|
|
Frankly, I'm surprised the ACLU hasn't had Mr. Brown executed. |
Posted on 10/21/2004 4:27:38 AM PDT by Ginifer
Dan Harkins, a political activist in the vital swing state of Ohio, was excited when he first heard that the Guardian newspaper was recruiting readers to write to voters in his state in the hopes of giving foreigners a voice in the American election.
Yesterday, the first of about 14,000 Guardian readers' letters started arriving in the mailboxes of Clark County, Mr Harkins's home region - chosen by the British paper as a pivotal election district where President George W Bush and Senator John Kerry are neck and neck. Terry Brown Terry Brown with an anti-Bush letter sent to his soldier son from a Guardian reader
The first letters to be made public all urged Clark County voters to reject Mr Bush. As he watched the reaction of friends and neighbours, Mr Harkins was delighted.
He is the chairman of the Clark County Republican Party, and his neighbours' reaction was outrage. "It's hysterical," laughed Mr Harkins, showing off sheaves of incensed e-mails and notes from local voters.
The Republicans' delight compares with the gloom among local Democrats, who fear that "foreign interference" is hurting Mr Kerry.
Terry Brown had received a letter from a Scottish Guardian reader. The navy veteran and retired lorry builder was "offended" as he read the polite note, from Nicola Smith of West Lothian, with its denunciation of the Iraq war as a "farce", and closing plea to remove from power "the parties responsible for this war".
The Clark County press has not taken kindly to the letters
Mr Brown looked out at his front garden, decorated with a US flag on a tall pole, a giant carving of an American eagle and a wooden cross marked: "September 11, 2001".
"I feel very strongly that this was an invasion of my privacy," he said. "The right of my wife and myself to decide whom to vote for should not be affected by any other country. That was a freedom we fought for many years ago. It was 1776."
Ms Smith's letter was addressed to Mr Brown's son, Sean. Mr Brown opens the mail because his son is in the army in Missouri, pending a possible posting to Iraq.
"My son will have choice words to say about this that you can't print," said Mr Brown.
The young soldier's mother, Sarah, was indignant at the letter's talk of Iraq war casualties. "If our son has to go to Iraq, and is killed, it's something we are ready to sacrifice for freedom, and so is he." Mrs Brown suspected that the name "Nicola Smith" was false, and planned to take the envelope to her local post office for analysis of its markings.
Dan Harkins, the local Republican leader, says it has boosted Bush
Across town, Beverly Coale and her elderly mother, Thelma Arnold, received a letter from Neil Evans from Kent. Heeding the Guardian's pleas to "be courteous", he began gently: "Please act now to preserve your once-great name internationally. We know the majority of you didn't vote for Bush the first time around."
Less happily, Mr Evans concluded that another Bush victory would so anger the world that Americans would have to "put on a Canadian accent when travelling abroad". His tone so alarmed Ms Coale, a Kerry voter, that she feared the letter came from terrorists. "With so much going on today, you wonder about some of these groups," she said.
The readers' letters are being sent only to voters flagged as "undeclared" in the county's electoral roll, a public document the newspaper bought from local officials, then placed on the internet.
The Guardian says it chose Clark County not just because winning Ohio is vital to Mr Bush's hopes of victory, but because the rolls showed such a large number of undeclared voters - 54,000 not affiliated with either party.
But the newspaper misunderstood Ohio polling law, according to the county's elections supervisor, Linda Rosicka. Being "undeclared" on the roll means someone did not choose to vote in the last two party primaries, in which party candidates are chosen. "It doesn't have anything to do with being undecided," she said.
Many local Democrats expressed sympathy with the desire of British voters to have a say. That does not mean they are happy the letters are coming.
Particular gloom has been spread by letters to Clark County from chosen Left-wing celebrities, published on the Guardian website and widely read in Ohio.
Ken Loach, the film director, began his letter: "Friends, you have the chance to do the world a favour. Today, your country is reviled across continents as never before. You are seen as the greatest bully on earth."
Antonia Fraser, the historian, suggested: "If you back Kerry, you will be voting against a savage, militaristic foreign policy of pre-emptive killing, which has stained the great name of the US so hideously in recent times."
