Barack Obama -- July 2009

Czars

The Czars are
Obama's
Political Officers

event	description
Note:	The items in this thread are in alphabetic order, by area of responsibility -- click blue items for more details.
Czars	The following are Obama's Czars, a new and influential cadre of counselors just steps from the Oval Office whose power to direct domestic policy will rival, if not exceed, the authority of his Cabinet. Obama has appointed 34 "Czars." Obama's czar system concerns some. Obama has 'super aides' for healthcare, the economy, energy and urban issues, with more to come -- prompting some lawmakers and groups to worry that he may be concentrating power and bypassing Congress. some lawmakers and outside experts fear that Obama is setting up a system that is not subject to congressional oversight and creates the potential for conflict among his many advisors. Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) became concerned enough to send a cautionary letter to Obama last week. At times, he said, past White House staffers have assumed duties that should be the responsibility of officials cleared through the Senate confirmation process. He cited President Bush's naming of homeland security czar Tom Ridge as an example. "They rarely testify before congressional committees and often shield the information and decision-making process behind the assertion of executive privilege," Byrd wrote of past czars and White House staffers in similar positions. At times, he said, one outcome has been to "inhibit openness and transparency, and reduce accountability." "The rapid and easy accumulation of power by White House staff can threaten the constitutional system of checks and balances," Byrd said. These Czars are "Political Officers." In the old Soviet Union, they were called Commissars. The Executive Branch of government is organized hierarchically, top-down, by Departments (Treasury, Defense, etc.). Each department functions under the direction of an executive, referred to as a "Secretary," who is confirmed by the Senate. The appointments of these "Czars" changes the fundamental structure of the Executive Branch into a "matrix" structure. The czars have political power across all of the departments within the Executive Branch. They speak for Obama and their function is to ensure compliance with Obama's policies within the Executive Branch. The American People don't know who most of these Czars are. They've had no background checks. There is no Congressional oversight over the Czars, unlike a Cabinet position. They are appointed by Obama and are extraordinarily powerful, simply because they take their direction from and report directly to Obama. We don't know how much money they make. We don't know how many tax-payer dollars they oversee. We don't know how large their staffs are. We don't know how much power they wield. Where are the checks and balances?
	Melissa Hathaway
Cyberspace	http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1419223
	Gil Kerlikowske
Drugs	Obama will nominate Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske to be U.S. drug czar and remove the job's Cabinet designation, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Kerlikowske would head the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which was elevated to Cabinet level under former President George W. Bush. The nomination of Kerlikowske would end a long search for a candidate to oversee U.S. efforts to fight illegal drugs. Kerlikowske was long speculated to be the front-runner, but revelations about his stepson's arrest on drug-related charged complicated the nomination process, the Post reported. In formally nominating Kerlikowske, Obama -- who admitted using cocaine as a teenager in his memoir "Dreams from My Father" -- would offer a vote of confidence for a nominee who could face uncomfortable questions during the confirmation process, the newspaper said. The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said, "During his eight-year tenure as Seattle's police chief, Gil Kerlikowske has established himself as a devoted lobbyist for every restrictive gun law proposal," said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. "That's pretty hypocritical of a guy whose own gun was stolen out of his department car on a downtown Seattle street. He may pass an FBI background check for an appointment, but he flunked the responsible gun owner's test." Kerlikowske has lobbied for bans on sport-utility rifles that are owned by tens of thousands of law-abiding Washington residents, and millions of their fellow American citizens. He backed legislation to close the mythical "gun show loophole" with an unsubstantiated theory that private sales put guns in the hands of criminals. "While he's been Seattle's police chief," Gottlieb noted, "he's become a close ally of the anti-gun Washington CeaseFire, but he's never bothered to sit down with gun owners to discuss crime problems, gun safety or enforcement efforts that focus on felons rather than firearms. "Kerlikowske's reported appointment to a post with the Obama administration reinforces the genuine concerns of American gun owners that the new president is not their friend," he observed. "The new president has surrounded himself with people who have long anti-gun rights track records, including Joe Biden, Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton and Rahm Emanuel. By adding Gil Kerlikowske to his inner circle, Obama is simply confirming the adage that "you can tell a lot about someone by the company he keeps."
