Dirty tricks in the US election

Sparks

Well, leaving aside the electoral messing about in Florida (and the whole 80lb paper fiasco), there's this neat little advert mailed throughout the bible belt of Arkansas by the GOP...




Nope, not a joke. They actually sent this.

shotamoose

The Liberal agenda includes:

* Removing 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance.

Sounds like a good plan to me.

* Allowing teenager to get abortions without parental consent.

Necessary evil really.

* Overturning the ban on the hideous procedure known as Partial Birth Abortion

Ditto.

* Allowing same-sex marriages.

Brilliant!

Hey maybe I'll move to Arkansas, after the Liberals get in and install their hand-picked judges.

seamus

Beautifully sensationalist. Reads like a bad Fox special.

ixoy

Are you sure this isn't a joke? It's almost impossible to believe although it's kind of hilarious at the same time. I really don't think I'm warming to Arkansas but it's kind of funny to see literature that's so absurd it doesn't really need to be parodied.

GuanYin

ixoy wrote:

Are you sure this isn't a joke? It's almost impossible to believe although it's kind of hilarious at the same time. I really don't think I'm warming to Arkansas but it's kind of funny to see literature that's so absurd it doesn't really need to be parodied.

It could well be a joke, however, having been to america's bible belt, I'm inclined to believe its genuine.

mycroft

See this isn't even beginning to get close to dirty tricks in a US election theres always the great Lyndon Johnson Quote

Legend has it Johnson told one of his aides -- "Go out there and tell 'em Coke was caught having sex with a farm animal."

"But, Lyndon," the aide protested, "you know that's not true!"

"Of course it's not true!" Johnson responded impatiently. "That's not the point. Tell it anyway -- and make him deny it..."

If You want dirty tricks in a US election then take a bow this man Karl Rove

However, unlike Clinton, most opponents who dare to "get down" politically with Karl Rove rarely get up again. Rove opened the political door for the vacuous, mean-spirited George W. Bush by steamrolling popular former Texas governor Ann Richards --painting her as a drunk and a lesbian. And, in 2000, Rove proved far too wily for even a political veteran like John McCain when he roiled the campaign waters by questioning McCain's honor, integrity, patriotism -- even his mental stability. McCain's wife was a drug addict. For good measure, Rove threw in an illicit affair that resulted in an illegitimate African-American child.

And he's been at it for years

In 1970, Rove stole campaign letterhead from the office of a Democrat running for Illinois state treasurer, printed up bogus invitations advertising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing," passed them out on Chicago's Skid Row and then watched as hundreds of people flocked to the candidate's new headquarters' open house. A fraternity-like prank, perhaps, but three years later, Rove exhibited more questionable behavior, according to Robert Edgeworth, a Louisiana State University professor of classics who was Rove's 1973 rival for the chairmanship of the College Republicans. Edgeworth says Rove "robbed" him of that position with such tactics as persistently questioning the credentials of Edgeworth's convention supporters. In 1973, George Herbert Walker Bush, then head of the Republican National Committee, investigated the controversy, exonerated Rove and then hired him to a full- time job at the RNC.

Quote from this article here

Now would be a good time to dust off and re read hunter s thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72, which I think still resonates and is relevant today

daveirl

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Hobbes

LOL shame SA don't do a photoshop friday on it.

dahamsta

daveirl wrote:

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The login that pops up is gwb@bilderberg.com:lucifer.

pork99

NEWS EVENT!

This just in

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4039

sceptre

pork99 wrote:

NEWS EVENT!

This just in

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4039

I know satire is said to have died a death the day Kissinger got the Nobel Prize but in case it revived itself, it seems to have happened again. That story doesn't read as Onion satire - most of the first page of it is close to something Reuters could have put out on the wire (ha, 'news stories').

mycroft

We'll file this one under "you couldn't make it up"

Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center are still concerned about Jeb Bush's wacky Florida shenanigans (though cheers for the Jeb and the Republican party machine for allowing me a chance to use the word "shenanigans")

a fumbling attempt has been made recently to disqualify 22,000 African Americans (likely Democrats), but only 61 Hispanics (likely Republicans), as alleged felons.

Article here

Jimmy Carter, the former US president, has said Florida lacks "some basic international requirements for a fair election" and that a repeat of the 2000 election fiasco "seems likely".

article6

From an objective (read: apathetic) point of view, I'm surprised Jimmy Carter considers himself unbiased enough to comment, having been a Democrat.

mycroft

article6 wrote:

From an objective (read: apathetic) point of view, I'm surprised Jimmy Carter considers himself unbiased enough to comment, having been a Democrat.

Carter has spent the last 20 years observing elections around the globe, furthermore if you'd bother to read the 1st link you'd see that both himself and Gerald Ford (A republican) were asked to examine electorial procedure in florida after the last debacle

After the debacle in Florida four years ago, former president Gerald Ford and I were asked to lead a blue-ribbon commission to recommend changes in the American electoral process. After months of concerted effort by a dedicated and bipartisan group of experts, we presented unanimous recommendations to the president and Congress. The government responded with the Help America Vote Act of October 2002. Unfortunately, however, many of the act's key provisions have not been implemented because of inadequate funding or political disputes.

