DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON
SECTION: BEHIND THE ABUSE OF POWER ALLEGATIONS
SUBSECTION: BYPASS BY EXECUTIVE ORDER
Revised 8/20/99
BYPASS BY EXECUTIVE ORDERS
James Madison The Federalist Papers (No. 47): "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether on one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."
Assault Weapons
Domestic (E.O. 12919)
Kyoto Greenhouse (executive order threatened, EPA squeezing)
American Heritage Rivers Initiative
American Heritage Rivers Initiative - Biodiversity Treaty
American Heritage Rivers Initiative - Council on Sustainable Development (Agenda 21/92 Rio Earth Summit)
Designation of 1.7 Million Acres in South Utah Off-limits to Development (Sweet Coal)
Funding for UN Rapidly Deployable Mission Headquarters (RDMHQ)
Around the time of the Chinese contribution to the Clinton-Gore Campaign, Clinton signed a retro-active Executive Order protecting Loral.
China Missile Related E.O. 12924 8/19/94, cont'd 8/15/95
China Missile Related E.O. 12981 12/6/95
China Missile Related E.O. 12981 10/15/96 amendment
China Missile Related E.O. (no num) 11/15/96 amends 12924
China Missile Related E.O. 13020 amends 12981
EO 12981 (Administration of Export Controls on Encryption Products) states in part that encryption software "...shall not be considered or tested as 'technology'..."
One example of bypass by Executive Order was the aircraft engines for the Lavi: powerful aircraft engines contain special technology that greatly enhances their thrust, and this technology has long been on the Munitions List of goods and services that would endanger American security if they were sold to hostile or potentially hostile countries. It is illegal to sell anything on that list to anyone, anywhere, without formal approval from the State Department, which almost always clears its decisions with the military. Congress passed laws forbidding the sale of anything on the Munitions list to China, unless the president felt it so important that he were willing to issue a formal waiver. Avoiding a formal waiver confrontation with Congress, Clinton took the engine technology off the Munitions List and shifted control from State to Commerce. Within days, Commerce issued licenses permitting U.S. engine producers to sell the technology to China.
Another example of a bypass by executive order by Clinton was on April 21, 1997 E.O. 13045 "Protection of Children from Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks" which at end revoked Reagan's September 2 1987E.O. 12606 which had nothing to do with the environment but rather was aimed at blocking big-government.
Even though the Climate Change Treaty signed by Al Gore in Koyoto last year has not been submitted to the U.S. Senate for its Advice and Consent - Clinton has begun implementation.
The FCC (instigated by Al Gore) - proposes to tax everyone by regulation without authorization from Congress.
Executive Order June 22, 1995 "Termination of Suspension of Issuance of Licenses for Export of Munitions List Articles to People's Republic of China."
Clinton will issue an executive order to direct the Department of Health and Human Services to begin documenting which brands of tobacco enjoy favor among smokers age 12 through 17 as part "of the yearly National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.defiant gesture aimed at tobacco companies and their congressional allies."
Clinton tapped a special Treasury fund to bail out Mexico in 1995, over the objections of Congress
In March of 1995, Clinton issued an executive order to bar federal agencies from signing contracts with companies that permanently replace striking workers. The courts struck it down.
Clinton authorized the Food and Drug Administration to declare nicotine an addictive drug in the summer of 1995.
Teenage tobacco use market research that died with the anti-tobacco bill, was resurrected by Clinton in his order for a survey of the same information
Clinton orders for mew protections for Medicare beneficiaries go beyond the 1997 law adding many of the safeguards proposed by a presidential advisory commission.
Jeremy Taylor, director of natural resources studies at the Cato Institute: "This president distinguishes himself from past presidents by the aggressiveness with which he has expanded his authority without explicit congressional approval."
With regard to telecommunications legislation mandating the poor have access to the Internet, Congress left the details the FCC - who came back with a proposal to tax business to pay for it.
Louis Fisher, export on constitutional law at Congressional Research Service citing actions ordered by the president in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and Iraq, said that "Mr. Clinton's interpretation of presidential war power would have astonished the framers of the Constitution."
After the Senate blocked the nomination of Bill Lee to run the civil rights division of the Justice Department, Clinton named him acting assistance attorney general.
6/27/98 Joseph Farah ".With little fanfare and no media coverage, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala announced earlier this month a plan to assign a national identification number to every health-care provider in the country. .What the Shalala plan would do is establish the government's ability to track not only every health-care provider but every health-care transaction between doctor and patient. The Kennedy-Kassebaum law explicitly includes a clause establishing the federal government's exclusive "right" to unfettered and unlimited access to every patient's medical records. Shalala has developed the mechanism -- an ID number every doctor, nurse and dentist must use to document every service provided to a patient. "
6/29/98 The Reagan Information Interchange, Mary Mostert On May 29, 1998 Clinton issed E.O. 11478 to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. When considered in light of "Guidelines on Freedom of Religious Expression in the Federal Workplace on August 14, 1997" Mary Mostert observes: ".what has occurred in the space of one year is an extremely clever attack on the Freedom of Speech AND Freedom of Religion in Federal employment. If your religion leads you to believe that homosexuality is morally wrong, you would be charged with violating a homosexuals "rights." Or, if your observations lead you to observe that the homosexual lifestyle cuts short a person's life by approximately 40 years because of the increased suicides, murder rates and AIDS infections attributed to that life style, you jolly well would be in violation of the "civil rights" of a homosexual co-worker...using the power of the Presidency of the United States and a presidential order, we now find ourselves in a completely different kind of situation. Now, we are told, people like me who point out that adopting a homosexual lifestyle statistically shortens your life span by 40 years are suddenly violating their civil rights.
EO 13083 deals with federalism, the relationship of the states and the federal government - the distribution of power. It is a policy directive - guideline - to executive departments and agencies about jurisdiction, state sovereignty - the limits of federal powers. When EO 13083 goes into effect August 12 1998, it revokes EO 12612 issued by Reagan October 26, 1987 (limits the size and scope of federal government) and EO 12875 issued by Clinton October 26, 1993 (promised to end unfunded mandates.) EO 13083 empowers bureaucrats and federal agencies to determine for themselves if there is "constitutional and legal authority" for whatever they want to do.
(1) When the matter to be addressed by Federal action occurs interstate as opposed to being contained within one State's boundaries.
(2) When the source of the matter to be addressed occurs in a State different from the State (or States) where a significant amount of the harm occurs.
(3) When there is a need for uniform national standards.
(4) When decentralization increases the costs of government thus imposing additional burdens on the taxpayer.
(5) When States have not adequately protected individual rights and liberties.
(6) When States would be reluctant to impose necessary regulations because of fears that regulated business activity will relocate to other States.
(7) When placing regulatory authority at the State or local level would undermine regulatory goals because high costs or demands for specialized expertise will effectively place the regulatory matter beyond the resources of State authorities.
(8) When the matter relates to Federally owned or managed property or natural resources, trust obligations, or international obligations.
(9) When the matter to be regulated significantly or uniquely affects Indian tribal governments.
7/4/98 LA Times Elizabeth Shogren on executive orders ".President Clinton plans a blitz of executive orders during the next few weeks, part of a White House strategy to make progress on Clinton's domestic agenda with or without congressional help. His first unilateral strike will come today. According to a draft of Clinton's weekly radio address obtained by the Los Angeles Times, he plans to announce a new federal regulation requiring warning labels on fruit and vegetable juices that have not been pasteurized. . Following that initiative, Clinton will take executive actions later in the week that are intended to improve health care and cut juvenile crime, according to a senior White House official.after the Senate rejected sweeping anti-smoking legislation, Clinton announced a survey on what cigarette brands teen-agers smoke .eager to make health care fixes that Congress has not, he announced new coverage under the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly and charged federal agencies with signing up more poor children for Medicaid.Clinton forewarned the country about his zeal for exercising executive powers in his 1992 acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, saying: "President Bush: If you won't use your power to help people, step aside, I will." .Clinton has rewritten the manual on how to use executive powers, some professors and analysts argue. His formula includes pressing the limits of his regulatory authority, signing executive orders and using other unilateral means to obtain his policy priorities when Congress fails to embrace them. "
7/6/98 National Review David Mastio "Imagine a world where the Environmental Protection Agency can shut down a decades-old automobile plant because neighbors decide they don't like the way it looks. It's called "environmental justice" -- and thanks to an executive order signed by President Clinton in 1994, it's already here.in a textbook instance of legislation without benefit of Congress, the EPA has leveraged the 1994 executive order into a massive expansion of its power. This February, the EPA issued an eight-page document called a "guidance" that outlined the way the agency intended to investigate "environmental justice" complaints filed under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act."
From Insight, concerning the American Heritage Rivers Initiative, Idaho Republican Rep. Helen Chenoweth: "We have virtually created a form of dictatorship,"."It's purpose was ... a federal land grab, or a federal takeover of power that rightfully belonged to the states," Chenoweth tells Insight. "And they didn't do it through statutory authority. Instead, they created a new animal called an 'initiative.' I am so amazed
From Insight, concerning 11/96 when Clinton issued an executive order to seize 1.7 million acres in Utah, Utah Republican Rep. James Hansen "The manner in which the White House hid this decision from the people of Utah ... displays an alarming disregard for the Constitution."
From Insight, concerning use of executive orders to add controversial language inserting "sexual orientation" into affirmative-action provisions affecting federal hiring practices, and to change the rules concerning how federal agencies decide when and whether to intervene when issues of federalism arise, Adam Thierer, a fellow in economic policy at the Heritage Foundation, called the effort "a grotesque distortion of the Framers' language establishing the original federalist system."
7/7/98 AP Sonya Ross "President Clinton today stepped up pressure on health insurance companies to abide by a new law that bars them from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions when workers change jobs.The president signed an executive order directing the Office of Personnel Management to inform insurers covering federal employees that they must meet all the requirements of the 1996 Kennedy-Kassebaum health insurance law or lose their federal contracts."
Joseph Farah: ".President Clinton's glib announcement that he will issue a barrage of executive orders to further his legislative agenda while bypassing Congress is the ultimate fulfillment of those fears. More chilling yet is the timing of the ominous announcement. It comes less than two months after Clinton issued, while on foreign soil, Executive Order 13083,, which annihilates the principles of federalism that have guided the nation for the last 200 years."
7/10/98 Manchester Union Leader Richard Lessner ". If you think that you still live in a free country, a republic, then you have not been paying attention. Representative government is being slowly whittled away. Today we Americans are ruled by executive orders issued by the Clinton Commissariat. Just this week, Chairman Clinton issued the latest in a long line of executive orders. The Chairman has issued more of these decrees than any of his predecessors. This time around, Chairman Clinton decreed that government health care no longer will be awarded to the lowest bidder, but by the favor of the Commissar in Chief. Chairman Clinton ordered the "punishment" -- he actually used the word -- of insurance companies that bureaucrats at the Health Care Financing Administration deem insufficiently attentive to a 1996 law broadening heath insurance coverage. The penalty? Black-listed companies would be barred from bidding for coverage of government workers. Thus does Chairman Clinton make himself prosecutor, judge and jury -- all rolled into one.Executive Order 13083 revokes state's rights wherever they conflict with federal powers. The order's windy rhetoric states basically that federal regulations -- not laws, mind you, but rules promulgated by such federal agencies as the EPA, OSHA and such -- in almost every instance override competing or conflicting state laws. "
7/9/98 The Winds ".Perhaps inspired by the efficiencies of the Chinese political system, or merely driven by his own "vision" and unrelenting ambition, Clinton is planning a blitz of executive orders that will facilitate his political goals, with or without Congress. .."He's ready to work with Congress if they will work with him," spinned Rahm Emanuel, senior policy adviser to the president. "But if they choose partisanship, he will choose progress." . In other words, opposing the president's agenda is partisanship, while the president ruling by decree is "progress." "This president has a very strong sense of the powers of the presidency, and is willing to use all of them," warned Paul Begala, another senior adviser. ."
1998 Western Journalism Center Federalist Brief 7/10/98 ".An example of the arrogance of the EO 13038 (s/b 13083) is that while it protests (too much?) that the powers of the federal government are limited and that the power of the States is to be protected, it provides that ''Agencies may limit the policy making discretion of the States and local government.'' Mr. President, an ''agency'' does not possess the power to make that determination. That same section then provides that ''the federal government should grant States and local governments the maximum discretion possible.'' Mr. President, the Federal Government does not possess the power to make that determination. That same section next stipulates that the federal government is to determine ''matters of national or multi-state scope (which may justify federal action) and matters that are merely common to the States.'' Mr. President, the federal government does not possess the power to make that determination."
7/7/98 Joseph Farah "What if a U.S. administration announced it was violating the Constitution and no one cared? That seems to be what's happening today as President Clinton moves to amass what can only be described as "imperial powers" without as much as a whimper of protest heard in the land. In May, President Clinton issued Executive Order 13083, a frontal assault on 10th Amendment-protected powers of the states and individuals. No one noticed, or cared. Congress allowed it to become law by not lifting a finger. No governors or state legislatures protested. The media didn't even report on the federal power grab."
Paul Begala "Stroke of the pen. Law of the land. Kinda cool."
News Advisory from U.S. Rep Bob Barr (GA-7) Monday July 13, 1998 at 2:15 pm "At a news conference on the Georgia State Capitol steps monday, U.S. Representative Bob Barr (GA-7) will announce a legislative effort to block a national identification card. The card is being implemented by a proposed regulation which will require all states to begin using a uniform identification card. Barr will also announce an effort to block the implementation of a Clinton executive order allowing federal agencies vast new jurisdiction for superseding state authorities. Representatives from several civil liberties groups and local activists are also scheduled to attend.
Conservative News Service 7/16/98 Scott Hogensonm "Rep. Michael "Mac" Collins (R-GA) is preparing to launch a House initiative to counter President Clinton's May 14 executive order on federalism, saying the order would give the president "almost limitless authority" over state and local laws. A 'Dear Colleague' letter from Collins to fellow congressmen and obtained by CNS warns that Clinton's Executive Order 13083 could let the administration implement the terms of the United Nation's Kyoto Climate Treaty without Senate ratification, or nullify state statutes on criminal law and gun control.."
7/25/98 Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial "Drawing analogies to the Nazi era is an odious practice; other than the Communist horror nothing even distantly approaches the monstrous evil of the Holocaust. But it is not odious to point out that certain arrangements weaken democracy -- and to suggest that eschewing those arrangements is sound policy. It is the difference between advising someone not to leave loaded guns around and calling all gun-owners murderers. One such arrangement was the decision by the Reichstag in 1933 permitting the German chancellor to rule by decree. Ruling by decree certainly weakens democracy."
Insight on the News 7/25/98 Joel Hefley a Colorado Republican who chairs the House National Security subcommittee on Military Installations ". In his 1992 acceptance speech to the Democratic National Convention, then-Gov. Bill Clinton pronounced, "President Bush, if you won't use your power to help people, step aside. I will." He's using it all right: by issuing executive orders to impose whatever he fails to get through Congress. . . The president appears to be under the impression that the United States is a monarchy -- one in which the president dictates by executive order. Unfortunately for emperor Clinton, this is not a country ruled by the stroke of a pen and a plea from a special-interest friend. . . . "
The Deseret News 7/28/98 Lee Davidson "Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt says the nation's governors are furious that President Clinton quietly signed an executive order to make it easier for the federal government to expand its power over the states. And he asked the House on Tuesday to pass a resolution calling for Clinton to withdraw it -- which the Senate already did last week. "Given the secrecy surrounding this order and the complete turnabout of its language and scope, one can only conclude the Clinton administration deliberately set upon a course to expand the role of the federal government. "Not exactly the end of the era of big government," Leavitt complained to the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Economic Growth, Natural Resources and Regulatory Affairs. Leavitt -- representing the National Governors Association -- noted that the 10th Amendment to the Constitution says that all powers not specifically given to the federal government by the Constitution belong to the states."
