At this link on Alternet, author Naomi Wolf quotes Congressman Brad Sherman of California as saying,
"The only way they can pass this bill is by creating and sustaining a panic atmosphere. ... Many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday that the sky would fall, the market would drop two or three thousand points the first day and a couple of thousand on the second day, and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no."
You can see him saying it on the floor of Congress on Youtube.
Could Resident Bush declare martial law? Absolutely. It is now legal for Bush to arrest Congress. Troops that refused those orders would be jailed and court-martialed. Over the flip for details.
It has been reported that the First Brigade of the Third Infantry Division, three to four thousand soldiers, has been deployed in the United States as of October 1. Their mission: the form of crowd control they practiced in Iraq. That is they will subdue "unruly individuals," and managing a national emergency. They have access to lethal weapsons.
The really scary part is that Bush could arrest Congress and it would be legal. Amy Goodman reported that:
Military participation in domestic operations was originally outlawed with the Posse Comitatus Act in 1878. The John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, however, included a section that allowed the president to deploy the armed forces to "restore public order" or to suppress "any insurrection." While a later bill repealed this, President Bush attached a signing statement that he did not feel bound by the repeal.
In the Alternet story, Naomi Wolf also published portions of an interview with Vietnam veteran, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel David Antoon. Excerpts are below.
"If the President directed the First Brigade to arrest Congress, what could stop him?"
"Nothing. Their only recourse is to cut off funding. The Congress would be at the mercy of military leaders to go to them and ask them not to obey illegal orders."
"But these orders are now legal?'"
"Correct."
...
"What would prevent him [Bush] from sending the First Brigade to arrest the editor of the Washington Post?"
"Nothing. He could do what he did in Iraq -- send a tank down a street in Washington and fire a shell into the Washington Post as they did into Al Jazeera, and claim they were firing at something else."
"What happens to members of the First Brigade who refuse to take up arms against U.S. citizens?"
"They'd probably be treated as deserters as in Iraq: arrested, detained and facing five years in prison. In Iraq a study by Ann Wright shows that deserters -- reservists who refused to go back to Iraq -- got longer sentences than war criminals."
"Does Congress have any military of their own?"
"No...
...
"Given the danger do you advocate impeachment?"
"Yes...
"Should Americans call on senior leaders in the Military to break publicly with this action and call on their own men and women to disobey these orders?"
"Every senior military officer's loyalty should ultimately be to the Constitution. Every officer should publicly break with any illegal order, even from the President."
"But if these are now legal. If they say, 'Don't obey the Commander in Chief,' what happens to the military?"
"Perhaps they would be arrested and prosecuted as those who refuse to participate in the current illegal war. That's what would be considered a coup..."
Please go read the story in its entirety. The legal structure is in place for the President to take all power. Since Congress will not impeach, let us hope that he is not thinking of calling off the election.
Update: Commenters have called this diary or me "dumb" and "nutty." I hope you are right. I know that Bush has said that having a dictator would be OK if he was the dictator. He said it as a joke but perhaps did not totally mean it that way. I know that Congressman Brad Sherman would not have said martial law was threatened unless it had been. I know that Bush has used signing statements over 1000 times and has evaded many laws by using them. I know that Congress just gave away $700 billion with almost no oversight and no strings and the people did not react. If Bush did suspend the election, would the corporate press say it was necessary and then the rest of us just sit back and continue to watch TV? Maybe. Sorry, but I have to get ready for work, now.