Democracy Now reports the following:
Beginning in October, the Army plans to station an active unit inside the United States for the first time to serve as an on-call federal response in times of emergency. The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent thirty-five of the last sixty months in Iraq, but now the unit is training for domestic operations. The unit will soon be under the day-to-day control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. The Army Times reports this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to Northern Command. The paper says the Army unit may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control. The soldiers are learning to use so-called nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals and crowds.
Note from Eric: If you see anything on the possibility of canceled elections, would you please post it to the comment section or send it to me at editorial – at – planetwaves.net? Are there any dyed-in-the-wool conspiracy nuts out there who know of the study that Nixon had done by Rand Corporation about canceled elections? I am sure this is true…and I do think that ChencyBushCo is trying to live out all the unfulfilled fantasies of Tricky Dick — and doing a good job of it, too. –efc
mystes:
I think Mr. McCain has had several years of falling asleep in session when economic policy bills came up in the Senate. Either that, or he’s been busy trying to keep up with the number of houses he owns.
The man can’t pull together an economic policy to save his own life, let alone the clusterf—k of what his own party did to America’s finances the last thirty years while he’s been in office.
I think the thought of going before a live audience in a debate with Obama where the country is seethingly concerned about the economy and with the Paulson-Bernanke Wall Street rip-off of 2008 weighing heavily on all our minds, I’m thinking he needs an extra box or two of Depends. All of them do.
Fe Bongolan
MCCAIN SUSPENDS CAMPAIGN TO FOCUS ON ECONOMY; WANTS DEBATE DELAY
Wed Sept 24 2008 14:58:02 ET
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash1.htm
Now that really is pretty strange. What can McCain actually *do* at the moment about this “crisis” that some other of the crew on the mothership can’t do while he’s running for office? Which, if he won, would put him in charge of a whole lot more of the “crisis” than he is right now?
Suspend a campaign, delay a debate…cancel the election? I think the CIA did this to Guatemala…no! Nicaragua once.
~j
I truly doubt it has anything to do with the ‘economic crisis.’ Something else is going on, Ah kin feel it in mah bones… and I wouldn’t be surprised if Mac’s health issue is kicking up.
On another note, Doggett’s office just wrote, and he knows nothing about this Northern command set-up. Mandy H. I don’t know where you got your intel, but *thank* you! He is buried in subcommittee meetings around setting up a new structure for renewable fuel development (the last thing I worked on with those offices), as well as ye olde wallstreet crisis, but they’re assigning an aide to it soon.
So send me what you got! mystes@grandecom.net
Mysti Easterwood
And a hey-ho to you, Guru Gardener (and Guru Tachi, and most Right Reverendless Guru Fe and the Dame JanesDefense, et alia… )
Have been out all day, just back but no answer from Congressman Doggett’s office. Will call them again tomorrow. We need to insist on having our very competent Nat’l Guard redeployed back *home* and let our regular Army folk do their regular Army thing. Simply, loudly, and somewhat idiotically until it is heard.
Such as: “Did you read the Army Times article? Sweet mouth. Very sweet that they want to come ‘care’ for us. But no thanks. We’ve got this thing, it’s called a National Guard.”
Lather, rinse, repeat.
I did get an odd little come-on from the local daily, *asking* me (eh?) to write a letter to the editor. . . (Weird, I didn’t think they requested letters…), citing some comment I made on the Move-on site. I am revising the statement since my views have evolved in the last couple of days. We’ll see how they like the new apples.
While in revision I scrutinized (per Fe) the language of the ‘bailout’ proposal again. Hooboy. I was wrong about spending the 11.3 billion – they only want unlimited power to raise the debt ceiling. Almost as bad. Another erratum was that the economy done growed out another 2 trill since the last time I looked (early 00s). So we are only in debt to the tune of about 90% of our productive capacity –in conventional measurements– of 13.6 trill. Yoiks.
Let’s stop ’em while we can. And yes… we can.
edit that last paragraph in my post:
Just ask anyone who’s waited for the funding priorities to change so that more money could go into “non-conditioned” AIDS treatment in the developing world. Currently, people languish and die because of the strict “abstinence only” prohibitions on AIDS medicines.
