1000 Things I learned from Olympus Has Fallen (spoilers)

83. A fail safe mechanism designed to self destruct a nuclear missile before it reaches it's target will detonate the nuke inside the missile instead of just the missile (which will probably cause massive EMP damage and radiation depending on where it explodes at in flight, or will just kill millions of people after exploding inside the silos!).

84. Nuclear launch codes can be easily changed by the Pentagon when the president is compromised (True); but fail safe codes that can prevent a nuclear retaliation from occurring are kept with three people in one location, can only be used or changed in that one location (which means if an accidental launch occurs and the three people with the codes aren't in the White House and/or out of communication, that nuke will destroy whatever it's launched at), and can still be hacked. (Makes me wonder why Morgan Freeman's character didn't just order a bunker buster bomb to destroy the Presidential Bunker when the second code was entered, knowing what was at stake. The US Government would still function with him as president as per the US Constitution.)

85. F-22 fighters intercepting a C-130 will both fly directly next to the aircraft instead of one hanging back and the other flying aside to get the attention of the unresponsive pilot, making them perfect targets to be shot down by hidden miniguns.

86. The decoy C-130 attacking the White House and surrounding people will have flare decoys to defend against incoming Stinger missiles fired from the White House (or any Secret Service with a shoulder fired Stinger launcher, which would be more realistic than a SAM box on top of the White House), but forget to use chaff against any possible radar guided missiles from an intercepting fighter aircraft.

62% of Muslims live in Asia. The Middle East is in Asia. They are Asians. Indonesia has the highest population of Muslims. About 13% of the 62% are in Indonesia alone.

That statement you made is stupid.

-Nam

I am on the road less traveled...

92 - when a nasty terrorist type attempts to scare you by telling you the name of your wife and what she does for a living you don't think to make arrangements to ensure her safety even though you have ample time to (a) speak to the secret service who could arrange this and (b) phone said wife for a chat.

91. There is a provision in the Constitution for an "acting President" [NOT].

Re 91. Hey, Ellis, you ignoramus! Haven't you ever read the 25th Amendment? It has been the law of this land since 1967, and it most certainly DOES provide for all the officials in the Presidential line of succession to assume the duties of Acting President of the United States, with all the powers and duties of the President, during any period of Presidential disability.

Disability can be established in one of two ways: per Section 3 of the Amendment, the President himself can declare that he is or will be disabled, either for a specific period of time, until a specific event takes place, or for an indefinite period. This section has been invoked twice by George W. Bush, when he was undergoing planned colonoscopy surgeries in 2002 and 2007, and Vice President Cheney was Acting President of the United States for about 2 1/2 hours each time. Disability can also be established by a majority vote of the Cabinet (actually, the phrase is "the principal officers of the Executive Departments," used so that it would be clear that if a Cabinet member were absent or indisposed or disabled himself, the appropriate succeeding sub-Cabinet officer of that department would vote in his or her stead. No non-voting department heads, no abstentions.), which would be the case in situations like this movie, where the president is held hostage, is under duress, missing, if he is injured and his ability to carry out his duties is questionable, or in the "president goes crazy" scenario.

The Cabinet votes, and if a majority agree, the president is declared to be disabled and the Vice President, or in this case where the Vice President is also taken hostage and later killed, the succeeding official in the line of succession, namely, the Speaker of the House, becomes the Acting President. If the President wishes to dispute the declaration of disability, or if his status changes so that he feels he is able to resume his duties but the Cabinet does not agree, he has four days to communicate his belief that no disability exists, whereupon the Congress decides the issues within twenty-one days. The Senate and the House would sit separately, and decide, by a two-thirds majority vote in each House of Congress, if the Acting President will remain the Acting President, or if the President will resume his duties as President. If the Congress votes to continue the Acting Presidency, and the President still disputes the issue, the cycle starts again. He has four days from that vote to say again that he is not disabled, and 21 days later, the Congress votes again, and so on until the President gives up, whereupon the Vice President succeeds him as president, without the Acting President part, or 21 days or less remain in the term of the President.

