Religions > Atheism > OT: Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"maff" |
| Date: |
28 Jul 2004 05:34:34 AM |
| Object: |
OT: Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force |
Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19487-2004Jul27.html
By David Maraniss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 28, 2004; Page A01
BOSTON, July 27 -- Geraldine Emmett collected pennies as a young girl
out in Arizona to help save Old Ironsides, and this week, at age 90,
she finally got a look at the historic ship. It was her first trip to
Boston, and she arrived saying that she had never been more afraid in
her life. Of the cross-country flight? "No, dear," said the
button-festooned matriarch of Prescott Democrats. "Of George Bush!"
Late Monday night, in a hotel room they share to save on expenses, two
delegates from Iowa engaged in a lively debate about the Middle East,
a discussion shaped by their markedly different backgrounds: Newman
Abuissa as an Arab American engineer who grew up in Syria but now
lives in Iowa City, and Alan Koslow as a Jewish doctor from West Des
Moines who is active in an Israeli lobbying group. But Tuesday morning
when they ventured through the cobbled streets to the Democratic
National Convention, they were united by the same sensation that
overwhelmed Geraldine Emmett, a force more powerful than whatever
might separate them.
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force |
28 Jul 2004 04:32:22 PM |
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On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 03:34:34 -0700, maff wrote:
Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19487-2004Jul27.html
Maff, when it comes to articles which go to places
that require the moronic 'registration,' would you please
simply post the article? Thank you.
[]
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| User: "Fear gan dia" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force |
29 Jul 2004 03:54:12 PM |
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Verily verily I say unto you, it is written by "stoney"
in <pan.2004.07.28.21.32.22.745294@localhost.localdomain>:
On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 03:34:34 -0700, maff wrote:
Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19487-2004Jul27.html
Maff, when it comes to articles which go to places
that require the moronic 'registration,' would you please
simply post the article? Thank you.
For the Washington times, log in as cthulhu@mailinator.com,
password: rlyeh.
For the NY Times, log in as shrub_junior, password: dumbya.
--
The Very Irrev. Fear gan dia # http://goddamliberal.port5.com
"Every good Christian should line up and kick Jerry Falwell's *****."
- Barry Goldwater
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| User: "Jez" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force |
30 Jul 2004 07:35:45 AM |
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Fear gan dia wrote:
Verily verily I say unto you, it is written by "stoney"
in <pan.2004.07.28.21.32.22.745294@localhost.localdomain>:
On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 03:34:34 -0700, maff wrote:
Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19487-2004Jul27.html
Maff, when it comes to articles which go to places
that require the moronic 'registration,' would you please
simply post the article? Thank you.
For the Washington times, log in as cthulhu@mailinator.com,
password: rlyeh.
For the NY Times, log in as shrub_junior, password: dumbya.
Wasn't there a site up that had a load of passwords and log-in names
for the news sites ??
--
Jez
"The condition of alienation, of being asleep, of being unconscious,
of being out of one's mind, is the condition of the normal man. Society
highly values its normal man.It educates children to lose themselves
and to become absurd,and thus to be normal. Normal men have killed
perhaps 100,000,000 of their fellow normal men in the last fifty years."
R.D. Laing
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| User: "W. Syme" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force |
30 Jul 2004 07:39:29 AM |
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On Fri, 30 Jul 2004 13:35:45 +0100, Jez
<iced_spear@NOSPAMdsl.pipex.com> wrote:
Fear gan dia wrote:
Verily verily I say unto you, it is written by "stoney"
in <pan.2004.07.28.21.32.22.745294@localhost.localdomain>:
On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 03:34:34 -0700, maff wrote:
Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19487-2004Jul27.html
Maff, when it comes to articles which go to places
that require the moronic 'registration,' would you please
simply post the article? Thank you.
For the Washington times, log in as cthulhu@mailinator.com,
password: rlyeh.
For the NY Times, log in as shrub_junior, password: dumbya.
Wasn't there a site up that had a load of passwords and log-in names
for the news sites ??
Yeah, aptly named http://www.bugmenot.com
Stil, "registration" is so fucking retarded. It annoys me more than
spam.
--
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thessalonians 5:21)
W. Syme (pseudonym), European, non-native English speaker, "soft" atheist.
Email will not be read.
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force |
31 Jul 2004 04:49:33 PM |
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On Fri, 30 Jul 2004 12:39:29 +0000, W.Syme wrote:
On Fri, 30 Jul 2004 13:35:45 +0100, Jez
<iced_spear@NOSPAMdsl.pipex.com> wrote:
Fear gan dia wrote:
Verily verily I say unto you, it is written by "stoney"
in <pan.2004.07.28.21.32.22.745294@localhost.localdomain>:
On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 03:34:34 -0700, maff wrote:
Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19487-2004Jul27.html
Maff, when it comes to articles which go to places
that require the moronic 'registration,' would you please
simply post the article? Thank you.
For the Washington times, log in as cthulhu@mailinator.com,
password: rlyeh.
For the NY Times, log in as shrub_junior, password: dumbya.
Wasn't there a site up that had a load of passwords and log-in names
for the news sites ??
Yeah, aptly named http://www.bugmenot.com
Stil, "registration" is so fucking retarded. It annoys me more than
spam.
Indeed.
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| User: "Fear gan dia" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force |
30 Jul 2004 10:22:22 PM |
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Verily verily I say unto you, it is written by Jez
in <410a4097$0$6445$cc9e4d1f@news-text.dial.pipex.com>:
Fear gan dia wrote:
Verily verily I say unto you, it is written by "stoney"
in <pan.2004.07.28.21.32.22.745294@localhost.localdomain>:
On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 03:34:34 -0700, maff wrote:
Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19487-2004Jul27.html
Maff, when it comes to articles which go to places
that require the moronic 'registration,' would you please
simply post the article? Thank you.
For the Washington times, log in as cthulhu@mailinator.com,
password: rlyeh.
For the NY Times, log in as shrub_junior, password: dumbya.
Wasn't there a site up that had a load of passwords and log-in names
for the news sites ??
I started such a page at my site:
http://goddamliberal.port5.com/misc/logins.html
--
The Very Irrev. Fear gan dia # http://goddamliberal.port5.com
"Every good Christian should line up and kick Jerry Falwell's *****."
- Barry Goldwater
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force |
31 Jul 2004 04:47:05 PM |
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On Thu, 29 Jul 2004 20:54:12 +0000, Fear gan dia wrote:
Verily verily I say unto you, it is written by "stoney"
in <pan.2004.07.28.21.32.22.745294@localhost.localdomain>:
On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 03:34:34 -0700, maff wrote:
Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19487-2004Jul27.html
Maff, when it comes to articles which go to places
that require the moronic 'registration,' would you please
simply post the article? Thank you.
For the Washington times, log in as cthulhu@mailinator.com,
password: rlyeh.
For the NY Times, log in as shrub_junior, password: dumbya.
Ta.
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| User: "Jez" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force |
29 Jul 2004 08:25:46 AM |
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stoney wrote:
On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 03:34:34 -0700, maff wrote:
Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19487-2004Jul27.html
Maff, when it comes to articles which go to places
that require the moronic 'registration,' would you please
simply post the article? Thank you.
Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force
By David Maraniss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 28, 2004; Page A01
BOSTON, July 27 -- Geraldine Emmett collected pennies as a young girl
out in Arizona to help save Old Ironsides, and this week, at age 90, she
finally got a look at the historic ship. It was her first trip to
Boston, and she arrived saying that she had never been more afraid in
her life. Of the cross-country flight? "No, dear," said the
button-festooned matriarch of Prescott Democrats. "Of George Bush!"
Late Monday night, in a hotel room they share to save on expenses, two
delegates from Iowa engaged in a lively debate about the Middle East, a
discussion shaped by their markedly different backgrounds: Newman
Abuissa as an Arab American engineer who grew up in Syria but now lives
in Iowa City, and Alan Koslow as a Jewish doctor from West Des Moines
who is active in an Israeli lobbying group. But Tuesday morning when
they ventured through the cobbled streets to the Democratic National
Convention, they were united by the same sensation that overwhelmed
Geraldine Emmett, a force more powerful than whatever might separate them.
In Democratic circles not so long ago, "FOB" stood for "Friends of
Bill." Now a new meaning has permeated the party: Fear of Bush.
Young and old, black and white, Arab and Jew, male and female, feed-corn
farmer and real estate developer, even Yankee fan and Red Sox fan -- the
multitude of Democrats who have gathered here say they feel more
together in spirit and purpose than at any convention in recent times,
bound by the proposition that their country, and as well as the world,
have never been more divided, and by a belief that President Bush is the
reason.
Leo Tolstoy wrote that happy families are all alike, meaning
uninteresting, and the political equivalent of that idea is that a
political convention without internal strife is a nonstory. But in fact
the uncommon unity brought to the traditionally fractious Democrats by
the intensity of their concerns about Bush and his policies is a central
thread of this convention's narrative.
"George W. Bush has done more to unify the Democratic Party than any
other Republican in my lifetime, and I've been active in state politics
for about 60 years," said 79-year-old Dennis Jenson, an Arizona delegate
from Sun City, sounding a variation on a theme that echoed again and
again during interviews with delegates from Arizona to Wisconsin. The
Rev. Nelson "Fuzzy" Thompson, attending his sixth national convention as
a delegate from Kansas City, Mo., said Bush "has galvanized the
Democrats because he has been such a divisive force. He has created a
real unity within the party, far more than what we had four years ago,
when we were a bit complacent. This time there's no playing around."
The delegates have been asked to present a positive agenda and to
emphasize the attributes of the Democratic standard-bearer, John F.
Kerry, and the FleetCenter orations from former president Bill Clinton
on down have more or less tried to hold to that strategy, yet hostility
toward Bush among conventioneers is not merely an undercurrent but more
like a tidal wave of group thought. Away from the packaged presentations
on television at night, Fear of Bush rhetoric has flooded through the
delegation breakfast caucuses, midday lunch meetings and evening
cocktail parties.
"There was some straying from the reservation," a party official said,
smiling, after particularly raucous Bush-bashing at an Ohio caucus
Monday, including a riff by Rep. John Lewis (Ga.) in which he said the
brood of chicks that he fed and comforted in his backyard chicken coops
as a kid seemed to have had more on the ball than the president.
Bush is everywhere here in image as well as words. Smug representations
of his mug, perhaps even more than Kerry's drawn and serious visage, can
be found on some of the most popular buttons worn by delegates: Stop Mad
Cowboy Disease. Nobody Died When Clinton Lied. One Nation Under
Surveillance. ABB Anybody But Bush. 1000 Points of 1 Dim Bulb. The New
Carb Diet: No Cheney. No Ashcroft. No Rumsfeld. No Bush.
For the Kerry organization and field leaders in the swing states, the
Fear of Bush factor is considered somewhat of a mixed blessing. It has
brought energy and coherence to the rank and file, but it might not be
enough in and of itself to lead to victory in November.
"We've been famous for our fights, we've been famous for tearing each
other apart, but I'm not seeing any of that this year," said Jim
Pederson, a Phoenix developer who chairs the Arizona Democratic Party.
"But if President Bush has been a unifying factor, we can't continue to
ride that horse. We have to help Senator Kerry as he introduces himself
to the country and presents his vision of where he is going to take us.
If we just base the campaign on anti-Bush rhetoric, I don't think that's
gonna do it in the end."
But for the most part the delegate sentiment about Bush, even in its
stridency, seems to reflect not so much campaign posturing as
expressions of deeply held feelings and concerns. Many of them put
George W. Bush in a place apart from previous Republican bogeymen. He
and his coterie, they argue, are more alarming than Bush the elder or
Gerald R. Ford or Ronald Reagan or Robert J. Dole or even Richard M. Nixon.
"I think George W. Bush has done more to hurt this country than any
Republican president since Herbert Hoover," said Lee Viorel, a
soft-spoken revenue collector from Hannibal, Mo., who is attending his
second convention from a swing state that went for Bush by 3 percentage
points in 2000. Thompson, Viorel's Missouri colleague, who preaches on
Sundays at Mason Memorial United Methodist Church, said Bush "doesn't
compare with any of those earlier Republicans. . . . I used to think
that his father was the worst, but he is the worst."
The comparisons grew darker among Arizona delegates, who are seeing
renewed interest in their state as a competitive contest this year after
Al Gore lost to Bush there by 6 percentage points four years ago. "He
really is the worst of the bunch," said Lorraine Frank of Scottsdale, at
age 81 another Arizona elder and a veteran of six decades of politics.
"I can't believe I'd ever say this, but he is worse than Nixon. I almost
never use the term, but I think this guy is evil. Or the people around
him are." Beverly Fox-Miller, a third-generation electrical union member
from Mesa attending her third Democratic convention, fell into stunned
silence when contemplating Bush before finally muttering, "Unbelievable.
Ridiculously unbelievable. . . . I refer to him as 'Reagan Times Ten.' "
As the junior member of the Iowa delegation, in a swing state that went
for Gore by fewer than 5,000 votes, 18-year-old Monica Severson of Cedar
Rapids said the first president in her memory is George H.W. Bush.
"Everyone likes their first president, and I liked him because he was
the one I associated with being presidential. But I feel more threatened
by his son, George W. Bush," Severson said. Swati Dandekar, a delegate
from Marion, said she considered Bush the least knowledgeable of the
Republican presidents of her lifetime. "I had lots of respect for
President Ford, and even Ronald Reagan I felt had a lot more knowledge
than President Bush," she said.
"I was expecting something along the lines of what his dad did, but it's
worse, a lot worse," said Abuissa, the Iowa City engineer who became a
U.S. citizen after a childhood in Damascus. "That was the reason I ran
for delegate. In my opinion, he has done more to damage our reputation
worldwide than any other president we have had in this country." Iowa's
father-daughter delegate team, Augustus Lartius of Boone and Kumini
Henry of Des Moines, were only slightly more forgiving when comparing
Bush with other GOP leaders. "Reagan was perhaps one of the best
presidents of the U.S., and Bush the elder could work with the Democrats
to solve problems," Lartius said. "Personally, I like the younger Bush,
but what I do not like is that he underestimated the intelligence of the
American people." Prominently displayed on his daughter's blue jacket
was a button with Bush's profile and the words "Massive Intelligence
Failure."
It is a cliche, one of the most persistent in American politics, for
candidates to claim that their election is the most important of a
lifetime. Veteran delegates have heard that phrase many times over the
years, and usually ignore it for the overstatement that it is, but this
week in Boston they have adopted the phrase as their own and repeated it
with conviction.
"Oh, my God, yes! This is the most important election of my lifetime,"
said Linda Jacobsen, a Missouri delegate who runs a small business in
St. Charles County and is running for the U.S. House in a district north
of St. Louis. "I have people working in my campaign who say they may
move to Canada if this guy is reelected."
Gerry Emmett's inaugural trip to Boston in her 91st year was made
possible when her family and friends in the Church of Christ and members
of the Arizona delegation held a money-tree party for her at a resort on
the Navajo Indian reservation where she had spent many of her 43 years
as a teacher. Emmett has been around long enough to have once played the
ukulele for the first-ever governor of Arizona, and she has lived
through all the wars of the 20th century and the Depression and "the
Goldwater era and the rise of the John Birch Society in Arizona."
But this election year, she said, "is the first time I have ever really
been frightened. I really think this is the most important election of
my long lifetime. We've got people in the world who hate us so bad, and
that just breaks my heart.
:)
--
Jez
"The condition of alienation, of being asleep, of being unconscious,
of being out of one's mind, is the condition of the normal man. Society
highly values its normal man.It educates children to lose themselves
and to become absurd,and thus to be normal. Normal men have killed
perhaps 100,000,000 of their fellow normal men in the last fifty years."
R.D. Laing
.
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force |
31 Jul 2004 05:17:10 PM |
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On Thu, 29 Jul 2004 14:25:46 +0100, Jez wrote:
stoney wrote:
On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 03:34:34 -0700, maff wrote:
Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19487-2004Jul27.html
Maff, when it comes to articles which go to places
that require the moronic 'registration,' would you please
simply post the article? Thank you.
Among Delegates, Fear of Bush Becomes Powerful Uniting Force
By David Maraniss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 28, 2004; Page A01
[]
But this election year, she said, "is the first time I have ever really
been frightened. I really think this is the most important election of
my long lifetime. We've got people in the world who hate us so bad, and
that just breaks my heart.
:)
Thank yea, kindly.
I heartily agree Shrub must go, but at the same time really wonder
what difference it would make. The turning of the country into a
police state was done with the agreement of the Democrats and the
Independants. The using the Constitution for toilet paper was
also done with the agreement of the Democrats and the
Independants. In fact, the curtailing of free speech to areas out
of sight where intimidation and beatings by police can be freely
done was done by the Demos.
Face it. What ShrubCo's facing is the reaction to their blatant
in-your-face tactics. Such is naked malevolence. That much is
honest.
If Kerry is slid into the office, such might be a 'kinder gentler
police state' but that's all it will be. The Gestapo (Homeland
Security) and the TSA certainly isn't going to be obliterated.
The FBI will continue to be the Federal Bureau of Intimidation
and state and local police forces will continue to beat on the
populace. Granted, such brutalities aren't part of each persons
makeup, but the overall institutional tone is that way.
Years ago, in the shop I worked in, we had a security breach which
involved one person and it couldn't be 'kept quiet.'
The circumstances were such it had to be reported.
The report was made and the security officer did his thing. In
the security officers hearing we were flat told by the shop chief
to report any security breaches to him and he'd pass it along.
All neat and 'by the book.' What the security officer missed,
but we in the shop picked up on was, via voice tonal qualities,
the message was; "I don't want to hear about it. If I do, I'm
going to be pissed. I won't pass it along, and I will get whoever
reports it."
I found out there was another security breach the next day, involving
the same thing. This time, the circumstances were such it could,
and was kept quiet. I have no idea if the Shop Chief was informed.
My point is the police state may be 'kinder and gentler' on the surface
but the apparatus will remain the same.
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