Athens Banner-Herald endorses Bush

[mac56]

Appalling, but not at all surprising.

Excerpts:

While the poll margins may be narrow, we believe George Bush is clearly the better choice.

snip:

Indeed, the fact there has not been a terrorist attack on the U.S. since the Sept. 11, 2001 assaults on New York City and Washington, D.C. is the best argument as to why Bush should be returned to office.

Democratic candidate John Kerry is hobbled by the perception he will turn the war on terror into a war by committee, with other countries allowed a voice in how the United States ought to prosecute it. That's an ill-advised approach, when it is American soil into which the blood of American citizens seeped after the Sept. 11 attacks.

snip:

Bush wants to provide younger workers with the opportunity to place some payroll taxes into personal retirement accounts. He argues those investments will provide greater returns, and, hence, greater retirement security, to those relatively new in the workforce.

Kerry, on the other hand, opposes such a plan, indicating it would drastically reduce benefits. We respectfully disagree with that view.

snip:

Voters planning to cast ballots in the presidential race should also be mindful of the fact that whoever wins the contest likely will appoint one, or possibly more, justices to the Supreme Court.

snip:

Kerry's recent hunting trip in Ohio seemed to us a bit too calculated in its attempt to bring in votes by painting Kerry as a regular guy.

With Bush, there's no question who you get for your vote.

With Kerry, you just can't be sure.

[Wickerman]

1. The land of the B-52's, R.E.M., Love Tractor, PYLON fer chrissakes

The Drive By Trucker (kinda), Dreams so Real, Man or Astroman? and Nuetral Milk Hotel.

Hell, the number of bands and band memebers alone should be enough to swing Athens Kerry's way.

:grr:

[CottonBear]

3. Athens-Clarke County alway votes Democratic.

I know. I live here.

The repuke paper (the owners are from Augusta) panders to the right-wingers who live in the lily white suburbs in surrounding repuke counties and to the (white owned) businesses and the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber head lives in Oconee County along with the developers who are always seeking to turn our little town into sprawling, concrete crap.

The worst thing that the repukes are doing is their ballot initiative for non-partisan elections. They usually run candidates for about a third of open seats. We did recently have a Republican commissioner and our clerk of court (who does an excellent job by the way) is a republican. However, we have a majority of democratic elected officials. The repukes can't win on a fair playing field so now they want to run without declaring their party. I hope that we will vote this down. The repukes are the ones who don't care about protecting our streams, historic buildings and trees. They don't care about bike lanes, buses and parks.

In Oconee County they are all repuke. They actually threatened the last democratic office holder holdout a few years ago. If she didn't switch parties then they would run her out of office. I don't hear any of them over there calling for non-partisan elections.

The developers and their bank actually finance repuke election campaigns to try and unseat our A-CC commissioners. (One of them actually told me their plan to do this, not realizing that I am an A-CC resident, a Democrat and a friend of the commissioner in question. I listened politely, filed away the info and then called the commissioner immediately upon reaching my home!) I know these people. They are ruthless. They only care about money.
They just want to rape our town and then go back to their minority-free county where they can drive their Hummers and not obey any speed limits and steal as many democratic campaign signs as possible and spew their hateful B-C lies about Kerry. They make me sick.

John Barrow is one of our commissioners. He needs all the support we can give him if is going to unseat the awful Max Burns in the district 12 federal congressional race. The repukes hate him more than any other commissioner. All the more reason that he should win!

VOTE NO ON NON-PARTISAN ELECTIONS IN ATHENS

[Wickerman]

4. wow

thanks for the post Cotton! Vote hard!

[CottonBear]

6. You are welcome lunabush.

We need to GOTV in a very big way. I still have not decided if I'll vote early or go on Nov.2. What are you doing? This electronic voting without a paper trail freaks me out. I'm going to do some canvassing and phone bank calling this weekend. And, I'm going to help my friend place her 3rd K-E sign at her property out in Oconee County. Apparently, writing "thou shall not steal" on the last one did not deter the repuke sign thief, who, by the way, stole all of the Becky Vaughn signs in their area as well. I saw a post on DU where some guy nailed his sign about 8' up a tree. I think that may be our strategy. That and posting a big freeway blogger type sign that says "thou Shall Not Steal"! I wonder how many of the sign thieves have those oh so popular 10 commandments sign in their yards?

