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Political Yard Sign Wars Wage as Election Nears
gollum123 writes "Yahoo has a story on how tension among bitterly divided voters is translating into a barrage of attacks on political targets that can't talk back - yard signs. Campaign signs depicting support for either President Bush (news - web sites) or Democratic challenger John Kerry (news - web sites) are being burned, chopped down, spray-painted and commonly, stolen away in the dark of night. Though sign shenanigans are common in election years, some Republican leaders are calling this year's activity unprecedented. Democratic leaders say attacks are so rampant that supporters should take their yard signs inside at night to protect them. Has anyone on /. had such an experience."
...are being burned, chopped down, spray-painted and commonly, stolen away in the dark of night
I can sympathize. This sounds like what happened to my pot crop this summer.... well, minus the spraypaint. I never thought to bring 'em inside though - those democrats are so pratical.
Yes. However without a lawn of my own, (appartment dweller, not basement dweller) I don't worry too much about bringing in signs. Perhaps I should pick up some of those bushes that have been sprouting up in the neighborhood. Then again, perhaps it is just too much to kerry.
-Rusty
p.s. Sorry about the puns, they just seemed to appropriate.
You never know...
Has anyone on /. had such an experience.
:)
Nope, because I don't have a bush/kerry sign in my yard. Frankly I do not understand how anyone who is even halfway informed can actually support either of these two.
Oh, and "because I want to beat the other guy who is nearly identical but just slightly worse" is a pretty poor excuse for voting for a bad candidate.
Someone should go around and put up "I'm not just idly standing by and watching this country go to hell, I am actively part of the problem" signs in yards with bush/kerry signs
As long as they are advertising by yard signs, and not spam, it's pretty good. No having to face emails every morning with titles like: EN:LARGE::TAXX:CUTS:VOTEBUSH and IN:CREASE:NATIONAL:PRESTEEJ:VOTEK3RRY
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Because, unlike you, they are informed of the fact that one of the two men will surely win. There are at least some differences between them, and anyone informed on the issues will prefer one of them over the other.
I have Bush stickers on my car, and my car has been vandalized when ever I take it out.
To demonstrate my support for my preferred presidential candidate, I went by the local headquarters and made a donation and picked up a yard sign. I put it out with some trepidation, since I knew that mine was the only sign of its type in my neighborhood: there were about a dozen signs for the opposition in yards I pass on the last two miles of my trip from work to home, and not one like mine for at least five miles that I had spotted.
Happily, my sign has stood proudly in the yard, untouched by anyone else, as far as I can tell. During that time, more signs for the opposition have sprung up, and only one for the same candidate as mine.
On the other hand, the local news apparently carried a story about a local whose signs had been repeatedly stolen. So she put one up and hung a sign underneat it that said "Every time you steal my sign, I make a bigger donation to my candidate." That apparently stopped the rascals from stealing any more signs.
Finally, I have watched with interest the signs people put up in the median of the road, on what is clearly public land. It appears to me that people find it acceptable to put their own signs on that land, and also that others find it acceptable to take down a sign and put up their own opposing sign. I've never seen anyone taking one down, however, so perhaps it is the state authorities coming along and cleaning up their land.
Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy
Booby trap them.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
Man, there is going to be some wailing and gnashing of teeth this year if Bush wins again. No president has been hated more since Lincoln, it would seem.
A homeowner looked out and saw a man lying face down on his driveway. Going out to check, he found that the man was unconscious, so he went back in and called 911. When the rescue crew moved the man, they found him clutching Kerry (and other Democratic) signs under his body. His car was parked nearby, and they found more stolen Democratic signs in it. He was removing them, not placing them.
Apparently he'd been removing signs in this neighborhood, and was going to cross the driveway when he tripped over a chain the homeowner had there for some unknown, but presumably logical reason. Since he was clutching the signs, he couldn't quickly get his arms out front to break his fall, so he hit his head and knocked himself out.
The police charged him with numerous petty crimes. His wife said, "He's never done anything like this, before."
Given that this is the good old US of A, I'm surprised he hasn't sued the homeowner for having that chain there.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
When driving to work, I pass a yard with one of those rentable billboard signs (the ones with the movable type). Flourenscent green and red letters nonetheless. It feels as if someone is shouting.
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
Gollum123 writes "Slashdot is carrying a story on how I'm unable to actually create a story write-up, and instead pass off the text of the article itself (INCLUDING non-functioning link descriptions) as my own. Has anyone on /. had such an experience?"
I have the opposite problem, people keep putting signs UP in my yard. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact the candidate they are pushing I really don't like on a personal level. So far II have a stack of 3 in my garage and a new one pops up every 2 - 3 days.
