What's wrong with this Hurricane? by Moira Whelan

[Demeter]

http://www.democracyarsenal.org/2008/08/whats-wrong-wit.html

I just noticed that the daily brief customarily done in advance of a hurricane is ... being given by NORTHCOM. So what does this tell us and why does it matter? It tells us that things are as broken as they were before Katrina. The military, like EPA, Commerce, or anyone else, is only involved in emergency management to the point that they are requested to do so by the governor or the FEMA director (who acts on behalf of the President)...There is no allowance or legal authority for the Department of Defense to take any sort of control or command in this scenario. In a hurricane, DoD, like Human Services, Transportation, etc, all work for FEMA and the governor of the impacted state.

When it comes to disasters, the governor is always in charge. At any point, he or she can call in their state’s National Guard, and/or ask other governors for their help... If a governor is worried things are getting out of control, they ask the President to provide help through FEMA... FEMA is then in charge of coordinating the resources of the federal government to support the governor and the state. In a sense, when FEMA is working properly—as it did under Clinton—when the FEMA director tells another Federal agency to do something, it’s as if the President is calling. The government agency is expected to deliver and cut through red tape to make things happen and happen fast. This is done for a very specific and important reason: here in America, we believe that governors should have control over their own states. The federal government needs to be there to help, but they absolutely do not move in and take over. We also do not believe that the military should ever forcibly operate inside the United States unless they are under civilian control.

With NORTHCOM taking the lead on briefing the public, it’s clear the Bush Administration wants to send the message that everything is under control. Instead, to those that do this for a living, the message is clear that everything is absolutely and completely broken.

Perhaps the state governments need help. Perhaps FEMA is not up to the job. Perhaps the Bush Administration simply wants a uniform on camera, and this way of doing things is preferable to things happening the way that they should (a process, by the way, that WORKED before Bush screwed it up)...NORTHCOM taking the lead in public relations is a clear indication that nothing has been fixed in DHS and FEMA since Katrina. As a result, there is no confidence in FEMA’s ability to respond to this hurricane. With NORTHCOM at the helm, the Bush Administration either doesn’t care if, or doesn’t want, the systems to work. ...

The bottom line is that things will not work the way they should with NORTHCOM in charge. Governors don’t take orders from Generals. No one else in government takes orders from DoD. No one in emergency management even knows what NORTHCOM does, except come in and issue “orders” to a bunch of civilians who don't work for them...

[glitch]

1. Good God. K & R nt

[Demeter]

2. 8 Recs in 2 Minutes? That's Got to Be a Record!

Good Luck to the South Coast--you are going to need it.

[caraher]

3. Call in the National Guard?

Yet another "virtue" of a hollow military - poor National Guard is off in Iraq. So governors have to grovel to the feds for help, since their resources have been taken from them. Life is good when you're a self-proclaimed "war president."

[Doctor_J]

4. Probably another dry run for when martial law is imposed nationwide

it should surprise no one that FEMA is in no better shape than it was 3 years ago. Repukes hate Americans, and every organization that is meant to help Americans is the target of the GOP.

[Dr.Phool]

6. Dry run? I'm not so optimistic.

I don't trust this White House, and the Chimp-Cheney axis of evil with anything. Could this be the natural disaster, or the national emergency that Dear Leader will use to stop-loss himself and Cheney? Call off the November landslide?

They should have impeached when they had a chance.

I hope I'm just being paranoid, but it's a scenario I've run through my head several times. Blackwater is already calling in the mercs.

[judasdisney]

14. Yes, a dry run. They need an "authoritarian Democrat" in the White House to be able to

justify military takeover.

[bertman]

5. Excellent post, Demeter. It's good to hear from someone who knows how this is SUPPOSED to work.

For my money, it's just one more example of our exalted leaders getting us used to having the military in charge of EVERYTHING AMERICAN.

We Americans have a tremendous amount of respect for our military, but what's getting lost in all of this military jingoism is that the military is SUBORDINATE to the CIVILIAN AUTHORITIES and is supposed to take orders from them.

[Pooka Fey]

7. Congress - why didn't you impeach when we gave Dem's control in 2006?

In my eyes, Congress is as of Jan. 2007 just as guilty as Bush for fucking up America, and the blood is on their hands as well. :cry:

[windbreeze]

18. what is it we don't comprehend

a 49/49 split with 2 indies in the Senate...
and a 232 to a 203 split in the House...is NOT a majority that anyone can do anything with...2/3 majority in EACH HOUSE is what's needed...iow...67 in the Senate....and 290 in the House...is the basic and very least majority needed...AND GUESS WHAT??? We don't have it now...and we NEVER DID!!wb

[coznfx]

19. One of the main reasons

the 2006 vote even balanced up the seats between Dems & rethugs was people wanted impeachment procedings against Chimpy, & knew it would never happen with the rethugs having such a disproportionate numbers of seats in Congress. We voted in enough Dems so they could at least get an impeachment investigation going - thinking we might be able to sway enough rethugs with the resulting mountain of evidence against * to vote with us to allow impeachment procedings to begin, and the chips fall where they may from there.

