Ethel the Blog: Hold your enemies closer still.

Ethel the Blog:

"Allowing suspension of the elections on just the threat of a terror attack would create a hole in the legislation big enough to drive an oil tanker, or an open dictatorship, through. Since the legislation has not been seen yet we do not know what it will say. 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.
Judging from the news stories tonight we will probably see the legislation introduced fairly quickly. From the instant it appears, this legislation must be tracked daily, even hourly, at http://thomas.loc.gov.
...
This of course assumes that the debate won't be shrouded in the 'national security' cloak preferred by budding totalitarians everywhere, and that the language will be too vague (or exact, for that matter) for Scalia et al. to arrive at whatever conclusion is required for the cabal to stay in control.
posted by Steven Baum 7/13/2004 01:33:49 PM | link "