Washington Post David Broder "The Clinton administration promised yesterday to start with "a clean slate" and negotiate a mutually acceptable executive order on federalism to replace one denounced by state and local government organizations that were not consulted when President Clinton signed it. "Everything is on the table. . . ".
WorldNetDaily Sarah Foster 7/28/98 "President Clinton -- with another stroke of his pen -- rewrote his own game plan for federalizing American rivers. By an executive order signed yesterday, the president increased the number of potential "heritage river" designees from 10 to 20. Then at a press conference, Vice President Al Gore announced the names of 14 rivers the president had selected -- four more than expected. Clinton can now add up to six more at whim.."
The New American 8/17/98 William Norman Grigg "In a candid summary of his view of executive powers, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein once declared, "Law consists of two lines above my signature." White House aide Paul Begala embraced a similar view of presidential power in his description of Bill Clinton's intention to rule through executive orders: "Stroke of the pen. Law of the land. Kinda cool." Begala's flippant soundbite announced the advent of an era, in which a President mired in corruption and politically stymied by Congress rules by decree."
Fox News Cable Beltway Boys 7/25/98 Speaker Newt Gingrich "(The Speaker) The President by a series of Executive Orders on a number of topics is trying to enforce by his own signature, what the Constitution requires the Congress to pass. And I think there is a legitimate Constitutional test coming about a whole series of Executive Orders about a wide range of topics whereas the President is clearly overreaching and violating our Constitutional system. (Mort Kondrake) What is the Constitutional tests here? (The Speaker) I think the Constitutional test has to be is he in fact reinterpreting law, by his signature or is he enforcing law. He can enforce law through Executive Orders. He can't create law by Executive Orders."
Conservative News Service 8/3/98 Scott Hogenson "The vice-chairman of the National Governors Association said President Clinton is scheduled to issue an executive order August 4 effectively repealing an earlier executive order on federalism. In an exclusive interview with CNS, Gov. Mike Leavitt (R-UT) said that White House officials have offered him and other state officials assurances that Clinton's Executive Order 13083, entitled Federalism, will be effectively withdrawn by the issuance of a new order suspending the previous one."
NY Times 8/5/98 "President Clinton, under heavy fire from governors and mayors for what they called a federal power grab, suspended an executive order on federalism Wednesday. The controversial measure, which Clinton quietly signed in May, was meant to replace an earlier Clinton directive as well as one signed by President Reagan on federal intervention in state and local matters. Critics, including Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., and the National Governors Association, faulted the new Clinton order for laying out multiple justifications for federal intervention and pre-emption, rather than stressing deference to state and local officials. The order was intended to guide federal regulators. The president's action Wednesday suspended the order indefinitely. Next step: ``We intend to consult very closely with representatives of state and local governments as the process of revising the executive goes forward,'' White House spokesman Barry Toiv said. For good measure, the House voted by voice Wednesday night to nullify the executive order. Thompson, whose successful ``sense of the Senate resolution'' last month urged Clinton to withdraw the order, called Wednesday's move good news. ``But I'm afraid this whole episode shows a tendency of the administration and some in Congress to try to centralize decision making in Washington. Power is a difficult thing to give up,'' he added. Also joining in the fight to undo Clinton's order were: The National Council of State Legislatures, Council of State Governments, National Association of Counties, The U.S. Conference of Mayors, National League of Cities, International City/County Management Association. "
NARA 8/13/98 "Executive Order 13095--Suspension of Executive Order 13083 By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America and in order to enable full and adequate consultation with State and local elected officials, their representative organizations, and other interested parties, it is hereby ordered that Executive Order 13083, entitled ``Federalism,'' is suspended. William J. Clinton The White House, August 5, 1998. .."
USA Journal James Hirsen " The founding fathers of this nation established a republic with a highly effective system of checks and balances precisely because they desired to avoid, at all costs, the consolidation of power in any single individual. Our young country had just broken away from an abusive despot, and the desire to prevent any future dictator from emerging remained strong. The Presidential Executive Order was, at one time, a genuine exercise of power, based upon law that was already in existence. Unfortunately, it has been distorted into a tool for the illegitimate creation of new law, which violates both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution. This wrongful practice has been tolerated by Congress and, occasionally, even concealed from the American people, in the name of expediency. When a president creates law by fiat, representative government is completely averted. Any notion of checks and balances or separation of powers is no longer involved in the legislative process."
Wall Street Journal 10/5/98 Editorial "If Bill Clinton is given a free pass for perjury, where will it stop? As a case history of the prevailing mind-set, one need go no further than the humble Vacancies Act. That's the federal law designed to prevent a President from circumventing the Senate's "advise and consent" authority on executive branch appointments. Mr. Clinton has stretched its meaning beyond previous bounds by appointing "acting" officials and never sending their names to the Senate for confirmation.."
U.S. Newswire 10/17/98 White House Press Office, 202-456-2100 ".STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT I have today signed H.R. 3616, the "Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999." This Act authorizes Fiscal Year 1999 appropriations for military activities of the Department of Defense, military construction, and defense activities of the Department of Energy. Naming this Act in honor of Senator Thurmond is a well-deserved and appropriate tribute.. I am strongly opposed to a provision that, effective March 1999, will transfer the jurisdiction over satellite exports from the Department of Commerce to the Department of State. This change is not necessary to ensure effective control of U.S. exports of satellites and could hamper the U.S. satellite industry.In the meantime, I will take action to minimize the potential damage to U.S. interests that could arise from the Act's export control related requirements. I will direct the appropriate agencies to implement these provisions, subject to appropriate law and regulation, in a manner that supports legitimate commercial communications satellite exports while ensuring that the extensive safeguards needed to protect our national security remain in effect. I will also direct all concerned agencies, subject to appropriate law, regulation, and U.S. national security interests, to employ, to the extent appropriate, time-lines and transparent licensing practices for satellites and related items described in section 1513(a) of the Act in a manner consistent with current dual-use export license processing.. Further, I take note of the bill's legislative history with respect to the export of U.S.-made items in connection with emergency repair or replacement for commercial aircraft, and I will exercise the certification authority consistent with that view. I am disappointed that the Congress, in a well-meaning effort to further protect nuclear weapons information, has included an overly broad provision that impedes my Administration's work to declassify historically valuable records. I am committed to submitting the plan required under this Act within 90 days. In the meantime, I will interpret this provision in a manner that will assure the maximum continuity of agency efforts, as directed by my Executive Order 12958, to declassify historically valuable records."
World Net Daily 10/28/98 Joe Farah ".America continues to go about its business completely oblivious to the prospect of widespread social disruption posed by the Y2K millennium bug. Out of sight, out of mind. Whoever it was that accused the U.S. media of being sensationalist ought to have his head examined..I say this not as a doomsayer or alarmist -- just as an observer of some of the less-than- public activities of the U.S. government. The U.S. Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem (how's that for "government shorthand"?) has been quietly conducting Y2K hearings in recent months. Some of the testimony deserves attention. On Oct. 2, Maj. General Edward Philbin, executive director of the National Guard Association, told the committee that he saw a vital military role in preserving order and managing emergencies beginning midnight, Dec. 31, 1999. "It is increasingly evident that an appreciable part of the nation's infrastructure could be adversely affected in some way by what is commonly referred to as the Y2K problem," he said. "Considering the possibilities of a large-scale disruption of governmental, commercial and other routine daily activities, it is certain that the National Guard will be among the first organizations activated to assist in the revitalization of the nation's computer dependent infrastructure.".. He also wants to know who's going to be in charge when the silicon chips hit the fan. "Equally important, we must determine how the National Guard will interact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the DoD (Department of Defense) in response to Y2K-induced emergencies," he said. Well, general, the decision's already been made by President Clinton. FEMA, one of his favorite agencies -- run by some hand-picked Arkansas cop-cronies -- will be in charge. Yes, it's Fox Mulder's worst nightmare come true. FEMA will coordinate the whole show, telling not only the National Guard what to do, where to go and how long to stay, but even commanding the generals in the Pentagon. Philbin points out that the National Guard is an important component in the Pentagon's "Total Force" mission of national defense.."
USA Journal Online 10/28/98 Jon Dougherty ". A reader recently emailed me a copy of testimony given by Maj. Gen. Edward Philbin, USAF [Ret.], who is the Executive Director of the National Guard Association of the United States [NGAUS], to the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem, dated October 2nd, 1998. The email was titled, "Martial Law," apparently reflecting the sender's distrust of the good general's intentions for use of the country's organized militia if and when a Y2K crisis engulfs America - thus sending millions of dazed and disillusioned folk to the streets in protest. As I read through the testimony - I read every word that was sent, anyway - it looked to me as though Maj. Gen. Philbin was merely appealing to the Senate to provide the necessary funding to fix the country's National Guard and Air Guard computer systems. Gen. Philbin's intentions seemed clear-cut and responsible - if the Guard's computer systems also fail, how can they provide the necessary support and assistance to the various federal, state and local agencies tasked with managing the crisis and the ensuing civil disorder? After all, that's what the National Guard is for - to help stabilize domestic threats, no matter the source. However, there were passages in Philbin's testimony that are ominous to say the least, like this one: "It is increasingly evident that an appreciable part of the nation's infrastructure could be adversely affected in some way, by what is commonly referred to as the Y2K problem," the general said. He added statements like these as well: "In general, the National Guard has the capacity to provide Military Support to Civilian Authorities [MSCA] and can contribute a myriad of human and equipment resources to restore essential operations disrupted by Y2K generated incidents."..Did you notice that the government even has a formal acronym for military to civilian support? Curious. That's the gist of what has so many people worried about this."
LifeSite Daily News 10/29/98 ".John Holmes of the Association of Christian Schools International revealed that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is requiring all participants in federal school nutrition programs and other USDA programs -- including religious schools and other religious institutions -- to display a poster saying that discrimination is prohibited on the basis of "race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status." Holmes noted that US law does not establish "sexual orientation" or "political beliefs" as a protected class. In a release by the National Center for Public Policy Research Holmes said that Congress should be informed that the USDA is forcing compliance with a statute the Congress has not approved.."
Army Times 10/27/98 "."Terrorism is escalating to the point that Americans soon may have to choose between civil liberties and more intrusive means of protection," says Defense Secretary William S. Cohen The nation's defense chief told the Army Times he once considered the chilling specter of armored vehicles surrounding civilian hotels or government buildings to block out terrorists as strictly an overseas phenomenon. But no longer. "It could happen here," Cohen said he concluded after 8 months of studying threats under the Pentagon microscope. Free-lance terrorists with access to deadly chemical and biological bombs are "going to change the way in which the American people view security in our own country," he predicted in a Sept 10 interview. Cohen is calling for the government to step up its efforts to penetrate wildcard terrorist organizations. "It's going to require greater intelligence on our part -- much greater emphasis on intelligence gathering capability - more human intelligence, and it's going to take more technical intelligence," he said. But using the U.S. military in a domestic law enforcement role would require revisions to laws in force for more than a century, cautions Shreveport attorney John Odom, Jr. "You can't do it from the Defense Department side unless Congress dramatically revises the Posse Comitatus laws." said Odom, a colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and a reserve Judge Advocate. "The 1878 law specifically prohibits the use of the military in domestic law enforcement unless authorized by Congress or the Constitution and does not wllow for military intervention through action by the Secretary of Defense of even an Executive Order from the President," Odom said. We're trained from the first day of Judge Advocate school to think of Posse Comitatus !!! said Odom. "If Secretary Cohen is suggesting that the Department of Defense be involved, it may be part of a legislative package, but it will not happen unilaterally without a lot of folks thinking long and hard about it."."
Forbes Magazine 12/10 1998 Thomas Sowell ".Throughout their whole careers, both Clintons have treated rules and laws as not applying to them. When an official of Madison Guaranty warned Mrs. Clinton that what they were planning violated state regulations, his concerns were "summarily dismissed," he said. When a Certified Public Accountant warned Bill Clinton and Jim McDougal about the tax laws in one of their transactions, the governor told him "to back off and leave the issue alone."."
AP 11/07/98 ".President Clinton set in motion today a tightening of the Brady law aimed at stopping 5,000 gun shows around the nation from becoming "illegal arms bazaars" for criminals and gunrunners. Clinton ordered the Treasury and Justice departments to recommend executive actions within 60 days that will close a loophole in the Brady gun-control law. The requirement for five-day waiting periods and background checks does not currently apply to gun-show purchases.."
WorldNetDaily 11/11/98 David Bresnahan ".Despite rampant Internet rumors to the contrary, Executive Order 13083, a sweeping rewrite of the constitutional balance of powers between the states and federal government, is dead. Numerous calls to the White House, Congress, governors, state legislators, and mayors, all resulted in the same thing - it's not about to come back to life. While visiting England, President Clinton signed an executive order dealing with federalism on May 14 of this year. WorldNetDaily was the first to report the "Executive Order on Federalism", and calls to elected officials for their reaction brought it to their attention. Not one official called, either in Congress or in state or local government, knew of its existence until they were asked for comment by WorldNetDaily. Later, elected officials at all levels, and in both parties, demanded that it be withdrawn. President Clinton quietly suspended it on Aug. 5."
PR Newswire 11/12/98 Pacific Research Institute ".According to a statement released by Dana Joel Gattuso, Director of Research at the California-based Pacific Research Institute, President Clinton has turned his back on the American public by signing the Kyoto Climate Change Protocol. ``He is placing our economic security in great jeopardy and subjecting Americans to skyrocketing energy costs.'' Under the terms of the legally binding international treaty, the United States would have to severely limit the amount of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels. In order to meet these restrictions, energy production or use would be greatly restricted. According to Ms. Gattuso,.By signing this agreement, the President is violating the resolution the U.S. Senate unanimously agreed to in a 95-0 vote in 1997. Earlier this week, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) sent President Clinton a letter urging him not to sign the Protocol, reminding him that such action ``would be contrary to the...Senate Resolution'' since developing countries have not committed to emissions reductions, one of the Senate's key requirements for signature. Commitment by developing countries, particularly the largest of these countries that depend heavily on coal as their main source of energy, is an issue because collectively they are among the largest polluters in the world. China, for example, will be the largest emitter by 2015, yet it refuses to consider even voluntary action. Says Gattuso, ``Most developing countries have thrown cold water on proposals to discuss even voluntary controls. The President is placing our country at an enormous political and economic disadvantage by signing the Protocol. Without full commitment by the world's largest emitters, this Protocol means nothing but enormous pain and sacrifice for the American people.''."
U.S. Newswire 11/12/98 ".On November 14, 1994, by Executive Order 12938, I declared a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States posed by the proliferation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons (''weapons of mass destruction'') and the means of delivering such weapons. Because the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivering them continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, the national emergency first declared on November 14, 1994, and extended on November 14, 1995, November 12, 1996, and November 13, 1997, must continue in effect beyond November 14, 1998. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing the national emergency declared in Executive Order 12938. This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress. WILLIAM J. CLINTON THE WHITE HOUSE, November 12, 1998."
