Update from the Heartland
No.398
27.7.09 – 2.8.09
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
No.398
27.7.09 – 2.8.09
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
This has been a rough week for me; thus, I was not able to keep up with my normal reading process – a short Update. My apologies.
The follow-up news items:
-- The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6 to recommend confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor [389, 396]. The full Senate is expected to vote on Sotomayor’s nomination next week – the last week before Congress’ summer recess. Senator Lindsey Olin Graham of South Carolina was the only Republican voting for the recommendation.
Lieutenant Commander Michael Scott “Spike” Speicher, USN, (later promoted to Captain) was the first Allied casualty in the first Gulf War on the night of 17.January.1991, when his F/A-18 Hornet was shot down. He was listed as Missing in Action. The Defense Department announced the recovery of his remains this week. May God rest his immortal soul.
An interesting, well done, dissertation on the spectrum of government:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGk6LG0GA4A
I recommend pay attention to this video.
While not particularly interesting from civil rights or government power perspective, the Court’s recent Coeur Alaska, Inc. v. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council [557 U.S. ___ (2009); no. 07-984] case was a curiosity – about interpretation of the law. Mining company Coeur Alaska, Inc., sought approval for using Lower Slate Lake in the Tongass National Forest as slurry tailings pond for their “froth-flotation” mining process from a re-opened gold mine, closed since 1928. The law in question involved interpretation of §§306 and 404 of the Clean Water Act of 1972 (CWA) [PL 92-500; 86 Stat. 816; 33 USC §1251], which hung upon an interpretation whether the mine tailings are a “pollutant” under EPA authority (former), or “fill material” under the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) authority (latter). By memorandum agreement, the EPA & ACE decided the tailings were “fill material” under §404 of the CWA. A consortium of environmental groups – Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, Sierra Club, and Lynn Canal Conservation – filed suit challenging the Federal government’s decision. The Federal District Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided the government had not interpreted CWA properly. The Supremes overruled the lower courts. Associate Justice Kennedy wrote the Court’s decision, but it was Associate Justice Breyer’s concurring opinion that best summarized this case. He observed that the Court “recognizes a legal zone within which the regulating agencies might reasonably classify material either as ‘dredged or fill material’ subject to §404 of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. §1344(a), or as a ‘pollutant,’ subject to §§402 and 306, 33 U.S.C. §§1342(a), 1316(a).” The bottomline: the Army Corps of Engineers was the controlling Federal agency for issuing the permit to the mine. I must confess a certain degree of fascination with the rationale used by the majority and dissent regarding interpretation of conflicting laws.
Like the Coeur Alaska case, it seems the Court has reviewed (and I have been sufficiently attracted to) a number of late 60’s and early 70’s laws. For being such a bad boy conservative politician, “Tricky Dick” Nixon signed into law quite a few bills vastly extending the power of the Federal government.
-- National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) [PL 91-190; 42 U.S.C. § 4321] {EPA}
-- Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 [PL 91-513; 21 U.S.C. § 801] {DEA}
-- Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 [PL 91-596; 84 Stat 1590] {OSHA}
-- Clean Air Act of 1970 [PL 91-604]
-- Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 [PL 92-261]
-- Clean Water Act of 1972 (CWA) [PL 92-500; 86 Stat. 816; 33 USC §1251]
-- War Powers Act of 1973 [PL 93-148] {over POTUS veto; he didn’t sign this one; but, I wanted to list it anyway as it has cause substantial weakening of our national defense}
-- Endangered Species Act of 1973 [PL 93-205; 16 U.S.C. § 1531]
You know, stupid me . . . I was always told that Republican’s stood for smaller, less intrusive government. What a freakin’ joke! Don’t you feel better with all these bureaucrats sucking down your precious tax dollars, watching over your private life and deciding what is best for you?
News from the economic front:
-- June new-home sales on a seasonally adjusted annual rate rose to 384,000 (+11%), the third increase in a row and the highest level since November – another sign the housing market is beginning to stabilize after last year’s freefall. The median price for a new home was $206,200 in June, down from $219,000 in May and $234,300 in June 2008.