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
The relationship between a political party and its supporters is at time a troublesome one. I firmly believe that you should support a party only so long as you share idealogies with them. However some people support parties so wildly, and believe so strongly that the political party starts becoming part of their identity. As such an attack on that party, is viewed as a personal attack. We see this in soccer hooliganism in europe. Think about yourself, do you think of yourself as a "republican" or a "democrate" or do you merely support certain ideas of the that party. Of course, political parties encourage this sort of behaviour. It allows them to change their views and still remain supported.
Also in this election has been billed as of the highest importance. The very course of human existence depends on the result in November. I am very concerned about the election result this year, but not at the extent of destroying private property, or otherwise resorting to violence. I may be underestimating the importance of this election, but if Bush wins, its only for four years.... This is a truism, regardless of whether you are the furtherest right conservative or the left enough to make Ghandi blush.
A couple of big 4x8 BC04 signs have been spray-painted with "LIARS" and "1000 DEAD" and they're now covering them with plastic wrap hoping the spray painters will be foiled (sorry) and the signs protected.
More commonly, Kerry signs are seen to metamorphose into BC signs overnight.
--
Tom Barringer
Candidate for State Representative in Derry, NH
www.ThatTallGuy.net
Any of my friends that put a Bush bumper sticker on their car has had the car keyed multiple times.
When I was in middle school, I used to hear kids bragging to each other all the time about how many signs they had trashed/stolen (I lived in Texas at the time, so they happened to be trashing Clinton/Gore or Dukakis/Benson signs).
Now we have SMS, IM and email to make things more organized, so it's happening more frequently. Big whoop. I really doubt that some local party boss is ordering his foot soldiers to go out and round up opposition signs. I'm sure they've got better things to do.
Try putting a Bush bumper sticker on your car.
How about just getting opposite parties in Presidency and Congress. History sez that the nation generally (not always, but generally) does better when the Presidency and Congress are NOT from the same party.
I'll make no attempts to comment on any merit past that one point, in an effort to keep this short.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
My local newspaper had a recent story where invitations to an annual kids bike parade were only handed out to those with the proper local political yard signs.
This local election is a court ordered primary occurring next week that resulted when a challenger to the local mayor and kingpin of the political machine showed in court a number of irregularities in polling and particularly absentee ballots. These irregularities are in the old-style Chicago tradition. (Town is E. Chicago in Indiana.) There are currently a number of current and former town and party officials under federal indictment for vote buying in the 2000 election by using town money to pour concrete driveways for citizens.
Torn up political signs is so insignficant that I doubt it would even get a mention in our paper.
That got their car keyed by a Kerry punk.
Power to you if you think voting for the lesser evil is actually reversing the downward spiral tho.
I wonder if you could get rich by printing up a bunch of "Neener, neener!" or <Nelson>Ha, ha!</Nelson> signs for one side or the other to put up the day after the election.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
sig: "Every nation that seeks peace has an obligation to help build [a freer] world." - GW Bush
Your forgot the other sentence: "You are either with us or against us." Which means, in this case: "We will bomb you if you are against us." Typical polarized alcoholic thinking.
Does killing Iraqis set them free? Or does it de-stabilize the country and invite hundreds of thousands of supporters for terrorists? The U.S. government did the same thing to Cambodia, and the country stayed destabilized for decades. Millions of people died after the U.S. government stopped bombing. There is plenty of evidence that this will happen in Iraq.
Could everyone posting to politics please state which candidate they will be voting for on election day? I'm trying to build a list of Bush supporters.
Robert Heinlein had it right - you can tell a society is on the skids when basic politeness is viewed as weakness, and rudeness is viewed as strength. /me looks around pointedly at the /trolls
It never ceases to dismay me how people can scream about how *their* right of "free speach!" is being infringed, and then turn right around and infringe upon the free speech of others.
Supporting the speech of those with whom you agree is NOT supporting free speech. Supporting the right of speech of those with whom you vehemetly disagree IS supporting free speech.
You may feel that Candidate Epsilon-1 is perfection incarnate, and that Candidate Epsilon-2 is distilled evil - if you go around taking down signs for Epsilon-2 you are NOT supporting democracy.
www.eFax.com are spammers
If it is done properly you can't stumble accross it unless your trying to climb over it. If you didn't see it you would simply be stopped by it around your waste.
So if he claimed he hadn't seen it he would simply have walked into it the same as any rope barrier. If he had seen it and was climbing over it then he is trespassing on purpose and this is like a burglar cutting himself on barbed wire fence.
No not even in the US would this work. Mind you if the chain is at ankle height and in the dark accross the path to the door it is another story.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
And oh yeah, since I allow you to "vote" for a candidate at the above web site, the current vote tally's are
HULK: 6,380 BUSH: 6,214 KERRY: 6,049
So looks like our next president might be Green!
