martial law

EGADS! I hope not!

Re: martial law


Theres a reason nobody will take you serious. You are in never never land, apparently bought into the Michael Moore mindset. You are totally disconnected from reality and have apparently lost your ability to judge human character.

Um... no.

It is in our constitution that the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November in years divisible by four is an election day.

They defy the constitution, grab some popcorn.

Besides, I believe Bush is counting down the days until he can get out of the White House.

Very glib replies, but neither even remotely addressed the question. I await a visit from somebody who can tell me how, if someone like George Bush wanted to suspend the Constitution and declare the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in years divisible by four to be simply the day before the first Wednesday, what could we, the American people, do to stop him? And don't give me that malarkey about Congress and the Supreme Court. We have already seen they are helpless to stop him. Keep the politics out of your answers and answer the question from a pragmatic standpoint. Remember, you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

We can't stop him from declaring it. He can say whatever he feels like saying.

We can ignore him. We're not apparently very good at that. But it is possible.

If the rest of the government goes along with it, it'll only be the republicans-- the stupid republicans (redundant, I know). It's illegal. We can sue the government (we are good at that), have press coverage, impeach him, etc.

And what, pray tell, have we been helpless to stop him from doing?

What have we been unable to stop him from doing???? Surely you jest. If it's really necessary for me to elucidate the myriad liberties that W has trod upon you are not "up" on the subject and thus not qualified to discuss it. But just for the record, didn't he recently state that during a state of war (even one he declared himself) the Commander-in-chief has the authority to do anything he wants toward winning said conflict? Maybe we're living in different galaxies. I don't suppose I should be writing this - "big brother" may be monitoring this thread for all we know, but what the hell, you only live once.

Why would he wait until 2008?

You do realize he will not be in office in 2009.

Let him, as long as he doesnt stop us.

The relationship between us and our president isn't that of servant to king, but that of parent to the little boy running around screaming "Mommy, I can fly," while we say, "that's nice dear."

Yes. In a state of war {State of War: a time in which Congress has declared opposition to another nation.}, the Commander in Chief may direct his armies in whichever way he sees fit, being able to bypass the legislative system.

I read the newspaper. More for the entertainment purpose in seeing what authorty does to people, but I still know what is going on. This is a 9-year habit still going strong, but I still can't imagine what you are talking about.

Armageddon - Your comment about "stupid Republicans" gives me cause to believe you and I are on the same side, idealogically. But there's a reason I joined Able2Know in 2002 and then found returning here easily resistable: I can't seem to get a straight answer from anybody from either side of the political spectrum on questions that basically can be answered with a yes or no. So I'll try once more and then disappear off into cyberspace (or check in on another thread, whichever comes first). The Question: If George Bush or any other power-hungry President decided to declare a war and grant himself supreme power and temporarily suspend elections "for the good of the country", is there really any way we the People could stop him from doing so? It really is a yes or no question, and my answer would be, yes, we could stop him if the Military were to rise up and defy their Commander-in-Chief; without the support of the Chiefs of Staff a coup such as this could not be accomplished. If you really believe that the populace protesting or suing or Congress and the Supreme Court objecting (hah!) or whatever would work, you're living in a dream world. And let me remind you: Many, many Americans - almost a majority - have admitted they don't care what Bush does as long as there are no further terrorist attacks on our soil. Go ahead an wire-tap and arrest without warrant and imprison without charges or start wars for whatever your reasons and do whatever you want - just keep those Arabs out of here. True, there's only been one terrorist attack on our shores since W took command (9/11), but are all the machinations of the far-right really the reason there hasn't been a re-occurance? Reminds me of an old joke: "Man 1 to old friend: What are you doing nowadays? Man 2: I'm in charge of keeping tigers out of Central Park. Man 1: But there are no tigers in Central Park. Man 2: Sure, now!" If you cannot answer the question with a simple yes or no, then Armageddon outta here!

Answer: Yes.

I'm sorry. We have a tendancy to back up our statements.

We really don't want the military to rise up against the president. Just look at Napolean, the Roundheads, Animal Farm, etc.

You, dear, are living in an alternate reality based on your own paranoia.

Old dog, I have also played around with these paranoic thoughts. But just because I'm paranoic doesn't make it an impossibility. Further, it dawned on me that my thoughts can't be unique. That if I thought something surely there must be hundreds, thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands who feel the same way.

