Most Under-Reported Story of the Year: Bush Paves Way To Stay in Office

Some stories Foreign Policy didn't include in their list of "Top Ten Stories You Missed This Year":

1) The establishment by the USG of a new Unified Combatant Command for Africa. While it is not clear to me yet what precisely Africom's scope of operations will be, it does suggest a growing awareness on the part of the USG that stability in Africa matters for America's own security.

2) Child mortality is at a historic low globally, largely because of orchestrated efforts by NGOs and the UN to vaccinate children against preventable diseases and provide mothers with basic education about child health. Anyone who doubts that foreign aid can make a difference in the security of human beings should take heed of these numbers.

And the most important story you may have missed this year:

3) President Bush has enacted a National Security Presidential Directive that would make it legal for him to remain in office as long as he declares a “catastrophic national emergency” first. Defined, according to the Directive, 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 mainstream news ignored this since May, but bloggers didn’t. Here are some views on the issue:

One Pissed Off Veteran writes:

“How fucking vague is that? A hurricane in Mexico? An ice storm in Canada? Pakistan dropping the big one into the men's room at the Taj Mahal? Even a precipitous drop in the value of the dollar against the Euro.

Any and all of these can be interpreted within the broad confines of this directive.

Note that it doesn't have to be on American soil. Anywhere on the planet (and probably off of it) is fair game for this far-reaching directive.

This is nothing less than a blueprint for instituting martial law in the United State -- with Der Monkey Fuehrer himself at the top."

Show Us The Inherent Law quoted Matthew Rothschild as saying:

“Under this plan, [Bush] entrusts himself with leading the entire federal government, not just the Executive Branch. And he gives himself the responsibility “for ensuring constitutional government.”

A slightly less paranoid view comes from InformationClearingHouse :

“These are profoundly, potentially calamitously, broad terms. Who defines what is extraordinary? Who defines how severe severely is? Is there any procedure to challenge the junking of constitutional government? …Even if you don't believe the most sinister paranoid coup theories, the document does nothing to allay one's fears that it could be used in a sinister way.”

Read the directive and decide for yourself whether we are likely to see Bush leave office on schedule.


Type rest of the post here