-- In a rather controversial debate, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is expected to issue a report suggesting energy speculators played a significant role in driving the wild swings in oil prices last year -- a reversal of a year earlier CFTC report that claimed the dramatic oil-price swings were primarily due to supply and demand. One of four CFTC commissioners, Bart Chilton, declared the prior analysis was based on “deeply flawed data.” The CFTC’s new review will reportedly point an accusatory finger at financial investors who bet huge sums of money on the direction of commodities prices by buying contracts tied to indexes. These hedge speculators invested hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts in the energy market that was once dominated by producers and consumers who sought to dampen oil-market volatility. As I have written before, this is an arena ripe for some form of law & order.
-- The Federal Reserve’s beige book reported most parts of the U.S. are seeing signs that the recession is easing; however, labor and real estate markets remain weak and credit conditions still are tight. The book also reported that most of the 12 Fed district banks “indicated that the pace of decline has moderated since the last report or that activity has begun to stabilize, albeit at a low level.” We appear to be close the knee at the bottom.
-- Apparently, the “Cash for Clunkers” program has been wildly successful as various Press outlets reported the initial US$1B fund was nearing depletion. The House voted 316-109 to approve the transfer of US$2B more in emergency funding from the US$787B American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 [374]. The Senate isn’t expected to consider the bill until next week. President Obama praised the prompt congressional action to rescue the popular program. As noted below, “Cash for Clunkers” is providing some boost in automobile sales. Perhaps this is a Federal program that actually works as it was intended.
-- The Wall Street Journal reported that Swiss bank UBS AG and the governments of Switzerland and the United States have reached a settlement that could turn over the identities of 52,000 U.S. account holders at UBS, in a major breakthrough in a massive tax-evasion investigation. [395] The Swiss government has claimed that turning over those names would violate Swiss bank secrecy provisions. U.S. District Court Judge Alan Gold postponed a hearing scheduled for Monday in Miami until 7.August, at which point more details are expected to be released.
-- The Commerce Department reported that the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell at a 1% annual rate in the 2nd Quarter. The 1st Quarter GDP was revised to a 6.4% decrease from an earlier estimated 5.5% decline. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires projected a 1.5% decrease. The government report shows the economy performed better-than-expected – another strong sign the longest recession since World War II is approaching an end.
-- Ford Motor Company reported an increase in its July sales, the first year-over-year jump for the auto maker in almost two years. Ford had the first reported increase by any of the six largest auto makers since August 2008, and the first bump up for Ford since November 2007, aided by the Federal government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program.
Comments and contributions from Update no.397:
“Churchill was indeed a supreme speaker and a master of the ‘put you down.’ I haven't come across the comment by JFK before. He was right certainly.”
My reply:
Sir Winston was a flawed man, as we all are. He had more than a few peculiar traits and idiosyncrasies. Yet, he was a self-possessed man who rose to the monumental challenge of extraordinary events that engulfed him and his country. His words have a magical, heroic quality even to this day, long after the context has dimmed with time and generations. I have studied so many of his speeches over the span of his long career; and if I had to pick just one speech (among so many magnificent choices), I would say the words that rise above all the others were those he spoke before his colleagues in the House of Commons on 20.August.1940, two days after his visit to No.11 Group HQ on what history would mark as the busiest day of the Battle of Britain.
“The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of world war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
In the face of his many flaws, Sir Winston was an incredible human being. Those words still bring tears to my eyes – tears of joy, tears of pride, tears of admiration. He stood up to the mark and was not found wanting. May God rest his immortal soul.
. . . a follow-up comment:
“I was amused to see a picture of Sir Winston on the Queen Mary smoking his Havana in a specifically marked room on board marked 'No Smoking'. He is one of the few people of this world I would liked to have met and have tea with or if he was feeling particularly benevolent possibly a glass of amber liquid! He never went short of either.
“A man who was going to sit out the war at number 10 he wasn't. I once knew a RN Marine (disabled by war) who was one of Winston's guards on board the Queen Mary on one of Winston's trips to your homeland. A duty he fulfilled with the utmost pride and diligence. Churchill traveling incognito as Col. Warden.
“This man did more in his life than most of us could dream of. To be rejected by the British electorate after the war should have destroyed him but no he came back fighting.
“What a Bulldog.”
. . . any my follow-up reply:
One of Sir Winston’s many flaws was his sense of aloof “nobility” . . . that he was “entitled” to sometimes eccentric behavior, and that the law did not apply to him – a trait I find quite offensive in any human being including Winston. He was an unabashed connoisseur of the “delightful amber liquid” and those Cuban logs.