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
Vote for the Hulk? Let me guess: he's on the Green Party ticket. I wonder what his stand is concerning atomic testing.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Kerry will raise taxes for the next 4 years. Bush will cut taxes for the next 4 years.
That is what they have said they will do, and that is what they will do. It is a difference and it is important. Before I get attacked by either side, let me point out that Finkployd asked the question and I answered it. I am not saying that raising/cutting taxes is a good/bad/fantastic/idiotic idea. I am simply saying Kerry will raise taxes (In the debates he said he will, wants to, and getting elected will get him the clout to do it) and Bush will cut taxes (He already has, said in the debates he wants more cuts, and being reelected will get him the clout to do it).
If you can see no other differences between the two (there are quite a few others) and believe one or the other will be elected then you can be a single issue voter.
The first week after I had placed a Senatorial candidate's sign in the front yard, it mysteriously showed up lying on my porch every morning. After a persistent struggle to keep it in my yard, the person doing it gave up.
Last night someone apparently took the time to beat the #%!&* out of my Presidential yard sign. I found it mangled in the yard, where other opposition signs in the neighborhood had apparently been left untouched.
When I went to the local headquarters of the party whose candidate I am voting for, I asked for two Presidential signs. I was told that because of radicals from the other party taking many at a time and burning them, I could only take one per day.
I am really saddened by the obvious disrespect for democracy by some people in my neighborhood.
In my neighborhood, a wealthy neighborhood of Austin TX, the Kerry signs such as the one in my yard are the targets. It's been knocked over twice, but I just put it back up. The Bush signs aren't touched here.
Apparently in other parts of Austin, it's not as safe to have a Bush sign in your yard.
Come on people, fucking grow up. Kicking over a sign is just fucking stupid.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Actually no, neither will raise or lower taxes. Congress will (or will not). It is completely meaningless what both of them are saying, they will only submit butgets and approve or veto what congress passes.
I can't find that study on Google ;)
Reverse the downward spiral? That's impossible at this point; the best we can do is slow it down. Hence, voting for Kerry.
But go ahead and vote for a third party. In a few decades our country will be ruined, but hey, at least we'll be able to vote outside of Republicrat lines!
Rob
He is just as responsible as Bush. After bin Laden had engaged in terror attacks against the U.S., the Sudan offered bin Laden to Clinton. Clinton REFUSED to take him into custody.
None of what you claim is "news". In fact, much of what you claim is made up.
In Portland, Oregon, a friend mentioned that, before the last election, there were no signs in the yards in the wealthy area where he lives. Now there are seven Kerry/Edwards signs in the yards around his. There are no Bush signs.
I began looking for Bush signs as I drive around my area. I've seen none. There is at least one Kerry sign on each block, usually more.
I've heard that there are plenty of Bush signs in the rural areas of the state.
Many people in the U.S. know very, very little about the activities in their government. There are many very angry people. The ignorant and the angry are easily manipulated. To them, for example, bombing for democracy makes sense.
During the Clinton years, I read the books that were published about him. They said he was having sex with slutty women. They tried to find something wrong with his small losing investment called Whitewater. They said he may have, at some time during his being governor of Arkansas, associated with people who later turned out to be involved in questionable activities. I found the books interesting, but a little lame.
Now I've read the books about Bush. It's amazing. The information about Bush is about severe corruption of government.
The negative information about George W. Bush seems endless. Just when I think I know 10% of the corruption, I find more detail that shows I know less than 1% of it. For example, George W. Bush's brother was shown in a lawsuit deposition on 20/20 casually talking about his prostitutes and his use of government influence to make money. This is Neil Bush talking about himself.
George H.W. Bush was involved in the weapons business with a brother of Osama bin Laden. See House of Bush, House of Saud: The secret relationship between the world's two most powerful dynasties by Craig Unger, 2004, Scribner, New York, New York, USA. Reviews: Powell's Barnes & Noble Amazon
Most media exists to make money. Advertisers are understandably careful not to alienate anyone. It is not possible to develop an accurate opinion of government activities only by listening to the carefully crafted phrases from media employees who would lose their jobs if they seemed to indicate a preference for one policy over another. It's necessary to read books.
George Soros says, "President Bush is endangering our safety, hurting our vital interests, and undermining American values." If Dole had been elected instead of Clinton, the U.S. would have had sensible leadership. This election is different. It is not a matter of which candidate you like. If you vote for Bush, you are poorly informed. This is not a claim that Kerry and Edwards are perfect. They represent, at minimum, a needed change.
--
Government data compares Democrat and Republican economics.
