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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.
How could this be a "stealth" move?
This is a LAW people. Congress had to pass it. Where was the yelling and screaming about this before the bill was passed?
Why didn't anyone bring this up, if it is indeed what they say it is?
You mean to tell me that NO Democrat and NO Republican read the bill, and after the bill was passed they found out what they voted for?
You know why?
Because it DOES NOTHING OF THE KIND.
Please! If this were indeed the case, you would have seen articles in the Washington Post, NY Times, LA Times, and every single news channel talking about this for weeks.
People that actually believe this are just promoting their own paranoid fantasies, prompted by the people they want to put into power.
I've seen people act like sheep before, but this is ridiculous.
LMAO yanks have fun being incarcerated in the land of the "FREE"?
.....
Oh Canada!!!! my home
Remember this come November. Don't be surprised if dubya imposes martial law in every state that sends a Dem to Washington. One small leap for dubya, one giant leap for totalitarian fascism. Welcome to the new US, where freedom runs you.
Hey, we'll have none of that reasoned discourse 'round these parts! If Clinton had enacted this, then it would not be a big deal ... but this is Bush so the sky is falling. Mind you, many /.ers have accused Bush of ignoring and wantonly violating the constitution, but for some reason Bush now feels the need to push through this law "in the stealth of night" when he only has 2 years left in office. Apparently, logic and rational thought processes are nowwhere to be found on /. Sad.
Bush and the United States military were the last ones there when Katrina hit. Fucking Fidel Castro did more than Bush. Bush has shown that his interests are clearly not in helping the American people. The conspiracy theorists are more levelheaded than Bush supporters.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
I thought military states (e.g. North Korea) are all axis of evil, and is not a way to go
I guess I was wrong...
there is no issue with my network
Hells Bells, you know that the guy can't win with this crowd. Interestingly enough, GWB is simultaneously the stupidest president ever and is engineering a most Machiavellian evil plan to take over the world.
I will admit that he certainly seems to have been fairly ineffective--but I wonder how history will judge him. I personally just think that he's ineffectual because he speaks *as if* he's an idiot, which keeps him from being able to clearly communicate what he's trying to do. I wouldn't be surprised if he just had some sort of undiagnosed dyslexia or reading disorder.
Either way, I will probably be relieved when Hillary's president--heaven knows that the Clinton cabal has never tried anything shifty.
Yea, you have voted for him, and now he pays back.
I was wondering when he and his fancy entourage would be bringing things to this level, and voila, now they are !
Next to expect is lifetime presidency declaration.
Read radical news here
Man, you really are a monkey -- repeating a term you found in the NYT. If I had mod points you'd be -5, Fucking Tool
And only two hands.
Boy, you pro-gun people sure are smart.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
You type well for a fucktard that has the government's big and mighty cock jammed down your throat and up your ass.
Don't try to be reasonable on Slashdot.
The bill allows the President to declare a state of emergency and directly command federal troops and state National Guard to act without relying on a State Governor to declare an emergency and request federal troops, or act on their own to mobilize state National Guard.
Remember Katrina? Remember all the bitching on Slashdot about Bush not sending in the military right away to assist? That's because he couldn't. Now he, and any future President, can.
This is why I rarely bother with Slashdot or Digg anymore. They're all a bunch of deranged paranoid fanatics here.
Let me get this straight... You all bitch and moan when Katrina hits and the federal government does not step in to help. But one reason that federal governement does not help at that time is that it can't send federal troops into Louisiana without that state's permission.
The federal leader is villified eight ways to Sunday for his lack of participation. So he gets passed a bill which does grant him the right to act with troops in just such an emergency as the people seem to have demanded he should have done in the first place.
And then you bitch again!
Geesus, get a clue. The federal government shouldn't have this new right AND it shouldn't be expected to help with disasters such as Katrina which are primarily a local state issue. And yes... I do believe this; go ahead label me cruel and incompassionate; I've just thought out a situation logically whereas others react with what makes them feel good. I live in California on top of primary earthquake zones. I'm *EXPECTING* a disasterous earthquake in my lifetime. Gulf coast residents and leaders are idiots if they don't similarly expect hurricane disasters and adequately prepare for it. I expect my state and county governments to be planning and saving for earthquakes and it is their responsibility to handle it; not the federal government.
I'm still waiting for people to wake up and realize that we're NOT suppose to have a large and powerful federal government. That it's NOT supposed to be responsible for the properity and welfare if its citizens. It's suppose to be a federation of sovereign states who, aside from basic inalienable human rights and military protection against foreign aggressors. take care of themselves. That people are expected to take care of themselves too.
As long as we continue to vote for socialist politicians of the ilk we have been for the past 100 years then you get exactly this... A loss of rights, of freedoms, of control and you support and encourage inefficiency, waste and sloth in everyone.
But don't worry. There is an end coming... You just won't like it; but you will pay for it and you will pay for it with every last penny you have.
I will never live for sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.
How many of you blamed the slow federal response to Hurricane Katrina on President Bush? And of those how many now are upset about this action? Can you say "just desserts"?
Yeah, we'll all just stand at the shores and guard the beach while the sneaky intelligentsia* soar overhead in their sleek aero-liners. Too bad we're not smart enough to prevent the "flight" of the intelligentsia* to their overseas utopiae. We long for the old overlords to show us how they did it in Paris, currently burning at the hands of youths (of no particular distinguishing common thread, in fact a broad strata of society), under the enlightened leadership of the best Socialist intelligentsia* the world has seen.
I'll stay here with my non-intelligentsia* shotgun and my non-Socialist Republican VRWC membership card.
You sound like a pretty fart smeller, though--you'd better git on that aero-plane with yore intelligentsia chums.
*In trendy Liberal Soviet vocabulary, right-winger spell-checks YOU!
Don't trust anyone under thirty.