That’s what this left-wing website is saying:

In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law (1). It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President’s ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions.

Public Law 109-364, or the “John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007” (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a “public emergency” and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to “suppress public disorder.”

I’m not sure I understand why the left would be upset by this.  They’re the ones who endlessly blamed President Bush for not doing enough to prepare New Orleans for hurricane Katrina or help with disaster relief afterward.  Now that he has signed into law legislation that makes it easier for him to take control of just such a situation they all have their panties in a bunch.

They need to choose: Either the woefully inadequate response to Katrina was all the President’s fault and we should applaud laws like this one so that he can have more control in the future, or we should recognize that disaster response is largely a local problem and the blame for the inadequate response to Katrina lays with the Democrat Governor of Louisiana (Kathleen Blanco) and the Democrat Mayor of New Orleans (Ray Nagin) for not exercising the power they did have at their finger tips.

Something tells me that neither of those choices are going to be palatable for the partisans upset by this law.

All that being said, I’m actually opposed to the President getting this power.  The Democrats don’t have any room to be angry about it as it is the natural result of their rush to blame President Bush for the whole Katrina mess, but those of us concerned about the principles of our federalist system should be very concerned about it. 

Our nation’s military is split up into two parts.  The active duty military, which is under the direct control of the federal government, and the state’s national guard forces (which are the modern-day equivalent of the militias in existence at the time of this country’s founding) which are under the the control of the various state governments when operating domestically (they’re under the control of the federal government for international missions).  Our military was structured this way so that our country’s fearsome military strength would not be concentrated under the control of too few people.  Should our federal government ever be taken over by some sort of power-hungry dictator (and no, leftards, Bush isn’t really one of those) our states would still be left with their own armies with which to defend their sovereignty.  This is the same thinking behind the 2nd amendment, which guarantees every American the right to be armed.  Because of these two things, America is not a nation which could easily be subjugated by tyrants as countless other nations have been throughout history.

This new law weakens that structure, though.  It consolidates more military power at the federal level, and in this instance I don’t think that’s a good thing.  Our President can now deploy America’s military might in instances of what he/she feels are public emergencies.  I don’t think I need to tell you that the definition of what is and is not a public emergency can be pretty broad.  This isn’t something we should be happy about.

I, like many of you, cannot fathom our fine military men and women following any sort of wrongful orders aimed at oppressing their fellow citizens, yet history is full of instances where an unsuspecting public was ambushed by soldiers acting on behalf of a power-hungry tyrant.

This is not something we should take lightly.  I wish this law had gotten more attention before it had been signed into law.  The fact that neither the Democrats nor the media, both groups usually always thirsty to deride the Bush administration for grabbing too much power, latched onto this is a testament to just how stupid and short-sighted their rush to heap Katrina blame on the President truly was.