-----Radical Animal Rights Attorney ClearedTo Become Obamays Regulatory Cza

-----Radical Animal Rights Attorney ClearedTo Become Obamaýs Regulatory Cza

-----Radical Animal Rights Attorney ClearedTo Become Obamaýs Regulatory CzarDog Owners, Hunters, Farmers Urged To AskTheir Senators To Stop Sunstein Nominationby JOHN YATESAmerican Sporting Dog Alliancehttp://www.american sportingdogallia nce.orgasda@csonline. netThis report is archived at http://eaglerock814 .proboards. com/index. cgi?action= display&board=general&thread=52 WASHINGTON (July 21, 2009) ý Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) has lifted his ýholdý blocking the nomination of Harvard Law School scholar and animal rights legal strategist Cass Sunstein for the post of regulatory czar in the Administration of his close personal friend, President Barack Obama.Sen. Chambliss had blocked the nomination based on concerns of farm groups because of Sunsteinýs strong animal rights beliefs, including support of stringent regulation of people who raise animals and a ban on hunting. Last week, however, Chambliss met with Sunstein and announced on the Senate floor that he had lifted the hold on the nomination. The Senator added that the way is now clear for the U.S. Senate to confirm Sunstein before its August recess.The American Sporting Dog Alliance is urging all dog owners, hunters, firearms rights advocates, farmers and civil libertarians to take immediate action by urging the U.S. Senate to reject the Sunstein nomination to head the powerful Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the White House. Taking action now is of the utmost urgency.Sunstein has the strong support of the Humane Society of the United States , which is the political arm of the radical animal rights movement, according to a July 15 statement by HSUS Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Michael Markarian in The Huffington Post. Referring to the regulations to implement the federal Animal Welfare Act, and new rules about animal fighting and importing dogs, Markarian wrote: ýThese kinds of legal changes are precisely why Americans need a regulatory czar like Cass Sunstein in charge of OIRA -- to make sure the federal agencies properly implement regulations to enforce these new laws.ýThe Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) ýreviews and alters regulations created by federal agencies,ý according to Congress Daily.Sunstein, who has published 15 books, would have broad powers to review, recommend changes and possibly engineer changes in all federal regulations, including those about dog ownership, farming, hunting on federal lands, and enforcement of gun control laws.In his published writings and speeches, Sunstein has advocated:Giving animal rights groups the power to file lawsuits on the behalf of animals against their owners. Very strict regulations about animal ownership, farming and hunting. The elimination of hunting. The elimination of the individual right to keep and bear arms. Moving toward a vegan vegetarian society. Rewriting the Constitution and Bill of Rights. And restrictions on free speech. Each of those assertions will be documented later in this report by direct quotations from Sunsteinýs published books and speeches.The American Sporting Dog Alliance believes Sunstein would have a severely negative impact on dog owners, farmers, hunters, gun owners and civil libertarians ý Indeed, to all Americans!This is underscored by Sunsteinýs status as a close personal friend and advisor to President Obama since they met in 1992, when Sunstein taught law at the University of Chicago . This will give Sunstein unprecedented influence and access to the President.It is further underscored by numerous mainstream reports that Sunstein is slated to be President Obamaýs next nominee to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court. This adds to the urgency of convincing the Senate that Sunsteinýs beliefs are un-American and in direct contradiction to the basic principles outlined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.Although Sunsteinýs nomination had been blocked by Sen. Chambliss until last week, Government Executive reported that he actually has been working at the job in the White House on a daily basis.Sunsteinýs potential use of power ý and potential abuse of power ý has been increased because President Obama redefined the role of OIRA shortly after taking office. The Wall Street Journal reported July 6: ýIn a significant, but little noticed, memo written 10 days after taking office, Mr. Obama ordered up a rewrite of how OIRA goes about its work, the first such revision since 1993. ýFar more is now known about regulation -- not only when it is justified, but also what works and what does not,ý the president wrote. A regulatory review would make use of new tools and would ýclarify the role of the behavioral sciences in formulating regulatory policy.ý "The Wall Street Journal called the OIRA ýobscure but powerful.ýThe American Sporting Dog Alliance believes that Sunstein will use this position to influence President Obamaýs directives to all federal agencies on how to write, interpret and enforce all federal regulations. This includes regulations about agriculture, raising animals, hunting on public lands, and gun law enforcement and procedures. This is a dangerous power to be held by someone of Sunsteinýs clearly radical and unconstitutional beliefs.Thus, we are urging every American to immediately contact both of his or her U.S, senators, and as many other senators as possible, to urge them to vote against the Sunstein nomination.This link will provide a search engine to locate each stateýs senators, and an alphabetical list of the senators to link to contact information: http://www.senate. gov/general/ contact_informat ion/senators_ cfm.cfm. Each state has two U.S. Senators who represent all of the citizens of that state.We recommend at least two forms of contact: Send an email as a first step, plus also send a letter or fax, and/or make a phone call. Please do this immediately, as a Senate confirmation vote could come at any moment.In addition, please send this report to all of your friends and contacts and ask them to help, and post it on any message boards that you use. Also, please write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper and any other papers you read.Here are some direct quotes from Sunstein to illustrate our concern:1. "We ought to ban hunting"- Cass Sunstein, in a 2007 speech at Harvard University2. ýWe should focus attention not only on the enforcement gap, but on the areas where current law offers little or no protection. In short, the law should impose further regulation on hunting, scientific experiments, entertainment, and (above all) farming to ensure against unnecessary animal suffering. It is easy to imagine a set of initiatives that would do a great deal here, and indeed European nations have moved in just this direction. There are many possibilities.ý--Cass R. Sunstein, ýThe Rights of Animals: A Very Short Primer,ý John M. OlinLaw & Economics Working Paper No. 157, The Law School , The University ofChicago3. ýý(R)epresentatives of animals should be able to bring private suits to ensure thatanticruelty and related laws are actually enforced. If, for example, a farm is treatinghorses cruelly and in violation of legal requirements, a suit could be brought, on behalf of those animals, to bring about compliance with the law.ý--Cass R. Sunstein, ýThe Rights of Animals: A Very Short Primer,ý John M. OlinLaw & Economics Working Paper No. 157, The Law School , The University of Chicago4. ýBut if, as a practical matter, animals used for food are almost inevitably going to endure terrible suffering, then there is a good argument that people should not eat meat to the extent that a refusal to eat meat will reduce that suffering. Of course a legal ban on meat-eating would be extremely radical, and like prohibition, it would undoubtedly create black markets and have a set of bad, and huge, side-effects. But the principle seems clear: People should be much less inclined to eat meat if their refusal to do so would prevent significant suffering.ý--Cass R. Sunstein, ýThe Rights of Animals: A Very Short Primer,ý John M. OlinLaw & Economics Working Paper No. 157, The Law School , The University ofChicago5. ýLess modestly, anticruelty laws should be extended to areas that are now exempt fromthem, including scientific experiments and farming. There is no good reason to permit thelevel of suffering that is now being experienced by millions, even billions of livingcreatures.ý--Cass R. Sunstein, ýThe Rights of Animals: A Very Short Primer,ý John M. OlinLaw & Economics Working Paper No. 157, The Law School , The University ofChicago6. ýEverything depends on whether and to what extent the animal in question is capable of suffering. If rats are able to suffer, then their interests are relevant to the question of how, and perhaps even whether, they can be expelled from houses.ý--Cass R. Sunstein, Martha C. Nussbaum. Animal Rights: Current Debates andNew Directions. ( Oxford University Press , USA , 2004). P. 127. ýA system of limitless individual choices, with respect to communications, is notnecessarily in the interest of citizenship and self-government.ý--Cass Sunstein, arguing for a Fairness Doctrine for the Internet in his book,Republic.com 2.0 (Princeton University Press, 2007), p.1378.

