"Lawmakers Want No Election Postponements"

[GreenPartyVoter]

WASHINGTON (AP) - House leaders called Monday for Congress to affirm that presidential elections, to be held this year on Nov. 2, will never be postponed because of a terrorist attack.

The move comes after the chairman of a federal election commission suggested to congressional leaders last week that there should be a process for canceling or rescheduling an election interrupted by terrorism. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said the administration is considering no such plan.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge recently warned that intelligence indicates that the al-Qaida terrorist network wants to disrupt the upcoming elections.

A congressional resolution by Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Administration Committee, says "the actions of terrorists will never cause the date of any presidential election to be postponed" and "no single individual or agency should be given the authority to postpone the date of a presidential election."

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040720/D83U6M4O2.html

[Webster Green]

1. First thing I've heard from a repuke that I agree with! (n/t)

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Let's just hope the Congress has enough power left to do something about

it if King George tries to pull a stunt of that nature.

[Mountainman]

3. Do to the chatter of terrorist threats, Congress will be postponed

[olddem43]

4. Bushco wouldn't dare -

That would be the best reason ever to vote against him, even for non-political people. Even the very idea has enough people hacked off. This was probably an ill-advised trial balloon that didn't fly.

[davekriss]

5. Beware the setup!

From Wayne Madsen's Terrorism and the election: No postponement, just bedlam at the polls and a low turnout on the West Coast is Bush's plan for "victory"

... The idea of terrorism affecting the election was first proffered by the Reverend DeForest B. Soaries, Jr, the Bush-appointed chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Soaries is a right-wing former New Jersey Republican Secretary of State who has been living under the small "fanatics only" revival tent of the Christian fundamentalist crowd for some time. Soaries's job is to ensure that there is no repeat of the 2000 Florida fiasco. However, he and his friends in the Bush administration (read that as Karl Rove and Tom DeLay primarily) may have their eyes set on causing a major West Coast electoral disruption in 2004 that will make Florida 2000 look like a minor glitch by comparison.

As expected, suspecting a Bush conspiracy to cancel the election and remain in power until a determination would be made by Homeland Fuhrer Tom Ridge that an election was safe, the moderate, liberal, progressive, and libertarian communities cried foul. Postponing an election without a constitutional amendment would be a major breach of the Constitution (not that Bush has ever worried about his constitutional oath) and that would be impossible with only a little over three months before Election Day. Those who respect our Constitution pointed to the fact that President Abraham Lincoln did not cancel the 1864 presidential election during the Civil War—a war which saw this nation more at danger than it is during the current cable news bite-driven and somewhat sensationalist "Global War on Terrorism.

Madsen then goes on to describe a poll disruption campaign in key states with use of a "Red" terrorist alert from HSA. The intent is to keep Democrats away from the polls via the ensuing chaos. This, after the Democrats expressed their outrage all summer at GWB's* suggestion that the election be cancelled or postponed if a terrorist event occurs. Bush* will concede the point. And Bush* wins.

That is what all this talk about a terrorist attack on Election Day is about. It is to prime the population and allow Bush surrogates at Fox News, CNN, and MS-NBC to begin their perception management campaign that an attack will occur around the election. But there will be no postponement of the election or cancellation—this is simply another plan to manipulate the public through the use of phony threats and fear tactics. The problem is that it just might work for Bush and his cabal of "the ends justify the means" manipulators.

<snip>

To paraphrase James Carville, "It's California and the voter turnout, stupid!" Forget about canceling or postponing the election. Keep your eye on a "Red Terrorist Alert" on the West Coast for Election Day. That doesn't take a constitutional amendment, merely an okay from Bush and his homeland security team. They must be stopped—the future of this nation is at stake!