EXECUTIVE ORDER — ENSURING LAWFUL INTERROGATIONS
By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order to improve the effectiveness of human intelligence gathering, to promote the safe, lawful, and humane treatment of individuals in United States custody and of United States personnel who are detained in armed conflicts, to ensure compliance with the treaty obligations of the United States, including the Geneva Conventions, and to take care that the laws of the United States are faithfully executed, I hereby order as follows:
Section 1. Revocation. Executive Order 13440 of July 20, 2007, is revoked. All executive directives, orders, and regulations inconsistent with this order, including but not limited to those issued to or by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from September 11, 2001, to January 20, 2009, concerning detention or the interrogation of detained individuals, are revoked to the extent of their inconsistency with this order. Heads of departments and agencies shall take all necessary steps to ensure that all directives, orders, and regulations of their respective departments or agencies are consistent with this order. Upon request, the Attorney General shall provide guidance about which directives, orders, and regulations are inconsistent with this order.
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Pretty awesome, not even there a week and already on the ball!!! Frankly I am amazed he is acting so quickly. I guess the last 8 years have given me a bad case of cynicism. I may recover if this keeps up.
A coal ash waste dumping pond in Tennessee ruptured this past December, unleashing toxic substances known to cause cancer, birth defects and other health problems in animals and humans.
Despite this horrendous accident and the ecological threat posed by coal ash waste, the EPA is not doing anything to regulate it! Take action >>
As a result of the spill, 1 billion gallons of sludge containing the heavy metals arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium were leaked into the Emory River. What’s more, there are more than 1,300 dump sites similar to the one that failed in Tennessee, putting innumerable areas in danger!
It is the EPA’s job to regulate chemicals and protect human health by safeguarding the natural environment. Urge the EPA to regulate coal ash waste that threatens water supplies and human health >>
Coal ash waste isn’t just detrimental to people. It is also responsible for diminishing populations of birds and frogs near dumping areas. The remaining animals are at risk of developmental problems, like tadpoles without teeth and fish with deformed spines.
Thank you for speaking up on behalf of ecosystems that lay in the shadow of unregulated coal plants!
Obama’s first days:
Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign in history, Obama officials ran smack into the constraints of the federal bureaucracy yesterday, encountering a jumble of disconnected phone lines, old computer software, and security regulations forbidding outside e-mail accounts.
What does that mean in 21st-century terms? No Facebook to communicate with supporters. No outside e-mail log-ins. No instant messaging. Hard adjustments for a staff that helped sweep Obama to power through, among other things, relentless online social networking.
“It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said of his new digs.
…team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with six-year-old versions of Microsoft software.
But….All is not lost and the change begins Now!
WASHINGTON – In a first-day flurry of activity, President Barack Obama on Wednesday set up shop in the Oval Office, summoned advisers to begin dealing with war and recession and ordered new lobbying rules for “a clean break from business as usual.”
He also froze salaries for top White House staff members, placed phone calls to Mideast leaders and had aides circulate a draft executive order that would close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay within a year…
…Unveiling ethics rules that he portrayed as the fulfillment of a major campaign promise, Obama said that “the way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable.” The rules are needed, he added, “to help restore faith in government, without which we cannot deliver the changes that we were sent here to make.”
The pay freeze affects the roughly 100 White House employees who make more than $100,000 a year. “Families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington,” Obama said…
…In an attempt to deliver on pledges of a transparent government, Obama said he would change the way the federal government interprets the Freedom of Information Act. He said he was directing agencies that vet requests for information to err on the side of making information public — not to look for reasons to legally withhold it — an alteration to the traditional standard of evaluation.
Just because a government agency has the legal power to keep information private does not mean that it should, Obama said.
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