You're right. The person we elect will not make any difference at all. I'm not sure why we even vote for anyone in the executive branch. They are all simply puppets to the legislative branch. They have no real power.
What is that veto thing?
During the 2000 election, I had something a bit different occur.
My parents house (was living with them at the time) is on a farm, with a pretty heavily traveled road through it. We had the problem of the other side putting signs up on our property. We would take them down, to find more in their place a couple of days later. I lost count of how many signs we removed, as they kept on replacing them.
It was not public land, they had no right to put them there, and we had every right to remove them.
They were Gore/Lieberman signs.
You're right. The person we elect will not make any difference at all. I'm not sure why we even vote for anyone in the executive branch. They are all simply puppets to the legislative branch. They have no real power.
, neither can claim they WILL or WILL NOT raise taxes, since it is not completely in their power. They will work with Congress to do one or the other but frankly even what they intend is subject to change if economic circumstances change.
Read up on how checks and balances work, you seem to have missed a civics class somewhere.
The point is, Mr Let's-Take-Fink's-Comment-To-An-Illogical-Extreme
Finkployd
In front of my house, my roommates and I have both Bush/Cheney and Kerry/Edwards signs on our lawn, as well as signs from local and state campaigns. (A house divided, so to speak)
All of them get trashed. the Bush/Cheney more often (4 signs down so far). But we live in a college town so such things are expected on Friday nights. Luckily, the Republicans here don't charge for signs, while the Democratic's charged $3 for the Kerry/Edwards signs, which get stolen/trampled/set on fire much less often.
I figure if I call up the local RNC/DNC offices and tell them of my tails of woe, they'll hook me up with some really huge, gaudy signs. With huge defense lasers and remote-controlled carpet bombing capabilities. That'll stop'm.
--- Kicking the Cheat since late 2002
What does this have to do with anything? Nothing, of course. Both Carter and Clinton had/have lousy criminal brothers, and this fact had nothing to do with their presidency. Fallacious "guilt by relation".
Just about all the books in your list are opinion rants by partisan idealogues: people who pretty much hate anyone to the right of Ted Kennedy. These prove nothing.
"If you vote for Bush, you are poorly informed"
I will vote again for him because I am informed. With eyes wide open.
He was being sarcastic, you silly penis.
I think there are a couple of reasons this is happening. One is that people feel denied their right to dissent. This is what happens when you create "free speech zones" miles out of the way, suppress dissenting opinions and information as unpatriotic, and kick people out of Presidential events for wearing T-shirts you don't agree with. Another is that George W. Bush has polarized the nation to a degree that has rarely been seen before. He claims to do God's work, but it seems to me that all he's managed to do is spread hate: the Democrats hate the Republicans, the Republicans hate the Democrats, the Sunnis, Shiites, and Al Qaeda members in Iraq hate the American occupiers, America hates France, the whole world hates America... listen, I'm not religious in the least, but if I understand things right, Jesus and God are supposed to be about love. All this fear and hatred that Bush incites- if he's getting his directions from somebody, it ain't the guy upstairs, that's for sure. There's a line in the Bible that sums this up pretty well: "and ye shall know them by the fruit they bear". Seems to me Bush has given us a bitter harvest.
anyone else noticed they misspelled "Badnarik"? How sad. And how telling. US media won't discuss third party candidates and doesn't even bother double-checking their names.
My favorite:
Yup, anonymously attack his own client, so that people assume the opponents are doing it, making them look bad. This actually happens.
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
Hi. I was one of a handful of people that voted for Howard Phillips in 2000. Up until the debates I was planning to vote for Michael Peroutka, although I am to this days registered as a Republican.
In a great many respects, I feel about the Republicans the way Ronald Reagan felt about the Democrats-- I didn't leave them, they left me! Although I was thrilled with the reforms that were made under the Contract With America, the past few years have been disappointing from a domestic agenda viewpoint. When I discovered the Constitution Party in 2000, I found its back-to-basics view of Federal government to be refreshing and exciting.
Anyway, here come the Democrats, 2004. They say Bush "lied" about Iraq, ignoring coroborating evidence from the United Kingdom, Russia and Israel. They say Bush is planning a "January Surprise" draft, which is utter nonsense. They clamor that more people will die because the ill-concieved "assualt weapons ban" expired. They have such venom for Bush personally that I am shocked.
I just do not undersand the bile and vented spleen at this man. Do I think all his policies are great? No. I'm not a fan of the PATRIOT Act. I'm not a big fan of the Department of Homeland Security (isn't that the job of the DoD?). I'm not a big fan of extra layers of govenment in general. But-- and here's the difference-- I do not think that Bush is the Devil himself [although, these Democrats might actually want an authentic Hellspawn for Commander In Chief]. I think Bush is a man of conviction and moral courage, upright, and respectable qualities. He does not sway back and forth with the whim of public opinion. He's overcome personal weakness and adversity to rise to Governor and then President.
