Postponing the General Election!?

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I found this on Google news this morning about the Homeland Security Office looking at possible postponement of the 2004 Presidential elections due to a POSSIBLE Al Quaeda attempt to disrupt the election.

This is ridiculous!!! Even Lincoln didn't postpone the presidential election during the Civil War - and our country was split in half!!! Things like this always remind me of a quote by Benjamin Franklin:

"They that can give up an essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

I hope this is not true...

[ July 13, 2004, 04:53: Message edited by: Beren ]

 

Shows Bush knows he's out of the Whitehouse if he's trying to pull that stunt. The US will be under martial law very soon if this is the sort of things they're pulling.

 

This is ... disturbing, very very wrong - one day it's postponing, the next day it's abolishing.
I just hope that if bush somehow manages to push this trough, there will be massive civil disorder.
I find this a VERY dangerous step on the slippery slope leading to dictatorship.


(EDIT: typos)

 

I recall a friend of mine saying that the current political situation in the U.S. is similar to the situation in the late Roman Republic, and that the seeds have already been sown for the U.S. to go the way that the Roman state did.

I find that this ridiculous idea of postponing the election is a lovely example of what my friend said.

 

I seriously doubt that even Bush would be stupid enough to even suggest such a thing, Americans would never allow anything like that to happen and I'm sure even the Bush administration realizes that.

 

They won't do it - they're just suggesting they're considering it. The notion they're trying to float is that considering what happened in Spain, the terrorists WANT John Kerry to win. They're deliberately trying to associate George Bush losing the election with a victory for terrorism.

I would say this is a little low, even for them. But then again, they've already played the Hitler card - so nothing surprises me anymore.

 

Please...this is not serious...it is a deliberate smoke screen to try to source in on terrorist chatter subsequent to the announcement.

Hopefully, the terrorists bought it hook, line and sinker like the rest of you.

America would never postpone a general election...I know many of you wish to think the worst of the Administration...but really?

 

Take a deep breath, everybody.

You thought Florida's counting was bad? Well, suppose al-Qaeda sets off a pair of radiological bombs in New York the day before the election, and threatens to detonate another pair in Los Angeles the next day. New York City and Los Angeles are immediately evacuated while they identify the range of the damage and track down the planted bombs.

So that still leaves 99% of the country able to vote, right? For the sake of tradition it's A-OK to disenfranchise the good citizens of LA and NY, right? It would have to be a dictatorial Bush plot to try to postpone the election...although, wait a minute...the biggest terrorist threats are against urban centers, which are more likely to vote Kerry...so maybe Bush would PROFIT from holding elections on schedule and disenfranchising the big lefty cities! Yes, that's the real plot!

Can you imagine the outcry? Bush steals the election TWICE in a row - first by the Supreme Court, this time with the help of al-Qaeda!

There are reasons to postpone an election - for the sake of guaranteeing a free and fair vote for everyone. The Dept. of Homeland Security would be derelict in its duty if it wasn't looking out for the rights of all American voters - especially those targeted by terrorists.

 

Ah, maybe I'm missing the obvious here, but...how does postponing the election help avoid terrorist action? Are they goingh to postpone the election SECRETLY and not tell them? Genius! How will the voters know to turn up and vote?

EDIT: OK, I've now actually bothered to read the actual article and realise my comments are a tad flippant. But still, what is to stop terrorists blowing stuff up on election day, no matter when it is postponed to?

[ July 13, 2004, 01:48: Message edited by: Harbourboy ]

 

I do believe I'm what one might refer to as a Bush hatin', right bashin', alternate lifestyle supportn', premarital violatin', baby killn', religious blashphemer (all dat durn'd book-learnin'), but I do think its ok for the government to have a backup plan for election day, just in case, say... 3 commercial aircraft completely lose communications with ground control and say... veer widly off course. Or whatever.

Now if its just one of these, "the polls are low, lets skeer dem people into liking us again," things, where they just up the warning alert to orange and say, "we do believe there is a terrorist threat somewhere on Earth right now, from a creditable source, but we don't know when, or where, or who, or what will do it - SO BE ON ALERT!" then they'll be abusing and influencing the vote... but just having a backup plan isn't a bad idea.

 

*IF* any such thing happens, I certainly hope that the administration has more credible evidence of an imminent Al Qaeda attack than they did of WMD in Iraq.

 

If they were truly interested in forming a back-up plan, in order to foil a potential terrorist spectacle, what sense does it make to ANNOUNCE that they have a back-up plan? They could form a back-up plan without anyone knowing about it. And if they do feel it necessary to warn everybody, the manner in which it was done strongly suggests they're doing it for political reasons.

Alas, this is just more fearmongering from an administration with no credibility left. Any credible government would have 50 backup plans regardless of an open terrorist threat, and never make a peep about it. Because if your enemy KNOWS you have a back-up plan, they'll plan for that too, and any strategy you choose is already compromised.

God they're idiots.

 

Beren edited my post!!! WTH?!?

[ Only the large amount of punctuation in the header. The rest I left as is. ] - Beren

You did it again!!!! - Sir Bel

[ July 15, 2004, 17:30: Message edited by: Sir Belisarius ]