For clarification:
Its what people DO with economics that kills people. Its the neglect an economic policy wreaks on others and the significant lack of compassion as delivered through those economics that kills people.
You’re condeming a child by the 4th grade to a life of incarceration in this country if you don’t provide good educational opportunity throughout their life in public schools. If children are denied proper toddler nutrition they will not have the sufficient physical capacity to concentrate and learn in school. If your policies cause the loss of factories and blue-collar work for the under-employed and under trained in the Rust Belt, you’re killing people’s livelihoods, sense of family and their community.
Economics DO kill people. Just ask anyone who’s waited for the funding priorities to change so that more research could go into AIDS treatment in the developing world where “abstinence only” practices will allow you access.
Economics always kills people – whether it’s because they can’t afford to go to a doctor of because they freeze to death because oil costs too much. American economic policies have had many actual domestic casualties. What people don’t know is that they are getting ripped off. It’s all good as long as the rich man makes more money.
Hey Guru Mystes,
Since the executive order is still considered a source of law, does HR 4986, that you mention above, supercede Bush’s executive order? While the legislative branch mostly creates laws and statutes, the executive branch and judicial branch also create laws. My understanding is that none of their laws, executive orders, rulings, judgments, etc, may conflict with the constitution
I’m very interested in what you find out.
I am starting to think that the simplest path might be to urge our fellows to refuse the bailout. Period. It does appear that this financial district “emergency” has been as engineered as the rest of this inaupicious Octave. If the choice is between total top-down control or cyclonic monetary episodes (turbulent, but containable), my sense is that we will go with the latter.
Democratic congresspeople aren’t stupid. I sat next to Henry Gonzales (dem, San Antonio) at a hearing last year and *he* told me the 2004 election had been stolen. Right this minute they –and a swath of savvy Reps– are fighting to amend or ditch this horrible, no-good, very-bailout day.
Throw ’em a line, blow ’em a kiss. . . a bakesale, a candy-gram. Whatever it takes to keep this year on track toward the smooth transition to an Obama administration.
“May i say it was about time and thank god no lives have been lost yet?”
No lives have been lost, except for God only knows how many Iraqis whose lives were taken or disrupted, nearly 5,000 Americans and many people fraudulently sent into war, the 3,000 Americans killed unnecessarily on Sept. 11, 2001, and everyone who lost their home, their quality of life or their life savings in the wake of all the fraud and violence being perpetrated.
In May I participated as a civilian volunteer in a nationwide terrorist drill. The drill began on the east coast and over the next four days moved west, involving ever lower levels of government, with my county government here in Washington being the last and smallest political entity involved.
The scenario was this: a stolen chemical tractor/trailer rig was rigged with explosives and was being “aimed” at a petroleum refinery here. The intent was to cripple the plant and release a toxic chemical cloud against the local population. This event was not the only one: other state drills had simulated events that contributed to the outcome here. We just happened to be the last piece of the puzzle.
We were told this was the first time the federal authorities had run a drill at the county level, and had no experience at working with local agencies directly. They didn’t, and it showed. I volunteer as an amateur radio communications worker, and we had no direct communications with the feds: we talked with ourselves and our local served agencies only. If the feds needed us to send a message they handed it to us on paper and we sent it for them.
The Army had sent a $500,000 communications van from Fort Hood Texas (if I remember correctly) to McChord AFB near Tacoma by C-130 aircraft which was then driven to my county by Army personnel. This was the first deployment by the 5th Army (part of Northern Command) to “our” level of government, and they had absolutely no idea about how to communicate with anyone outside of the federal government. This van had two-way TV capabilities, its’ own satellite telephone system for at least 8 phone lines, two-way radios for all federal agencies, cell phones, military radios, and equipment for practically any other radio frequency you can think of. And yet, they couldn’t dial up any of our amateur radio frequencies and talk to us directly. The brigadier general attending the event admitted that that possibility had never occurred to them…
Anyway, we had the entire alphabet soup here: Army(command and support staff), Marines (chemical warfare specialists), FBI, FEMA, BATFE, and apparently other folks from agencies who didn’t want to be named. It was believed that Special Forces had sent observer teams with special training. State agencies included all levels of disaster response, and local agencies activated all the appropriate personnel they could.
