the Bush power grab
Aug. 26th, 2007 01:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drewkittyI've put together a list of sources and links for the power grab perpetuated by the Executive Branch in the last twenty years or so. While the junior and elder Bush did a lot of this, some was done under Clinton as well.
Remember that one boils a frog by cooking it slowly.
I've also learned -- the hard way -- my lesson about discussions with conservatives. When I put in the time and energy to provide citations, they are dismissed out of hand. When I don't, I am accused of making up facts.
It's far easier to simply not argue with them at all. I choose to invest my energy where it is most productive. Conservatives have convincingly persuaded me that talking to them is like wrestling with pigs -- one only gets dirty, and the pig enjoys it.
So from now on, I simply treat conservatives as dangerously deluded at best and actively psychotic and opposed to my existence at worst. No point to talking politics with them.
>> Bush has laid all of the legalistic (note that I did *not* say legal) groundwork to do exactly that, stay in office past 2008.
Expansion of FEMA emergency powers -- many coming after Hurricane Katrina, a double slap in the face. "Signing statements" in which the President instructs executive agencies to ignore acts of Congress (i.e. break the law). Executive orders on a wide plethora of subjects once reserved to legislation, some involving extrajudicial confiscation of property. A quiet and chilling expansion of Federal powers to investigate, detain, arrest and hold American citizens under "emergency" conditions. Wholesale abandonment of "posse comitatus."
The upshot is that if a national emergency were to take place immediately before or during a Presidential election, all of the legal and operational frameworks are in place to "temporarily" assume control of the United States. About as effectively as FEMA took control of New Orleans post-Katrina. Add "bird flu" and stir vigorously.
Citations:
"FEMA emergency powers":
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_emergency
* http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Federal_Emergency_Management_Agency
* http://sonic.net/sentinel/gvcon6.html (pre-Bush introduction)
* http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/27/1027497418339.html (2002)
* http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/10/06/bush_cites_authority_to_bypass_fema_law/
* http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7986.shtml
* http://www.vdare.com/roberts/050911_federal_failure.htm
* http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/samples7.html
"Signing statements":
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signing_statement_%28United_States%29
* http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/signingstatements.php
* http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/04/30/bush_challenges_hundreds_of_laws/
* http://www.slate.com/id/2134919/
* http://www.abanet.org/media/docs/signstatereport.pdf
* http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/signing.htm
"Executive Orders"
* http://www.iahf.com/bonfire1.html (an OK general explanation)
* http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6377 ("The Executive Order entitled "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq" provides the President with the authority to confiscate the assets of whoever opposes the US led war.")
* http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/08/20070802-1.html (asset seizure in USA)
* http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/26/AR2006062601304.html (order to upgrade EAS)
* http://www.lawandfreedom.com/site/executive/index.html
* http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/pdf/05-3385.pdf
(a sample order)
* http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/eo/eo-13382.htm (an EO targeted against distributors of WMD precursors)
"new powers against American citizens" (loss of habeus corpus)
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus
* http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15220450/
* http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/rightsandfreedoms/a/habeuscorpus.htm
* http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Military_Commissions_Act_of_2006
* http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0928-20.htm
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4329839.stm (UK history)
* http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/restorehabeas/default.asp
"Posse comitatus"
* http://www.homelandsecurity.org/journal/articles/Trebilcock.htm (watering down between 1980 and 2000)
* http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/comrel/factfile/Factcards/PosseComitatus.html
* http://www.au.af.mil/au/aul/bibs/posse/posse.htm (many useful links)
* http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/26/bush.military/ 'Bush eyes bigger military role in disasters'
* http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Posse_Comitatus_Act
* http://www.towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/911/
* http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/18/211033/23
Remember that one boils a frog by cooking it slowly.
I've also learned -- the hard way -- my lesson about discussions with conservatives. When I put in the time and energy to provide citations, they are dismissed out of hand. When I don't, I am accused of making up facts.
It's far easier to simply not argue with them at all. I choose to invest my energy where it is most productive. Conservatives have convincingly persuaded me that talking to them is like wrestling with pigs -- one only gets dirty, and the pig enjoys it.
So from now on, I simply treat conservatives as dangerously deluded at best and actively psychotic and opposed to my existence at worst. No point to talking politics with them.
>> Bush has laid all of the legalistic (note that I did *not* say legal) groundwork to do exactly that, stay in office past 2008.
Expansion of FEMA emergency powers -- many coming after Hurricane Katrina, a double slap in the face. "Signing statements" in which the President instructs executive agencies to ignore acts of Congress (i.e. break the law). Executive orders on a wide plethora of subjects once reserved to legislation, some involving extrajudicial confiscation of property. A quiet and chilling expansion of Federal powers to investigate, detain, arrest and hold American citizens under "emergency" conditions. Wholesale abandonment of "posse comitatus."
The upshot is that if a national emergency were to take place immediately before or during a Presidential election, all of the legal and operational frameworks are in place to "temporarily" assume control of the United States. About as effectively as FEMA took control of New Orleans post-Katrina. Add "bird flu" and stir vigorously.
Citations:
"FEMA emergency powers":
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_emergency
* http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Federal_Emergency_Management_Agency
* http://sonic.net/sentinel/gvcon6.html (pre-Bush introduction)
* http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/27/1027497418339.html (2002)
* http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/10/06/bush_cites_authority_to_bypass_fema_law/
* http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7986.shtml
* http://www.vdare.com/roberts/050911_federal_failure.htm
* http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/samples7.html
"Signing statements":
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signing_statement_%28United_States%29
* http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/signingstatements.php
* http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/04/30/bush_challenges_hundreds_of_laws/
* http://www.slate.com/id/2134919/
* http://www.abanet.org/media/docs/signstatereport.pdf
* http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/signing.htm
"Executive Orders"
* http://www.iahf.com/bonfire1.html (an OK general explanation)
* http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6377 ("The Executive Order entitled "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq" provides the President with the authority to confiscate the assets of whoever opposes the US led war.")
* http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/08/20070802-1.html (asset seizure in USA)
* http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/26/AR2006062601304.html (order to upgrade EAS)
* http://www.lawandfreedom.com/site/executive/index.html
* http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/pdf/05-3385.pdf
(a sample order)
* http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/eo/eo-13382.htm (an EO targeted against distributors of WMD precursors)
"new powers against American citizens" (loss of habeus corpus)
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus
* http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15220450/
* http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/rightsandfreedoms/a/habeuscorpus.htm
* http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Military_Commissions_Act_of_2006
* http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0928-20.htm
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4329839.stm (UK history)
* http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/restorehabeas/default.asp
"Posse comitatus"
* http://www.homelandsecurity.org/journal/articles/Trebilcock.htm (watering down between 1980 and 2000)
* http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/comrel/factfile/Factcards/PosseComitatus.html
* http://www.au.af.mil/au/aul/bibs/posse/posse.htm (many useful links)
* http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/26/bush.military/ 'Bush eyes bigger military role in disasters'
* http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Posse_Comitatus_Act
* http://www.towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/911/
* http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/18/211033/23
