It appears that they evoked martial law to force an immediate vote on a bill that the powers that be don't want to see debated.
This is shotgun legislation.
When Bush addressed the nation, and layed out the problem, he forgot to mention one thing.
These financial institutions were writing insurance policies for sub-prime mortgages against the debter walking away, and they never had the money to back those policies up. That is a crime. If any of us here did that we would be sent to prison.