Obama Ready To Quickly Reverse Bush Actions, Executive orders

Washington Post :

Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.

A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[abby4ever]

Even as we take pride in our achievement, electing Obama as our 44th president, Europe is trying to take the credit. I haven't been this fu.rious reading a blog since I read Ma.yhill Fo.wler's on Obama's 'bitter' comment. Here's an excerpt, the rest is on a different thread, the link is below:

"Countries in Europe are rejoicing in the Obama victory and claiming it as a direct result of their moral superiority over Americans while at the same time hiding their own shortcomings and intolerances, the weekly u.gly ra.cisms at their soccer grounds, the discriminations that are so common to their own societies and the very fact that a person of Obama's ra.cial, cultural and social identity, as well as his life's story, would never be elected d.og catcher in any of these allegedly enlightened societies, let alone head of government and head of state."

That last is right: they wouldn't.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrei-markovits/europes-usurpation-of-the_b_142369.html

[MontanaHome]

Hi abby --

Yeah, we don't have the corner on id/i0ts. But I hope most Europeans recognize what a momentous election this was -- and that WE, the electorate, spoke -- not because we were paying attention to international concerns (although we certainly have a reputation to repair), but because we were, finally, paying attention to what was happening at home - that the Bush/Cheney policies have been an absolute nightmare for this country. We woke up. Let us hope we stay awake.

[CostaDelBarto]

Nearly all Europeans know it. So too Africa, Asia and the Middle East of course. Basically the entire world was watching..­. and yeah... partying. Chanpagne sales are up, for sure.

People in Australia are still talking about it. You go to a restaurant and Obama's election is an easy discussion to start. I've seen complete strangers start up conversations about it between dinner tables precisely because it's something big that connects all people.

You guys have elected a really good president. If as a sideline, you also wanted to woo the world you picked the right guy to do it.

[abby4ever]

Hi Montana, my take on this is that the EU, that loves to bash America and loves getting other countries to do the same, couldn't stand all the praise we were getting from around the world for electing Obama. It's pure je.alousy plus a desire to keep us first on the 'bash list'. If you read the rest of this blog you will di.e laughing at how they are spinning it.

[Jared137]

I think a panel should be put together to investigate Pentagon fraud. The day before 9/11 Rumsfeld announced that the Pentagon lost 2.3 trillion. TRILLION. They swept it under the rug because everyone either forget about his 9/10/01 press conference or it didn't seem important to anymore after 9/11.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml

We need a thorough investigation on military fraud. A gajillion dollar industry that was nowhere to be found for a full 1 1/2 hours on 9/11. Shameful.

[Heavy]

Time for real investigations. Time for repubicans to honor subpoenas.

[marie101]

It's definitely a start. We're coming out of the Dark Ages, but it will take awhile.

What a relief to have a sane, intelligent, thoughtful agenda being mapped out by Obama's team!

[boogiewoman]

Did anyone one see Bush tear up the other day when talking to his admin. I was so mad at that, after all he has done to this country he tears up at the thought of leaving the White House.

[Rianna]

Perhaps he might have teared up because he knew he was leaving as a big time failure.

He has to hang his head down in shame, for causing the deaths of a million people, and
mismanaging this country. He is leaving this country is shambles.

[rayboston]

President-elect Obama needs to be very careful here. This is EXACTLY how Bill Clinton got mired in the gays-in-th­e-military controversy. It became one of the defining topics of his first hundred days, and it didn't need to be.

So, President Obama should clean up the obvious stuff, the stuff he was hired to do like the California emissions standards, but he should NOT start ideological wars over these topics.

[marytny]

The GOP was in charge and the ways and means com
sent the gays in military first to slam Clinton right off the bat.

[rayboston]

Really? I thought it was an executive order debate.

I feel better with the idea that it wasn't just a screw up on his administration's part.

[getoffmedz]

What about the terminally insane Patriot Act and all those horrific anti-American "signing statements?"

[amaycatbaker]

Amen!!!!

[ramal]

Hopefully one of the first things President Obama will do by Executive Order it to overturn "Don't ask, don't tell" and allow Gay men and women to serve openly and proudly in the armed forces. We are waiting (and none too patiently), Mr. President-Elect.

[TLV]

Sounds like a lot of Americans think this is the next big issue. It certainly deserves to be dealt with pragmatically.

Not to try to sound trite, but whatever happened to terrorism? Even the GOP leadership has dropped that nugget. Are we not still as vulnerable as Bush wanted us to believe? Maybe we never really were?

[CostaDelBarto]

In all honesty I think Bush made your country far less safe than it really needed to be.

Can you imagine how Muslims responded to his description of the Iraq war as a crusade? The election of Obama immediately makes your country a lot safer - at least for a while - because the number of people overseas who dislike your government just dropped to record lows.

Anyone attacking the US today is going to find much, much less support when they say the usual inflammatory stuff like de@th to america, etc etc. Obama offers people an alternative to military solutions and that stands to hinder terrorists and help the sane people who sit around and try to negotiate with hostiles rather than just swaggering into town and blowing their heads off and calling that "peace".

