A NEW THREAT TO OUR LIBERTIES

The Bush Administration has used the Katrina tragedy to justify calling for amending the Posse Comitatus ACt of 1878 to permit the military to become a first responder in national emergencies. This would mean the military could come into a state without being requested by its governor.

"Slippery slope" arguments are a logician's delight. But given the Bush administration's record in protecting civil liberties, one can only wonder where this new initiative could lead. It has used the Patriot Act to attempt to pull hundreds of cases out of the civilian courts. EVen after the courts ruled that detainees must be given hearings, it established military tribunals to simply go through the motions. In many ways, the Bushies have moved toward establishing a parallel legal system.

Next on the agenda seems to be a Homeland Security agency under its aegis. We've read for years about CIA domestic ingelligence and even some work by al alleged fifth division of the FBI.
One can only imagine the activities of the new agency when we read about the FBI and Secret
Service acting to suppress free speech. The most recent case involving a 10th grader who submitted an unflattering poster on Bush for a First Amendment project. Given the proclivity of conservatives to extend the reach of secrecy in government, we would nevere know the full extent of the new agency's activities.

A final concern that relates to this is the secrecy about military interrogation techniques and the determination of the administration to block a Senate amendment limiting abuse of prisoners.

When did Bush decide he was above the law? One of his first acts was to nullify tghrough executive regilations the Presidential Records Act, preventing scholars to get at his father's Vice Presidential and Presidential records. Then he extended executrive privilege to cover Cheney's energyn task force, even though Republicans had earlier forced Mrs. Clinton to disclose everything about her health task force. Then Alberto Gonzales told him that the Constitution was outdated, as a means of helping Bush to open the door to tortyuring prisoners. Then came his worst abuse, authorizing wiretaps without warrants on thousands of telephone conversations.

Noi wonder Capitol Hill Blue reports, after interviewing three immediate sources, that Bush has called the constitution "goddamned piece of paper," nothing in comparison with his powers as Commander in Chief.