Of course at the time all of US thought we would swamp Congress with a huge majority of new Dem seats, but generally, I think most folks at least wanted enough Dems in Congress to eliminate the rethugs 2/3 majority, thereby giving us back the power to block all the bush-shit being rubber-stamped by the rethugs into law!

These feelings were expressed quite plainly on DU at the time by many people: "I'm voting for so-and-so for Congress, because he/she has agreed that, at the very least, an investigation into possible impeachable offences committed by * and co. is warranted. And if the resulting evidence warrants it, IMPEACH BUSH NOW becomes SWORN DUTY #1!

I can't even say how pissed I am at Congress for "taking impeachment off the table." I mean, not even calling for an investigation! We knew in 2006 that we may not be able to "get enough votes" to impeach, or even to start the investigation. But c'mon people, to not even try, vote be damned?? To not even have the stones to ask, pretty please, could we maybe check into whether or not * has committed treasonous and/or traitorous acts against our beloved country?? Just a little look-see? Look at the crap Kucinich (God love him!) went through just trying to get a resolution on the floor to maybe think about starting an investigation sometime! Pelosi blocking every step of the way, other big Kahunas refusing to even read or discuss his propositions ... wtf is that?

I, with many others, did not care about "not enough votes", or "we have to move forward" or what ever. Damn it, it is the SWORN DUTY of every member of Congress to "defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic", and by God there was MORE than enough evidence against * and his fellow traitors already in the public record before the 2006 elections to warrant further investigation!

Congress's blunt refusal to even look into whether or not the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES has, knowingly, actively & treasonously, sold us all up the river, tells me all I need to know about the "content of their character." Except Dennis Kucinich and maybe one or two others, they all need to go! ASAP!

Congresspeople, if you have a shred of honor or love for this country, DO YOUR SWORN DUTY! NOW! Do it before that damn psychopath * decides to use Hurricane Gustov as his excuse to initiate national martial law, and thereby eliminating Congress, eliminating the up-coming elections, openly assuming the title of King *, and basically enslaving us all. Extreme, I know, but hey, YOU guys passed the laws giving him the power to do exactly that. And we all know (or should know, by now) that he's enough of a fucking psychopath to do exactly that.

Now you guys got to fix it. START IMPEACHMENT INVESTIGATIONS NOW!

[TankLV]

20. You can throw around that dead horse only so far...

the TRUTH is that the repukes are in an even WEAKER state than the democrats are - NOW - yet the repukes are able to BLOCK MORE STUFF and GET MORE OF THEIR STUFF PASSED than when the Dems were in comparatively BETTER position.

Our Dems DON'T know how to wield what power they DO have, and are always looking for EXCUSES like you are...

Sorry, NO SALE...while yours might be a good excuse, that is just what it is - an EXCUSE for INCOMPETANCE. PERIOD.

[truedelphi]

8. Now, now my dear and worried children, NORTHCOM is a division

Of NORAD, and we all saw the excellent precision with which NORAD took out those hijacked planes, way back on September 11th, 2001.

And NOPRAD's stepchild division of NORTHCOM will operate just as effectively, managing to just as efficiently see that there is no civilian suffering or loss of life.

Things are in good hands, so please be sure to watch the REAL ACTION up there in the state of Minnesota. There the McCain people will be busy showing us that most Hillary voters are gonna vote for the McCAin/Hillary ticket.

So no more worries, dahlings. The Hurricane will be met with a marvelous preparedness from NORTHCOM, with Barbara Bush Sr heading up the tea and crumpets division for any poor black souls that might still be hiding out in New Orleans.

[debbierlus]

10. So, are you saying that the militarary are giving the orders

Could you discuss further the implications of this -

Are they providing a scenario where the military can lock down a town, so that no media can get into the disaster area to cover it? We know they could give two shits about anyone and they are just in damage control.

[truedelphi]

15. Actually, I was being satirical, which is a most difficult thing to do these

Days as the Bush administration's whacky notions of how to run a country are so far from the ideal that even those of us with great imaginations are outdone by the unimaginable perversity of his incompetence.

Now for serious comments - if you read the Executive Orders enacted and signed into law by Bill Clinton, you will see that FEMA is allowed to be a military presence and to execute its orders to the populace as though there was martial law.

I remember right wing talk show hosts having a field day with what Bill Clinton was allowing to come into pass - and of course orders that Bush and others have had enacted post 9/11 are making
things even worse. The worst scenario is one wherein martial law is declared for all of the nation, bringing about Rex 84.

You can read about that here:
http://tinyurl.com/6xm2xx

Or google FEMA + executive order + martial law.

When Congress looked into the Bush administration's response to Katrina, and examined FEMA as well, one conclusion they decided on was was that right after Katrina, FEMA had acted as though mertial law existed.

