TAKING DICTATION

AS HURRICANE RITA ROMPS THROUGH THE GULF ready to mess with Texas, now is the time to remember the creepiest moment in George Bush’s Let’s Save My Presidency, Let’s Save the Gulf Coast Part One Speech.  George Bush would like the military in on disasters as soon as possible. 

AS THE EYE OF THE STORM HITS, keep an eye out for Bush. And keep the other eye out for leaders who would be commanders in chief of an army actively policing this land.  Bush's posse of Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice is bad enough. He doesn't need to re write the Posse Comitatus Act.

RECOMMENDED READING [hat tip: Avedon]
KING OF ZEMBLA IS ON TOP OF WHAT COULD GO DOWN  Zemblan patriot J.D. directs us to a WaPo blog by William M. Arkin, author of Code Names, who offers further evidence that the Bush administration is using its own malfeasance to argue for -- what else? -- an unprecedented expansion of executive power:

Virginia Sen. John Warner (R.-VA) asked Donald Rumsfeld last week to conduct a "thorough review" of presidential authority to use the armed forces to "restore public order" in an emergency like Katrina. His letter (PDF) unleashed a torrent of speculation that lawmakers will soon modify or even repeal the Posse Comitatus Act, to some a thread-thin security blanket between civilian rule and martial law.

. . . . Warner, of all people, should be well aware that long before Katrina, the military began rewriting its policies, manuals, and war plans associated with what it now calls "defense support of civil authorities." Post 9/11 military contingency planning for "emergency" and "immediate" response by the Pentagon is already in the process of marginalizing any previously perceived legal constraints . . .
Even before Katrina, contingency planners at the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), the military's new homeland security command in Colorado Springs, were given marching orders by Rumsfeld to plan for the worst possible contingency domestically. The resulting plan, currently in draft and called CONPLAN 2002 (watch this space), is predicated on a scenario in which the Defense Department would have to take "the lead" from the Department of Homeland Security, civil agencies, and the States, that is, to act without civil authority.
I think we call that martial law.

THE HERETIK NOTES it's not time for the nuts, not yet.  Arkin has another pointed piece that pops the Bush trial balloon of ever ballooning power here.

BUSH WILL BE DEPLOYED EARLY [Froomkin/Wapo] With another monster hurricane bearing down on the Gulf Coast, the White House is focused on not making the same mistakes again, either procedurally or politically. That means being fully prepared to deploy a massive federal response -- and the president himself -- at a moment's notice.

THE HERETIK SAYS By the time Bush gets to Texas, the residents will have had enough wind and water. Bush needs not to blow as much as he did during Katrina

LATEST ON RITA'S RAMPAGE [WaPo] The National Hurricane Center in Miami, in its latest advisory at 8 a.m. EDT, said Rita's winds had reached 170 mph with higher gusts, making it a Category 5 storm, the highest ranking used by the National Hurricane Center. Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 70 miles from the massive hurricane's eye, the advisory said