I just received a call from Mrs. Hatch. Somebody vandalized the sign I put up in her yard. I have now lost over $1000.00 worth of sign and posts that have simply disappeared, or have been destroyed.
Kim Wixon was putting up signs in Layton. He placed a Miller sign legally on Redwood Road, went around the corner, placed a sign, and then turned around. The sign he had placed less than five minutes before was gone.
I'm not saying that this doesn't happen on both sides, but it is obvious that my large signs have been targeted in the Centerville, Bountiful, and West Bountiful areas. Maybe I'm doing too good a job campaigning.
No Party has a monopoly on values and morality, and who would have thought that Republican values included theft and vandalism.
So, should we fight fire with fire?
Maybe that's my problem, I won't do it.
Kim Wixon was putting up signs in Layton. He placed a Miller sign legally on Redwood Road, went around the corner, placed a sign, and then turned around. The sign he had placed less than five minutes before was gone.
I'm not saying that this doesn't happen on both sides, but it is obvious that my large signs have been targeted in the Centerville, Bountiful, and West Bountiful areas. Maybe I'm doing too good a job campaigning.
No Party has a monopoly on values and morality, and who would have thought that Republican values included theft and vandalism.
So, should we fight fire with fire?
Maybe that's my problem, I won't do it.
14 comments:
Is vote theft a Republican value?
Beware vote Fraud
A Loaves & Fishes Victory For The GOP In November?
Thursday, 19 October 2006, 2:35 pm
Opinion: Bob Fitrakis
A Loaves & Fishes/Holy Ghost Victory For The GOP In November?
by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
October 17, 2006
From: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2006/2181The polls all point to a Democratic sweep in November. The news pours in about pedophile Republicans and Team Bush contempt for their fundamentalist bedmates. Iraq implodes. Deficits soar. Katrina lingers. Scandal is everywhere.
On the other hand, there are rumors of an "October Surprise." An attack on Iran. A new terror incident. Osama finally captured.
Gas prices are down, the stock market up.
None of it dampens the Democrats' euphoria. They think they are about to win. In conventional terms, they should.
But think again. Please.
It will take just two Biblical fixes for the GOP to keep the Congress, and thus solidify their power in this country, possibly forever: a loaves and fishes vote count, a Holy Ghost turnout.
We coined the phrase "loaves and fishes vote count" to describe the tally in Gahanna, Ohio, 2004. This infamous precinct in suburban Columbus registered 4258 votes for George W. Bush where just 638 people voted. The blessed event occurred at a fundamentalist church run by a close ally of the Reverend Jerry Falwell.
These numbers were later "corrected." But they reflect a much larger reality: the 2004 election was stolen with scores of dirty tricks for whose second coming the Democrats have yet to fully prepare.
In the two years since the fraudulent defeat of John Kerry, we've unearthed an unholy arsenal by which that election was stolen. They include: outright intimidation, wrongful elimination of registered voters, theft, selective deployment of (often faulty) voting machines, absentee ballots without Kerry's name on them, absentee ballots pre-punched for Bush, absentee ballots never mailed, touch screens that lit up for Bush when Kerry was chosen, lines for black voters five hours long while white voters a mile away voted in fifteen minutes, tens of thousands of provisional ballots pitched summarily in the trash, alleged ex-felons illegally told they could not vote, Hispanic precincts with no Spanish-speaking poll workers, deliberate misinformation on official web sites… and that's not even the tip of an iceberg whose bottom we may never see.
ADVERTISEMENT
Thanks to a federal lawsuit, we have finally been able to look at some of the actual ballots from Ohio 2004. Just for starters, researchers Stuart Wright and Dr. Richard Hayes Phillips have found a precinct in Delaware County where 359 consecutive voters allegedly cast ballots for Bush. Dr. Ron Baiman found another precinct in Clermont County where a random inspection found 36 straight replacement ballots, a phenomenon that can be accomplished only by divine intervention or outright fraud.
These initial snippets have been unearthed with no cooperation or participation from the Democratic Party. The official Democratic spin is that they have "looked into the matter." But public records indicate that they have yet to visit the actual ballot storage facilities to examine the public records from the 2004 election.
In sum, we see no indication that the Democrats are prepared for the inevitable…that Karl Rove will steal again, and more, in 2006.
In Ohio alone, four election boards have already eliminated some 500,000 voters since the 2000 election---ten percent of the state's electorate---from the registration rolls in four Democratic counties. No similar purges have occurred in rural Republican counties. The Democrats have said or done very little about it.
To date there is no logical explanation from John Kerry as to why he conceded with 250,000 votes still uncounted while Bush's alleged margin was just half that. Nor have we heard about Democrat plans to monitor the ever-larger numbers of electronic voting machines deployed throughout the United States with no paper trail and no transparency for programming codes and memory cards that are privately owned, with no public inspection allowed.
