What follows my personal commentary is an article that should get the undivided attention of every single American Citizen.The last call to awaken has been sounded.
Be you Left, Right or in the Middle.
While we all debate the polls, speculate on theft of elections and make satirical fun of the decider in chief, Bush has quietly signed into LAW, let me repeat that, signed into LAW the means by which dissent will be dealt with in The United States of America.
We like to make our statements and comment on the issues of our times, you may have noticed as I have, there is no longer any real debate about those issues. The reality we find in our midst today is not a situation of debate and then decide. It is one of decisions made in secret, by a small group of people with extreme conflicts of interest and only given the illuision of debate when and where the aftermath of these decisions are uncovered.
You are either with us or against us. Period.
How does one debate the finer points of torturing another human being? I surely do not know and I feel quiet certain I never will, which I might note, has been pointed out numerous times in comments from the right as putting me squarely in the same category as a terrorist. No middle ground, no debate whatsoever, it is as we say decided.
The Republican controlled Congress has relegated the Democratic minority to the role of red headed step child within the halls of Congress with no voice in governing what so ever. The Republican majority have effectively had no serious opposition and no desire to engage the minority party in the process of lawmaking.
Many of us dare to hope that will change after Nov. 7th but I think if we are honest we really expect to find ourselves reliving the nightmare of elections past. I for one do not believe for one brief moment that these folks have any intention to honor the will of the people. Based on simple observation of them so far, I personally find that a very logical expectation.
So, one is naturally led to ask the question:
What will you do if you find yourself, once again, witnessing power delivering power unto itself?
Call in sick from work again?
Spend the day crying because you know the truth and you can’t do one damn thing about it?
Apply for your passport and pick out your new home country?
Decide to stay and fight for the country that once was and could be?
Grab your protest sign and hit the streets?
They say you reap what you sow.
Did we collectively give a shit that aside from Saddam, his family and some military officials who ordered soldiers to do things strikingly similar to what our own leaders ask of our soldiers, that most of the people we were about to incinerate, obliterate, and annihilate were just trying to survive our oppressive sanctions and a ruthless dictator simultaneuosly and were in no position to pose a threat to us whatsoever?
The answer is no, as a nation we did not. Prime time, Shock and Awe Baby, and the nation ate it up.
Did we really care enough about all those dead Iraqis with white phosphorous all over them to raise our collective voice as a nation against it, and after all it was too late anyway right?
The answer is again, no we did not. The
Were we sufficiently appalled that our Government tortures people to rise up, as a nation, and say with unity and commitment we would not tolerate it?
No. Out of sight and out of mind is the American way.
God knows how may Iraqis, along with thousands of American Soldiers bear witness every day to the way Bush and Company pursue whatever the hell it is they want while they enrich themselves and their corporate partners, with only the vaguest of lip service, flipping the channels and changing the stories of war and conquest as if they were changing their socks.
Have we listened to the conscientious objectors or is it easier just to call them cowards?
If you find yourself thinking about rising up and making your voice heard at this late date, you may want to consider that President George W. Bush has just signed into LAW the means by which your government will deal with you should you decide to attempt to publicly assert your right to demonstrate your disgust with them.
The ultimate irony, of course, is that you could enjoy a stay at the
It is called Martial Law, also known as a Police State.
I am utterly saddened that
And the irony just goes on and on.
By the people and for the people, that was a really a great idea. Too bad it never got the chance to be all it could have been in America. We the people gave it all away, bit by bit and what hurts the most is deep inside ourselves we know it was our game to lose.
How long have we watched this very thing go on around us? How often have we turned our faces away from those who would warn us that our own Government has been deeply involved in creating this very scenario in other countries around the world?
Are we about to find out first hand just exactly why "they" hate us so much?
Bless us all, we are going to need it.
Read on and then you can draw your own conclusions about your reality.
In the immortal words Bob Dylan “let us not speak falsely now, the hour is getting late”
Bush Moves Toward Martial Law
Written by Frank Morales
Thursday, 26 October 2006
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
Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency" and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder."
President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act of 2006. In a sense, the two laws complement one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home, preparing to order the military onto the streets of
Section 1076 of the massive Authorization Act, which grants the Pentagon another $500-plus-billion for its ill-advised adventures, is entitled, "Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies." Section 333, "Major public emergencies; interference with State and Federal law" states that "the President may employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service, to restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the United States, the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of ("refuse" or "fail" in) maintaining public order, "in order to suppress, in any State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy."
For the current President, "enforcement of the laws to restore public order" means to commandeer guardsmen from any state, over the objections of local governmental, military and local police entities; ship them off to another state; conscript them in a law enforcement mode; and set them loose against "disorderly" citizenry - protesters, possibly, or those who object to forced vaccinations and quarantines in the event of a bio-terror event.
