As a reaction to Katrina, the House passed a 'National Defense Authorization Act' back in August that removes the necessity of consent from state Governors for federalization of the National Guard.
It's a HORRIBLE idea. One that leaves you with no option but to assume our legislators failed every civics class they ever took. There is a very legitimate reason why the National Guards are left to the state. They are the 'Well Regulated Militia' as referred to in the Constitution. The Federal Government is explicitly barred from using the military as a police force on US soil. This act turns the Guard into another division of the Army Reserve.
The National Guard is there as a tool to protect states from unreasonable power rising in the federal government. It's been like that since the Militia Act of 1903 where all State Militia's were organized into state run National Guard units.
This bill was largely backed by the Republicans. How do so many congresspeople vote to push this through? They are supposed to be in touch and directly responsible to their conservative bases. What happened to less-government, States Rights conservatives? All we seem to have are Federalist authoritarians.
Anyway, This act 'passed' the Senate on October 17, same day as the Military Commissions Act.
linky dinky
Quote:
Bush Prepares To Impose Martial Law
posted November 2, 2006
The Republican re-writing of the Insurrection Act gives Bush the authority to declare martial law. For the first time since 1878, the president has the power to deploy troops within the United States. Bush and future presidents now have a power that, in other countries, is reserved to the dictator.
Despite the unprecedented and shocking nature of this new law, there has been no outcry in the American media and little reaction from our elected officials in Congress.
The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) had historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), prohibited military involvement in domestic law enforcement.
Now, Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" (H.R.5122) allows the President to declare a "public emergency," station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor.
The law states that "the President may employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service when he determines that the authorities of the State "refuse" or "fail" in maintaining public order, "in order to suppress, in any State, any domestic violence or conspiracy."
This means the president can take guardsmen from any state, over the objections of local governmental entities; ship them off to another state; conscript them in a law enforcement mode; and set them loose against "disorderly" citizenry - protesters, possibly.
This de-facto repeal of the Posse Comitatus Act 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.
Only Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) noted: "We do not need to make it easier for Presidents to declare martial law. The implications are enormous. Using the military for law enforcement goes against one of the founding tenets of our democracy. We fail our Constitution, neglecting the rights of the states, when we make it easier for the President to declare martial law and trample on local and state sovereignty."
The balance of power between our 3 branches of government continues to tilt toward the unitary executive. It’s sad that most people don’t realize our democracy is rapidly slipping away.
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Our weasley senate passed it by unanimous consent. No voting record for voting us into this slip into facism.
The whole
idea of 'Unitary Executive' is Facism lite, IMO. It's an attempt to put a cuddly idea around the word 'DICTATOR'.
It's fucked up. How do our state congressmen vote for something asinine like this. They represent their STATE. Why cede power? What the fuck is wrong with us? Do we really want to be more like Most Favored Trading Partner, China?
We need to clean sweep the shit out of this Legislature. And I hope if he ever tries to use this new power, us Pennsyltuckyans give Dear Leader-in-Chief the ol' F off.
_________________
We vote this tuesday. Unless your representatives names are:
AZ-7 Grijalva, Raul [D]
CA-6 Woolsey, Lynn [D]
CA-7 Miller, George [D]
CA-9 Lee, Barbara [D]
CA-13 Stark, Fortney [D]
CA-15 Honda, Michael [D]
CA-23 Capps, Lois [D]
CA-35 Waters, Maxine [D]
GA-4 McKinney, Cynthia [D] (though moot.)
GA-5 Lewis, John [D]
IL-2 Jackson, Jesse [D]
IL-9 Schakowsky, Janice [D]
MA-1 Olver, John [D]
MA-4 Frank, Barney [D]
MA-6 Tierney, John [D]
MA-7 Markey, Edward [D]
MA-8 Capuano, Michael [D]
MI-13 Kilpatrick, Carolyn [D]
MI-14 Conyers, John [D]
NJ-10 Payne, Donald [D]
NJ-12 Holt, Rush [D]
NY-11 Owens, Major [D]
NY-12 Velazquez, Nydia [D]
NY-16 Serrano, José [D]
NC-12 Watt, Melvin [D]
OH-10 Kucinich, Dennis [D]
TX-14 Paul, Ronald [R]
WA-1 Inslee, Jay [D]
WA-7 McDermott, James [D]
WI-2 Baldwin, Tammy [D]
WI-4 Moore, Gwen [D]
...Vote for somebody else. Do it if you care about not taking more steps towards facism.
I'm now voting against my Dem Congressman, Tim Holden because of this.
Only one Republican Congressman exists with both a backbone and a brain. Rep. Ronald Paul from Texas' 'Fightin' 14th.