Rice Says 'No' to Plan for Delaying Elections

[Kadie]

Rice Says 'No' to Plan for Delaying Elections
Monday, July 12, 2004

WASHINGTON — The head of a new federal voting commission suggested to congressional leaders Monday that there should be a process for canceling or rescheduling an election interrupted by terrorism, but national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (search) said no such plan is being considered by the administration.

Federal officials warned last week that intelligence indicates Al Qaeda (search) wants to attack the United States to disrupt the upcoming elections.

"There does not appear to be a clear process in place to suspend or reschedule voting during an election if there is a major terrorist attack," DeForest B. Soaries, chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, wrote in a letter to Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the one-page letter.

Rice said the Bush administration, while concerned about the impact of terrorism, is not thinking of postponing the elections.

"We've had elections in this country when we were at war, even when we were in civil war. And we should have the elections on time. That's the view of the president, that's the view of the administration," Rice said in a televised interview Monday.

more... http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,125454,00.html

[ex_jew]

1. Bravo Condi

I guess the trial balloon sank. Good thing !

[w4rma]

4. ...

or maybe not.

[rustydog]

16. George Bush, prior to the Iraq invasion, insisted he had no plans

to attack iraq.
don't believe these lying bastards for one minute.

[Hoping4Change]

18. Agreed, I think this is just part of their elaborate con game so

when Election Day comes and they postpone it Condi can come out and declare how dangerous the situation is and although she has always opposed postponement she by the force of circumstance regretfully must delay it.

[hlthe2b]

25. Exactly..."NO PLANS" in this administration equates to "done deal...."

[Fozzledick]

34. Actually, "no plans" means "don't plan for the consequences, just do it"

:nuke: :nuke: :hurts: :nuke: :scared: :nuke: :nuke:

[Retrograde]

48. that's right

there didn't seem to be any actual plans concerning Iraq - just bomb the hell out of the place and expect a miracle to happen. Planning requires thought.

[charlyvi]

24. I think this backfired on them....

I think they floated the trial balloon and it blew up in their face. Now watch them start saying that they are only trying to PROTECT the Amur'can people against them big bad terrr'sts.

I could be wrong, but with this trick I think some fence sitters are now seeing the shrub fascistas for what they are. Hell, we didn't even postpone elections during WWI or WWII!

Edited for spelling!!!!!

[daa]

32. Sure it backfired

even OxyBoy said it was the dumbest thing he ever heard of, just inviting an attack, He said this is America and we don't postpone elections.

[charlyvi]

35. Damn Right

We don't postpone elections. Maybe the thought of this will bring some folks out to vote that don't usually do so. You know, the old "you don't miss it till you almost lose it" principle. Ya think?

[daa]

57. I hope eom

[stevedeshazer]

37. Yeah, I'm relieved

Condi always tells the truth.

[Snoggera]

2. Well, I guess that means there is a plan in place

Don't believe a word they say. If they say up, they mean down.

[Rose Siding]

8. It's called 'The Armageddon Plan'

During the Reagan era Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were key players in a clandestine program designed to set aside the legal lines of succession and immediately install a new "President" in the event that a nuclear attack killed the country's leaders. The program helps explain the behavior of the Bush Administration on and after 9/11

by James Mann
At least once a year during the 1980s Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld vanished. Cheney was working diligently on Capitol Hill, as a congressman rising through the ranks of the Republican leadership. Rumsfeld, who had served as Gerald Ford's Secretary of Defense, was a hard-driving business executive in the Chicago area—where, as the head of G. D. Searle & Co., he dedicated time and energy to the success of such commercial products as Nutra-Sweet, Equal, and Metamucil. Yet for periods of three or four days at a time no one in Congress knew where Cheney was, nor could anyone at Searle locate Rumsfeld. Even their wives were in the dark; they were handed only a mysterious Washington phone number to use in case of emergency.

After leaving their day jobs Cheney and Rumsfeld usually made their way to Andrews Air Force Base, outside Washington. From there, in the middle of the night, each man—joined by a team of forty to sixty federal officials and one member of Ronald Reagan's Cabinet—slipped away to some remote location in the United States, such as a disused military base or an underground bunker. A convoy of lead-lined trucks carrying sophisticated communications equipment and other gear would head to each of the locations.

Rumsfeld and Cheney were principal actors in one of the most highly classified programs of the Reagan Administration. Under it U.S. officials furtively carried out detailed planning exercises for keeping the federal government running during and after a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The program called for setting aside the legal rules for presidential succession in some circumstances, in favor of a secret procedure for putting in place a new "President" and his staff. The idea was to concentrate on speed, to preserve "continuity of government," and to avoid cumbersome procedures; the speaker of the House, the president pro tempore of the Senate, and the rest of Congress would play a greatly diminished role.

