Posse Comitatus

The Posse Comitatus Act has a turbulent southern history, but has provided a fundamental distinction between the U.S. and totalitarian regimes.

As Americans, we watch totalitarian regimes employ their militaries to suppress democratic protests. Tienanmen Square comes quickly to mind.
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Journalists and demonstrators were arrested during the RNC Convention with little note from a carefully censored media, that instead should be outraged at the ominous infringement on Constitutional guarantees.

The writings of Glenn Greenwald in Salon are particularly troubling in Why is a U.S. Army brigade being assigned to the "Homeland"?
Several bloggers today have pointed to this obviously disturbing article from Army Times, which announces that "beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the [1st Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division] will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North" -- "the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities."
The Defense Authorization Act of 2006, passed on Sept. 30, empowers President George W. Bush to impose martial law in the event of a terrorist "incident," if he or other federal officials perceive a shortfall of "public order," or even in response to antiwar protests that get unruly as a result of government provocations. . . .

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Democracy Now provided this

Is Posse Comitatus Dead? US Troops on US Streets In a barely noticed development, a US Army unit is now training for domestic operations under the control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. An initial news report in the Army Times newspaper last month noted that in addition to emergency response the force “may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control.” The military has since claimed the force will not be used for civil unrest, but questions remain. We speak to Army Col. Michael Boatner, future operations division chief of USNORTHCOM, and Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive magazine.

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It sure makes one wonder if anyone has noticed what we are becoming as a nation.