Victor

Didn't some gubernorial candidate once brand his opponent a "heteorsexual and an extrovert"? And won because people presumed they were "bad" labels.

http://www.lincolninstitute.org/archives/kennedy/0303.html

George Smathers, former Democractic Senator from Florida, had considerable fun criticizing his opponent, Claude Pepper, with seemingly hostile words, which really were quite harmless. Smathers claimed that Pepper
- was a shameless extrovert
- practiced celibacy before his marriage
- had a sister who was a thespian in wicked New York
- matriculated before entering college
- was a well-known heterosexual in college

ixoy

pork99 wrote:

NEWS EVENT!

This just in

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4039

You know that article would be a lot funnier if it weren't so depressingly close to home

mycroft

Victor wrote:

Didn't some gubernorial candidate once brand his opponent a "heteorsexual and an extrovert"? And won because people presumed they were "bad" labels.

http://www.lincolninstitute.org/archives/kennedy/0303.html

From the same article

John Adams called Alexander Hamilton, "the bastard brat of a scotch peddler."

Adams was quite vitriolic about Thomas Jefferson. He called him "the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father … If elected, murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest will be openly taught and practiced."

Martin Van Buren was accused of "wearing corsets … takes too many baths for a real man … a little squirt."

Andrew Jackson called Henry Clay, "the Judas of the West."

Clay countered against Jackson, "married an adultress … played billiards … his mother was a prostitute."

Grover Cleveland was accused by the Republicans of "drinking beer with dinner and urinating out the White House window."

The Republicans also accused Cleveland of fathering an illegitimate child with the campaign jingle of "Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa?"

Cleveland and the Democrats countered with, "Gone to the white House, ha, ha, ha."

Harry S. Truman was called "a whiskey-guzzling, poker-playing, old buzzard."

Don't you miss the good ole days when politics was clean :eek:

butterKnife

The Christian Taliban at work again. Those fruit cakes have tremendous leverage and are a powerful lobby in the states, up there with the NRA. Out of my cold rigid paw….argggh the swift boat virgins are coming to get you. Democrats have asked the Bush to denounce this type of propaganda by Republicans (who paid for the mailing). So far nada.

ixoy

I'm reminded almost of the Family Guy episode where they're relocated to the Deep South and Brian, in an effort to divert the hillbillies attention, exclaims:
[size=-1]"Look over there! It's a newly married interracial gay couple burning the American flag!"

All levity aside, this tabloidesque manner of politics - does anyone admire it? I mean I don't recall the Democratic party making a formal proposal to remove "under God" from them the pledge? And is it now beholden on the Democrats to fight fire-with-fire or should they try and remain aloof and claim the moral upper hand? Or simply put, does the electorate really think so much about what they're hearing...
[/size]

pork99

EMERGING FROM THE FACT-PIPE

http://www.geocities.com/darkcinema/lincoln.htm

http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/canderson/2004/09/20

TwoShedsJackson

Is the US Presidential debate being televised here? It's on tonight, is it not, but can't find anything in the listings etc.

mycroft

2 am on Sky News.

I for one am not staying up to watch a tape of Bush and Kerry saying

"Forwards not backwards, and spinning always spinning"

Highlights will be enough for me

sovtek

mycroft wrote:

(though cheers for the Jeb and the Republican party machine for allowing me a chance to use the word "shenanigans")



Article here

"the next person to say shenanigans get's pistol whipped!"

Hobbes

There was an intresting story on BBC news (cant see it anymore) that listed off the demands of what each side wanted. I have doubts it is going to be a serious one to one.

Some examples.

- Podium sizes changed so that Kerry doesn't look taller then Bush.
- Cameras must be fixed in position.
- No focusing cameras on candidate while the other is talking.

and so on.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

- Podium sizes changed so that Kerry doesn't look taller then Bush.

well they'd both better make sure to visit a hair salon beforehand, as scott addams (dilbert) says.. it's always the candidate with the best hair who wins the election.

mycroft

Hobbes wrote:

There was an intresting story on BBC news (cant see it anymore) that listed off the demands of what each side wanted. I have doubts it is going to be a serious one to one.

Some examples.

- Podium sizes changed so that Kerry doesn't look taller then Bush.
- Cameras must be fixed in position.
- No focusing cameras on candidate while the other is talking.

and so on.

Others include (no lifters) for shoes (so Bush looks taller)

Flashing light visible to viewer when one candiate goes over the alloted time limit, (Kerry apparently waffles)

No cuts to audience during speech, (showing bored or disinterested audience members during speech)

bonkey

sovtek wrote:

"the next person to say shenanigans get's pistol whipped!"

Quit with your shenanigans...

jc

mycroft

mycroft wrote:

2 am on Sky News.

I for one am not staying up to watch a tape of Bush and Kerry saying

And yet somehow at half two this morning I was screaming at Kerry.

