BlogHer - Pres. Bush signs order granting himself emergency powers - Comments

I also wonder why Congress and the press are MIA

Kim Pearson — Mon, 28 May 2007 12:51:02 -0500

It is very surprising that that there hasn't been more attention to this in the US press or in Congress.

However, I did come across this article by Norm Orenstein of the American Enterprise Institute saying that Congress needs to follow up on the President's directive in order to ensure that comprehensive emergency plans are in place.

Also, this article explains that this plan would most likely be invoked in the case of a successful "decapitating" nuclear attack on Washington that wiped out significant portions of the government leadership.

BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|Contributing Writer, Online Journalism Review

Ok Ladies I just wanted you

TJTele — Sun, 27 May 2007 12:51:32 -0500

Ok Ladies I just wanted you to have the actual documents that if any Emergency is Declared By G.W. Bush and Deemed to be such By G.W. Bush grants him full Dictatorial powers over all governments, State, Local, all Federal and even Tribal for God' sake..

These are National Security Presidential Directive-51
and Homeland Security Presidential Directive-20..

NSPD-51 and HSPD-20:

http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nspd/nspd-51.htm

Where is our Congress when this the most direct and dangerous threat to our Republic is signed and announced on May 9th 2007 with no response or calls for Impeachment..?

We are Betrayed..and to an imbecile..by our pernicious and pusillanimous so called elected Representatives..

I knew that 9/11 would

viciousrumours — Fri, 25 May 2007 08:41:41 -0500

I knew that 9/11 would become a political rallying cry as soon as it happened. My larger fear is that Bush will find a way to stop the elections from happening, citing some greater national security need or some other nonsense. People poo-poo me when I say it, but with this latest move it seems like an even more likely scenario.

Our only real hope is that whoever gets elected has enough sense to undo the damage Bush has done.

It's all about fear.

Catherine Morgan — Thu, 24 May 2007 22:39:45 -0500

I saw the speech also. It is so clearly an attempt to use fear to influence the elections. He did the same thing yesterday, I did a post on my political blog about it. It makes me sick that all these years later they (Bush/GOP) are still using the tragedy of 9/11 as a tactical election advantage. It's going to be all about the "fear" from now until election day...this is only the beginning.

Catherine Morgan
Women 4 Hope and Be The Change You Want To See In Yourself

Bush with more power

Nordette — Thu, 24 May 2007 22:07:02 -0500

Before I read your post I saw clips from the President's speech earlier today in which he said the following:

Bush said he expected "heavy fighting in the weeks and months" ahead. "What they're going to try to do is kill as many innocent people as they can to try to influence the debate here at home," he said. (Source)

He also seemed to talk down to a reporter who pressed him on whether he would stay in Iraq no matter what. I thought about how we ended up in this war and wondered how much of his posturing was about trying to justify his decisions because he knows the war issue will affect the elections. I did not feel comfortable with his speech today at all. It struck me as fear tactics, and so I'm disturbed by this emergency powers directive.

"Love is liquid. Brew and be drunkards!" ~~Nordette And here's a link to the blog.

Pres. Bush signs order granting himself emergency powers

Kim Pearson — Thu, 24 May 2007 17:41:06 -0500

Earlier this month, Pres. Bush signed an National Security Directive centralizing power in the executive branch in the event of a national emergency. Although the directive has attracted relatively little press attention, it's an extraordinary development when WorldNetDaily and The Progressive Magazine agree that the new directive seems to give the president unprecedented powers without Congressional oversight.

Here's WorldNetDaily:

The directive establishes under the office of the president a new national continuity coordinator whose job is to make plans for "National Essential Functions" of all federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments, as well as private sector organizations to continue functioning under the president's directives in the event of a national emergency.

"Catastrophic emergency" is loosely defined 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."

Here's The Progressive

In a new National Security Presidential Directive, Bush lays out his plans for dealing with a "catastrophic emergency."

Under that plan, he entrusts himself with leading the entire federal government, not just the Executive Branch. And he gives himself the responsibility "for ensuring constitutional government." He laid this all out in a document entitled "National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51" and "Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20."

To some bloggers, it means that Pres. Bush as laid the foundation for imposing a dictatorship.

Brilliant at Breakfast says, Now we know for certain that there will be another terrorist attack.

The Terrorist's Dictionary Thank Heavens

Bush is finally taking steps to secure the integrity of our Constitution after national disaster. And not a moment too soon. After all, Sept. 11th occurred over 5 1/2 years ago!

And there's this From the Back Pew:

Some of the directive is old stuff -- the COOP (Continuity of Operations) plan, for example that wil "ensure Primary MIssion-Essential Functions" continue to operate in bureaucracies...that's been around for several years. But some stuff is brand new and certainly worth a long, critical look.

What do you think? Are these appropriate powers for the President to take in an emergency? Should there be Congressional oversight or approval of this order?