Looking away from the financial train wreck for a moment

[rolanni]

This article asks why we now have a standing army inside of US borders, in direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.

It's a good question. Anybody have a good answer?

Link from bifemmefatale, who also has a couple of things to say here

Comments

[sethb.livejournal.com]

Good answer? No.

Bush got Congress to roll over and weaken the Posse Comitatus Act.

[aitchellsee.livejournal.com]

There seems to be a problem withk the link to "here" - I suspect a typo in the underlying URL.




ETA: a problem "withk" the link?? kettle, meet pot. Sheesh.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Oops.

All fix now.

[aitchellsee.livejournal.com]

Do you know of any pirates or dramliz that might have an extra berth on an outbound ship?

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

Scary, especially with all the other 'stuff' going on right now! I know how this scenario would go if I were writing the novel!

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Of course, the hundreds of US military bases on US soil didn't violate that law as far back as, say, Maine's version of Fort Knox . . .

I was, personally, a member of a standing army in New Jersey back in the 1970s. Had "crowd control" or "riot squad" training.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I'm thinking Intent counts.


But this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.

After 1st BCT finishes its dwell-time mission, expectations are that another, as yet unnamed, active-duty brigade will take over and that the mission will be a permanent one.

Army Times (http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/)

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Active duty (regular army) troops train for that kind of mission all the time. Hard to judge Intent by anything except overt acts -- I had numerous training sessions carrying an M-14* against imaginary civilian crowds, hypothetically just outside the base gates in beautiful Eatontown, New Jersey.

And we weren't even a "combat arm", being a Signal Corps school installation.

*The M-14 fired a 7.62 mm NATO cartridge, which would penetrate multiple bodies at crowd-control (point blank) range.

[barsukthom.livejournal.com]

To protect us from the Confederacy?

Military Resources in the US

[(Anonymous)]

Oh... maybe because the States have completely abdicated their responsibilities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters and catastrophes? They are now dependent upon the FED to take care of them. The FED attempted to honor individual State's soverignty during Katrina - waiting to be requested before responding - and we all saw how that worked out. So, now the FED has a defacto mandate to ignore State's Rights and proactively respond to any major threat. In order to facilitate that they are pre-positioning resources that are appropriately trained and equiped to deal with disasters.

what can I say... it's a sore spot so the rant got away from me...

Re: Military Resources in the US

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Well DUH. If Bush hadn't stripped the National Guard for Iraq, the states would be doing fine.

Re: Military Resources in the US

[(Anonymous)]

its not just the NG - its telling people NO when they want to build on a flood plain, or in a box canyon that burns or floods every year, or on a barrier island that gets wiped clean on a regular basis. It's telling the eco-nuts where to go when they interfere with controlled burns, letting the natural fire cycle take care of the dead brush and fuel build-up while re-freshing the rest of the ecosystem... its telling the pubic that there is absolutely NO WAY IN HE77 that everybody is going to be rescued with no loss of life, limb, or property and everything will "return to normal" after a catastrophe. The NG is nice - but the big picture is much more involved... and frightening once you learn to look at it.

And this whole mess started in the 70's when Carter created FEMA without any type of teeth to enforce its mandates.... and watered down the States' responsibilities from the Disaster Management Act of 1950 with the Stafford Act... so you can't peg everything on the current administration.