Not so much…
Confession time: I have used the slang negative comparator “Not so much.” I used it with all of its arch, self-consciously ironic informality in conversation with Beth. She called me on it. I don’t know why I used it. Perhaps I simply allowed myself to be imprinted and informed by Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There’s a Val gal overtone in the phrase, an oily late seventies currency that slowly seeped out of the pop cultural plastic California suburbs with the middle-school kids who originated it. The process continues, I’m sure. (Internal voice echoes, “Yeah, like you’re SO sure. NOT!”)
One of the most deadly and boring contrivances in American language is the phony posturing that goes with the conversational usage of the asked-and-answered rhetorical question. There’s a TV news-reader pomposity that goes with the delivery of asked-and-answered rhetorical questions. “Should we be in Iraq? No, but since we are already there…”
“Not so much” pickles this formulaic usage in the brine of deprecatory irony. “You may see a good reason to continue the war in Iraq. Me? Not so much.”
Snappy? Sure. Original? Not so much…
Article 23
VIOLATION OF THE POSSE COMITATUS ACT
In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution “to take care that the laws be faithfully executed”, has both personally and acting through his agents and subordinates, repeatedly and illegally established programs to appropriate the power of the military for use in law enforcement. Specifically, he has contravened U.S.C. Title 18. Section 1385, originally enacted in 1878, subsequently amended as “Use of Army and Air Force as Posse Comitatus” and commonly known as the Posse Comitatus Act.
The Act states:
“Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”
The Posse Comitatus Act is designed to prevent the military from becoming a national police force.
The Declaration of Independence states as a specific grievance against the British that the King had “kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures,” had “affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the civil power,” and had “quarter[ed] large bodies of armed troops among us . . . protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States”
Despite the Posse Comitatus Act’s intent, and in contravention of the law, President Bush
a) has used military forces for law enforcement purposes on U.S. border patrol;
b) has established a program to use military personnel for surveillance and information on criminal activities;
c) is using military espionage equipment to collect intelligence information for law enforcement use on civilians within the United States; and
d) employs active duty military personnel in surveillance agencies ,including the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA).
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