Obama's Czars

Obama's on Power Grabs

"The biggest problems that we're facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that's what I intend to reverse when I'm president of the United States." -- Sen. Barack Obama, March 31, 2008
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Obama's Czars

Afghanistan & Pakistan Czar – Richard Holbrooke
AIDS Czar – Jeffrey Crowley
Auto Recovery Czar – Ed Montgomery
Bailout Czars - Herb Allison and Earl Devaney
Border Czar - Alan Bersin
California Water Czar – David J. Hayes
Car Czar - Steve Rattner - Ron Bloom
Central Region Czar – Dennis Ross
Climate Czar – Todd Stern
Compensation Czar - Kenneth Feinberg
Copyright Czar - Victoria Espinel
Cyber Security Czar - Melissa Hawthaway [resigned] & Howard Schmidt
Domestic Violence Czar – Lynn Rosenthal
Drug Czar - R. Gil Kerlikowske
Economic Czar – Paul Volcker
Energy and Environment Czar – Carol Browner
Ethics & Transparency Czar - Norm Eisen & Robert Bauer
Faith-Based Czar - Joshua DuBois
Food Czar - Sam Kass
Government Performance Czar – Jeffrey Zients
Great Lakes Czar – Cameron Davis
Green Jobs Czar – Van Jones [resigned]
Guantanamo Closure Czar – Daniel Fried
Health Czar - Donald Berwick
Health Czar – Nancy-Ann DeParle
Health IT Czar - Dr. David Blumenthal
Information Czar – Vivek Kundra
Intelligence Czar – Dennis Blair
Iran Czar - Dennis Ross
Manufacturing Czar - Ron Bloom
Mideast Peace Czar – George Mitchell
Pay Czar – Kenneth R. Feinberg
Performance Czar - Jeffrey Zients
Regulatory Czar - Cass Sunstein
Safe Schools Czar - Kevin Jennings
Science Czar – John Holdren
Stimulus Accountability Czar – Earl Devaney
Sudan Czar – J. Scott Gration
TARP Czar – Herb Allison
Tech Czars - Vivek Kundra, Aneesh Chopra, and Jeffrey Zients
Terrorism Czar – John Brennan
Urban Affairs Czar – Adolfo Carrion Jr.
US Sanctions Czar - Stuart Levey
War Czar - Douglas Lute
Weapons Czar – Ashton Carter
Weatherization Czar - Gil Sperling
WMD Policy/Nonproliferation Czar – Gary Samore

President Obama's Czar System Concerns Some


He 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.

March 05, 2009|Tom Hamburger and Christi Parsons

WASHINGTON — As President Obama names more policy czars to his White House team -- high-level staff members who will help oversee the administration's top initiatives -- some lawmakers and Washington interest groups are raising concerns that he may be subverting the authority of Congress and concentrating too much power in the presidency.

The idea of these "super aides," who will work across agency lines to push the president's agenda, is not a new one. President Nixon may have named the first "czar" with his appointment of William E. Simon to handle the 1970s energy crisis. Other presidents have followed suit.

But none has embraced the concept, presidential scholars say, to the extent that Obama has.

He has appointed special advisors who will work from inside the White House on healthcare, the economy, energy and urban issues, with more to come.

"The challenges coming at us are bigger than anything we've seen since the Depression," said Jim Messina, deputy White House chief of staff. "It's crucial to have people in these positions who can help us meet them head-on."

But 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.

It's far too early to tell whether Obama's quest for efficiency will lead to overstepping the bounds of presidential authority, but the latest appointment announcement could offer a few clues.

SOURCE: LA Times - http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/05/nation/na-obama-czars5

List of U.S. executive branch czars
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._executive_branch_czars

Obama's Army of Czars Raises Concerns About Executive Power

Candidate Barack Obama criticized President Bush for trying to increase executive power. Now President Obama finds himself the target of similar criticism as his growing army of czars raises concerns and questions about his authority.

Candidate Obama's complaints were usually about Bush excluding Congress from national security and civil liberty matters. But Republicans say his czars are shutting Congress out of health care and environmental issues.

By some accounts, there are close to three dozen so-called czars in the Obama administration, managing everything from closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to ending the genocide in Darfur, though the White House is reluctant to use the term "czar."

Former Health Secretary Mike Leavitt says Obama has too many cooks in his kitchen, weakening the authority of his Cabinet.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/16/obamas-army-czars-raises-concerns-executive-power#ixzz1C47bftUH

Obama's Czars!

What do all of the following people (see list below) have in common? They are "czar's" in the Obama Administration.

