Undo, baby, undo.
Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.
A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition.
America is back.
Thank god. However, it will take a long time for Obama to undo all of the shit Bush fucked up in the first place.
I don’t expect miracles. It would take more than two terms just to get back to 1999.
Hmm… an unnamed group of “experts,” working in secret, consulting with special interest groups, planning a wholesale restructuring of government policy.
I’m filled with confidence that this will turn out just fine and dandy.
J.
ACLU web site has outlined DAY ONE litmus test. Obama has received it, and we can follow along and see if it happens. We will know by the end of the day, just who we elected. Hopefully, Bush will be invited to attend the executive signing ceremony.
I hope that among the first ones he tackles will be those executive orders that expanded Bush’s power and which allowed for things like Abu Graib and Guantanamo’s kangaroo courts to occur.
Sinfest sums up pretty well how I feel about the upcoming Obama presidency. This is really exciting!
Dear Oliver.
YOU. ABSOLUTELY. MUST. SEE. THIS.
KTHXBAI
That is distilled “FUCK YEAH”.
I like that Hawkman’s just getting on with it.
Hmm… an unnamed group of “experts,” working in secret, consulting with special interest groups, planning a wholesale restructuring of government policy.
(a) Just because the article doesn’t name them doesn’t mean that they’re going to stay unnamed.
(b) “Virtual solitude” does not mean “in secret.” If they were working “in secret,” this article wouldn’t exist.
Next.
an unnamed group of “experts,” working in secret, consulting with special interest groups, planning a wholesale restructuring of government policy.
Yeah, that was PNAC about ten years ago and Dick Cheney’s office for the last eight. How did they do?
OTOH, Obama looks to be doing it right. America only elects Democrats to repair the damage caused by Republicans. There is a lot of damage to be undone. Then when it’s all repaired, we’ll elect another Republican crook/moron.
Addingtonite playtime is over
Oliver,
Mississippi election update for those in my posse. Locals are going bonko over Obama. Schoolchildren chastened not to mention his name!!! Mississippi….probably the highest percent Black in the nation and didn’t go for Obama?? We’re under seige. Our best dem lawyers in JAIL under the Gozales/Rovian justice department playbook. I’ve got sympathy for those poor bastards held in Cuba because we’ve got Guantanamo on the Mississippi around here.
http://thetimchannel.com/?p=245
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/timtimes/
Enjoy.
“Hmm… an unnamed group of “experts,” working in secret, consulting with special interest groups, planning a wholesale restructuring of government policy.
Sorry Jay, it ain’t PNAC.
NOW JT’s worried about secrecy. Yeesh.
JayTea is just upset about a conversation he had in the office.
JT,
If you’re worried about the folks who planned this, bring the FOIA request and see if Joe Biden tries to claim that he’s not really part of the executive branch. Want to make a bet on whether the Obama Administration complies with the disclosure requirements, or takes them to the Supreme Court?
“Hmm… an unnamed group of “experts,” working in secret, consulting with special interest groups, planning a wholesale restructuring of government policy.”
Shut the fuck up, you lying piece of shit.
I realize you are working through the five stages of grief, but do it in silence. Or at least on your blog where your moron followers can praise you for your stupidity.
I’m loving this! The Undo Brigade, not the Jay Tea rebuttals (sigh).
I knew they’d hit the ground running. Maybe eight years WILL be enough, Strowbridge. We can hope.
“I knew they’d hit the ground running. Maybe eight years WILL be enough, Strowbridge. We can hope.”
It depends how much they can do, and how much the Republicans will block them.
On a side note, I can nearly guarantee that Jay Tea and his ilk will blame Democrats if the Republicans block key legislation and are therefore unable to move their agenda through.
You’ll lose that guarantee, Strowbridge. I go on issues.
If the Republicans block measures I oppose, I will laud them.
If the Republicans block measures I support, I’ll denounce them.
But in general, I’ll mostly ignore Congress unless something catches my attention.
As is my wont.
J.
This is great news. Not only was the campaign a marvel of efficiency and cooperation they were itemizing and prioritizing the erasure of the Bush presidency in advance.
Bush = Past
Mungen, I’d quibble about “efficiency.” Obama outspent McCain by a huge amount, far in excess of the actual victory margin.
Although I’m wondering how it plays out when compared to the electoral vote…
That’s got me thinking. I applauded Obama for playing by the rules and finding the loopholes and playing the game to win both in the primary in the election. It might be interesting to see how the spending percentage plays out against the electoral vote…
J.
“NOW JT’s worried about secrecy. Yeesh.”
Welcome to the next four years. Today! Jay Tea had no problem with the kind of regulatory changes that Bush made or how Bush went about making them. Now, of course, the entire process is suspect. Jay Tea is a hack.
“You’ll lose that guarantee, Strowbridge. I go on issues.”
