[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> yo... this is truly weird... Bush Shadowgovernment...

[Kathryn Aegis <spybunny@radix.net>]

Right wing cabal, probably not.  Very strange constitutional situation, 
yes.  While the Executive Branch has every responsibility and right to 
ensure succession, only one successor to the presidency resides in that 
branch.  The others reside in the legislative branch, i.e., Congress.

I do have some sympathy with Bush's secrecy on this, because of the recent 
incidents wherein members of Congress leaked classified information about 
pending military actions.  Still, if the agency managers can be prosecuted 
for revealing their whereabouts, surely two members of Congress can be held 
to the same standard.

And I have no real worries about a Bush/Cheny despotic dynasty in the event 
of a nuclear attack on Washington.  For one reason, I'll be blown away with 
everyone else, who lives near the White House but there's the little matter 
of what happens if the Federal government were to disappear -- the state 
governments take over.  Life might get somewhat fractured and strange with 
over fifty separate governments running the place, but the country would 
survive.  Long Live the Republic of South Dakota....

Yours,
Kathryn Aegis

At 10:35 PM 3/4/02, Paul D. Miller wrote:
>well... if the top people in the country haven't heard of Bush's "Shadow
>Government" what does that mean? Check out the middle section of this
>article where Senate Majority leader Daschle says he never heard any plans
>of about the "shadow government." Can anyone say "right wing putsch?"
>Given the Enron situation and the fact that there has been the creation of
>a "MInistry of Dis-Information" what next? Room 101 straight out of 1984
>Paul
>
>
>
>Ridge Refuses to Testify to Senate
>
>March 4, 2002
>By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>Filed at 4:48 p.m. ET
>
>WASHINGTON (AP) -- Homeland security chief Tom Ridge is turning down a
>bipartisan request from a Senate committee that he testify, his
>spokeswoman said Monday, the latest White House-Congress difference over
>the war on terror.
>
>The two top members of the Senate Appropriations Committee -- Chairman
>Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and senior Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska --
>wrote to Ridge on Monday asking that he appear before their panel.
>
>Ridge coordinates the government's anti-terrorism effort at home, though
>the programs themselves are carried out by dozens of other agencies.
>Appropriations controls much federal spending, including the $38 billion
>-- double this year's total -- that President Bush has proposed for next
>year's domestic security programs.
>
>``Your views and insights on the policies necessary to meet these
>objectives are critical to the committee and the nation,'' the senators
>wrote.
>
>Ridge spokeswoman Susan Neely said he would not testify because he is an
>adviser to the president, not a Senate-confirmed head of an agency that
>implements policy.
>
>``Assistants to the president work for the president,'' Neely said. ``And
>the president has spoken his recommendations to the Senate and House'' in
>the budget he sent Congress last month, she said.
>
>Byrd spokesman Tom Gavin had no comment on Ridge's refusal until the
>committee receives the homeland security director's formal response. Asked
>if Byrd would compel Ridge's appearance through a subpoena, Gavin said
>Byrd has not discussed that possibility.
>
>Republican Stevens' signature on the Appropriations Committee letter makes
>this appear to be a dispute between the executive and legislative branches
>over the release of information, not a partisan conflict.
>
>Last week, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and other Democrats
>asked questions about Bush administration plans for continuing the
>conflict in Afghanistan. That prompted some Republicans to accuse
>Democrats of politicizing the war, while Democrats said they merely wanted
>details.
>
>Daschle and other lawmakers also have complained they knew nothing about
>federal officials who have been working secretly outside Washington since
>Sept. 11 as a contingency government to guarantee continuity in case of a
>devastating attack on Washington. The ``shadow government'' was revealed
>last week by The Washington Post, and a GOP lawmaker criticized the
>secrecy surrounding it on Monday.
>
>``We have to have some awareness of this because, as I recall, we are
>number three in succession here and that might be of interest to them,''
>said Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., referring to succession to the presidency.
>
>In another dispute, Congress' General Accounting Office has sued Vice
>President Dick Cheney to learn the names of business leaders who met with
>the White House energy task force.
>
>Neely said Ridge has repeatedly met privately with lawmakers to discuss
>domestic security, including recent separate sessions with GOP and
>Democratic senators.
>
>Presidents often decline to let White House staff testify to Congress,
>citing past precedent, but there have been numerous recent exceptions to
>that practice.
>
>Byrd and Stevens gave Ridge the choice of testifying on April 9, 10 or 11.
>
>^------
>
>On the Net: Homeland Security:
>http://www.whitehouse.gov/homeland/
>
>Senate Appropriations Committee:
>http://appropriations.senate.gov/
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Attacks-Ridge.html?ex=1016
>306912&ei=1&en=3a1d4a1f8f20c83a
>
>Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
>
>
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