NYTimes: Crazy To Go Ahead With Election 3 Days After Madrid Massacre

[KittyWampus]

From David Brooks oped in today's NYTimes:

"I am trying not to think harshly of the spanish. They have suffered a grievous blow, and it was crazy to go ahead with an election a mere three days after the Madred massacre."

So there it is in the NYTimes. Brooks opines that it is crazy to go ahead and hold a national election immediately after a national tragedy.

Perhaps it's no longer tinfoil... and the Far Right is ready to go beyond the trial balloon stage and are actively setting the stage for a ghastly October suprise.

According to a GD thread here, Hannity mentioned this today as well... cancelling election due to national emergency.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1240186

Heaven Help Us.

[mn9driver]

1. Reichstag fire, here we come.

Time to get the passports all up to date.

[AntiCoup2K4]

33. No, we already had the Reichstag fire

That little incident in NYC that kicked off all this imperialistic bullshit. The PERLE Harbor called for in the PNAC agenda.

[MoonRiver]

2. And so it begins...

:scared:

[BootinUp]

5. I'm putting on

my :tinfoilhat: and I'm going to keep workin on you, just a wee bit too much paranoia. :loveya:

[MoonRiver]

9. Keep working on me Jim, please!!

I do worry so much! :pals:

[BootinUp]

3. They have all three branches of government

there would never be a better time for them to try something. But Americans can rise up and get pissed awful easy. It would be stupid to try it unless facilities were so damaged as to make holding the election on time next to impossible.

[MuseRider]

4. It was the very

first thought I had when I heard about the Spain tragedy. A trial balloon and now all the goons are setting us all up for it.

[in_cog_ni_to]

6. Well, we now know what their agenda is,

don't we. :grr: These people are evil. I don't use that word lightly. They ARE EVIL! and oh, so predictable. I knew this would happen if he was down in the polls and it started to look like he wouldn't win. We CANNOT let him/them get away with this. WES CLARK!!!! Help us...please.

[harrison]

7. Gee, didn't we have an election during a civil war? A. Lincoln,

where are you?

[NYC]

10. Yes, we did.

[AntiCoup2K4]

35. Lincoln's doing cartwheels in his grave

...over what the Republican party has become. And if they cancel the election, there may very well be another civil war. (Assuming that will finally be enough to wake up the ignorant sheeple)

[Ellen Forradalom]

8. No, it's crazy to toss democracy out the window when something happens

Why the hell is the NYT advocating that?

[Dookus]

11. isn't there a difference?

I'm not sure how they work in Spain, but aren't parliamentary elections rather flexible?

OUR elections are specified by the constitution.

I'm not saying Spain SHOULD have delayed the elections, but I'm guessing they could've done so legally. It would NOT be legal to do the same here.

[KittyWampus]

13. VolcanoJen's Reply On GD Thread

Here's what she posted in GD thread discussing Hannity's comment today:

No mention of a November Presidential election in the Constitution.

Edited on Tue Mar-16-04 07:50 PM by VolcanoJen

The Constitution affords Congress the right to name the date of the Presidential Election; the Presidential
Term must, constitutionally, end on January 20th of the four-year term.

There is a rather obscure act in the 1800s that names the first Tuesday in November as the Presidential
Election day, but such a date is not constitutionally mandated. I'm not sure of the name of the act; perhaps
someone here could post it?

The only thing the Constitution insists is that the sitting President vacate office on January 20th, the end of
his/her four year term. Congress could call the election whenever they wish, or simply suspend elections
and refer to the Presidential Sucession Act of 1947, in which the current (January 4, 2005?) Speaker of the
House becomes President...

[Dookus]

16. I disagree that

congress could cancel the elections and refer to the Presidential Succession Act. The constitution, while not specifying the date of elections, DOES specify that they be held (Article II, Section 1, clause 3).

[justgamma]

12. Would we have

canceled the elections because of the OKC bombings. I think not. No election would mean the terriorists won by interrupting a democracy.

[DustMolecule]

14. So, do we start writing letters to the NYTimes

saying it's not crazy! It's courageous! It's democracy! The country moves forward - not goes cowaring into it's hidey-hole...only cowards do that!

Oki, don't start saying "that's exactly what most Americans would probably do". We're better than that, right?! Right?! (Kinda reminds me of that scene from the animated movie "An American Tale" where the mice are having a meeting about what to do about the cats. The leader of the mice asks "Are we men or are we mice?" The mice sing out proudly, "WE'RE MICE!"

