Kath just brought this to my attention.
http://progressive.org/mag_wx051807
If I’m reading this correctly, Bush has very quietly granted himself emergency powers not dissimilar from what Palpatine did. In one shot he has eliminated checks and balances that have stood this country in good stead for centuries–not just for himself, but for all presidents. And considering the definition of “emergency” is broad and vague…am I the only one creeped out by this?
With Cheney as the Sith master and Bush as the apprentice, this is a hëll of a way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Star Wars.”
PAD
• 
Revenge of the Jedi?
NPR’s Morning Edition, May 25, 2007: The Secret Service is constantly vigilant for any threat against the president. But during Thursday’s Rose Garden news conference, they failed to stop a dive-bombing bird that closed in and fired off a dropping that hit Mr. Bush on his left sleeve.
As someone living in a very red-state area, I spent most of the Clinton administration hearing right-wing idiots detail how there were state-of-emergency orders in existence that would allow Clinton to seize absolute power at any second! So I can’t but take the existence of this with a grain of salt.
I’m not saying this makes Bush and Clinton or their critics equivalent or that Bush’s drive towards a “unitary executive” doesn’t scare the hëll out of me, only that this specific issue doesn’t bug me too much.
Having read Tom Clancy’s book where one plane wipes out nearly everyone in government in all 3 branches (the title escapes me at the moment),
Spoilers
It was at the end of “Debt of Honor” where a commerical jet is deliberately crashed into Congress killing the President, most of Congress, and the Supreme Court who were attending the confirmation of the new Vice President. Then next book “Executive Orders” deals withe mess including a fight of succession of who’s legally the President.
What’s a fun read is the US cold war plans that were released to the public a few years ago after a crippling nuclear strike. Matrial law is a given, several civil rights suspended, but USPS domestic mail postage would be free.
So…..
…nobody could have thought that someone would crash an airliner into buildings?
Just looked up the publish date od Debt of Honor———1994!
Tom Clancy wrote about that scenario 7 years before it happened and nobody in the Bush administration could believe it happened?
[i](b) “Catastrophic Emergency” means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions;[/i]
Notice how there is no mention of numbers: any incident. regardless of location.
How many american soldiers need to die before Bush uses this act as a means to stay in power?
“We’re not done yet and enough soldiers have died that it might threaten our nation. As such i feel the nation needs to focus on the task at hand and suspend elections to a date where our nation is no longer in danger. Should you feel the desire to protest please do so we have secret torture cells ready for unpatriotic rebels and we made sure beforehand that torturing you on the basis on suspision is perfectly legal. Should other nations object then we shall ignore them because if you are not with us then you are a danger to the empire .. erm .. united states”
Iowa Jim, you’d better get your head out of the sand.
The Bush administration is the most corrupt and evil administration ever to walk this Earth.
I know you’re a born and/or bred Republican, but if you can’t see evil for what it is by this stage of your life……….
>if you can’t see evil for what it is by this stage of your life…..
Someone once wrote “Never mistake for evil what can be ascribed to simple human incompetence.” Of course, in this context it’s hard to figure out just which it is. Was Shrub being evil when he presided (sorry) over the companies he saw into bankruptcy? Is he any more ‘evil’ while mismanaging the country?
Of course, the end results tend to be the same in this instance so it’s a time to worry either way.
>Just looked up the publish date od Debt of Honor———1994! Tom Clancy wrote about that scenario 7 years before it happened and nobody in the Bush administration could believe it happened?
Not just Shrub’s administration. Clinton’s as well. Clancy did talk to high level types after the fact and they admitted they simply hadn’t been able to take the scenario seriously.
Bush is like a small child with an anthill & manifing glass
Posted by: Alan Coil at May 25, 2007 06:36 PM
So…..
…nobody could have thought that someone would crash an airliner into buildings?
Just looked up the publish date od Debt of Honor———1994!
Tom Clancy wrote about that scenario 7 years before it happened and nobody in the Bush administration could believe it happened?
Also, while not a politically motivated act of terrorism, the main character of The Running Man, by Stephen King, crashed an airliner into a skyscraper. Published?
1982. 12 Years before Clancy, and 19 (!) years before 9/11.
-Rex Hondo-
Thanks, Rex. Didn’t realize the idea was that old.
1982. 12 Years before Clancy, and 19 (!) years before 9/11
This idea existed even before it was used in books:
In the early 1970’s a guy tried to hijack a plane to crash it into the White House to assassinate Nixon.
In the last years of WWII the Secret Service put anti-aircraft guns on the roof of the White House as a precaution against a possible Kamikazie attack on the building.
When the bush people say “no one could have imagined … ” they’re ignoring almost 40 years of real life history.
Posted by The StarWolf
Not just Shrub’s administration. Clinton’s as well. Clancy did talk to high level types after the fact and they admitted they simply hadn’t been able to take the scenario seriously.
Actually the idea had been considered and at least some planning done at some levels – not necessarily Admininstration levels – even before Clinton.
Another pre-9/11 use of the idea: Dave Drake’s book Starliner (1992) involves the use of a giant starship travelling at near-relativistic speeds to wipe out an entire city.
And, of course, anyone who couldn’t look at the 1945 bomber crash into the Empire State Building and imagine that something similar might be done on purpose has no imagination at all.
George W. Bush was born in 1946; The idea of crashing an airplane into a building precedes the 1945 Empire State building crash, so it’s older than he is: He had 55 years to wrap his brain around the idea, but that wasn’t enough.
“It is ironic that Bush is seen as an idiot one moment and an evil genius bent on world domination the next.”
Bush is a Hand Puppet who thinks he’s the hand.
I think Bush truly believes he’s doing what’s best…but what’s best for his “base” (the uber-rich, the oil barons, etc). Democracy is an obstacle to corporate rule and must be minimized. Bush is just doing his part to bring this country closer to that goal.
Corporations never die. They can afford to be patient and merely chip away at democracy. Bush need not exercise these emergency powers, he just needs to make it easier (not harder) to happen in the future when it is needed.
This isn’t to be used when the ultra-conservatives have power, anyway. Why replace a government that is already eager to give more and more to the rich?
And the rest of the story from the decidedly Bush-critical website TPMmuckraker.com (http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003310.php ):
Experts: Prez Directive Nothing New
By Laura McGann – May 29, 2007, 3:31 PM
When a presidential directive appeared on the White House’s Web site on May 9, seemingly expanding the president’s powers after a catastrophic attack, readers began emailing us asking why there had been no uproar in the media or amongst civil liberties groups.
The consensus amongst experts seems to be that the directive, aimed at establishing “continuity of government” after a major disaster, is not new nor does the policy seem to expand executive power.
In fact, Mike German, the policy counsel to the ACLU’s Washington office told me that an executive continuity plan actually might “not be that bad of an idea.”
Executive power expert, NYU law professor David Golove, also sent me an email saying the directive didn’t appear to be a power grab.
National Security Presidential Directive 51 or Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20 is posted here. Have a look.
Presidential directives outlining how the executive branch will remain intact in the event of an emergency have been around since the Cold War. The directive posted this month is the first to be made public, to the best of German’s recollection. (A description of Clinton’s continuity directive is available here.) German called the release a positive sign, but said he urges the release of all previous directives so we can get a real sense of what has changed.
The concept of continuity of government applies to all branches of government. Christopher Kelleye, a presidency expert and political science professor at Miami University Ohio told me in an email that he didn’t see any new powers listed in the directive, but wondered why Congress hasn’t done the same thing.
You’re not the only one creeped out. There are a lot of eery similarities with 30’s Germany and the current administration.