 

Re: -----Radical Animal Rights Attorney ClearedTo Become Obamaýs Regulatory Cza

Another article with link to video and book.

Exposed: The Secret Animal Rights Agenda Of America’s Next Regulatory Czar

Barack 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. Almost. Because as we’re telling the media today, 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.

Don’t believe us? Sunstein has made no secret of his devotion to the cause of establishing legal “rights” for livestock, wildlife, and pets. “[T]here should be extensive regulation of the use of animals in entertainment, scientific experiments, and agriculture,” Sunstein wrote in a 2002 working paper while at the University of Chicago Law school.

“Extensive regulation of the use of animals.” That's PETA-speak for using government to get everything PETA and the Humane Society of the United States can't get through gentle pressure or not-so-gentle coercion. Not exactly the kind of thing American ranchers, restaurateurs, hunters, and biomedical researchers (to say nothing of ordinary consumers) would like to hear from their next “regulatory czar.”

A version of the same paper also appeared as the introduction to Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions, a 2004 book that Sunstein co-edited with then-girlfriend Martha Nussbaum. In that book, Sunstein set out an ambitious plan to give animals the legal “right” to file lawsuits. We're not joking:

“[A]nimals should be permitted to bring suit, with human beings as their representatives, to prevent violations of current law … Any animals that are entitled to bring suit would be represented by (human) counsel, who would owe guardian like obligations and make decisions, subject to those obligations, on their clients’ behalf.”
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It doesn't end there. Sunstein delivered a keynote speech at Harvard University’s 2007 “Facing Animals” conference. (Click here to watch the video; his speech starts around 39:00.) Keep in mind that as OIRA Administrator, Sunstein will have the political authority to implement a massive federal government overhaul. Consider this tidbit:

“We ought to ban hunting, I suggest, if there isn’t a purpose other than sport and fun. That should be against the law. It’s time now.”
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Sunstein also argued in favor of “eliminating current practices such as greyhound racing, cosmetic testing, and meat eating, most controversially.”

He concluded his Harvard speech by expressing his “more ambitious animating concern” that the current treatment of livestock and other animals should be considered “a form of unconscionable barbarity not the same as, but in many ways morally akin to, slavery and mass extermination of human beings.” Sound familiar?

As the individual about to assume “the most important position that Americans know nothing about,” Sunstein owes the public an honest appraisal of his animal rights goals before taking office. Will the next four years be a dream-come-true for anti-meat, anti-hunting, and anti-everything-else radicals? Time will tell. For now, meat lovers might want to stock their freezers.

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/pressRelease_detail.cfm/release/249