Mike-- I hope you understand that although I am a fan of the Constitution Party and agree with most of the goals it strives for, I cannot stand idly by and let a man like George Bush be unjustly villified. I must, for conscious' sake, cast my ballot in favor of George Bush. I may not agree with all of his policies, but I must stand with the honest and upright.
This happens every time. Each election becomes "the most important/critical of our lifetime!" This way the parties whip us into an incoherent frenzy, creating a bitter partisan rivalry (between two sides that are really not all that much different) so that they can entrench their power that much more. Drive home that identity, so that it becomes more important than actually thinking about issues. "Damn the issues, my team must win no matter what it takes!"
Meanwhile, third parties like Libertarians, Greens, and Constitutionalists peacefully and thoughtfully debate real issues with very little rancor between them. Where else do you see a candidate defer to another who is probably the most ideologically removed from him to explain a point?
Independently thinking Americans are anathema to the Duopoly - a threat to their power. Why do you think they try to marginalize third parties through ballot access restrictions, debate exclusions, not addressing the voting system shortcomings? The Duopoly likes voters who blindly believe whatever they're told. Do yourself, and America, a favor on Nov 2 - vote third party.
Constitutionally Correct
"Both Carter and Clinton had/have lousy criminal brothers, and this fact had nothing to do with their presidency."
The Bush family fully supports "Neilsie", as they call him. And Neil is heavily involved in many corrupt activities.
When Billy Carter took money from the Libyans, there was an immediate apology from President Carter.
Did you see the network footage of George W. Bush holding hands with a Saudi man the Bush family knows as "Bandar Bush"? Since it was Saudis who attacked on 9/11, why did Bush invade Iraq? Was it a smokescreen to get attention away from the Saudis? The Bush family had investments in weapons and oil, and war increases the opportunity for profit in both those areas. Read the books. The Bush family and friends and associates are heavily involved in issues of conflict of interest.
While not a political sign, I've had my yellow "Support our Troops" ribbon stolen off my car three times in under a month.
They're magnetic, so it's an easy swipe, but the first time it was taken my driver's side door panel was kicked in. Then second time someone actually stood on the hood of my car and urinated on the windshield. The third time only the ribbon was taken.
My Kerry/Edwards sign was stolen 1 day after i put it up. Turns out i wasnt the only one. Something like 3 or 4 hundred Kerry signs were stolen in my city over that weekend. This time i purchased 2 signs and placed them in an area of my yard that my dogs can reach. At least this time they are really going to have to WORK (and rund fast) to steal the signs. I also went back and increased my contribution to the kerry/edwards campaign.
someone keeps putting an elder sign around my 'vote Cthulhu' yardsign.
between the greater and lesser infinities sleep the dreams undreamt
"Only these parties were to blame."
After the U.S. government bombing and the U.S. government support for violent regimes destabilized the country, other forces began to be violent. The record seems to indicate that the U.S. government activities were a strong contributory factor.
That's how it works. Violence breeds violence. It seems likely that the Bush war in Iraq will destabilize the region for decades.
--
Government data compares Democrat and Republican economics.
Pol Pot from Mainland China?
What *are* they teaching in the schools these days?
Pol Pot was born in Cambodia, and educated in France. See? There you have that connection you've been looking for -- that axis of evil running straight from Phnom Penh through Paris.
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
You keep mentioning the words "left" and "center". I do not think they mean what you think they mean.
I want it to accelerate- so that we get to the actual collapse and give my generation a chance to rule before we retire.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
How about we get a bunch of bush fans and kerry fans with yard signs and have them duke it out to decide who should take office. Can you imagine the 50 year old women going tactical on each other with bush or kerry signs? THAT would be entertaining...
The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that a man with a vanity license plate reading "NO*BUSH" has had his car vandalized:r ynews/news/lo cal/9975253.htm?1c
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu
Given the divisiveness George Bush and the Republican party has fostered over the past few years, I can't say I'm surprised at the level of viciousness being seen in this election. I'm just glad Americans are generally civilized enough that it's not worse.
It's simple: I demand prosecution for torture.
I used to have a bumper sticker on my car that said "Fuck Republicans" and it got removed in the dead of night.. Exactly the kind of thing that made me put it up in the first place.
Maybe this is the first time you've actually RTFA, but often times submitters' entire summaries will be direct rips of a paragraph from the story, without any quote marks indicating that's it's a quote. In most cases I dont think they're actually trying to rip anyone off and hope no one notices that they plagiarized, I think that usually one of the leading paragraphs from a news story nicely sums up what it's all about so they just copy/paste it and think nothing of it. Not a big deal to me.
