Making Martial Law Easier

Of course, this is not news to us. We have known it since Katrina, but the news is, that the News is reporting it.

I wonder, are we going to have elections in 2008, or will we all be in lock-down, for one silly-ass reason or the other?

An even more interesting question: Will the people of America allow themselves to be herded into cattle pens, like the Jews, and others, in Germany did?

Making Martial Law Easier - New York Times:

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.