House of Representatives 11/7/97 Hon. James V Hansen ".Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, the majority staff of the House Committee on Resources will release a staff report today on the subpoenaed national monument documents received from the Clinton administration. The documents show that the designation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was politically motivated and probably illegal. It is very important that these documents are opened up for public scrutiny. They show the American people that the designation of the monument was politically motivated; that the administration engaged in a concerted effort to keep everything secret in order to avoid public scrutiny; and that the administration admitted that the lands in question weren't in danger and weren't among the lands in this country most in need of monument designation.On September 18, 1996, President Clinton established, by Presidential Proclamation No. 6920, the 1.7-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (``Utah Monument'') in Utah pursaunt to Section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (``Antiquities Act''). The Committee on Resources has jurisdiction over the Antiquities Act and the creation of the Monument, jurisdiction that is delegated under Rule 6(a) of the Rules For the Committee on Resources (``Committee Rules'') to the Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands.."
WorldNetDaily 11/26/98 David M. Bresnahan ".WorldNetDaily contacted all 50 governors to determine their position on President Clinton's failed effort to enact Executive Order 13083 on federalism, and to find out their stand on plans for a national ID to be tied to driver's licences. Most governors have ignored requests for comments, but of the eight who responded, six Republicans spoke out against the executive order while two Democrats said they were neutral. Only three commented on a law which establishes uniform standards for a driver's license national ID. The National Governors Association recently sent a document on key issues to all governors. The NGA took credit for getting Clinton to suspend the offending executive order, but then announced plans to work with the White House to craft a revised version. That document, along with a "Fact Sheet on Federalism" used by White House staff, were made available to WorldNetDaily, which first exposed both EO 13083 and the national ID plan. Both documents were provided by a staff member of the Republican Governors Association. Despite rampant rumors to the contrary, Executive Order 13083 has been suspended indefinitely. The only way to revive it is for Clinton to sign another executive order. The NGA expects to help him do that in 1999, with one obstacle to overcome. The NGA is concerned that Congress withheld funding for the executive order in the omnibus budget bill passed just before the election. The NGA document states that plans for implementation of a new version of the executive order in 1999 will be hampered by the funding ban.."
http://library.whitehouse.gov/PressReleases.cgi 12/1/98 ".Presidential Determination No 99-6 . SUBJECT: Delegation of Authority Under Section 2(b)(2) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962, as Amended .By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, I hereby delegate the functions and authorities conferred upon the President by section 2(b)(2) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act (MRAA) of 1962, as amended, 22 U.S.C. 2601(b)(2), to the Secretary of State, who is authorized to redelegate these functions and authorities consistent with applicable law. The Secretary of State, or his or her delegate, is directed to provide notice to the President of any use of the functions and authorities delegated by this determination..."
http://library.whitehouse.gov/PressReleases.cgi 12/1/98 ".Presidential Determination No 99-7 . SUBJECT: Pakistan and India . Pursuant to the authority vested in me as President of the United States, including under section 902 of the India-Pakistan Relief Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-277), to the extent provided in that section, I hereby waive until October 21, 1999, the sanctions and prohi-bitions contained in section 101 and 102 of the Arms Export Control Act, section 620E(e) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, and section 2(b)(4) of the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945, insofar as such sanctions and prohibitions would other-wise apply to activities of the Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the Trade and Development Agency with respect to Pakistan and India; assistance to Pakistan and India under the "International Military Education and Training" program; the making of any loan or the providing of any credit to the Government of India or the government of Pakistan by any U.S. bank; and the extension of any loan or financial or technical assistance to Pakistan by any inter- national financial institution in support of the assistance program that Pakistan is negotiating with the International Monetary Fund.."
Freeper Helen reports 12/1/98 ".National Security Directives: Called "National Security Action Memorandums" under Kennedy, "National Security Directives" under Bush, "Presidential Decision and Review Directives" under Clinton. Senate Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1991, S.B. 2834, was passed by a small group of senators on August 4, 1990, at 3:30 a.m. effectively transferring most authority over the United States Government directly into the hands of the president. Scary, no?."
Daily Republican 12/4/98 William Heartstone ".President William Jefferson Clinton circumvented the U.S. Constitution when he entered into the North American Free Trade Agreement treaty which was not adopted with the concurrence of two thirds of the members of the United States Senate, as required by the U.S. Constitution. NAFTA was negotiated by Mr. Clinton, initialed by him on December 17, 1992, and submitted to Congress on November 4, 1993 for approval. A majority of the members of the House of Representatives voted to approve NAFTA on November 17, 1993. Three days later, on November 20, 1993, less than two-thirds of U.S. Senate members present voted to approve Mr. Clinton's NAFTA initiative...NAFTA has caused the loss of more than 400,000 American jobs due to NAFTA. More than seven thousand workers labor union workers at more than thirty locations have been certified by the Clinton administration's Department of Labor as having lost their jobs due to NAFTA operations, and the relocation of American operations to Mexico and Canada and from increases in imports from Mexico and Canada..As a direct result of the adoption and implementation of NAFTA, numerous employers have threatened to move operations to Mexico unless U.S. workers accept lower pay and benefits than they otherwise would receive. They are now faced with loss of jobs or with the threat of losing their jobs due to the Clinton administration acts which are clearly outside the scope of presidential authority under the U.S. Constitution. A Federal law suit filed in June is now pending in this matter. The United Steel Workers of America litigation is proceeding into court early in 1999 where the AFL/CIO will seek to obtain an Order declaring that NAFTA, having failed to be approved by two-thirds of the Senators then present, is null, void and of no effect, and directing Mr. Clinton to provide notice within 30 days to the governments of Mexico and Canada that the United States is invoking its power to terminate NAFTA.."
Washington Times 12/7/98 James Morrison ".House Republican leaders are complaining that President Clinton's pledge of new aid to the Palestinians was not cleared by Congress. They are demanding congressional review of the $400 million Mr. Clinton announced last week at the Palestinian donors' conference on top of the $500 million already announced. "Congress will support the peace process, but the Clinton administration must not arrogate to itself our legitimate role in foreign aid decisions," said Rep. Christopher Cox, California Republican and chairman of the Republican Policy Committee.."
Softwar Website 12/7/98 Charles Smith ".President Clinton personally engaged his pen to help Hughes, Loral and Motorola export advanced military technology to China. Motorola, Hughes and Loral engaged their pens to donate big bucks to Bill Clinton and the DNC. Clinton also used executive orders (fiat) to transfer oversight for military technology away from the State Department and Defense Department to his buddies at the Commerce Department. In 1998, Congress over-rode Clinton with a veto proof vote. Now Clinton plans to employ his crayon AGAIN to transfer communication satellite export authority back to the Commerce Department. This comes only weeks after he signed the 1998 Defense bill that returned satellite authority to the State Department and Defense Department.."
Washington Post 12/8/98 AP ".Starting next month, federal workers will see a 3.1 percent increase in their paychecks along with a separate adjustment based on their location. Under an executive order signed by President Clinton on Monday, federal white-collar workers nationwide will receive raises effective in January ranging up to 4.02 percent, with the highest raises going to workers in San Francisco, according to the Office of Personnel Management... "
Defense News 12/8/98 Barbara Opall-Rom ". White House and Commerce Department officials are crafting an end run around much of the government's national security bureaucracy with a plan to inject business interests into the arms export licensing process. Prepared in coordination with the U.S. aerospace industry, the plan is to be presented in an executive order by President Bill Clinton early next year. It would give Commerce officials the right to appeal State Department decisions governing export of satellites and other items appearing on the so-called Munitions List. The list is a category of sensitive technologies requiring the highest level of scrutiny by the U.S. government. State Department, Pentagon and congressional critics say the planned executive order will dilute the restrictive nature of Munitions List items administered through the Arms Export Control Act. Moreover, they say it violates the intent of the 1999 National Defense Authorization Act, which transferred authority for satellite and related exports from Commerce to State in response to congressional concerns of inappropriate technology transfers to China. "The intent of Congress with placing satellites back on the Munitions List was to inject more rigor into the export review process. Instead, the administration appears to be intent on dumbing down the State Department process," Marc Thiessen, a spokesman for Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Defense News Dec. 4. Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., chairman of the House International Relations Committee, warned Dec. 4 that such exports "should be guided by those agencies which ... give an overriding priority to national security considerations."."
U.S. Newswire 12/10/98 ".EXECUTIVE ORDER.IMPLEMENTATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS TREATIES.By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and bearing in mind the obligations of the United States pursuant to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), and other relevant treaties concerned with the protection and promotion of human rights to which the United States is now or may become a party in the future, it is hereby ordered as follows:."
SOFTWAR EMAIL NEWSLETTER 12/10/98 Charles Smith ".Expect a possible Christmas present for Loral, Hughes and Motorola from President Clinton. Commerce oversight for satellite exports was removed by a veto-proof margin in both the House and Senate in 1998. Santa Clinton is expected sign another Executive Order transferring satellite export authority back to the Commerce Department. Clinton should sign the order during the Christmas break so the exports can be authorized and sent overseas without Congressional opposition until the holiday recess is over in 1999.."
Houston Chronicle 12/15/97 George Wil ".'I have done my best to work with the United States Senate in an entirely constitutional way. But we had to get somebody into the Civil Rights Division.' -- President Clinton, Dec. 15, 1997 A year has passed since President Clinton accompanied his appointment of Bill Lann Lee as assistant attorney general for civil rights -- as "acting" assistant attorney general in perpetuity -- with that breezy acknowledgment: The appointment was not "entirely constitutional." This year the nation has become used to the mincing language by which Clinton describes his lawlessness. However, it is worth remembering that even last December there was nothing memorable about that day. There was no indignation about Clinton's offhand admission that he considers respect for the law, including the Constitution and his oath of office, as merely optional... The Senate's refusal to insist upon its rights regarding Lee is just one more reason for rank-and-file Republicans to wonder why they are Republicans, and why they should care deeply about keeping the Senate Republican. It also is a reason for all Americans to recognize the seamlessness of recent events. Dec. 15, 1997, was a busy day for Clinton, who, when not "entirely" respecting the Constitution, was receiving from Paula Jones' lawyers a request for documents "related to communications between the president and Monica Lewinsky." This was the first discovery request to mention Lewinsky's name. Sixteen days before this low, dishonest year dawned, Clinton, in the Lee case, cheekily announced his contempt for law. This was before his glandular life reduced him to exercising that contempt in defense of his endless adolescence. Those who say his sex-related perjuries are "private" matters should consider: His low crimes of the last year flow from the same character displayed in his public behavior regarding Lee. Will is a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist, based in Washington, D.C.."
Wall Street Journal 12/14/98 Roger Clegg ".One year ago tomorrow, President Clinton made Bill Lann Lee "acting" head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division when Mr. Lee's nomination failed to clear the Senate Judiciary Committee. Mr. Lee failed to make it through Judiciary because of concerns that he favors the use of classifications based on race, ethnicity and sex. [see original article for chronology of actions taken by Mr. Lee showing the concerns of the Senate were justified] ."
Idaho Mountain Express 12/16/98 Larry Craig Senior Senator for Idaho ".During this century our nation has developed into the strongest economic and military ever to exist on earth. Our democratic system of government, which ensures unparralleled freedom for its citizens, is the envy of the world. members of the Senate have a responsibility to protect and enhance that stature. Because I feel so strongly about that responsibility, I am compelled to comment on the President's recent siging of the Kyoto Protocol on Global Climate change. Despite grave bipartisan warnings from Congress since the conclusion of the United Nations Global Climate Summitt in Kyoto, Japan, the President insists on committing our country to an agreement that I believe threatens our way of life;indeed, it threatens the heart of our nation's power-the American economy. With evidence continuing to mount that compliance with the protocal will severely burden the budget of the average American household and crush many small and large businesses, I am extremely concerned about the Administration's disregaurd of American economic realities and it's blind pursit of the misguided and very political environmental agenda of Vice President Gore. Iam espically surprised at how the Administration has treated the efforts of my friend and senior colleague on the Appropriations Committee and the ranking Democrat on that committee, Senator Robert Byrd. Just prior to the President sigining the Protocol, Senator Byrd sent a letter to the President, requesting the Administration to defer siging the Protocal until it meets the conditions of the Blyrd/Hagel Resolution, which passed the Senate 95-0 in 1997. The Byrd/Hagel Resolution was a unanimous and firm directive to the Administration that clearly defined the minimum requirements necessary for Senate ratification of a global warming treaty- ALL countries must participate in addressing the concerns of global warming, and the requirements of the tready MUST NOT result in serious hardship of the American economy. Senator Byrds letter to the President simply reminded the President of these minimum requirements and emphasized the Senate should be provided with a detailed explanation of any legislation or regulatory actions that may be required to implement the Protocal. On November 12, 1998, the President chose to ignore Senator Byrd's plea and the unanimous Byrd/Hagel Senate Resolution by sigining the Kyoto Protocol.."
World Net Daily 12/23/98 Joseph Farah ".. Executive Order 13107 From where do our rights descend? The Bill of Rights? No. The Constitution? No. The Federal government? No. The United Nations? Certainly not. But, apparently, that's what Bill Clinton thinks. For earlier this month, Dec. 10 to be exact, he issued another one of his infamous executive orders -- this time on "the implementation of human rights treaties." In Executive Order 13107, Clinton sets up a new federal bureaucracy for the purpose of implementing U.N. treaties, whether ratified by the U.S. Senate or not. And that federal bureaucracy will implement the treaties on the U.N.'s terms. Sound like a deal? It gets worse. Though President Clinton said he issued the order to further his goal of promoting human rights around the world, it's important to understand exactly how the U.N. defines "human rights." That definition is offered in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which talks about the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, opinion, and expression. All good stuff, until you realize whom the ultimate authority is. Who is the sovereign that imparts such blessings upon the populace of the world? The answer to that question is stated unequivocally in article 29 of the U.N. document, which states: "These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations." ..The U.N. practices what it preaches, too. In Bosnia, the U.N. forces have seized control of radio and TV stations broadcasting pro-Serbian news and propaganda. In fact, U.S. troops participated in those raids. How does one justify such actions under the U.S. Constitution, which explicitly recognizes the rights of all people -- not just Americans -- to speak their minds and express themselves freely? Welcome to the Brave New World of U.N. doublespeak. And President Clinton is dragging the U.S. deeper into this quagmire than has any other president in history. Not only does Executive Order 13017 promote an unworthy and dangerous goal, but the road to that objective, namely the executive order itself the way Bill Clinton has employed it, is a corrupt and unconstitutional process. Executive orders are supposed to be a presidential tool for running the executive branch of government. Clinton has used them freely during his terms in office to make policy affecting other branches of government, the states, and individuals. Now, with 13017, he's attempting to implement international treaties!.."
The Washington Post 1/2/99 Nat Hentoff ".As the House voted the two articles of impeachment, the criers of coup d'etat and sexual McCarthyism failed to mention that William Jefferson Clinton is, in addition, a serial violator of the Bill of Rights, among other parts of the Constitution. These other attacks on the Constitution are not impeachable offenses because the Framers could not have imagined them. For example, the president has not been so distracted by the current scandal as to forgo a raid on the Fourth Amendment. On Oct. 20 this year, he signed the Intelligence Authorization Act for fiscal 1999. It includes a provision -- long desired by the president and FBI director Louis Freeh -- for roving wiretaps, despite the fact that neither the House- nor the Senate-passed versions of the bill did. The wiretap language was slipped into the conference report by Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) and has become a law of the land without hearings or public debate. So much for the people's democratic process -- a mantra intoned these days by the president's protectors..The president's attack on the Fourth Amendment is part of a long line of assaults on the Constitution. His 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act has so weakened the constitutional right of habeas corpus that innocent prisoners on death row -- convicted since 1996 -- will be executed because they now have only one year to get a federal court to review the fairness of the state trial that doomed them. Clinton (with a majority of Congress) also is responsible for that part of the 1996 act that authorizes the deportation of aliens, including long-term legal resident aliens, suspected of ties to terrorism -- without defendants or their lawyers being allowed to see the evidence against them.."