Ha ha ha ha ha….
HA HA HA HA HA…..
HA HA HA HA HA HA….
Yes, efficiency. And it wasn’t because of the money. It was the community organizing. Bitchez. McSame just couldn’t inspire people to “Fight with me!” That freed up funds for TV, travel and campaign events for the Dems.
The Obabma campaign was extremely nimble, able to go into states that were deemed vulnerable even up to the last couple weeks. As a contributor I appreciated that conservation of resources for targets of opportunity. A 50 state strategy, McCain couldn’t compete nationwide. He had to abandon down ticket Republicans as a result.
The Obama infomercial. Efficient. 23 million people saw that sucker in one night. Way better than random commercials.
One of the things I REALLY liked was the Obama channel on Dish Network (Channel 73). Again, efficient.
Please don’t complain that Obama had more money. I gave until it hurt. I didn’t do that for Kerry, he didn’t inspire me. The fact that they had the foresight to utilize those resources to do this kind of research says tons. They are ready to represent me and the people who think like me immediately after the election.
Jay Tea, you want to try and make an argument that Obama didn’t use his money effectively? He won North Carolina, Virginia, and Indiana! Now you could say he didn’t need to win all those states, so he wasted money going for 365 instead of 270, but if the goal is to win every conceivable electoral vote, Obama did that and then some..
Or are you just going back to the standard republican line of “he just had too much money”? Because I love hearing republicans whine about being outspent for the first time in, oh, about ever.
“Thank god. However, it will take a long time for Obama to undo all of the shit Bush fucked up in the first place.
I don’t expect miracles. It would take more than two terms just to get back to 1999.”
Nice way of denying all responsibility. Didn’t take Reagan that long to undo Carter’s disasters. Surely – Obama can do the same. Time will tell.
Now you could say he didn’t need to win all those states, so he wasted money going for 365 instead of 270
That would be typical for Republicans of the last two election: the Karl Rove 50% 1 strategy, in which one claims a mandate by eking out a narrow victory in a select group of states, instead of doing one’s best to persuade as many people in as broad a swath of the country as possible.
I love Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy. I was a little irked to see Obama ads running in truly no-hoper states like Texas, but I really, really love that Democrats have gotten out of the mindset that there’s no point in trying to persuade people in Nebraska to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate. I love that Obama won the 2nd Congressional District in Nebraska and will get an Electoral College vote from it. This is the renaissance of the party — not the much-touted “netroots” or “progressivism” or whatever, but realizing the relevance of liberal policies to the entire nation, and the rejection by much of the nation of Republican strategies of pandering to terror.
(Scariest discussion I had with a Republican friend this election season: where he equated the “Obama’s presidency will bring about a 2nd Holocaust” mailer from the PA GOP, with Obama’s scaring senior citizens about McCain’s plans for Medicare/ Social Security. Otherwise-intelligent Republicans have gotten to the point where they can’t distinguish between telling Jews that Israel will be a smoking hole in the ground, and telling old people that their benefits will decline. This same friend was contemplating several months ago that he should move to London for safety reasons because Obama’s election might make NYC too much of a target — this being a guy who was on the London Underground on 7/7/05 — but I think I ridiculed him out of that one.)
“Nice way of denying all responsibility. Didn’t take Reagan that long to undo Carter’s disasters. Surely – Obama can do the same. Time will tell.”
Yeah, it wouldn’t take long for Obama to cause the deficit to balloon to record levels, but we want him to make things better.
I know Republicans like to deify Reagan, but you really need to read a history book before you make comments like the one above.
Jay Tea, you want to try and make an argument that Obama didn’t use his money effectively? He won North Carolina, Virginia, and Indiana! Now you could say he didn’t need to win all those states, so he wasted money going for 365 instead of 270, but if the goal is to win every conceivable electoral vote, Obama did that and then some..
Or are you just going back to the standard republican line of “he just had too much money”? Because I love hearing republicans whine about being outspent for the first time in, oh, about ever.
No, Crusty, I’m not arguing anything. I’m saying that it could be an interesting bit of data to compare the amounts the two campaigns spent on the general election, convert it to a percentage of each candidate, and compare that to a breakdown of the popular and electoral votes.
I suspect that it will show the McCain campaign was more efficient, in the sense that it will have spent less per vote, but it will be closer in the electoral totals — and, in the end, McCain’s was less efficient by the simple fact that he lost. Just a little exercise.
J.
I’m wondering what kind of “analysis” you’re considering (and yes, emphasis on the dickhead air quotes). The only facts are that Obama spend $600-650 million and McCain spent $325-375 million; the DNC didn’t throw any money into the presidential campaign (according to opensecrets.org, I’m a little skeptical of that), while the RNC spend ~$60 million. And Obama won by 65.4 million to 57.4 million, 365-173. You could break that down to ~$10/vote for Obama and $6/vote for McCain, although it also goes $1.8 million/electoral vote for Obama vs $2 million/electoral vote for McCain. Of course, $/vote is a stupid concept, since there’s a base of 30% on either side that are not going to be swayed.
