RC> Some people have referred to it as the "secret government" of the 
RC> United
RC> States. It is not an elected body, it does not involve itself in 
RC> public
RC> disclosures, and it even has a quasi-secret budget in the billions of
RC> dollars. This government organization has more power than the 
RC> President
RC> of the United States or the Congress, it has the power to suspend 
RC> laws,
RC> move entire populations, arrest and detain citizens without a warrant
RC> and hold them without trial, it can seize property, food supplies,
RC> transportation systems, and can suspend the Constitution.
RC> Not only is it the most powerful entity in the United States, but it 
RC> was
RC> not even created under Constitutional law by the Congress. It was a
RC> product of a Presidential Executive Order. No, it is not the U.S.
RC> military nor the Central Intelligence Agency, they are subject to
RC> Congress. The organization is called FEMA, 
    If FEMA was so godawful powerful, how come there was two weeks of 
outright anarchy in the U.S. Virgin Islands after a recent hurricane?  During 
that period, local _cops_ joined in the massive looting until the National 
Guard was finally sent from Puerto Rico.
RC> Federal
RC> Emergency Management Agency. Originally conceived in the Richard 
RC> Nixon
RC> Administration, it was refined by President Jimmy Carter and given 
RC> teeth
RC> in the Ronald Reagan and George Bush Administrations.
RC> FEMA had one original concept when it was created, to assure the
RC> survivability of the United States government in the event of a 
RC> nuclear
RC> attack on this nation. It was also provided with the task of being a
RC> federal coordinating body during times of domestic disasters, such as
RC> earthquakes, floods and hurricanes
    During and after Hurricane Andrew, Florida politicians griped incessantly 
about the lack of federal response.  The failure of Bush's Washington to do 
anything hurt Bush badly in Florida.
    After Hurricane Fran here, federal response was so klutzy that 
politically-connected people got National Guard generators before hospitals.
    If FEMA couldn't handle a hurricane, how could it handle a nuclear war?
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