World Net Daily Joseph Farah ".From where do our rights descend? The Bill of Rights? No. The Constitution? No. The Federal government? No. The United Nations? Certainly not. But, apparently, that's what Bill Clinton thinks. For earlier this month, Dec. 10 to be exact, he issued another one of his infamous executive orders -- this time on "the implementation of human rights treaties." In Executive Order 13107, Clinton sets up a new federal bureaucracy for the purpose of implementing U.N. treaties, whether ratified by the U.S. Senate or not. And that federal bureaucracy will implement the treaties on the U.N.'s terms..Who is the sovereign that imparts such blessings upon the populace of the world? The answer to that question is stated unequivocally in article 29 of the U.N. document, which states: "These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations." That pretty much explains who the "massa" is and where the plantation boundaries end. What a stark contrast between the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, and the founding documents of the United States of America. The Declaration of Independence and Constitution both make it clear that basic human rights are inalienable, meaning they descend from the ultimate Sovereign, the Creator, God. Therefore, no human authority, no government, no criminal, no individual can abrogate or abridge those rights. Remember, any right government can bestow upon a people, it can just as easily take away.."
Associated Press 1/8/99 C.G. Wallace, ".A 1 million-acre land deal - the country's largest since Alaska statehood in 1959 - was finalized Friday when Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt handed over a $50 million check to Gov. Mike Leavitt. Leavitt accepted the check on behalf of the state's school trust lands administration and its beneficiaries, Utah's public school students. The school trust also will receive about $13 million in future coal revenues and 153,000 federally owned acres rich in natural resources. In exchange, the federal government gets a checkerboard of 376,739 acres owned by the school trust, including the Jacob Hamblin Arch on Lake Powell, the Eye of the Whale Arch in Arches National Park and rock art in Dinosaur National Monument. Utah also agreed to give up mineral rights below the surface of another 454,000 acres and drop lawsuits challenging the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument created in 1996 without consulting state officials. "This is not a $50 million transaction,'' Leavitt said. "Over the next 20 years, this will be a billion-dollar transaction.'' .."
newsmax 1/11/99 Cliff Kincaid ". As he was headed toward impeachment by the House, President Clinton committed another outrage that should have been submitted as yet another example of his crimes against the Constitution. On December 10, he issued executive order (EO) 13107 on the "Implementation of Human Rights Treaties." In this extraordinary document, he claimed the power to implement U.N.-sponsored treaties "concerned with the protection and promotion of human rights to which the United States is now or may become a party in the future...". In other words, it appears that he wants to implement unratifed treaties..."
Wall Street Journal 1/12/99 ".For six years now the Senate, in matters large and small and with both Republican and Democratic majorities, has failed to hold this President to account. Beyond Mr. Clinton's personal lies, his Presidency has more generally operated with a brazen disregard for the rule of law and established procedures. We will spend a long time repairing the damage to our institutions. The Senate has a special Constitutional role in providing checks and balances for a reckless executive, but instead has served as Mr. Clinton's enabler. Senators should recall Justice Joseph Story's observation that "no serious abuse of power can take place without the cooperation of two coordinate branches of the government." The Senate's failure includes its most precious power, ratifying treaties. In this Presidency, treaties are no longer submitted to the Senate, but simply negotiated and implemented by executive order as the law of the land. Foreign Relations Chairman Jesse Helms at least has sounded an alarm on this issue, but his colleagues dismiss him as quaint rather than a protector of their collective prerogatives.."
Schlafly Report 1/20/99 Phyllis Schlafly ". Faced with a Republican Congress unwilling to grant him all the powers he wants, Bill Clinton has unleashed a blizzard of Executive Orders to grab new authority for the executive branch, make broad public policy changes, and even restructure our governmental system. Executive Orders have a proper place in federal rulemaking and in implementing the routine business of the executive departments. But Clinton has discovered that Presidential Executive Orders function in a Never Never Land of almost unlimited power, and he is pressing the envelope to move his agenda, both domestic and foreign. Clinton advanced three of his favorite goals when he issued Executive Order (EO) 13107 on December 10. He increased executive branch authority, he moved America closer into the "web" of treaties, which he promised in his address to the United Nations on September 22, 1997, and he rewarded the feminists who are standing by him in his impeachment trial.."
WorldNetDaily 1/26/99 David Bresnahan Freeper VRWCmember ".The president doesn't intend something like a Supreme Court Decision get in the way of his latest attack on the Constitution. Despite a Supreme Court ruling and the U.S. Constitution, President Bill Clinton will change the way America conducts the Census, shifting political power and federal funding. White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart confirmed that the president does not consider a ruling by the Supreme Court yesterday to be a defeat for his plans to alter the Census.."
JWR Phyllis Schlafly 1/20/99 ".Faced with a Republican Congress unwilling to grant him all the powers he wants, Bill Clinton has unleashed a blizzard of Executive Orders to grab new authority for the executive branch, make broad public policy changes, and even restructure our governmental system. Executive Orders have a proper place in federal rulemaking and in implementing the routine business of the executive departments. But Clinton has discovered that Presidential Executive Orders function in a Never Never Land of almost unlimited power, and he is pressing the envelope to move his agenda, both domestic and foreign. Clinton advanced three of his favorite goals when he issued Executive Order (EO) 13107 on December 10. He increased executive branch authority, he moved America closer into the "web" of treaties, which he promised in his address to the United Nations on September 22, 1997, and he rewarded the feminists who are standing by him in his impeachment trial.."
New York Post 1/30/99 Freeper Walkin Man ".In a private business, keeping two sets of books can get you tossed in jail. In Washington, D.C., it seems, the Clinton administration considers it smart politics. It was probably too much to expect that this crowd would pay heed when the Supreme Court put paid to the administration's idea of census "sampling," rather than actually counting heads, for purposes of apportioning congressional seats among the states. And indeed, the Clintonites have lived down to expectations. Clinton & Co. are now considering the possibility of conducting two censuses next year. One would be a traditional head count, used to apportion seats among the states in the House of Representatives. The other would be a head count supplemented by statistical "adjustments" to compensate for a supposed "undercount" in largely minority neighborhoods in major cities like New York. It would be used for the distribution of federal aid formulas and state and local redistricting... Republicans in Congress are up in arms and at least claim they will seek to stop this monstrosity by refusing to appropriate money to pay for it. We'll see. The GOP has a tendency to go weak in the knees when confronted with the wrath of the Big Creep.."
Nando Media/Agence France-Press 2/10/99 Philip Alfroy ".A Clinton administration decision to promote some human embryo research despite a law prohibiting it has delighted scientists but blurred the ethical boundaries of medical research, opponents say. Earlier this month the White House authorized public funding for scientific experiments on some human embryo cells. The decision, announced two weeks ago by National Health Institutes director Harold Warmus, inflamed an already heated debate on the ethics of meddling with human embryos. For most people, the issue of spending public money on such research died in 1995 when the Republican-led U.S. Congress banned it outright.."The Clinton administration now seeks to do indirectly what Congress has forbidden it to do directly: provide federal support for research in which human embryos are created and destroyed," said Richard Doerflinger, of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. ."
WorldNetDaily 2/11/99 Sarah Foster ".Undaunted by either his impeachment or trial by the U.S. Senate, President Clinton continues to govern through decrees and executive orders -- his latest being one which critics say is so broad in scope it threatens cattle grazing, farming and other food-producing industries. EO 13112, which Clinton quietly signed Feb. 3, deals with "Invasive Species." The title suggests a continuation of federal efforts in combating killer bees, fire ants, gypsy moths and similar pests. But the order in fact goes beyond such traditional government concerns as eradication of noxious plants and dangerous insects and animals -- for which there are already numerous laws on the books. It is being criticized as an order that could be used as a hammer for imposing federal controls over all land use, public and private. It could even be interpreted as outlawing ownership of domestic pets, according to some.."
AP 2/11/99 Barry Schweid ".The Clinton administration, risking a blowup on Capitol Hill, says it has the constitutional power to send American ground troops to Kosovo in a NATO peacekeeping force without congressional approval. Citing Bosnia as a precedent, Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering told a skeptical House committee Wednesday, ``There is ample constitutional precedent for this type of action.'' But Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Calif., one of several International Relations Committee members who were cool to the idea, challenged the senior State Department official. ``Previous constitutional violations do not justify subsequent ones,'' he said. .."
America's Future 2/14/99 F.R. Duplantier ".Faced with a Republican Congress unwilling to grant him all the powers he wants, Bill Clinton has unleashed a blizzard of executive orders to grab new authority for the executive branch, and make broad public policy changes and even restructure our governmental system," declares Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum. "Executive orders have a proper place in federal rulemaking and in implementing the routine business of the executive departments," she concedes. "But Mr. Clinton . . . is pressing the envelope to move his agenda, both domestic and foreign." "Mr. Clinton advanced three of his favorite goals when he issued executive order 13107 on December 10, 1998," Mrs. Schlafly asserts. "He increased executive branch authority, he moved America closer into [what he himself called] the 'web' of treaties . . . and he rewarded the feminists who are standing by him in his impeachment trial.. One of the unratified treaties that could be implemented under executive order 13107 is the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, which, Mrs. Schlafly warns, "refuses to recognize one of the most fundamental American economic rights, the right to own property. . . . "
Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle 2/13/99 Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff ".Consider that of 320 presidential appointments which require Senate confirmation, a whopping 64 are held by temporary officials. Of those, 43 have served longer than the maximum 120 days allowed by law! The worst example is Bill Lann Lee. Incredibly, this ultraliberal has been the temporary head of the Justice Department's civil rights division a year after failing to win Senate confirmation. A decade ago, when the White House was in Republican hands and Congress in the Democrats', the Senate approved the Vacancies Act putting the 120- day limit on temporary appointees' service. Yet President Clinton only scoffs at this law! ."
AP 2/16/99 Sonya Ross ". The White House on Tuesday rejected calls that President Clinton nominate an alternative to Bill Lann Lee as the nation's top civil rights enforcer, saying Lee's critics have ``a demonstrable lack of knowledge'' of his performance in the job. Clinton appointed Lee, a former NAACP lawyer, as acting assistant attorney general for civil rights in December 1997, after it became clear the Senate Judiciary Committee would not send Lee's nomination forward. The move angered Senate Republicans who vowed to monitor Lee's work on affirmative action closely. Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, urged Clinton on Tuesday to nominate ``a confirmable candidate'' for the civil rights post, saying Lee has already been considered. ``During Lee's tenure, the Justice Department has advocated the same policies that initially led to his failure to be confirmed as assistant attorney general,'' Hatch said. He said he told deputy attorney general Eric Holder last week that Lee's temporary appointment has exceeded 14 months in violation of a law on federal vacancies that Clinton signed in October. ."
Newsday 2/16/99 James Pinkerton "..Clinton smothered a once-vigorous national debate about affirmative action and racial quotas when he seemed to agree, sort of, with critics of government-mandated racialism. In a 1995 speech, he acknowledged flaws in affirmative action as practiced. It should never be, Clinton said, the "preference of the unqualified over the qualified." It was Clinton at his most Clintonian: Whenever he said one thing, he next said the opposite. He pledged to "open the doors," but never to impose "numerical quotas." And he concluded with his rhyming catch-phrase, "Mend it, but don't end it." ..Roger Clegg, general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative think tank in Washington, has studied the administration's affirmative action record. "They're not mending it," he says of skin-color- conscious affirmative actioneers. "They're defending it and extending it." The most egregious quota-monger is Lee, the acting Justice Department civil rights enforcer. In a report to be issued today, Clegg and co- author Clint Bolick of the Institute for Justice, another right-tilting nonprofit group, write that under Lee, the civil rights division has "continued to ignore or narrowly interpret Supreme Court precedents and to push for racial preferences in numerous areas that touch the lives of every American." They cite, for example, an employment discrimination complaint filed by the Justice Department against the city of Torrance, Calif.; federal judge Mariana Pfaelzer tossed the case out, ruling the government's argument to be "frivolous, unreasonable and without foundation." Moreover, Pfaelzer, a Jimmy Carter appointee, ordered Lee's office to reimburse the city $1.8 million for its legal costs. That expensive defeat notwithstanding, Lee's litigators continue to pursue similar investigations against the states of Delaware, Missouri and Tennessee. "He gets sanctioned and yet continues to pursue numbers-driven cases," Clegg complains. So where does Lee get his nerve? Start with the "acting" in his title. He was nominated for the civil rights post a year and a half ago, yet never was confirmed by the Senate. So Clinton simply named him "acting" and turned him loose. No wonder he doesn't take the law seriously."
Forbes Magazine http://www.forbes.com/ 2/22/99 Pranay Gupte Bonner Cohen Freeper A Whitewater Researcher ".EXCERPTS: "The vice president is a powerful man because he controls environmental regulation, and environmental regulation pervades our lives...in today's technologically complicated and heavily regulated society...He can have a large and lasting impact on the way you lead your life and the way you run your business....Al Gore is obsessed with protecting the environment, and he has the means to put his beliefs into law. He has seeded such bodies as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Council on Environmental Quality and the Department of Energy with his friends, acolytes and ex- staffers; from those positions the Gore-ites hold sway over a large part of the federal regulatory apparatus. And in the environmental arena the regulatory apparatus cuts a wide swath. The EPA alone expects to issue 462 of the 4,560 planned rules that...find their way to the Code of Federal Regulations....In the environmental sector Congress has...ceded lawmaking power to the executive branch...."
NY TIMES 2/20/99 "...Seven Republican senators have written to Donna Shalala, secretary of Health and Human Services, to protest a ruling that permits federal financing of research into human embryonic stem cells, the primordial cells from which all the body's tissues are derived....The two letters refer to three-year-old law that forbids federal money to be used for any research in which an embryo is destroyed. Last year, researchers using private financing managed to culture human embyronic stem cells from frozen embryos created in fertility clinics and from aborted fetuses...Shalala's department ruled last month that federal grants could be awarded for research on the cells already obtained, though not for obtaining additional cells. A profusion of cells can be grown from the existing cultures....Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who is chairman of the subcommittee that sets biomedical research financing, said that plans to award federal money for stem cell research should continue while the House letter to Shalala was under consideration...."
House of Representatives - Press Release 2/19/99 Rep. Ron Paul "...Describing as "reckless" the president's plan to bomb Serbia into peace and threatening Kosovo with invasion unless they submit to a leader they abhor, US Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), is calling on congressional leaders to "reign in President Clinton's war on common sense." Rep. Paul has introduced H.R. 647, legislation to stop the President from sending troops into Kosovo without an explicit Act of Congress. Already the legislation has garnered the support of two-dozen Members of Congress. "Only Congress has the power to declare war, and I know of no other description for bombing a foreign country than a declaration of war," said Rep. Paul. "When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, it was clearly understood that they were declaring war on our nation. To think the serbian people, or the Kosovars will not be similarly enraged by this action is a dangerous gamble, and one only Congress is authorized to make." Rep. Paul said the president is "endangering the lives of the very troops to whom he and his administration have shown consistent disregard." "It is difficult to decide which is worse: a refusal to acknowledge the Constitution's separation of powers, or a callous disregard for the life of our soldiers so as to be seen as an international king-maker." ..."