The inspiration for this program came from within the Administration itself, not from Cheney or Rumsfeld; except for a brief stint Rumsfeld served as Middle East envoy, neither of them ever held office in the Reagan Administration. Nevertheless, they were leading figures in the program.

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2004/03/mann.htm

[Tellurian]

26. Reagan, hardly knew what was going on in his administration...

Bush was the VP than...Reagan was all cover..

In depth analysis about 'the undisclosed location"-
pretty current too, F911 mentioned...

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/fema.html

[Jim Warren]

54. Exactly

Lies are the only truth they know.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. Careful, they pulled this shit with Social Security too

The public was against privatizing so they then pushed "voluntary accounts"..look for the language to shift from "cancelling" and "postponing to "rescheduling"

[librechik]

5. uhoh, that means it's definite

I've never known these people to tell the truth.


Her lips say "no no no" her eyes say yes yes yes! (or "im on so much xanax I can barely function"--can't quite tell)

[Beetwasher]

6. It Was Not Received Well

Obviously...

However, this is in no way any kind of guarantee that they still won't do it. That's why they're sending out Condi w/ this message, she's ms. "We never knew planes could be used as missiles"....They always send out Condi w/ the biggest lies...

[Joanne98]

7. This story is ON FIRE

It's leading on every news channel. Everybody says they need an "act of Congress". But can we trust the press? Anyway "heads up" for any strange moves from Tom Delay.

[Tellurian]

27. No, they don't need an act of congress...read here

about the other 22 exc orders ready to be passed in case...

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/fema.html

[Walt Starr]

29. Yes, they do need an act of Congress

under the law.

EO does not abrogate federal law and the constitution unless martial law is declared.

If martial law is declared, all bets are off, including this nation ever being peaceful on this soil ever again. Civil War will result.

[Tellurian]

44. We are on an Emergency Level status since 911

Bush can declare Martial Law simply by making the announcement

without an Act of Congress..

[Walt Starr]

45. If that happens we have much bigger problems

because we will officially be under a military dictatorship.

That is the only way he can do it without an act of Congress and chances are civil war will follow.

[sistersofmercy]

53. Tellurian, you are absolutely correct

bush* kept the state of emergency in place since 9/11. I've been yammering about this since last summer. General Tommy Franks did an interview for Cigar Aficianado back in Feb or Mar IIRC, was asked and answered, if there was another major attack on the US or allies, Martial Law would be declared and the election would be suspended. General Tommy Franks quietly retired.

[Tellurian]

59. Yes, thanks, som...

we're all waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Knowing Bush, he'll make the announcement during the night while we're asleep. After mobilizing and dispatching troops to every state a full 24 hrs before he makes the announcement official.

[JaySherman]

9. The first thing I want to say is, 'Good job, Rice.'

But my overriding thought is, 'OK, what have they got up their sleeves?'

I just can't trust these guys.

[shance]

10. It is not a *view*, it is LAW

I am amazed she assumes her view or the Presidents view is even of importance here.

It is the LAW and HISTORY that provides the REALITY and the structure of our Democratic government.

Not simply Condies *view*.

[Malva Zebrina]

Oh goody

combined with the news that Cheney's wife disagrees with him , nudge , nudge

as if anyone could care what this bimbat says or thinks , because she is so transparently stupidly STepford.

we now see Rice trotted out to defend her husband--err excuse me , that should read George Bush and not, obviously,her husband. She did refer to him once as her husband, but then of course we all know that would be totally off base.

and she quickly corrected her error.,

So, we now know, that she, Rice , is NOT the wife of George and she is NOT obliged to pay hommage to him or any man, because she is not married

Why is it that she is not married? Does she have a boyfriend? If not something is amiss. If so, why hide him?

[charlyvi]

23. She's not married to *....

No shit. You could've fooled me!

[bluestateguy]

11. Condescending (bitch) Rice

I really don't see how supposedly smart she is. She strikes me as rather mediocre and a relic of Cold War thinking.

[Generator]

22. You took the words right out of my mouth!

[seafan]

12. Just like they had NO plans on the desk in 2002 to invade Iraq.....

Yep, this went over like a lead balloon. They are always prodding at the perimeter of overt madness.

Thanks to all the DU'ers who wrote, called, faxed and visited their Congress folk. We may have headed this off for now. We must never sleep.

[TA]

13. Thats what Bush says - What does Cheney and the Neo-cons say?

"We've had elections in this country when we were at war, even when we were in civil war. And we should have the elections on time. That's the view of the president, that's the view of the administration," Rice said in a televised interview Monday.

