In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law (1). It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President's ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions. Toward Freedom - Bush Moves Toward Martial Law
And then there's this:
The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, signed on May 9, 2007, declares that in the event of a “catastrophic event,” George W. Bush can become what is best described as a dictator, "The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government."
This directive, completely unnoticed by the media, and given no scrutiny by Congress, literally gives the White House unprecedented dictatorial power over the government and the country, bypassing the US Congress and obliterating the separation of powers. The directive also placed the secretary of Homeland Security in charge of domestic “security.” New presidential directive gives Bush dictatorial powerThe thing that bugs me most about this, is that the President can declare an emergency without regard to where a disaster may have happened, or what it was. Not so scary if you're dealing with a President that is trustworthy, but can we trust this guy? Has he given us any reason to? Ponderous, man. This is really. . .ponderous.
I guess I am losing my reading comprehension skills.....I read the Presidential directive and do not believe the Toward Freedom folks did before they went into their tribal incantations and subsequent drum-beating fenzy...I did not see ANY words "encouraging" the president to declare martial law...most of the document deals with ORGANIZING and PLANNING government responses to castrophic events...being "completely unnoticed by the media"..What does that mean?? If it approached being newsworthy it would have gone unnoticed...The Secretary of Homeland Security is charge of overall planning effort to advise the President about domestic security which seems to be slightly different than "...in charge of domestic 'security'." And I find it interesting that the word dictator and variations appears several times in such a short article....So much for this rant.
ReplyDeleteOK! Thanks for the comment, Lesto! That's pretty much why I post things here, for feedback, and different views from my own. You may be right, this may be a totally unnewsworthy happening, and people like me may just be too jaded. I do have a tendancy to be paranoid about things coming out of the Executive Branch?
ReplyDeleteOr are they still the Executive Branch? I keep losing track. Anyway, take a look at this link to see the source of my paranoia:
http://www.buzzflash.com/analysis/2002/10/29_Dictator.html
Thanks again for posting, and good night!