Bush Bestows Upon Himself, More Authority
Back in May, President Bush signed a National Security Directive, granting the executive branch power to control all aspects of government in the case of a “catastrophic emergency.” This emergency is loosley defined as “…any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.”
The directive would allow the President to maintain this authority until the catastrophe has subsided.
A main goal of the directive is to ensure our government operates within the bounds of the Constitution during a catastrophe. Ironically, it doesn’t appear that the Constitution was consulted when drafting this Presidential directive.
June 15th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
So, are you in the same camp with others who believe, that before the next presidential election, Bush will initiate this directive to stay in office?
Just wondering.
June 15th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
No. I see no reason to draw that conclusion.
June 15th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Thanks for your reply. I look forward to reading more of your liberal perspectives.
June 18th, 2007 at 9:50 am
Old salt says he looks forward to reading more from a liberal perspective. I don’t think JL is liberal in the sense you may think. “Classical liberalism,” from my understanding is a “get the government out of my face” position, unlike the politically liberal position that the government is everything and big government can solve more problems. That’s scary! Go JL!!
June 18th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Thanks for clearing that up for me Grover. I’m all for getting the government out of my face.
JL has reaffirmed his position with his latest post. Keep up the good work.
June 18th, 2007 at 11:25 am
I don’t mean to confuse anyone with my use of the term “liberal.” when I use “classical liberal,” I am referring to the type of liberalism that was prevalent during the American Revolution. during the past two centuries, the meaning of liberalism has gone from minimal government interference both at home and abroad, to the statism and interventionism that we have come to accept as the norm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_liberalism
Thank you for your comments.
June 18th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
With old salt on board maybe we could get a good political discussion going. We need to get a larger forum, of course, but it would be fun to discuss politics on all levels with JL leading the way.
June 18th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
JL,
The wikipedia definition has given me plenty of reading. So to restate my earlier post:
I look forward to reading more classic liberalism perspectives.