grouchy old primitive discusses football

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1893774

Oh my.

NNN0LHI  (1000+ posts)      Wed Sep-07-11 02:46 PM
Original message
 
This is not a be scared so vote for Obama thread but I have a serious question

Does it ever concern you knowing that President Obama is in possession of the nuclear launch codes? I mean does it even cross your mind? And like others I wish such a system was not in the possession of anyone. But the fact is it will be with someone. So forget the wishing we had no nuclear weapons.

So, knowing that someone is going to be in possession of this does it bother you that President Obama is the one who has it? For the record it doesn't bother me that he has them, but actually I lost sleep over the mere thought of Bush/Cheney having control of this for 8 years. But now I hardly ever think about it.

What is your opinion on this?

Don

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_football

Nuclear football

The nuclear football (also known as the atomic football, the president's emergency satchel, the button, the black box, or just the football) is a briefcase, the contents of which are to be used by the President of the United States of America to authorize a nuclear attack while away from fixed command centers, such as the White House Situation Room. It functions as a mobile hub in the strategic defense system of the United States.

Contents

According to a Washington Post article, the President is always accompanied by a military aide carrying a "football" with launch codes for nuclear weapons.

It is a metallic Zero Halliburton briefcase carried in a black leather "jacket". The package weighs around 45 pounds (20 kilograms). A small antenna protrudes from the bag near the handle.

In his book Breaking Cover, Bill Gulley, the former director of the White House Military Office wrote:

There are four things in the Football. The Black Book containing the retaliatory options, a book listing classified site locations, a manila folder with eight or ten pages stapled together giving a description of procedures for the Emergency Broadcast System, and a three-by-five inch card with authentication codes. The Black Book was about 9 by 12 inches and had 75 loose-leaf pages printed in black and red. The book with classified site locations was about the same size as the Black Book, and was black. It contained information on sites around the country where the president could be taken in an emergency.

aSpeckofDust (257 posts)      Wed Sep-07-11 02:51 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. Nope, doesn't scare me in the slightest. Even the President cannot launch missiles by himself.

CakeGrrl  (1000+ posts)      Wed Sep-07-11 03:05 PM
Response to Reply #1
 
7. I'm perfectly fine with President Obama having them. But as Matt Damon pointed out in 2008, it's the Sarah Palin types that should scare people.

The President has to agree with the Secretary of Defense, if I'm understanding the process. Would a GOP president's Defense Secretary be a stopgap to their crazy, or be in line with it?

blindpig (1000+ posts)      Wed Sep-07-11 02:59 PM
Response to Original message
 
2. No worries
 
I mean after Raygun, come on....

I feel quite confident in saying that the people who own this country will not let anyone get too close to the presidency who can't follow orders.

Now if the commies are close to grabbing the whole ball of wax, that's a different story. Not something to worry about in the near term, though by and by....

FarLeftFist (1000+ posts)       Wed Sep-07-11 03:00 PM
Response to Original message
 
3. I feel better knowing he probably wouldn't use them and am very worried of the GOPs willingness to Use them. The GOP is just itching to nuke Iran. which of course would lead to retaliation.

Romulox (1000+ posts)        Wed Sep-07-11 03:01 PM
Response to Original message

4. I have doubts that the nuclear arsenal even exists in the magnitude described to us.

I am not saying that we don't have these weapons, merely that much of our Cold War posing has been proven to be bogus, after the fact.

NNN0LHI  (1000+ posts)      Wed Sep-07-11 03:06 PM
Response to Reply #4
 
10. You don't believe we possess 14 Ohio Class submarines?

Romulox (1000+ posts)        Wed Sep-07-11 03:09 PM
Response to Reply #10
 
13. We were speaking of nuclear missiles, not subs.

backscatter712  (1000+ posts)        Wed Sep-07-11 03:03 PM
Response to Original message
 
5. I'd be scared seeing the Football in the hands of a fundie like Perry or Bachmann.

I have the vision of Bill Hicks mentioning this thought, rolling his eyes into the back of his head, holding his hand out as if it were over the Button, saying "Tell me when, Lord! Tell me when! Let me be your servant, Lord!"

Curmudgeoness  (1000+ posts)      Wed Sep-07-11 03:03 PM
Response to Original message
 
6. I cannot allow myself to worry about everything, and this is a non-issue.

I think that Obama is probably the most level-headed person who has been in the WH for decades, so I am not concerned.

Now if you would have asked me a few years back about this.....

JHB   (1000+ posts)        Wed Sep-07-11 03:05 PM
Response to Original message
 
8. He's the President. "The Football" has has been with them for decades now.

Frankly I'm less concerned about Obama having control of them than any other present (or recent past) contender.

sharp_stick (1000+ posts)        Wed Sep-07-11 03:06 PM
Response to Original message
 
9. He can't just launch them on a whim

there are several fail-safe points that have to be crossed. I started to believe that the fail-safes actually work when we made it through eight years of GWB tantrums without a single launch.

