Posse Comitatus – Again

Folks over at Kos have their knickers in a knot over BushCo "HUGE! Bush Guts Posse Comitatus, Grabs National Guard!

I mentioned last February and in August 2005 that the Posse was dead long before BushCo began tinkering.

Throughout the 1890s the presidents authorized the use of regular troops on several occasions to keep order during the labor unrest of that era. In 1914 Wilson used troops to put down labor disputes.

Presidents can use the military against civilians and have done so without using that fearfully nasty term - "martial law." They have always had the power to use the National Guard and Federal troops anytime for anything they damn well please.

Janet "Waco" Reno sound familiar? Military assistance to the FBI at the time included advice by commandos to the FBI's planned assault on the Koresh compound.

Remember the Guard troops in 1957 Arkansas to enroll Black students in Little Rock schools? Remember federal troops and guardsmen under presidential orders in Mississippi and Alabama in the '60s? Remember Kent State? Remember Federal troops sent into Los Angeles for Rodney King riots?

State and Federal troops have been deployed domestically many times to enforce State and Federal "law".

The time to yell about "gutting" the Posse Comitatus was a long long long long time ago. Posse Comitatus has been ignored at the whim of any president who wanted to ignore it. The government is now officially stamping a smiley face on what government has always done.

In 1999 Joseph Farah, at WorldNutDaily wrote the same fear-filled witless shit about Bill Clinton:

"No one should ever think the Posse Comitatus Act is any check whatsoever on the ability of the federal government to employ military might against civilians," said Olson. "We were surprised at how weak the Posse Comitatus Act is," he continued. "There have been no prosecutions ever, and it doesn't apply to any branch of the armed forces except the Army and the Air Force. It has a huge exception -- that deployment of the Army or Air Force as a posse comitatus is a crime, 'except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress.'"

Olson and Woll also discovered that the military doesn't need an order from the president to have control over civilians. Any commander can do it -- that is, suspend all civil rights.

And if ever we had a president in the White House capable of such treachery, it is Bill Clinton. If ever we had a president with nothing to lose, it is Bill Clinton. If ever we had a president with nowhere to go and too young for retirement, it is Bill Clinton. If ever we had a president showing no signs of eagerness to turn over the reins -- even to a handpicked successor -- it is Bill Clinton."

Geeze, that part about "showing no signs of eagerness to turn over the reins" sounds damn familiar. Democrats and Republicans, they're in it together folks - taking turns at scaring the hell outta ya.