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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (278175)	7/20/2002 12:15:07 AM
From: bonnuss_in_austin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

So, Westi, you don't like citizen spies? If you like Noonan ... and Coulter... and Kudlow ... and Bush I, II and III, you LIKE EVERYTHING that this Republican Bush/Cheney 'platform' has going on ...'moving' the country/world 'in the right direction'... Correct? bia

To: calgal who wrote (278175)	7/25/2002 2:38:30 AM
From: Karen Lawrence	Respond to of 769670

No to repealing Posse Comitatus Act 07/23/02 No idea, it has been said, is so bad that it can't be debated. But some - like the suggestion now floating around Washington that the Posse Comitatus Act be relaxed to give the military a domestic law-enforcement role - should not get much time on anyone's agenda. It counters core American beliefs and presents the potential for problems, and dangers, this country does not need. The posse comitatus - Latin for "force of the county" - is the ad hoc body of citizens gathered by the civil authorities to chase felons, put down riots or otherwise enforce the law - it's the "posse" that the sheriff of a hundred Western movies hurriedly assembled to do what needed to be done. But the act that bears its name specifically bars the participation of the Army (and by extension any of the military forces) from executing U.S. laws without the express authorization of Congress or the Constitution. The act codifies the American principle of keeping separate the military and civilian spheres of authority. The United States was born with a healthy distrust of standing armies, "independent of and superior to the civil power," as the Declaration of Independence put it in its list of grievances against King George III. That sentiment didn't generate codification until after the Civil War, when the use of federal troops to enforce Reconstruction laws, as well as to put down labor unrest, came to a head in the Hayes-Tilden presidential election of 1876. Republican Rutherford B. Hayes won that contest by one electoral vote. Democrats charged that the federal troops sent by Hayes' predecessor, President Grant, to guard polling places in several Southern states, had discouraged Tilden supporters from voting. Two years later, Congress passed the act that removed the military from further such involvement in civilian affairs. It has served the nation well ever since. Now, with the upheaval of domestic security concerns created by the attacks of 9/11, a few voices - Democratic Sen. Joe Biden and Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge among them - are contemplating a re-examination of this barrier. Biden says a revision would, for instance, allow military involvement should a plot involving weapons of mass destruction be discovered. Ridge allows that such a change might be discussed, but notes that it would go against American instincts. In that, Ridge is correct. First, there is no demonstrated need for revising the Posse Comitatus Act. The Constitution clearly gives such authority, if needed, to the various state militias - the National Guard. Although those organizations have largely been incorporated in the federal military structure, they remain under the authority of the state governors, where they belong. Second, in cases of national emergency, the president has used his authority to send in troops to maintain order and provide needed assistance. Such emergencies as Biden suggested surely would fall under such authority. Third, involving the military in domestic law enforcement would tend to blur the vital distinction between the civil and the martial. That is a distinction essential to the nature of this democratic federal republic. It keeps power in the hands of the people, where it belongs. Rewriting the Posse Comitatus Act is the answer sought by those who tend to look to greater military authority as an answer to too many problems. History and logic counter that removing this barrier could create dangers we do not need. There is much to be done to protect this nation from terrorism. Bringing the military into civilian law enforcement is not among those needs. Let the Posse Comitatus Act stand. © 2002 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.