Reuters 2/24/99 "…The U.S. Census Bureau said Wednesday it plans to go ahead with a statistical sampling to determine the nation's population in 2000 as well as the traditional headcount. "Some may describe this as a 'two-number census,' but it in fact is a census that is progressively more complete, more accurate," said census director Kenneth Prewitt. At issue is the two types of census gathering: the door-to-door counting of heads that has been used for decades and a more modern use of statistics that takes a sample of the population and extrapolates those figures to cover the entire country. Democrats, in general, like the sampling method because it increases the count of minorities who are often missed in a door-to-door count. Republicans generally favor the strict headcount. Last month, the Supreme Court ruled the Census Bureau could not use sampling in determining the number of congressional seats allotted to each state -- the main constitutional reason the population survey is conducted every 10 years. But the court left open the possibility the bureau could use sampling for other purposes such as determining the makeup of congressional districts or distributing federal funds…."
AP 3/2/99 Cassandra Burrell "…A Texas congressman accused the Clinton administration of planning to grant amnesty to thousands of illegal immigrants without congressional approval. ``Stop before you break the law,'' Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said Tuesday. ``Do not throw out 30 years of legal precedent for political gain.'' Smith expressed objections to a plan that would grant illegal immigrants from Central America eligibility for amnesty under a blanket ``presumption of hardship,'' instead of requiring each immigrant to prove hardship… But Smith said a blanket presumption would give as many as 240,000-plus illegal aliens a benefit that Congress declined to give them in 1997. He and 28 other House members signed a letter to President Clinton asking him to reject the idea. ``The White House is shamelessly bowing to special interests and thumbing its nose at Congress, the American people and every legal alien who played by the rules and waited his or her turn to come to America,'' Smith said. ``Obviously, when someone received an unexpected benefit, amnesty in this case, they feel indebted to those who provided the benefit. The White House is looking at long-term political support.'' …"
WorldnetDaily 3/2/99 Charles Smith "…The Chinese Army is converting the massive trade surplus with America into an ambitious arms build up to dominate the twenty first century. Our cash for goods is fueling the next arms race. In addition, the communist state has grown less tolerant of freedom. The Chinese Communist party is using advanced U.S. "law enforcement" technology to round up dissidents at a higher rate than during the Tiananmen Square massacre…In 1998, Chinese officials denied America the right to inspect U.S. built super-computers exported for a so-called "academic" venture at Xian University. The denial was an open violation of a 1983 U.S./Sino trade treaty. The Clinton administration responded to the violation by allowing the export of more ultra-fast computers without inspection, violating U.S. trade restriction laws passed by Congress. Xian University, of course, is a major PLA weapon testing and development site….There is worse news. According to the General Accounting Office (GAO), the Clinton Administration allowed super-computers to be exported directly to Russian and Chinese nuclear laboratories…."
Associated Press 3/4/99 H Josef Hebert "…President Clinton, celebrating the 150th birthday of the Interior Department, urged broad support Thursday for a $1 billion-a-year program to set aside treasured lands and open spaces…. The president used the celebration to call on the Republican-led Congress to stop "wasting precious time battling over senseless anti-environmental riders ... which I'm going to veto anyway'' and join in approving a permanent guarantee of annual funding for protecting open spaces and buying land for preservation…."
Wall Street Journal 3/4/99 Editorial "…Take the case of the position of general counsel at the National Labor Relations Board, currently held by recess appointee and Big Labor buddy Fred Feinstein. The office is more powerful than it sounds, because the general counsel acts as a gatekeeper to the NLRB. Every year it is up to the counsel alone to decide which few of the tens of thousands of appeals to the Board will actually be heard. Crucial too are the general counsel's decisions in what are known as Beck cases--cases that protest Big Labor's habit of forcibly extracting millions in dues from workers and illegally funneling those dues into politics, the politics of only one party. In the five-odd years he has occupied the general counsel's chair, first as a confirmed official, then as acting general counsel, and finally as a recess appointment, Mr. Feinstein has ensured that the cash continues to flow. He has done this by ordering regional NLRB directors to dismiss as many Beck complaints as possible, and to submit other cases to Washington, where bureaucrats sit on them…. Last year, when Mr. Feinstein's term ended, Republicans in the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee moved to block a repeat of the farce. Even Committee Chairman Jim Jeffords (R., Vt.), normally not one to rock the Big Labor boat, complained about Mr. Feinstein's candidacy. And one year ago tomorrow Mr. Feinstein did indeed announce he would give up claim to the office.But not the office itself. For Mr. Clinton then proceeded to bypass lawmakers by making Mr. Feinstein one of his famous "temporary" recess appointments. And soon after, the Administration mounted a classic Clinton. It ensured that Mr. Feinstein would stay in his recess job by nominating even more problematic candidates for the supposedly nonpartisan general counsel position…."
U.S. House Policy Committee http://policy.house.gov/ 3/8/99 Christopher Cox "…In 1995, a large, bipartisan majority of the House (315-103) supported H. Res. 247, which called on the President to obtain congressional authorization before deploying U.S. troops to Bosnia. Nevertheless,...Clinton proceeded with the large-scale, long-term deployment of tens of thousands of American troops there without congressional authorization or any substantial national debate. Since then, the President has expended $12 billion in Bosnia, but has yet to include Bosnia funds in his budget. As a result, defense resources are being drained from other critical areas....Unlike President Bush, who won explicit approval from Congress before sending troops to Operation Desert Storm,...Clinton has now failed again to seek funding authority from Congress for his plan to deploy thousands of U.S. ground troops to Kosovo for years to come...."
Newsmax 3/9/99 Christopher Ruddy "…While America has been preoccupied with Clinton’s sexual shenanigans and Wall Street’s gyrations, extremely ominous developments have been quietly taking place within Russia and Communist China. These ominous developments have occurred during a time when President Bill Clinton has systematically moved to disarm the United States. While it has gone largely unreported, President Clinton has overseen the destruction of nearly two-thirds of America’s nuclear weapons stockpile. He has ordered that America no longer have a "launch on warning" policy and has replaced it with one that says America will retaliate only after it has been attacked. This non-sensical Clinton policy means that American cities and American military targets must first be destroyed before America retaliates. He has proposed taking computer circuitry out of land-based missiles, so that they could not be launched in an emergency. Clinton has proposed making it much more difficult for our submarines to launch their weapons, and even has suggested welding closed the missile hatches on our submarines. Most Americans assume that the Cold War is long over, and that we have nothing to fear from our new "friends," Russia and China. Such a notion is completely contradicted by Russia’s and China’s expansion of their nuclear arsenals at breakneck speed, and deployment of dozens of new weapons systems. Target: America. (Now, I know you may be saying this can’t be true, Russia is in chaos and China is just too weak to take on the United States. Please read on and then form your own opinion.) ….An enormous military build-up, including expansion of their arsenal of strategic nuclear weapons, and introduction of new biological and nuclear weapons with first-strike capability. A huge expansion of their navies (while the US mothballs over half its ships). A new form of brinkmanship, in which Russia and China regularly probe America’s defenses. Huge new civil defense programs, including enormous fallout shelters in Russia (one new underground city is larger than Washington, DC). At the same time, under Clinton, the US military has been cut to the bone, leaving America more vulnerable to foreign attack than at any time since the Cold War…."
Tallhappy, various 3/09/99 Jolly "…The administration would like you to believe that Perry is just off on a brief side trip that has nothing to do with out China Policy…. This all means that
Track 2 mode of negotiating on the China Taiwan issue is in full swing. An unofficial dialogue that lets the administration bypass congressional oversight, and the normal diplomatic channels. It also saves them the bother of trying to explain their policy to the public. This is the same policy that has led the administration to state that we will not recognize democratic Taiwan if it declared independence and would encourage other countries to do the same, and brought our two military forces closer by creating exchanges…"Washington Times 3/7/99 Benjamin Works "…Egads! It's LBJ's creeping escalation of "Operation Rolling Thunder," all over again. The unrecognized war with Iraq has persisted since the mid-December "Operation Desert Fox" when U.S. and British Air Forces sought to degrade Saddam's organs of power and instruments of war, particularly the seven divisions of the Republican Guard. Saddam did not blink. Since Christmas, aircraft have attacked about 100 different air defense targets in just more than two months, without any sign of a halt. Only on Tuesday March 2 did The Washington Post explicitly recognize that the air skirmishes over Iraq constitute "a low-grade air war," kept small so as not to upset the Arab neighbors. On Dec. 26, less than a week after Desert Fox's terminus, Iraqi anti-airdefenses - radar-guided anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) and surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) began harassing aircraft on patrol in both the northern and southern no-fly zones, which Saddam declared to be an illegal infringement of "Iraq's sovereignty and dignity." On and off, day by day, these skirmishes have continued…."
Jewish World Review 3/12/99 Cal Thomas Freeper Marcellus "…HAVING FLOUTED MARITAL, civil and criminal laws, President Clinton apparently believes it is a much smaller deal to renominate a man to head the Justice Department's civil rights division who illegally has held the post for more than a year in violation of long-standing federal law limiting "acting'' officials to 120 days....During his tenure at the Justice Department, Lee has effectively ignored the law. Instead, he has ruled ex cathedra ... with little regard for the Constitution....Not only should Lee not receive a Senate hearing, there ought to be a challenge to his remaining on the job at all. Here is a case not even requiring courage that the Senate Republicans and Democrats who still believe in the law ought to address…."
WorldNetDaily 3/23/99 Sarah Foster "…Concerned about President Clinton's aggressive use of executive orders to shape policy and make end-runs around Congress, Rep. Jack Metcalf, R-Wash., has introduced legislation he hopes will check the White House's hand. "The president has in effect made himself a 'super-legislator' by issuing executive orders that require the appropriation of funds," says Metcalf, explaining the reason for his new bill. "We must reverse this trend and fulfill our constitutional duty. This vital legislation reasserts the role of Congress to enact legislation and appropriate federal dollars. [It] reminds us all that only Congress has the power to authorize the spending of federal dollars." If House Concurrent Resolution 30 passes, any executive order "which infringes on congressional powers and duties" or requires the expenditure of federal funds "not specifically appropriated for the purpose of the executive order" would be advisory only and have no force or effect unless Congress enacts it as law…. Of the 279 executive orders issued by Clinton, Metcalf regards E.O. 13061: Federal Support of Community Efforts along American Heritage Rivers -- issued Sept. 11, 1997 -- as one that's "particularly egregious," said Moore. "That's the one that really got us started. Clinton was promising federal money that had not been appropriated; he was reprogramming funds that were not authorized." Under this executive order, Clinton would select 10 rivers from a list of nominees -- deemed in need of "federal protection" and funds. Nominations were made by local governments and various environmental groups, with -- at first -- no provision for withdrawing a nominated river from the list. The list was later expanded, again by executive order, to 14…."
San Francisco Chronicle 3/30/99 Tom Campbell Freeper Stand Watch Listen "…EXCERPTS "The president did not wait for the U.S. Senate to vote on the resolution that was pending regarding the use of force over Kosovo. Nor did he supply the reports and findings required by the House of Representatives in its conditional resolution of support of two weeks ago. In so acting, President Clinton has defied the U.S. Constitution, which vests the sole right to declare war in the U.S. Congress. .......In Bosnia, the government invited us to keep the peace. In Somalia, there was no recognized government at all -- just bands of militias stealing food aid. In international law, war is the use of force by one government against another. Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic is horrible. Perhaps this war is the right thing for us to do, to try to stop what Milosevic would otherwise do in Kosovo. But if so, it is for Congress, not the president, to decide. No emergency prevented the president from making his case before Congress."…"
Washington Post 4/15/99 Juliet Eilperin Barbara Vobejda "...Key Republicans in Congress said yesterday they would not force a government shutdown this summer over the 2000 Census, making it increasingly likely the White House will prevail in the longstanding dispute over how to conduct the next national head count. ....Not only does the war over Kosovo make it difficult to contemplate a shutdown of the State Department, Republicans have become leery of being blamed for closing the government after they suffered from the political fallout of a similar move four years ago..... Miller and others made it clear that the Republicans are not abandoning their opposition to the use of the method known as statistical sampling, in which the nation's population figures would be adjusted based on the results of a sample survey of 300,000 households. Citing a January Supreme Court ruling that barred the use of sampling to apportion House seats among states, Miller said he is confident that a subsequent legal challenge would extend that ban to other uses of sampling, primarily redistricting...."
St. Petersburg Times 4/17/99 Katherine Pfleger Freeper Cincinatus re: IRS "...Among them, Clinton had until Jan. 22 to nominate six of the nine people who would sit on a board that would oversee the agency. But to date the White House has not submitted a single name to the Senate for approval, and some congressional leaders and consumer advocates are beginning to think that Clinton may be trying to stymie reform...."
Los Angeles Times 4/21/99 Jim Mann Freeper Stand Watch Listen "...EXCERPTS "One of the great half-truths about American foreign policy is that Congress interferes too much with the ability of the executive branch to do as it sees fit overseas. Listen to the complaints of the Clinton administration, or any of its recent predecessors, both Republican and Democratic, and you'll hear this refrain. Congress is exceeding its constitutional role by improperly usurping the president's authority in foreign policy, they say. Well, don't take the whining too seriously. For, as we're now seeing in Kosovo, when it comes to the single most momentous aspect of foreign policy, the decision to send American troops into combat, the reverse is true: The last few presidents have wielded power that goes far beyond what they were supposed to have under our political system. The Constitution clearly gives Congress, not the president, the authority to declare war."..."
INSIGHT Magazine 5/17/99 John Elvin "...Critics say the Clinton administration has rewritten the rules to more than double the opportunities to dole out federal funds under his presidential emergency powers.A barely noticed tug-of-war over disaster aid featuring two powerful senators opposing an ambitious Cabinet secretary provides a peephole for following one of the most underreported gambits of the Clinton era: the politics of funding federal disaster relief.. . . Bond is chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on VA-HUD and Independent Agencies, and Mikulski is the ranking Democrat. In question was more than $300 million in emergency disaster-relief funds that Cuomo had been free to dispense under HUD's Community Development Block Grant Program. The money was designated as aid to victims who live in places declared by the president to be disaster areas, but insiders told the Times that Bond and Mikulski feared Cuomo planned to pass the bucks around recklessly "in political favor-type projects."..."
2/16/99 Freeper GummyIII "…Notice that there are only 181 accounted for, including some amendments, but that there should be around 278 of them. For "National Security" reasons, we are not allowed to see them:
1.
1999-02-10 Executive Order on Internet Research199263.
1997-06-11 Executive Order 13049 on Prohibition of Chemical Weapons1506
The American Spectator 5/99 Kenneth R. Timmerman "...I have been investigating Chinese high-tech espionage activities in the United States since 1993, and discovered early on just how sensitive a subject this can be. As a congressional staffer working for California Democrat Tom Lantos, I requested licensing records of U.S. high-tech exports to China from the Department of Commerce. When Commerce finally delivered the several- thousand-page print-out to the Rayburn House Office building in late March 1993, I was prevented for three weeks from even looking it over, despite the fact that the information was not classified. ...They did not want the story to leak out of just how much dual- use technology U.S. companies had been allowed to sell to the Chinese military, for fear that would impede the U.S.-China high-tech pipeline. Unbeknownst to most people at the time was a plan devised by top Clinton administration appointees to lift export controls on a wide range of strategic technologies. The plan was first laid out in a 1992 National Academy of Sciences study authored by William Perry, Ashton Carter, and Mitchel Wallerstein, who all went on to top Pentagon jobs under Clinton. Calling export controls a "wasting asset," they argued that for U.S. high- tech firms to maintain a technological edge over their foreign competitors they needed to be allowed to export ever-more sophisticated equipment, so they could plow those profits into developing new technologies..... After the election, William Perry became deputy secretary of defense and went to work putting the plan into action within the bureaucracy. Ron Brown, as secretary of commerce, was tasked with selling the decontrols to corporate America and Congress as part of an administration-wide "Trade Promotion" package, aimed at creating jobs and "growing" U.S. exports. On September 30, 1993, Brown issued a landmark report, "Toward a National Export Strategy," which first made the argument--oft-repeated until the Loral-Hughes satellite scandals erupted last year--that each additional $1 billion in U.S. exports creates 20,000 jobs in the U.S..... In 1993 and 1994 the administration tried to rewrite the EAA to eliminate most controls, but Congress balked; so they simply made an end run around the law, and dismantled the controls through executive branch regulations. The administration's efforts reduced the voluminous licensing lists I had once received, and Defense Department officials now complain there are no more records of what has been shipped to the Chinese military--and thus no way to gauge the damage to U.S. national security. Like small-time hoods dreaming of the perfect crime, Clinton's "best and brightest" thought they had covered up all traces of their acts...."
