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Thread ID: 7192 | Posts: 8 | Started: 2003-06-07
2003-06-07 04:51 | User Profile
Newt Gingrich and Donna Shalala amending our Constitution. What a dynamic duo.
Their bipartisan commission is a classic pincer maneuver. If it were truly "opposing ends of the political spectrum," then the commission would go into gridlock and go nowhere. But they seem to be rolling right along, two peas in a pod, fueled by Tom Clancy novels. Tom Clancy novels! Please, somebody pinch me and wake me up from this American nightmare. :taz:
Hell, just bring on the nukes and put this dead horse of a country out of its misery.
[url=http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030605-011649-8518r.htm]Constitution change urged[/url]
By James G. Lakely THE WASHINGTON TIMES
A bipartisan commission yesterday recommended an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would ensure the continuity of government in the event of a catastrophic terrorist attack on the capital.
That idea, however, has run into immediate opposition on Capitol Hill.
Rep. David Dreier, California Republican and chairman of the House Rules Committee, opposes amending the Constitution to allow temporary appointments to Congress in the event a majority of House members are killed or incapacitated.
"He just doesn't support the idea of a constitutional amendment right now because he wants to preserve the House as the only body where one has to be elected," said Dreier spokesman Jo Maney. "He obviously appreciates [the commissionôs] work, but he just doesn't think that's the right way to deal with the issue."
Only elected representatives can fill unexpected vacancies in the House, whereas such vacancies in the Senate can be filled by appointments.
A commission operated by the conservative American Enterprise Institute and the liberal Brookings Institution has been working for months to come up with a way to make sure the government doesn't spiral into chaos if the federal government is decapitated.
"Just a few years ago, these were fanciful notions, the stuff of movies and Tom Clancy novels," said the report, released yesterday. After the terrorist attacks of September 11 ââ¬â and evidence that one of the intended targets was the U.S. Capitol ââ¬â "now they are all too realistic."
**The commission included prominent Republicans, such as former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich of Georgia, former House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel of Illinois and former Wyoming Sen. Alan K. Simpson, as well as prominent Democrats in the Clinton administration, such as former White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler, former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala and former Clinton Chief of Staff Leon Panetta. **
The scenario imagined by the commission was grim ââ¬â a nuclear bomb exploding on Pennsylvania Avenue between the Capitol and the White House on Inauguration Day, when most of Congress, Supreme Court justices and future Cabinet members are gathered together.
"A one-mile-radius circle of Washington is destroyed. Everyone present at the Capitol, the White House and in between is presumed dead, missing or incapacitated," the report said. "The death toll is horrific, the symbolic effect of the destruction of our national symbols is great, but even worse, the American people are asking who is in charge, and there is no clear answer."
The commission's answer to such a catastrophe is an amendment that allows governors to appoint replacements in Congress until a special election can be held.
The Senate always has allowed appointments in the event of a senator's death before his term is up ââ¬â a solution that comports with how senators gained office until direct elections began after the passage of the 17th Amendment in 1913.
House members are expected to vote this week to create a bipartisan, bicameral committee to write new rules to keep Congress running in the event of mass death.
2003-06-07 05:01 | User Profile
Related thread in which paleolibertarian Lew Rockwell explores the benefits that would arise were we to wake up and find that a mushroom cloud took out DC:
[url=http://forum.originaldissent.com/index.php?act=ST&f=5&t=508]The Dread Prospect[/url]
This article is the one that caused Dollar Bill Bennett to condemn LR.
2003-06-07 05:13 | User Profile
[off-topic]
Speaking of Tom Clancy, I had an e-mail debate with him a few months ago. He said Jews and Blacks are jus' OK folks. I said nope.
Tom is a Republican, no doubt -- and I say that with great sarcasm... :angry: :angry: :angry:
2003-06-07 05:35 | User Profile
Originally posted by Franco@Jun 7 2003, 01:13 ** [off-topic]
Speaking of Tom Clancy, I had an e-mail debate with him a few months ago. He said Jews and Blacks are jus' OK folks. I said nope.
Tom is a Republican, no doubt -- and I say that with great sarcasm... :angry: :angry: :angry: **
I think I recall seeing that posted at VNN. Quite revealing, somewhat unsurprising, very disappointing. There are a lot of despicable Irish traitors and "Amurrican"-Rainbow Coalition-Jew-bootlickers out there: Clancy, O'Reilly, Hannity, Matthews. Hell, T. Kennedy. If only he was more like Old Joe.
2003-06-07 06:04 | User Profile
Back on topic:
Does anyone remember Reagan's disastrous attempt to reboot the old Civil Defense system when he was in? I can recall a few articles on it and maybe I can find one or two online.
The gist of it was this: Ronnie's top priority, in case of nuclear war, was to make sure the IRS could still collect taxes.
Just a little touch of "Morning in America" for you youngsters who missed it. Nothing's changed.
2003-06-07 06:16 | User Profile
Originally posted by Ragnar@Jun 7 2003, 02:04 ** Back on topic:
Does anyone remember Reagan's disastrous attempt to reboot the old Civil Defense system when he was in? I can recall a few articles on it and maybe I can find one or two online.
The gist of it was this: Ronnie's top priority, in case of nuclear war, was to make sure the IRS could still collect taxes.
Just a little touch of "Morning in America" for you youngsters who missed it. Nothing's changed. **
And all this time I was hoping they'd keep the postal system going, like in that Costner movie The Postman. :lol:
Reagan is another word for ass. Good luck collecting taxes from people who've been disrupted by war and aren't drawing an income. What are they going to demand of us? A portion of our survival rations?
2003-06-09 16:26 | User Profile
"The death toll is horrific, the symbolic effect of the destruction of our national symbols is great, but even worse, the American people are...
...drunk with happiness and having a nationwide tailgate party."
Good luck collecting taxes from people who've been disrupted by war and aren't drawing an income. What are they going to demand of us? A portion of our survival rations?
Possibly, but I have a feeling that you'd be allowed to settle the debt through labor. Arbeit Macht Frei and all that, but it's not evil when Uncle Sam does it. You got that, hater?
2003-06-09 16:49 | User Profile
Originally posted by MadScienceType@Jun 9 2003, 16:26 ** > Good luck collecting taxes from people who've been disrupted by war and aren't drawing an income. What are they going to demand of us? A portion of our survival rations?
Possibly, but I have a feeling that you'd be allowed to settle the debt through labor. Arbeit Macht Frei and all that, but it's not evil when Uncle Sam does it. You got that, hater? **
That was the way I heard it too. Essentially Reagan beefed up FEMA which is why the federal emergency people are no longer trusted. Presumably they have methods of rounding up post-disaster folks and making the "Republic" work one way or another. Popular culture since Reagan has been very suspicious about our Federal Emergency Management Agency.
FEMA was even the "bad guy" in the X-Files movie. :P