The Election That Might Not Happen
Posted by Xeno on March 7, 2008
In 2000 Bush and Cheney stole the election in Florida. In 2004 they played dirty tricks in Ohio. In 2008 could they go one step further — and suspend the election altogether?The necessary architecture may already be in place. On May 4 last year, the White House issued the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, key parts of which remain classified and hence shrouded from public view. The directive outlines procedures to respond to a “catastrophic emergency,” defined broadly as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.” Of course previous administrations also had emergency plans. But the Bush directive transfers power from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to the White House, where the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism is assigned the job of “National Continuity Coordinator”….The assassination of a presidential candidate. Obama evokes memories of JFK and Martin Luther King. The bullet could come from a lone racist, a terrorist, or an agent of a state. The threat is real. The Secret Service knows it and so should we.
A terrorist strike, on the scale of 9/11 or worse. Again, not so far-fetched. Bush and Cheney have been Osama bin Laden’s greatest recruiters, making the U.S. appear to be the enemy of millions across the world. Al Qaeda may consider that regime change in the U.S. is not in their interest.
With the right spin, any of these events might be construed as a “catastrophic emergency.” - mparent
These worst-case scenarios probably will not come to pass. We’ll probably all be able to sleep peacefully in our beds in the early hours of November 5, after watching the election results on TV. The value of worst-case scenarios lies not in their accurate prediction of events, but rather in what they tell us about the risks we face.
March 8, 2008 at 11:36 pm
A “catastrophic” event could be “any incident, regardless of location”, which means anywhere in the world where there are “extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption” which could be interpreted as directly or indirectly “affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions” blah, blah, blah.
Yeap, there will be no 2008 elections. Do you think Bush & Co. would even let Obama near the White House?
Either that or, just as after 9-11, everyone would hop aboard McCain’s militarization platform out of fear and the USA will continue its God-awful foreign policies.
You know, I really, really wish, as Bush says, that “God bless[es] America” and get rid of America’s desire for death and destruction.