	Carol Browner
Energy	When president-elect Barack Obama appointed Carol Browner to be his "energy czar" back in December, the conservative blogosphere was buzzing about her being a member of Socialist International, "the worldwide organization of social democratic, socialist and labor parties." At the time, she was fourth on the website's list of members in the "Commission for a Sustainable World Society" which calls for "global governance" and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change. Not any longer, although it still is cached by Google: CAROL M. BROWNER Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency under President Bill Clinton. Leading the EPA from 1993 to 2001, she was the longest-serving Administrator in the agency’s history. Browner currently serves on the board of several non-profit organizations, including as chair of the National Audubon Society, one of the nation’s oldest environmental organizations, and as a member of the Board of the Directors of the Center for American Progress, the Alliance for Climate Protection and the League of Conservation Voters.
	Van Jones
Environment	Obama's newly appointed "Green" Czar, was as an admitted radical communist and black nationalist leader. Van Jones, president and founder of Green For All, a nonprofit organization that advocates for building a so-called inclusive green economy, has been tapped to serve as the special adviser for green jobs, enterprise and innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. According to the White House blog, Jones' duties will include helping to craft job-generating climate policy and ensuring equal opportunity in the administration's energy proposals. While in jail in San Francisco in 1992, Jones said, "I met all these young radical people of color -- I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was, like, 'This is what I need to be a part of.' I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary. In the months that followed, he let go of any lingering thoughts that he might fit in with the status quo. I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th," he said. "By August, I was a communist." Jones, formerly a self-described "rowdy black nationalist," boasted in a 2005 interview that his environmental activism was a means to fight for racial and class "justice." "I'll work with anybody. I'll fight anybody if it will push our issues forward," he told the left-leaning East Bay Express in a 2005 interview. "I'm willing to forgo the cheap satisfaction of the radical pose for the deep satisfaction of radical ends."
	Dawn Johnsen
Legal	Obama’s new head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department, Dawn Johnsen, called the legal reasoning which gave the president broad powers to authorize "rough" interrogation of terrorists "shockingly flawed…bogus…outlandish." She said it allowed "horrific acts" and demanded to know "Where is the outrage? The public outcry?" This is the person who will decide how to interrogate terrorists. If she errs on the side of weakening methods of questioning, there’s no chance her boss, Eric Holder the new Attorney General, will reverse her. He approved of the Clinton/Reno "wall" preventing intelligence from finding out what criminal investigators had found out and took the lead in pardoning the FALN terrorists. What is Obama thinking? How could he weaken so dramatically our protections against terrorism? Doesn’t he realize that without warrantless FISA wiretaps we could never have uncovered the plot to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge (how could we have gotten a warrant for conversations about the bridge when we didn’t yet know that al Qaeda had it in its sights?) Has he forgotten that we only found the name of the operative who was tasked with destroying the bridge because we subjected Kahlid Mohammed, the mastermind of 9-11, to "rough" interrogation techniques? Does he really mean to leave us vulnerable to terrorist attacks? Yes he does. Read more.
	Cass Sunstein
Regulatory	Obama’s pick for "regulatory czar," Harvard Law School Professor Cass Sunstein, may be the incoming president’s most popular appointment so far. Judging from his resume -- best-selling author, "pre-eminent legal scholar of our time," and an endorsement from The Wall Street Journal -- we can almost understand why. However, there’s one troubling portion of the new Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator’s C.V. that has seems to have flown under everyone’s radar: Cass Sunstein is a radical animal rights activist. Sunstein has made no secret of his devotion to the cause of establishing legal "rights" for livestock, wildlife, and pets.
