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Crawford Newspaper Endorses Kerry

ramoth4 writes "Local Crawford, TX (Bush's adopted hometown) paper The Lone Star Iconoclast has endorsed John Kerry for president. Kerry's home paper, the Boston Globe, hasn't come out with an endorsement yet. It's a very interesting editorial, especially in light of Bush's performance in the first debate."

19 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. This is news? by Neil+Blender · · Score: 3, Informative

    A paper in town of 46,000 people makes an endorsement? Who cares if it's Bush's 'adopted' home town?

    1. Re:This is news? by (trb001) · · Score: 3, Insightful

      A paper with a circulation of 425, no less. Nevermind the Lowell Sun endorsing Bush, though.

      --trb

    2. Re:This is news? by j-turkey · · Score: 3, Informative
      This word, "ironic", I do not think it means what you think it means...So, unless you think the paper is really FOR Bush, you misused the word "ironic".

      You left out the third definition from your link, which fits the use of the word pretty nicely:

      3a (1) : incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2) : an event or result marked by such incongruity b : incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play -- called also dramatic irony, tragic irony

      One would expect Crawford's local paper to be pro-Bush. They did not -- hence the irony.

      --

      -Turkey

  2. Bush != Conservative by ericspinder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think that it just goes to show, that true conservatives cannot vote for Bush. The Republican Party is no longer conservative, they are a bunch of various single-issue voters who cobble together for political strength. As the debates progress, more people will see John Kerry, not as the man Bush and his cronies has spent million to defame, but as a strong leader, who really cares about the people of America and America's place in the world. Other than a couple of retread ideas from his first campain (tort reform, etc) Bush has a campain based on attacking Kerry as weak; he cannot run on his record, so he tries to burn his opposition.

    --
    The grass is only greener, if you don't take care of your own lawn.
    1. Re:Bush != Conservative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I can name quite a few conservative principles that Bush has violated.

      1) Fiscal responsibility. Bush has gone from surpluses to a record deficit. They have no plans for changing this.
      2) Personal Liberty. The Bush adminstration has done its best to undermine the rule of law by declaring American citizens as enemy combatants and denying them trials.
      3) Foreign Policy Realism. Traditionally conservatives have based their foreign policy on realistic assumptions and a narrow definition of national interest, not idealism based foreign policy. This has been horribly undermined by the Iraq War which was based on neo-Wilsonian principles of making the Middle East safe for democracy.
      4) Small Government. Under the Bush adminstration the growth of discretionary domestic goverment spending has outstript the growth under Clinton. Of course the targets of the spending have typically been large corporations, but I don't think conservativism naturally favors screwing the little guy in favor of multinational corporations.

      Can you state a conservative principle that Bush has upheld? The Bush adminstration is a alliance of crony capitalists and religious reactionaries. It has no relationship to what has traditionally been understood as conservative values.

    2. Re:Bush != Conservative by lucabrasi999 · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Do you even know what the word "conservative" means? Can you even name three conservative values?

      I don't know about the OP, but I can make three suggestions (yes, this entire discussion may be off-topic). Note that your opinion of a conservative value may differ from mine (or anyone elses). If I were to suggest three conservative values, I would suggest the following (in no particular order):

      Fiscal: Government should only spend on those key areas where it is required (National Defense, for example), and it should spend within its means.

      Individual: Government's power over the individual should be limited.

      Economic: Government should limit it's involvement in economic activity. It should try to stay out of the way of business, as much as possible.

      Now, if we can agree that those are conservative values, George W. Bush's policies have all been in direct opposition to the above. Fiscally, he cuts taxes, but then spends millions on social programs. Individually, we now have few rights than we have ever had. Economically, the President has subsidized thousands of individuals and companies that should have gone out of business (from Farmers to the Steel Industry to Airlines).

      Note that I am not saying John Kerry is a strong leader, I am only questioning how President Bush can be considered a conservative, at least by my three suggested definitions above.

      How would you define a conservative?

    3. Re:Bush != Conservative by demachina · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "As for the airlines, what would you have done? Let the industry collapse in the wake of 9/11?"

      Let the industry collapse no, let United, American, Delta and U.S. Air collapse yes. They are dinosaurs running dinosaur business models and they deserve to fail in a free market system and they probably are still going to fail and take all our tax dollar subsidies with them. Southwest, JetBlue and their ilk are clearly the winners in the industry and they should win without the government meddling in it and picking winning and losers.

      As much as you rant in praise of Capitalism I'm dumbfounded when you defend the anticapitalist tendencies of the current Republican party.