[Wickerman]

7. I'm voting on the day - I'm a Minnesota election judge

If I were in GA I would vote early if I could or absentee. In my precinct in MN we still mark a paper ballot. Yea!!

We've had some sign theft - a friend of mine has the

In 2000 they stole the election
This year they stole my Kerry Edwards sign.

sign.

:eyes:

The 10 Commandments are only used to control others, not as a model for personal, republican behavior, it would seem.

peace

[CottonBear]

8. Amen. n/t

on edit: RE: Athens bands. I saw Michael Stipe introduce Al gore at a campaign stop at UGA during the 2000 election. The intro song was r.e.m.'s I Am Superman. It was awesome. Those guys and their lawyer, Bertis Downs, give a lot of money and support to Democrats and our local, state and federal candidates.

[Mallifica]

11. Regarding GOTV efforts

Do you know of any groups organizing to drive people to the polls on Tuesday? I'm interested in doing this, but haven't heard much about it.

[CottonBear]

12. Contact the A-CC Democratic party at 354-0472 or 354-0475

Go to: <http://www.voteathensclarke.org/> for their GOTV effort. They are training poll watchers on Sat. at 11 am The last canvassing will take place on Sat. (10 am) as well. They should have info on driving folks to polls. I've thought about doing that too. I may take part of the day off. Maddy Powell is the lady in charge of GOTV.

[Mallifica]

13. Thanks CottonBear! nt

[ozymandius]

2. Not surprising.

The Banana-Herald has been a conservative rag for decades. They would endorse the candidate that intends to shut down a free press - as long as that candidate is a Republican.

[MarianJack]

5. And?

A right wing paper in a state that bush has NO chance of losing!
YAWWWNNNN!!!!

[Laelth]

15. Well, I wouldn't say NO chance ...

On my optimistic days, I think there's an off chance. ;)

Cathy Cox (our Secretary of State) is predicting 70 to 73% turnout. That seems very high to me, but if she's right, Georgia will go blue (provided our Diebold machines are secure).

As for early voting, I always early vote when I can ... already did, in fact. Same Diebold machines either way. Same chance of fraud. So, why not? Gives you more time to poll watch or GOTV on Nov. 2.

And as for the Banner-Herald. :puke:

Nice replies from my fellow DUers, though. Hit 'em where it hurts. Cancel 'em!

:dem:

-Laelth

[MarianJack]

16. Hopefully...

...the off chance will come through!

Didn't GA go for Clinton in '92?

[mac56]

9. Here's my LTTE to the Banana-Herald

I am dismayed with the Banner-Herald’s endorsement of George W. Bush. To use your words: “With Bush, there's no question who you get for your vote.” How true: with Bush, we get an ineffective leader who tries to appear tough and resolute but is actually bull-headed and obstinate, refusing to acknowledge or correct his mistakes. When faced with the consequences of his bad decisions he doesn't confront them: he tries to hide them.

He’s the first president since Hoover to preside over a job loss, while he facilitates moving American jobs overseas. He's cut taxes for the wealthy during a war that’s cost nearly $200 billion. He’s passed this burden to states and cities, forcing them to cut services and increase taxes. He's betrayed his conservative base by abandoning the concept of small government, and running up a trillion-dollar deficit that our kids will be paying off for decades. He’s taken the US into dangerous international adventures for no good reason, alienating us from the rest of the world.

Most importantly, Bush’s hasty and ill-considered actions have made us less secure against terrorism. An example: more than 350 tons of high explosives, secured by the UN since 1991, are missing from the Al-Qaqaa military installation near Baghdad. Coalition troops searched the installation after the March 2003 invasion, confirmed that the explosives were intact, and didn’t secure them. Sometime between April and May 2003, the explosives went missing. Bush bears responsibility for this grave and catastrophic mistake.

Please reconsider your endorsement.

[CottonBear]

10. Very Good LTTE.

I hope that they print it. The voices of reason in the LTTE section are usually balanced by the extreme right-wing evangelicals. I would love to see, just once, a LTTE section that had no references to God.

[anotherginger]

14. Here is my LTTE - short.... I am too angry to write logically right now!

You have got to be kidding!! I am of the opinion that since news should be unbiased, no paper should endorse any candidate.... but for you to come out and endorse Bush is amazingly, horribly insane!

I am canceling my subscription to you "paper" today and am urging all my friends and peers to do the same.