Calling All Libertarians and True Republicans

[Pangloss]

Like I said earlier, I think it would take a severe economic crisis for people to "wake up" so to speak. We have many people who seem to think inside these small boxes in order to satisfy their short-term self-interests, but who don't give thought to the big picture. These people will only revolt when their televisions stop working, stores left and right begin to shut down, and necessities like food, water, and electricity are unavailable.

I also agree with Khethil that probably much of the military would not go along with a martial-law type situation and actually gun down fellow citizens. Although today you just label anyone a "terrorist" and someone out there will be gung-ho about taking them out...

That said...

We need to remember the concept of states' rights and let these domestic policies and programs be run at the state level. We need a complete overhaul of fiscal and monetary policy. We need to adopt a non-interventionist foreign policy before all of the "blowback" turns into WW3. How do we do this?

[BrightNoon]

Beats me Pangloss...

As for the whole martial law issue; I just found out about some disturbing things. Have you ever heard of National Security Presidential Directive 51? Check in out at www.whitehouse.gov. On that note, posse comitatus has been 'reinterpretated' and there has been alot more military-police cooperation in recent years. An active brigade just returned from Iraq to be based in the continental U.S. under the command of NORTHCOM, which deals with homeland security. They are 3-year veteran's of Iraq, took Fellujah, known as specialists in counter-insurgency: i.e. hard-core. I don't think I'd want to be in the neighborhood they're patrolling...

Check this out: urban training in U.S.

YouTube - Military Preparing for Martial Law

P.S. Has anyone ever wondered how exactly Executive Orders fit into the constitution? Apparently, so I have read, a nationwide state of emergency was declared sometime during the era of the Great Depression by FDR and never formally repealed, allowing for Executive Orders to pass into law as they currently do, just by being signed by the President and listed in the Federal Register.

[Pangloss]

I would first of all be skeptical of anything from infowars.com...

But this also does not surprise me at all, if it is true. It has been well known for quite some time now that FEMA has large internment camps (to be used for housing people) setup all over the country. Maybe they are there for events such as hurricane Katrina, but they could easily be handy for other purposes if they needed to be.

All of the Iraq war veterans would be well-versed in enforcing martial law here at home, should they be ordered to do so. The experience they will have had policing the streets in Iraq is almost identical to what they would be dealing with here in the US if they were used as a police force--though it would be easier for them here, because they are familiar with American culture, and there is no language barrier.

Maybe this is one reason we are in Iraq-- learning and perfecting the art of policing urban environments in preparation for things to come (hey it's as valid as some other conspiracy theories you read). The experience in general is valuable, because the military likes to go to war on a regular basis so that they have men in command who have seen real combat, and in order to test strategy (one big theory as to why we really went to Vietnam).

[BrightNoon]

Agreed, infowars.com is questionable, but I don't see how the video itself can be in question. It obviously depicts American soldiers doing some kind of training in a suburban environrment in the U.S., which includes setting up checkpoints and searching vehicles.

Also, I was just watching the news and there was a segment about the use of Executive Orders by Obama when he comes into office to reverse alot of Bush policies. The debate is all about what kind of changes he will make, not whether or not it is appropriate to make policy with Executive Orders that concern things other than the internal functioning of the Executive Branch. Non Sequitur...