Former White House speechwriter William Safire wrote a novel, Full Disclosure, that turned on the 25th Amendment. During a terrorist attack that took place while the President was overseas, he suffers a concussion, and he loses his eyesight. Political opponents seek to have him declared disabled, and he vows to fight the issue, as he did not think that his blindness (later discovered as likely to be permanent) disqualified him from continuing as President. At the Cabinet meeting to hold the disability vote, one of the President's closest supporters unexpectedly changes his vote, and the Vice Presient becomes the Acting President. The President communicates to the proper officials that no disability exists, so in 21 days, the Congress will vote. It is revealed that during the presidential campaign, the president had an accident where he accidentally struck his head, and he lost his sight for a few hours, a fact that he concealed from the public. Despite the fact that he had lost consciousness, which may have confused the issue of whether or not he had lost his sight or was just not yet fully conscious, and despite the fact that on that prior occasion he regained his sight in an hour or so, and that medical opinion as to whether the president had a medical condition that should have been disclosed during the campaign was divided, the president's allies feared that this revelation would influence the upcoming vote in Congress. As it turns out, the Cabinet Secretary who unexpectedly switched his vote did so because he had been informed of the previous incident. The President's enemies resolved that they would impeach him, too. It was the opinion of the President's "turncoat" ally that more than half of the Congress, but short of the required two-thirds, would vote to reject restoring the President to his duties. Since the House can impeach a president on a majority vote, whereupon it takes a two-thirds vote of the Senate to convict and remove him from office, this Cabinet secretary calculated that the president's opponents had over half of the House, but less than two-thirds, but that they had two-thirds of the Senate. Thus, the president would survive a challenge under the 25th Amendment in regard to disability, but would have been impeached and convicted, which would then fall apart once the president won the disability issue. The novel is a highly-recommended inside-the-corridors-of-power read, and even Craig Ellis should be able to count high enough to understand the plot twists.

Others BESIDES OP Craig Ellis will likely recall that President Reagan also had a colonoscopy. He chose to send a litter to the appropriate officials notifying them that he would be disabled on the day of his surgery until he came out of anesthesia, and that Vice President Bush would serve as Acting President during those hours. President Reagan specifically chose not to invoke Section 3 in his notice of disability, partly because he chose to undergo immediate surgery under anesthesia, instead of having surgery scheduled at a specific future date and time, which would allow specific invocation of Section 3 as to the planned time. Reagan also did not wish to establish the precedent that future presidents would HAVE to invoke Section 3 in order to set the process of making the VP or another official in the succession the Acting President. As his counsel advised, the facts of the situation were clear, the President's intent and near-immediate disability and its limited period were also clear, and under the circumstances, no one should have any standing to challenge the temporary transfer of power to the Acting President.

So we have officially had an Acting President of the U.S. on two occasions, and we had a Vice President who would have assumed the powers and duties as Acting President should any action have been required during Reagan's incapacity. I am of the opinion that there is no provision for Craig Ellis to have a valid opinion about the law of this country.

94. When a plane flying above you shooting(with tracer rounds) up everything in sight the best thing to do is look up at it instead of running.

107) Sniper rifles are the best defense against an AC-130
108) SS uses only pistols and suits as a combat load
109) By yelling loud enough you can get anybody to speak English
110) If you are the acting president coffee in a paper cup doesn't cut it
111) Always look behind the paintings in the white house
112) POTUS has a sweet pistol collection in his desk
113) You can recall 7th fleet and the entire US footprint in South Korea in 30 minutes
114) An AC-130 can win a dogfight against two F-22 Raptors
115) North Korean special forces require a tattoo behind the ear.
116) Apparently you can send picture messages with your blackberry when cell communications are cut off in an area
117) After you set up a way to detonate every nuclear weapon in America, you leave the most secure nuclear bunk BEFORE the blast takes place
118) Bad guys always wear ski masks or tank tops
119) Sometimes you have a *beep* need to know"
120) Never trust a kid who's Mom got blown up by a landmine, he will hold a grudge.

Re 105: finewoman, Angela Bassett has never looked terrible in her entire life.

128. Its called the White House all around the world, yet local news agencies can't help calling it the Whitehouse.

129. When its snowing a blizzard, always drive really close to the car in front of you. Make sure to reduce speed by 5mph to be safe.

130. Marines are sooo hardcore that when its snowing a blizzard outside they stand still in the best dress uniform with no need for cold weather clothing to ensure they look their best when saluting the President's convoy.

131. Make sure that you show the President's keen-ness for boxing then deny him any opportunity to punch a bad guy by keeping his hands tied up for pretty much the whole movie.

132. Less than 2 years after the death of your son's mother, take him on holiday to the place where she died so you can, you know, go fishing (probably in the lake where she drowned).