patrol agent explained. “I guarantee that he’ll shut up.”

via The Agitator
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Some good news! Obama is dropping Chuck Hurley to head up the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

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Scary projections from the government: The Great Recession has wiped out the financial underpinnings of the Medicare and Social Security programs. According to the official yearly appraisal of the two giant entitlement programs, Medicare’s trust fund is now projected to run out of money in 2017, two years earlier than projected a year ago; Social Security will be insolvent in 2037, a full four years earlier than last year’s estimate. It’s far worse news than during the weaker recession earlier this decade, which hardly dented the trust funds that support the programs, and the report shows that fewer workers are paying into both systems.

Read it at The Washington Post

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