Some excutive orders Obama may overturn.

[R13]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama could reverse some of President Bush's most controversial executive orders, including restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, shortly after taking office in January.
President-elect Barack Obama may overturn many of the executive orders that President Bush implemented.

Two other executive orders from Bush -- one dealing with a so-called "gag" order on international aid organizations regarding abortion, the other with oil and gas drilling on federal lands -- also are receiving increased scrutiny.

Obama's transition team is reviewing hundreds of Bush's executive orders, according to John Podesta, Obama's transition co-chair.

New presidents often use executive orders to put their stamp on Washington quickly. Unlike laws, which require months to complete and the consent of Congress, presidents can use their executive authority to order federal agencies to implement current policies.

"Much of what a president does, he really has to do with the Congress -- for example, budgeting, legislation on policy -- but executive actions are ones where the president can act alone," said Martha Kumar of the White House Transition Project, a nonpartisan group established to help new presidential administrations. See what orders Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, other presidents issued »

Obama is expected to use his executive authority to reverse Bush's order limiting the types of embryonic stem cell research that can receive federal tax dollars.


Advocates for those suffering from a host of diseases -- including diabetes, Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injuries -- are eagerly awaiting the Bush-era restrictions to be lifted.

"We have every reason to believe -- if not on Day One, then in the very near future -- they will be issuing an order rescinding this policy," said Amy Comstock Rick, president of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research. Video Watch how Obama could reverse Bush »

In August 2001, Bush barred the National Institutes of Health from funding research on embryonic stem cells other than that using 60 cell lines existing when he signed the executive order.

Researchers say the ban has limited their progress and want the opportunity to create new stem cells from human embryos. Many conservatives, however, object to the destruction of human embryos because they believe it ends a human life.

On his campaign Web site, Obama said he supports the creation of new stem cells from embryos created for in vitro fertilization treatments that would otherwise be discarded.

But White House spokeswoman Dana Perino on Monday suggested that the incoming Obama administration should consider keeping Bush's policy in place.

"Unfortunately, the president's position on stem cells has been misconstrued over the years, with the suggestion that President Bush put a ban on research for embryonic stem cell research. That is not true," Perino said. "The president made a very important choice after a lot of careful deliberation." Video Watch Obama's ambitious agenda »

Other controversial Bush measures Obama is expected to overturn are related to abortion and family planning.

U.S. State Department officials and family planning groups such as Planned Parenthood said they expect Obama to overturn the "Mexico City" policy, first instituted by the Reagan administration. The policy prevents taxpayer dollars from funding groups that perform or promote abortions overseas.

President Clinton dropped the order, but Bush re-implemented it and expanded the policy to ensure State Department funding does not go to family planning organizations that even counsel about abortion.

An Obama administration also could overturn the Bush administration policy of banning funding to organizations such as the U.N. Population Fund that operate in countries that practice forced sterilization, including China, which adheres to the "one child" policy.

Podesta said his team also is reviewing Bush's order that lifted restrictions on oil drilling on fragile federal lands in Utah. Environmental groups decried Bush's decision when he opened the lands to exploration this month, and Podesta called the decision a "mistake."

One set of executive orders that may take longer to overturn pertains to detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison.

Obama has said he wants to close the prison, but Denis McDonough, a senior adviser to the incoming Democrat, said Monday that no decisions have been made about what to do with the prison's 255 inmates.

"There is no process in place to make that decision until his national security and legal teams are assembled," McDonough said.
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Reversing Bush's executive orders would be an immediate way for Obama to show that a new era has begun in Washington, said Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor.

"Until President Obama gets rid of all these executive orders, he'll be sharing his presidency with his predecessor," Turley said. "Now that's a particularly obnoxious thought for an administration that was elected for change."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/...ers/index.html

[curveball08]

I agree that stem cell research should be advanced. If an embryo is going to be thrown away anyway you might as well use it for some good. But Obama will have to be careful to look at what needs to be done versus what can be done, at least in the initial stage of his presidency. I do not support Obama but i do believe he is a reasonable and rational person and has an oppurtunity to do a lot of good.

The order that allows BooHoo to post on here. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif[/img]

[sup-rbeast]

Well, he'll be off to a good start.

[1inStripes]

I don't understand why they want to use the embryos for stem cell research. Can't stem cells be pulled from an umbilical cord? If so, why not let certain people agree to donate during the birth of their child or something?

