AnArticalFromKeelyNet

The following is an article taken entirely from KeelyNet. KeelyNet can be accessed from the link in the Ingredients section of The Oven. Another article Tuck and I found interesting was "Global Warming: It's All About Energy". Please check out the whole of KeelyNet for yourself as there are several really good/informative reads just on the main page. Some other titles of interest....."Auditors Say Billions Wasted In Iraq", "Maher:Bush is Gilligan who can't find his a--", "Anti-Terror Cases Falsly Inflated" and there's a nice link to receive a free copy of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth".


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"Making Martial Law Easier"
A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night. So it was with a provision quietly tucked into the enormous defense budget bill at the Bush administration’s behest that makes it easier for a president to override local control of law enforcement and declare martial law. The provision, signed into law in October, weakens two obscure but important bulwarks of liberty. One is the doctrine that bars military forces, including a federalized National Guard, from engaging in law enforcement. Called posse comitatus, it was enshrined in law after the Civil War to preserve the line between civil government and the military. The other is the Insurrection Act of 1807, which provides the major exemptions to posse comitatus. It essentially limits a president’s use of the military in law enforcement to putting down lawlessness, insurrection and rebellion, where a state is violating federal law or depriving people of constitutional rights. The newly enacted provisions upset this careful balance. They shift the focus from making sure that federal laws are enforced to restoring public order. Beyond cases of actual insurrection, the president may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack or to any “other condition.” These new presidential powers were slipped into the law without hearings or public debate. The president made no mention of the changes when he signed the measure, and neither the White House nor Congress consulted in advance with the nation’s governors. There is a bipartisan bill, introduced by Senators Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, and Christopher Bond, Republican of Missouri, and backed unanimously by the nation’s governors, that would repeal the stealthy revisions. Congress should pass it. If changes of this kind are proposed in the future, they must get a full and open debate.

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I don't know about you, but a lobbyist, some representatives, the president....whoever, being able to add ANYTHING onto a piece of legislation "in the dark of night" is reprehensible. Do you understand the process here? A piece of legislation is written, studied(theoretically), argued etc until it is ready to be signed in if enough support within the respective branch is garnered. Now here comes the good part....AFTER the legislation is agreed upon by the proper majority, someone???? is able to come along and ADD THINGS TO SAID LEGISLATION before it is passed on to the next body or signed into law....w/out gooing back through the system to have the additions vetted. That's just not me right? That's fucked up right?

Will there come a time when we as a people raise our voices collectively and DEMAND that politics as usual IS NOT ok with us? Will we ever demand integrity from our representation or is it really a government of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation?

Is it too late? Is our system too far gone? Will America be able to hold the moral high ground again internationally? Is this how we want the rest of the world to view us? Is there really half of my country that doesn't see a problem here? Is it too late?

Finn