The Washington Times by: Jeffrey T. Kuhner
President Obama has given himself the powers to declare martial law — especially in the event of a war with Iran. It is a sweeping power grab that should worry every American.
On March 16, the White House released an executive order, “National Defense Resources Preparedness.” The document is stunning in its audacity and a flagrant violation of the Constitution. It states that, in case of a war or national emergency, the federal government has the authority to take over almost every aspect of American society. Food, livestock, farming equipment, manufacturing, industry, energy, transportation, hospitals, health care facilities, water resources, defense and construction — all of it could fall under the full control of Mr. Obama. The order empowers the president to dispense these vast resources as he sees fit during a national crisis.
“The United States must have an industrial and technological base capable of meeting national defense requirements and capable of contributing to the technological superiority of its national defense equipment in peacetime and in times of national emergency,” the order says. “The domestic industrial and technological base is the foundation for national defense preparedness. The authorities provided in the act shall be used to strengthen this base and to ensure it is capable of responding to the national defense needs of the United States.”
In short, the order gives Mr. Obama the ability to impose martial law. He now possesses the potential powers of a dictator. The order is a direct assault on individual liberties, private property rights and the rule of law. It is blatantly unconstitutional. The executive branch is arrogating responsibilities precluded by the Constitution without even asking the permission of Congress. The order gives Mr. Obama a blank check to erect a centralized authoritarian state. This is a law one would expect to find in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela or Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
The backdrop to the executive order is the looming showdown with Iran. The administration says the “window for diplomacy is closing.” Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta warned Tehran’s mullahs that “all options are on the table” — including military intervention. Mr. Obama stresses that his patience is running out. He vows that Iran will not acquire the bomb. Mr. Obama wants several more months for sanctions and international isolation to bring the ayatollahs to heel. Yet the signals are clear: Mr. Obama may be ready to launch devastating airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
If that should happen, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has promised massive retaliation. American troops will be targeted by Iranian proxies in Iraq and Afghanistan. American embassies will be struck across the Middle East and North Africa. Most ominously, Iranian-backed Hezbollah cells could launch devastating terrorist attacks in major U.S. cities, killing numerous citizens. The war may well come home, triggering domestic chaos. These are the very real risks of a major conflict with Iran.
Which begs the question: Would that tempt Mr. Obama to claim a state of emergency and thereby implement his executive order? No one knows the answer. And we shouldn’t have to find out. The president does not — and should not – have the authority to subordinate the entire private economy to the government, especially without the consent of Congress and the American people. It is national socialism masquerading as military security.
This is why conservatives — those who are serious about defending our constitutional republic – should demand that the executive order be repealed immediately. Liberals argue that President Clinton issued a nearly identical mandate. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the first national defense resources preparedness order, which has been amended by successive presidents, including George W. Bush. Hence, according to the progressive left, if it was good enough for FDR, Mr. Clinton and Mr. Bush, why not Mr. Obama?
The answer is simple: Because the Constitution matters — or at least it should. For more than 70 years, liberal Democrats and corporatist Republicans have been slowly dismantling the old republic, imposing a creeping social democracy. The Founding Fathers’ vision of limited government and federalism has been replaced by a new ruling class. FDR, Mr. Clinton, Mr. Bush — all of them were militarists expanding the size and scope of government. They were Wilsonian globalists, and they shamelessly violated civil liberties. FDR was the worst, by forcing Japanese-Americans into internment camps.
Mr. Obama’s executive order represents the culmination of the welfare-warfare state. He is walking in the footsteps of his predecessors, those who enabled the rise of the imperial presidency. And it leads to only one tragic end: the gradual deterioration of our democracy.
Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at The Washington Times and president of the Edmund Burke Institute.
@ C L Robbins:
Not at all, it’s in the public domain.
@ yamit82:
I hope you don’t mind, but I copied your entire entry to my Facebook account. This is a beautiful account which people in the United States should remember and be grateful! Thank you for sharing it with us!!
Shy Guy Said:
Hearing this remark by this arrogant man made my stomach sick. “Hang in there” Little Brother, Israel! These kinds of remarks by this terrible man bring tears to my eyes. I’m so very sad that people cannot see who and what he really is…so very sad!
@ BlandOatmeal:
BlandOatmeal Said:
I can,I can, but can you?
@ yamit82:
Mine got botted before yours, Yam — count your blessings, if you can.
@ BlandOatmeal:
Your problem has always been that you read the headlines and not the text of the material and extrapolate usually in error only from the headline. If you find fault in my comments then deal with the specifics.
An Israeli strike on Iran may well be unavoidable in the next few months, given circumstances.
In that event, there would likely be (among other things) a release of Hezbollah sleeper cells in America — operatives who have been quietly infiltrating over the porous Mexican border for years.
If those cells are released, it may become NECESSARY to declare martial law.
(So much for the November elections.)
Amen.
@ yamit82:
Yamit,
You’re a blockhead, and just not worth the trouble. You hate Americans, and try to revise history to try to paint the Jews as the saviors of mankind — when in fact, they had all they could do to survive, in their pathetic, vagabond condition. In this, you will note that I am including my own Jewish ancestors. It’s very small of you, to try to ridicule other peoples to somehow make your own look better by comparison.