WorldNetDaily 4/28/99 "...The very day of the mass murders in Littleton, President Clinton was already devising ways to spend other people's tax dollars on relief. He went so far as to say the federal government would provide any assistance needed in the aftermath of the crime. He didn't even bother to consult Congress -- the only branch of government authorized under the Constitution to allocate resources. No matter, in this case. It's a mere technicality. There aren't 10 souls in both houses of Congress who would have denied anything to the people of Littleton for fear of being labeled cold-hearted. That's really the heart of the problem. The American people and the leaders of both major parties have completely lost sight of the constitutionally limited powers and scope of the federal government. We may go beyond the point of no return. And the response to Littleton is a perfect example of how this insidious process works...."
4/28/99 Henry Lamb: Worldnetdaily.com Freeper Thanatos "...The NATO Summit brought together the chief executives of 19 nations who assumed the authority to ignore the NATO Charter and the U.N. Charter and inflict war upon a sovereign nation. Milosevic's inhumanity to the Kosovars is despicable; it is, however, far less threatening to the future of civilization than the unauthorized action taken by NATO. The American experience has demonstrated to the world that the first principle of self-governance should be that government power arises from, and is limited by, the consent of the people. Milosevic does not recognize this first principle; neither does NATO. The U.S. Congress, the voice of the people, did not declare war on Yugoslavia; NATO did. Mr. Clinton's election to be the chief executive officer did not empower him to become the voice of the American people. His election empowered him only to execute the laws enacted by the U.S. Congress. He has usurped congressional authority by committing American troops to the illegal war in Yugoslavia...."
Deseret News 5/10/99 Jack Anderson, and Jan Moller ".... Things came to a head in 1995, when UNESCO tried to wield its influence over the proposed New World Mine near Yellowstone. The mine was to be located on private property adjacent to the park, but environmentalists saw a dangerous precedent being set and wanted desperately to protect the park's buffer zone. UNESCO sided with the environmentalists, and so did the Clinton administration when it ponied up $65 million to buy the land from the mining company and preserve it for future generations. That was too much for some lawmakers to take. Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, and others quickly introduced the American Land Sovereignty Protection Act, which seeks to remove the United Nations' influence over domestic land-use decisions. Sources at the world body say the proposal is ludicrous. For one, they argue, preservation sites are only designated with the approval of affected property owners, plus local and national authorities. Sources in Chenoweth's office tell us that state and local governments are rarely consulted before a historic site is designated, and that such decisions are usually made by unelected federal bureaucrats at the Department of Interior or higher-up....."
Daily Republican 5/24/99 Howard Hobbs "...As of today, the Congress has considered several pieces of legislation. The Senate passed a resolution authorizing the President to conduct military air operations and missile strikes in cooperation with NATO against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on March 23, 1999, but the the House also defeated a measure declaring a state of war between the United States and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and a measure directing the President to remove U.S. Armed Forces from present operations against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On April 20, Senator John McCain and others introduced a joint resolution authorizing the President to use all necessary force in concert with United States allies to accomplish United States and NATO objectives in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Neither house of Congress has acted on that resolution. Despite the House of Representatives' decision to reject authorization of the war, the President continues to wage war against Yugoslavia. Our Constitution provides that a decision to initiate war be made by Congress. The framers were opposed to giving one person the power to initiate war. As Alexander Hamilton explained, certain interests were "so delicate and momentous" that entrusting them "to the sole disposal" of the President is unwise. The Federalist No. 75, at 506 (A. Hamilton) (J. Cooke ed. 1961) (discussing treaty power). As a Congressman, Abraham Lincoln argued that the Constitution's intent was "that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression (war) upon us." Qouted in a letter from Lincoln to W.H. Herndon, Feb. 15, 1848. [See A. Schlesinger, Jr., The Imperial Presidency 43 (1973).] ..."
5/27/99 Curt Weldon (R-PA) "...That the administration as early as 1994 systematically dismantled its system of monitoring the influx of Chinese and other foreign nationals visiting U.S. high technology companies, including our nuclear weapons labs. As a result, there are many tens of thousands of Chinese in the United States and we don't know where they are or what they are doing. In fact, it wasn't until this year just prior to public revelations of alleged Chinese espionage in our nation's nuclear weapons labs that the Energy Department decided to seek export licenses from the Commerce Department for foreign national visits. Yet, the requirement had always been law...."
Freeper Sigi on McLaughlin Report 5/29/99 "....Turn on PBS McLaughlin Report on Clinton vesting himself as a King and usurping Congressional Authority to Make War. Clinton is Violating War Powers Act! Congressmen Kucinich (Dem. Iowa) and Bartlett (Rep. MD) and professor of Constitutional Law Borasage from Americn University agree this war is illegal and un-Constitutional in violation of express Congressional votes...."
WorldNetDaily 6/1/99 Joseph Farah Freeper laz "...WorldNetDaily published an ominous report last month. It pointed out the disturbing truth that President Clinton doesn't need to sign an executive order to start a full-scale gun grab. He doesn't need to declare martial law if he wants to use the armed forces to deal with public unrest. He doesn't need a governor's request to use troops to enforce federal laws in rebellious states. As Sarah Foster reported, "He can do all these things on his own, without seeking advice or approval from Congress."..."
CNS 6/1/99 Phyllis Schafly "...Not only does President Clinton not feel any shame about his impeachment (as he told Dan Rather), Clinton now feels stronger than ever, able to override the U.S. Constitution and ignore Congress. He has been exercising extraordinary new powers - never asserted by any prior President - both through Executive Orders (EO) and abuse of his title of Commander in Chief. Rep. Jack Metcalf (R-WA) says that Clinton has "made himself a super-legislator by issuing executive orders that require the appropriation of funds." Clinton's good friend and defender of Oval Office misbehavior, Paul Begala, put it like this: "Stroke of the pen. Law of the land. Kinda cool." No, it isn't cool; it's hot with disdain for the constitutional rules that "all" legislative powers belong to Congress and that "all bills for raising revenues shall originate in the House." James Madison called the accumulation of executive and legislative powers in the same branch "the very definition of tyranny." Clinton will be President for another year and a half. By what the press has variously called a "blizzard" or a "blitz" of Executive Orders, Clinton has grabbed new powers for the executive branch, made broad public policy changes, spent non-appropriated taxpayers' money, and even tried to restructure our governmental system..... Other Clinton Executive Orders include his EO 12919 of June 3, 1994, entitled National Defense Industrial Resources Preparedness, which asserts plenary and dictatorial authority over citizens, food, transportation, energy, health, contracts, materials and resources to be exercised by the National Security Council and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency)...."
Pittsburgh Post Gazette 6/2/99 Jack Torry "...President Clinton and Congress clash in a courtroom this week over a constitutional issue as old as the nation itself: Who has the authority to send U.S. troops to war? Tomorrow, a bipartisan group of Congress members will ask a federal judge to decide whether Clinton violated the Constitution's balance of powers by not seeking congressional approval to continue the air war over Kosovo. Clinton has been taken to court by Reps. Tom Campbell, R-Calif., Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and 23 other lawmakers who failed to stop the war with a House floor vote in April. They argue that only Congress has the power to send the military into combat. The lawsuit, whose authors include University of Pittsburgh law professor Jules Lobel, could lead to the first ruling on the constitutionality of the contested 1973 War Powers Resolution, passed over former President Richard Nixon's veto and opposed by every president since Nixon. Attorneys for the Clinton administration will reply with a request that U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman dismiss the case..... Clinton appointed Friedman to the federal bench in 1994...."
http://cnn.com/ 6/4/99 CNN "...President Bill Clinton Friday used his recess appointment privilege to name James Hormel as ambassador to Luxembourg. Clinton's move was in direct defiance of the Senate's GOP leadership who have refused to confirm Hormel because he is openly gay. The recess appointment is a constitutional device that becomes available to the president if an appointment is made while Congress is in recess. Both the House and the Senate return from their 10-day Memorial Day holiday on Monday. Under the recess appointment, Hormel, 66, will be able to serve until the end of 2000, when the 106th Congress adjourns. All of Clinton's ambassadorial appointments expire at the end of his term in January 2001....."
CNN 6/4/99 "....Saying "mental illness is not a character flaw it is a disability," President Bill Clinton issued Friday an executive order removing the federal government's strict hiring and promotion standards for the mentally disabled. Clinton directed "all federal agencies to provide applicants with mental illness the same opportunities as other applicants with disabilities."..."
Washington Times/Associated Press "... President Clinton's proposal to let states tap into their unemployment funds to offer paid leave for new parents faces significant obstacles, benefit analysts say, because states likely will be reluctant to draw on accounts reserved for out-of-work people.......The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act has eased the strain on workers who must care for babies by guaranteeing up to 12 weeks' unpaid leave. But additional help is needed for those who cannot afford to take time off without pay, Mr. Clinton said in a speech two weeks ago. The president announced he has directed the Labor Department to write regulations letting states provide unemployment benefits to parents of newborn or newly adopted children who choose to take the leave guaranteed under the 1993 law...."
Net Daily 6/7/99 Sarah Foster "...Good to his word to go over the heads of Congress when necessary to achieve his legislative agenda, President Clinton has issued yet another executive order -- this one in place of Senate ratification of a global climate treaty. An unnumbered order directs all federal agencies to start implementing the Kyoto Protocol -- a global climate agreement negotiated in 1997 by over 160 countries meeting in Kyoto, Japan. Clinton has used this tactic before. For instance, in December, when -- as reported by WorldNetDaily -- he directed the federal agencies to implement any and all "human rights" conventions, whether ratified or not. The Kyoto Protocol mandates a worldwide reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by the years 2008 to 2012. Under the terms of the protocol the United States would be required to reduce emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels. The targeted gases include carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The Senate has refused to ratify the protocol because of the restrictions it would place on America's economy and industries and the American people. Developing nations are exempted from its requirements. Nonetheless, the president and his administration have frankly agreed to the terms and looked for ways to encourage implementation. In fact, they've been promoting them. On June 3 the president quietly signed the executive order "Greening the Government through Efficient Energy Management." The new executive order directs all federal agencies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their facilities by 30 percent by 2010 compared to 1990 levels, to reduce energy and water consumption and to reduce the use of petroleum....."
Augusta Chronicle 6/6/99 Editorial "...Bill Clinton is the first president to go beyond tolerating homosexuality to promoting it as an acceptable alternative lifestyle. He has ignored the constitutional veto of the Senate by naming, during the congressional recess, homosexual activist James Hormel as ambassador to Luxembourg. (This country, 97 percent Roman Catholic, was insulted when his name was first announced -- and this was after the Democratic donor was to be ambassador to Fiji, but couldn't serve because homosexuality is a crime there.) Hormel was a ``commentator'' for San Francisco's ``Gay Pride Parade,'' which mocks Christianity -- and Catholicism in particular. He also funds a library collection in that city featuring perverted documents from the ``North American Man/Boy Love Association.'' How low can Clinton go? ..."
New York Times 6/10/99 STEVEN A. HOLMES "...Declaring racial profiling "morally indefensible," President Clinton on Wednesday ordered federal law-enforcement agencies to compile data on the race and ethnicity of people they question, search or arrest to determine whether suspects are stopped because of the color of their skin. "Racial profiling is in fact the opposite of good police work where actions are based on hard facts, not stereotypes," the president said. "It is wrong, it is destructive and it must stop." Clinton said he was issuing a presidential directive requiring all federal law-enforcement agencies, like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the National Park Service, the Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, to gather detailed demographic data on their activities. "The Justice Department will then analyze this data to assess whether and where law enforcement engage in racial profiling, and what concrete steps we need to take at the national level to eliminate it anywhere it exists," he said. Clinton acknowledged that because the vast bulk of police work was carried out by state and local agencies, and not the federal government, his directive would have limited i-pact on the practice of racial profiling. But he challenged state and local police forces to follow his lead in determining the extent of the practice....The president Wednesday also threw his support behind a bill requiring the attorney general to analyze data from a sample of jurisdictions on stops for traffic violations by state and local law-enforcement agencies. The study would look at the race, ethnicity and sex of the driver, what prompted the stop, whether the vehicle was searched, and if so, what contraband was found and whether an arrest was made...."
6/12/99 AP Freeper Thanatos "... The White House is appealing to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott not to block other nominees in an escalating dispute over the ambassadorial appointment of an openly gay businessman. But the Mississippi Republican wants a pledge from Clinton he won't circumvent the Senate by announcing controversial appointments during short congressional recesses in the future. ``It has to be stopped,'' said Lott spokesman John Czwartacki ..."
LA Times 6/12/99 AP Freeper Cincinatus "...In a speech at the elite, ivy-draped campus on Chicago's South Side, Clinton planned to announce an executive order. It directs federal agencies to list products suspected to have been made by forced child labor and requires federal contractors to certify they tried to determine whether child labor was used in making the goods. Any contractor who does not comply or violates the child labor ban would be barred from future dealings with the federal government. ..."
Washington Times 6/14/99 Audrey Hudson "...The Clinton administration is planning to ban most public use of 5 million acres of federal land in six states to placate environmental voters before the 2000 presidential election. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is using his regulatory authority to halt mining, grazing, logging and oil and gas exploration on public lands. In many cases all recreational uses would be banned except walking and meditating. "We have to be wary. They want to appease the extreme environmentalists who have this on their agenda and want this to happen," said Sen. Frank H. Murkowski, Alaska Republican and chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee...."
http://www.senate.gov 6/15/99 U.S. Senator James M. Inhofe "…Gary Hoitsma, press secretary to U.S. Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), today responded to two wildly erroneous statements made today by White House spokesman Joe Lockhart concerning Inhofe's effort to prevent further abuses of the recess appointment power. First, Lockhart stated that the White House has "done an excellent job in notifying Congress" about recess appointments. "In making the unexpected appointment of Mr. Hormel on the last day of a brief five-day Senate recess, the White House did a lousy job of notifying Congress," Hoitsma said. "They notified the Majority Leader less than 24 hours before the appointment. "If that is their idea of 'excellent,' they should talk to Senator Byrd. In 1985, Byrd held up over 5000 Reagan nominees for two months to protest inadequate notification of recess appointments. Byrd's holds were lifted when Reagan agreed to notify Congress in advance of a recess for any future recess appointment. This is all we are asking of President Clinton for future recess appointments. He should agree, just as Reagan did in 1985." Second, Lockhart said "what Sen. Inhofe is engaged in here is akin to ideological extortion." >P> "No. What Sen. Inhofe is engaged in here is protecting the Senate from future abuses of power by this President," Hoitsma said. "It would be more accurate to say that the President's stealth-attack appointment was akin to ideological tyranny. The recess appointment power should not be used simply to avoid controversy or to circumvent the constitutional power and responsibility of the Senate." …."Associated Press 6/16/99 Laurie Kellman "…With a promise from President Clinton to notify senior lawmakers before making recess appointments, a key Republican senator said today he will stop blocking approval of pending nominations. Sen. James Inhofe said in a statement the holds he placed on nominations were ``never designed to undo the appointment of'' Clinton's ambassadorial appointment of an openly gay businessman. The Oklahoma Republican said he acted ``to uphold the Senate's proper role in the 'advice and consent' process.'' Over the Memorial Day congressional recess, the president circumvented the Senate by appointing James Hormel of San Francisco ambassador to Luxembourg…."
