[This is from Keith Olbermann's Countdown]
Our new dictator-in-chief
With no press conferences, and with no debate, President Bush has ordered up a plan for responding to a catastrophic "event" under which he has entrusted himself with leading the entire federal government, not just the executive branch. The scheme, laid out in a document entitled National Security Presidential Directive NSPD 51 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive HSPD-20 that Mr. Bush signed in secret on May 9.
It defines a catastrophic event 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." That would mean another 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, a bad day on Wall Street, an upcoming election, you name it. Sorry, he names it. As for claiming the right to run roughshod over the other branches of government, U.S. Constitution be damned, the document pays lip service to the need for "a cooperative effort among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Federal Government" but says this effort would be "coordinated by the President." All in all, a document that would seem to be the paper equivalent of reserving the right for a dictatorial coup. Augusto Pinochet would be proud.
THE MORNING AFTER To many, it no doubt feels like a hangover without having partied the night before. What happened still almost defies explanation. What the Washington Post calls "a historical rarity: the passage of a bill opposed by the speaker of the House and a majority of the speaker's party." And yet pass the Iraq war funding bill did, by a vote of 280-142 in the House and by 80-14 in the Senate. Even stranger, of the 16 senators who voted against going to war to begin with in 2002, 11 voted last night to give President Bush whatever he wants.
Hillary Clinton, among the senators whose votes switched in the opposite direction. Having voted for the war resolution in '02, last night, she was among the small majority to vote against it. (GOP strategists, already salivating over the attack ad possibilities, no doubt.) Mrs. Clinton, it should be noted, waited until after Barack Obama voted to cast her ballot... thereby keeping her voting record on the conflict in line with her main opponent's.
A new poll in the New York Times showing that, on Iraq, the Democrats and the White House are seriously misreading the mood of the American public.
=====================================================
And following are the links to the directive, itself, and other comments. Does this remind anyone of Germany in the 1930s?
National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive WorldNetDaily: Bush makes power grab New presidential directive gives Bush dictatorial power « Aftermath News Mormanity: Dictatorship: It's for Your Own Good (The New Presidential Directive Flushing the Constitution)