Romney "Disses" Amateur Radio In Televised Town Meeting (and why he won't get my vote)

Eastern MA American Radio Relay League ^ | Wednesday 16 November 2005 @ 15:48:10 | Eastern Massachusetts ARRL

[Rick.Donaldson]

Let me clarify - I respect you radio folks - but this issue - not even in the top 500.

Which is why he is getting away with this two years down the road. LOL

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"No, Justa, that’s NOT what this is about."

Actually, I understood and appreciated exactly what this was about, but please allow me to explain something to you. When you attack each and every person who posts something that does not meet with your exacting approval, the thread quickly turns into another animal and the original point is lost in the noise.

You've certainly been around here long enough to know that some folks are going to disagree with you or miss your intended point, and you certainly can't control the thread once posted. FWIW.

While I am certainly no Romney supporter in the first place, this information was useful as another example of how inappropriate he is as a candidate for POTUS. Would I have totally rejected Romney based on this information alone? Probably not. Romney's ignorance of the importance of AHRO's is not going to bring down the system.

[Rick.Donaldson]

Actually, I understood and appreciated exactly what this was about, but please allow me to explain something to you. When you attack each and every person who posts something that does not meet with your exacting approval, the thread quickly turns into another animal and the original point is lost in the noise.

Now, let me explaing something to YOU. I've not ONCE attacked anyone - unless they have attacked me FIRST or made stupid comments. If you're going to make a comment, then you'd 1) better be right, 2) if it's a smart remark and in fun thats fine, 3) If it's a smart remark and wrong, I'm going to slam you for it.

That, my friend is my right - to defend myself - and I can certainly GIVE as good as I get. I've not "attacked" one person in this thread. I've been attacked, I've been called immature, and have been called ignorant more than once (and each time that has happened, I've pointed out that I'm not ignorant of the facts I've posted. However, the ignorance on the part of other posters is EVIDENT when the haven't read the thread, haven't actually read the article, can't keep ON TOPIC and sit and DENY that what was said was actually said).

Sorry. I'm not here to attack anyone, not even Romney. I'm here to bring to light a subject that bothers me. I've done so and I will continue to do so, even if he gets the nomination and I have to wind up voting for him (because he is the Republican nominee).

The original POINT of the article and the thread has NOT been lost at all, thanks in part to me and others pulling the rest of you BACK on topic. I keep seeing everyone saying "Romney didn't do that" or "That's not what he meant" or pointing the finger at Fred for some reason. THAT is precisely NOT what this thread is about.

it's about FACTS. So, perhaps you should stick to the facts.

While I am certainly no Romney supporter in the first place, this information was useful as another example of how inappropriate he is as a candidate for POTUS. Would I have totally rejected Romney based on this information alone? Probably not. Romney's ignorance of the importance of AHRO's is not going to bring down the system.

I haven't once stated stated that I would have totally rejected Romney on this one issue, it is one that is "near and dear to my heart". I've seen a lot of Amateurs over the years give an awful lot. Having someone simply write them off in this respect is at least bad manners, and at worst ignorance on his part.

I stated that this isn't the ONLY reason I'm not voting for him in several other posts.

It's not his ignorance of hams - it's his ignorance of the BIG PICTURE.

Please listen to what I am saying here.

[trisham]

LOL!

[trisham]

I don’t necessarily think of Ham radio operators as geeky people without lives, but I do visualize them in a poorly lit basement chain-smoking and talking to somebody about nothing in Kuala Lumpur.

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Which is actually kind of cool, except fot the chain-smoking part.

And the poorly-lit basement.

[trisham]

To that, I say, TOUGH. Deal with it. My vote cancels yours. HA!

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LOL! I wish I'd thought of that one.

[Rick.Donaldson]

lol. sorry, petty but was funny at the time. /shrug

[trisham]

I’m just jealous. :)

[street_lawyer]

Rick I’m curious to know why you put street_lawyer in quotes?

[street_lawyer]

I’m sure that if we ask Romney about how great ham radio operators are he will have a lot of nice things to say.

[ellery]

His stand is relevant, because it exemplifies his preference for big govm't solutions.

Yep -- Romney is a big government guy, through and through.

[DBrow]

Thanks for the info!

I was in South America, on a train. We stopped at some village for some reason, and the train people rolled out a cart, with a radio, mike, and battery. Two people stretched out a wire dipole (maybe 5, 6 meters end to end) with wooden handles, and the guy with the headphones called out “a la derecha, a la izquierda”, and the Dipole Guys pointed the “antenna” until Headphone Guy was happy, then he chatted away for a couple minutes.

Someone I was with thought he was arranging for diesel oil for our next stop.

[DBrow]

“Romney is running for president.

As chief executive officer of the Federal government, he has no interest in what your State of local community does in regard to communications.”

Yes, but he was Governor at the time he said this, and was not running for president officially.

As for caring about what state disaster planning is, if he’s to follow he Stafford Act, he or someone on his staff must have some idea.

[gitmo]

Hope you’re reporting your mileage and expenses on your taxes.

[VRWCRick]

As a ham myself, I agree that Mitt Romney’s comment was boneheaded and deserving of criticism, but I refuse to get so worked up about it. Our current president, Mr. Bush, has done some boneheaded things regarding ham radio as well, particularly his support of BPL (broadband over power line) technology, which has great potential to obliterate much of the useful radio spectrum of amateur radio and many other services. It is a good thing for us that BPL is a technical turkey which will probably never be competitive in the broadband internet marketplace, otherwise, ham radio would be sunk in a endless morass of digital noise.

Mr. Romney is certainly ignorant on this subject, and if he were to be elected, which I think is highly unlikely at this point, he would certainly need to be educated.

For my part, I am voting for Fred Thompson.

One final thought, has anyone here considered what the Hildabeast or Barack Obama know about ham radio or emergency communications? You can bet that it is far less than any of the other candidates!

[Rick.Donaldson]

Someone else said that. I didn’t.

[Rick.Donaldson]

Not sure... Might have been typing fast, it wasn’t something I did deliberately though.

[DBrow]

You are right, it was Cold Heat, sorry.

[street_lawyer]

always good to here form a brother conservative

[DBrow]

Thanks!