After Katrina
Today's New York Times editorial page warns the New York City liberal faithful about that power-grabbing, facist, dictatorial Bush administration.
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.”
It's frankly a little amazing that this would be a concern in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina -- a disaster turned to tragedy mainly by incompetent state and local government.
With the media's hysterical condemnation of the Bush Administration's response to that natural disaster -- handicapped by Mayor Ray Nagin and Gov. Kathleen Blanco -- it would seem to be that more federal power is what the Democrats have been clamoring for.
Personally, I don't care one way or another -- this is small potatoes compared to the war in Iraq and other more pressing issues facing the nation.
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At their current pace, they have about 3 years of publishing life left before the stock becomes worthless. Then look for the NY Times building to be sold. Nicely done, Pinch.
This show is over. I can get the truth, for free, on the net. Yes, I have to look at different sources, but there are a lot of skeptics out there. The spinners and photoshoppers get exposed.
Or I could pay for the NY Times. What a choice.