Ten to Toss (abridged)

Here's a condensed version of the Ten To Toss (Slate) article I referred to earlier describing 10 of Bush's Presidential Executive Orders that should be immediately repealed when we get a reasonable president.

EO 13233
Normally presidential records are available in 12 years.
Bush set it up so that he has the right to review and refuse any document requests from his presidency for as long as he is alive.

EO 13435
This is the one he wrote that prevents using federal funds for stem cell research, unless your one of the lucky scientists with access to one of the raggedy old strains currently approved.

EO 13440
We don't really know the details of this one, but we know it allows us to torture people!

EO 13292
This one is for Cheney. This one give the VP the ability to classify any document s/he chooses. Anything ol' Dick didn't want the public to see he could simply classify.

EO 13303
This one is fun. Follow me here:
This order can be used to nullify judicial proceedings against any oil company doing business in Iraq or with any other company that is doing business with the Development Fund for Iraq. With this Order, companies like Exxon/Mobil, Haliburton, KBR (AP), Blackwater, and all those other long-since-been-proven-incompetent defense contractors are completely above the law in both Iraq and the U.S.

EO 13438
This is the one they use to eliminate your 5th amendment rights against illegal search and seizure, so long as they say they suspect you of terrorism.

EO 13422
Very clever on this one. This is the order that lets the president put a crony in charge of the rule making process at federal agencies such as the EPA, DOE, NASA, et al. What better way to make sure the EPA doesn't pass unfavorable rules than to tell them how to make their rules?

EO 13279
Amongst a gaggle of other Executive Orders helping churches to get federal funding, this one lets churches avoid disqualification from federal funds when they ignore anti-discriminatory hiring laws. Fun!

The reader voted EO to repeal wasn't an EO at all, but a great one nonetheless:

National Security Presidential Directive 51
This NSPD gives the president "Complete Control" in case of 'Emergency'. What do they mean by Complete Control? What do they mean by Emergency? Well thats classified silly! They'll tell us when we need to know. Hell, we may still get to see what it is if they consider Obama beating McCain an Emergency!

THIS is whyipaytaxes.