I previously posted about this here, but Patriot sent me this article, and it merits a post. There has been no outrage regarding this. As the article states, few blogs posted it, few newspaper articles about it, the MSM has ignored it. God help us if the mood strikes Bush to declare martial law, because that would be reason enough to allow him to do it. And I might add, why sneak, and I do mean sneak, these riders into bills unless you think you’re going to use them.

03/18/07 “Rutherford Institute” — – We live in a fundamentally different country since 9/11. Not only do many Americans view their government with suspicion, but how their government views them has drastically changed.

A perfect example of this took place last fall. Prior to the elections that transformed the makeup of Congress, the Bush Administration pushed for the inclusion of two stealth provisions into a mammoth defense budget bill. The additions made it easier for the government to declare martial law and establish a dictatorship.

Since the days of our Founding Fathers, when King George III used his armies to terrorize and tyrannize the colonies, the American people have understandably distrusted the use of a national military force to intervene in civilian affairs, except in instances of extreme emergency and limited duration.

Hence, as a sign of the Founders- concern that the people not be under the power of a military government, control of the military was vested in a civilian government, with a civilian commander-in-chief. And the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 furthered those safeguards against military law, making it a crime for the government to use the military to carry out arrests, searches, seizure of evidence and other activities normally handled by a civilian police force.

However, with the inclusion of a seemingly insignificant rider into the massive defense bill (the martial law section of the 591-page Defense Appropriations Act takes up just a few paragraphs), the Bush Administration has managed to weaken what the New York Times refers to as “two obscure but important bulwarks of liberty.” One is posse comitatus. The other is the Insurrection Act of 1807, which limits a president’s domestic use of the military to putting down lawlessness, insurrection and rebellion where a state is violating federal law or depriving the people of their constitutional rights.

Under these new provisions, the president can now use the military as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, disease outbreak, terrorist attack or to any “other condition.” According to the new law, Bush doesn-t even have to notify Congress of his intent to use military force against the American people-he just has to notify them once he has done so. The defense budget provision’s vague language leaves the doors wide open for rampant abuse. As writer Jane Smiley noted, “the introduction of these changes amounts, not to an attack on the Congress and the balance of power, but to a particular and concerted attack on the citizens of the nation. Bush is laying the legal groundwork to repeal even the appearance of democracy.”

Read more here

Vince Gill
What You Give Away

But we can’t rebuild the Gulf Coast. Sickening.

WASHINGTON - The swimming pool at the new Iraq police academy in the Baghdad Green Zone is an impressive, Olympic’size facility. It might be a good place to relax after a day spent training to face Iraq’s dangers.

The problem is, the US Department of State - which paid for the academy and an adjacent residential camp - never authorized construction of the pool. Nor did it OK the purchase of 20 extra VIP trailers for the camp.

In total, about $4.2 million of the $43.8 million in US funds spent on the camp went to work that wasn’t properly approved, according to a January report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR).

Because of this and other examples of alleged contractor waste or abuse in Iraq, Congress is now considering reforms to the US reconstruction spending process.

On March 15, the House voted to place new limits on no-bid US government contracts. And on March 20 the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on whether the US is doing enough to combat war profiteering.

Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D) of Vermont introduced antiprofiteering legislation in January, soon after ascending to the post.

“Our government cannot in good faith ask its people to sacrifice for reconstruction efforts that allow some to profit unfairly,” Mr. Leahy said at the time.

Read more at the CSMonitor

Some good news from Editor & Publisher

NEW YORK For awhile it looked like Helen Thomas, dean of White House correspondents, was going to get booted from her customary front row seat when the renovated press room opens there. But the The White House Correspondents’ Association met Friday to review plans for the West Wing Briefing Room and re-considered the seat assignments.

An excerpt from a memo to members follows.

The new briefing room will consist of 49 seats: 7 rows and 7 seats per row. In the old briefing room, we had 8 rows and 6 seats per row. This new configuration required us to make several adjustments to the seating arrangement, which is a White House Correspondents’ Association responsibility.

As a board, we decided to move CNN to the first row. This decision was based on CNN’s 27 years of covering The White House, as well as the resources it brings to the in-town and travel pool, and its daily presence at the briefings. In addition, the board agreed to honor a previous commitment by our association to maintain Helen Thomas’ seat in the first row. As the dean of the White House press corps, Helen is an institution. First with United Press International and now as a White House columnist for Hearst newspapers, Helen has covered every president since John Kennedy.

So there goes the theory that we have to fight them there so we don’t have to fight them here….and the old “they will follow us here” line. Next…..

Al-Qaeda in Iraq is the United States’ most formidable enemy in that country. But unlike Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda organization in Pakistan, U.S. intelligence officials and outside experts believe, the Iraqi branch poses little danger to the security of the U.S. homeland.