[curveball08]

I think the arguement is that the type of stem cells that can be obtained from embryos is much better than taking them from another source.

[R13]

When the Bush presidency ends, opponents of embryonic stem cell research will face a new political reality that many feel powerless to stop.

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to lift restrictions on federal money for such research. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also has expressed interest in going ahead with legislation in the first 100 days of the new Congress if it still is necessary to set up a regulatory framework.

"We may lose it, but we're going to continually fight it and offer the ethical alternative," said Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa. "I don't know what the votes will be in the new Congress ... but it's very possible we could lose this thing."

Stem cells are the building blocks that turn into different kinds of tissue. Embryonic stem cells, unlike more mature versions, are blank slates. If scientists could control them, they could direct regenerative therapy, perhaps allowing a diabetic's pancreas to begin produce insulin, for example.

Harvesting stem cells from four- or five-day-old embryos kills the embryo, which outrages opponents of this type of research. But supporters say hundreds of thousands of embryos stored in fertility clinics eventually will be destroyed anyway and that people should be allowed to donate them for research that could help others.

"I believe that it is ethical to use these extra embryos for research that could save lives when they are freely donated for that express purpose," Obama wrote during the campaign in response to 14 questions from scientists, doctors and engineers.

Under President George W. Bush, federal money for research on human embryonic stems cells was limited to those stem cell lines, or families of constantly dividing cells, that were created before Aug. 9, 2001. No federal dollars could be used on research with cell lines from embryos destroyed from that point forward. Federal regulations do not restrict embryonic stem cell research using state or private funds.

John Podesta, head of Obama's transition team, strongly hinted that the president-elect would deal with stem cell research soon after taking office Jan. 20. "As you know, he has said something specific about stem cell research, so I think you can expect that what he said in the campaign will be fulfilled once in office," Podesta said.

Obama made it clear during the campaign he would overturn Bush's directive.

"As president, I will lift the current administration's ban on federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines created after August 9, 2001, through executive order, and I will ensure that all research on stem cells is conducted ethically and with rigorous oversight," he said.

Opponents of such research say they will press their case on several fronts.

The main argument is that life begins at conception -- that once fertilization occurred in the lab, so did a human being.

Secondly, they will argue that scientists are having success using other methods -- adult stem cells that form specific tissues, or reprogramming skin cells to act like stem cells -- so money should be directed where the biggest scientific breakthroughs have occurred. For example, this past week, doctors gave a woman a new windpipe with tissue grown from her own stem cells, eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs.

"We still intend to try and talk about the real facts that it's the adult stem cells providing the actual treatments," said David Prentice, senior fellow at the Family Research Council.

Added Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America: "There's a lot that's happened over the seven years that includes some remarkable scientific discoveries, which really should have made the issue of federal funding of embryonic stem cell research moot."

But Sean Tipton, director of public affairs at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, took aim at those arguments.

"It's a little disingenuous for opponents who have effectively blocked federal funding of the work to then cite a lack of progress," Tipton said. "You hold someone at the starting line then you criticize them for not getting very far."

Dr. Chi Dang, professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, agreed there have been tremendous advances with adult stem cells. But he said it is not yet clear that they have enough flexibility to be used in all the ways that an embryonic stem cell could be.

"From a scientific viewpoint, we would be cornering ourselves into generalizing things that may not be true," Dang said.

Dang also said these embryos would otherwise be discarded.

"The question is: Is it ethically more acceptable to destroy these embryos by pouring acid on them, or do you deploy these clusters of cells to create new cell lines that could benefit us in the future?"

Samuel Pfaff, a professor at the Salk Institute for Biologic Studies, said he also supports greater embryonic stem cell research to understand what makes them so special that scientists can endow other cells with similar properties.

"I think it's very fair to say that the long-term trajectory for this area of science is to understand embryonic stem cells so well that we don't have to use them anymore." Pfaff said.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/11/...-cell-research/

[Milk3]

Here comes cloning folks abunch of dumb evil apes walking around in human bodies

[R13]

And that is one moronic logic that has even made this an issue.

[Milk3]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: R13</div><div class="ubbcode-body">And that is one moronic logic that has even made this an issue. </div></div>
It was a joke calm down
I was going to say here comes resident evil in my next post but i don't want to stress you out