What I have asked friends is "What would you do if the sunday before voting day, the president, with a great deal of prior publicity, announced"

"My fellow Americans, we are facing extreme threats to our national security. Recently, more Americans have been killed by terrorists. I have met with Senate and Congressional leaders, the joint chiefs of staff, and my advisors. We concur that it would be wise to postpone the elections scheduled for Tuesday. This will allow us to feel safer in our homes and not be victims of rampant terrorists who might try to disrupt our sacred elections. But we won't be intimidated by the threats to disrupt our elections. Postponing the elections will show our strength and resolve. They won't have any elections to disrupt. And we know how inportant, revered and even sacred our elections are to us. Good night and God bless America"

Inevitably the friend(s) will respond "Impossible!" " Crazy!" "They wouldn't allow that" etc. etc. After a great deal of blustering and protesting that it couldn''t happen, I would say.

"I wasn't asking you about what would happen, I asked you what you would do."

The final answer was always, "Go to work Monday morning., I guess..

Hey BillyFalcon - What a good feeling to know that we are not alone! I wouldn't agree that it's paranoic to postulate the possibility of suspended elections - it's merely taking the present political climate to a further degree....I hope it does't happen....if pushed against the wall I'd probably agree it isn't going to happen in 2008 (but I wouldn't bet my life on it) - but it seems you've run into the same wall I have -- when I ask my associates, "what if? What would you, what could you do?" they respond simply by saying, "It's impossible, it can't happen, et c." which is idiotic optimism with no basis in fact...but they never, ever volunteer an answer to the essential question, "What would you do if....?"
Me, I guess I'd just hope and pray that it wouldn't spiral into a total dictatorship and that the speech you wrote (outstanding, BTW) was totally sincere.

They don't need to suspend elections. They can just fix them like the last two. To incite a revolution would not be in their interest. They'll just replace Bush with someone else but the same people will stay in power. If they need to they can just push play and role some more Bin Laden tapes and well all react like pavlovs dog.

Besides all the moms are on prozac and tabloids, The men are drunk on beer and sports and the kids are all on drugs. Were all just marketing subjects.

So work, spend and stay medicated my friend.

Fortunately, they can't. No Bush cronie has a chance of getting nominated. Unless they fix the primaries....hmm...food for thought...

Hola, Amigo! I'll be damned! With all the thought I've poured into my "martial law" theory since Bush's second "election" it never occurred to me that another fixed election would accomplish the same thing. Good thinking! Of course, that still leaves my "what if?" question unanswered. The more I see how the average American reacts to the trampling of the Constitution, the appointment of Scalia/Thomas clones to the Supreme Court, the collapse of our infrastructure, health care, school systems, international prestige, and the ecology, the more I realize the answer to my question, "What if?" is basically "Nothing. Let 'em do whatever it takes to keep them terrorists outta my house. Ain't see any terrorist attacks around here since Bush got in, have you? He must be doing something right." Of course they don't have to worry - I can't see Bin Laden or anybody else planning a raid on Omaha or Des Moines. It's hard to fathom how people can be so blind, or dumb, or whatever it is that causes them to ignore all the truths that are so obvious to me and almost half the rest of America. How did people like Limbaugh and O'Reilly and Hannity and Coulter manage to become so powerful? By continuing to espouse fear, of course, and then by some twist of reason convincing the unwashed masses that the Republicans are the only hope of keeping us safe. I would like to propose another "What if?" question. What if Kerry or Gore had been President on 9/11. Does anybody really think they'd have done something different from what Bush and Co. have done other than staying out of Iraq? If so, what do you think a Democrat would have done differently? I'm an old dog and getting tired of preaching to the unreachable, but every once in a while I have to vent just to stay sane.

What truths?

Um... no, that's not in the constitution.

"If George Bush or any other power-hungry President decided to declare a war and grant himself supreme power and temporarily suspend elections "for the good of the country", is there really any way we the People could stop him from doing so?"

You wanted a yes or no answer: Yes

For whatever its worth, I'm a conservative and a Republican. If I believed that the Constitution was being subverted with the intention of destroying our system of government, I would be the first to resist. That said, I don't believe that the current administration has any intention of overthowing the Constitution, nor even if they did would it be possible under our system of government.

Thanks, Asherman, for at least answering my HYPOTHETICAL question. (I doubt very much that W has that on his mind, but....) Anyway, your answer was YES, we could stop a President who wanted to subvert the Constitution and declare martial law under the type of circumstance so aptly described in BillyFalcon's "Presidential speech" a few responses above. My next question: How do we stop him?