tekken

I was just wondering if anybody has heard anything about the "shadow governement" set up by Bush after the Sept. 11th attacks. I read about it on the BBC news one day but had never really heard anything from any American news sources. Basically it's an emergency parallel government set up so that federal rule could continue in the event of a catastrophic attack on Washington. Those taking part live and work underground for long spells at secret fortified locations on the East Coast. Check it out. Go the to BBC News website and type in Bush underground shadow government. It's pretty scary stuff.

warrrreagl

I don't understand why it's scary. To have a parallel government ready to step in and resume command sounds reasonable to me. Beats the heck out of anarchy, especially for the folks who have chronic diseases and need some kind of structure so they can stay alive.

Theatres have understudies and football teams have second stringers. Same principle.

__________________
Living is easy with eyes closed.

tekken

Think about it. There's a group of 70+ people that weren't selected by the people in any way to control our society. Stage a fake terrorist attack and Bush has his dictatorship that we all know he dreams for. I mean, he's already set up plans for post poning the election if there was another terror threat. I mean, how egotistical is he trying to push back the election?

CityOfAngels

If everyone knew that, then he wouldn't have to be re-elected; we would all impeach his ass. But wait, a guy who gets away with treason (exposing the identity of an undercover agent) can get away with anything, like brainwashing a bunch of mindless zombies that voting will actually make a difference, just like it did in the last election, right?

__________________
The words "love" and "life" go together. It is almost as if they are one. You must love to live, and you must live to love, or you have never lived nor loved at all.

mo42

So long as the Shadow Government doesn't do anything, that's fine with me. However, I think that if there's a replacement for all of our elected officials, they too should be elected.

I guess the only problem with that is that then the terrorists or whoever could kill them off so long as they had access to a phone book, but I mean, what are the odds? Plus, it would seem a whole lot less suspicious.

__________________
It's not getting what you want, it's wanting what you've got.

superiorrain

The only thing about a Shadow Government that is scary is the fact that you don't know who they are till they are needed. Just imagine Kerry wins the next election and Bush becomes President of the Shadow Government. Now thats scary stuff.

Just one more thought. It is strange that things like this just pop up and disappears as quick as it appeared.

Johnny Rotten

Sure, it goes against the Constitution, which is bad, but if we elected these people, it wouldn't be a very good secret . All in all, I'd rather have people I didn't elect running the country, rather than no one running it at all, if it came to that.

mjw

Well, I don't know if that would so much constitute a "Shadow Goverment" reall, as much as kind of a "Back-up Government". The really scary thing would be that if this "Shadow Government" had and exercised a certain if any degree of power, despite the fact the current government is yet in control.

__________________
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Fibrosa

I see it as a back up government, certainly not one that would take over. If any dictatorial steps were taken, I'd guess it would be easy to stop, by a lack of support.

__________________
D'oh!

pan6467

We have had rumors of a backup government as far back as Ike and the Cold War.

True, false... who knows, BUT it maybe a necessary evil to maintain order UNTIL there is an election of new officials.

__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

MSD

Bush didn't create it, he just made it public and official. The backup facility at Mt. Weather has been in place for decades, complete with backup officials un case the elected ones get nuked. If that happens, unelected officials in power are going to be the least of our problems.

walkerboh4269

Lets see... I back-up the important data on my hardrive, So a backup goverment would not be the worst thing in the world I can see happening.

However I for one would not stand for one second with a unelected dictaoral Goverment tear up the laws we live by in this country to declare Marshall Law.

Thats what guns are for.

adfaffasfd

Well, when you call it a "shadow" government, you make it sound scary. Its a BACK UP government like someone else said.

Im not sure you've got your shit right here though- are you reffering to the way all of our top government officials are sent to different secure locations in case of an attack, or is there a totally separate group of people undergound somewhere?

If there is, it shouldn't matter- its not like they're sitting in a dark cave researching weapons that could destroy the universe or talking to aliens or planning to take over the U.S. and then the world- they're just sitting there doing what normal people do, they are normal people just like us after all. They may be egotistical jackasses like clinton (or most other politicians), but they aren't satan possessed evil beings from hell or anything.

Besides, we elected our government officials and charged them with running the government, we should trust their judgement in selecting this backup government rather than freaking out about it like a bunch of whining cry baby liberal ass pussies.

ManWithAPlan

patriot act. there IS a conspiracy about september 11th, it happened - but not the way bush told it. he manipulated it so that he could get away with the patriot act

__________________
In the end we are but wisps

Gloves

Would That be the NSA?>I would think.(Patriot Act) Communications is what it all boils down to. Technology>Think about it!

ManWithAPlan

i don't understand your post at all..

__________________
In the end we are but wisps

hokieian

I don't think it's scary. Like someone else said, even an unelected government is better than no government (or worse yet a foreign government seizing on an opportunity).

I see a "shadow government" a an extension of the succession to the Presidency (except that each position has a successor). It doesn't really bother me that none of the people in the shadow government were elected to their position, because most government officials aren't elected anyway. And after all, if the President were to die in office, and the VP becasme President, it would be perfectly legal, even though he wasn't elected to the position of President (or to take it one step further, if both the President and Vice President were killed, the Speaker of the House would legally become President - and he really wasn't elected to be President)

If something did happen, and the government wer wiped out, I am confident that we would hold elections as soon as it was feasible. Our constitution is set up with too many checks and balances for a small group of people to overthrow the entire government.

ManWithAPlan

hokieian, althoguh you have a good point, i have to say... "running mates" - you vote for president and vice president in full confidence that the VP will lead well in the P's absence

__________________
In the end we are but wisps

tehpronking

It seems to me like this sort of thing should have existed all along. I mean, it's a logical approach to handling catastrophic situations that would otherwise cause chaos.

ManWithAPlan

except that somebody can take out the shadow government, eh?

__________________
In the end we are but wisps

tehpronking

Not if they're hidden/unknown?