Buy:mosquitobite
10-25-09, 10:51 PM
This is an older article, but I think it's especially applicable now since the President has declared a SOE due to H1N1.
Making Martial Law Easier (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/19/opinion/19mon3.html)
A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night. So it was with a provision quietly tucked into the enormous defense budget bill at the Bush administration’s behest that makes it easier for a president to override local control of law enforcement and declare martial law.
The provision, signed into law in October, weakens two obscure but important bulwarks of liberty. One is the doctrine that bars military forces, including a federalized National Guard, from engaging in law enforcement. Called posse comitatus, it was enshrined in law after the Civil War to preserve the line between civil government and the military. The other is the Insurrection Act of 1807, which provides the major exemptions to posse comitatus. It essentially limits a president’s use of the military in law enforcement to putting down lawlessness, insurrection and rebellion, where a state is violating federal law or depriving people of constitutional rights.
The newly enacted provisions upset this careful balance. They shift the focus from making sure that federal laws are enforced to restoring public order. Beyond cases of actual insurrection, the president may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack or to any “other condition.”
Changes of this magnitude should be made only after a thorough public airing. But these new presidential powers were slipped into the law without hearings or public debate. The president made no mention of the changes when he signed the measure, and neither the White House nor Congress consulted in advance with the nation’s governors.
There is a bipartisan bill, introduced by Senators Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, and Christopher Bond, Republican of Missouri, and backed unanimously by the nation’s governors, that would repeal the stealthy revisions. Congress should pass it. If changes of this kind are proposed in the future, they must get a full and open debate.
More info here:
http://amconmag.com/article/2007/apr/23/00026/
(A conservative website, but one that did not care that Bush was Pres when it was passed. Why did the old media ignore this?)
So on to why I bring this up now.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/24/h1n1.obama/index.html
Since the H1N1 flu pandemic began in April, millions of people in the United States have been infected, at least 20,000 have been hospitalized and more than 1,000 have died, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Oops, except the CDC recommended hospitals/doctors to stop testing in June. How the heck would they know the real numbers?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/21/cbsnews_investigates/main5404829.shtml
http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2009/10/21/image5404580.gif
If you've been diagnosed "probable" or "presumed" 2009 H1N1 or "swine flu" in recent months, you may be surprised to know this: odds are you didn’t have H1N1 flu.
In fact, you probably didn’t have flu at all. That's according to state-by-state test results obtained in a three-month-long CBS News investigation.
So, first incite pandemonium over a flu. Second, recommend hospitals & doctors stop testing. Third, make up random numbers of inflated proportion since there are no facts to back them up. Fourth, declare a state of emergency. Fifth? I'm almost scared to wonder. :(
Making Martial Law Easier (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/19/opinion/19mon3.html)
A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night. So it was with a provision quietly tucked into the enormous defense budget bill at the Bush administration’s behest that makes it easier for a president to override local control of law enforcement and declare martial law.
The provision, signed into law in October, weakens two obscure but important bulwarks of liberty. One is the doctrine that bars military forces, including a federalized National Guard, from engaging in law enforcement. Called posse comitatus, it was enshrined in law after the Civil War to preserve the line between civil government and the military. The other is the Insurrection Act of 1807, which provides the major exemptions to posse comitatus. It essentially limits a president’s use of the military in law enforcement to putting down lawlessness, insurrection and rebellion, where a state is violating federal law or depriving people of constitutional rights.
The newly enacted provisions upset this careful balance. They shift the focus from making sure that federal laws are enforced to restoring public order. Beyond cases of actual insurrection, the president may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack or to any “other condition.”
Changes of this magnitude should be made only after a thorough public airing. But these new presidential powers were slipped into the law without hearings or public debate. The president made no mention of the changes when he signed the measure, and neither the White House nor Congress consulted in advance with the nation’s governors.
There is a bipartisan bill, introduced by Senators Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, and Christopher Bond, Republican of Missouri, and backed unanimously by the nation’s governors, that would repeal the stealthy revisions. Congress should pass it. If changes of this kind are proposed in the future, they must get a full and open debate.
More info here:
http://amconmag.com/article/2007/apr/23/00026/
(A conservative website, but one that did not care that Bush was Pres when it was passed. Why did the old media ignore this?)
So on to why I bring this up now.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/24/h1n1.obama/index.html
Since the H1N1 flu pandemic began in April, millions of people in the United States have been infected, at least 20,000 have been hospitalized and more than 1,000 have died, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Oops, except the CDC recommended hospitals/doctors to stop testing in June. How the heck would they know the real numbers?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/21/cbsnews_investigates/main5404829.shtml
http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2009/10/21/image5404580.gif
If you've been diagnosed "probable" or "presumed" 2009 H1N1 or "swine flu" in recent months, you may be surprised to know this: odds are you didn’t have H1N1 flu.
In fact, you probably didn’t have flu at all. That's according to state-by-state test results obtained in a three-month-long CBS News investigation.
So, first incite pandemonium over a flu. Second, recommend hospitals & doctors stop testing. Third, make up random numbers of inflated proportion since there are no facts to back them up. Fourth, declare a state of emergency. Fifth? I'm almost scared to wonder. :(