The White House today announced yet another continuation of an official state of emergency. This time, it is the "Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to Terrorists Who Threaten To Disrupt the Middle East Peace Process."

"to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States constituted by grave acts of violence committed by foreign terrorists who threaten to disrupt the Middle East peace process."

This State of Emergency was not originally declared by President Bush, but by President Clinton -- on January 23, 1995, by Executive Order 12947. This continuation is just the latest in a long line of similar State of Emergency continuations that give extraordinary powers to the executive branch of the government.

The powers of a President during a period of declared emergency are incredible, and can include the suspension of rights such as habeas corpus, which protects against unlawful imprisonment, and the Posse Comitatus Act, which forbids the use of the military against U.S. citizens. Other possible powers which can fall under the umbrella of 'national emergency' include the declaration of martial law and the seizure of property and possessions. The introduction of a 1973 U.S. Senate report on emergency powers stated the following about the powers of a President during a time of declared emergency:

"This vast range of powers, taken together, confer enough authority to rule the country without reference to normal constitutional processes. Under the powers delegated by these statutes, the President may: seize property; organize and control the means of production; seize commodities; assign military forces abroad; institute martial law; seize and control all transportation and communication; regulate the operation of private enterprise; restrict travel; and, in a plethora of particular ways, control the lives of all American citizens."

At what point does a 13-year-old "unusual and extraordinary threat" become not so unusual and extraordinary? At what point does a constant state of emergency become more a continuing expansion of executive power than a tool for dealing with current dire circumstances?

At what point is enough enough?

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States of Emergency Bill Trimmer (Unregistered) 2007-01-22 14:54:05 I find it amusing that Bush is continuing Clinton's state of emergency for his own purposes. Especially since the answer to your question of, "...when is enough enough?," is, at this point, something on the order of 96.5 years. You should remember that all of this grabbing for Executive power began when Congress forgot to rescind the declaration of war for WWI. Congress compounded this problem by not ending WWII, either, and every President since Harding has used this gaffe to increase executive power. Politicians LOVE states of war and emergency. Why end any of them and have to give their executive power back to the electorate? Quote

re: States of Emergency ShadowMonkey (Unregistered) 2007-01-22 15:02:10 My fear, Bill, is that the current president is one that seems to have little compulsion against taking advantage of the 'emergency powers' granted him under these States of Emergency. The citizenry needs to be vigilant. Quote

null java.lang.NullPointerException (Unregistered) 2007-01-22 18:53:22 At what point, I ask, does 12 years become 13 years? Quote

dictator bush dave (Unregistered) 2007-01-23 02:55:42 as soon as he stars his third term. Quote

re: null ShadowMonkey (Unregistered) 2007-01-23 06:31:01 java.lang.NullPointerException wrote: At what point, I ask, does 12 years become 13 years? Too true. In looking into the story I spent some time on what was taking place in late '94 that may have led to the emergency declaration. ...I guess that made me think about this taking place '13' years ago. My bad. sed -e 's/13/12/g' Quote

Re; States of Emergency Bill Trimmer (Unregistered) 2007-01-23 13:09:33 While the varioius states of emergency have exacerbated the problem, we must continue to remember that Bush's behavior is not just matters of conscience or compunction. Mr. Bush has stated that he does what he does because God tells him to do them. Since no one is about to place the President of the US in a long-sleeved jacket and rubber room until they can feed him enough Tegritol to reorient him to the voices outside his head, his legal justifications are a lesser, if longer term worry. We should be asking Speaker Pelosi to address the issues of ending WWI and WWII in the meantime, to prevent the next delusional politician from starting with a similar set of, please excuse the expression, "power tools." Quote

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