Okay this ties it: Gov't considers DELAYED ELECTION if terrorist threat

[shereads]

Just heard this on the news: Tom Ridge, Director of Homeland Security and inventor of Orange & Yellow Alerts, has asked the Justice Department to investigate whether the presidential election could be delayed in the event of a threat from Al Queda. Interesting, that the first mention of an Al Queda threat to disrupt the election should come on the heels of Bush's first official week trailing Kerry in the polls, and the announcement yesterday that the Senate Intelligence Committee now confirms that the president took us to war for no reason.

Is there anything these bastards won't do to subvert the Constitution? Why not just roll out the &#@$ tanks, declare marshall law and have done with it.

The word "loathesome" applies.

 

[ruminator]

Just heard this on the news: Tom Ridge, Director of Homeland Security and inventor of Orange & Yellow Alerts, has asked the Justice Department to investigate whether the presidential election could be delayed in the event of a threat from Al Queda. Interesting, that the first mention of an Al Queda threat to disrupt the election should come on the heels of Bush's first official week trailing Kerry in the polls, and the announcement yesterday that the Senate Intelligence Committee now confirms that the president took us to war for no reason.

Is there anything these bastards won't do to subvert the Constitution? Why not just roll out the &#@$ tanks, declare marshall law and have done with it.

The word "loathesome" applies.

Every time I bring this up for discussion I get ridiculed.

.....but I keep trying anyway.

 

[shereads]

Re: Re: Okay this ties it: Gov't considers DELAYED ELECTION if terrorist threat

Every time I bring this up for discussion I get ridiculed.

.....but I keep trying anyway.

What? Marshall law? The inevitable attempt to steal the election? Or the administration's loathesomeness?

Hey, it won't be the first time they've stolen an election. They're just trying to cover all their bases this time.

 

[ruminator]

Re: Re: Re: Okay this ties it: Gov't considers DELAYED ELECTION if terrorist threat

What? Marshall law? The inevitable attempt to steal the election? Or the administration's loathesomeness?

Hey, it won't be the first time they've stolen an election. They're just trying to cover all their bases this time.

There's so much to choose from, but the election issue was the most recent. I say they've been laying this groundwork for quite some time and facing the realization is no shock for many of us.

I still think that if phrased properly, the majority of the American Public would seriously consider accepting it.

I never will.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

I remember Rumi posting his theory of delayed election in one of our other political threads when he first got here.

Now to see if I have the energy to go through the three it could have been and see what he said then.



~lucky

 

[Guest]

You know, this is infuriating and scary as hell. Here's the link:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/11/election.day.delay/index.html

Newsweek reported that Soaries expressed concern that no federal agency had the authority to postpone an election and asked Ridge to ask Congress to give his commission such power.

Ridge warned Thursday that al Qaeda terrorists were planning a large-scale attack on the United States "in an effort to disrupt the democratic process."

Ridge said he had no specific or credible information about threats to the political conventions. The four-day Democratic convention kicks off July 26 in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Republican National Convention begins August 30 in New York City.

Ridge also said the nation's color-coded terrorist threat level would remain at yellow, or elevated.

Democratic Rep. Jane Harman of California, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that she believes planning for the possibility of postponing Election Day is "excessive, based on what we know."

. . .

The news that such discussions have taken place raised other eyebrows on Capitol Hill as well.

"I don't think there's an argument that can be made, for the first time in our history, to delay an election," said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a member of the Intelligence Committee.

"We hold elections in the middle of war, in the middle of earthquakes, in the middle of whatever it takes. The election is a statutory election. It should go ahead, on schedule, and we should not change it."

But the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Christopher Cox of California, said on "Late Edition" that he sees Ridge's request as part of a prudent effort to plan for "doomsday scenarios."

"We don't have any intelligence to suggest that it is going to happen, but we're preparing for all of these contingencies now," Cox said.

What an immense pile of horse shit. Surely they don't believe their own rhetoric?

