Reply #190: Putting pieces together: Bush Administration tried to blackmail Gov Blanco

[Nothing Without Hope]

into surrendering many civil powers, including control of the National Guard and total responsibility for New Orleans evacuation, to them. Many days after the hurricane, the Bush Administration presented her with a legal statement to sign approving this power transfer and she refused because she rightly perceived it as an approval for martial law:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1750979 (The LBN thread title - by DU rules the same as the WaPo title - is misleading. Read the excerpt.)

In the video posted here, we see the other half - the Administration deliberately held off giving the command to help the stricken victims of the hurricane day after day after day. All those supplies and helicopters and rescue teams must have just sat there waiting while Bush turned the screws to get what he wanted. One of those things appears to be greater power over civilians and state government.

I'm quite sure now that one of the things that this is about (I think there are several) is that the neocons want more power for the President. They wouldn't call it martial law, though. It would be some Orwellian name like "Operation Safe America." They've been working toward this for years. John Dean calls it "constitutional dictatorship" and says it is possible (this was written in 2002 and discusses what would happen after another domestic terrorist attack - but the hurricane destruction does the trick even better):
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/LAW/06/columns/fl.dean.powers.0607

Finally, for the bigger picture, here is an article written in Dec 2003 in response to General Tommy Franks' amazing interview, the one in which he said that "one more hit" (like a domestic terrorist attack) would be enough for them to suspend the Constitution. This entire article is excellent and prescient, but I'm going to quote the paragraph that especially grabbed my attention.

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/12/07/Columns/From_Tommy_Franks__a_.shtml

It was the Nine Years' War in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World that facilitated the seizure of power by the world reformers who then took control of nearly all human and social development. In 1984, George Orwell described Oceania as in a constant state of war with a changeable enemy who "always represented absolute evil." These inventors of the great dystopias understood the way governments use war and its associative fear and instability to consolidate power. Despotism thrives on insecurity. Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs puts safety right behind food, water and sleep. Humans naturally crave stability and are willing to sacrifice values such as liberty in its pursuit.