Under the cover of darkness, the Bush administration quietly released on May 9 a monumental yet underreported executive order:  National Security and Presidential Directive NSPD 51.

This directive, supposedly meant to ensure the continuity of government in case of catastrophic emergency, virtually anoints the President with the powers of an emperor in the event of “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function.”

Now call me conspiratorial, but I find this directive unsettling.  What exactly is an “extraordinary” amount of casualty, damage, or disruption?  Is it a repeat 9-11?  Is it an anthrax attack?  Is it another Katrina?  Is it a stock market crash?  Is it a major blackout, an internet virus, or a solar flare?  What about a massive anti-war protest in Washington D.C.?  The directive does nothing to lessen my cynical apprehensions when it attempts to specify catastrophe as “localized acts of nature, accidents, and technological or attack-related emergencies.”

Also troubling is the pre-existence of a perfectly fine emergency plan for national continuity called the U.S. Constitution.  It held the nation together as the White House burned in the War of 1812, while 11 States attempted to succeed from the Union during the Civil War, through the rise of global fascism in WWII, and under the existential nuclear threat to mankind during the decades of the Cold War.  Now, suddenly, the Constitution isn’t good enough for the Boy King?

The directive pays lip service to preserving “the continued function of our form of government under the Constitution, including the functioning of the three separate branches of government,” yet the summary statement from the same document is: “The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government.”

NSPD 51 goes far beyond a plan of succession for merely the Executive Branch.  It goes far beyond the local and temporary implementation of Martial Law.  It allows for one man, the President, to lead the entire federal government.  It subjects the Constitution to his sole interpretation.  In effect, it is a recipe for perpetual Martial Law for the nation as a whole, and the precipitating event can be whatever the President decides it to be.  Just or unjust, it matters not.  After all is said and done, who will dare question Caesar?

Like distant red-shifted galaxies dimly receding from our sight at ever accelerating velocities, I am beginning to believe that we may never see the 2008 election.