Wow, I was not aware of the Col. Warden disguise. I know he drove His Majesty’s Government mad with his often, near-solo, trips across the Channel during the Battle of France, as he struggled almost single-handedly to bolster the French government. I suppose his Col. Warden persona was not beyond the realm of imagination. He was an extraordinary character – the right man, at the right time, in the right place – alignment of the stars.
I will be so bold to say that Sir Winston did more in one month than the vast expanse of humanity does in a lifetime. May 1940 exploded in unimaginable events that would fold-up most folks; he did not falter; history has not found him wanting. He was not a virtuous man, but all freedom loving people on the planet owe him an un-repay-able debt of gratitude and deliverance.
July 1945 – the war in Europe won – the Potsdam Conference deciding post-war Europe – Churchill, Attlee & Eden return to England to vote – you are oh so correct. Such a devastating rebuke amid the glory of victory. As you note, he rose again – the ol’ war horse – now thrust into the darkness of the Cold War confrontation with the Soviet Union. Incredible!
Another contribution:
“A President may suspend posse comitatus as President George H. W. Bush did in May 1992 when he sent troops from Camp Pendleton and Ft. Ord to Los Angeles to control the Rodney King case riots that had exploded across greater Los Angeles. I spent five days in Compton with the Marines from I Marine Expeditionary Force. The President had earlier committed 8,000 National Guardsmen to the fray, but more help was needed in a hurry.
“I was at a pre-exercise conference in San Diego the morning of May 9, when the Operations Officer for I MEF told me we would be packing up and heading back to Camp Pendleton to prepare for the deployment to the L.A. riots. I said we couldn't do that unless the President suspended posse comitatus and he said, "He will, at 6 p.m. today." So, a few hours later about 1,300 Marines pulled out of Camp Pendleton heading north on Interstate 5 for a staging area at the old blimp base in Santa Ana, with 7 (I counted them) TV news helicopters escorting them. From there the I MEF command group moved on to Los Alamitos, where the National Guard had set up its HQ. The Marines were assigned to south central L.A. where the rioters had burned and looted a lot of businesses. It was surreal. I used to live in nearby Cerritos , CA, (84-85) and had my two boys in day care just three blocks down the street from the Los Alamitos base. I must admit, I felt much safer in 1992, wearing a helmet, flak jacket and carrying a .45.
“I think the Cheney/Bush administration just wanted to consider a ‘practice’ a scenario, on a relatively low level, of suspending posse comitatus and sending in Federal troops as a drill, in case we ever needed to due it on a larger scale to combat a more serious terrorist attack. It was considered and then rejected, probably because of the obvious implications of such an action. If we really needed to do it, we could; but it would have been wrong to do it ‘just for drill.’”
My response:
My, my, my, I knew you were a witness to history, but I had no idea you were involved with the 1992 post-Rodney events. Indeed, various presidents have suspended the Posse Comitatus Act. We were close and indirectly witnessed the deployment of the 82nd Airborne to Washington, DC, in the spring of 1968. President Eisenhower deployed the 101st Airborne to Little Rock in 1957, in what might have become an armed confrontation with the Arkansas National Guard previously deployed by Governor Faubus. I do agree with your observations of W’s brush with Posse Comitatus. While such a deployment might have been warranted under the exigencies of that moment in time, I imagine the President recognized it was a bridge too far. A test exercise of that nature would be appropriate in a controlled military training area. Nonetheless, John Yoo was correct in his counsel that the President has the authority to make such deployments under certain conditions.
My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
This has been a rough week for me; thus, I was not able to keep up with my normal reading process – a short Update. My apologies.
The follow-up news items:
-- The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6 to recommend confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor [389, 396]. The full Senate is expected to vote on Sotomayor’s nomination next week – the last week before Congress’ summer recess. Senator Lindsey Olin Graham of South Carolina was the only Republican voting for the recommendation.
Lieutenant Commander Michael Scott “Spike” Speicher, USN, (later promoted to Captain) was the first Allied casualty in the first Gulf War on the night of 17.January.1991, when his F/A-18 Hornet was shot down. He was listed as Missing in Action. The Defense Department announced the recovery of his remains this week. May God rest his immortal soul.
