A friend forwarded me this piece of emailed alarmism:
U.S. President Barack Obama has now declared a national emergency over swine flu infections. The reasoning behind such a declaration? According to the White House, it’s designed to “allow hospitals to better handle the surge in patients” by allowing them to bypass certain federal laws.
That’s the public explanation for this, but the real agenda behind this declaration may be far more sinister. Declaring a national emergency immediately gives federal authorities dangerous new powers that can now be enforced at gunpoint, including:
- The power to force mandatory swine flu vaccinations on the entire population.
- The power to arrest, quarantine or “involuntarily transport” anyone who refuses a swine flu vaccination.
- The power to quarantine an entire city and halt all travel in or out of that city.
- The power to enter any home or office without a search warrant and order the destruction of any belongings or structures deemed to be a threat to public health.
- The effective nullification of the Bill of Rights. Your right to due process, to being safe from government search and seizure, and to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination are all null and void under a Presidential declaration of a national emergency.
None of this means that federal agents are going to march door to door arresting people at gunpoint if they refuse the vaccine, but they could if they wanted to. Your rights as an American are no longer recognized under this national emergency declaration.
I don’t know how many people are worrying about this, but some observations to reassure:
1) Presidents declare national emergencies frequently to circumvent federal work rules and burdensome regulation. For example: President Bush declared a national emergency on January 13, 2009, in order to make available more funds for policing of his successor’s inauguration. From the New York Times:
The government has already set aside $15 million to help the District pay for security and medical personnel. But the District’s mayor, Adrian M. Fenty, asked for more money on January 7, citing possible crowds of 1.5 million to 2 million and “the associated stresses that would place on the city’s capabilities, particularly the medical community,” said Scott Stanzel, a spokesman for Mr. Bush.
Mr. Bush granted the request as “a precaution,” Mr. Stanzel said; if the District needs the money, it can apply for reimbursement through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The declaration will also allow federal public health workers to join in the public safety effort.
The president’s power to declare a state of emergency is typically used after hurricanes, floods or other natural disasters, although Mr.Stanzel said presidents have occasionally declared emergencies in advance of an anticipated event.
As to the prospect of vaccination being used as an excuse for mass roundups, see this report by the Congressional Research Service.
With the exception of the habeas corpus clause, the Constitution makes no allowance for the suspension of any of its provisions during a national emergency. Disputes over the constitutionality or legality of the exercise of emergency powers are judicially reviewable. Indeed, both the judiciary and Congress, as co-equal branches, can restrain the executive regarding emergency powers. So can public opinion. Furthermore, since 1976, the President has been subject to certain procedural formalities in utilizing some statutorily delegated emergency authority. The National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601-1651) eliminated or modified some statutory grants of emergency authority; required the President to declare formally the existence of a national emergency and to specify what statutory authority, activated by the declaration, would be used; and provided Congress a means to countermand the President’s declaration and the activated authority being sought.
By CNN’s count, the current declaration is the 5th of the Obama administration. Emergencies were previously declared for flooding in North Dakota and other severe weather conditions. The Bill of Rights is still here.
We all have enough to worry about in these hard economic times without fabricating imaginary nightmares.
11 responses so far
1 ottovbvs // Oct 27, 2009 at 9:25 am
……..Hofstadter had it right
2 sinz54 // Oct 27, 2009 at 10:31 am
These emergency powers pale by comparison with the emergency powers that the Executive Branch has to deal with a WMD attack on this nation. Long before the PATRIOT Act, during the Cold War, those powers were expanded dramatically:
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/c3i/eisen-letters.htm
3 balconesfault // Oct 27, 2009 at 11:11 am
I’ve seen e-mails making the rounds talking about Obama declaring that nobody can use the term “Christmas” this year … I’ve seen e-mails making the rounds about secret detention centers being built in the desert to round up Americans … I’ve seen e-mails making the rounds implying that might goal of government provided healthcare might be to deny coverage to Republicans.
Oh wait – that last one was actually a RNC fundraising letter.
Anyway, if you’ve just realized that some really crazy shit gets forwarded around the internet – often by people you’d think should know a lot better … often circulating rumors that are debunked in seconds by Snopes or Google … then you’ve lived a charmed existence to date.
4 rbottoms // Oct 27, 2009 at 11:13 am
How Republicans became so bed wetting paranoid that you even have to reassure them this isn’t Nazi Germany is the real question.
5 balconesfault // Oct 27, 2009 at 11:19 am
rbottoms: How Republicans became so bed wetting paranoid that you even have to reassure them this isn’t Nazi Germany is the real question.
Well, the Obama Administration declared on day 1 that the Federal Government would no longer sanction torture, and that they planned to close extra-legal detention facilities. Isn’t that a marker of impending fascism?
6 The Swine Flu Emergency: A Dose of Obamacare // Oct 27, 2009 at 11:52 am
[...] than indulge in fantasies about the Obama administration using the swine flu national emergency to grab more power, it seems [...]
7 pdxpunk // Oct 27, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Hey frum….When you actually speak for US conservatives gimme a call, okay? Whatever this bullshit “it’s an evil conspiracy” prattle is I haven’t heard any of it. But then, since you stand for the “Republicans” or whatever the fuck you think you stand for, you should know, right? Asshole poser.
8 Reason60 // Oct 27, 2009 at 12:27 pm
It is ironic; I have an account at RedState and make the occasional diary post there. I see people there feverishly terrified of FEMA camps, indoctrination of children, gun seizures, all the wild crazy paranoia.
Yet when I make comments arguing against warrantless wiretapping, the NSA electronic dragnet that records pretty much any and everything it wants, the suspension of habeas corpus for Jose Padilla (an American citizen) etc etc., I am derided as alarmist, that these anti-terror programs are perfectly safe and nothing to be alarmed at.
But about Obama’s secret executive order banning Christmas! Now THAT is teh tyranny!!
Which is the dichotomy at the heart of movement conservatism; Good Government Power versus Bad Government Power.
Bad Government Power consists of social welfare agencies; these are inherently tyrannical and oppressive; Good Government Power consists of the military, CIA, police forces. These are necessary powers to keep us safe.
The contradictions are absurd, yet waived away. It is sometimes easy to laugh this off as silly wingnut cognitive dissonence, but it actuallly stems from the central contradiction in conservatism itself, dating back to 1964. Namely, the twin pillars of “strong defense” and civil order, versus limited government.
When you amplify both of these to extremes, as the Tea Party does, you get twin pillars of fascism (unlimited police power) and 3rd World incompetence (FEMA response to Katrina, lax oversight of just about everything corporate).
So you get a world in which your gun is constitutionally protected, resing safe in your hall closet; but you are wiretapped, your email and bank accounts read, then swept up in detention, held without charges or trial or habeas corpus for years or decades.
But your gun is safe!
9 rbottoms // Oct 27, 2009 at 2:56 pm
You say that like they aren’t.
10 sinz54 // Oct 28, 2009 at 11:27 am
rbottoms:
For the same reason that during the early 1980s, millions of American blacks believed that Reagan was going to unleash the Ku Klux Klan on them to have them all lynched.
Because that type of hysteria is being deliberately whipped up by some very cynical political agitators as a way of inciting political opposition to the incumbent President. The Dems deliberately dragged poor old Coretta Scott King out of widowhood to make such incendiary insinuations.
It’s playing with fire, whether it’s being done by conservative agitators or militant black agitators.
11 sinz54 // Oct 28, 2009 at 11:28 am
I forgot to mention that in December 1980, ABC News did an investigative report that found that American blacks were absolutely “terrified” at the prospect of a Reagan presidency. They were expecting some kind of holocaust of the black population.
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