The law also facilitates militarized police round-ups and detention of protesters, so called "illegal aliens," "potential terrorists" and other "undesirables" for detention in facilities already contracted for and under construction by Halliburton. That's right. Under the cover of a trumped-up "immigration emergency" and the frenzied militarization of the southern border, detention camps are being constructed right under our noses, camps designed for anyone who resists the foreign and domestic agenda of the Bush administration.
An article on "recent contract awards" in a recent issue of the slick, insider "Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International" reported that "global engineering and technical services powerhouse KBR [Kellog, Brown & Root] announced in January 2006 that its Government and Infrastructure division was awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in the event of an emergency." "With a maximum total value of $385 million over a five year term," the report notes, "the contract is to be executed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers," "for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) - in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs." The report points out that "KBR is the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton." (3) So, in addition to authorizing another $532.8 billion for the Pentagon, including a $70-billion "supplemental provision" which covers the cost of the ongoing, mad military maneuvers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places, the new law, signed by the president in a private White House ceremony, further collapses the historic divide between the police and the military: a tell-tale sign of a rapidly consolidating police state in America, all accomplished amidst ongoing U.S. imperial pretensions of global domination, sold to an "emergency managed" and seemingly willfully gullible public as a "global war on terrorism."
Make no mistake about it: the de-facto repeal of the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA) is an ominous assault on American democratic tradition and jurisprudence. The 1878 Act, which reads, "Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both," is the only U.S. criminal statute that outlaws military operations directed against the American people under the cover of 'law enforcement.' As such, it has been the best protection we've had against the power-hungry intentions of an unscrupulous and reckless executive, an executive intent on using force to enforce its will.
Unfortunately, this past week, the president dealt posse comitatus, along with American democracy, a near fatal blow. Consequently, it will take an aroused citizenry to undo the damage wrought by this horrendous act, part and parcel, as we have seen, of a long train of abuses and outrages perpetrated by this authoritarian administration.
Despite the unprecedented and shocking nature of this act, there has been no outcry in the American media, and little reaction from our elected officials in Congress. On September 19th, a lone Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) noted that 2007's Defense Authorization Act contained a "widely opposed provision to allow the President more control over the National Guard [adopting] changes to the Insurrection Act, which will make it easier for this or any future President to use the military to restore domestic order WITHOUT the consent of the nation's governors."
Senator Leahy went on to stress that, "we certainly do not need to make it easier for Presidents to declare martial law. Invoking the Insurrection Act and using the military for law enforcement activities goes against some of the central tenets of our democracy. One can easily envision governors and mayors in charge of an emergency having to constantly look over their shoulders while someone who has never visited their communities gives the orders."
A few weeks later, on the 29th of September, Leahy entered into the Congressional Record that he had "grave reservations about certain provisions of the fiscal Year 2007 Defense Authorization Bill Conference Report," the language of which, he said, "subverts solid, longstanding posse comitatus statutes that limit the military's involvement in law enforcement, thereby making it easier for the President to declare martial law." This had been "slipped in," Leahy said, "as a rider with little study," while "other congressional committees with jurisdiction over these matters had no chance to comment, let alone hold hearings on, these proposals."
In a telling bit of understatement, the Senator from
Senator Leahy's final ruminations: "Since hearing word a couple of weeks ago that this outcome was likely, I have wondered how Congress could have gotten to this point. It seems the changes to the Insurrection Act have survived the Conference because the Pentagon and the White House want it."
The historic and ominous re-writing of the Insurrection Act, accomplished in the dead of night, which gives Bush the legal authority to declare martial law, is now an accomplished fact.
The Pentagon, as one might expect, plays an even more direct role in martial law operations. Title XIV of the new law, entitled, "Homeland Defense Technology Transfer Legislative Provisions," authorizes "the Secretary of Defense to create a Homeland Defense Technology Transfer Consortium to improve the effectiveness of the Department of Defense (DOD) processes for identifying and deploying relevant DOD technology to federal, State, and local first responders."
In other words, the law facilitates the "transfer" of the newest in so-called "crowd control" technology and other weaponry designed to suppress dissent from the Pentagon to local militarized police units. The new law builds on and further codifies earlier "technology transfer" agreements, specifically the 1995 DOD-Justice Department memorandum of agreement achieved back during the Clinton-Reno regime.(4)
It has become clear in recent months that a critical mass of the American people have seen through the lies of the Bush administration; with the president's polls at an historic low, growing resistance to the war
Source:
(1) http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200609/091906a.html and http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200609/092906b.html See also, Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, "The Use of Federal Troops for Disaster Assistance: Legal Issues," by Jennifer K. Elsea, Legislative Attorney, August 14, 2006
(3) Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International, "Recent Contract Awards", Summer 2006, Vol.12, No.2, pg.8; See also, Peter Dale Scott, "Homeland Security Contracts for Vast New Detention Camps," New American Media, January 31, 2006.
(4) "Technology Transfer from defense: Concealed Weapons Detection", National Institute of Justice Journal, No 229, August, 1995, pp.42-43.
Source: Toward Freedom
