[Info-vax] Nice printers for OpenVMS?

[JF Mezei]

Bob Koehler wrote:

>    But how would you overthrow a violent government without arms? 

A referendum to end the current government's mandate and trigger elections.

Didn't California use such a mechanism to end Brown's tenure and install
the Terminator as governor ?

In Canada, during the 1970 FLQ crisis, the then Liberal government went
slightly overboard with the war measures act sending the military to
roam montreal streets, search a political party's offices (the
terrorists who had kidnapped politicians were supportive of the Parti
Québécois)
.
There are rumours that the Governor General (the official head of state)
was approached by military leaders to discuss disolving the government
because it was thought by many that they had gone overboard.  The crisis
ended before this could happen.

But there is a mechanism where the governor general (or the queen) can
disolve a government or refuse a law. It is meant exactly to handle the
very rare occurance of a rogue government gone nuts. During normal
times, the Governor General is a ceremonious post where he/she rubber
stamps laws and never interferes in the business of an elected
government.  But the safety valve exists within the GG's mandate.

Australia has seen an event where, because the government was incapable
of passing any law (minority govt), the governor general decided to
disolve the government and call an election.


As I recall, the USA has a mechanism to impeach a president (which, if
succesfull, makes the VP the new president), but there is no democratic
mechanism to force an early election.

And I have to wonder however how an armed civilian group could overthrow
a government. Kill the president and all congressmen/senators ?