Chpater 5 "Behold a Pale Horse"

When our forefathers wrote the Constitution of these United States they provided safeguards against despotism by providing a balance of power. The Constitution was set up to provide clear divisions of Legislative, Judicial, and Executive powers. It was believed that this system would ensure that if one branch got out of hand the other two would act to keep the one in check. This balance of power was predicated upon the assumption that none of the three branches could or would infringe upon the power of the others. The Constitution is clear on the functions of each of the branches. The Legislative will make the laws. The Judicial will interpret the law. The Executive will decide policy and enforce the law. This, of course, is the simplest of explanations, but this is not a textbook on government. My intent is to acquaint you with simple basics of the balance of power so that you can then understand how it has been subverted. The Legislature (Congress in the form of the House and Senate) is required to publish the laws that are made, and this is done in the Congres sional Record and the Federal Register. Pending or passed legislation can be obtained by citizens through their Congressmen or from the Government Printing Office. Citizens cannot be held responsible for the law if it is not made available to them. It is paradoxical that the government body most representative of the American citizen is the one that has been the most easily subverted. Through PACs, payoffs, pork-barrel politics, professional politicians, Congressmen who are members of secret societies and through greed and fear, our Representatives and Senators quit representing us long ago. Congress has tremendous powers but fails in most cases to exercise even a token amount. How is it that our Legislature has allowed and at times encouraged the Executive branch to write law? You probably did not know that the President and others in the Executive branch of the government can and do write law. This is done in the form of Presidential Executive orders, National Security Council memos, National Security Decision directives, and National Security directives. NSC memos were broad policy papers in the days after passage of the National Security Act. NSC memos became narrower and more specific over the years, and the name has varied. Under Kennedy they were called National Security Action Memorandums. President Bush has changed the name to National Security Directives. There is a tremendous difference between Presidential Executive orders, NSC memos, and National Security Decision directives. Presidential Executive orders are listed in the Federal Register or Presidential Findings, which are made known to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. The most important difference between the Presidential Executive orders and all of the others, no matter what they are called, is that the others do not have to be reported, reviewed, made available to anyone, or even acknowledged that they exist. There is no oversight whatsoever that could maintain a check on the legality of these National Security directives. The President and others within the Executive branch have used these supersecret directives to skirt the balance of power and write law without anyone's knowledge. Justification of the President's power to write law through Executive orders stems from the failure of the Government to rescind the declaration of martial law during the Civil War. In effect, the United States has been under martial law ever since Lincoln's administration. These NSDs are powerful, hidden, and dangerous tools. They were prolific during the Reagan administration: over 300 were written, with no more than 50 ever leaking out to undergo public scrutiny. Yet most Americans have never heard of these subversive weapons. They are being used to destroy our Constitution. I believe that everyone should know about this corruption of government.