Getting a Grip

http://artvoice.com/issues/v6n22/if_only_this_was_a_dictatorship

Getting a Grip

If Only This Was a Dictatorship
by Michael I. Niman

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George W wasn’t joking, however, spending his first six years squatting at the White House with a rubber-stamp Congress and a corrupted judiciary supporting—or at least ignoring—his every move. Whatever laws were passed he exempted himself from with signing statements and the self-assurance that he could break any law with impunity.

Now, with a nominally opposing party theoretically controlling the House and Senate, and with his popularity falling to an all-time low (though still alarmingly high at 30 percent) the threads of dictatorship seem to be unraveling. Hence, on May 9, he unilaterally issued a National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive (National Security Presidential Directive NSPD 51; Homeland Security Presidential Directive HSPD-20).

Previous presidents issued similar directives aimed at maintaining governmental continuity in the event of a major catastrophe such as a nuclear attack on Washington or all-out nuclear warfare with the folks we were supposed to “begin bombing in five minutes.” This directive is different, however, in that it is being issued by a White House that has already shown its disdain for our constitutionally protected rights and way of government. And it’s a White House, which, if democracy were left alone to function properly, could find most of its cabinet and leadership under criminal indictment in the not too distant future.

The directive allows George W. Bush to appoint a National Continuity Coordinator whose office would direct National Emergency Functions (NEFs) of the federal government while providing “guidance” for all federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments in the event of a catastrophic emergency. The directive defines “catastrophic emergency” as “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.”

Get it? A stock market crash or a severe burst in the housing bubble could constitute a catastrophic emergency and the appointment of a “coordinator” with power to oversee the maintenance of “continuity,” or whatever they perceive the status quo to be. A hurricane, wildfire, or election day civic unrest could be cause to trigger a Code Paisley new order.

Bush’s National Continuity Plan specifically revokes “Presidential Decision Directive 67 of October 21, 1998 (Enduring Constitutional Government and Continuity of Government Operations) issued by the Clinton White House. It’s impossible to say exactly what the differences are, since the Clinton-era plan is classified. What is public knowledge, however, is that the previous plans put the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and not the President, in charge of implementing the emergency plan. And I would suspect that the previous plan didn’t have such a wide open definition of what constitutes a “catastrophic emergency.”

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