As the Democratic Congress continues to push for a military withdrawal, President Bush and Vice President Cheney have repeatedly warned that bin Laden plans to turn Iraq into the capital of an Islamic caliphate and a staging ground for attacks on the United States. “If we fail there,” Bush said in a February news conference, “the enemy will follow us here.”

More at the Washington Post

Legal concerns are of no concern to anyone in this administration.

FBI counterterrorism officials continued to use flawed procedures to obtain thousands of U.S. telephone records during a two-year period when bureau lawyers and managers were expressing escalating concerns about the practice, according to senior FBI and Justice Department officials and documents.

FBI lawyers raised the concerns beginning in late October 2004 but did not closely scrutinize the practice until last year, FBI officials acknowledged. They also did not understand the scope of the problem until the Justice Department launched an investigation, FBI officials said.

Under pressure to provide a stronger legal footing, counterterrorism agents last year wrote new letters to phone companies demanding the information the bureau already possessed. At least one senior FBI headquarters official — whom the bureau declined to name — signed these “national security letters” without including the required proof that the letters were linked to FBI counterterrorism or espionage investigations, an FBI official said.

More at the WashingtonPost

I have to admit, I’m finding it difficult to get behind Clinton or Obama. I don’t hold out a lot of hope for either one winning. The chances they’re given are largely based upon poor front runners in the GOP field. But recently, word has came out that Fred Thompson is discussing a possible run. And from what I’ve heard and read, the right have Thompson held up much like the left has Gore… as some kind of great white hope.

I have my fingers crossed for Gore. Thompson will surely wipe the floor with all other GOP contenders. And will probably trounce his way right on into the White House in a non-Gore election.

(Nota Bene: Thompson WILL BE another Bush!)

MSNBC -Newsweek Periscope:

Gore on the Un-Campaign Trail

March 26, 2007 issue - Since the documentary he starred in, “An Inconvenient Truth,” won an Academy Award, speculation has only increased about Al Gore’s potential entry into the presidential race. He is not taking any overt steps toward running, and that may be the cleverest strategy of all. [...] Laurie David, who helped bankroll Gore’s film, and whose “personal fantasy” is that he run, says that when she presses him, he’s always coy and says his cell phone is breaking up. “I believe him when he says he doesn’t have any intention of running,” David told NEWSWEEK. “But I also believe the door is not completely shut.”

A leading indicator of his intentions could be Gore’s waistline. The theory is that slimming down will be a signal he intends to run. “He has lost a few pounds, and Hillary can read into that what she wants,” says a longtime adviser who declined to be identified discussing his boss’s figure. [...]

Gore is also finishing a book that sure seems like a prelude to something. “The Assault on Reason,” to be published in May, is about “the forces in society that are undermining democracy,” says Roy Neel, Gore’s chief of staff. [...] Laurie David and Sheryl Crow will lead a college tour that will culminate with a rally in Washington. Perfect setting for a presidential announcement, but Gore won’t be there. He’ll be conducting a virtual reunion of the thousand “climate messengers” he has trained to carry on his crusade.

Kudos to Mark Cordell. Check out the pictures here. Makes ya want to hurt somebody!

Washington, DC (WUSA) — A major 9NEWS NOW EXCLUSIVE — allegations from a former inspector at Walter Reed of widespread and dangerous problems in nearly all the buildings at the Army’s premier hospital.

Burst steam pipes near electrical cables, rats, mold, and holes in floors and walls — all of that extends far beyond the well-publicized problems at the notorious Building 18.

And 9NEWS NOW has learned managers may have been slow to respond.

A worried quality control inspector, Mark Cordell, finally quit last week in frustration, and brought his fears to 9NEWS NOW.

“I won’t sit back and watch someone get killed,” he says while running through 81 pictures of the problems on a laptop computer.

Cordell says the worst of it may be Building 40. The old research institute has been condemned, but last week, the private contractor now responsible for maintaining Walter Reed sent workers in to fix a leak.

Cordell points to a picture showing the terrible decay inside the building and says, “The water is actually on the ground floor here. There is water halfway across the ground floor. And there’s electricity too. There’s high voltage that goes to this building. Two thirteen thousand volt transformers. Through the basement filled with water.”

I say screw Olmert. How about a boycott of the Israeli government?

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called Sunday for the international community to maintain a year-long boycott of the Palestinian government following the formation of a new unity cabinet.

“We expect the international community not to fall for the new Palestinian unity government and to continue with the same line it has taken all along, the way of isolating the government which does not accept the Quartet principles,” Olmert said at the weekly cabinet meeting.

The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators — the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia — froze aid to the Palestinian Authority after Hamas came to power last year over the Islamists’ refusal to renounce violence, recognise Israel, or abide by past peace accords.

The new Palestinian government unites Hamas and the Fatah faction of moderate president Mahmud Abbas.

Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya presented the new government programme to parliament on Saturday, but Israel says it fails to meet any of the Quartet conditions.

More at Yahoo

Update: 7 U.S. troops killed
As Americans and people throughout the world protested the Iraq war yesterday, 5 more of our troops were killed bringing this month’s total to 53. God knows how many wounded. 823 Iraqis have died this month.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers patrolling western Baghdad, the military reported on Sunday, while another soldier died in a non-combat related incident.

The four soldiers died Saturday, the military said in a statement. Small arms fire followed the blast, wounding another soldier. The attack occurred as the soldiers were conducting patrols as part of a month-old security operation to end sectarian violence in the capital, the statement said.

So far this month, the soldiers’ battalion had found eight weapons caches and two roadside bombs, as well as helping to rescue a kidnap victim, the military said.

Another soldier also died Saturday in a non-combat related incident, the military said in a second statement. The circumstances were under investigation, it said.

More at YahooNews

Sunday Talk
* Meet the Press: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY); ex-Rep. Tom Andrews (D-ME); ex-House Maj. Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX); AEI’s Richard Perle; Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA). Schumer to talk about US Atty purge; other four to discuss Iraq.
* Face the Nation: Defense Sec. Robert Gates; Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Gates to talk Iraq, Walter Reed. Feinstein to talk about US Atty purge
* This Week: Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT); Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX); NSA Stephen Hadley; Unity 08 & L&O’s Sam Waterson; roundtable of Time’s Jay Carney, Donna Brazile, Claire Shipman, and George Will. Leahy v. Cornyn on US atty purge; Hadley to talk about Iraq
* Fox News Sunday: ex-U.S. attys Bud Cummins and David Iglesias; Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA); Sen. John Kerry (D-MA); Obama for America’s Alyssa Mastromonaco.
* Late Edition: ex-NSA Zbigniew Brzezinski; Rep. John Murtha (D-PA); NSA Stephen Hadley; Gen. George Joulwan (Ret); NYT’s Michael Gordon; Col. Pat Lang (Ret); James Carville; Candy Crowley; Human Events editor Terry Jeffrey. Given the guests, this week’s Late Edition is all Iraq.

TV Alerts
* Reliable Sources: Jeralyn Merritt on 3/18 to discuss US Atty purge
* Political Capital: U.S. Central Command’s Admiral William Fallon (Bloomberg, repeats throughout weekend).
* Chris Matthews Show 3/17-3/18: Howard Fineman, Katty Kay, John Heilemann, and Kathleen Parker discuss: “Rudy Giuliani: Can the tough New Yorker become president? Bill Richardson: Can the last governor in the Democratic race knock off the senators?” Quotes here. (This week’s predictions are more interesting than usual.)
* Newsmakers: Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) being questioned by San Francisco Chronicle’s Lochead and McClatchy’s Doyle on 3/18 (CSPAN, 10am).
* Road to the White House: ex-Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR) and Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) in NH on 3/18;
* 60 Minutes: Haditha killings on 3/18
* Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) appears on The Apprentice on 3/18
* MSNBC on 4th anniv. of Iraq war beginning on 3/19: ex-WH CoS Andy Card, Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO), ex-Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR), Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Sen. Joe Lieberman (CFL), Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA).
* ABC News will be doing a series of reports across all ABC News programs, titled “Iraq: Where Things Stand” the week of 3/19
* Sit. Room: Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) on 3/19
* LKL: Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) on 3/19
* Tavis Smiley: Robert Greenwald on 3/19; Joss Stone on 3/19; Terrence Howard on 3/20; Steve Bickerstaff on 3/20; Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) on 3/21; Gina Torres on 3/22; Jane Smiley on 3/23; Julian McMahon on 3/23;
* The Daily Show: Stephen Prothero on 3/19; Chris Hansen on 3/21; Don Cheadle on 3/22;
* Colbert Report: Jerome Groopman on 3/19; Willie Nelson on 3/20; Benjamin Barber on 3/21; Katie Couric on 3/22; John Perry Barlow on 3/26; Madeleine Albright on 3/27; James Fallows on 3/27; Jabari Asim on 3/28; Clive James on 3/29;
* Leno: Richard Engel on 3/20; Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) on 3/22
* Conan O’Brien: Dateline’s Chris Hansen on 3/20
* Richard Engel’s War Zone Diary on 3/21 on MSNBC.
* Letterman: Lara Logan on 3/21; Al Franken on 3/28
* The View: William S. Cohen & Janet Langhart Cohen on 3/22
* Ellen DeGeneres: Bob & Lee Woodruff on 3/22
* Jimmy Kimmel: Bob Woodruff on 3/22
* Today Show: John & Teresa Heinz Kerry on 3/26
* Frontline’s News Wars series on 3/27. Click link for preview.

Source: Newsie8200