NOW Will You Believe Me When I Say They're Evil!?

[filkertom]

This is what it's come to: In the United States, on major media outlets, people are calmly discussing under what circumstances we should "postpone" elections.

No long rant needed for this one, gang. These mothers want to stay in power so badly that they lie through their fucking teeth about everything on a daily basis. And now they tell us that, to prevent terrorists "disrupting" our elections, they are prepared to disrupt our elections.

Impeach. Impeach. Impeach. Impeach.

Update: Today's Top 10 Conservative Idiots is a particularly vile recap of a bunch of other reasons why We Cannot Trust Our Current Government.

Comments

[zachkessin.livejournal.com]

You know, even with a terorism threat a lot worse than the USA has ever had Israel has managed to have elections. And somehow if we could have a presidental election in the middle of the civil war or WWII I think the USA can have one now.

[bluehamster98.livejournal.com]

Wow...

What's more, is that the administration has no proof whatsoever that any terrorist action is going to disrupt the elections.

The power-hungry ones who are talking so calmly about disrupting the elections are the real terrorists, IMO...

-Karen

[sylverwolfe.livejournal.com]

i agree. team bush, or CARB (hey everyone's saying carbs are bad, so maybe there's some validity to that after all) has hijacked our country, and dammit I want it back!

[specificocean.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, try talking CONGRESS into voting for impeachment.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I could pray for one Congressperson with the cojones to at least SAY something on the floor of the House or Senate. After the senatorial cowardice shown in Fahrenheit 9/11 (http://www.michaelmoore.com/), I ain't holding my breath.

Speaking of evil . . .

[janet-coburn.livejournal.com]

Does anyone remember Fahrenheit 451? The original?
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Midwest/07/12/no.book.burning.ap/index.html

Re: Speaking of evil . . .

[sylverwolfe.livejournal.com]

that's horrible. i read that article and got cold chills. also, i like to think that, as much faith and power Christians put in their God, if something offended Him He would burn it Himself.

Re: Speaking of evil . . .

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

What bugs me is that book burning is in the "offbeat news".

[poltr1]

Two quotes:

"When you become obsessed with the enemy, you *become* the enemy." -Ambr. Jefrey Sinclair, "Infection", Babylon 5

"Not even the King is above the Law." -The Magna Carta, and later, Sir Edward Coke.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but I don't think the first quote applies. This particular enemy has worked from Day One to consolidate their seizure of the U.S. presidency. And the king is trying to eliminate the law that would remove him from power.

[partiallyclips.livejournal.com]

The oft-misquoted actual thing Nietzsche said on this matter:

"He who fights against monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster in the process. And when you stare persistently into an abyss, the abyss also stares into you."

[minerva-fan.livejournal.com]

Fey and I keep saying this is happening, and people keep telling us, oh you're paranoid.

Remember that scene in Schindler's List? The one echoed over and over again, where a Jewish person suffers another indignity and says, "Well, it can't get any worse than this?" Remember how you felt, as an observer, knowing it could and would get much, much worse than those poor people ever imagined????

That's how I feel right now.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

The Second Amendment is the reset button on the Constitution. There is no legal precedent for delaying a national election. We held them during the Civil War, WWII.. if Bush and Co try to steal your rights, the time has come to take them back.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I hope to Christ you're not right. That's not the way it should ever be done. But I have this horrible lump in the pit of my stomach....

[joecoustic.livejournal.com]

On reading this definitely scary idea two things came to mind.

- One of their definitions of a "doomsday scenario" seems to be getting voted out of office.

- Wouldn't postponing the elections be another way of letting those who want to disrupt them win?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, that's exactly the point as far as I'm concerned. This whole thing is turning into a "kill the patient in order to save the patient" thing, except that the patient is our democracy.

Delay makes Cheney look like a pussycat

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Impeachment can't help us when the Administration's allies who are running the house are more evil than the Administration.

As I mentioned in another forum, there's a scenario even scarier (mostly because it's more plausible) than cancelling the elections, and that's having the elections proceed on the scheduled day, but a couple of large cities shut down for a trumped up terrorist emergency. Illinois, for instance, would go Republican if the city of Chicago itself were prevented from voting but the suburbs were allowed to function normally. We learned last time that they don't have to steal very many states to steal the whole election through the anachronistic stupidness called the Electoral College.

Re: Delay makes Cheney look like a pussycat

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

No argument. Actually, The Al Franken Show (http://www.airamericaradio.com) (renamed from The O'Franken Factor because the dig at O'Reilly has served its purpose) is going to have Molly Ivins on today about the Mouth of Sau- er, DeLay.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

My understand is that, at this point, even if we could get the House to impeach and the Senate to hold the hearing, there isn't enough time before the election to do so.

However, I could be mistaken.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

It's a pipe dream, I admit. There is no possible way it could happen this year. But if someone would just say something out loud... any media time at all.... jeez.

People Keep Telling Me I Have To Read This Guy, But When I Do....

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Shorter Orson Scott Card: The media, whenever they use facts 'n' stuff, are terribly biased. I also am biased... but, since I admit it, that makes me good and them bad (http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005312).

Re: People Keep Telling Me I Have To Read This Guy, But When I Do....

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Card is a brilliant novelist, but when it comes to politics, he's only worth reading from a 'know thy enemy' perspective. That's sad to say about the guy who used to host Secular Humanist Revival Meetings at SF cons, but it seems to be true.