      They are in fact using our tax dollars and their stranglehold on power to reward their friends and punish their enemies. You don't have to look any further than the Medicare "Reform" bill which was a gigantic giveaway of our tax dollars to the health care and drug industry, and is offering very little benefit to seniors. Sure they get a drug discount but the drug industry was given a blank check to raise prices so they can erase the benefit of the dicount in a heartbeat. As a reminder the Medicare administration is fordbidden by that law from negotiating fair, quantity pricing which is why drugs are reasonably priced every place but the U.S. It is a mechanism for transfering our tax dollars in to the pockets of the drug and health megacorps with no real benefit to seniors and at a staggering price tag.

      "Conservatives believe in equality of opportunity"

      Well then the current administration is not conservative. Reference above Medicare reform, and reference all the no bid contracts in Iraq the Bush administration is handing to its cronies. If there were equality of opportunity any company could have bid for those contracts and the best bid would of won. Instead the companies that are winning are tapping the crony network to get an inside track on no bid contracts.

      Cronyism is not "equality of opprtunity" it is their friends win and those who are not their friends don't even get a seat at the table.

      "Conservatives believe in strong foreign policy and in not compromising national sovereignty."

      Real conservatives abhor nation building and becoming entangled in foreign situations that are not integral to American security. The war in Afghanistan passed the "coservative test" since it directly affected American security. The war in Iraq DID NOT.

      As you recall in 2000 Bush ran on a classic conservative platform that rejected nation building. In practice the Bush administration is nation building all over the globe, albeit they are doing a spectacularly bad job of it in Afghanistan, Haiti and Iraq in particular.

      "Conservatives believe that small business is key to a healthy economy"

      Yes they do but, the Bush administration by contrast is, in practice, overwhelmingly favoring policies that are destroying small business in America. The most obvious example being outsourcing of jobs to China which is devastating small business in America. Big corporations have no problem outsourcing, its a major challenge for small business to do it or compete against big business doing it. Walmart is single handedly devastating small business across the nation, both small retailers who can't compete on price and suppliers who Walmart is overtly pressuring to either offshore to China to match those prices or go out of business.

      Another obvious example of anti business practice is the Bush administration gave Microsoft a free pass, a get out of jail free card, to a convicted monopolist. You don't favor small business by giving predatory monopolies a license to kill small businesses with innovative ideas.

      Republicans can shovel shit about how they favor small business but their policies are obviously massively favoring big business, and especially big business relocating to China.

      "We subsidize farmers because we like cheap food."

      We subsidize farmers becaus

      --
      @de_machina
  3. Re:Is this Crawford's only newspaper? by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The interesting thing about the pre-existing partisanship comes out in the editorial- where they go through every single instance of supporting the President going back to the 2000 campaign, and exactly how he failed in EVERY instance. In addition, I found the section on what his real campaign promises should have been to be quite interesting- and they're right, nobody would have voted for what he actually accomplished.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  4. Tripe by the+morgawr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This junk is quoted from the Democratic Party's website and framed as the independant thoughts of the editors. If you want to slam someone at least be creative about it instead of committing plagarism.

    --
    The policy of the United States is worse than bad---it is insane. -- Ludwig von Mises, Economic Policy(1959)
  5. It's sad... by Your_Mom · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's sad that the AP picks up the fact that a paper with a circulation of 425 supports Kerry. But there is not mention that the Lowell Sun, a ciculation of 100,000+ and a major newspaper in Massachusetts, Endorses Bush.

    No Bias here. Noooooosiirrreeee.

    --
    Objects in the blog are closer then they ap
    1. Re:It's sad... by isaac · · Score: 5, Insightful
      It's sad that the AP picks up the fact that a paper with a circulation of 425 supports Kerry. But there is not mention that the Lowell Sun, a ciculation of 100,000+ and a major newspaper in Massachusetts, Endorses Bush.

      What makes this a story is that Bush's hometown paper endorsed him in 2000. The Lowell Sun has been attacking Kerry relentlessly since 1972 when Kerry first moved there and upset the local good-ol-boy political network. It's not "news" when the Sun publishes the same "Vote Kerry's Opponent" endorsement it's published for the last 32 years.

      -Isaac

      --
      I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
  6. Why do we put up with this? by sgant · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I was just wondering, why would a Newspaper or a news outlet go out and say "We're endorsing this candidate over this other one".

    I mean, shouldn't they at least TRY to be non-biased about the news they report? I know I know...there is this "Liberal Media" that's suppose to pump up all Democrats and rake-across-the-coals all Republicans...at the same time there are conservative news outlets that almost try to convince us that Democrats cause cancer....but shouldn't they at least pretend to not be biased?

    I want my news from unbiased..."we don't endorse anyone" kind of thing. I know, it's a pipe dream to try to find just raw news reporting without SOMEONE saying it's biased one way or another.

