"...should any weapon of mass destruction hit the United States. The complete cessation of the Constitution will be immediate." The pal of the right wingers here, Michael Slaughter aka Micheal Weinstein quoted the Tommy Franks statement and went on to say he would welcome martial law to clean up America. Code Red will be synomonous with martial law. sneak preview... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
We let them govern because it is convenient We the people of the United States of America allow our governors to govern because it is convenient enough for our needs. When Americans dare anybody to come take their country from them, that anybody includes their own government. Ask the Second Amendment buffs what happens if anyone tries to take the country from the people. And talk about strange bedfellows ... when the fight is taken to the streets, the 42nd Avenue Brownstone Anarchists Molotov Grenadier Brigade will advance under heavy cover fire from the Springfield chapter of the National Rifle Association. General Franks knows well that if anyone hits us that hard, the administration and officers that failed to protect us, should they survive, will be fired so dizzyingly fast they'll wish it was from the main guns on the Mighty Mo. If there's a plague, however ... yeah, the people will buy it. Whatever keeps the sickies on their own side of the line, you know. Shoot 'em. Shoot 'em dead. It's just like that movie I saw once, remember? Er ... sorry. At any rate, yeah. We can use Washington State University as the bellweather. As soon as frat row is gunned down for a street party celebrating martial law after curfew, we'll know it's time to riot. I dare 'em to find out. People tend to like martial law until they realize it also applies to them personally. And then denial sets in, but that's beside the point. We have an armed, angry, and vaguely ... miseducated? overspecialized? ... mass of people in this country. As the war expands, will Americans be willing to voluntarily ration themselves to support the war effort? It ain't 1942 anymore. Given what people call punishment and draconian these days, martial law will last all of eight seconds. Or else it will be given lip service, but I guarantee you, drugs will become more available as demand skyrockets, and then nobody will care that there's martial law because nobody will notice ... er ... excellent .... Now there is a strategy. If the terrorists hit us, get everybody high.
Interesting. As I understand it the US constitution allows gun ownership as a bulwark against tyranny. IMHO any amount of armed civvies will have a very hard time stopping the US military from doing anything they wanted or to put it another way. Apache v Rioters place ya bets. Hmm Kent State anybody? The constitutional basis for firearm ownership may now be null and void. Dee Cee
so what would you like, Don, anarchy to prevail? cause that's exactly what's gonna happen after something like this.
Every citizen should not only have a gun, but also a rocketlauncher and a small nuclear bomb to deter the dogs of the neighbours shitting in their garden... If MAD works for the big countries, why not go CRAZY all together?
Don't forget the donkey carts And the donkey carts. We cannot discount the donkey-driven mobile tactical vehicle. Okay, okay, okay ... DeeCee makes the essential point about how far it can go, but I'm not about to put money on the rank and file of our armed forces actually carrying out a full-scale war against American citizens. When we run up against a certain wall, all bets are off, law and order are over, and it's left to the people to fashion their own futures both individually and collectively. It seems to me that the best thing is to never come to that limit. But in a country where filling out registration paperwork in order to own a firearm designed to spray ammunition randomly over a given area equals "draconian punishment," as some have asserted, and where we cannot "punish the innocent and responsible," nothing short of a plague will convince the people to shut up and take it. What, did someone just, say, nuke Los Angeles and bring down most of California, western Oregon, and western Washington with the seismic aftershocks? Do we really pretend that innocent and responsible good patriotic god-loving whatever-the-hell Americans are going to allow themselves to be "punished" with martial law all because of some Arab with a bomb who's not even ashes anymore? Or if Kim lobs a missile? Yeah, right, the American people are going to let some North Korean pipsqueak with an attitude bring martial law to them. We'll burn the country down before we let it be taken from us. We'll burn it all. People might think Americans are soft and bitchy because we complain from a position of relative comfort. But you don't want Americans scrapping around in poverty and desperation. Just ask the indigenous tribes. Well, whatever's left of them. We'd much rather bomb you from the comfort of a whiskey-stocked bunker a half-mile underground three thousand miles away, but if we really do have to throw stones and molotovs and gun down our own national guard in the streets and set deposed congressmen alight on the steps of Independence Hall and hire sorcerers to raise the heroes of past struggles ... well, we will. One of the reasons we pretend civility in this country is because if we so much as look at ourselves honestly, we can still see the bloodthirsty savages we were, and so badly wish to be again. Right now the society is looking for any reason to tear itself apart. In my teenage years, this behavior was tantamount to the Tylenol-suicide girls who would periodically swallow a whole bottle of something that they knew wouldn't kill them in a "suicide" attempt. I believe "cutters" are the modern-day equivalent of this empty-headed response to the self. Remember: if Americans can't have everything they want, they'll take everybody else down with them in their temper tantrum. An implosion of such magnitude as would result from martial law might actually be, short of mass enemas, what this country needs.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/11/20/185048.shtml Franks may be issuing a warning or floating a trial ballon to sense the ease in bypassing the Constitution entirely. Group think conformity broadcasts will tell you that only Bush haters do not approve of martial law. Martial law in the scenario of gunning down people who try to escape from a highly infectious quarantined area is defensible on some level. To declare martial law to eliminate all dissenting citizens is another matter.
