Constitutional Crisis

The state of TIAH

March 22nd, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: I promised you a collection, and we are working on it – but real life is getting in the way. Fortunately, the worst part of the real-life problems we were having has been resolved. I have found new employment (yay!). We're going to aim for an April release for the collection, and will make more announcements about it as we draw closer to actually making that a reality. And, speaking of April, our Guest Historian, Stephen Payne, suggested that it was time for a contest, so we're going to have an April Fool's Day Contest! Email us up to 3 entries for an alternate April 1st and we will post the best 10, with your own credit and link to your website (if you have one). My lovely Co-Historian says that if we can get 30 entrants, we can offer an ultimate winner a complimentary TIAH mug, but we only have 3 entrants so far! Get researching those alternate histories now, folks! The deadline is March 29th.

in 1956, television writer and archivist Peggy Dale Taylor is born in Bryan, Texas. In addition to her freelance work on several television series, she is best-known for her complete histories of Starsky & Hutch, T.J. Hooker and Star Trek. She is a fixture at many fan conventions around the southwest and is often used as a fan liaison by the television networks.

in 1972, after the overwhelming passage of the Equal Rights Amendment by the US Congress, feminists across the country gear up for the state-by-state ratification process. Their years of preparation for this process pay off as 37 states immediately place the amendment on their legislative dockets. In 1973, after much spirited debate, Tennessee becomes the 38th state to take up the ERA, and ratification by the state places protection for both genders into the constitution.

in 2007, President George Bush instructs his staff to disregard the subpoenas to appear before Congress to explain their actions in a growing number of scandals. Even his fellow Republicans are upset with him over this, but they don't see how far he is willing to go. When Attorney General Alberto Gonzales essentially refuses to enforce a subpoena on himself, Congress turns to their Sergeant-at-Arms. Former Secret Service agent Bill Livingood makes contact with his old colleagues before heading over to the White House, and is told that the SS men around the Bush administration will probably not let him take anyone into custody. He attempts to execute the subpoenas anyway, and is thrown out of the White House and roughed up. This insult outrages the vast majority of Congressmen, and the House takes up impeachment proceedings against Gonzales. With virtually no friends on either side of the aisle, Gonzales is impeached and ordered removed from office within the week. However, President Bush refuses to acknowledge the Congress' power to impeach his attorney general. “We're at war, and I'm the commander-in-chief,” he says to a group of reporters coming to see Gonzales' expected exit. “In order to preserve our national security, I need the best team possible around me, and Attorney General Gonzales is part of that team. He's not goin' anywhere.” When Vice President Cheney attends his usual meeting with Republicans in the Senate the next day, he is given an earful by Senators who are unhappy with being ignored. Several of them are also somewhat fearful of their election chances – their party's standing at a 21% approval rate, and Bush himself is down to 12%. Rather unhelpfully, he tells them to “Grow a pair,” and storms off. House Speaker Pelosi calls for articles of impeachment against the Vice President and President, which Bush goes on national television to denounce. A firestorm of protest swirls around the capitol, the majority of which is very pro-impeachment. The House passes the articles, and the Senate trial is merely a matter of formality – the vote against Cheney is 90-9, and the vote to remove Bush is 71-28, with Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota unable to attend the vote. Speaker Pelosi takes the presidential oath of office and heads a large delegation of Congressmen and protesters to the White House. The Pentagon, contacted by Bush, refuses to send soldiers to his aid, and most of the Secret Service goes over to Pelosi when she enters the White House. Cheney flees the country, flying in his personal jet to the new Halliburton headquarters in Dubai. A significant minority of the population continues to support Bush, and he escapes Washington to their warm embrace in the western US. For years afterward, the Bushistas, as they become known, agitate for separation from the larger country around them. When the former president dies in 2014, their numbers fade to nothing and one of the nation's darkest chapters is brought to a close.

Memorial	In 1621 with the pilots suffering from the melancholy of exclusion emanating from First Nation group consciousness, the Mayflower and Speedwell ..
.. run aground as the Pilgrims fail to establish Plymouth Colony. A peace treaty is signed with Massasoit of the Wampanoags. In return for repairs to the Mayflower and Speedwell, the survivors agree to peacefully return to Southampton, where a memorial was built to their failed mission.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1979 Margaret Thatcher put down an Early Day Motion censuring the British government, which led to the defeat of the Labour administration of James Callaghan. Now she could implement the program of change the establishment had planned since the mid-1960s. It would not after all be necessary to install a military government ..	Louis Mountbatt..
.. headed by an Interim Prime Minister such as Lord Louis Mountbatten. A shopkeeper's daughter, she told Mountbatten, what mattered was the business of the shop, not the dressing in the window.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Comet Hale-Bopp	In 1997 the comet Hale-Bopp had its closest approach to earth and was notable for inciting a degree of panic about comets not seen for decades. In November 1996, amateur astronomer Chuck Shramek of Houston, Texas took a CCD image of the comet, which showed a fuzzy, slightly elongated object nearby. When his computer sky-viewing ..
.. program did not identify the star, Shramek called the Art Bell radio program to announce that he had discovered a 'Saturn-like object' following Hale-Bopp. UFO enthusiasts, such as remote viewing proponent Courtney Brown, soon concluded that there was an alien spacecraft following the comet. Rumours that the comet was being followed by an alien spacecraft gained remarkable currency, and inspired a mass suicide among followers of the Heaven's Gate cult. They were right to worry.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1965 Bob Dylan 'goes electric,' releasing his first album featuring electric instruments, Bringing It All Back Home. He was electrocuted before the recording was completed.	Bob Dylan
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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