An interesting, well done, dissertation on the spectrum of government:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGk6LG0GA4A
I recommend pay attention to this video.
While not particularly interesting from civil rights or government power perspective, the Court’s recent Coeur Alaska, Inc. v. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council [557 U.S. ___ (2009); no. 07-984] case was a curiosity – about interpretation of the law. Mining company Coeur Alaska, Inc., sought approval for using Lower Slate Lake in the Tongass National Forest as slurry tailings pond for their “froth-flotation” mining process from a re-opened gold mine, closed since 1928. The law in question involved interpretation of §§306 and 404 of the Clean Water Act of 1972 (CWA) [PL 92-500; 86 Stat. 816; 33 USC §1251], which hung upon an interpretation whether the mine tailings are a “pollutant” under EPA authority (former), or “fill material” under the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) authority (latter). By memorandum agreement, the EPA & ACE decided the tailings were “fill material” under §404 of the CWA. A consortium of environmental groups – Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, Sierra Club, and Lynn Canal Conservation – filed suit challenging the Federal government’s decision. The Federal District Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided the government had not interpreted CWA properly. The Supremes overruled the lower courts. Associate Justice Kennedy wrote the Court’s decision, but it was Associate Justice Breyer’s concurring opinion that best summarized this case. He observed that the Court “recognizes a legal zone within which the regulating agencies might reasonably classify material either as ‘dredged or fill material’ subject to §404 of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. §1344(a), or as a ‘pollutant,’ subject to §§402 and 306, 33 U.S.C. §§1342(a), 1316(a).” The bottomline: the Army Corps of Engineers was the controlling Federal agency for issuing the permit to the mine. I must confess a certain degree of fascination with the rationale used by the majority and dissent regarding interpretation of conflicting laws.
Like the Coeur Alaska case, it seems the Court has reviewed (and I have been sufficiently attracted to) a number of late 60’s and early 70’s laws. For being such a bad boy conservative politician, “Tricky Dick” Nixon signed into law quite a few bills vastly extending the power of the Federal government.
-- National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) [PL 91-190; 42 U.S.C. § 4321] {EPA}
-- Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 [PL 91-513; 21 U.S.C. § 801] {DEA}
-- Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 [PL 91-596; 84 Stat 1590] {OSHA}
-- Clean Air Act of 1970 [PL 91-604]
-- Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 [PL 92-261]
-- Clean Water Act of 1972 (CWA) [PL 92-500; 86 Stat. 816; 33 USC §1251]
-- War Powers Act of 1973 [PL 93-148] {over POTUS veto; he didn’t sign this one; but, I wanted to list it anyway as it has cause substantial weakening of our national defense}
-- Endangered Species Act of 1973 [PL 93-205; 16 U.S.C. § 1531]
You know, stupid me . . . I was always told that Republican’s stood for smaller, less intrusive government. What a freakin’ joke! Don’t you feel better with all these bureaucrats sucking down your precious tax dollars, watching over your private life and deciding what is best for you?
News from the economic front:
-- June new-home sales on a seasonally adjusted annual rate rose to 384,000 (+11%), the third increase in a row and the highest level since November – another sign the housing market is beginning to stabilize after last year’s freefall. The median price for a new home was $206,200 in June, down from $219,000 in May and $234,300 in June 2008.
-- In a rather controversial debate, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is expected to issue a report suggesting energy speculators played a significant role in driving the wild swings in oil prices last year -- a reversal of a year earlier CFTC report that claimed the dramatic oil-price swings were primarily due to supply and demand. One of four CFTC commissioners, Bart Chilton, declared the prior analysis was based on “deeply flawed data.” The CFTC’s new review will reportedly point an accusatory finger at financial investors who bet huge sums of money on the direction of commodities prices by buying contracts tied to indexes. These hedge speculators invested hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts in the energy market that was once dominated by producers and consumers who sought to dampen oil-market volatility. As I have written before, this is an arena ripe for some form of law & order.
-- The Federal Reserve’s beige book reported most parts of the U.S. are seeing signs that the recession is easing; however, labor and real estate markets remain weak and credit conditions still are tight. The book also reported that most of the 12 Fed district banks “indicated that the pace of decline has moderated since the last report or that activity has begun to stabilize, albeit at a low level.” We appear to be close the knee at the bottom.