Congress pretended to believe that that is because FEMA is handled by Homeland Security, whose concerns are different from those of a national weather emergency assistance program. But I think the design has been in place from even before Bush's time.

[whistle]

9. So, who and what is NORTHCOM?

<snip>
NORTHCOM: Constitution Not Important
Published on 2007-12-21 00:00:00

Source: Rogue Government - Lee Rogers

The United States government is now actively directing the attention of the U.S. military towards the American people. Using the phony war on terror, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) are creating a militarized control grid specifically to enslave the American people. One thing is clear, neither of these agencies abide by the Constitution. In fact, both agencies by themselves are unconstitutional and should be abolished. Despite this, it is expected that they would at least try to follow the supreme law of the land which is the Constitution regardless of the unconstitutionality of the institutions themselves. Amazingly, NORTHCOM is now openly admitting that they do not follow the Constitution. NORTHCOM recently issued a press release talking about how they handle intelligence oversight and they stated that their goal in conducting intelligence oversight includes ensuring that presidential directives and executive orders are abided by during intelligence gathering operations. Of course, they don't specifically mention anything about abiding by the Constitution. This is disturbing considering the hundreds of unconstitutional executive orders issued by George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and others. In fact some even argue that executive orders by themselves aren't constitutional. If NORTHCOM is saying that the oversight of their intelligence gathering operations consist of ensuring these executive orders and directives are followed, than they are not concerned with following the Constitution.

The following is taken from NORTHCOM's press release on a recent intelligence oversight conference.

Safeguarding the privacy rights of U.S. persons is critical to the Department of Defense agencies that conduct intelligence activities in support of the nation�s homeland defense and homeland security.

To ensure the rights of all U.S. persons are protected, DoD established an Intelligence Oversight program to ensure that all military intelligence, counterintelligence, and intelligence related activities are conducted in accordance with applicable laws, presidential executive orders and DoD directives and regulations.

In its continuing effort to ensure compliance with the DoD IO program, North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command sponsored the 1st Annual World-Wide Intelligence Oversight Conference Dec. 4-6 at Joint Task Force North Headquarters on Fort Bliss, Texas.

They admit that intelligence operations will be conducted in accordance with applicable laws, presidential executive orders and DoD directives and regulations. There are countless unconstitutional executive orders, so this admission means that they are not concerned with following the Constitution. If applicable laws include the Constitution, than how can they follow the Constitution and the many executive orders that are unconstitutional and unapplicable as it applies to the supreme law of the land?

<MORE>

http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=5058

[snot]

17. The Constitution IS an "applicable law" -- it overrides everything else . . .

including any unconstitutional executive orders.

The interpretation of the Constitution and other law is the purview of the courts, which have shifted drastically to the right in recent decades.

And enforcement of court orders depends on . . .

But to be clear, from a legal point of view, Northcom's saying it will act in accordance with applicable law is effectively saying it will act in accordance with the Constitution as well as other laws. The problem comes in when that conflicts with executive orders or the like; but again, theoretically, the courts should decide such conflicts in favor of the Constitution.

[Dystopian]

11. K&R

I've lived in MA all my life, and the governor is the one who calls a state of emergency.
That's the way it used to be. Living in fear of our government is hell.

peace~

[northamericancitizen]

12. One more K & R.

[Still Sensible]

13. Troubling, but not surprising

The truth is the military is one govt agency under these fools that can take charge. The problem is that despite the lessons of Katrina, the basic philosophy of the GWB rethug party remains the same. FEMA and other relevant agencies have not been fixed, just cosmetically changed--i.e. they have lipstick on the pig.

These people still believe that this kind of support is not the purview of the federal government... that these functions should be dealt with by private charities and other private entities (that can make money for it). Their goal, dating back to the hoodwinking that Reagan did on the functions of government, is to starve the beast and kill it. This is no secret to those paying attention. Chertoff said as much when he was appointed and asked his philosophy re FEMA.

So after the Katrina embarrassment, where they were able to credibly defect some of the fallout toward Blanco and Nagin (unfortunately their ineptitude and shit-headed statements allowed for the misdirection).they simply lipsticked up the FEMA pig... but they still need the military in front, because they didn't really make FEMA, under DHS (thats a whole other thread), structurally any better.

It is no accident that FEMA worked very well under Clinton (remember OKC and hurricane support in the 90s) and isn't a fully staffed, fully supported and capable organization under these clowns.

Like so many things in this administration, I suspect this is more a result of the failure of their philosophy and less the result of their nefarious intent---although admittedly there is plenty of evidence of that in other areas. Bureaucratically speaking, these idiots have trouble planning a two car funeral.

[hay rick]

16. FEMA readiness link

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/opinion/29fri2.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[quoddy woman]

21. what about those wristbands

the evacuees were given before they boarded the buses? I've been told that GPSS chips can be put in them. Great way to test them out for martial law/control.