Executive Doomsday Order: Obama Authorizes Gov to Seize Farms, Food, Processing Plants, Energy Resources, Transportation, Skilled Laborers During National Emergency

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DennisLeeWilson's picture

If this is a coup, it already happened long ago.

[And besides, the government will do whatever it wants to do, anyway, anyhow, anytime....DW]
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http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-03-19/politics/31209114_1_water...

Conservatives Are Freaking Out Over An Executive Order That May Give Obama Complete Control Over The Economy
Michael Brendan Dougherty|March 19, 2012|
8,431|84

Last Friday, President Obama quietly signed an executive order titled, "National Defense Resources Preparedness."

The order is on the White House website right now.

But no two news sources can agree on what it means.

The Drudge Report linked to it under the title, "MARTIAL LAW? WHITE HOUSE ISSUES EXECUTIVE ORDER: 'NATIONAL DEFENSE RESOURCES PREPAREDNESS'...

And Huffington Post writer Edwin Black called attention to it, saying that the document puts the United States on a "war footing."

Some right-wing websites are saying that Obama's executive order is effectively a "coup against U.S. citizens."

So what is in this document?

It's based in part on the Defense Production Act of 1950, which mobilized America for the Korean War. Basically that law granted the Executive branch of government broad authority in the economy: to compel businesses to sign contracts to produce goods for the national defense, to set wage and price controls, especially on raw materials, and to even requisition property that might be useful for national defense.

The Act has been reauthorized and passed through Congress many times, most recently in 2008 by President Bush, who had previously re-authorized it in 2003. President Clinton did the same in 1994.

Here is part of the text of the Executive order that is most interesting to imagine being used:

Sec. 201. Priorities and Allocations Authorities. (a) The authority of the President conferred by section 101 of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2071, to require acceptance and priority performance of contracts or orders (other than contracts of employment) to promote the national defense over performance of any other contracts or orders, and to allocate materials, services, and facilities as deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense, is delegated to the following agency heads:

(1) the Secretary of Agriculture with respect to food resources, food resource facilities, livestock resources, veterinary resources, plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment and commercial fertilizer;

(2) the Secretary of Energy with respect to all forms of energy;

(3) the Secretary of Health and Human Services with respect to health resources;

(4) the Secretary of Transportation with respect to all forms of civil transportation;

(5) the Secretary of Defense with respect to water resources; and

(6) the Secretary of Commerce with respect to all other materials, services, and facilities, including construction materials.

So essentially, different Cabinet departments could take command over their respective parts of the economy during a national emergency, which the president determines.

We all know instinctively that in a national emergency or war the government is going to do whatever it takes to stay in power, regardless of Constitutional niceties.

This Executive Order reauthorizes and "legalizes" that process, in the same way every Administration has done for the past sixty-two years.

If this is a coup, it already happened long ago.

[And besides, the government will do whatever it wants to do, anyway, anyhow, anytime....DW]