*Condi Rice is a DOCTOR…
oh and the ‘bitches’ on your side, might prefer you use a different term*
I wish to emphasize that I used it with the utmost affection and respect.
Also, Condi never made me think that Camille Paglia was in danger of losing her status as chief-brainy-bitch-in-charge.
Okay, I’m looking at the text of the Patriot Act. Sections 501 - 508 say nothing about eliminating the requirement for FISA approval.
Section 106 is about presidential powers. Don’t see anything there.
Section 701 (there is no 711) talks about improved sharing of information.
Nope, nothing there eliminating the need for warrants. If you still think there is, please post the exact part of the Patriot Act you think enables this, as well as the appropriate parts of the acts it amends.
The ACLU commentary objects to the elimination of the need for probable cause. That is far different from eliminating the need for a warrant. Do you think the ACLU just missed that?
A loophole big enough to drive a truck through.
… within the military and police community the officers would refuse to comply with his unlawful orders.*
On reflection, I think this is where the rubber meets the road. To deconstruct a bit further your absolutely accurate comment about the feds not actually running any elections, the states don’t either in practical terms–all the personnel (those nice old ladies at the polls…) are paid by the county.
That said, and given that the ballots are already printed in my hypothetical, so the elections go as planned, and the only move that works is to snatch the machines when the polls close. (which is not actually that impractical, since we are talking I think of about 500 counties nationwide, and I guess (hipshot) 50,000 precincts.
OK, I’m gonna modify my scenario in response to MH’s point, and have the announcement come at some time tuesday night.
Blackwater trucks roll up, grab the machines and any other indicia of the vote, and sequester them.
The results of the congressional races are declared to be classified.
How do you like me now?
those were probably the ones I referred to…I’ve been waiting for a cancelled elections ever since 1972.(An index to my political perspicacity may be this discouraging metric :Every election purportedly jeopardized because the malefactors realize that the people are about to rise from their torpor like a wounded beast and savage those who have defiled the constitution have uniformly been held and resulted in rousing endorsements of the defilers.)
(it didn’t help with my problem any when the Nixon’s *“Huston” plan was revealed mid 70s)
*http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:dEqzUTNiD_cJ:history.acusd.edu/gen/20th/nixon01.html+Nixon+1972+Election+Huston+Plan&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=opera
I’m not sure that would be an insurmountable problem.
Presumably, the underlying motivation is to prevent change in the status quo.
If there were no House of Representatives, there is no impeachment.
:
I guess the first immovable obstacle is the debt ceiling–altho I imagine a wartime president can claim the right to raise it on is own, query:will the paper still be treated with the same respect by potential buyors?
Furthermore, since I am postulating an absolutely over the top shameless bush (art mimic… life.) what if he declassifies all the races where republicans have won.?
Why would he bother? Even assuming the President was mad dog crazy enough to give it a go (and making the even bigger assumption that he’d actually get away with it), what would he accomplish? Do you speculate that the people are going to rise up and throw down the RepuBlicans this election? Its long odds that the Dems are even going to significantly close the gap afaik. The Dems BARELY have a snow balls chance in hell of closing the gap…maybe even squeeking a slim majority (its pretty hot in hell though and snow balls find it a challenging environment). Why risk all the shit that would rain down for such a slight chance, Mr Goth? Since this really wasn’t a rhetorical question on your part and you believe its a possibility, perhaps you’ll answer the simple question…why?
-XT
Well, of course, there you are.
I believe I referenced above how many times the electorate has broken my heart–I confess that my pathologically excessive burden of serotonin receptors makes my thinking on the matter profoundly flawed
I am thinking that by the time the election rolls around, the waves of nausea generated by the promised concatenation of scandals will produce an “impeachment congress”.
One (precious blood of sweet baby jesus, let it be) already pledged by way of campaign promises to meet in the morning in of Jan 20 in the house, tcb, and send the motherfucker to the senate by 1.pm. The world ought not have to wait an extra day.
So the bumper sticker is to read "Pelosi for President in '07)
Now before you rush out to your local bookie and buy all the impeachment lottery tickets he will fade you, be sure and read my post about the elections since 1972l
History would warn that I my estimate of the people’s good sense and ability to know when they are being buried in bullshit is wildly inflated.
So yes, fling your cruel words, secure in the knowledge that this nation of sheep will never take their heads from under the covers where theyve been shoved since 9/11.
It’s TRUE. IT’S TRUE I am the optimistic idiot you chastise me for being.
But it’s an existential choice.
I live in hope.
I would also, tho, like to pause and contemplate what seems implicit in your castigation-viz, Bush ,having nothing to fear from these elections, need not avail himself of the ultra non-constitutional stratagem I fantasized.; That said, in an alternative universe where the American People have not forgotten two hundred years of glory, and lined up to become slaves, what would we do if he did snatch the machines, and declare some results “classified”
They have played the classified card like a violin, as you know.
You might remember that Watergate happened while the Democrats had nominated the weakest candidate in ages, and Nixon was heading for a landslide in any case. Why did they have to break in? Why did they bother?
indeed.
which raises the question, we regard Nixon as borderline nuts–how close to the line is w.?
Perhaps…in rhetrospect. However one must ask ones self…did NIXON think that? I’d say most definitely not. Personally I don’t see it as an apt comparison but YMMV. I’d say that if the Dems wrest control of one or both houses THAT would be a huge (and at this time unpredicted) upset. While its only in hindsight that McGovern was all that weak.
-XT
Certainly to get the kind of majorities that would signal impeachment trouble involves numbers way outside anything reasonably predictable at this time.
I wonder if it is coincidence that the two elections we have come to focus on, if only because of the personalities involved, also were deep into multityear unsuccessful wars.
The war fever skews the normal dynamics of politics in this country, maybe more than abroad. I say this because americans seem to pay less attention to the underlying interests served by political aspirants than the voters in Europe or Latin America., and are easily manipulated, the more so when their limibic systems are innervated by the whiff of fear, gunpowder and patriotism .