This case was slightly weird though, in that he didnt take out the "(news - web sites)" parts that are actualy links on yahoo news. And neither did the editors. The article is now over 6 hours old and they're still there. Sometimes I really do wonder about the intelligence of the editors...
Joseph?
I haven't heard a good argument for why voting for the slightly better of two evils slows down the downward spiral to any great extent. I do however have one for voting for the third party candidate.
Voting for a third party candidate raises the profile of their ideas, making it easier for them to get adopted by one of the major parties.
Personally I'll be willing to vote 3rd party (I'm registered Green) when it will help and not hurt. This time, obviously, it will hurt. If Kerry gets in and does well, and is thus more or less assured of a second term, I'll likely vote Green in '08.
Vista:XPSP2::ME:98SE
Vista:XPSP2::ME:98SE
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
My girlfriend had a Kerry sign in her front yard. It kept disappearing and she kept putting it up. One evening when she was driving home she saw a van plastered with pro-life bumper stickers driving around the neighborhood. The van would stop in front of some house with a democratic yard sign, out would pop a little girl from the passenger seat, she'd pull the sign up and toss it in the back of the van. My girlfriend watched in horror as the driver of this van, presumably the child's mother, had her kid go through the neighborhood picking up these signs. She started to follow them and they got wise they were being followed and sped off. My GF went to the police to report it and they said it wasn't worth reporting because probably no action would be taken even though she got the license number of the van.
It's pretty despicable when people engage their kids in such activities. Unfortunately, you see a lot of this activity among the rabid pro-life crowd: they bring their kids out front of abortion clinics holding up signs with pictures of dead fetuses. There seems to a recurring theme of partisians using children as political tools.
Which is even more of a reason to abandon our skewed view of the importance of the Presidency, and instead focus equally on all branches, and all levels (Federal AND State) of government.
Being an informed voter does not only mean knowing who stands on what issues, but also knowing how government works, and the power that the offices with in government have, and THEN deciding who you will cast your vote for.
I personally have no problem with a two party system when looking at government in this fashion. mainly because that if I see that one party has a strangle hold on power (currently the Republicans who control all three branches of government), I will vote for the minority to bring some balance back to government. When both parties have about 50% of the seats in Congress, and the Supreme Court is likewise about 50% ( or at the very least, extremely moderate because of the legislative balance making it harder to confirm extremist judges), that makes it a lot harder to pass extremist legislation.
This is ideal though, and would never happen for many reasons, number one being that the Republicrats are both owned by one entity, corporations.
Since you mentioned Texas, let me mention this:
I've signed up to be a Kerry campaign volunteer and they've called a few times to take me up on it. Once a lady called (with the sexiest accent evar!) from Texas asking me to help. She explained that I live in Ohio and we are a swing state and they needed me to canvas, etc, etc...
She went on to say that they (the volunteers) have written off Texas because they not only get their signs stolen but bricks in the windows and so on.
Then I felt bad about all the times I've wanted to throw bricks through the windows at Steve Chabot's campaign headquarters. But then again I didn't. (Steve Chabot has a corner office in a small town that is all windows. All of the windows are full of campaign signs - before Labor Day. This is significant because the city where it's at, Cheviot OH, has a law about signs going up before Labor Day...)
Get your Unix fortune now!
If you're opposed to the Patriot Act and our military adventures in Iraq, then both candidates suck.
If you are opposed to corporate control, corruption or globalism then there is NO CHOICE.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
Blah blah they're both the same blah blah.
If Bush is elected Row v Wade *will* be overturned. Particularly with a Republican congress to speed nominations to the Supreme court. This doesn't just mean abortions will only illegal for the poor. Which is an important side effect. But this will have implications for the right of a person to choose a dignified death for themselves not based on religious dogma, and all manner of personal decisions.
If Bush is elected, industry leaders will serve corporate interests, as opposed to those of the public, as appointees in the Bush administration. They've already done a lot in making the EPA less responsive and accountable to the people whos land, homes and livelihood have been completely annihilated by polluters.
If Bush is elected, the FCC will continue its crackdown on popularity, forcing ever more people to pay a monthly fee because they're not american enough for their chosen entertainment to be allowed on the public airwaves.
If Bush is elected, my stock portfolio will go down (appearently I wasn't consolidated enough into oil uncertainty services stocks). And my taxes will go up. Oh no, not my income tax. My property taxes to replace funding lost to cuts in education, emergency services with new mandates for the war on terror but very little money. My sales tax to replace fedral funding lost to the monumental circus of graft, inefficency and corruption that is the TSA. At lets not forget my skyrocketing energy costs thanks to Enron, and Halliburton.
