Boil Away

I once worked in a Big Insurance office that was being closed down. I was working as a temp, processing claims from Hurricane Isabel, and was one of the last people to actually occupy the building. One of my final tasks was to box up all the office supplies left over from the Isabel Catastrophe operation (which once consisted of 300+ workers) and arrange for a company truck to take them back to the Catastrophe Team Warehouse.
Some items were deemed disposable - too expensive to ship back and re-distribute- and were to be discarded.
One of those items were the loose ballpoint pens. There were three Zip-Loc freezer bags full of pens- probably 1,500 or more- and it didn't feel right to throw away so many perfectly good writing sticks.
I had been reading a website that was collecting "care packages" for the troops in Iraq and one of the Army chaplains had written an email on behalf of the local schools. He said something akin to :
" We need pens and paper. Entire classes are sharing a single pencil and there is no paper. "
There was a military APO to send stationary and supplies to.

I thought it would be a great idea to send these pens ( and pads, pencils, staplers etc) to this chaplain in Baghdad- I mean , we were gonna throw 'em away- so I told my boss what I was doing.

"No! You are not doing that."

"But why? It's a good cause."

"I'm not debating that. But those pens all have the Company logo on them and if one of those pens winds up inside a terrorist car-bomb, it'll be my ass that gets hanged."

I thought he was being a bit paranoid, but I saw his point about the logo. A few people were starting to realize that the war was going badly and the boss was a bit leery of putting the Company in a position where it looked like it was sponsoring the war.

So I sorted out the 100 or so pens that didn't have the logo on them and sent them anonymously to the chaplain. The rest I kept, gave away or donated to the radio station.
I had forgotten all about it until I read about the Executive Order signed by Bush on 17 July:

"I have issued an Executive Order blocking property of persons determined to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq or undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people."

The new Executive Order authorizes the Sec. or Treasury to seize the property and economic assets of any American citizen who is "threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq...undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq..," or those who "have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, logistical, or technical support for, or goods or services in support of...[people who do bad things].

(It's interesting that the European press caught this story but the American media has ignored it. It's also a bit ironic that Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, had his assets frozen for trading with the Nazis in WWII.)

Under this new order, I would be afraid to send those pens to the chaplain - what if one of the pens fell into the wrong hands and the ballpoint spring was used to create a detonator for a roadside bomb? My vast fortune would be seized by the Treasury Dept.

But the real target of this order are anti-war groups and organizations. It will be interesting to see if BushCo invokes this New Order to punish Cindy Sheehan for having the temerity to publicly point out the obvious. Sheehan, you may have heard, was arrested yesterday after being told by John Conyers (D-Wuss) that Congress "doesn't have the votes" to impeach Bush.
I would submit to Mr. Conyers that the Founders intended for us to exercise the checks and balances built into our Constitution - use 'em or lose 'em- and that impeachment is needed right now- but I digress.

Speak out about the war? The right-wingnuts often call that "undermining" the efforts, so it's possible BushCo might try to freeze the assets of Sheehan and any group ( CodePink, AfterDowning Street, Move On et. al.) or individual who assisted or supported her in any way.

If that Executive Order isn't scary enough, read this:

Just last month new legislation was signed which declares that in the event of a "catastrophic event", the President can take total control over the government and the country, bypassing all other levels of government at the state, federal, local, territorial and tribal levels, and thus ensuring total unprecedented dictatorial power.

The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, which also places the Secretary of Homeland Security in charge of domestic "security", was signed on May 9th without the approval or oversight of Congress and seemingly supercedes the National Emergency Act which allows the president to declare a national emergency but also requires that Congress have the authority to "modify, rescind, or render dormant" such emergency authority if it believes the president has acted inappropriately.

If you follow the link above, you will find the official White House release. At the end , it chillingly notes that the rest of the Order is classified- by Executive Order.

Rep. Peter DiFazio (D-OR) recently asked the White House for access to the classified Bush plan of action in case of another terrorist attack. DiFazio, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, had his request denied.

The White House didn't want to admit that it had a secret plan, and now that we know it exists, the Bush administration won't tell us what it is.
I wonder if it involves these Halliburton-built concentration camps?

Republican Ron Paul said this in 2005, regarding a Bush proposal to declare martial law in case of an Avian Flu epidemic:

"To me it's so strange that the President can make these proposals and it's even plausible. When he talks about martial law dealing with some epidemic that might come later on and having forced quarantines, doing away with Posse Comitatus in order to deal with natural disasters, and hardly anybody says anything. People must be scared to death."

To me it's strange that Bush is still President. He has recently declared himself and Cheney to be above and exempt from the law:

Domestically, they're no longer even trying to hide their aversion to democracy and the Constitution. With his new Executive Order on "executive privilege," for example, Bush openly proclaims that he is untouchable by the rule of law; now there are only two branches of government-- the Legislative Branch is ignored as irrelevant -- and Cheney/Bush more or less control them both. More on this issue [here].

So without consulting Congress or notifying the public, BushCo has signed laws that , in the case of certain events (such as a terrorist attack), gives the President unchecked power over the entire government- he becomes the the government- and if you don't like it, you might be "undermining" the war effort and have your property stolen.

Stephen Pizzo calls this the "boiling the frog" method of destroying our Constitution. You place a frog in a pan of water and slowly turn up the heat. By the time the frog realizes the water is lethal, it's too late to jump.

Soup's on!