The Right's Obama Martial Law #Fail
No, President Obama is not coming to steal your house and take all the food out of your fridge.
| Fri Mar. 30, 2012 3:00 AM PDT
Such is the narrative that has emerged out of the right's latest phony freak-out about Obama's wielding of executive power. On March 16, the White House quietly released the details of an executive order titled "National Defense Resources Preparedness." The order authorizes the federal government to identify "requirements for the full spectrum of emergencies, including essential military and civilian demand," and to "control the general distribution of any material (including applicable services) in this civilian market."
It's your standard government readiness policy—nothing particularly exciting or groundbreaking. In fact, almost identical executive orders have been issued by administrations since the early days of the Cold War, including those of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Dwight Eisenhower.
And some conservatives—who have previously accused Obama of wanting to confiscate their guns, ammo, Bibles, and even Cheerios and fishing rods—have taken this as one more assault upon individual liberty from a radical president. Because the order identifies essential items that should be stockpiled in extreme scenarios—from livestock and water to construction materials and pharmaceutical products—some on the right have sounded the alarm.
Late last Sunday, the Washington Times blasted out an email titled "Obama authorizes himself to declare martial law." The column's author, Jeffrey Kuhner (who has a habit of referring to the president as a neo-pagan Lenin), writes that the order represents "a sweeping power grab that should worry every American" that "one would expect to find in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela or Vladimir Putin's Russia." Kuhner posits that Obama is gearing up for a devastating transatlantic war with Iran, in which Tehran-sponsored Hezbollah cells would retaliate by bombing American cities.