[redqueen]

34. YES!

LTTE's, comments on their discussion board, etc. etc. etc. Not only that, do as many call in shows as you can. People listen to those and will not be able to ingore this kind of threat to democracy when it's laid bare for them to see.

We KNOW that the mainstream (corporowhore) media will NOT be speaking against this meme. We must do it ourselves!

[ramapo]

15. Who needs election ahyway

Reminds me of those who wanted to appoint Guiliani Mayor for an extra year or two due to 9/11. Fortunately the elections went on as they should have.

[NoPasaran]

17. David Brooks is the same thug

Who slandered opponents of PNAC as antisemites a few months ago and later said he was joking. I wonder if he's giggling about this too.

[KittyWampus]

18. Yup, He Smeared Clark Just Like That

The NYTimes... not much of redeeming value.

Thank Goodness for Krugman.

[goodhue]

19. but if they had postponed elections would not the terrorists have won? :-)

The Spain bashing in the media makes me ill. Viva Zapatero!

[RichM]

20. I scrubbed my toilet bowl today, & it made me think of David Brooks.

The little flecks of stuff down there under the toilet rim, that accumulate after a few months...

[stopbush]

21. Kerry may need to get on this immediately, as he has BBV.

The best way to fight this is to challenge it in the political dialog ASAP. That prevents the RW from both defining the debate and building a consensus of "well, I guess that's how it will HAVE to be" around this anti-democratic idea.

It's an easy case for Kerry to make. He may want to start by pointing out the absolute cowardice of even thinking of canceling an election. He might then mention that those who would propose such a thing must believe that the USA is one of the weakest nations on Earth. I'll let JK write the rest of the script.

[DustMolecule]

22. Just a little....

:kick:

[Stephanie]

23. Brooks has to go

Brooks is a shill for the neo-cons and everyone knows it. He might as well publish under the byline Kristol Perle Wolfowitz. Why is he allowed such a platform for this garbage?

[DemBones DemBones]

24. Such talk is outrageous. The far-right worried that

Clinton would declare martial law rather than leave but of course he didn't try anything like that. No one in our party encouraged him to, either. It's pretty clear that many of these folks have NO scruples, would do anything to keep Bush* in power. Who care what the Constitution says?

Elections should not be postponed because it would interfere with the change of administrations. Remember how Bush*baby bitched and moaned about his transition needing time, the election must be resolved, etc.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Stephanie]

28. Is that supposed to be a joke?

.

[NV1962]

26. How typically anti-democratic to confound the disease with the cure!

In times of national emergency, vigorous debate is what saves the nation. No time like elections to bring out the best in people. And if you doubt that, look again at Spain and contemplate how, in a matter of mere hours, votes changed direction. People are stronger than defeatists and opportunists believe; democracy is more resilient than authoritarian wannabes would like it.

David Brooks showed an eerie bout of flirtatious premonition of fascism: if that isn't a wake-up call, god help you people.

[zoeyfong]

27. Brooks basically says no matter how wrong the Iraq war is, we can't quit

or dump Bush because terrorists might 'perceive' such action as a victory. I say I don't care what terrorists think; the war is wrong, and the spanish were right to dump their President and expedite their exit from it. The sooner we do the same, the better.

[dusty64]

29. Yup, this idea is coming

out ALL over the place all of a sudden and needs to be stopped dead in its tracks. These comments are treasonous and completely unpatriotic. Kerry and the rest of the Democrats need to be ALL over this and fast as its becoming apparent part of the rethugs plans for our October "surprise".

[KittyWampus]

30. Exactly, Normally I'd Dismiss This As Being Too Tinfoil

but that a regular writer on the Op Ed page of the freaking NYTimes would say such a thing got me a bit weirded out.

[enki23]

31. maybe the terrorists wanted them to cancel elections?

if that is such a logical response to such an attack, i'd imagine they'd thought of it.

[Snivi Yllom]

32. soooooo not surprising

[IrateCitizen]

36. OK... first, don't equate David Brooks with the NYT...

He is their token neocon op-ed writer, to eventually replace the token paleocon William Safire. His columns are consistently subjected to a barrage of hate-mail from NYT readers. I honestly can't think of one occasion in which I read a letter stating agreement with Brooks -- most of the time they just point out how utterly delusional and ignorant of historical context his ramblings truly are.

I'm not a huge fan of the NYT -- they're just too "establishment" for my real liking -- but David Brooks is certainly not indicative of the majority of what they opine.

[redqueen]

37. Sounds about right

We've got a hell of a fight on our hands.

The BFEE is now like a cornered animal.

We need to start speaking out against this ASAP.