...of criminal vandalism in what we wrote. And frankly, that matter is being investigated and will be prosecuted in a court of law: we're not going to convict the defendants on our web-site, especially without the benefit of any of the police reports related to the case.
Allow me, if I can, to re-post on this thread a response to a similar criticism which I posted elsewhere (this was in response to someone who said, in essence, "voter suppression is voter suppression, wherever and however and by whomever it occurs -- why can't you see that?") To which I responded -- and would now respond to you -- as follows:
With all due respect, I think it's obvious why the intended use of the vans is of vital interest to the American people -- and why, not-so-incidentally, it was never disclosed by the G.O.P. until Mr. Wiley was forced to get into it with the press. And here it is: because the motive for the crime (which, of course, remains unproven anyway) may well have *not* been voter suppression, but an attempt to protest the G.O.P.'s racially-discriminatory "caging" policy, to be implemented nationwide by *just those poll-watchers* the G.O.P. vans were intended to transport.
See the difference?
Does that make the tire-slashing right? Of course not. But it also makes it something quite different from "voter suppression," and the G.O.P. knows it.
This is also just part of a trend. If you read The Nashua Advocate and search for the word "dead" on the current page, you'll see a story on a Seattle Post-Intelligencer study which shows conclusively that only one "dead person" votes in America for every 750,000 -- yes, that's right, every 750,000(!) -- legal votes cast. That adds up to a couple of hundred "dead voters" nationally: out of 112 MILLION voters. And yet the G.O.P. has made keeping the dead from voting the cornerstone of their limited (and disingenuous) calls for election reform.
In contrast, a non-partisan study showed that a minimum of 10,000 voters in heavily-Democratic Franklin County *alone* left voting lines because of waits in excess of ten hours. Yet the Republicans don't give a scrap about that.
Again, see the difference? See how the national G.O.P. is misleading the public into thinking that voter suppression is a bi-partisan affair, and that it too "supports" election reform?Those who read into the article a condoning of criminal activity have not read the article carefully enough: it is clearly and unambiguously titled, and reported, as a criticism of the *public relations aspect* of the case, which The Advocate considers to be -- and has evidence to support this claim, as presented in the article -- a tissue of lies.
The News Editor
The Nashua Advocate