Ok, Jay Tea, enough out of you, you should really get back to your own website, those bogus election fraud charges in the Minnesota senate race aren’t going to make themselves up.. Everybody now, “STOP THE RECOUNT!!”, it’ll be just like 2000, right?
“It didn’t take reagan that long to undo Carter’s disasters>”
Wow. Reagan created his own, “stealth” disasters, some of which didn’t reveal their true disastrousness until much later.
The abandonment of any pretense of a sane energy policy was one. The support of the mujahideen in Afghanistan, while weakening the USSR, turned around and bit us in the ass about 7 years ago. Ignoring and scoffing at the Constitution in the Iran-Contra scandal led to the excesses of the Bush2 years. The inept intervention in Lebanon, and then fleeing ignominiously after the barracks bombing, only encouraged the jihadi movement.
Not to mention starting the whole “trickle-down” phenomenon, thus beginning the widening of the gulf between the super-rich and everyone else, and the decline of the working middle class.
“It didn’t take Reagan that long to undo Carter’s disasters>”
And look how well that turned out.
I have a feeling Obama’s going to have a stack of Executive Orders signed and ready to go in the limo on the way to Inauguration. As soon as he says “so help me God”, it’s on.
I forgot to mention Reagan’s brave invasion of Grenada.
That achieved two things:
1. Make the US into a laughingstock of a bully.
2. Give huge woodies to redwhiteandblue rubes like Mr. “Conservative Economics.”
“Yeah, it wouldn’t take long for Obama to cause the deficit to balloon to record levels, but we want him to make things better.”
What do you mean? Making the deficit balloon to record levels will make things better? Am I misunderstanding you?
“I know Republicans like to deify Reagan, but you really need to read a history book before you make comments like the one above.”
I would love for you to enlighten me about the history of Carter and Reagan. Clearly, I read the wrong history books. The point is not that Reagan was perfect or even close to it, but that he promoted economic policies that revived our economy instead of constricting it.
Your efforts are valiant on foreign policy Bruce, but Carter’s disasters that I referred to were economic. Sorry for being vague. As far as “trickle-down” economics, I am sure you have some insightful empirical evidence to prove your theories of economic injustices and class separation. Perhaps some astonishing and convincing statistics about the success of the Community Reinvestment Act?
“What do you mean? Making the deficit balloon to record levels will make things better? Am I misunderstanding you?”
When Ronald Reagan took over, he caused the deficit to balloon to record levels. He wasn’t able to get things in check for YEARS after he took over office. It wasn’t fast like you implied.
“I would love for you to enlighten me about the history of Carter and Reagan. Clearly, I read the wrong history books. The point is not that Reagan was perfect or even close to it, but that he promoted economic policies that revived our economy instead of constricting it.”
I would question that latter claim. His policies also helped lead to the S&L scandal of the 1980s, which hurt the economy. Also, by reversing Carter’s policies on fuel standards, he hurt the economy in the long run. Short-term gain for long term pain is not the way to run a government.
Strowbridge,
Thanks for your response. True, the deficit did grow short term as expected with large tax cuts. However, I was referring to economic growth, not the government budget. There was a reason Reagan won a landslide in 84′ – strong economic recovery. He inherited an economy with an inflation rate of 11.83% and unemployment rate of 7.5% – much worse than right now.
While it is certainly easy to correlate the S&L crisis with Reagan, correlation is not causation. The causes run deep into our history and I won’t get into it here, but you can see it here if you like:
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/SavingsandLoanCrisis.html
I really have no idea how Carter’s policies on fuel standards helps the economy in short or long term. Government standards and unions are doing their magic on the auto industry as we speak.
If Obama comes out and makes things better, I will stand corrected. I really don’t care whose guy does it; I just want things to get better. Just don’t deny responsibility based on time and say 8 years isn’t enough. There is plenty of time.
“Just don’t deny responsibility based on time…”
That must be a bad attempt at a joke, because I remember the apologists saying 9/11 was the fault of the Clenis.
“Government standards and unions are doing their magic on the auto industry as we speak.”
ok. If you want a car built by a corrupt government without union labor, I can sell you a few Yugo’s.
“While it is certainly easy to correlate the S&L crisis with Reagan, correlation is not causation.”
Deregulation by Ronnie was not the cause? Wait. I’ll amend that. Deregulation by Ronnie was like giving the keys to a candy store to the fat kids.
Short-term gain for long term pain is not the way to run a government.
That’s how they roll. Gas tax holiday? Drill here, drill now?
Reality is optional around here apparently. BTW, I am not Republican.