The Inconvenience of Posse Comitatus

Enacted after Civil War Reconstruction in 1878, Posse Comitatus (U.S.C. 18-13850) has always been a double-edged sword. The compromise of the North with the South which withdrew Federal troops from former Confederate states and allowed racism and the general disenfranchisement of former slaves to flourish, was also intended to end the federal military from taking part in police actions. Yet once again, the Bush administration stretches law to it breaking point, while pushing our over-burdened military ever closer to the precipice.

News out today from the US Northern Command that the Army's 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team will be the nation's 'new police'. The 3rd ID is the most rotated combat component in Iraq and now they're home to do the same duty as part of the newest permanent part of the Army -- CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force.

The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.

Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.

What is played down in the articles out of NORCOM, Ft. Stewart and the Dept. of Homeland Security is the element of CCMRF (sea-smurf) being implemented to 'deal with' protesters and civil disturbances.

Posse Comitatus became law for a number of reasons but first and foremost was so American servicepersons would not be put in the position of turning weapons on the American public. It seems we creep ever-closer to martial law as the reins of power slip from the GOP's fascist grip. As the divides in American ideology deepen, the political landscape of the presidential race features McCain mobs yelling, "kill him...terrorist" and worse, while my beloved military is put in the untenable position of having to defend not the Constitution, but the ideologic policies of a rogue government.

This election can not end soon enough for me.

Home Coup

Frank Rich can be as off the mark as any MSM spinmeister but in the last months he has hit more than a few home runs. Read this one:

So what if America’s chief law enforcement official won’t say that waterboarding is illegal? A state of emergency is a state of emergency. You’re either willing to sacrifice principles to head off the next ticking bomb, or you’re with the terrorists. Constitutional corners were cut in Washington in impressive synchronicity with General Musharraf’s crackdown in Islamabad.

If you need more convincing, read this NYT OpEd, Abdicate and Capitulate

First Pakistan, Then...

Will it be us?
Much talk around the blogosphere about the possibility of the Emperor Chimp declaring martial law, canceling the election and keeping power indefinitely.
Musharaff has declared a state of emergency, suspended the constitution of Pakistan, arrested and jailed lawyers from the opposition party, confiscated the cameras and recording equipment of journalists and fired the supreme court's chief justice. Is this a preview of coming events in America? Randi Rhodes has a good round-up of articles.

Are We There Yet?

More and more frequently these days, I hear talk and genuine fear regarding the possibility of Chimpy imposing martial law. It is expected he will suspend the '08 election, and essentially complete the power grab that has been politically engineered from day one of his illegal presidency. The martial law coup d'etat is presumably preceded by another 9/11 style terrorist attack somewhere in the U.S., wherein BushCo then acts out on NSPD-51.

While certainly a frighteningly fictional-sounding scenario, it is one I'm afraid is all too close to coming true..

There have been far and away too many specific acts of controversy. We have experienced an ever-increasing range of false flag fun-and-games to the dissolution of our fundamental civil rights; suspension of the 900 year old tenet of Habeas Corpus and illegal wiretapping; data-mining and the ever-present extreme secrecy regarding everything this administration has done since in office. The list of offenses is long and infamous.

I think we as Americans too often forget the recent lessons of history and precedent of this type of despotic behavior. In Southeast Asia, Pol Pot's wholesale slaughter of 2 million Cambodians; Hitler's extermination of 6 million Jews; and the most recent examples, the Genocides in at least eight other countries. We assume such things could never happen here.

I posit that assumption is extremely naive.

The most recent thing to cross my radar, albeit a bit dated, certainly fits tidily into the coup premise. Have you heard about the government operations conducted by the U.S. Marshall Service and 29 other government agencies called "Operation Falcon"? Not one exercise, but three which in toto "rounded up" 37,000 "suspects" and concluded with over 30,000 arrests of people whose disposition is unknown.

Things are starting to look more and more like science fiction, and the suspense dramas we read in novels. I wonder how much it will take for people to pay attention.