6/18/99 Lee Davidson Deseret News "…The Clinton administration says that its 1996 creation of Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument wasn't really secretive. "This was not done in secret. For the last several weeks leading up to the proclamation, there was an actual vigorous debate involving the Utah delegation, the governor of Utah and many people," Interior Department solicitor John Leshy said Thursday at a congressional hearing. That flabbergasted Reps. Jim Hansen and Chris Cannon, R-Utah. Cannon retorted, "I congratulate you for keeping a straight face while you said that." The debate came over a bill sponsored by Hansen that would require more public hearings and studies before a president can create a monument. Hansen quoted White House documents, which he obtained by subpoena, that ordered secrecy. He also went through a chronology showing Utahns didn't hear rumors about the monument until a Washington Post story 11 days in advance - and the White House said for days thereafter that any monument was years away from creation. In fact, Hansen said the White House only finally confirmed solid plans to Utah officials for the monument "at 2 a.m. on the day that the monument was created." …."
CBN 6/23/99 Dale Hurd "...Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit is moving to stop mining, grazing, logging and oil and gas exploration on 5 million acres in 6 states. He may also use something called the Antiquities Act, created by Teddy Roosevelt, to declare some of the land a national monument. That would mean that in many cases, all recreational uses would also be banned, except for walking and meditating. The White House plan would affect 2.6 million acres in Utah, 1.5 million acres in Alaska, a half million acres in Arizona, almost a half million in Montana, as well as land in Colorado and Missouri. And this isn't a new issue: Members of the House Parks and Public Lands Subcommittee are still fuming over the creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on 1.8 million acres in Utah three years ago, which stripped some rural communities of the ability to make a living off the land. They also blistered Interior Department Officer John Leshy for orchestrating the deal in secret. "You're talking about a great deal of land here," Representative John Duncan, R-Tenn., told Leshy, "I represent a big portion of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The entire Great Smoky Mountains National Park is 565 thousand acres. You're talking about three times that much, 1.8 million acres." ..."
WorldNetDaily 6/25/99 Sarah Foster "...President Clinton has devised another way to bypass Congress and the Constitution, say property rights activists. Rather than sign an executive order, he simply announces a program and directs the federal agencies and the state and local governments to treat it as though it were the law. That's what Clinton and Al Gore did to advance the Clean Water Action Plan, which the vice president unveiled Feb. 19, 1998, the 25th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. There was no ceremonial signing of an executive order. Gore simply announced the plan, and the president ordered the federal agencies, states, and local governments to begin implementing its 111 mandates, dubbed "key actions." ..."
Right Magazine 6/28/99 Linda A. Prussen-Razzano "... Even if only a fraction of the Y2K doomsday scenarios transpire, portions of the United States will be inconvenienced for several days. Is this a reason to assume, as one of my fellow writers so aptly termed it, a "bunker mentality"? Absolutely not. Americans have survived floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, and more. How preposterous to presume that a few days of inconvenience will ruffle our indomitable fellow citizens. Then why are so many people concerned? In part, the answer lies within the government's own records...."
Right Magazine 6/28/99 Linda A. Prussen-Razzano "...Under Presidential Decision Directive 62 (PPD 62) "Process for Coordinating Interagency WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) Preparedness Efforts," the " National Security Council (NSC) established three senior management groups: the Counter-terrorism Security group (CSG), the Critical Infrastructure Coordination group (CICG), and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Preparedness (WMDP) group. The NSC chairs all three of these groups; and each group has multiple subgroups." (House National Security Committee, Combined Statements, September 25, 1998). The purpose of these groups is to respond to an unconventional terrorist attack here in the United States. They will use the Reserves and National Guard as "first responders," and will be fully operational on January 1, 2000...."
Right Magazine 6/28/99 Linda A. Prussen-Razzano "...Next is The Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-201), which "authorizes Federal agencies to provide resources, training and technical assistance to state and local emergency management personnel who would respond to a WMD terrorist incident" (House National Security Committee, Combined Statements, September 25, 1998). "In September 1998, the Attorney General and Deputy Secretary of Defense began discussions on transferring portions of the DPP from DOD (Department of Defense) to DOJ (Department of Justice). Personnel from DOD are currently meeting with representatives from DOJ to develop a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the transfer. The framework for this MOU is based on the following assumptions: * The President of the United States will designate the Attorney General as the lead official to assume responsibility for the DPP no later than October 1, 2000. * DOD will remain the lead federal agency for the DPP through the end of FY2000" (House National Security Committee, Combined Statements, September 25, 1998)...."
Right Magazine 6/28/99 Linda A. Prussen-Razzano "...The creation of these agencies can be viewed in at least two ways: 1) the American Government is responding to a very real national threat, and is preparing to limit civilian casualties and damage to property, or 2) using Y2K as it's cover, the American Government is preparing to subvert the Constitution by declaring a national emergency and will use these agencies to strip citizens of their rights. Presuming we can trust Janet Reno, Sandy Berger, and Bill Clinton, the first scenario is obviously the rational choice. To mobilize the power of these agencies, there must be a terrorist attack or a declared national emergency. Via Executive Order, the President declared "a national emergency" three times in the past (June 30, 1994, August 14, 1996, and October 12, 1999); yet, no soldiers took to the streets and martial law did not prevail. The three Executive Orders referenced did, however, change our export policy over license agreements and dual use technology, much to the benefit of the Communist Chinese...."
THE WHITE HOUSE - Office of the Press Secretary 7/1/99 "..Today, I am announcing reforms to the Administration's export controls on high-performance computers (HPC) and semiconductors. These policies will strengthen America's high-tech competitiveness, while maintaining controls that are needed to maintain our national security. These reforms are needed because of the extraordinarily rapid rate of technological change in the computer industry. The number-crunching ability of a supercomputer that once filled a room and cost millions of dollars is now available in an inexpensive desktop computer. Computers that are widely used by businesses and can be manufactured by European, Japanese and Asian companies will soon exceed the limits that I established on high-performance computers in 1996...."
President Clinton Memo 7/25/98 ".My Administration has made addressing the threat of global climate change one of our top environmental priorities.On March 9, 1994, I issued Executive Order 12902, Energy Efficiency and Water Conservation at Federal Facilities, which directed all executive agencies to reduce energy consumption 30 percent below 1985 levels by the year 2005. .Under ESPC authority, agencies can contract with private energy service companies to retrofit Federal buildings with no up-front payments by the Government. These companies recover their costs from a negotiated share of the energy cost savings, with the remaining savings being returned to the contracting agency and to taxpayers. I therefore direct all Federal agencies to maximize use of this authority by the year 2000, when the authority expires. I also direct the Department of Energy (DOE) to lead an interagency effort to develop a legislative proposal extending ESPC authority past the year 2000. As part of this effort, I direct all agencies to identify and propose areas for expansion of ESPC authority -- for instance, as appropriate, to some leased buildings, mobility, and other Federal assets. In addition, I direct agencies to propose ways to procure electricity produced using cost-effective renewable sources. .."
C.Q. Weekly Lori Nitschke 7/25/98 " The Kyoto Treaty on climate change took center stage when the House resume debate July 23 on the fiscal 1999 spending measure for science, space, housing and veterans programs The House left intact provisions in the bill (HR4194) that would prevent the Clinton administration from implementing the treaty through regulatory actions if the Senate does not ratify it -- and the Senate is not expected to do so. Environmentalists cut short their efforts to reverse those provisions ."
Fox News 7/21/99 "...President Clinton renewed appeals to the Senate Wednesday to confirm Bill Lann Lee as assistant attorney general for civil rights, a post Lee has held on an acting basis since his nomination was rejected in 1997. "Some of Mr. Lee's opponents have decided to use his nomination as a means of expressing their disagreement with the civil rights laws themselves. This is wrong,'' Clinton said in a statement..... Lee was sworn in as acting head of the Justice Department's civil rights division in December 1997, a month after the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee rejected his nomination. ...."
Reagan Information Interchange 7/19/99 Jack Metcalf (R-WA) "...Mr. METCALF. Mr. Speaker, before coming to Congress, I taught history for 30 years in my home State of Washington. But it should not take a historian, a lawyer, or even a politician to realize that Congress has ceded a measure of fundamental constitutional authority to the executive. In fact, it is the hundreds of phone calls and letters from Americans in my district and around the country that brings me to the floor today. These citizens are concerned, and I am concerned, that Congress has subjected the people to laws it never made because we have allowed our legislative responsibilities to be usurped by the executive department. In the past, Presidents worked with Congress to pass legislation. Indeed, that is what the Founders intended. Nevertheless, Congress, over the years, has allowed Presidents, both Democratic and Republican, to issue executive orders and proclamations that push far beyond the prescribed executive authority. Presidents have used these administrative actions to enact their agenda without the consent of Congress..... In fact, this President has issued more than 297 executive orders since taking office. Some of these infringe on the powers and duties reserved exclusively for Congress as dictated by the U.S. Constitution. In fact, one was so egregious that it had to be rescinded last year. That was executive order 13803 on federalism, which imposed new guidelines and granted the President unlimited policy making authority. Furthermore, it expanded the burden of big government on American citizens. .... The American Heritage Rivers Initiative, Executive Order 13061, is another example of our current President's attempted usurpation of the legislative powers of Congress. The Rivers Initiative was born when the President decided, without studies or public hearings, that he could take governing authority away from States and local governments. The Constitution requires Congress to first approve all revenue spending. However, Clinton's executive order would require States to give up certain rivers to Federal control. It is a threat to citizens' private property rights. Even more disturbing, the Rivers Initiative also would have given the President the power to reprogram government funds and spend taxpayers' money for projects without a vote of Congress. The President's use of executive orders and proclamations is reckless. Some fear the President may try to use these presidential directives in the future to further his international agenda in U.N. treaties or to increase his authority under the so-called emergency powers to spend more taxpayer dollars. ...."
The Washington Times: National Weekly Edition 7/19-25/99 Audrey Hudson "…Federal agencies are all but ignoring an executive order first put forth by President Reagan requiring they prepare federalism assessments to determine if rules and regulations pre-empt state and local laws, according to the General Accounting Office. In a review of more than 11,000 rules and regulations issued from April 1996 to December 1998, the GAO found federal agencies had prepared only five federalism assessments. The worst offender was the Environmental Protection Agency, which completely ignored the order and whether its regulations impeded local authority in more than 1,900 rules it listed during this period. "Congress and the administration should not take lightly this preemption of state and local laws," said Chairman Fred Thompson of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee…."
Washington Times 7/29/99 Ben Barber "...Mr. Clinton in April issued Presidential Decision Directive 68, ordering the creation of the International Public Information (IPI) system, designed to make sure that all government agencies disseminating information abroad share a single message. A draft charter obtained by The Washington Times says the purpose of IPI is "to prevent and mitigate crises and to influence foreign audiences in ways favorable to the achievement of U.S. foreign policy objectives." Officials of U.S. defense, intelligence, diplomatic and other agencies met for the first time yesterday at the State Department to go over the draft charter, said a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity..... Future meetings of an IPI "core group" developing the new information system are to be chaired by Morton Halperin, head of policy planning at the State Department. The draft charter says information aimed at U.S. audiences should "be coordinated, integrated, deconflicted and synchronized with the [IPI] to achieve a synergistic effect." The former senior official complained that the charter "did not distinguish what would be done overseas and what would he done at home. . . .It talks about a news war."...."
http://www.senate.gov/ 7/27/99 U.S. Senator James M Inhofe "....U.S. Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) said today President Clinton is employing word games and abusing the constitutional lawmaking process to cover-up his administration's ideologically-driven opposition to protecting the American people from ballistic missile attack. "Every American must understand that the Clinton-Gore administration strongly opposes the deployment of a national missile defense system," Inhofe said. "They must also understand the President's position has not changed in spite of signing a bill into law last week which calls for the deployment of such a system. "In the spirit of redefining what the meaning of 'is' is, the President has brazenly chosen to interpret this new missile defense law in a manner contrary to its intended and stated purpose. In so doing, he makes a mockery of the Constitutional lawmaking process and once again illustrates the threat posed by his incessant deception, manipulation and dishonesty." Inhofe was referring to President Clinton's actions Friday in which the President a) signed into law a bill calling for the deployment of a national missile defense system; and at the same time, b) issued a statement claiming the bill actually called for no such thing. ..."
http://www.senate.gov/ 7/27/99 U.S. Senator James M Inhofe "....The Missile Defense Act, which passed the House and Senate earlier this year, sought to clearly define U.S. policy on missile defense. The bill states in its entirety that "it is the policy of the United States to deploy as soon as technologically possible an effective national missile defense system capable of defending the territory of the United States against limited ballistic missile attack (whether accidental, unauthorized, or deliberate) with funding subject to annual authorizations of appropriations and the annual appropriation of funds for national missile defense. It is the policy of the United States to seek negotiated reductions in Russian nuclear forces." In his statement on signing the bill, Clinton claims that "by specifying that any national missile defense deployment must be subject to the authorization and appropriation process, the legislation makes clear that no decision on deployment has been made." Inhofe: "In fact, it makes no such thing clear. It is a ludicrous and preposterous interpretation to suggest that the language of the bill means 'no decision on deployment has been made.' The whole point of the bill is to make an affirmative national decision on deployment. The references to 'authorizations' and 'appropriations' are nothing more than policy-neutral statements of fact about the legislative process. For the President to argue differently is shameless."
http://www.senate.gov/ 7/27/99 U.S. Senator James M Inhofe "....Also in his statement, Clinton asserts with a straight face that the second sentence of the two-sentence bill "puts Congress on record...reaffirming my Administration's position that our missile defense policy must take into account our arms control and nuclear nonproliferation objectives." Inhofe: "In fact, it does nothing of the sort, for if it did, I and many others would not have supported the bill in the first place. The purpose of this bill is to state that our nation's missile defense policy is decided in favor of deployment 'as soon as technologically possible.' The policy does not need to 'take into account' anything else. The stated goal of seeking negotiated reductions in Russian nuclear forces is a wholly separate statement of policy, not a contingent one. ...."
