Dangerous Presidential Executive Orders Still on the Books

Dangerous Executive Orders Still on the Books

December 2, 2011

The Godfather - While doing a bit of Web surfing, I came across an article that contained some very disturbing information about Executive Orders. The ones that get you are the ones you don’t know about. With talk about riots in the streets, it’s not too much to imagine that some of these EOs below could be used under the force of law.

In J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the power of the ring is not something to be desired even by good people. The goal is to destroy it. When Boromir fails to avoid the ring’s power, he dies. Even Gandalf and the elves shun the power of the ring. Tolkien is doubtful that any person has the ability to resist the temptation of absolute power promised by the ring, even if that power is used for good. That is one of the great themes of the series.

Executive Orders (EO) have been used by presidents since the days of George Washington. The first EO addressed Washington’s normal household expenses -- which ones were to be accepted and paid by the Treasury Department. Pretty innocuous.

The FBI was formed under an executive order by Teddy Roosevelt on July 26, 1908.

The first time it was used to make a law was in 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson. It was said to be an ‘emergency’ measure and Congress was encouraged to validate it. They did and now the door was now open to ignore the Constitution.

This is the same method used by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 to close all the banks in the country. Americans were ordered to turn in all their gold to local banks.

The general purpose of an executive order is to provide the President with a mechanism for executing laws passed by Congress, not control of lives. These EOs are issued by the President as directives to agencies responsible for implementing laws.

However, some presidents take Executive Orders too far -- confusing EO with executive lawmaking. This “rule by executive order” observation was made no clearer than by Paul Begala, a former Bill Clinton aide:

“Stroke of the pen. Law of the land. Kind of cool.”

While Begala thought this action “cool,” others did not. House Majority Leader Dick Armey said,

“With the stroke of a pen, he may have done irreparable harm to individual rights and liberties.”

He went on to add,

“President Clinton seems bent on using his powers until someone says stop. President Clinton is running roughshod over our Constitution.”

Anti-Hoarding Laws and Executive Orders

Congress has 30 days to object to an Executive Order (EO) before it becomes law. No objections were raised against these Command and Control emergency “Readiness Laws” when they were put in place. Has the emergency arrived that needs them and are they slowly being introduced?

Bill Clinton grouped together the following EOs under EO #12919 released on June 6, 1994.

These are the tools used to shred the Constitution and take away your rights under its protection.

Each EO number is linked to its full content:

10995 — Federal seizure of all communications media in the US (tested last month).
10997 — Federal seizure of all electric power, fuels, minerals, public and private.
10998 — Federal seizure of all food supplies and resources, public and private and all farms and equipment (including what you are storing for emergencies in your home right now).
10999 — Federal seizure of all means of transportation, including cars, trucks, or vehicles of any kind and total control over all highways, seaports and water ways.
11000 — Federal seizure of American people for work forces under federal supervision, including the splitting up of families if the government so desires (this happened before in Europe during the Nazi regime).
11001 — Federal seizure of all health, education and welfare facilities, both public and private.
11002 — Empowers the Postmaster General to register every single person in the US.
11003 — Federal seizure of all airports and aircraft.
11004 — Federal seizure of all housing and finances and authority to establish forced relocation. Authority to designate areas to be abandoned as “unsafe,” establish new locations for populations, relocate communities, build new housing with public funds.
11005 — Seizure of all railroads, inland waterways and storage facilities, both public and private.
11051 — Provides FEMA complete authorization to put above orders into effect in times of increased international tension of economic or financial crisis (FEMA will be in control in case of “National Emergency”).

These EOs are not aimed at anti-hoarding but rather at seizure or confiscation of items and facilities “to provide a state of readiness in these resource areas with respect to all conditions of national emergency, including attack upon the United States.”

You’ll find most ‘seizure’ legislation ends with this phrase. These Executive Orders don’t define what specifically constitutes a national emergency…The specifics on hoarding are left up to the individual states.

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