-- Apparently, the “Cash for Clunkers” program has been wildly successful as various Press outlets reported the initial US$1B fund was nearing depletion. The House voted 316-109 to approve the transfer of US$2B more in emergency funding from the US$787B American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 [374]. The Senate isn’t expected to consider the bill until next week. President Obama praised the prompt congressional action to rescue the popular program. As noted below, “Cash for Clunkers” is providing some boost in automobile sales. Perhaps this is a Federal program that actually works as it was intended.
-- The Wall Street Journal reported that Swiss bank UBS AG and the governments of Switzerland and the United States have reached a settlement that could turn over the identities of 52,000 U.S. account holders at UBS, in a major breakthrough in a massive tax-evasion investigation. [395] The Swiss government has claimed that turning over those names would violate Swiss bank secrecy provisions. U.S. District Court Judge Alan Gold postponed a hearing scheduled for Monday in Miami until 7.August, at which point more details are expected to be released.
-- The Commerce Department reported that the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell at a 1% annual rate in the 2nd Quarter. The 1st Quarter GDP was revised to a 6.4% decrease from an earlier estimated 5.5% decline. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires projected a 1.5% decrease. The government report shows the economy performed better-than-expected – another strong sign the longest recession since World War II is approaching an end.
-- Ford Motor Company reported an increase in its July sales, the first year-over-year jump for the auto maker in almost two years. Ford had the first reported increase by any of the six largest auto makers since August 2008, and the first bump up for Ford since November 2007, aided by the Federal government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program.
Comments and contributions from Update no.397:
“Churchill was indeed a supreme speaker and a master of the ‘put you down.’ I haven't come across the comment by JFK before. He was right certainly.”
My reply:
Sir Winston was a flawed man, as we all are. He had more than a few peculiar traits and idiosyncrasies. Yet, he was a self-possessed man who rose to the monumental challenge of extraordinary events that engulfed him and his country. His words have a magical, heroic quality even to this day, long after the context has dimmed with time and generations. I have studied so many of his speeches over the span of his long career; and if I had to pick just one speech (among so many magnificent choices), I would say the words that rise above all the others were those he spoke before his colleagues in the House of Commons on 20.August.1940, two days after his visit to No.11 Group HQ on what history would mark as the busiest day of the Battle of Britain.
“The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of world war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
In the face of his many flaws, Sir Winston was an incredible human being. Those words still bring tears to my eyes – tears of joy, tears of pride, tears of admiration. He stood up to the mark and was not found wanting. May God rest his immortal soul.
. . . a follow-up comment:
“I was amused to see a picture of Sir Winston on the Queen Mary smoking his Havana in a specifically marked room on board marked 'No Smoking'. He is one of the few people of this world I would liked to have met and have tea with or if he was feeling particularly benevolent possibly a glass of amber liquid! He never went short of either.
“A man who was going to sit out the war at number 10 he wasn't. I once knew a RN Marine (disabled by war) who was one of Winston's guards on board the Queen Mary on one of Winston's trips to your homeland. A duty he fulfilled with the utmost pride and diligence. Churchill traveling incognito as Col. Warden.
“This man did more in his life than most of us could dream of. To be rejected by the British electorate after the war should have destroyed him but no he came back fighting.
“What a Bulldog.”
. . . any my follow-up reply:
One of Sir Winston’s many flaws was his sense of aloof “nobility” . . . that he was “entitled” to sometimes eccentric behavior, and that the law did not apply to him – a trait I find quite offensive in any human being including Winston. He was an unabashed connoisseur of the “delightful amber liquid” and those Cuban logs.
Wow, I was not aware of the Col. Warden disguise. I know he drove His Majesty’s Government mad with his often, near-solo, trips across the Channel during the Battle of France, as he struggled almost single-handedly to bolster the French government. I suppose his Col. Warden persona was not beyond the realm of imagination. He was an extraordinary character – the right man, at the right time, in the right place – alignment of the stars.
I will be so bold to say that Sir Winston did more in one month than the vast expanse of humanity does in a lifetime. May 1940 exploded in unimaginable events that would fold-up most folks; he did not falter; history has not found him wanting. He was not a virtuous man, but all freedom loving people on the planet owe him an un-repay-able debt of gratitude and deliverance.