5/28/99 Office of Press Secretary 64 FR 29201 E.O.13122 "...INTERAGENCY TASK FORCE ON THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUTHWEST BORDER By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order provide a more rapid and integrated Federal response to the economic development challenges of the Southwest Border region, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Establishment of an Interagency Task Force on the Economic Development of the Southwest Border. ...Force shall: ( 1) analyze the existing programs and policies of Task Force members that relate to the Southwest Border to determine what changes, modifications, and innovations should be considered; (2) consider statistical and data analysis, research, and policy studies related to the Southwest Border; (3) develop and recommend short-term and long-term options for promoting sustainable economic development; (4) consult and coordinate activities with State, tribal, and local governments, community leaders, Members of Congress, the private sector, and other interested parties, paying particular attention to maintaining existing authorities of the States, tribes, and local governments, and preserving their existing working relationships with other agencies, organizations, or individuals; (5) coordinate and collaborate on research and demonstration priorities of Task Force member agencies related to the Southwest Border; (6) integrate Administration initiatives and programs into the design of sustainable economic development actions for the Southwest Border;and (7) focus initial efforts on pilot communities for implementing a coordinated and expedited Federal response to local economic development and other needs. (d ) The Task Force shall issue an interim report to the Vice President by November 15, 1999. The Task Force shall issue its first annual report to the Vice President by April 15, 2000, with subsequent reports to follow yearly and a final report on April 15, 2002. The reports shall describe the actions taken by, and progress of, each member of the Task Force in carrying out this order. The Task Force shall terminate 30 days after submitting its final report unless a Task Force consensus recommends continuation of activities...."
Wordnetdaily 8/2/99 Geoff Metcalf "...Notwithstanding the consistent unrelenting flood of propaganda, "the U.S. public has refused to back President Clinton's foreign policy." Some of you might question, "What foreign policy?" The fact is the administration has its collective panties in a bunch in the wake of this apparent inability to sell the gospel according to Bill-Jeff... Well, the latest abuse of power under the color of authority is "using resources that are aimed at spinning the news." Thanks to the wizardry of presidential decision directives, the president can (and does) create new policies and the agencies to implement his will. Congress impotently sits in the shadows alternately clucking and quivering. Up jumps the International Public Information (IPI) system, created in April by Presidential Decision Directive 68. This potential disinformation tool isn't bad enough as a bureaucracy, so it is to be run by Morton Halperin, formerly "Senior Director for Democracy" at the National Security Council and now head of policy planning at the State Department -- an all around anti-constitutional wonk.
Wordnetdaily 8/2/99 Geoff Metcalf "...This IPI working group met for the first time last Wednesday. It is yet further evidence of the evil that unbridled ambition can wrought without sufficient checks and balances. The IPI charter, still classified top secret, reportedly synthesizes the functions of agencies like the old USIA and Radio Free Europe. Those agencies were supposed to be aimed overseas, to sell New Deal propaganda. The leaked text of the draft charter is written in typical bureaucratese-speak. However, if that fictional "reasonable person" reads between the lines of the form, the substance is clear. Under the purview of IPI overseas information (propaganda) will "be coordinated, integrated, de-conflicted and synchronized with the (IPI) to achieve a synergistic effect" at home. What the heck does that mean? Simply stated, we will have the dubious distinction of paying (with OUR tax dollars) for our own indoctrination. Cool ... and Machiavelli smiled....The Washington Times got their hands on a copy of a draft charter which states the purpose of this outfit is "to prevent and mitigate crises and to influence foreign audiences in ways favorable to the achievement of U.S. foreign policy objectives." Anonymous insiders report that honchos from defense, intelligence, diplomatic and other assorted alphabet soup groups gathered at the State department to review the draft charter...."
Wordnetdaily 8/2/99 Geoff Metcalf "... Presidential Decision Directive 68, which ordered the creation of the International Public Information was designed to make sure that all government agencies disseminating information abroad share a single message...... One former senior official dared complain that this charter "did not distinguish what would be done overseas and what would be done at home. ... It talks about a news war." BINGO! The devil is always in the details. The IPI charter does not distinguish between overseas information and domestic information because the intention is to slap a tighter bridle on domestic critics..... This administration has routinely and consistently proved to be corrupt, disingenuous, duplicitous, untruthful, mean-spirited, and manipulative. The same president was just fined for having lied to a judge under oath. Lying has been proven to be the one life-long axiomatic consistent of the man...."
Insight Magazine 7/30/99 Catherine Edward "...It was never intended that the president should rule by executive decree, usurping the legislative role of Congress. But a top Clinton aide has called this option 'kinda cool.' .... . . . The Constitution dictates that the laws shall originate in Congress and the executive branch shall see that they are "faithfully executed" (Article II, Section 3). In George Washington's day, executive orders were no more than administrative directives to federal employees. "They have grown," says Bill Olsen, a constitutional lawyer and former Reagan administration official, "to be a deliberate strategy to circumvent the Congress and the legislative function."...In 1974, a special Senate Committee on National Emergencies and Delegated Emergency Powers was alarmed to find that the United States had been governed under emergency authority since 1933....The 1974 National Emergencies Act sunsetted all existing emergencies at that time. Congress then passed legislation in 1976 and in 1985 allowing termination of any national emergency by joint resolution, though no such resolution has been offered.....Tom DeWeese of the American Policy Center cites what he regards as severe abuses of executive orders by Clinton. He has plenty of company. Among current irritants are: -
Insight Magazine 7/30/99 Catherine Edward "...Invasive Species Executive Order 13112, issued in February, prevents the introduction of invasive species to public property. DeWeese cautions that because alien species is defined as any species, "including seeds, eggs spores or other biological material capable of propagating that species that is not native to that ecosystem," alien species could be defined to include a farmer's cattle or even the family dog...."
Insight Magazine 7/30/99 Catherine Edward "...Implementation of Human Rights Treaties Executive Order 13107 calls on the U.S. government to implement human-rights treaties to which the United States now is or may become party in the future... "
Insight Magazine 7/30/99 Catherine Edward "...American Heritage Rivers Initiative Executive Order 13061 has caused considerable consternation in Congress. The president designated 14 rivers as federal property -- part of America's heritage to be seized by the federal government regardless of whether they run through private property... "
Insight Magazine 7/30/99 Catherine Edward "...Federalism Executive Order 13083 established federal jurisdiction over states in matters not enumerated in the Constitution. The president suspended this order after a public outcry and much media attention that accused him of attempting to rewrite the Constitution...."
Insight Magazine 7/30/99 Catherine Edward "...Council on Sustainable Development Executive Order 12852 centers on the fact that federal and local programs are being set up to ensure that Americans sustain the environment. Suburban housing, air conditioning, high meat intake, frozen and convenience foods, fossil fuels and kitchen appliances are not listed as sustainable...."
Insight Magazine 7/30/99 Catherine Edward "...Revocation of Certain Executive Orders Concerning Federal Contracting 12833 overturned President Bush's endorsement by executive order of the Supreme Court ruling in the Communications Workers vs. Beck case that workers for companies under federal contract do not have to pay union dues as a condition of employment...."
Insight Magazine 7/30/99 Catherine Edward "...Meanwhile, Clinton has declared no less than 14 states of national emergency. This compares to five for Bush and six for Ronald Reagan..."
Washington Post 8/5/99 David Broder "...Fourteen months after the White House infuriated state and local officials by issuing a presidential directive on federalism issues without a word of consultation, a new draft--agreed to by everyone after extensive meetings--is finally ready for President Clinton's signature. The proposed executive order says federal regulations may preempt state and local laws and rules only when Congress expressly dictates they do so or gives the executive agency clear authority to supersede state and local government. It specifies that where state rules directly conflict with federal law, the latter shall be supreme. The order also would give the Office of Management and Budget authority to enforce it by rejecting major proposed regulations that lack a federalism "impact statement" or have been written without consultation with state and local officials. The executive order also would make it easier for state and local governments to get waivers from federal rules and requires federal officials to defer to states whenever possible as they weigh setting national standards. ..."
whitehouse.gov 8/5/99 Executive Order Federalism 12612, 12875, 13083 13095 Revoked "...Sec. 4. Special Requirements for Preemption. Agencies, in taking action that preempts State law, shall act in strict accordance with governing law. (a) Agencies shall construe, in regulations and otherwise, a Federal statute to preempt State law only where the statute contains an express preemption provision or there is some other clear evidence that the Congress intended preemption of State law, or where the exercise of State authority conflicts with the exercise of Federal authority under the Federal statute. (b) Where a Federal statute does not preempt State law (as addressed in subsection (a) of this section), agencies shall construe any authorization in the statute for the issuance of regulations as authorizing preemption of State law by rulemaking only when the exercise of State authority directly conflicts with the exercise of Federal authority under the Federal statute or there is clear evidence to conclude that the Congress intended the agency to have the authority to preempt State law. (c) Any regulatory preemption of State law shall be restricted to the minimum level necessary to achieve the objectives of the statute pursuant to which the regulations are promulgated. (d) When an agency foresees the possibility of a conflict between State law and Federally protected interests within its area of regulatory responsibility, the agency shall consult, to the extent practicable, with appropriate State and local officials in an effort to avoid such a conflict. (e) When an agency proposes to act through adjudication or rulemaking to preempt State law, the agency shall provide all affected State and local officials notice and an opportunity for appropriate participation in the proceedings...."
Associated Press 8/8/99 Anne Gearan "...The Clinton administration, dismayed by the success of anti-American propaganda worldwide, is striking back with an information offensive of its own: a State Department unit that will control the flow of government news overseas, especially during crises. The new International Public Information group, or IPI, will coordinate the dissemination of news from the State Department, Pentagon and other U.S. agencies.....In the recent Kosovo war, the Pentagon, State Department and White House poured out information each day but no single agency tried to assemble it so that the United States spoke with a coordinated message overseas. The group came about partly in response to the spread of unflattering or erroneous information about the United States received abroad via electronic mail, the Internet, cellular telephones and other communications advances. ...President Clinton signed a directive April 30, in the thick of the Kosovo war, that set out plans for IPI, although the White House did not formally announce the group's existence or role. An unclassified mission statement obtained by The Associated Press described IPI's role: ``Effective use of our nation's highly developed communications and information capabilities to address misinformation and incitement, mitigate inter-ethnic conflict, promote independent media organizations and the free flow of information, and support democratic participation will advance our interests and is a critical foreign policy objective,'' the document said...."
WorldNetDaily.com 8/9/99 Joseph Farah "....Well, it was a long time coming, but Bill Clinton has finally made his move on the Internet. Late last week, when reporters and members of Congress were going home for the weekend, he issued one of his now-famous executive orders -- this one on "Internet conduct." Like almost all such orders, it will sound quite innocuous on a quick first read. But these guys in the Clinton administration are clever. This action sets up a working group of top U.S. officials to study the whole concept of policing the Internet. No, Clinton doesn't use that word, but that's clearly the intent of this order -- the establishment of a national Internet police force..... Let me repeat that last purpose behind this working group and this executive order in the actual language used by Clinton: "The extent to which new technology tools, capabilities, or legal authorities may be required for effective investigation and prosecution of unlawful conduct that involves the use of the Internet." ...."
8/7/99 Text of Clinton Executive Order on Internet Conduct U.S. Newswire "...(a) There is hereby established a working group to address unlawful conduct that involves the use of the Internet ("Working Group"). The purpose of the Working Group shall be to prepare a report and recommendations concerning: (1) The extent to which existing Federal laws provide a sufficient basis for effective investigation and prosecution of unlawful conduct that involves the use of the Internet, such as the illegal sale of guns, explosives, controlled substances, and prescription drugs, as well as fraud and child pornography. (2) The extent to which new technology tools, capabilities, or legal authorities may be required for effective investigation and prosecution of unlawful conduct that involves the use of the Internet; and (3) The potential for new or existing tools and capabilities to educate and empower parents, teachers, and others to prevent or to minimize the risks from unlawful conduct that involves the use of the Internet. (b) The Working Group shall undertake this review in the context of current Administration Internet policy, which includes support for industry self-regulation where possible, technology-neutral laws and regulations, and an appreciation of the Internet as an important medium both domestically and internationally for commerce and free speech...."
The Washington Times 8/9/99 Zhengyuan Fu "...President Clinton has renominated Bill Lann Lee as head of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department and pressured the Senate to confirm his nomination. In 1997, the Senate refused to confirm the appointment of Bill Lann Lee because of his support of racial preference policies. But Mr. Clinton installed Mr. Lee on an acting basis. Since then, Bill Lann Lee has been holding illegally the post for more than 18 months in blatant violation of federal law that limits the tenure of acting officials to 120 days. One of the purposes of Mr. Clinton's nomination of Bill Lann Lee is to portray his opponents as bigoted against racial minorities of Asian descent. Another purpose is to portray himself as a supporter of the Asian-American community. In reality, as the former director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's Western office, Bill Lann Lee is renowned for his support of the racial preference programs that openly discriminate against Asian-Americans and violate the fundamental principle of equal treatment under the Constitution. Under the pressure of Bill Lann Lee's former organization, the NAACP, the San Francisco Unified School District imposed different standards of admission based on race and outright racial quotas, which brazenly discriminated against Asians in general and Chinese in particular...."
Colorado Springs Gazette 8/9/99 "....One of the seldom publicized ways the power of the central government has grown in recent decades has been through the use of presidential executive orders. It didn't start with the Clinton administration, of course; Franklin D. Roosevelt issued 3,522 executive orders and Woodrow Wilson issued 1,803, to some 300 by Bill Clinton. But the current White House occupant, arguably, has refined to a high art the use of executive orders to put in place policies that Congress has not approved and probably never would. Rep. Ron Paul, a Texas Republican, and Washington state Republican Rep. Jack Metcalf, have introduced H.R. 2655, which would curb the power of this or any president to issue executive orders whose scope and subject matter are not specifically authorized by the constitution or by a law passed by Congress..... President Clinton has declared 14 states of national emergency (Bush declared five and Reagan six) including one in early July based on the putative terrorist threat from Afghanistan's government and an earlier one based on oppression in Burma. All these "national emergencies" give the government the power to bypass normal legislative procedures and all are still in effect. PAUL'S BILL RECOGNIZES that some executive orders might be necessary to "faithfully execute" the laws passed by Congress, but would limit their scope to that purpose. It would rescind all existing national emergencies and lay out new ground rules for future executive orders. Presidential orders to implement unratified treaties would be illegal. It would require executive orders to declare which provision of the Constitution or statutory law authorizes the order and make it clear that an executive order is not the same as a law, but that even a valid order is "limited in its application and effect to the executive branch." Perhaps most important, it would create standing for members of Congress, state officials and private citizens to challenge executive orders they believe go beyond constitutional bounds. ..."
Proceedings 8/99 Lieutenant Commander Carl L. Olson, U.S. Navy (Retired), Mark J. Seidenberg, and Commander Robert W. "…If a contest were held for the largest U.S. foreign-aid program in history, the winner by far would be the pending de facto abandonment of eight strategic Alaskan islands--and their vast resource-rich seabeds--to the Russians. This is being accomplished under the rubric of creating a "maritime boundary" in the ocean between Alaska and Siberia. The land area of the eight islands themselves is considerable, equaling more than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. Much more vast are the surrounding hundreds of thousands of square miles of seabeds with their billions of dollars in oil, gas, fishery, and other resources--all pending transfer to the Russian government. The militarily strategic location around Siberia has further crucial significance now that Congress and the President are getting serious again about the strategic defense initiative oriented toward China, Russia, and North Korea. The area also comprises vital patrol areas used both for Russian and U.S. under-ice operations for ballistic-missile and attack submarines. Under current law, the U.S. Department of State has been able to adopt this concessionary policy on its own initiative. No approval from or consultation with Congress was needed, much less input from the State of Alaska or the public in general…. The key problem now is that the State Department drew a line that places the Alaskan islands of Wrangell, Herald, Bennett, Jeannette, and Henrietta in the Arctic Ocean, and Copper Island, Sea Otter Rock, and Sea Lion Rock at the western end of the Aleutians, on the Russian side. By doing so, the United States abandons these islands, de facto, plus the hundreds of thousands of square miles of seabeds that bound them. The status of the maritime boundary agreement is still tentative. It is not a treaty, but an executive agreement. And it can be amended or abrogated by the State Department as easily as it was adopted. …."