    Just always wondered why newspapers go out on a limb like that.

    --

    "Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
  7. Social Security by the+morgawr · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The most disturbing thing about this article is it's point of view on social security. It shows a compleate lack of understanding and total disreguard for reality.

    Social Security as it exists today is a massive government mandated pyramid scheme that lets politicians in Washington dupe millions of people out of hard earned money on the grounds that it's "for retirement". In truth had the government issued savings bonds (the lowest yeild investment you can get) to everyone on Social Security everybody would have been better off. The government could have used the lower interest debt to pay off higher interest debt and the retireees would have more money. Furthermore the retirees would know EXACTLY how much money they have for retirement and know it is gauranteed instead of having some vague promise subject to political whims. Instead, the current scheme was concocted where people working today pay for those who worked before them and they in turn will be paid for by those who work after them. Obviously this rely's on the pool of workers never dropping, a rediculous assumption. Furthermore, as it is, the payouts on Social Security for almost all beneficiaries are below inflation (that is they are getting less value out then they put in) and served as a worse investment than savings bonds (which is considered the lowest return you should every accept and then only in small ammounts). While this isn't that big of a deal for those of us making enough money to plan for retirement without social security, many people who are less fortunate then us NEED that money to be invested wisely so that they CAN retire. Ripping them off for political gains is amoral behavior and should stop. What we need to do is get the government and it's bueracray out of running a retirement bussiness. Steps:

    1. Give everyone who has paid into social security savings bonds retroactively for all of the money they put in. Use this lower interest debt to pay off the higher interest debt the government already has. This should free up enough cash to deal with the people who choose to cash out of their savings bonds early.
    2. The treasury deparment already has an automatic payroll program for savings bonds. Transition social security to this (including the employer matching).
    3. Given any american who wants it, the option of opting out (and being responsible for themselves).
    These steps can "privatize" social security without any added beuracracy, legislation, and little cost.
    --
    The policy of the United States is worse than bad---it is insane. -- Ludwig von Mises, Economic Policy(1959)
  8. Meaningless by mtaco · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's ironic, but meaningless. The owner/editor is a Democrat who has run for office, been defeated, and doesn't live in Crawford.

    Most of the town residents have started boycotting the paper since the editorial ran.

  9. Quotes from various places in the article: by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 4, Interesting


    Quotes from various places in the article:

    "The publishers of The Iconoclast endorsed Bush four years ago, based on the things he promised, not on this smoke-screened agenda."

    "He let us down."

    "He merely told us to shop, spend, and pretend nothing was wrong."

    "Again, he let us down."

    "Job training has been cut every year that Bush has resided at the White House."

    People in Crawford are in a position to know George W. Bush a little better than most citizens. It seems that the newspaper is merely saying openly what a lot of people in that town think.

    Also, Bush's alcoholism is a matter of importance. For example, look at this: Is Bush drinking NOW?. For a more in-depth analysis, see this: The psychological effects of alcoholism provide a framework for understanding the Bush administration. Remember, Bush quit the Air National Guard the same month the ANG instituted drug testing. Did he fall off the wagon again?

    --
    Bush: "When Saudis attack, invade Iraq."

  10. Re:Doesn't matter. by the+morgawr · · Score: 3, Insightful
    One thing that makes Bush popular here in the South is his opposal to the "death tax". Kerry claims that the "death tax" is to punish the rich, but anyone who's ever lived in a farming community knows that the death tax weighs very heavy on small farmers (who make far less money in a year then the land is worth). Sudenly being asked to pay 60+% of the value of your farm pretty much puts you out of business. The death tax is probably the single biggest factor in the rise of big agra-business in recent years.

    When Democrats like Kerry come out talking about how eliminating the death tax was pandering to the rich. Farmers sitting at home trying to figure out how they are going to scrape by conclude that the Democrats have their head in the clouds.

    I've known too many farmers get ruined by that tax to ever vote for anyone stupid enough to support it and I've got to conclude that if you can't (or won't) do simple research on this issue, you probably won't do it on others. I've even told some democrats about this problem and have met with nothing but name calling, denial, and rejection.

    On a personal note, as someone who has personally spoken with many politicians on both sides I can at least say that whenever I've had a problem, the Republicans have listened and usually tried to help. I've NEVER had a democrat politician take the time of day to quit with their retoric and try and understand what I have to say.

    That's not to say I don't disagree with the Republicans on many issues (I'm probably split about 50/50). But having repeated good experiences with them does influence my voting.

    --
    The policy of the United States is worse than bad---it is insane. -- Ludwig von Mises, Economic Policy(1959)
  11. Re:Doesn't matter. by Twirlip+of+the+Mists · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, it's much more complex than that. What you call "embryos" are actually zygotes, fertilized eggs that are frozen for possible future implantation.