The Army also contributed 10 Blackhawk helicopters from Fort Lewis (also near Tacoma) for medical evacuation and reconnaissance purposes. These were Regular Army helicopters and crews, not National Guard. As far as I know, this was the first time the Regular Army has been involved like this in my state. We have floods all too often in the state, and it is always the National Guard responding, never the regulars.
Is the Army ramping up its domestic involvement? You bet.
Oh, and the drill ended this way: the truck exploded away from the refinery at a roadblock, and some 15,000 widely scattered US civilians had to be evacuated from the chemical plume in 15 minutes. Didn’t quite work, and we ignored the several tens of thousands of Canadian citizens downwind and only a few miles away on their side of the border. They were on their own.
Brendan,
from Bellingham in the far northwest corner
Who needs to cancel elections when you have absolute authority over every (apparent) dollar in the country? From the Bailout proposal:
>>Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.<>The Secretary’s authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time<>Subsection (b) of section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking out the dollar limitation contained in such subsection and inserting in lieu thereof $11,315,000,000,000.<<
Eleven trillion dollars – oh my chevaliers – is the *entire* economy. The whole enchilada.
Looks like it might be time for a little discussion with our brethren in the armed forces. I feel a Velvet Revolution coming on.
Deep breath, folks…
The so-called ‘John Warner’ Act, which broke the posse comitatus was repealed this year (2008) . I have a call in to my congressman’s office (Lloyd Doggett) to get the low-down on this:
>>The changes described above were repealed in their entirety by HR 4986: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (full text):
SEC. 1068. REPEAL OF PROVISIONS IN SECTION 1076 OF PUBLIC LAW 109-364 RELATING TO USE OF ARMED FORCES IN MAJOR PUBLIC EMERGENCIES.<<
which returns to law to its original 1807 provision.
I agree that this may be a test to see if anyone notices. So be sure and “notice” to your congressperson. Audibly.
Funny Eric, before I even logged on to the blog, I was flashing about our family visit to the Philippines 2004 and walking past Edsa Plaza–the famous plaza in Manila where thousands of Filipino protesters stood up to Marcos’ armed militia in 1986 to protest the fake loss of Corazon Aquino to Ferdinand Marcos in the Presidential elections.
Filipino soldiers were forced to make a stand against their own people, and in some instances, members of their own family. The civil insurrection cost Marcos the election and installed Aquino into power.
By the way, Edsa Plaza was once a shopping center. Since that time, Manilans converted it into a church.
Dorogie Toovarischi!
Clearly they are preparing for civil unrest, or they are preparing us to think that they are preparing for civil unrest. Most of these things are sticking their pinkie up the ass of the public to test the temperature. I think the riots they are planning for could have two sources – an Obama loss, since this may wake up the Black Man, the great terror in the hearts of Cheney and Boys, or some presumed economic slowdown that makes it difficult to get food.
We shall see. There seems to be no pill too large for the American public to swallow whole.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse
Your intrepid editor,
Eric Francis
Hey Comrades,
El Presidente signed executive orders last year, giving him sole authority to impose martial law, suspend habeas corpus and ignore the Posse Comitatus Act that prohibits deployment of U.S. troops on American streets. This would give him absolute dictatorial power over the government with no checks and balances.
It is the fault of congress for giving away their power. Our founders worked to protect us from the possibility of a totalitarian government, yet the last 8 years what did congress do? What HAVE they accomplished?
Just a guess but….I imagine that for this time, the military is preparing for either mass riots following an Obama loss, or they are preparing for an invasion by Russia.
Posse comitatus?
“The statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units of the United States National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. The Coast Guard is exempt from the Posse Comitatus Act.
The Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act substantially limit the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement.”
eh?
Army time article:
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/