Which is brings us to the Holy Ghost turnout. As Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has reported in Rolling Stone Magazine, in Georgia 2002, U.S. Senate incumbent Max Cleland went into Election Day with a very substantial lead in the polls. He proceeded to allegedly lose by a substantial margin. Church-state operatives like Ralph Reed attributed this astonishing turn-around to an alleged last- minute mass turnout of evangelical voters.
Similar things were said about Florida and Ohio 2004.
But it never happened. There are no visual reports or other reliable indicators of extraordinary lines or massive late-in-the-day crowds at the polls. Throughout all those election days, it was every bit as quick and easy to vote in rural precincts that gave Bush his miraculous victory as it was impossible to do so in your average black neighborhood. But there was no extraordinary turnout of last-minute Bush voters.
What happened instead hearkens to the Holy Ghost, made manifest in electronic voting machines that cannot and will not be monitored. The miraculous pro-Bush margins give new meaning to the phrase "ghost in the machine." While the Democratic vote count was slashed and trashed in urban precincts, the rural voting stations, through the miracle of untrackable electronics, materialized just the right number of GOP votes to keep the Men of God in the White House (where it's recently reported they dare to mock those earthly evangelicals who allegedly gave them their margin of victory).
There's absolutely nothing to prevent this from happening again in 2006. Major studies from the Conyers Committee, the Government Accountability Office, Princeton University, the Brennan Center, the Carter-Baker Commission, and esteemed others, have all come to the same conclusion: it takes just one individual with inside access---or even just a wi-fi machine---to change the outcome of any election anywhere.
Electronic voting machines can be pre-programmed, re-programmed, re-calibrated, electronically adjusted, hacked, jimmied, jammed or otherwise blessed with a few well-placed electrons and---LO AND BEHOLD!---a Democratic landslide can be born again to a Republican deliverance.
We already see the signs. The corporate bloviators predict a last-minute surge for Bush. The Fox/Rove media machine has planted suggestive stories at the New York Times and elsewhere about the alleged hidden powers of the GOP juggernaut. They will, they say, once again turn out those invisible legions of evangelical voters when and where necessary.
Every two years, Rove leaks some story that is implausible and easily refuted: four million new evangelical voters are identified nationwide; or, a late surge of homophobic Old Order Amish rush to the polls in Ohio; or shy and reluctant right-wing Republican women flood the polls at closing and slip out unseen without speaking to exit pollsters (but, they are only shy in the early evening in Republican counties).
And the Democrats? They say they are also turning out voters. But what happens when their names are miraculously gone from the new electronic registration rolls? When there aren't enough machines in their precincts on which to vote? When they press a Democratic name on their touch-screen and an anointed Republican's lights up? Or when techno-gods from private partisan vendors barge in unchallenged to "adjust" the e-machines in the middle of the voting process.
So far, the Democrats have heaped abuse on those who dare to warn of all this.
But as it is written, so it shall be: unless there are armies of trained, dedicated citizens prepared to monitor this upcoming election, electronic and otherwise, the Holy Ghosts will vote, the loaves & fishes will multiply and be counted, and the GOP will once again emerge with total control of the checks and the balances---this time, perhaps, for all Eternity.
*************
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman are co-authors, with Steve Rosenfeld, of WHAT HAPPENED IN OHIO?, just published by The New Press. Fitrakis is of counsel and Wasserman is a plaintiff in the King-Lincoln lawsuit that has preserved the Ohio 2004 ballots. Fitrakis is an independent candidate for Ohio governor, endorsed by the Green Party; Wasserman is author of SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth, A.D. 2030.
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Rob,
Margaret Dayton's signs in Utah County keep disappearing as well. Its not just you, but perhaps the better candidates losing signs.
Cum hoc, ergo propter hoc
Just because you have had signs stolen, and I have no doubt that the thieves were probably Republicans, does not mean that all Republicans support sign stealing.
If you were going to make that accusation, then I will be "forced" to find the most disgusting politician I can find who is a Democrat and claim that all Democrats are like that (recently deceased Gerry Studds comes to mind - or even Barney Frank).
Sign stealing is wrong - I don't care who does it. Any politician who encourages this type of activity deserves to lose elections and probably go to jail.
Please, don't judge all Republicans by the actions a few.
If I were Brett Milburn, and I had a blog or some other forum for reaching large numbers of citizens) I would tell people to stop stealing my opponent's signs, because it makes me look bad.
(Even though I had nothing to do with the signs being stolen)
I've been tempted to vandalize signs, but I choose to exercise self-restraint and respect for other people's property. Call it a gift.
Please know that I have no reason to believe that Bret is involved in any way, and I'm not trying to make him look bad.
