Reply #7: A question, a comment and a reference... [View All]

[warren pease]

The question: Isn't H.R. 1585, the fiscal year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act, the bill Bushie just pocket vetoed? I'm pretty sure that the case, since Ms. Nancy and Uncle Harry issued a joint statement (strongly worded, of course) on Dec. 28th regarding just that veto of just that bill. They do get things wrong from time to time, though...

And the comment: I think it's a handicap among reasonable people that they assume reasonableness (if that's a word) on the part of others. I think this is how BushCo got over on so many issues post-9/11, particularly after he was deified by US media and touted as the "war president" by a bipartisan congress, all singing gawd bless America on the Capitol steps.

And ever after BushCo has proven itself over and over to be the vile, malevolent snake pit most of us always knew it was, I think some of that tendency to ascribe reason and honor to these vampires remains. So you express concerns that a section of the new bill is "...broader and that in and of itself is a source of concern and reason to support its repeal. But let's not pretend that the existing law (which dates back to the beginning of the 19th century) is all that narrow. After all, "conspiracy" and "unlawful combination" are pretty ambiguous terms."

Yes they are. But I think you omit the human factor or, in this case, the reptilian factor. This administration has distinguished itself as history's most ideologically inflexible and hell-bent on causing irreparable domestic and international damage. So when they have their lawyers draw up omnibus bills like this and sell them through their congressional surrogates, they're careful to leave plenty of room for domestic repression around the edges. I suggest these are not mistakes but intentional power grabs buried in the fine print and which our busy, busy representatives hardly ever actually read. Raising campaign money being so time-consuming, don'tcha know.

For example, here's a little-known piece of H.R. 1585 that seems to contradict what you're saying about the restoration of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1877 and its relationship to the Sedition Act of 1807. I've chopped it up pretty thoroughly to focus on the high (low?) points. The entire bill is http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h1585:">here. Then you click on "text of legislation," then on which brings up the final House/Senate approved bill. Then scroll all the way down to Sec. 1814, click that link, then scroll down again to Sec. 1814, where you'll see the full text of my version below. Sorry for the hassel; Thomas' URLs don't work well with DU's HTML implementation, apparently.

SEC. 1814. REQUIREMENT FOR SECRETARY OF DEFENSE TO PREPARE PLAN FOR RESPONSE TO NATURAL DISASTERS AND TERRORIST EVENTS.

(1) ...the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the commander of the United States Northern Command, and the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, shall prepare and submit to Congress a plan for coordinating the use of the National Guard and members of the Armed Forces on active duty when responding to natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters as identified in the national planning scenarios described in subsection (e)...

(d) ...The plan shall cover, at a minimum, the following: ...

(3) An identification of the training and equipment needed for both National Guard personnel and members of the Armed Forces on active duty to provide military assistance to civil authorities and for other domestic operations to respond to hazards identified in the national planning scenarios.

(e) National Planning Scenarios- The plan shall provide for response to the following hazards:

(1) Nuclear detonation, biological attack, biological disease outbreak/pandemic flu, the plague, chemical attack-blister agent, chemical attack-toxic industrial chemicals, chemical attack-nerve agent, chemical attack-chlorine tank explosion, major hurricane, major earthquake, radiological attack-radiological dispersal device, explosives attack-bombing using improvised explosive device, biological attack-food contamination, biological attack-foreign animal disease and cyber attack.

(2) Any other hazards identified in a national planning scenario developed by the Homeland Security Council.

SEC. 1815. DETERMINATION OF DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CIVIL SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS.

(B) Any additional capabilities determined by the Secretary to be necessary to support the use of the active components and the reserve components of the Armed Forces for homeland defense missions, domestic emergency responses, and providing military support to civil authorities.

(e) ...United States Code, is amended by striking `contingency plans' at the end of the first sentence and inserting the following: `contingency plans, including plans for providing support to civil authorities in an incident of national significance or a catastrophic incident, for homeland defense, and for military support to civil authorities'.

SEC. 1821. UNITED STATES NORTHERN COMMAND.

(a) Manpower Review-... of the civilian and military positions, job descriptions, and assignments within the United States Northern Command with the goal of determining the feasibility of significantly increasing the number of members of a reserve component assigned to, and civilians employed by, the United States Northern Command who have experience in the planning, training, and employment of forces for homeland defense missions, domestic emergency response, and providing military support to civil authorities.

(b) Definition- In this section, the term `United States Northern Command' means the combatant command the geographic area of responsibility of which includes the United States.

And because we're absolutely not dealing with honorable people here, we can't ascribe normal motives or basic human decency to their actions. We're, in fact, dealing with megalomaniacal sociopaths whose frame of reference for acceptable behavior is completely out of whack with that of "normal" people.

Finally, for reference and to bring up some additional proof points, I'd offer this brief synopsis of the dots that can be connected to infer some rather dark times ahead. Please check out the links if you have the time.

There's an ever-expanding list of repressive legislation, executive orders and presidential directives; massive federal invasions of privacy regarding http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E0D7153AF933A2575BC0A9649C8B63">medical and http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/23/washington/23intel.html?ex=1308715200&en=168d69d26685c26c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss">financial records; monitoring US citizens' electronic communications shortly after assuming office; re-targeting spy satellites for domestic surveillance; the TSA cavity search specialists (for attractive young women only; the rest are presumed to pose no threat to the state); various http://www.aclu.org/safefree/resources/18752res20041110.html">watch lists that nobody knows who's on and nobody who's on can get off of; RFIDs in all new passports and in new national ID cards scheduled to be issued this year; Halliburton's new detention camps; new " to spot those who don't "look quite right;" all this wonderful new stuff from the DHS; private armies featuring mercenaries from companies like Blackwater and SAIC springing up like mushrooms after a light rain . . . [br />

All that and rendition and torture, too.


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