Presidential Directive

There's been a smattering of posts this week about the President's signing of a National Security Directive that, it seems, pretty much lets him take control of everything if there's any kind of "national emergency".  Looks like some folks saved the big discussions for the end of the week. It's a top topic for Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight...

Dictator in Chief?

With no press conferences, and with no debate, President Bush has ordered up a plan for responding to a catastrophic "event" under which he has entrusted himself with leading the entire federal government, not just the executive branch. The scheme, laid out in a document entitled National Security Presidential Directive NSPD 51 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive HSPD-20 that Mr. Bush signed in secret on May 9.  It defines a catastropic event as [...]

And there are now multiple posts like this one....

One terror attack or tornado and it could be a whole new U.S. - again

All it will take is one incident. A terrorist attack on a major city. A tornado wiping out some coastline. Just one incident. And we will be living in an entirely different world. When the documents “National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51” and “Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20” were released, it gave President George W. Bush responsibility “for ensuring constitutional government” in the case of catastrophic attack. “It defines a ‘catastrophic emergency’ as ‘any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function,’ ” wrote Matthew Rothschild for [...]

Tags: National Security Presidential Directive, NSPD, HSPD, Catastrophy