Iyow - in your own words

My favorite libertarian recently told me that the President had signed some provision invoking martial law. Not quite, but he definitely, quietly got the ducks lined up that would make it easy to go there.

With legal wordsmithing over the Insurrection Act and Posse Comitatus Act, President Bush’s administration can take over the National Guard for purposes deemed “National Public Emergencies” and not the harder-to-satisfy criteria of “Interference with State and Federal Law.”

What’s the significance? It’s a lot easier for President Bush to use states’ National Guard – any states’ National Guard – as a law enforcement tool at home. Previously, he had to have a specifically good reason, say, terrorist activity, or Hurricane Katrina – and even then states’ government could insist on their own authority.

It seems like a bad flashback from high school civics classes, but is shaping up to be real-time history in the making.

Daily Kos’s Major Danby breaks it all down. It’s worth the read.