Bush actually used the term "We'll stay in Iraq till the mission is accomplished" and Kerry didn't make one reference to the whole "mission accomplished" debacle NOT ONE no joke, no pointed remark NOTHING

I left at about a quarter to three with the impression bush was winning

I'm about this close to finding a deep dark hole in cavan and crawling into it with a case of beans and three cases of whiskey, wake me in 2008

Redleslie2

mycroft wrote:

And yet somehow at half two this morning I was screaming at Kerry.

Bush actually used the term "We'll stay in Iraq till the mission is accomplished" and Kerry didn't make one reference to the whole "mission accomplished" debacle NOT ONE no joke, no pointed remark NOTHING

He did. I'm pretty sure he did. It was in there somewhere. I thought Kerry seriously underperformed though as reasonably talented people are wont to do in any contest when their opponent is absolutely useless. As soon as the debate was finished, Kerry probably thought of a load of things he should have said. Often the way. L'esprit d'escalier the French call it.

mycroft

He did. I'm pretty sure he did. It was in there somewhere. I thought Kerry seriously underperformed though as reasonably talented people are wont to do in any contest when their opponent is absolutely useless. As soon as the debate was finished, Kerry probably thought of a load of things he should have said. Often the way. L'esprit d'escalier the French call it.

He may have said it later, but didn't get the zing in, Kerry shoulda rattled Bush, we''ve seen how bad he is when asked even remotely tough questions, and slagging off that piece of idiotice stunt woulda helped, instead it was "blah blah I was in vietnam, blah blah"

Bonus points for that tasty piece of french, I shall be re boosting your rep when the great mods in the sky allow

Redleslie2

mycroft wrote:

He may have said it later, but didn't get the zing in, Kerry shoulda rattled Bush, we''ve seen how bad he is when asked even remotely tough questions, and slagging off that piece of idiotice stunt woulda helped, instead it was "blah blah I was in vietnam, blah blah"

Bonus points for that tasty piece of french, I shall be re boosting your rep when the great mods in the sky allow

Yeah you're right, he got it in near the end, but it should have been an uppercut rather than a jab. It was probably against the rules to mention it or something.

Just because the president says it can't be done, that you'd lose China, doesn't mean it can't be done. I mean, this is the president who said "There were weapons of mass destruction," said "Mission accomplished," said we could fight the war on the cheap -- none of which were true

If I was in the Bush camp, I'd be asking why Bush didn't mention Hitler at every opportunity.

therecklessone

I'm disappointed with the NY Times transcript of the debate, they edited out all of Dubya's ums and ahhs. Very poor.

Redleslie2

therecklessone wrote:

I'm disappointed with the NY Times transcript of the debate, they edited out all of Dubya's ums and ahhs. Very poor.

Yes, and his "dramatic pauses" too, the awkward silences where the imps in his brain tried to work out which desperate cliche to send out the chute next.

GuanYin

My god, it was like watchinga sketch from teh fast show at times.

ixoy

What's the theme of the next debate? The economy? I assume it'll get less viewers than the first one. I can imagine Bush trying to shift the topic already:

How do you propose to alleviate the current slow economic growth and the large unemployment growth in your term as president?

Bush: Americans are the economy and the economy it is.. Americans. For our economy to succeed we must believe in ourselves as Americans and we must believe in our economy. And in order to believe in America, we must feel safe. We must be free from threats of terror abroad and that is why I'm focusing my economic policies on the war on terror - because how can we have a safe, thriving economy if the American people.. if the American people are living in fear?

... Why do I see that as being the sort of answer he might try to give...

therecklessone

ixoy wrote:

How do you propose to alleviate the current slow economic growth and the large unemployment growth in your term as president?

Bush: Americans are the economy and the economy it is.. Americans. For our economy to succeed we must believe in ourselves as Americans and we must believe in our economy. And in order to believe in America, we must feel safe. We must be free from threats of terror abroad and that is why I'm focusing my economic policies on the war on terror - because how can we have a safe, thriving economy if the American people.. if the American people are living in fear?

You should mail that to the Bush campaign, they may just use it...

bonkey

mycroft wrote:

I'm about this close to finding a deep dark hole in cavan and crawling into it with a case of beans and three cases of whiskey, wake me in 2008

Good lord man....

don't lose the run of yourself here....

three cases of whiskey won't even get you through a month in a cavern, let alone 4 years.

Or so I've heard...

jc

FatherTed

We must also not forget that the Democrats are not immune to dirty tricks. They are trying their damnedest to get Nader off the ballot in Florida, Nevada and other close states.

sovtek

FatherTed wrote:

We must also not forget that the Democrats are not immune to dirty tricks. They are trying their damnedest to get Nader off the ballot in Florida, Nevada and other close states.

As well as (along with the Repubs) to use their monoply status on in the CPD to keep Nader et al out of the debates.

mycroft

bonkey wrote:

Good lord man....

don't lose the run of yourself here....

three cases of whiskey won't even get you through a month in a cavern, let alone 4 years.

Or so I've heard...

jc

Actually I said cavan not cavern.

Easy mistake to make though both are dank wet miserable places not fit for man to live in........

daveirl

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