When Catastrophic Emergency Hits, The Decider Will Decide Everything

I've been trying to figure out how to write about all this but now I don't have to.

Mark Morford | SFGate dot com
Bush Declares Self 'Mega Decider'
New documents ensure Dubya will rule America, should calamity strike. Free balloons!

It's just one of those obscure little unreported-upon conspiracy theory-ready hunks of floating White House detritus, a couple of odd, sticky, foul-smelling documents no one really wants to touch and no one knows quite what to make of, probably means nothing, probably being misread anyway, all a bit overblown and strange and not all that important and not all that different than the way things are now.

Unless, you know, it's not. Unless the violent twinge of queasy paranoia crossed with that uncontrolled bout of colon-clenching sighing you experience is deadly accurate and your radar for all things sinister and Rovean is right on target as you read about the delightfully titled National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51 and the Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20, wherein it is calmly and furtively revealed that, in essence, George W. Bush owns your sorry ass.

Or, to put it another way, it looks like the Bumbling One just gave himself ever more power. Power to control and dictate the entire government, power to really spread the gospel of happy GOP incompetence, power to command the entire wobbly American universe should some sort of epic -- or not so epic, as the case may be -- calamity strike the homeland.

The entire column is worth reading. Hint, hint!

[Morford's links]

The White House
NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/NSPD 51
HOMELAND SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/HSPD-20

leo fender | Daily Kos
The mechanisim to end democracy?

Spencer S. Hsu | Washington Post
Bush Changes Continuity Plan
Administration, Not DHS, Would Run Shadow Government

Lee Rogers | Global Research dot ca
Bush To Be Dictator In A Catastrophic Emergency

American Civil Liberties Union
How "Patriot Act 2" Would Further Erode the Basic Checks on Government Power That Keep America Safe and Free

[Other interesting links]

Douglas Tonks | Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk Myself to Death
Connecting Some Dots

Viewed in one light, that's fairly alarming, and I've wondered to some extent why this isn't getting more attention. Apparently a number of readers of Talking Points Memo wondered the same thing, so TPMMuckraker took a look. Their conclusion is that it's not such a big deal. They point out that Clinton had a similar plan and interview a number of experts from the ACLU and various places suggesting that, if not this one, some kind of similar plan needs to be in place. The Clinton directive put FEMA in charge in similar circumstances, and during the Clinton administration, that wasn't a bad idea. Nowadays, though, you'd after wonder how much any of us want to turn to FEMA in case of catastrophic emergency.

On the other hand, this is the Bush administration we're talking about. The new directive might indeed make sense if we were to presume good faith on the part of the government. But I'm not sure good faith has been operative in the administrative branch for years now. While this might not be an obvious power grab on the surface, if such a circumstance were to arise, it seems to me that we have to assume the Bush administration will try to grab whatever power it could get its hands on. The Bushies don't deal with us at face value, and we have to stop dealing with them at face value.

HighCrimesandMisdemeanours
I thought Bush stole 2000, but there is PROOF he stole 2004

Bush, Rove, Griffin, and Goodling need to be called to testify UNDER OATH now! Before he invokes Presidential Directive 51