    Human embryonic stem cells are harvested from blastocysts, which are very young embryos. In order to turn a zygote in to a blastocyst you have to let it grow.

    That's the key difference. Harvesting embryonic stem cells is, ethically, equivalent to letting a baby grow only to kill it and use it for experimentation.

    Medical ethics is important. It's better to be overly cautious in the face of hard ethical questions to give time for the philosophers to catch up with the engineers.

    Particularly in this case, since the results from tests involving embryonic stem cells have, to date, been so utterly dismal.

    --

    I write in my journal
  12. Re:Doesn't matter. by (trb001) · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sorta. From the Baltimore Sun:

    Sen. Kerry and President Bush also differ sharply on estate taxes. Under current law, the basic exclusion from federal estate taxes this year is $1.5 million. That exclusion is scheduled to rise in stages, reaching $3.5 million in 2009, while the top tax rate, now 48 percent, is set to decline in stages. The estate tax is scheduled to vanish completely in the year 2010 -- only to reappear in 2011.

    Sen. Kerry favors raising the basic estate-tax exemption to $2 million "immediately," Furman says, and also setting an exemption of $10 million for a small business or family farm. The exemption would grow with inflation. President Bush wants to kill "death taxes" completely.

    I'm still trying to determine how an estate tax is fair at ALL. I get taxed on my income, I get taxed on my interest, I get taxed on profit from my property when I sell it...how many times do I need to get taxed? The fact that the estate tax is 45% is also a killer.

    --trb

  13. As a Conservative, this said it best for me. by Sevn · · Score: 4, Interesting



    Why I will vote for John Kerry for President - by John Eisenhower, son of President Dwight D. Eisenhower

    THE Presidential election to be held this coming Nov. 2 will be one of extraordinary importance to the future of our nation. The outcome will determine whether this country will continue on the same path it has followed for the last 3½ years or whether it will return to a set of core domestic and foreign policy values that have been at the heart of what has made this country great.

    Now more than ever, we voters will have to make cool judgments, unencumbered by habits of the past. Experts tell us that we tend to vote as our parents did or as we "always have." We remained loyal to party labels. We cannot afford that luxury in the election of 2004. There are times when we must break with the past, and I believe this is one of them.

    As son of a Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, it is automatically expected by many that I am a Republican. For 50 years, through the election of 2000, I was. With the current administration's decision to invade Iraq unilaterally, however, I changed my voter registration to independent, and barring some utterly unforeseen development, I intend to vote for the Democratic Presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry.

    The fact is that today's "Republican" Party is one with which I am totally unfamiliar. To me, the word "Republican" has always been synonymous with the word "responsibility," which has meant limiting our governmental obligations to those we can afford in human and financial terms. Today's whopping budget deficit of some $440 billion does not meet that criterion.

    Responsibility used to be observed in foreign affairs. That has meant respect for others. America, though recognized as the leader of the community of nations, has always acted as a part of it, not as a maverick separate from that community and at times insulting towards it. Leadership involves setting a direction and building consensus, not viewing other countries as practically devoid of significance. Recent developments indicate that the current Republican Party leadership has confused confident leadership with hubris and arrogance.

    In the Middle East crisis of 1991, President George H.W. Bush marshaled world opinion through the United Nations before employing military force to free Kuwait from Saddam Hussein. Through negotiation he arranged for the action to be financed by all the industrialized nations, not just the United States. When Kuwait had been freed, President George H. W. Bush stayed within the United Nations mandate, aware of the dangers of occupying an entire nation.

    Today many people are rightly concerned about our precious individual freedoms, our privacy, the basis of our democracy. Of course we must fight terrorism, but have we irresponsibly gone overboard in doing so? I wonder. In 1960, President Eisenhower told the Republican convention, "If ever we put any other value above (our) liberty, and above principle, we shall lose both." I would appreciate hearing such warnings from the Republican Party of today.

    The Republican Party I used to know placed heavy emphasis on fiscal responsibility, which included balancing the budget whenever the state of the economy allowed it to do so. The Eisenhower administration accomplished that difficult task three times during its eight years in office. It did not attain that remarkable achievement by cutting taxes for the rich. Republicans disliked taxes, of course, but the party accepted them as a necessary means of keep the nation's financial structure sound.

    The Republicans used to be deeply concerned for the middle class and small business. Today's Republican leadership, while not solely accountable for the loss of American jobs, encourages it with its tax code and heads us in the direction of a society of very rich and very poor.

    Sen. Kerry, in whom I am willing to place my trust, has demonstrated that he is courageous, sober, competent, and concerned with fighting the

    --
    For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.