But we've never had elections while the Neo-cons were in power.

[Skip Intro]

14. Isn't condi a known liar?

Isn't she just saying this to calm the faithful?

I don't believe a word from any one of these criminals.

[bluedog]

15. The tragedy is most people won't care

copied from poster on Yahoo.........my
feeling are the same.............look at the reported polls.with all the reports about the intel.the plume case....the weapons....the lies.....it doesn't seem to make that much difference to half the people........bushs poll numbers should be in the 30's.........hes at even or margin of error with Kerry.I don't understand why?


50% of Americans don't vote. Many Americans already think the President is like a king or dictator in that he can, or should be able to, do whatever he wants.

Unless said president is named "Bill Clinton", but that's another story for another post.

Americans have shown in the last 2-1/2 years that they are perfectly willing to burn the Constitution if it will help them "feel safer" -- even if it doesn't actually MAKE them safer.

If there is another attack (and how do we know that the Bushistas won't create one themselves for just this reason), don't you think most Americans will be perfectly willing to suspend elections? After all, you don't change horsemen in the middle of the Apocalypse, now, do you?

This is what happens when people don't understands the precepts on which this country was built.

[Walt Starr]

17. THERE ALREADY IS A PLAN!!!!

It was in place LOOOOONG before 9/11/01!!!!

It's spelled out in Title 3, Chapter 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Code:

Whenever any State has held an election for the purpose of choosing electors, and has failed to make a choice on the day prescribed by law, the electors may be appointed on a subsequent day in such a manner as the legislature of such State may direct.

It's up to the state legislature where the attack takes place. Plain and simple. If the state legislature determines that the electors shall be chosen by cutting cards, thats how it happens.

That's the law, and it's been in place for decades upon decades.

That took me five minutes to Google. Do these morans (sic) not know how to use a search engine?

[buycitgo]

42. you know that. they know that, because of Florida

this is EXACTLY what they're doing:

you can be SURE the event will be in a state (goine for Kerry, with pug legislature), and may not even happen til the voting is going on, Nov. 2,3, whatever

Florida taught/reinforced the idea that the actual power of election lies in the various state legisatures, NOT in the hands of electors/voters

remember that the FLa legislators told everyone in advance that if Gore won in Florida, they'd refuse to seat those electors, and send their own

remember?

what could be simpler, and easier to accomplish?

one state, one event, one more election stolen

do you doubt that for one moment?

unless, of course, they're already sure they've got the BBV thing stroked, like they did in GA

[Walt Starr]

49. I don't buy into LIHOP or MIHOP

I'm a LIHTI guy.

I think the odds of a succesful attack on November 2nd are very slim. I don't think there will be a problem and I know tht under the law we are covered for just such an eventuality.

Under the law, every state legislature could decide that the electors shall be chosen by a potato sack race and there is not thing one the public can do about it except vote out their state legislatures in favor of some who would allow them to vote for presidential electors. This has never required a terrorist attack under the law to happen.

Hell, every Republican State Legislature could decide they are only going to send electors for Dubya* and nobody has the right, or the power, to stop them save the threat of losing their jobs by being voted out. This option was discussed for a time during the Florida 2000 election debacle. If the Florida legislature usurped the power of the voters, there would ahve been drastic changes in the State Legislature during the election immediately following the debacle, and they knew it.

That's the law, There is only one way to change this law. Title 3, Chapter 1 of the U.S. Code would go away by constitutional amendment or by an act of Congress. To change the fact that the State Legislatures determine the manner of choosing presidential electors definitely requires an amendment to the constitution.

[Gregorian]

19. AND "We have no ambition in Iraq.".

Follow the money/power. And remember "up is down".

[Bluebear]

20. "No one could imagine us cancelling elections...."

Right Condi?

[Aunt Anti-bush]

21. I don't buy it for one second.

She's not exactly honest all the time. She proved that in the 9-11 Commission Hearings.

[Gman]

28. Condi Lies

we know she lies. We expect her to lie. We know if her lips are moving she's lying.

[daa]

33. Its funny to see her again eom

[LiberalFighter]

30. Since when have U.S. elections been her responsibility??

[peacetalksforall]

31. They do this every time. There is some belief they are planning. They

need to plant wrong information in their non-intelluctual base. I'm not sure what it is, but if various operatives state opposing opinions, then something is up. At this point in time it definitely looks like they are planting the concept that it is all up to them?

Then, go ask yourself why any terrorist would try to disrupt our elections if there was a chance to kick out the cabal. The terrorists say the don't like our culture, but they hate our imperialistic policies more - and they seem to also hate the Saudi regime - so if the Saudi regime and the Bush cabal and PNACers are partners, why would they want to disrupt the election?

