[Info-vax] Nice printers for OpenVMS?

[Richard B. Gilbert]

On 8/9/2012 2:37 PM, JF Mezei wrote:
> 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 ?
>

Do we NEED a mechanism to force an election?  The constitution provides 
means to remove a sitting president.  The Vice President becomes the 
President.  ISTR that the Speaker of The House succeeds if the Vice 
President is unable or unwilling to serve.  It is not easy to remove a 
sitting president and should not be.

I seem to recall that France, in days gone by, changed governments with 
the same ease and speed as most people change their under clothes!  ISTR
that several wars started and got well under way while France was 
without a government.