Please Help Refute This Freeper E-mail re: * Repeal of Posse Comitatus

[rbajai]

Background: I sent out an Email warning people about *'s plan to repeal the Posse Comitatus Act and put the Pentagon in full charge of disaster response. A few people on my list are totally loyal * supporters and one in particular just couldn't take it anymore. Here is that response. Note that the very last paragraph, this person seems to have taken what I said very personally, although the content of my Email was solely discussing *'s plan to repeal Posse Comitatus. I never referred to this person directly nor did I insult anybody on the state or local level.
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Bush is putting a contigiency plan into place to prevent a repeat of what happened to New Orleans. Also, I will NOT blindly follow Posse Comitatus either. Everyone has a response to how things have been and are being handled.

Many of the things that are on the news and/or internet are someone's opinion, not fact. Some of it is totally untrue. Some is true. I work in emergency management for a man who still don't know everything that should happen during disasters (even after almost 40 years of doing this kind of thing), so how can anyone else claim to have the answers?

Here again, we must look to God's Word for guidance. He alone can work through all these circumstances. But we are imperfect people living in an imperfect world being run by imperfect people (who - rather they claim to be Christian or not) are doing the best they can with what they have to work with. God is in control, either way, and no where in the Bible are we counseled to rise up and fight for our rights!

Jesus never fought for anyone's rights. We are told to intercede, not criticize. Rather than passing on heresay that can destroy another's life or ministry or career, We can best influence the outcome by falling on our faces before our Lord God. Do we really think we can change a situation to lean the direction we want better than He?

Also - Rather than using your mouth ( and outbox) to tear down - PITCH IN AND HELP THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY THESE DISASTERS. YOUR ENERGIES WILL BE MUCH BETTER SPENT. Those of us who've been busting our tails trying to work these disasters are sick and tired of the criticism. We are VERY VERY TIRED. Imagine that! Working 24 hours a day for 3-4 weeks without any break to speak of. Our work is not completed yet for Katrina or Rita. Instead of bad mouthing us, pray for us.
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[Catch22Dem]

1. Lost me at Gawd's Word

Fuck that.

[tompayne1]

2. Posse Comitatus

is to prevent a power grab by the group currently in control. I mean why else would W want to repeal it. i really don't like the thought of 82nd airborne wandering around my street corner with orders for curfew enforcement.

[jrw14125]

3. get some new friends, this one is lost

[YOY]

4. anyone who needs "God's word" to make their mind up about an issue

is pretty lost.

I agree with the above. Time for some new friends.

[tocqueville]

5. God is in control, either way, and no where in the Bible ....

so according to your friend the American revolution was unjust... So insread of throwing tea in the Boston harbour, Americans should have listened and obeyed to King.... George....

[louis-t]

6. He's been doing this 40 years and still no clue?

No one has been bad mouthing the relief workers. You have to wonder why these fundies don't just give up and sit by the road waiting for the sky to fall on them. After all, "everything's in God's hands".
"and no where in the Bible are we counseled to rise up and fight for our rights!" Ahh, I see, we should just let the powers that be trample us and steal from us and not worry cuz "God is in control."

"Jesus never fought for anyone's rights. We are told to intercede, not criticize. Rather than passing on heresay that can destroy another's life or ministry or career, We can best influence the outcome by falling on our faces before our Lord God. Do we really think we can change a situation to lean the direction we want better than He?"

I have no idea what he's trying to say. Sounds like * trying to explain something. Like he sat in a room with someone giving a sermon and picked up a few words and phrases but is presenting them out of context and out of order.

edit: "falling on our faces before our Lord God."
His hero * does this once a week.

[BiggJawn]

7. Who does this nut work for?

That they've "been busting our tails trying to work these disasters are sick and tired of the criticism. We are VERY VERY TIRED. Imagine that! Working 24 hours a day for 3-4 weeks without any break to speak of. Our work is not completed yet for Katrina or Rita. Instead of bad mouthing us, pray for us."

But yet they have time to send you some fractured Theology?

[rbajai]

8. Get ready to bust a gut...

the person who wrote this to me is a CLERK in a City Emergency Management Department!!

[BiggJawn]

19. And possibly one NOT affected by the Storms?

Jeebus Crisco! Talk about your "Walter Mitty" fantasies!

