For the last couple

For the last couple weeks TPM Readers have been writing in either to express outrage about or ask us to look into something called Presidential National Security Directive 51. The order, released May 9th, deals with how the executive branch should react in response to an array of catastrophic natural or man-made events. And at least on first blush it can read like it takes a rather broad brush approach to the existence of three branches of government, the constitution, etc. The story has been bubbling around the net. So I had the folks at TPMmuckraker look into it. We talked to folks at several of the major advocacy organizations that follow this sort of thing. And this is what we found.