So if one were in power and wanted the constitution gone, say it looked like one wasn't going to be reelected, then fake a WMD attack on the US and, voila, no more elections. But then, I suppose only the military would rule and the so-called elected officials would have to watch their Ps and Qs. Either way, the honeymoon is over.
I guess a lot of folks missed what Al Gore was talking about in the speech sponsored by Moveon.org. What is Martial Law? Well, mostly it's a suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus. It means the President is governing as the Commander in Chief, not as the Chief Executive. And as Gore pointed out, Habeas Corpus is effectively suspended in the United States. Franks is actually describing what already happened, not what will happen - although he's taking great pains to pretend that it hasn't. While I don't think the 2nd Amendment was ever really envisioned as a defense against domestic oppression - it was an 18th Century alternative to the maintenance of a standing Army, because a standing Army was perceived as a threat - lefties may yet have reason to be thankful for the Second Amendment. There's not anywhere near enough military in the country, no matter how well armed or how well organized, to take on an armed population of 200 million adults - assuming that those 200 million could stay united in their defense of liberty and not split themselves into two warring factions. As for a "weapon of mass destruction" in this country, we have one that kills about 45,000 people every year, poisons the health of millions more and causes untold environmental destruction - the automobile. I'll never understand why Americans are so eager to trade their hard-won liberties for a little extra security. They are about 10,000 times more likely to be killed while crossing the street than in a terrorist attack. But what do I know? I'm just another beer-drinking, Bush-hating southern white male. :m: Peace.
Maybe now the anti-gun nuts will see that owning a weapon is a good thing. It's interesting to see that the patriot act is out, Bush is in power, and we keep bombing countries that needed to be bomb in the first place*. So why hasn't a militia risen up against Bush and his cronies? I once had a conversation with this girl I knew, I argued that if the US ever enacted martial law that the people would fight back. Her response was something like this: "Bullshit. The people are too stupid to realize when they're being hoarded into a barn." She was on the anti-social side and considered everyone sheep. Except me... I think. *Because everyone agrees that that country should of been bombed a long time ago. *EDIT* Goofy don't say that; I walk to work.
perhaps an alliance with osama and his gang? invite arafat as a motivational speaker? castro? get the japs to outfit suv's with rocket launchers? fun times ahead folks.
It's not just this administration. I think the US stopped working as a political entity that had any pretense of benefiting its citizens about a generation ago. Thomas Naylor has some insightful, if not altogether convincing, ideas. Actually, to me, they're a bit fringey. While the idea sounds outright radical, we should consider the source, (a lot more qualified to speak on issues than I could ever be) and his experience in the former Soviet empire, once considered the number-two superpower - and yes, they spent themselves into military oblivion, just like we're beginning to do now. Perhaps a good start would be to go back to the Confederate states and say: "You know, you guys were right all along. You're free to go. Sorry for the little misunderstanding. Y'all have a nice day now." :m: Peace.
Goofyfish - I'm sure you're familiar with Gore Vidal's critique of the US. His account of the vanishing Republic should be required reading to my mind for all Americans. A once great political system is in desparate need of a revamp. I particualrly like his idea of a constitutional convention - you guys can decide an entirely new form of government whenever you want. You can get rid of the Senate, House and Presidency (And that awful electoral college!) whenever you want. It's there in the consitution - you just have to want it. Sidelining the politicans as the people sort out a new system would be the greatest message the US could send to the world (democratically). Certainly better than the invasion of Iraq.