Side question, if the Saudis own 7% of us - how much, if any, do the terrorists own?

[splat]

36. Charade

There's lots to play out between now and then. Don't worry about the polls, then or now.

Worry about overwritten files on election day.

[JoFerret]

It was a trial balloon and then she looks good

denying it. These people have no shame whatsoever. this is fear- mongering at its worst.

[JoFerret]

38. It was a trial balloon and then she looks good

denying it. These people have no shame whatsoever. this is fear- mongering at its worst.

[amber dog democrat]

39. Time to do the PR Damage Control shullfe

And have Condasleeza lie to the press for a bit until it all dies down - so they can try it again.

This was just a test to see how far they'd get towards cancelling the elections.
Remember this is an administration of a pRESIDENT said he prefers being a dick-tater.

[DemoTex]

40. Condi never tells the truth ...

Even by mistake.

[ibegurpard]

41. The important thing

is they are being forced to respond to this. The idea has been floated and has been resoundingly rejected. If it continues to surface it has to be beaten back forcefully.

[Dover]

43. What if it was the Congress that was attacked?

Would the rules for rescheduling the vote still apply?

[InkAddict]

46. Re Condi's denial: The 180 degree rule applies

Actually, she's being truthful, the plans have already been anticipated and written down - all that's needed is the impetus, so perhaps that's what they're busy planning - NOTE to Condi: It's not working......

[revree]

47. She wants to save her bony ass...

better say no, Condi, or you will get a big ol' bitchslap from every Democrat on the planet!

[rocktivity]

50. What jurdisdiction would Condi have over these matters?

Is she simply being trotted out in hopes of blunting the Bush/NAACP controversy?

:headbang:
rocknation

[TankLV]

51. Just like "I have no plans on MY DESK to invade Iraq".

That's rich.

And there were too WMD program related planning activities thoughts!

Got to learn to ask the right questions, folks.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

52. How hard was her head shaking "no" when she was speaking?

Did she have the quaver in her voice? Those are surefire indications she's doing some major bullshitting.

[truthisfreedom]

55. DESPERATE PEOPLE CO-OPT OUR POSITION, naturally. 8^) you heard it here

first, folks. the conservatives were dead-silent on this issue and only the Dems spoke up in Congress... notice?

[kohodog]

56. Condi "mushroom cloud" Rice

Need I say more?:nopity:

[Citizen Daryl]

58. THEY ALSO SAID THAT WAR WOULD BE THEIR LAST OPTION n/t

Don't trust these fuckers.

[General Discontent]

60. Traslation for the GOP impaired:

"There absolutely is a plan to postpone the upcoming elections."

DWolfman

[Walt Starr]

61. I believe that the "martial law" option has been explored and is on the

TABLE!

It's the only way the executive branch could possibly do this and give it the appearance of legal authority.

The fuckers are setting themselves up to become a military dictatorship.

[General Discontent]

65. Spelling....

it's translation......
The morning tea didn't quite kick in yet...

DW

[RebelYell]

62. Maybe

she didn't read the memo.

[jmcgowanjm]

63. What had been merely a rumor has now become fact.

Once introduced, the bill would then go into Senate and
House Committees (Republican controlled) where the
language could easily be modified to give discretionary power
to the Administration. At that moment the Constitution
would overtly cease to have any operational meaning at all.
The separation of powers would vanish.

http://thomas.loc.gov.

For almost three years FTW, along with many other brave
souls, has been saying that 9/11 was just the beginning.
Tonight it seems that the next stage – whatever that will turn
out be – is knocking tonight at everyone’s door. Do not give
up. Do not be afraid. If all this is true and comes to pass,
then everything is as bad as we have been saying all this
time. So we had that much of a head start, didn’t we?

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/061204_election_delayed.shtml

Why did Bush knock down the Towers-Jadakiss

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=545545§ion=news

[Walt Starr]

64. Title 3, Chapter 1, section 2 of the U.S. Code

Scream it loud and often!

The Executive Branch is trying to usurp Legislative and State Authority over elections! This is a POWER GRAB and would give the bastards an outright DICTATORSHIP!!!!!

[gate of the sun]

66. the way I see this

is blame the suggestion of delaying the election on someone else. Eventually saturate the country with this Idea......we don't agree that delaying would even be constitutional, etc. and then do it....I think it's all to diffuse the idea that maybe we will have to confront somebody on the future events that are being orchestrated on a daily basis. We all of us here for the most part are going to see and experience how this will be played out......For me I hope it's as painless as possible for all of us.