Bet he's got one a them there No-Code Ham Radidio tickets, and a Quintuple-band handy-talky, too...

[converted_democrat]

9. My take.......

The president already has the power to use the military to aid in disaster relief and other emergencies. He already has those powers, so why is he lying, and saying that he "needs" them? Nothing less than a power grab, pure and simple. This is not the first time the GOP has tried to do away with Posse Comitatus. The first time was after 9-11, Sen. John Warner said it needed to be removed to "better" fight terror.(total BS) Dems and pukes alike went nuts, calling it a bad move. Warner then dropped it for awhile. So this is the second time in a couple years that this administration has tried to do away with the act? Why? Why do they want the military to be used in policing situations? Why does he want to use the military against his own people?
Bush is truly on the fast track to a dictatorship, and this is proof. He is lying about the power he already holds and trying to grab more. Why? Ask your freeper friend- What happens if a Democrat wins the next presidential election? Do they want him/her to hold the power that the president is asking for?

[jody]

10. Posse Comitatus prevents Army and Air Force units from doing domestic

law enforcement. It does not prevent the Pentagon from taking over all other tasks required to deal with a disaster.

Since the Posse Comitatus Act was passed, the military has assisted local and state governments including directing disaster response.

The threat of Posse Comitatus is narrow, allowing our standing military to enforce the laws of the land with a president as commander in chief who argues that even SCOTUS can't tell him what to do. Just ask Padilla what a rogue president has done to him.

[johnaries]

11. Posse Comitatus Act deals with Law Enforcement.

http://www.northcom.mil/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.facts...

"The PCA generally prohibits U.S. military personnel from direct participation in law enforcement activities. Some of those law enforcement activities would include interdicting vehicles, vessels, and aircraft; conducting surveillance, searches, pursuit and seizures; or making arrests on behalf of civilian law enforcement authorities. Prohibiting direct military involvement in law enforcement is in keeping with long-standing U.S. law and policy limiting the military’s role in domestic affairs."

Personally, I am in favor of the Military playing a large role in disaster relief. They are already prepared for rapid deployment and have experience in delivering various forms of relief in other countries. But, using the Militery for disaster relief and support DOES NOT require a suspension of Posse Comitatus. Only if they planned to use the Military to enforce local laws or Martial Law would PC need to be suspended.

For instance, if our "commander in chief" had given the orders to the USS Bataan to provide Search and Rescue and provide the MRE's and hospital facilities that they were prepared to provide even as Katrina was ponding the Gulf Coast, that would not have required a suspension of PC - simply a "Go!". That's all our pResident had to say, "Go."

Edit: BTW, the link is NorthCom's official military website - not some partisan pundit's "opinion". Tell them to argue that!

[Zen Democrat]

12. So, then, your friend is opposed to the Declaration of Independence,

and the Revolutionary War -- even the Magna Carta, I guess. Against the vote for women, and civil rights for minorities, and all the other rights that have been demanded by peoples throughout the ages.

I suppose this friend thinks that God destroyed Communism and not the millions of people behind the old Iron Curtain who went to the streets and marched into the citadels of totalitarianism and ran the tyrants out.

These people are so ignorant it's very, very sad.

[rbajai]

14. Ironic, ain't it?

And yes, very sad.

[0rganism]

13. minor point, but how can he "NOT blindly follow Posse Comitatus"?

What the hell does that mean, not to "follow Posse Comitatus"? Is your friend the federal government?

Does your friend have the slightest clue what the Posse Comitatus act IS?

[rbajai]

15. That is a good question.

In my previous Email distribution, I said "we should not be blind to what * is doing just because he calls himself a Christian." The Freeper in question here tried to answer to that, but I agree, I have no idea what the heck they are trying to say.

[Synnical]

16. 'Jesus never fought for anyone's rights."

He didn't? (I'm not conceding that he existed at all.) But, doesn't the New Testament state the exact opposite, that what he DID, was indeed, fight for rights of the down trodden?

-Cindy in Fort Lauderdale

[Gold Metal Flake]

17. Sweet hypocrisy

"Rather than passing on heresay that can destroy another's life or ministry or career,..."

"...I work in emergency management for a man who still don't know everything that should happen during disasters (even after almost 40 years of doing this kind of thing)..."

[YouthInAsia]

18. God god god god jesus god jesus jesus god Bush