On Tuesday, October 16, 2001, at 04:04 PM, Greg Broiles wrote:
At 05:45 PM 10/16/2001 -0500, measl@mfn.org wrote:
On Tue, 16 Oct 2001 jamesd@echeque.com wrote:
According to Pravda, the US is now under martial law
For all intents and purposes, we are.
Well, no. "Martial law" usually implies that civil authorities have been replaced or overriden by military command, and that civilian law is not in effect, having been replaced by orders from a military command structure; and it's usually imposed on formerly hostile territory, or territories considered very close to conflict spatially or temporally.
That has not happened in the US, except arguably at the ground zero site, and even there it sounds like it's civilian police officers and elected officials, not military officers, who are setting policy.
Unconstitutional, in many cases? I think so. Martial law? No, that's not accurate. That term has historically meant a lot more that some National Guard troops in the airports.
Agreed, not martial law. However, America operates on the ratchet principle: the tightening of liberties _always_ proceeds in the forward direction. Each new crisis, each new emergency order, each new federal agency, each new law...everything cranks the ratchet wheel toward less liberty. And even our supposed "voices of reason," like "Reason," cough, cough, are publishing crap about how untappable conversation is "scary." The "Wall Street Journal" has Dorothy Rabinowitz and that pansy Indian guy calling for "national ID cards." The issue of whether these measures will make us "safe" is neither interesting nor germane. The Constitution used to be clear on issues like habeas corpus, fourth amendment protections, and the inability of the government to tell us how we can communicate. No longer. As Pravda said, the U.S. is (effectively) under martial law. It's just that our colonels and generals are politicians in D.C. Notice how "states rights" has vanished as an issue? Someone finds white talcum powder and the FBI and FEMA are called in. Everything is being federalized. And former libertarians, in name, are now leading the charge toward statism. I say we kill them all. --Tim May, Occupied America "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759.