Here's a transcript from earlier this week of Bush's press conference.
In it, he says that he wants Congress to authorize him to use the military to impose martial law within the borders of the United States in case of an outbreak of Avian Flu (H5N1 -- I've written about this before).
Congress, through the Patriot Act, has already given this administration an outrageous amount of power to invade citizens' privacy. Now he wants to use the military for law enforcement, which is strictly forbidden by the Posse Comitatus Act without an act of Congress or an actual rebellion.
The FBI has tried on several occasions to use the Patriot Act to justify privacy invasions in cases that have nothing to do with homeland security or terrorism. And the war in Iraq, Abu Ghraib, and the Katrina response show that they're fundamentally inept at execution and self-discipline.
So the question we have to ask ourselves is: do we trust these guys with the power to impose martial law? We're just one step away from a total police state.
7:57:48 PM 
|