 

[Clare Quilty]

I am continually amazed that the public has not been more outraged by this administration's shameless opportunistic politicizing of the "war on terror," which went into high gear on September 12, 2001, and continues unabated.

 

[Liar]

Re: Re: Re: Okay this ties it: Gov't considers DELAYED ELECTION if terrorist threat

What Quilty said. It never ceases to amaze me how those guys can go on. To an outsider it looks like this, from Powell bullshitting the UN about Saddam's hyper-smart WMDs, through the whole Homeland Security debacle to stunts like this:

They got nothing.
They know this.
We know this.
It makes them look like idiots.
Unless they are all idiots, they know that we know.
They don't care.
And for some scary reason, that seems to work.

Huh?

Marshall law

I always thought it was martial law. Or are there both, and is there a difference?


#L

 

[snooper]

... Ridge also said the nation's color-coded terrorist threat level would remain at yellow, or elevated...

So that's what they mean by "The Yellow Peril".

 

[rgraham666]

Well, as Paul Krugman pointed out in his book The Great Unravelling, the Shrubbies are revolutionaries.

They do not believe in the legitimacy of the democratic system. All their efforts to subvert it are no surprise to me.

If any of the Litsters from the U.S. have to cut and run in a hurry, I can put you up for a few nights.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

I am continually amazed that the public has not been more outraged by this administration's shameless opportunistic politicizing of the "war on terror," which went into high gear on September 12, 2001, and continues unabated.

It just goes to show how uninformed the average public citizen is.

 

[Guest]

Well, as Paul Krugman pointed out in his book The Great Unravelling, the Shrubbies are revolutionaries.

They do not believe in the legitimacy of the democratic system. All their efforts to subvert it are no surprise to me.

If any of the Litsters from the U.S. have to cut and run in a hurry, I can put you up for a few nights.

I just may be giving you a call, rg!

 

[shereads]

Al Queda wishes they were as big a threat to the democratic process as these bottomfeeders.

 

[snooper]

Al Queda wishes they were as big a threat to the democratic process as these bottomfeeders.

We had the same problem in the UK. When the US funded IRA were bombing the public, far more trouble was caused by the police and other busybodies taking all the rubbish bins, public toilets, etc., out of use "in case the IRA puts a bomb in one".

Now I need a passport to take an internal flight in the UK "to aid in the war against terror".

It isn't the damage these people do, it's the self-inflicted damage done out of fear that really screws life up.

Incidentally, why hasn't the US declared our terrorists (the SinnFein/IRA and the Thirty-Two Counties Committee) illegal?
Is it because the UK government gives money to SinnFein/IRA MPs and so he would have to invade us?

 

[shereads]

When the US funded IRA were bombing the public, far more trouble was caused by the police and other busybodies taking all the rubbish bins, public toilets, etc.,

First of all: At least you didn't have to fund the IRA as well as being its victims. Wouldn't that have been ironic? Where is the gratitude?

Secondly: They will take my toilet when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.

Thirdly, thank you so much for bringing up the mention of toilets. That's just dandy, snooper. I hope you know what you've done.

Fourthly, and this is for general discussion:

Has anyone else here (USA) noticed that unless there is a news item about Tom Ridge, we never hear any mention of the alert color? Shouldn't there be a notification system?

A national dress code would demonstrate that we've each made it our business to know the color of that day's alert, and it would give Tom Ridge something to do with his department's marketing budget (and keep his mind off our toilets!) The benefit to the garment industry goes without saying.

I would phase the dress code in gradually, with violations punishable as a misdemeanor in the beginning, rather than jailing everybody all at once.

At the very least, the newspapers should post the daily alert color along with the Pollen Count and Sun Safety Index:

Pollen Count: Medium-High. Primarily grasses & flowering trees.
Sun Safety Index: High. Sun-sensitive persons should stay indoors.
Terror Alert: Yellow. Terror-sensitive persons should do whatever it is they do at Yellow.