July 1945 – the war in Europe won – the Potsdam Conference deciding post-war Europe – Churchill, Attlee & Eden return to England to vote – you are oh so correct. Such a devastating rebuke amid the glory of victory. As you note, he rose again – the ol’ war horse – now thrust into the darkness of the Cold War confrontation with the Soviet Union. Incredible!
Another contribution:
“A President may suspend posse comitatus as President George H. W. Bush did in May 1992 when he sent troops from Camp Pendleton and Ft. Ord to Los Angeles to control the Rodney King case riots that had exploded across greater Los Angeles. I spent five days in Compton with the Marines from I Marine Expeditionary Force. The President had earlier committed 8,000 National Guardsmen to the fray, but more help was needed in a hurry.
“I was at a pre-exercise conference in San Diego the morning of May 9, when the Operations Officer for I MEF told me we would be packing up and heading back to Camp Pendleton to prepare for the deployment to the L.A. riots. I said we couldn't do that unless the President suspended posse comitatus and he said, "He will, at 6 p.m. today." So, a few hours later about 1,300 Marines pulled out of Camp Pendleton heading north on Interstate 5 for a staging area at the old blimp base in Santa Ana, with 7 (I counted them) TV news helicopters escorting them. From there the I MEF command group moved on to Los Alamitos, where the National Guard had set up its HQ. The Marines were assigned to south central L.A. where the rioters had burned and looted a lot of businesses. It was surreal. I used to live in nearby Cerritos , CA, (84-85) and had my two boys in day care just three blocks down the street from the Los Alamitos base. I must admit, I felt much safer in 1992, wearing a helmet, flak jacket and carrying a .45.
“I think the Cheney/Bush administration just wanted to consider a ‘practice’ a scenario, on a relatively low level, of suspending posse comitatus and sending in Federal troops as a drill, in case we ever needed to due it on a larger scale to combat a more serious terrorist attack. It was considered and then rejected, probably because of the obvious implications of such an action. If we really needed to do it, we could; but it would have been wrong to do it ‘just for drill.’”
My response:
My, my, my, I knew you were a witness to history, but I had no idea you were involved with the 1992 post-Rodney events. Indeed, various presidents have suspended the Posse Comitatus Act. We were close and indirectly witnessed the deployment of the 82nd Airborne to Washington, DC, in the spring of 1968. President Eisenhower deployed the 101st Airborne to Little Rock in 1957, in what might have become an armed confrontation with the Arkansas National Guard previously deployed by Governor Faubus. I do agree with your observations of W’s brush with Posse Comitatus. While such a deployment might have been warranted under the exigencies of that moment in time, I imagine the President recognized it was a bridge too far. A test exercise of that nature would be appropriate in a controlled military training area. Nonetheless, John Yoo was correct in his counsel that the President has the authority to make such deployments under certain conditions.
My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
2 comments:
I'm not attorney enough to even understand what you said about the Couer Alaska case. For me, the interesting part of the Couer Alaska case is the environmental aspect. Mine tailings dumped into flowing water cause havoc, hence the effort to use the Clean Water act. This will affect the Tongass, but will also affect the environment in Appalachia and other mining areas in the Lower 48. Of course, the water in question continues downstream, so some of the results of this decision will be felt far from any mine.
MrMacnCheese,
As a general rule, I believe you are correct – mine tailings are not healthy for any living thing. Unfortunately, I barely had sufficient time to read the case, and embarrassingly insufficient time to write my opinion. Let it suffice to say, there is more to the company’s efforts to comply with the Clean Water Act of 1972, namely, they intended to re-route tributaries around the lake to permit normal flow passed the lake. Further, they intended to implement a filtration process to ensure any water released from the lake (overflow) would be cleaned to CWA / EPA standards. So, there is a proper debate regarding the threat of those tailings. The company was presented with few choices regarding operation of the mine – one of which was abandon any operations. The Court did not focus on the threat of the mine’s tailings or even compliance with CWA. The issue addressed by the Court was who had authority to issue the permit to the mine, since different sections of the CWA created a conflict in the law. The EPA & ACE thought they handled the conflict properly by issuing the joint memorandum. The lower courts sided with the environmental consortium, but the Supremes held that the USG had acted in good faith and properly under the law as written. The law aside, Coeur Alaska claims their remedy process will leave no lasting injury to the environment. As always, time shall tell the tale.
Thx of yr cmt.
Cheers,
Cap
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