Obama issued Executive Order 12919 on Friday, March 16, 2012 and the online community has been on fire since Saturday morning. The lack of mainstream media coverage was (and still is surprising). The pundits have come out today with a common message: they have analyzed this document and there is nothing to fear.
Conclusion from Hotair.com:
Indeed — but all of that was equally true before Obama issued an update to a 73-year-old effort that changed nothing about his executive authority and power. To the extent that we’re all more aware of it, that’s good, but we shouldn’t act as though this was an Obama novelty, and we really shouldn’t jump to conspiracy-think conclusions without understanding the history of these EOs.
There is nothing to fear:
1. This is just an update to existing orders already in place. Such as adding the Department of Homeland Security to “The Defense Production Act Committee”. DHS was formed on March 1, 2003: nine years ago.
2. It was only a coincidence that this executive order was released on a Friday afternoon after the news cycle ended for the week.
3. It was only a coincidence that this executive order was ignored by the mainstream media and even the right-wing media.
4. It was ignored by Congress at a time when the president has defiantly announced that he will go around Congress (and the Constitution) to get his agenda accomplished. If Congress is not concerned, we have nothing to fear either.
5. At 5,272 words (not including headings and signature), it is only a minor update to existing rules, orders or legislation.
6. And most importantly, everyone is telling us there is nothing to fear.
Seriously, the above concerns may be unfounded and this may be a distraction by the administration (note the timing, magnitude and lack of media coverage). I just wish this gnawing in the pit of my stomach that tells me “something wicked this way comes” would go away.
David DeGerolamo
Related Article:
WHY THE NDRP E.O. OF 3/16/2012 IS DIFFERENT – Ann Barnhardt
From World Net Daily:
EXECUTIVE-ORDER PANIC: MARTIAL LAW IN U.S.?
So why did Obama issue the order at all?
A side-by-side analysis of Obama’s order compared to Clinton’s, conducted by Ed Morrissey of HotAir.com, reveals Obama’s order is essentially just an update to reflect changes in government agency structure.
“If one takes a look at EO 12919, the big change is in the cabinet itself,” Morrissey writes. “In 1994, we didn’t have a Department of Homeland Security, for instance, and some of these functions would naturally fall to DHS. In EO 12919, the FEMA director had those responsibilities, and the biggest change between the two is the removal of several references to FEMA (10 in all). Otherwise, there aren’t a lot of changes between the two EOs, which looks mainly like boilerplate.
“I’m not ruling out the possibility that this is more than it seems,” adds Jacobson, “but unless and until someone [demonstrates any expansion of powers in the order], I’ll consider this to be routine.”
“The timing of this release might have looked a little strange,” Morrissey concludes, “but this is really nothing to worry about at all.”
I read through the new version (Obama’s Executive Order) and the past ones and looked for changes. The biggest change is that the new law says in three different spots [martial law] is effective at all times (not just war and emergency).
Here are the three spots (find the new one):
-- In Section 102 and in Section 103(b): “… peacetime and in times of national emergency …”
-- In Section 201(b): “… under both emergency and non-emergency conditions …”
-- In Section 310: “… during peacetime, graduated mobilization, and national emergency …”