 

[ruminator]

Soaries is a GWB appointed official who heads a newly formed agency or commission. He is presumably asking for his agency to control the call, if needed. DHS has confirmed that all of these talks are ongoing.

It's important to remember this admin's ability to avoid language that is actual outright lying. Look at how the intel failures and prewar claims have been spun away from their liability. Read between the lines and listen well to what they're also not saying.

It's true that there is no contingency for this possible scenario. It is not true that the elections could not be suspended more easily than the media would have us believe.

Do some searches on the model emergency health powers act (MEHPA) that was defeated in 2002 by concerned citizens and their reps. However, many of the powerful provisions were quietly slipped into other pieces of legislation since then.

The main concern would be the credible threat of an impending biological weapon or attack with widespread infection possible as a way to invoke these powers.

Another integral piece of the puzzle is the Bioshield Bill. It's nearly a self supporting industry based on prevention of obscure but realistic threats and controlled by politics.

<clip>
In theory, Project Bioshield will stimulate "a biodefense industry that we can go back to again and again for new products as the biothreat evolves," the staffer says, noting that eventually "hundreds of products" might be developed, creating a "robust industry."

Under Bioshield, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security, would promise to buy and stockpile new therapeutic drugs, vaccines, and diagnostic agents that meet its criteria. Bioshield also would speed up procurement by allowing HHS to purchase drugs before they gain approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

Among the terrorist threats currently mentioned are the use of anthrax, smallpox, plague, and Ebola, as well as radiation sickness from a "dirty bomb" - not a nuclear bomb, but a conventional explosive device used to disperse radioactive material.

While it's tough to quantify how real the threat is, it's true that the former Soviet Union and other nations have produced pathogens that were turned into weapons, says Julie Fischer, who follows medical emergency preparedness and biological security issues at the Henry L. Stimson Center, an independent public policy institute in Washington. "They exist out there. Whether or not they'll be used in the United States in the near future, that's a matter of guessing at the risk."

Unconvinced that the Bioshield bill has gone far enough, Sens. Joseph Lieberman (D) of Connecticut and Orrin Hatch (R) of Utah are expected to file a Bioshield II bill before the end of this session. Among its provisions would be stronger liability protection for drugmakers - which might be a necessary incentive for Big Pharma.
<clip>

full article linked here

 

[ruminator]

The preceding post referred to the subtle shifts of power to individual states to control public mobility through enacment of emergency powers. Some examples of these are quarrantine, mandatory vaccination and suspension of public gatherings. Most of this would occur in the event of a bio/chemical attack or even pre-emptively based on intel of a credible threat.

Now check this out. Here is Sories, a GWB appointee, requesting the power to cancel elections but is verifying the fact that many of us have been concerned about.

The control of the election is done by each state. Several states can be suspended by their own leaders and the national election would not be suspended.

This is the power and scenario many of us were talking about in the past year.

Wouldn't this be a nice way to win one for the ole Gipper?

<clip>

The United States will not cancel or suspend the presidential election this November in the event of a terror attack or other catastrophic event, the government's top elections official said on Tuesday.

Individual states may suspend or reschedule elections if disaster strikes, but that would not change voting in other states, said DeForest Soaries, chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

<clip>
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5660631

 

[cantdog]

Another discussion of this

 

[shereads]

What's shocking is not that they'd attempt this coup, but that they either believe or pretend to believe that most of us wouldn't suspect them of lying about a terrorist threat.

I came of age politically during Watergate, and i thought I was a cynic. But three years ago, It would NEVER have occurred to me that the government of the US might manipulate its citizens through the use of fake terrorist threats. If GWB swore on his family Bible that a credible threat to public safety was behind the postponement of the election, I'd consider it a 50/50 tossup that he was lying. And a 100% certainty that he would welcome a real threat if it benefited his presidency.

I hate feeling this way. How can anyone not, when he denies saying things that he said on the record, in televised speeches? Getting away with the most damning lies has been as easy for him as simply saying, "We never said that."