[extropy-chat] Politics: US talks of suspending elections

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Rik van Riel <riel at surriel.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 17 Jul 2004, J. Andrew Rogers wrote:
> 
> > This is nonsense, and the only people who have floated the idea are
> the
> > Democrats.  It is nothing more than a ploy to spread FUD
> pre-election.
> 
> I'm glad to hear it's nonsense.  One detail is different,
> though - the rumor has reached me through ex-army people,
> from reasonably high up in the hierarchy...

One thing to be aware of: the military is not entirely without
politics. Most of the best commands go to officers who are graduates of
the service academies, rather than ROTC or OTS. Career officers tend to
develop friendships with career politicians who appointed them to their
academy in the first place, even though most politicians have
appointees officially selected by 'non-partisan' committees of
constituents.

This is one of the crossover points of the military industrial complex.
Defense conglomerates own congressmen and Senators via campaign
contributions, while the politicians own the careers of military
officers who decide what weapons systems to buy.

I'd put good money on a bet that many of the high ranking Army people
your story originates from were generally appointed by liberal
democrats. It's also a pretty good bet that those people are not in
real decision making positions on this issue... of course, if they are
"ex-Army" people, they have no decision in the process at all... just
RIFFed-out troopers spewing barracks scuttlebutt with a likely accuracy
of zero.

=====
Mike Lorrey
Chairman, Free Town Land Development
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                         -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Sadomikeyism


		
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