Bill Buscemi, a lifelong Democrat from Springfield, Ohio, said: "The Americans do end up electing a world leader, and it must be rather frustrating for Europeans that the choice rests in the hands of a few undecided voters in Clark County. But I doubt this is going to help the Democratic Party."
Across America, the Guardian project has sparked disdain from the Right, and dismay from Kerry campaigners. Coverage in the US media has stressed the risks of offending voters. Furious e-mails have reached the Guardian, such as this one from Texas, stating: "Real Americans aren't interested in your pansy-ass, tea-sipping opinions."
In Clark County, Mr Harkins, the local Republican chairman, has no doubt that the Guardian has helped him - and Mr Bush.
He showed figures from Republican polls, indicating that only four per cent of the county's voters were still undecided last week.
"This is a very competitive county, where the undecided vote is very small. What the Guardian has done is firm up the Republican base. What a gift."
Do you think the gentleman made his point..............?
"I feel very strongly that this was an invasion of my privacy," he said. "The right of my wife and myself to decide whom to vote for should not be affected by any other country. That was a freedom we fought for many years ago. It was 1776."
Amen, Amen!
This is why I was never terribly bothered by this episode. Any sensible person receiving the sort of self-righteous guff which readers of the 'Grauniad' would produce would instantly switch to the opposing side.
You Americans inherited your stubborn and contrary nature from us Brits, nothing would make me more fervent in my Toryism than a letter from a N.Y.Times reader telling me to vote Labour. This is exactly the same thing in reverse.
bump
WTF is going on? Shall we try to influence elections in Great Britain? Maybe it's time for another Boston Tea Party - how fitting, for the Senator from Massachusetts.
Many local Democrats expressed sympathy with the desire of British voters to have a say.
See anything wrong with it?
When meeting someone from Europe who is a snob, one need only ask the following:
Are you from the part of Europe whose arsed we saved or whose arse we kicked?
OMG - FOREIGN NATIONALS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES ARE BEING DISENFRANCHISED FROM AMERICAN ELECTIONS--WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO?? EVERY VOTER MUST BE GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO CAST HIS OR HER BALLOT, WHEREVER THAT VOTER MAY BE!!
LOL! That's great.
September 6, 1781 - Benedict Arnold's troops loot and burn the port of New London, Connecticut.
September 14-24, 1781 - De Grasse sends his ships up the Chesapeake Bay to transport the armies of Washington and Rochambeau to Yorktown.
September 28, 1781 - Gen. Washington, with a combined Allied army of 17,000 men, begins the siege of Yorktown. French cannons bombard Gen. Cornwallis and his 9000 men day and night while the Allied lines slowly advance and encircle them. British supplies run dangerously low.
October 17, 1781 - As Yorktown is about to be taken, the British send out a flag of truce. Gen. Washington and Gen. Cornwallis then work out terms of surrender.
October 19, 1781 - As their band plays the tune, "The world turned upside down," the British army marches out in formation and surrenders at Yorktown. Hopes for a British victory in the war against America are dashed. In the English Parliament, there will soon be calls to bring this long costly war to an end.
October 24, 1781 - 7000 British reinforcements under Gen. Clinton arrive at Chesapeake Bay but turn back on hearing of the surrender at Yorktown.
January 1, 1782 - Loyalists begin leaving America, heading north to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
January 5, 1782 - The British withdraw from North Carolina.
February 27, 1782 - In England, the House of Commons votes against further war in America.
March 5, 1782 - The British Parliament empowers the King to negotiate peace with the United States.
March 7, 1782 - American militiamen massacre 96 Delaware Indians in Ohio in retaliation for Indian raids conducted by other tribes.
March 20, 1782 - British Prime Minister, Lord North, resigns, succeeded two days later by Lord Rockingham who seeks immediate negotiations with the American peace commissioners.
April 4, 1782 - Sir Guy Carleton becomes the new commander of British forces in America, replacing Gen. Clinton. Carleton will implement the new British policy of ending hostilities and withdraw British troops from America.
April 12, 1782 - Peace talks begin in Paris between Ben Franklin and Richard Oswald of Britain.
