[url]www.continuityofgovernment.org/home.html[/url] Anyone know anything else about this? It seems a little iffy to me. like they talk aobut the good shit the media has said about it/them but one of the columnists that is saying the good shit is like a member or insider in the group. what do ya'll know and think?

It is very similar to what FEMA was created to do. Unlike what many people believe, when FEMA was created by Carter it's primary objective was not disaster relief, but the continuity of government during a national crisis.

The biggest problem with both FEMA and Continuity of Government Commission, is that the officials that are supposed to take over  the country are not elected but appointed. If this were to happen then the Constitution would be suspended and the country would be under martial law.

June 18, 2003 by: Phyllis Schlafly

Press and television channels have been filled for months about  America's responsibility to bring democracy to Iraq and other faraway  nations that have no prior experience with self-government. So why are some of the same people now trying to abolish the most  democratic feature of our constitutional republic,
namely, the right of  the people to elect the U.S. House of Representatives?

An elite group of former Clinton advisers and former public officials of  both political parties gathered last week at the American Enterprise  Institute in Washington to announce their proposal to convert the House of Representatives from an elected body to an
appointed body  in the event of a national emergency.  I'm not making this up; this  crowd has set 9/11 of this year as its target date to pass a  constitutional amendment to accomplish this goal.

This group calls itself the Continuity of Government (COG)  Commission, and the acronym is apt.  The COG Commission is  trying to be a cog that manipulates our constitutional process of  self-government.  

COG offers a "solution" in search of a hypothetical problem that  doesn't exist and may never exist. COG hypothesizes that it would  be a second disaster if, after a terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol  killed
most members of Congress, we then had to wait several months for special elections to fill the House vacancies.  

It should not be high on our worry list that the House couldn't pass  bills until special elections are held.  Almost every year Congress  goes about four months without passing anything significant.

COG proposes a constitutional amendment that would allow House  members to be appointed, a procedure that is now unconstitutional.  After painting an emotional picture of a worst-case scenario with  most members of Congress killed, COG is hoping that Americans'  fear of a recurrence of the events of 9/11 will bamboozle
Congress  into precipitous action, and H.Con.Res. 190 to study COG's  proposals passed the House on June 5.

COG draws a dramatic word picture of what might have happened if  United Flight 93 had departed on time and hit the U.S. Capitol  instead of being forced down in Pennsylvania. In fact, only a handful  of congressmen were in the Capitol that morning.

One of COG's proposals would simply give Congress plenary power  to fill vacant seats "if a substantial number of members are killed or  incapacitated." Another alternative would empower each governor to replace his state's dead or disabled House members
(e.g., Governor  Gray Davis could appoint 53
Representatives from California).

The text of COG's proposed constitutional amendment contains far  more words than the entire ten amendments of the Bill of Rights and  is a Rube Goldberg-like plan (i.e., complex and impractical).  COG  would require each House and Senate member to designate in  advance three to seven successors to fill his seat if it becomes  vacant, and the governor
would appoint Representatives from among  those so designated.

Each House and Senate member would be empowered to "revise the  designations" of his successors at any time. Thus, in the 2004  elections, voters would be given the task of electing a congressional  candidate to whom is attached several shadows who would fade in and out of the possibility of serving in Congress and
whose actual  appointment would depend on the
governor's choice.

Each governor's "appointment authority" would kick in after a majority  of governors issued a proclamation that an "emergency" exists  because a majority of the Representatives in that state are dead or  "unable to discharge" their duties. The process gets even stickier if  the disabled Representative rises from
his sick bed and tries to  resume the office to which he was legitimately elected.

James Madison did a better job of writing the
Constitution than COG,  whose members include Donna Shalala, Lynn Martin, Kweisi Mfume,  Tom Foley and Newt Gingrich. Our present Constitution already allows governors to fill U.S Senate vacancies and allows states to  advance their timetables for special
House elections.

COG's co-chairman is Lloyd Cutler, confidant of
Presidents Carter  and Clinton, who was also
co-chairman of the 1983 Committee on  the
Constitutional System that tried (fortunately
unsuccessfully) to  change the U.S. Constitution in a dozen ways in order to eliminate  our Separation of Powers. A co-sponsor of COG is the Brookings Institution, whose president Strobe Talbott (Clinton's
foreign policy  adviser) famously wrote in Time
Magazine that "nationhood as we  know it will be
obsolete" and that he rejoiced in the coming "birth of  the Global Nation."

The United States survived the real national
emergencies of the Civil  War and the burning the U.S. Capitol by the British in 1814 without  giving up our right to elect members of the U.S. House of Representatives. We should never relinquish that right.

Just seeing a list of who is in this fiasco is enough reason to nix it.

I believe this bears watching especially with Lloyd Cutler involved. I don't think this is good regardless of the logical reasons. Killing the patient to save it is still killing the patient.

Imbroglio had a link a long time ago that was to a sound bite of congress talking with Olliver North I belive, the subject came up about contigencies to suspend the constitution in the event of a terrorist attack.

They pretty much said STFU and we dont talk about that. Anyone know where I could find that?

The sound clip regarding REX 84 can be heard here:

[url=defendliberty.com/rex84.wav]Iran/Contra Hearings July 14, 1987[/url]

Rep. Jack Brooks: "Col. North, in your work at the NSC, were you not assigned, at one time, to work on plans for the continuity of government in the event of a major disaster?"

Sen. Daniel Inouye (Co-chair): "I believe that question touches upon a highly sensitive and classified area so may I request that you not touch upon that."

Brooks: "I was particularly concerned, Mr. Chairman, because I read in the Miami papers and several others that there had been a plan developed, by that same agency, a contingency plan in the event of an emergency that would suspend the American Constitution. And I was deeply concerned about it and wondered if that was the area in which [North] had worked. I believe that it was, and I wanted to get his confirmation."

Inouye: "May I most respectfully request that that matter not be touched upon at this stage. If we wish to get into this, I'm certain arrangements can be made for an executive session."

Commentary that follows is from Representative Henry Gonzalez.

Now I know why everyone wanted ya back.

Damn thats some f#@ked up shit man. Suspend the constitution, what would you guys do if the did that?