Saturday, May 26, 2007
Bush Makes Power Grab
What has Mr. Corsi so incessed this time around is the little presidential directive Bush recently signed to save democracy and the American way. And no, we are not talking about the bill to fund American troops in Iraq, Howling Latina is referring to the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive.
Why, of course the United States needs a comprehensive national policy for the continuity of the federal government in the event David Gregory's children and Jim Rutenberg's chow chow are attacked by terrorist evildoers who hate our freedom. In early May, President Bush assigned to himself extraordinary regal powers to save our hard-earned liberty and the constitution.
What's more, even if Americans are not directly attacked, the president would still need to have absolute flexibility to preemptively strike at anyone and anything that might impede America's march toward global dominance, er, I mean, toward world freedom and justice.
The policy "prescribes continuity requirements for ALL executive departments and agencies" in the event of a "catastrophic emergency," thoughtfully limited to "any incident...that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function."
You see, no there, there.
Our fearless and wise president will determine when a "catastrophic emergency has occurred." And after that, he, and only he will have the power to "take over all government functions and direct all private sector activities" to make sure America "emerge[s] from the emergency with an 'enduring constitutional government.'" Anybody got a problem with that?!?
Well, apparently Mr. Corsi does.
Translated into layman's terms, when the president determines a national emergency has occurred, the president can declare to the office of the presidency powers usually assumed by dictators to direct any and all government and business activities until the emergency is declared over.
The directive issued May 9 makes no attempt to reconcile the powers created there for the National Continuity Coordinator with the National Emergency Act. As specified by U.S. Code Title 50, Chapter 34, Subchapter II, Section 1621, the National Emergency Act allows that the president may declare a national emergency but requires that such proclamation "shall immediately be transmitted to the
Congress and published in the Federal Register."A Congressional Research Service study notes that under the National Emergency Act, the president "may seize property, organize and control the means of production, seize commodities, assign military forces abroad, institute martial law, seize and control all transportation and communication, regulate the operation of private enterprise, restrict travel, and, in a variety of ways, control the lives of
United States citizens."
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