(sniff, sniff) is that the Reichstag burning that I smell?

[winterbadger]

Look familiar?

The Bush administration is reported to be investigating the possibility of postponing the presidential election in the event of a terror attack.

In its latest edition, Newsweek reports that Mr Ridge has asked the Justice Department to examine what legal steps would be needed to permit the postponement of the 2 November election.

You know, for a week, or a month, or a year or two; whatever is necessary to get the country back on its feet after, say, an anthrax-laced letter arrives at the White House (if they're smart, they won't use White House stationery) or a bomb goes off at a polling place in Dubuque.

Is this George and Dick?

Comments

No f*cking suprise there

[john-arundel.livejournal.com]

Im so moving out of country. NZ or Austrailia should do. If figure that will buy enough time to for my son to enlist in their army and prepare for US invasion.

Re: No f*cking suprise there

[winterbadger]

A friend of mine used to be convinced that our armed services were so conservative that they wouldn't let a liberal get elected president, that they'd stage a coup.

*This* is the sort of thing that would get many of the officers I know up in arms (perhaps even literally). They take seriously the idea that they swear an oath to defend the Constitution. I'm not *sure*, but I *think* that if Cheney actually tried to suspend the electoral laws claiming national emergency with anything less than a full-scale attack on the national government, that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the commander of the Military District of Washington would politely point out that this was not a legal order and do what was needed to ensure a continuance of constitutional government.

Still a constitutional crisis, though...

[sujata.livejournal.com]

I wish I could honestly say this comes as a surprise to me. Unfortunately, ever since Al Qaeda struck Spain during its own elections, I've been wondering how the ever-inventive thugs in the White House would try to use Spain's tragedy to their advantage. Not "whether," just "how."

Still more unfortunately, while the very suggestion should be viewed as a Constitutional crisis, as you correctly described it, I suspect a majority of the Supreme Court justices will back Dubya up. They enthroned him, after all, by taking the unprecedented (and unconstitutional) step of interpreting Florida state law, when their function is supposed to be limited to interpreting the Constitution and federal law. It's difficult to imagine them abandoning him now, when they've already made a mockery of their own bench for his sake. =-(

[winterbadger]

The only thing that gives me some hope is their recent utter rejection of the Guantanimo Principle. I'm hoping that that was a sign that they see the Frankenstein they created.

[sujata.livejournal.com]

The Supreme Court seems to have done a fair amount of flip-flopping on the issue of how far Dubya can go in suspending civil rights, in "wartime." I wish I could feel hopeful with you, but I can't when the Supreme Court is so indecisive on the subject of civil rights. :-/

[kathygnome.livejournal.com]

*waves* still think I'm paranoid?