It rained heavily in the night, so I was surprised this morning to find the skies were starry and the mountains were clear. It was chilly, too, with mist clinging to the pastures.
Koko and I encountered a large pig on the road while driving late yesterday afternoon, and she remembered the spot today and had to give it a good sniffing. We also encountered Andy, with three dogs, and he and I both agreed we’d never seen so many trucks pass by. So much for our expectations of a quiet holiday morning.
I have an early deadline today, so need to keep this short, but I wanted to urge folks to educate themselves about Presidential Directive 51 — NSPD-51 — which outlines the White House’s new plans to ensure “continuity of government” in the event of an loosely defined “catastrophic emergency.”
The directive was issued without Congressional review, and has two secret clauses that the Bush Administration won’t disclose — even to Congressional oversight committees — on the grounds of national security concerns.
The story apparently broke on commondreams.org newscenter but received little attention in the mainstream media until it was picked up by Oregonian staff writer Jeff Kosseff when a Portland Congressmanwas denied access to the security documents, but kept pushing the issue.
A longer article recently appeared on Slate.com, which got condensed into The Week magazine, finally bringing the issue to a wider audience.
While it’s raised a lot of talk about an upcoming Bush/Cheney “coup,” others claim it’s a standard policy document that’s needed in these uncertain times.
I’d suggest going straight to the source to read the document and decide for yourself. Given the antics Bush/Cheney have already pulled, I found it deeply disturbing.
I've been predicting for years now they'll declare martial under some
ReplyDeletepretext if there isn't an actual attack between now and the elections. Then they'll "postpone" the elections until the threat passes. Which will be never.
I urge everyone to do as the author of the Slate article suggests and write/call your representatives in Washington. Let them know you want this directive investigated and that Congress should have access to all "annexes". It has flown under the radar for too long and it's too important to just ignore as "more of the same".
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joan, for bring this to the attention of a larger audience. The rest of us can do the same by passing it on to our friends as well.