	John P. Holdren
Science	Kathy Shaidle writes that as part of his series of profiles on Barack Obama’s many policy "czars," last night FOX News host Sean Hannity looked at the new "Science Czar," John P. Holdren. Holdren’s official titles are: Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Assistant to the President for Science and Technology; and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. The longtime Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Holdren is no stranger to controversy. As Hannity pointed out in his segment, Holdren has been quoted as calling the United States the "meanest of wealthy countries." He has also, according to Hannity, "left the door open" to prosecuting "global warming deniers." Holdren’s radicalism dates back to the late 1960s. In 1969 Holdren wrote that it was imperative "to convince society and its leaders that there is no alternative but the cessation of our irresponsible, all-demanding, and all-consuming population growth." That same year, he and (the now largely discredited) professor of population studies Paul Ehrlich jointly predicted: "If … population control measures are not initiated immediately and effectively, all the technology man can bring to bear will not fend off the misery to come." In 1971 Holdren and Ehrlich warned that "some form of ecocatastrophe, if not thermonuclear war, seems almost certain to overtake us before the end of the century." Viewing capitalism as an economic system that is inherently harmful to the natural environment, Holdren and Ehrlich in 1973 called for "a massive campaign … to de-develop the United States" and other Western nations in order to conserve energy and facilitate growth in underdeveloped countries. Continue reading here . . . Just perfect! The inmates are running the institution.
	Vivek Kundra
Technology	After Vivek Kundra took charge of the District of Columbia's technology operations in late 2007, he ushered in a new era of experimentation -- adopting popular Web sites such as YouTube, Wikipedia, and Twitter to improve city services. Now, as the newly appointed chief information officer of the federal government, he plans to bring the same spirit to the national stage. But there's a huge difference in complexity and scale. The District's technology budget is relatively tiny, and its staff concentrated, while the federal government's budget of $71 billion is spread across dozens of departments and agencies that often fight outside efforts to influence their operations. Yet Kundra is serious about bringing the latest Net technologies to the federal government. In his first one-on-one interview since being named to his post, the 34-year-old native of India told BusinessWeek he hopes to transform the way the government uses technology. He plans on making it more efficient by getting agencies to share information and computers. And he'll use social networking Web sites to open a conversation between the government and citizens. He also believes government should no longer build all of its computing systems and Web sites from scratch, the way it has in the past. "I want to make sure we're leveraging innovations from throughout the world," he says. Kundra faces a daunting task. The federal government is better known for technology fiascoes than successes. In the 1990s, the IRS took more than a decade and $8 billion to upgrade its tax return processing system, and the FBI's $600 million Trilogy project, aimed at streamlining the agency's case tracking system, was so badly botched in the wake of the September 11 attacks that some agents began referring to it as the "tragedy" project.
	John O. Brennan
Terrorism & Intelligence	Obama’s top terrorism and intelligence adviser, John O. Brennan, headed a firm that was cited in March for breaching sensitive files in the State Department’s passport office, according to a State Department Inspector General’s report released this past July. The security breach, first reported by the Washington Times and later confirmed by State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, involved a contract employee of Brennan’s firm. During a State Department briefing on March 21, 2008, McCormack confirmed that the contractor had accessed the passport files of presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and John McCain, and that the inspector general had launched an investigation. Sources who tracked the investigation say that the main target of the breach was the Obama passport file, and that the contractor accessed the file in order to "cauterize" the records of potentially embarrassing information. "They looked at the McCain and Clinton files as well to create confusion," one knowledgeable source said. "But this was basically an attempt to cauterize the Obama file." At the time of the breach, Brennan was working as an unpaid adviser to the Obama campaign. During the investigation into the passport breach, a key witness was fatally shot in front of a Washington, DC, church. Lt. Quarles Harris Jr., 24, who had been cooperating with federal investigators, was found late slumped dead inside a car. Lt. Harris' death remains unsolved, and mysteriously, unreported until one year later, when the blogosphere discovered the murder.