[rayboston]

Remember that this issue completely derailed the Clinton Presidency in its first term and led, eventually, to losing Congress to the Republicans. I would hate to see that happen again.

Politics is the art of the possible, not the art of the ideological. The current don't-ask-­don't-tell policies allows gays to serve in the military. There's no need to add "serve proudly" so early in the administration.

Frankly, this is a peripheral issue. Obama should let it lie for a year or two while he racks up some easy wins.

[KintePost]

How about investigating the Bush Administration lies and deceptions which have caused irreversoble damage across the board?
How about Karl Rove's refusal to respect the US constitution? Speaking of which, can Obama undo a "Bush Pardon"?

I believe that Bush and his admin should not go out unchecked ...

[TLV]

I want them bodily removed from our country pronto and prosecuted at The Hague, myself.

[bethel1974]

These orders are the quick knee jerk reactions of the Bush Administration to satisfy the FOB (Friends of Bush). Now where the rubber really meets the road is the following legislation:

#1: Prison/Industrial Complex system that has seemed to have more power than necessary
#2: Patriot Act and all things that encompass such abuse legislation
#3: Military/Industrial Complex system that has billions of American dollars tied up in nothing or black project
#4: Trade treaties and how fair they are to the U.S.
#5: Regulation of the financial markets. Which would be a good time due to the fact that the big boys are down or has been absorbed by traditional banks.

[returnofthejedi]

All excellent points. Im interested to see what is done about the things you mention. There was not much said about most of these topics during the campaign. Especially number one, which I think is one that needs to be adressed and very soon. There are many laws on the books in this land aimed at keeping this thing going and growing. More kids in prison than in college is just unexceptable.

[returnofthejedi]

acceptable­..........­sheesh

[booker52]

Is President elect Obama keeping an eye on the stuff President Bush is signing into law the last days before he leaves office as well?? He must be if he is watching this stuff.

[frappe]

What a refreshing change an Obama administration will be from what we've become accustomed to over these past eight years. Finally, we'll see real solutions to real problems instead of the rank, excessively partisan politicization of government that had become the trademark of Republican party politics.

[returnofthejedi]

I think Americans are suffering from a post traumatic disorder of sorts. We were so blindsided by the blatant absurdity of the whole conservative agenda for the last 8 years, that we are kind of woozie.
Even though the republicans have left a huge mess to clean up, we are so glad they are out of power that we will gladly clean up the mess. I think we in this generation should never forget the last eight years, and we should educate the children of America that this is what happens to a nation divided by race, religion, and greed. It will be impossible to undo all the damage done by the GOP in a short amount of time, but one thing for sure we now know the importance of casting our vote, and how taking our eyes of the ball could, bring this great nation to naught in 4 to 8 years time. A lesson I hope is well learned by all of us, regardless of what side of the street you come from.

[frappe]

My sentiments exactly.

[CarolinaDem]

Me, too. But it worries me that the MSM keeps covering the news as if it were still all about taxes and "social" issues as if we did not need to cope with the results of a wholesale corruption of the nature of a democratic republic. Unnecessary war is worse than a depression in what it does to the fabric of society. Letting military policy be dictated by domestic politics is worse than simple madness. We need a revolution, not to reach utopia but just to get back to where we were only a few years ago.

[TLV]

Read Naomi Klein's book, The Shock Doctrine. It explains your point very well.

[boycottrightwingthings]

I am very happy to hear that President Obama will overturn a lot of the crap that Bush had no right to make into "law", especially when it comes to reproductive rights for women. Bush had no right to bring his religion into our government, and onto our bodies. We must end the new practice that Bush brought that says that health workers have the right to refuse treatment that go against their religious beliefs, like dispensing the morning after pill or birth control. If these health practicioners and Pharmacists don't want to do these things, they can get another job. They have no right to use their job as a platform to keep these services from women. Also, the global gag rule. Women in poor countries and also our servicemwomen should have access to abortion and family planning and oither reproductive health services. Bush was trying to gag us here at home too,(trying to define birth control that stops an embryo from implanting like the pill, by calling it abortion.) Thankfully the outcry from American women stopped that, and is just one of many reasons why woman came out to vote for Obama in droves.

[MontanaHome]

Nicely put. And I hope the youth vote which came out so strongly for Obama will stay engaged. Elections matter.

[MontanaHome]

YKWTD

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/users/profile/mindylovesobama

[gorideabike]

Sorry friends, but the criminals are going to walk out with their heads held high. The many horrors they inflicted on Planet Earth and her gentle People will be the criminals legacy. We the people of the USA did elect them to guide our nation according to the laws of the land, which laws the criminals did solemly promise to protect and defend in the name of god. In a more perfect world they would be left to rot as the sole occupants in Guantanmo.
Bush sings:
Pardon Me if I'm sentimetal when we say goodby.
Now and then ther's a fool such as I.

[scandals&skeletons]

From my local paper "The Miami Herald"

"They've done everything right and very few things wrong"

-Sally Bradshaw, former campaign manager for Republican Gov. Jeb Bush on Barack Obama's Florida campaign stratagy

[TLV]

Wow. Nice to see that!