I know my ancestors; and believe me, they were all two-legged. I don’t know what sort of creatures you descended from, and you probably don’t either. I know the church in Hamburg that my forebear was baptized in, in 1619; I have quite a history on William Brewster, who lived in the late 1500s and early 1600s and wrote the Mayflower Compact. I have excellent records on hundreds of others from that time, and a solid paper trail to them. How about you? What was the name of even one of your ancestors during that time, the time of the Chmielnicki uprising? I would be seriously surprized if you knew; I can’t name my own line from Galicia further back than around 1800, and I don’t think you or many here can do any better.
No rabbi told my ancestors to come to America, so they could worship God according to their conscience. No rabbis had to save my ancestors during the American Revolution: They were all too busy fighting to defend their homes and families where they lived on the frontier, and I dare say there wasn’t a rabbi for hundreds of miles. The Jews did not found America. It was the Christians who did it, the Christians you hate. You despise them, even though they did exactly what the Jews are doing today in Israel.
I can’t say any more to you, and still stay civil.
America is headed for very troubled times; and as I have already said, so is Israel. Nobody is getting off easy here. When it’s all over, you won’t be bad-mouthing America nor anyone else; you’ll be thanking God for his goodness and mercy, in saving such worthless people as you and me.
God help us all.
Shalom
@ Laura:
I know what you were saying and I wished to point out that internally he and the congress are legislating dictatorship, possibly using Iran as the excuse or trigger. Combine the martial law executive order with the provisions just passed in the NDAA. Start connecting dots. It’s not right left issue as both camps either voted for them or did not oppose them.
@ BlandOatmeal:
A- I don’t care about your relatives, black, white or red 2 legged or 4 legged.
B-I did not say they had no vision. learn to read.
Based on your comment I know you did not open the links I provided. Too bad, you might have learned something about your relatives. LOL
The Canary in the Coal Mine?
American Jewry 1654-1770
How the Jews Saved the American Revolution
@ BlandOatmeal:
A- I don’t care about your relatives, black, white or red 2 legged or 4 legged.
B-I did not say they had no vision. learn to read.
Based on your comment I know you did not open the links I provided. Too bad, you might have learned something about your relatives. LOL
The Canary in the Coal Mine?
American Jewry 1654-1770
How the Jews Saved the American Revolution
1820-1860
@ yamit82:
Yamit, you misunderstood my entire post. I do not defend Obama’s intent to declare marshall law. Just the opposite. My comment was about Jeffrey Kuhner’s isolationism and what appears to me to be his opposition to an attack on Iran.
@ yamit82:
Go scr-w yourself, Yamit.
When you’re talking about our “founding fathers”, you’re talking, in a large degree, about my ancestors. Concerning their lack of vision, etc., I might note that while they were founding the first country with true freedom of religion, the Jews were screwing up big time in Poland as bureaucrats and lackeys of the nobility. As I recall, they weren’t getting on well with the Cossacks at the time either. Concerning American “antisemitism”, we didn’t HAVE any Jews here to be against; and when a handful landed at New Amsterdam as refugees, they were well treated. You’re simply full of sh-t.
@ Laura:
Defense Bill: The End of the Bill of Rights…http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/18/why-the-ndaa-is-unconstitutional/
“The National Defense Authorization Act: Under the cover of this LAW, is the power for the President of the United States to arrest and hold indefinitely and torture any American citizen he deems to be a threat . If the big boys decide you are a ‘terrorist’ and remember, this is the same government that can’t run a post office or anything else correctly, you will be gone. Without a lawyer you will be hard pressed to prove yourself not guilty as they will decide you are guilty without trial. No more innocent until proven guilty.
What can you be arrested and held forever for? Ammunition, weapons, storing food, having a bad opinion of the President or Congress, taking part in demonstrations, criticizing the government, the list goes on and is not limited to these things.
The definition of your crime is up to the President and the military exclusively.
Do you realize how dangerous this is? Americans will think twice now about saying anything about how the government works as their freedom is now gone”.
Militarists? Should we have allowed the nazis and imperial Japan to conquer the world? Jeff Kuhner is sounding an awful lot like Ron Paul these days. There was a time when he was condemning Obama for projecting weakness to Iran and other enemies and throwing Israel under the bus. Now he thinks Obama is too militaristic? And he seems to be implying that attacking Iran would be a bad idea. What next? Will Kuhner’s next column be about how the Israel-Jewish lobby is pushing us toward war with Iran? He seems to be drifting in that direction. He’s already drifted into Ron Paul isolationism. I am not defending Obama’s executive order to declare martial law, far from it. But I’m disturbed at some of the other things Kuhner is saying. I thought he was pro-Israel but reading between the lines he seems to be moving away from that position with his warning of dire consequences of attacking Iran. Does he think we should just allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons? It would seem so. And that would make him anti-Israel.
