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Bush Signs Bill Enabling Martial Law
An anonymous reader writes to point us to an article on the meaning of a new law that President Bush signed on Oct. 17. It seems to allow the President to impose martial law on any state or territory, using federal troops and/or the state's own, or other states', National Guard troops. From the article: "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. 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." Here is a link to the bill in question. The relevant part is Sec. 1076 about 3/4 of the way down the page.
Last time I looked it took a majority of both the House and Senate to pass a law... People complain that about the lack of federal action during Katrina, but when laws are passed to allow the federal govt. to actually do more all the conspiracy theorists start crawling out from their bunkers. If congress passed something before they had read it then shame on them, You Bush haters really need to get a life.
The conspiracy is now clearer. Get the bulk of our military forces stuck in far off countries to prevent any general from rallying the troops behind the Constitution and offer safe passage back to the U.S. for any military personnel overseas who pledge their loyalty to the new marital law government. This is all beginning to make sense.
Of course this is no big thing at all. Coming on the heels of a bill that allows the President to suspend Habeaus Corpus and declare American citizens enemy combatants, this doesn't mean anything at all. Just a routine executive action, that's all.
C'mon, if you can't trust President George W. Bush, who can you trust, right? It's not like he's ever lied to us before.
As some clever old Greek boy named Plato once said:
"This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector."
If life is fair, George W. Bush will see out his days in the prison cell where his peer, Slobodan Milosovic, had a chance to reflect on his contributions to human culture.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Look, I'm the first person to think that unnecessary expansions of government power are something to be feared and resisted, but, I'm sorry, did nobody actually _read_ the bill in question? Did everyone see "Bush signs bill abolishing restrictions on martial law", freak, and immediately begin to paste their canned "OMFG BUSH IMPERIAL PRESIDENT EMPIRE KARL ROVE DARK SIDE OF THE FORCE REPUBLICAN HALLIBURTON" responses?
You know what this bill does? It adds natural disasters and terrorist acts to the already existent set of conditions under which the President can assume command of, and deploy, the National Guard, and bring the other Armed Forces of the United States into use on domestic soil. That's _it_. The bit about keeping down insurrections and revolutions is _already_ part of the US code.
10 U.S.C.331 - "Whenever there is an insurrections in any State against its government, the President may, upon the request of its legislature or of its governor if the legislature cannot be convened, call into Federal service such of the militia of the other States, in the number requested by that State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to suppress the insurrection.";
10 U.S.C.332 - "Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State or Territory by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion."
10 U.S.C. 333 - "The President, by using the militia or the armed forces, or both, or by any other means, shall take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy, if it--
(1) so hinders the execution of the laws of that State, and of the United States within the State, that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law, and the constituted authorities of that State are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that protection; or
(2) opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws. In any situation covered by clause (1), the State shall be considered to have denied the equal protection of the laws secured by the Constitution. "
Oh no! He's trying to take over the country! He's establishing a monarchy by adding terrorist attacks and natural disasters to the list of reasons the Armed Forces can be deployed in a State! Wow! What a tyrant! What an evil action! OMFG OMFG BUSHCHIMPHITLER!!!!!!!! HE"S GOING TO ARREST ALL DEMOCRATS!!! THROW ALL NON-CHRISTIANS IN JAIL!!!!
So, in 2009, when, as expected, the office of the President transfers to the winner of the election, I fully expect every single one of you who are acting like teenage girls who've been grounded the weekend of the Homecoming dance to stand up and admit that, yes, you were over-reacting simpletons whose understanding of politics and the law is about as extensive as my own personal knowledge of the female orgasm. That would be the _responsible_ thing to do.
Then again, judging from the tenor of the previous comments, maybe you'll just explain how, really, Dick Cheney is sitting in a secret room 33 floors below the Pentagon controlling the new President with a mind-control device that Halliburton made for him, built from the same technology as his hurricane-making machine and his vote-suppression machine.
Dolts.
Bush is accused with not working with the Dems and of being partisan - but when he refuses to veto the bills that make it to his desk, now he's not divisive and partisan enough.
Come on guys. No matter what he does you're going to find fault.
see. guns should be in wide circulation in a country. especially the automatic 50 calibre armor piercing kind.
That is just bizzarre.
Anarchists never rule
You people are fucking conspiracy theorists. Honestly, first you people are bitching about Bush not handling Katrina (A duty that, BY LAW, IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS). And now, this law is enabling the president to respond to public emergencies by deploying appropriate authorities to restore order, and you people go psycho. Nothing is ever good enough for you idiots.
All you bleeding-heart liberals who want a revolution, go ahead and start one. Just don't start crying for pardons when you're arrested for slaughtering Republicans and right-wingers in the streets. (You all seem to be so desperate to shed right-wing blood.)
All of you need not forget that everybody who passed this bill (CONGRESSMEN) were voted into office *by the public*! If you don't fucking like it, why don't you get your asses out there and vote this November? And if your candidate loses, tough shit. It's what the American people vote for.
As for your Nazi conspiracy theories, utter bullshit. There was no such terrorism in Germany. The Jews were viewed as scapegoats for Germany's failing economy and they were persecuted for it, first by being moved into ghettos, and then by being placed in concentration camps.
And you SURE as hell better not forget that the USAPATRIOT Act was passed almost UNANIMOUSLY in the Senate (98 to 1) and by a considerable landslide in the House (357 to 66). So don't you all go blaming this on the Republicans. If you don't like it, blame both parties and get your lazy ass off of the computer and VOTE.
(in the long run) this will result in civil war. In effect Mr. Bush can send the army to do his bidding... without anyone being able to stop him, this includes imprissoning members of the government itself and election candidates he dislikes, without statement of reason (in other words: terrorism).