In October 2006, President Bush signed the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, which overturns the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.  The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits federal military personnel from acting as a police force within the United States except when authorized by the US Congress or Constitution.  It was passed to strictly limit the government’s powers.

Quietly slipped into the law at the last minute, at the request of the Bush administration, were sections changing important legal principles, dating back 200 years, which limit the U.S. government’s ability to use the military to intervene in domestic affairs. These changes would allow Bush, whenever he thinks it necessary, to institute martial law–under which the military takes direct control over civilian administration.

The article, however, quotes Sec. 1042 when it should be Section 1076.  Posse Comitatus has it’s pros and cons.  We saw kind of help it could be during the L.A. Riots in 1992.  Most people do not worry and, if we had any other president right now, most people would not be worrying about the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act.  However, we have seen the president continue to strip American citizens of their freedoms and lead them down the path to a police state, that this new act is worrying.

Bush has modified the main exemptions to posse comitatus that up to now have been primarily defined by the Insurrection Act of 1807. Previously the president could call out the army in the United States only in cases of insurrection or conditions where “rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State or Territory by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings.” Under the new law the president can use the military in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, a terrorist attack or “other condition in which the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to the extent that state officials cannot maintain public order.”

No doubt, the Bush administration will hold this Act up to the people and say, “see, now if another Katrina happens, we can help.”  The fact is, they could have helped during Katrina because FEMA had the authority to do so but couldn’t be arsed to do anything in a timely manner.  This was partly due to the fact that Bush slashed FEMA’s budget so that he could fund the Department of Homeland Security.  A Katrina incident should not be the responsibility of the military, however, Bush wants it them to be responsible and his overriding of Posse Comitatus does just that.  Are you starting to see a pattern here of Bush’s extreme disdain for the Constitution and the laws of the United States?

The fact is we need Posse Comitatus because it protects us.  A little over a year ago, Bush said that he would institute martial law if there were some sort of outbreak like Avian Flu.  He’d rather turn straight to the police state than get some vaccines, give out free health care, and let the police do their jobs.  George Bush is dismantling all the legalities that restrain the powers of the executive branch and is creating an executive branch answerable to no one.

In 2002, the government created the new Northern Command. This is the first time since the Civil War that the U.S. military has been given an operational command inside the continental United States.

In 2005, the Washington Post reported that Northcom had developed battle plans for martial law in the U.S. One secret document, CONPLAN 2005, envisions 15 different scenarios where these plans could go into effect.

In 2006, the Military Commissions Act was passed which, in addition to legalizing torture, allows the president and military courts to declare anyone an enemy combatant without basic civil rights like habeas corpus.

There is also the massive spying, aided by AT&T, on unsuspecting citizens, and the building of large detention and processing centers to be used “in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S. or to support the rapid development of new programs.”  We all need to wake up and smell the police state.

While there are people out there who really care and call and write their representatives, there don’t seem to be enough of them crying out, begging, for these horrible changes to stop sneaking their way into our laws and our lives.  We gave our representatives the power to represent us, not Bush, not some dictator wannabe, not corporations.

I’ve never been a big advocate of having personal weapons.  While I agree we all should be allowed to have them, and that’s protected in the Constitution, I’ve never felt the need to own one, until now.  If not enough people take a stand against this, then we will need these weapons in the near future to protect us from our government and to, hopefully, replace it.

Godwin’s law would usually prevent me from stating this but, after the Reichstag fire, Hitler was able to easily suspend civil liberties with a decree.  I’m not saying that Bush is quite Hitler, however, instead of suspending our civil liberties and society in one fail swoop, he is doing it piecemeal so that no one notices.  He has already put the necessary pieces into place.  All he needs now is to finish dismantling the barriers to an all powerful executive and we will no longer recognize the America our forefathers fought to preserve and that we have come to enjoy and take for granted.