What is a "czar" exactly? Wikipedia defines it this way:

Originally, the title Czar (derived from Caesar) meant Emperor in the European medieval sense of the term, that is, a ruler who claims the same rank as a Roman emperor, with the approval of another emperor or a supreme ecclesiastical official (the Pope or the Ecumenical Patriarch).

Occasionally, the word could be used to designate other, non-Christian, supreme rulers. In Russia and Bulgaria the imperial connotations of the term were blurred with time and, by the 19th century, it had come to be viewed as an equivalent of King.[2][3]

Now to be fair, Obama did not invent the position of czar in Washington. Many Presidents have had them. However, he appears to be on the verge of appointing yet ANOTHER czar to his already large family of czar's and in doing so will own the title of President with the Most Czar's. As stated in the Wall Street Journal yesterday:

The Obama administration plans to appoint a "Special Master for Compensation" to ensure that companies receiving federal bailout funds are abiding by executive-pay guidelines, according to people familiar with the matter.

The administration is expected to name Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw the federal government's compensation fund for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, to act as a pay czar for the Treasury Department, these people said.

Make no mistake, he knows exactly what he is doing. This is a first-rate power grab by a power-hungry President. You see the great thing about czar's is that they operate with impunity and they are "under the radar" when it comes to making policy. They are accountable to nobody, except the administration.

So in effect we have NON-ELECTED officials, who are backed by The White House, who are given the tools and resources to do the bidding of the President and they are accountable to NO ONE! These czar's don't have to undergo Senate Confirmation Hearings, they just get appointed.

So as long as we are going to be serving all of these "kings" we should at least know who they are. In case we need to bow to them at some point. The following is a list of Obama's Czar's/Kings:...

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http://open.salon.com/blog/djohn/2009/06/05/obamas_czars

Senior Democrat Says Obama's Czars Unconstitutional

Last week President Obama appointed yet another “czar” with massive government power, answering only to him. Even before this latest appointment, the top-ranking Democrat in the Senate wrote President Obama a letter saying that these czars are unconstitutional. President Obama’s “czar strategy” is an unprecedented power grab centralizing authority in the White House, outside congressional oversight and in violation of the Constitution.

As of last week, Czar Kenneth Feinberg has the authority to set the pay scale for executives at any company receiving government money (and how many aren’t, these days?). Czar Feinberg has the power to say that someone’s pay is excessive, and to make companies cut that pay until the czar is pleased.

Congress did not give Czar Feinberg this authority. For that matter, Congress has not authorized any of the czars that President Barack Obama has created. Over the past thirty years presidents have each had one or two czars for various issues, and once the number went as high as five. But now, by some counts President Obama has created sixteen czars, and there may be more on the way. Each of these has enormous government power, and answers only to the president.

Ever since this practice of appointing czars began years ago, it has always been considered possible that they are all unconstitutional. But it never built to a critical mass to elicit a court fight. These czars were few and far between, and rarely did anything that seriously ruffled any feathers. But President Obama has taken this to an unprecedented level, to the point where these appointments are dangerous to our constitutional regime.

This has become too much for the longest-serving senator in U.S. history to stomach. Democratic Senator Robert Byrd is the president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate. Even though Senate rules vest most powers in the Senate majority leader, the president pro tempore is a constitutional officer, and third in line to the U.S. presidency (after the vice president and the Speaker of the House). This office is held by a Democrat, who has been serving in the Senate since before Barack Obama was even born.

Senator Byrd wrote a letter to President Obama in February, criticizing the president’s strategy of creating czars to manage important areas of national policy. Senator Byrd said that these appointments violate both the constitutional system of checks and balances and the constitutional separation of powers, and is a clear attempt to evade congressional oversight. (Didn’t this White House promise unprecedented transparency?)

And Senator Byrd is exactly correct. The Constitution commands that government officers with significant authority (called “principal officers”) are nominated by the president but then are subject to a confirmation vote by the U.S. Senate. And principal officers include not only cabinet-level department heads, but go five levels deep in executive appointments, to include assistant secretaries and deputy undersecretaries.

Inferior officers are appointed either by the president, cabinet-level officers, or the courts. But even then, the Constitution specifies that only Congress can authorize the making of such appointments. For these inferior officers, only Congress can create their offices, and also specify who appoints them. And such officers are still answerable to Congress. They are subject to subpoena to testify before Congress, and Congress holds the power of the purse by making annual appropriations for their division or program.

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http://townhall.com/columnists/KenKlukowski/2009/06/15/senior_democrat_says_obamas_czars_unconstitutional/page/2

Obama ‘Czars’ - A Zionist Shadow Government
http://www.realzionistnews.com/?p=407

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