April 16, 1782 - Gen. Washington establishes American army headquarters at Newburgh, New York.
April 19, 1782 - The Dutch recognize the United States of America as a result of negotiations conducted in the Netherlands by John Adams.
June 11, 1782 - The British evacuate Savannah, Georgia.
June 20, 1782 - Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States of America.
August 19, 1782 - Loyalist and Indian forces attack and defeat American settlers near Lexington, Kentucky.
August 25, 1782 - Mohawk Indian Chief Joseph Brant conducts raids on settlements in Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
August 27, 1782 - The last fighting of the Revolutionary War between Americans and British occurs with a skirmish in South Carolina along the Combahee River.
November 10, 1782 - The final battle of the Revolutionary War occurs as Americans retaliate against Loyalist and Indian forces by attacking a Shawnee Indian village in the Ohio territory.
November 30, 1782 - A preliminary peace treaty is signed in Paris. Terms include recognition of American independence and the boundaries of the United States, along with British withdrawal from America.
December 14, 1782 - The British evacuate Charleston, South Carolina.
December 15, 1782 - In France, strong objections are expressed by the French over the signing of the peace treaty in Paris without America first consulting them. Ben Franklin then soothes their anger with a diplomatic response and prevents a falling out between France and America.
January 20, 1783 - England signs a preliminary peace treaty with France and Spain.
February 3, 1783 - Spain recognizes the United States of America, followed later by Sweden, Denmark and Russia.
February 4, 1783 - England officially declares an end to hostilities in America.
March 10, 1783 - An anonymous letter circulates among Washington's senior officers camped at Newburgh, New York. The letter calls for an unauthorized meeting and urges the officers to defy the authority of the new U.S. national government (Congress) for its failure to honor past promises to the Continental Army. The next day, Gen. Washington forbids the unauthorized meeting and instead suggests a regular meeting to be held on March 15. A second anonymous letter then appears and is circulated. This letter falsely claims Washington himself sympathizes with the rebellious officers.
March 15, 1783 - General Washington gathers his officers and talks them out of a rebellion against the authority of Congress, and in effect preserves the American democracy. Read more about this
April 11, 1783 - Congress officially declares an end to the Revolutionary War.
April 26, 1783 - 7000 Loyalists set sail from New York for Canada, bringing a total of 100,000 Loyalists who have now fled America.
June 13, 1783 - The main part of the Continental Army disbands.
June 24, 1783 - To avoid protests from angry and unpaid war veterans, Congress leaves Philadelphia and relocates to Princeton, New Jersey.
July 8, 1783 - The Supreme Court of Massachusetts abolishes slavery in that state.
September 3, 1783 - The Treaty of Paris is signed by the United States and Great Britain. Congress will ratify the treaty on January 14, 1784.
October 7, 1783 - In Virginia, the House of Burgesses grants freedom to slaves who served in the Continental Army.
November 2, 1783 - George Washington delivers his farewell address to his army. The next day, remaining troops are discharged.
November 25, 1783 - Washington enters Manhattan as the last British troops leave.
November 26, 1783 - Congress meets in Annapolis, Maryland.
December 23, 1783 - Following a triumphant journey from New York to Annapolis, George Washington, victorious commander in chief of the American Revolutionary Army, appears before Congress and voluntarily resigns his commission, an event unprecedented in history.
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/revwar-77.htm
ROFLOL - I would have loved to see the customs official's face! Excellent!!
The Democrats are embarrassed because they know that they are seeing other liberals embarrass themselves without realizing that they are even doing it.
These people have toilet paper stuck to their shoes and haven't looked down.
|
|
Frankly, I'm surprised the ACLU hasn't had Mr. Brown executed. |
That sympathy would quickly evaporate were it a Republican candidate.
Here's a message to the rest of the world: if it bothers you that America is so powerful that our votes affect your well-being, then maybe you should get off your scrawny asses and do something to make your own country more powerful. You'll never succeed, of course, but there's more dignity in that than in whining to Americans trying to get them to undermine their own country.
OF COURSE WE WERE OUTRAGED. What we really want to hear is what the good people in France, Germany & Spain recommend.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