@ Shy Guy:
Russian News Anchor Flips Off Obama on Live TV (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
Russia’s REN TV news anchor Tatiana Limanova is caught on camera giving the middle finger, and it just happened to be after she said Barack Obama. Limanova said it was directed at the people behind the camera.
Either way, REN TV fired Limanova calling her actions “unprofessional” and “unacceptable.”
http://LeakSource.wordpress.com
@ keelie:
Abe Lincoln — The Scoundrel!
“This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.”
Ted my comment got botted by your filter
Oat and keelie before invoking mythical attributes to Americas founders, while conceding many to be Brilliant and visionary, most if not all were not much better than most of our contemporary politicians. Even here they were anti Jewish and managed to screw the Jews big Time!
“The Founding Father of Economic Statism”
A Debt America never repaid
How a Jewish Man Saved America
N 1975, the United States Postal Department issued a stamp honoring a man named Haym Salomon for his contribution to the cause of the American Revolution. This stamp was uniquely printed on the front and the back. On the glue side of the stamp, the following words were printed in pale, green ink. “Financial Hero – Businessman and broker Haym Salomon was responsible for raising most of the money needed to finance the American Revolution and later to save the new nation from collapse.” Historians who have studied the story of Haym Salomon all agree that without his “contribution to the cause” there would be no America today.
Haym Salomon bought and sold financial papers to raise money for Robert Morris who was the Superintendent of Finance for the Continental Congress. He believed that America would be a safe haven for the Jews. But this son of a rabbi, also believed that one day in the future, Jerusalem would rise from the dust, the Jews would return to their ancient homeland, and Israel and Jerusalem would once again be the home of the wandering Jew. Salomon determined to do all that he could to finance the Revolution so that America could survive until that future time when his people would once again fill the streets of Jerusalem.
From one crisis to the next, Robert Morris went to Haym Salomon for help, and Salomon always responded. Haym Salomon gave his entire personal fortune of over $800,000 (equivalent to over 50 billion dollars including interest adjusted for inflation) to the cause of the Revolution. This debt was never repaid. He died sick and penniless at the age of 45, January 6, 1785, leaving behind a young widow, Rachel, and four children all under the age of seven. Rachel tried for months after Haym’s death to collect on personal loans that he had made to Robert Morris, to the Congress and others. She was requested to turn all her securities and certificates over to the State Treasurer of Pennsylvania for evaluation. After several months she made further inquiries and was informed that all of the papers relating to her inheritance had been “lost.”
Haym Salomon was buried in Mikveh Israel Cemetery in Philadelphia in a grave which is now unmarked. Since we don’t know which his grave is, we cannot even pay our respects at his graveside, nor can we erect a marker.
But the story of Haym Salomon doesn’t end with an unmarked grave. There is a plaque on a brick wall bordering the cemetery that was placed by Haym’s great-grandson, William Salomon in 1917. It says, “To the Memory of Haym Salomon … interred in this Cemetery the location of the grave being now unknown…”
Was it just a coincidence that the year this plaque was erected (1917) was the same year of the Balfour Declaration issued by the British which begins, “His majesty’s Government views with favor the establishing in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”? Was it just a coincidence that in 1975, when the U.S. Postal Department issued the stamp honoring Haym Salomon, is the same year that the Israeli government issued a stamp honoring Harry Truman, the American president who was the first head of state to recognize Israel?
@ BlandOatmeal:
With respect, I’m going to answer for Yamit, if for no other reason than that his ideas on the subject appear to parallel mine.
One has to distinguish between the American people (“the man in the street”) and the American Administration. Almost all American Administrations have shown that they are virtually incapable of the “manliness of loyalty” to America’s allies, and in particular to one of them (that will remain nameless). This could be the result of the excessive power and influence of the State Department, which, in turn, may be the result of too many petro-dollars slithering their way into that part of the Administration, no matter which President was (theoretically) in charge of it.
I am a great fan of the American people, especially the philosophies of the Founding Fathers, as exemplified by the brilliantly conceived Constitution, which appears to be a document inspired by true religious understanding. The willingness to ignore this document and to ignore what the Founding Fathers went through to bring it into being is simply shameful.
All this double-dealing has led to the utter corruption we see today, and – as many commentators have been saying – this will not end well.
Let me see… major wars in 1992. 1997, 2001, 2003 and 2011, and possibly a realy big one in 2012. That will make six wars in 20 years, split evenly between Republican and Democrat Administrations. It looks as though the US is being governed by “rule by crisis”, as we ratchet up the national debt to undreamed-of levels.
Of course this will lead to a dictatorship, whether by Obama or someone else. The system isn’t working: It’s like France in the 1700s — one war after another, with the Treasury going bankrupt. As one of the King Louies said, “After me, the deluge”.
If America’s enemies, like Yamit, think this will be a day for rejoicing, think again: The French Royal House fell, yes; but all of Europe suffered the consequences for over two decades. Also, I don’t see the Arabs gaining anything over this matter: If the US falls, they will be attacked by one old non-Arab enemy after another: Iran, Turkey, Russia, France, you name it. The Muslim bubble will burst in the coming years, along with everyone else’s bubble… which brings to mind,
DOUBLE DOUBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE!