| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Dharmananda" |
| Date: |
11 Oct 2004 04:09:58 PM |
| Object: |
Re: What is a Climate of Fear? |
zepp wrote:
Sure enough, the right wing has a “climate of fear” campaign
going. The National Review had a piece that said,
http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.asp?ref=/kurtz "Blogger
Robert Musil suggests that a climate of fear has descended upon
Republicans in at least some parts of the country. Based in Los
Angeles, Musil says most Republicans he's spoken with are afraid to
put Bush-Cheney bumper stickers on their cars, or signs on their
lawns, for fear of physical retaliation from angry liberals. The
problem is not symmetrical, says Musil. Stickers and signs for Kerry
are widespread in Republican neighborhoods. Yet even in their own
communities, Republicans are holding back. Intrigued by Musil's claim,
I put up a post on NRO's blog, The Corner, asking for reader comment.
I was quickly flooded with nearly 300 e-mails, almost all of them
backing Musil."
The author of this wrote about 3,000 more words trying to spin it into
something cute.
What goes around comes around. LA is the wrong place to be a Republican,
and that is TOTALLY an artifact of its predatory domestic policy.
To answer the question: a climate of fear is what the Republican Party
creates, as a preliminary to anything else it does.
--
Triratnam sharanam gaccami
Dharmananda
http://mysite.verizon.net/res6zeam/american-buddhist/news.html
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| User: "Alan McIntire" |
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| Title: Re: What is a Climate of Fear? |
11 Oct 2004 10:18:20 PM |
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Dharmananda <Not@neph.com> wrote in message news:<GECad.3506$j15.1271@trnddc07>...
zepp wrote:
Sure enough, the right wing has a ?climate of fear? campaign
going. The National Review had a piece that said,
http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.asp?ref=/kurtz "Blogger
Robert Musil suggests that a climate of fear has descended upon
Republicans in at least some parts of the country. Based in Los
Angeles, Musil says most Republicans he's spoken with are afraid to
put Bush-Cheney bumper stickers on their cars, or signs on their
lawns, for fear of physical retaliation from angry liberals. The
problem is not symmetrical, says Musil. Stickers and signs for Kerry
are widespread in Republican neighborhoods. Yet even in their own
communities, Republicans are holding back. Intrigued by Musil's claim,
I put up a post on NRO's blog, The Corner, asking for reader comment.
I was quickly flooded with nearly 300 e-mails, almost all of them
backing Musil."
The author of this wrote about 3,000 more words trying to spin it into
something cute.
What goes around comes around. LA is the wrong place to be a Republican,
and that is TOTALLY an artifact of its predatory domestic policy.
To answer the question: a climate of fear is what the Republican Party
creates, as a preliminary to anything else it does.
It's brought on by the desperate, NAZI like acts of Democrats:
Union thugs target Republicans.
Monday, October 11, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDT
We may be about to experience an election unlike any we've seen in a
while. The Florida recount in 2000 raised passions and blood pressure and
featured some demonstrations on both sides, but there was no violence.
This year, lots of groups are jostling with each other to monitor the
elections in battleground states. For its part, the AFL-CIO has promised
to dispatch thousands of election monitors to battleground states to watch
for any hint of trouble at polling places. From the initial reports, they
may be the ones for have to be watched as potential troublemakers.
Last week, in Orlando, Fla., approximately 60 union protestors stormed and
ransacked the local Bush-Cheney headquarters causing considerable damage
and injuring one campaign staffer, who suffered a broken wrist.
According to an Orlando Police Department report, Rhyan Metzler, a field
director for the Republican Party, was at the headquarters about 1 p.m.
last Tuesday when 60 protestors barged in. Van Church, a 53-year old
protestor, forced the door open and caused Mr. Metzler's arm to be caught
in it. His left wrist was fractured in the altercation. Police say Mr.
Church will be charged with two counts of battery.
But Mr. Church is unrepentant. "If his wrist was fractured, it's a result
of his own actions in jerking the door the way he did," he told the
Orlando Sentinel. "He jerked the door out of my hand and cut it in the
process." But since it is Mr. Church who is being charged, the police
apparently didn't think Mr. Metzler did anything wrong.
Orlando's fracas was mirrored in Miami, where police reported that more
than 100 union protestors stormed the Bush-Cheney office and shoved
volunteers aside. No one was charged because most of the protestors left
before the police arrived. In Tampa, about 35 protestors filled the local
GOP office and intimidated the elderly volunteers working there.
The AFL-CIO took credit on its Web site for similar
demonstrations--apparently all coordinated--in Independence, Mo., Kansas
City, Mo., Dearborn, Mich., St. Paul, Minn., and West Allis, Wis. In what
could be a related incident, the Bush-Cheney office in Knoxville, Tenn.,
had its plate-glass windows shattered by gunfire on Tuesday morning before
volunteers showed up for work. Another Republican office, in Seattle, was
broken into and had computer files stolen.
Esmerelda Aguilar, an AFL-CIO spokesman, says Republicans are "trying to
politicize [the Orlando incident] and exaggerate the event." She maintains
that all of the demonstrations "were peaceful protests" designed to call
attention to new Bush administration regulations on overtime pay.
Rep. Tom Feeney (R., Fla.) is skeptical. He was speaker of the Florida
House in 2000 and knows how important it is to address election-related
problems early and not wait for Election Day. Mr. Feeney and 49 other GOP
members of Congress have signed a letter asking the Justice Department to
investigate if the coordinated protests violated any federal laws on
protecting the rights to campaign and vote.
Rep. Feeney also says the Justice Department needs to let people know it
is watching this election more closely than most. "We ask that you work
with state law enforcement agencies in investigating a series of voting
irregularities including forgeries in voter registration forms, casting
simultaneous ballots in different states (double voting), and absentee
voter fraud. Such activities disenfranchise those who properly register to
vote and cast valid ballots."
Look for the Justice Department to become a major political football in
this election. Already, its warnings that terrorists may well try to
disrupt the Nov. 2 election is being greeted skeptically by some local
election officials. New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, a
Democrat, is openly asking if Attorney General John Ashcroft's warnings
are part of a GOP effort to suppress voter turnout. Last week, Democrats
responded by creating their own SWAT teams of lawyers that will be
dispatched to any place where voting problems are recorded. One issue
certain to be disputed will be provisional ballots, which are cast when
someone doesn't find his name on the registration rolls. Such ballots are
set aside and verified later. A flood of provisional ballot lists could
tilt the election in close states one way or the other with Democrats
demanding that officials "count every vote" and Republicans questioning
the validity of some of the ballots.
California Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, a Republican, says she has found
3,000 new duplicate registrations in her district. "The current process
today is really Third World conditions," she told CNN's Lou Dobbs program.
When asked what she thinks about Democratic charges that her calls for
investigations into the duplicate registrations will scare voters away
from the polls, she refuses to back down. "You're damn right, I'm going to
try to scare away the crooks."
Let's hope the lawyers don't take over this election's aftermath the way
they did in Florida in 2000. To prevent that the Justice Department needs
to step in now and enforce everyone's civil rights. That means protecting
campaign workers from intimidation as well as preventing fraudulent votes
from canceling out legitimate ballots. Allowing double voting, ballots to
be cast from the graveyard and those who have been disqualified because of
criminal convictions to dilute the process only calls into question the
sanctity of the election itself. It's no way to run a modern democracy.
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| User: "Dharmananda" |
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| Title: Re: What is a Climate of Fear? |
11 Oct 2004 10:40:56 PM |
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Alan McIntire wrote:
Let's hope the lawyers don't take over this election's aftermath the way
they did in Florida in 2000. To prevent that the Justice Department needs
to step in now and enforce everyone's civil rights. That means protecting
campaign workers from intimidation as well as preventing fraudulent votes
from canceling out legitimate ballots. Allowing double voting, ballots to
be cast from the graveyard and those who have been disqualified because of
criminal convictions to dilute the process only calls into question the
sanctity of the election itself. It's no way to run a modern democracy.
You can stop hyperventilating now.
The problem with election 2000 was that it was unconscious. And there were
certain critturs who exploited that situation, and that's not going to be
allowed to happen again. That's all it is. Yes, there will will a lot of
attention, stress, and friction, and there will be as much of that as it
takes to elect the people's choice.
Get used to it.
Oh, and hey, this is not a climate of fear. It's just a little course
change by our country, that got temporarily had by crooks. Get used to
that as well.
--
Triratnam sharanam gaccami
Dharmananda
http://mysite.verizon.net/res6zeam/american-buddhist/news.html
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