1. We do actually need someone to run the country.
2. It matters who the guy is.
3. It shouldn't be a guy who takes a month long vacation every august, or at least someone who'll cut the vacation short when he reads a memo that states someone is plotting to murder a few thousand Americans.
4. It shouldn't be a guy who's going to pray to the great dragon Shinron to magic the world ok and be totally ineffectual like all of the third party canadates. (If they can't run a campaign, they can't run the USA. It's just that simple.)
Remember Halliburton isn't in the oil business. They're in the oil services business. This is important because they sell "certainty of oil" not oil. When there is more uncertainty, their product is more valuable. Sure the side effect is more of my money to the regimes that openly advocate the destruction of everything good about America. But what's more American than that, besides Halliburton incorporating in the Cayman islands so they can pseudo-legally deal with Iran.
If I was a extremely conservative christian who made 200,000 dollars a year, or had ~4 million in capital, I'd vote for bush. He'd deliver everything I'd profess to want. I'm not. And a protest vote is wasted, Bush doesn't care if I protest or not, so long as he doesn't see it. This year, more than most others, a protest vote *is* a wasted protest. No one who ends up with power will take notice. So I'm voting for someone who will take notice in 2008.
Just makes me laugh at this point. I live in Eugene, the 2nd largest population center in Oregon. There are more "impeach the warmonger" "Bush lied, they died" etc. signs up then there are Bush/Cheney 04 signs. I went hunting on Sunday out in the coast range and that afternoon drove around the countryside from the coast to Eugene and also a north of town. The best you could say for Bush was in signage he's got a razor-thin edge. Usually elections are Portland and Eugene vs the rest of the state, with the Willamette valley a tossup. But if the countryside is 2/3 Bush/Cheney, much more than the signs I saw in my highly unscientific sampling, I predict Kerry beats Bush by at least five percentage points in Oregon. Eight wouldn't surprise me at all, and we're "up for grabs" in some polls.
Handy tip to pass on from the campaign headquarters: Cover your sign in Vaseline. Imagine the pleasure in grabbing something sticky and cold in pitch darkness!
Heck, go one further and rub it daily with a sliced habanero pepper. That'll give the vandals something to think about after they rub their eyes once.
Just stop right there. Bush isn't responsible for 9/11. Nobody is responsible for the wicked acts of others. True, our intelligence systems failed us, but much of the failures were due to policies established under previous administrations--including your man Clinton. I refer you to the Toracelli principle if you doubt me.
When Clinton was president he had a meeting about terrorism and Al Qaida at least once a week, sometimes everyday. Bush didn't have one meeting about terrorism in 7 months before 9/11. He appointed Cheney to head an anti-terrorism task-force, it never met once.
Hindsight is 20/20. Were strategic mistakes made? Of course. Analysts are human. Military officials are human. George W. Bush is human. Hence, mistakes were made.
Many of the problems were predicted in a report by the state department. It warned against allowing looting and disbanding the military. The Bush administration ignored it. The civilian administration in Iraq is being run by 20 year old kids who had applied to be interns at the Heritage Foundation.
Some of these criticisms even fall out of the president's scope at times such as: the flu vaccine shortage or the Abu Graive prision abuse.
Bush had Whitehouse lawyers write papers on how he could legally allow prisoners to be tortured.
The government of Iran just endorsed Bush, probably because he took care of their main enemy.
Bush is using 9/11 for his own political advantage, he acts like its the best thing that happend to him. It was an inteligence failure that happend on his watch. Roosevelt never used Perl Harber in his campaign for reelection, it was a failure. Roosevelt had investigations into Perl Harber, Bush tried repetedly to block the 9/11 commision. Now the Bush administration is preventing a CIA report on 9/11 from being released untill after the election.
But then how will the DNC get the coveted vampire vote?
Little Orphant Ralphie
How do you figure the divisiveness of '04 will be any different in '08?
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
Yesterday, walking home from the store, I noticed that my neighbor's political sign had been driven over. My neighbor is elderly, so I decided to fix the sign. What the sign said was irrelevant- I was irritated at the attempt to squash this man's first ammendment rights to his political free speech.
This was the type of sign that required a post to be pounded into the ground. The person that drove over it bent the small metal stake, so I returned shortly with some string and a large hammer to fix it. As I was finishing up this very quick work, a Toyota pickup stopped on the other side of the road. I thought it might be my neighbor asking what I was doing to his sign. The man very rudely and abruptly blurted out "what are you doing?". I explained that it appeared someone had run the sign over, and I was fixing it. He then told me it was in the "right of way" and said "take it down".
