[pcfrisch]

The nation's governors are closing ranks in opposition to a proposal in Congress that would let the president take control of the National Guard in emergencies without consent of governors.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2278051

This is Bad, very very bad!

[74stang2togo]

Aww shucks, why not? they misuse the National Guard in any other way they see fit.

[mavrickstang]

The POTUS has always had the ability to place the Guard, operating under USC title 32, and federalize it under USC title 10 in case of national emergencies. This legislation appears to be aimed at Katrina like disasters. I believe it is needless but this Congress appears to want to give the administration all the power it wants. Used unwisely, I could see this as a potential for going down the road towards a full fledge dictatorship in this country or POTUS for life. This country is going on a very slippery road.

[Veronica]

Hello.This really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.It is merely the final consumation of the process of stripping the american people of the rights guaranteed by the 2nd amendment that began over a hundred years ago.There was a time when every state had it's own miltia and people had the right to keep and bear arms.The Militia act of 1903 took that away from the states by creating the national guard and placing all of the state militias under federal control, which effectively cancelled the 2nd amendment.The people of the time sort of lost sight of why that amendment was in the bill of rights to begin with.The founding fathers understood that for democracy to survive, the people need to be able to go to war with the worst enemy they have on the planet.The federal government.On the day the government of a country becomes better armed than the people of that country, democracy dies.Shortly after the passing of the militia act of 1903 the federal government introduced all sorts of fun stuff, like income tax, federal sales tax, budget deficits, an institutionalized system of only one political party with two right wings, etc, etc... Oh, well.I guess we like it like that.Nobody seems to be very motivated to try to change things.

[tripleblack]

So the ghost of Abraham Lincoln rises again, seeking to squeeze out some more "States Rights".

I just read over this thing, and it looks like nothing more substantive than a political coat rack for incumbents to hang their hats on in the coming elections. Don't look for the support for this bill to fall along party lines, but rather along geographical lines - particularly those defining the hurricane zone. These bozos want to be able to go back to the home folks and brag about doing things to make the next hurricane exercise go better. The fact that they're offering up this lead balloon rather than anything of real substance means that this worthless thing is just a smokescreen - that lamentably will also have the force of law forever once signed.

The President already has all the emergency powers he needs to call up Naitonal Guard and Reserve troops - all this thing does is give some worried incumbent politicians an item they can beat their opponents over the heads with.

As for it representing a new danger to our republic, I don't think it adds any substantive power to the executive branch. It REINFORCES the concept that the Federal government completely dominates the individual state governments, but so what? We fought a war over that topic, and the feds won - and everything has been sliding down that slippery slope ever since.

The source of the slope is not this month - its 1865.