[umbran.livejournal.com]

Before you get up in arms about delayed elections, consider this - We are not Spain. A major terrorist disruption very near election time could lead to four more years of Bush, who is generally seen as more hard-line against terrorism than Kerry. Would you prefer to have your elections at the normal time, only to have them lead to four more years of Bush?

Comparisons to WWII (where our home territory was not yet threatened) and to the Civil War (when travel and communication were slow) are pretty darned weak. The potential threat is a new one. When faced with a new type of threat, you'd be an imbecile to refuse to at least consider alternatives - even bad alternatives need to be thought over.

While it is true that there is currently no known clear and present danger set for Election Day, the government cannot wait until a danger is known before considering how to deal with it. Elections can't be held (or moved) at the drop of a hat. The amount of coordinated planning required is considerable.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Not applicable. When the Spanish explosion occurred, the government made a big point of saying it was the work of ETA, a domestic terrorist group. Turned out that it was likely al-Qaeda. The Spanish people, already not in favor of the ruling Popular Party's support of the US invasion of Iraq, voted them out because they lied about who did it, and then tried to cover up the fact that they lied.

And, call me an imbecile if you must, but any option that takes away or "delays" our right to vote is the greatest threat to our entire way of life that we will ever face.

Let's say al-Qaeda hits on Election Day, or just before. What did BushCo do to stop 'em? Not enough, apparently. Why should we keep them in power, when they keep saying that they're the only ones who can stop the terrorists?

Which makes me think there may be a failed terrorist attack very close to Election Day, to show how good 'n' manly Our Team is.

I especially disagree with your last paragraph. The idea is to actually do good and useful things, not politically motivated, hoarding-power things, to benefit and protect our country. Our current "leaders", so willing to manipulate the population through fear and ignorance, will, I suspect, do as much as possible to have everybody in Chicken Little Mode for as long as possible, never mind the elections.

Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull an election outta my hat!

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

Ah, would that I could repond as Rocky always did: But That Trick Never Works.

My personal take on this is that either (a) this will result in a huge outcry, in which case Bonzo the Shrub holds a press conference to announce that We Will Not Be Cowed -- resulting in a huge spike in popularity...or (b) nobody protests at all, and hey, BushCo gets another free pass.

[mrfnord.livejournal.com]

According to political apocrypha, in 1972 Richard Nixon commissioned the RAND Corporation to write a report on the feasability of postponing the elections due to unspecified terrorist threats. RAND got back to Nixon with the response, "Are you out of your fucking mind?!" Nixon dropped the idea, and the elections went ahead as planned.

...I never thought I would ever say this, but man I wish Nixon was President.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Hey. We're talking a ten-years-undead (expletive deleted) who thought G. Gordon Liddy was the bees' knees.

Damn. You're right. It is a tough call, innit?

[omimouse.livejournal.com]

I'll freely admit it: I'm scared. Scared, upset, and angry. I've written letters, I've pointed people towards information on what Bush and Co. are doing; hell, if I thought it would make a difference, I'd dance naked through the streets of D.C. During a thunderstorm. In the winter.

I have no idea what to do anymore. I'll vote, providing that there's an election. AS a family, we literally just managed to crawl back into being in the black. We have no finacial support to give, or we'd be giving it. I'm scared. I'm watching the train, and it's heading straight at me. Cliff that goes straight up on one side of me, and a ten-mile drop on the other.

If we had to have a Republican in the White House, why couldn't it have been Dole, or McCain?

[brianh]

A conservative- well, fiscal conservative- friend of mine (yes, despite being a rabid liberal, I have them. Most of them are libretarian and similar) made a good point to me when I panicked about this when I first heard. He pointed out that it would be important to have plans in place just in case a major population center got hit or, worse yet, a candidate got kacked. I guess Cheney would default in in the absence of Bush, but if Kerry got killed, I might support a delay.

Might. The thing is- and it's what I told him- the idea of *this* presidency, *this* administration- hell, *this* congress doing anything of the sort scares the living hell out of me. I abhorred most of the policies of Reagan (once I was old enough to understand them) and Bush Sr., but, despite the fact that I know that they were both involved in dirty pool while in office- I'd *trust* them if a delay were necessary. I'd still be suspicious, but it wouldn't make me run for the border.

I don't trust the current administration to handle *regular* voting, let alone a suspended election. I *can't*. It's not just that they lie- it's that every time they lie, it's to suspend more and more of our freedom. I can understand, if not like, lying to cover-your-ass. It happens- hell, Clinton did it, admittedly about things less serious than arms-running- and even if it's unpleasant, when it's found out, you can vote the bastards out. But Bush's people have acted time and time again to restrict our freedom. Hell, they've made the argument that his position as Commander in Chief makes him above the law during times of war. I cannot trust this administration to act for my safety, let alone my freedom.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Definitely, except for one thing, proven time and time again over the past four years.... we can't even trust this administration to lie competently. I wouldn't give Dubya a deflated beach ball with the admonition not to shatter it.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Brrrrrrrrrr.

[batyatoon]

If I hadn't already believed they were evil, I'm not sure this would convince me. Of course, if I hadn't already believed they were evil, I'd have to be wearing permanently implanted rose-colored contact lenses.

But yeah. I am deeply, deeply frightened.

Also, to address a question in a different comment: Four more years of Bush is not too high a price to pay for a fair and timely election in '04 ... provided we also have a fair and timely election in '08.