I also want to state to twclay that I have never made any accusation that all Republicans steal signs.
"We see what we want to see and hear what we want to hear"
Nilsson
What I am trying to do is to point out to the person(S) who is involved that theft and vandalism are not Republican (or Democratic) values.
When did winning become more important than the core Party principles that we claim to abide by?
I will say this however; Utah Republican leadership is guilty of doing exactly what you are accusing me of doing twclay.
"TAX AND SPEND DEMOCRATS!" "BIG GOVERNMENT"
"ROCKY ANDERSON"...
Just today in an article in the Davis County Clipper Davis County Republican Chair Todd Weiler tried to associate all Democrats with these types of labels. He continues use these divisive tactics to create animosity in his attempt breed hate between those who would otherwise be friends and neighbors.
So please, don't lecture me about judging all Republicans by the actions of a few when that is exactly what Todd Weiler and LaVar Christensen, and James Evans do every day.
Cum hoc, ergo propter hoc. If you understand this phrase than why are you jumping to conclusions?
With every best wish,
The Utah Amicus
it's all part of the game
Good to know, I'll be sure to play.
Of course, I didn't mean to imply that Bret Millburn had anything to do with the sign stealing/vandalism.
You're telling me that the leadership of the Republican party is making sweeping generalizations about the Democratic party?
Impossible!! Unbelievable!!
Heh - I can't even think that with a straight face :)
I don't care. Just because they are doing something doesn't mean that you should.
You are right - you did not say that all Republicans steal signs. You did ask, "...and who would have thought that Republican values included theft and vandalism."
The implication is that they are "Republican values."
Picking nits and various other issues of semantics are one of the tools employed by lawyers when they are trying to get a case dismissed on technical issues. It is much like asking someone, "Do you still beat your spouse?" without ever determining if the person EVER beat their spouse.
There are many things that make for great headlines - except that they are prejudicial and prepare the reader for a particular viewpoint for the rest of the article.
I don't like these types of statements, and they generally make me think just the writer is dishonest in their writing, so I read the article with extra scrutiny.
Perhaps a better article would be why the Republican leadership hasn't denounced the sign stealing behavior. A valid (although politically charged) question whose only acceptable answer is, "We didn't think we needed to!"
Rob:
I will bet you a hundred bucks that sign for sign, Bret Milburn has lost more signs than you 2 to 1. And by the way, I did not use the term "big government" in my article. Instead of misquoting me, why don't you just cut and paste what I said so that your readers can judge for themselves?
Todd Weiler
By Todd Weiler, Davis Republican Party Chair
During the past three years, I have learned one important truth: Democrats believe that voters in Davis County are stupid. If you listen to what they say and boil it down to the essentials, their message is always insulting: If voters were smarter, they would vote for Democrats. Since the voters repeatedly elect and re-elect Republicans, the implication is obvious.
If you’re not convinced, consider this simple example. Davis Democrats generally do not advertise their party affiliation on their campaign signs. They think that if you see their names frequently enough, you will robotically vote for them at the polls — without noticing that they have big, fat (“D’s”) after their names on the ballot.
They also expect that you will forget that nationally Democrats have defined themselves as the party of tax-and-spend liberals, gay rights activists, and abortions on demand. (But in the same breath, they try and link local Republicans to national scandals.) They assert that Utah Democrats are different, but then have a difficult time explaining why Rocky Anderson considers Ted Kennedy to be a moderate.
One of their favorite attacks on Davis County voters is the straight-party ticket vote. Without ever verifying the facts, some Democrats will repeat ridiculous and untrue statistics that are designed to shock your conscience. They will, for in-stance, claim that 70 percent of the voters cast straight-party votes. (The unstated implication is that such voters are too dumb to study the candidates and discover that they should have voted for at least one Democrat.) They never seem to complain about Democrats who cast a straight-party ballot.
First of all, the 70 percent figure is a downright lie. In actuality, Davis County voting records show that straight-party Republican votes accounted for 26 percent of the votes cast in the 2004 election. Second, and most important, a straight-party vote does not mean that the voter failed to study either the candidates or the issues. What the Davis Democrats may never admit to themselves is that some well-informed voters consciously decide that each of the individual Republican candidates is preferable to their opponents. In other words, not all people who cast a straight-ticket Republican vote are complete morons.
People tell me all the time that they vote for the person, not the party. And I believe them because I try to do the same. I happen to know each and every Republican on the ballot this year, and they are a very impressive group of individuals. I encourage every voter to study the issues and the candidates by visiting www.Davis
GOP.com.
I have faith in the voters and in the process. I believe that our system of government is the best in the world, and more often than not results in the best candidate winning! See you at the polls on Nov. 7!
I said these types of labels Todd. There's your article.
Rob
Weber County Democrats have had the same problem.
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