Can you imagine how close we probably came when shrubbo figured out that Darth Cheney was actually calling the shots. His pudgy little hand was probably slamming that button as fast as the neural connections could be made between what remains of his coke and scotch soaked brain and his arm.

pipi_k  (1000+ posts)      Wed Sep-07-11 03:17 PM
Response to Original message
 
14. If by being afraid he has it you mean that he would do something rash, no.

I'm not at all worried.

OTOH, I was absolutely terrified during those 8 Bush years. For real.

Mainly because of Cheney.

Rural southeastern Nebraska's (non-native) counterpart to Omaha Steve:

TwilightGardener  (1000+ posts)      Wed Sep-07-11 03:18 PM
Response to Original message
 
15. I do not worry one bit about Obama. But should a Republican take office, I'd worry--because let's face it, I never thought a political party would openly and deliberately wreck the economy for political gain. They've gone to extremes already in harming this country--why would they hesitate to launch total destruction against a perceived enemy, especially if God is telling them to?

[Rebel]

Someone help me out here, which party did the only person to use, not one, but two nuclear-style (nuclear, hydrogen, atomic, whatever, I'm not an expert like Nadin) bombs on an enemy belong to?

Not that I disagreed with him, but seriously, **** you DUmbasses.

[jukin]

Not until 0bama was elected. As he receives more and more reality (not affirmative action) the more I get concerned.  I hope there are many safeguards about how that football can be used when a narcissistic sociopath somehow gets elected to pOTUS.

[NHSparky]

But as Matt Damon pointed out in 2008, it's the Sarah Palin types that should scare people.

Something tells me the DUmmies do not recognize the comedy gold they create.  Matt Damon?  Seriously?

[Rugnuts]

which party did the only person to use, not one, but two nuclear-style  bombs on an enemy belong to?

DEMOCRAT Party. the same party that historical facts show is based on racist principles but somehow brainwashed the black population into disagreeing with history.

[USA4ME]

The "fear" with a Dem prez isn't that he will use the weapons this country has at its disposal to defend itself, but rather that they won't.

.

[franksolich]

The "fear" with a Dem prez isn't that he will use the weapons this country has at its disposable to defend itself, but rather that they won't.

.

Bingo.

[BlueStateSaint]

Not until 0bama was elected. As he receives more and more reality (not affirmative action) the more I get concerned.  I hope there are many safeguards about how that football can be used when a narcissistic sociopath somehow gets elected to pOTUS.

Let's not forget a phrase used to describe the Obamessiah--"active alcoholic."  When it's reported in the fawning, fellatio-performing media that your doctors suggest that you reduce your alcohol intake, you've got a problem.

So, a narcissistic sociopath who's an active alcoholic . . . and now the guy who "throws" the nuclear football.  What could go wrong?

[Texacon]

Patterson said Clinton lost the biscuit in 1998, but Shelton recalls it going missing in 2000.

"At one point during the Clinton administration," Shelton wrote, "the codes were actually missing for months. That's a big deal -- a gargantuan deal."

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart confessed in 1999 that Clinton had once left a NATO summit in such haste that he left behind his briefcase which contained the codes.

There have long been rumors that former President Jimmy Carter left the card in a suit which was sent to the drycleaners. That story has never been confirmed or denied.


Read more:
 http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/president_clinton_lost_nuclear_codes_aWHcCoI1BHQ3IdLWjjmooL#ixzz1XN5ufpO2

Nope.  Nothing to worry about there.

KC

[IassaFTots]

Something tells me the DUmmies do not recognize the comedy gold they create.  Matt Damon?  Seriously?

Matt. Damon.   

[Texacon]

Matt. Damon.   

 

KC

[IassaFTots]

 

KC

Hi5!  I freaking LOVE that movie!!!

[Texacon]

Hi5!  I freaking LOVE that movie!!!

I can't hear his name without thinking about that movie and how 'he' says his name.

KC

[IassaFTots]

I can't hear his name without thinking about that movie and how 'he' says his name.

KC

Me neither!

[DumbAss Tanker]

I don't believe Obama is actually smart enough to use them without the escort's help, which is equivalent to having a military veto over the launch even if the SECDEF, VP, and National Security Advisor (All political creatures) were to agree.

 

[JohnnyReb]

THE CODES ARE ON A 3X5 CARD !!!!!!!! Everybody knows that Brokedick Whosane
O-Bee-One can't read anything unless it's on The TOTUS

[BlueStateSaint]

THE CODES ARE ON A 3X5 CARD !!!!!!!! Everybody knows that Brokedick Whosane
O-Bee-One can't read anything unless it's on The TOTUS

But they can be fed into a teleprompter.