LOL
I did have a hard time containing myself. At this point he whips out his business card, showing he is a town official. He told me that "local zoning" prevents anything placed in the public right of way (you know, that twelve feet of grass that the town/state owns on the side of the road). I told him that he was messing with First Amendment rights here, that political free speech was expecially protected by our courts, and that if the local Selectmen wanted to take on the First Amendment, then God bless 'em. I also pointed out that there are about 1000 signs in this stuck-up little village I live in, that are all, without exception, in the so-called "right of way", that I was only standing up a broken sign, not erecting it, yet none of this mattered to the town official.
It became plain to him fairly quickly that I was telling him to go pound sand, so he left in a huff, headed straight for the town offices like a crying kid running to mama. I decided to phone the town manager.
The town manager explained that "complaints were coming in" and that some of these signs were not "acceptable". The town manager told me it was in fact a state law, not local zoning, that was in play here. I told him that the Constitution was a federal deal that trumps whatever attempt a state might make to squash free political speech, and that in any event, he was not applying the law equally, as it was ONLY ME and the sign I was fixing that was getting their attention.
This is not over. There will be a selectmens meeting "after the election", according to the town manager, where the issue of "unwanted" and "illegal" signs will be brought up. I plan to be there, and I plan to point out that these are temporary signs, not unlike real estate broker signs, "sandwichboard" signs that advertise town happenings of all types, yard sale signs, etc. etc. etc. that are all, pretty much without exception, in this so-called "right of way" grass on the side of the road.
This is not supposed to happen in New Hampshire, where we live by the motto "Live Free of Die". It's even on our license plates. Now, I do live in a snobbby, affluent town, and I can appreciate that they want the town to be as quaint and as attractive as possible, but this incident completely crosses the line. My nest has been stirred, and the town officials will probably live to regret it, as I am now VERY much going to be paying attention to a lot of what they do.
That motto is "Live Free or Die". Thats what I get for not wearing glasses.
Now THAT was well said, sir.
It makes me want to say, "Whoever's doing this, STOP. This is uncool and un-American."
(And boy, am I glad I've already locked in my vote...thank heaven for early voting in Colorado.)
Be who you are...and be it in style!
on my way to work for the last few weeks and the new signs as well as the damage has been slowly escalating.
Other than the normal signs disappearing the other sides appearing, there is one yard that has about four signs for different dem canidates and someone in a car routinely (like every other day) actually drives into this yard and runs over the signs. The home owner keeps moving them farther and farther from the road. Now they are at least 15' off the road and still getting run over. It seems like it has almost become a statement of how far the driver will drive into the guys yard.
On the other hand, one creative person has left the Bush/Cheney signs standing but has spray painted with stencil in white various words like "WAR", "UNEMPLOYMENT", "DEAD RESERVISTS", "NATIONAL DEBT", "CORP CORRUPTION" on the different signs.
Ironic how both are vandelism but how different the statements are. The driver seems to be trying to say something very clearly to the homeowner, while the painter has put a lot of time and effort into something else all together.
I put up a Badnarik for President sign on my dad's property on a busy street (his idea). It was only out there a couple of days before it disappeared.
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
www.teslabox.com
Being republican can get you a swatstika burnt into your lawn. We are in a very union town.
The Bush/Cheney campaign offices are getting vandalized and burglarized all over the country. There have been dozens of news reports in several media outlets. This is no surprise. Liberals believe in moral relativism, and have no sense of right or wrong. So it's an anything goes kind of policy to excuse the bad things that they wish to do (e.g. not take personal responsibility for sexual activity, push for keeping abortion legal as the easy way out of not being responsible for conceiving a child). This represents the true moral decline of American society.
That's something I rarely see here - a post that _deserves_ the "insightful" label.
;-)
Of course, the fact that I entirely agree with you (btw, I'm Australian, and _so_ ashamed to be right now) may have something to do with this
Well, I live in South Florida, where we are more or less equally divided. I took a count in my neighborhood- 2 or 3 houses with Bush signs, 1 with a Kerry sign. Over one city nearby, through which I frequently drive, Kerry signs abound at every intersection, but recently Bush signs have gone up next to them without taking down the Kerry signs. I've seen at least one large Kerry sign on public property that was spray-painted with a pro-Bush Cheney message. I must admit that I considered taking down my neighbor's Kerry sign yesterday (likely by running it over), but stopped myself because the house next door was covered in Bush signs, and I didn't want someone else to be blamed for the forced removal... but if that hadn't stopped me, I would probably have run it over and not given it a second thought. I still think that I may take down those signs near intersections... they're really starting to bother me. Seriously, the temptation is nearly overwhelming because everything is so polarized this year.