Strip club owners asking patrons to vote

[Feanorcurufinwe]

Patrons at about 75 Wisconsin strip clubs are being asked to forget about the barely dressed, gyrating dancers long enough to register to vote. Club owners are posting signs, handing out forms and even providing envelopes and stamps - anything to get customers to register. And some club-goers are listening.

<snip>

"I'm not sure the president is deeply concerned about strip clubs, necessarily," he said. "The effort to register voters, that's welcomed. That's a good thing. That's certainly an audience or constituency that's not necessarily been targeted in the past. But I would question the motives here. This is a group with a political agenda. These folks are getting propaganda from the left." Exotic dance clubs in about 18 states are registering voters, said Bradley Shafer, a Michigan-based attorney who advises clubs on how to conduct the drives. He expects that number to grow.

<snip>

Edward "Butch" Woller, a 53-year-old retiree from Beloit, said he hadn't voted in nearly 20 years and appreciated the convenience of registering at the place he visits four to five times a week.

Melissa Smithey, a 19-year-old stripper from Janesville, said she wouldn't have registered if not for the drive at The Isabella Queen. "It makes people think we're not just about nudity, but that we're taking part in society," Smithey said.
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/8568401.htm

[Luvpurp]

1. Butch needs to find a hobby

[WoodrowFan]

13. he has one

to quote Tom Leher's song's "Smut"

"I HAVE a hobby, re-reading Lady Chatterly."

[Quahog]

2. Irony alert

My guess is that the majority of the bubbas in these strip clubs are registering rethug, and will be voting for the party that intends to make such cesspools of libidinous voyeurism a violation of federal decency statutes.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

3. Why?

Why do you think strip-club patrons would tend to be Republicans?

[Quahog]

4. Maybe they're not

But on the RARE occasions when I've visited such establishments (*cough*), that's been my impression. There are the Budweiser-hat-and-pickup-truck patrons, the obnoxious deep-pocket frat boy patrons, the guys in the Armani suits who flash their Porsche keys on the bar... looks like a freeper convention to me!

Hey, maybe lots of progressive, forward-thinking, feminist males hang at strip bars where you live. It just hasn't been my experience.

[DaveSZ]

6. As long as they give the people they register some info

about how Ashcroft is targeting them...

[Feanorcurufinwe]

7. Speaking of irony

I wonder how many of the patrons you observed thought YOU were a 'feminist male'....

[Quahog]

8. Well, as I said

My experience with such establishments is limited. I don't find them erotic. I've gone a few times with friends, and was generally bored. I'd rather have one naked woman on the couch at home than a dozen of them on a stage in a smoke-filled bar where they're blaring Journey songs.

[leftyandproud]

11. I heard the shock jocks on my local clear channel station..

encouraging listeners to do the same thing...vote down the anti-strip club and anti-smoking laws for private bars...Though I don't smoke or visit the bars, I see no reason why the fundies should deny people the right to do as they please on their own property. It's a ridiculous waste of government $$$ and time to enforce.

[LoZoccolo]

18. The smoking thing...

...is actually more of a left-wing thing actually; it's framed as an occupational hazard for the people who work there. Not that I didn't enjoy smoking in bars or anything (I quit after I was diagnosed with heart disease when I was 27), but I can see the point.

[MrChupon]

12. Well

I'm a progressive, feminist male, and I happen to like pickup trucks and tits.

So please don't generalize so much.

[NewJeffCT]

15. not all of them...

Well, I do not know if ALL the guys that go to gentleman's clubs (a term I have heard here in CT) are RepubliCONs, as I think you do get the union guy blue collar types that go to those places...in the North, the union guys are still pretty Democratic.

And sometimes those shy liberal guys that were going through divorces in 1998-99 need a little stress relief without having to worry about getting attached to a woman. (Not that I know anybody like that…)

[NuttyFluffers]

5. because we liberals actually get laid

:evilgrin:

[Ruby Romaine]

9. hey -let's be optimistic!

turn off the computer, go out & register voters!

[LoZoccolo]

If you saw Larry Flynt walking down the street...

...you might think he's a Republican too, but he's not. He's actually a real liberal too, not just a libertarian who sees the Democrats as friendlier to the porn industry.

http://www.larryflynt.com

[SpiralHawk]

21. The Strip Clubs know that Johnny Ashcroft and the Dominionists

have the sex industry in the crosshairs. They are going to stamp out smut -- right here in River City.

I'd bet a doughnut (no sexual imagery intended) that the club owners are whispering in the ears of their patrons about the Prude Police and their accelerating War on Sex.

Your homework assignment, should you choose to accept it: Rent a VCR or DVD of "The Handmaiden's Tale" and watch it.

[ShaneGR]

10. God bless America, Land that I love

Stand beside her, and grope her, with no light, from the sky, or above.

LOL!

Hey, they're citizens to. The more people vote the better off we liberals are. It's a statistical fact.

[Bridget Burke]

14. They ought to try that in Texas

Our governor goodhair's latest plan to support the schools--do away with "Robin Hood" taxation. That's where some money from the richest districts goes to the poorest.

His plan to make up the shortfall? More taxes on cigarettes & patrons of Titty Bars (the accepted term down here). The proposal still won't generate enough money for decent schooling & the only ones saving money will be the state's richest folks.

[bleedingheart]

If it was up to Ashcroft, none of these places would be operating

[bleedingheart]

16. If it was up to Ashcroft, none of these places would be operating

[denverbill]

17. FYI, they are organizing against Bush. If you bother to read the article.

Randall Tigue, a Minneapolis-based First Amendment attorney, said nude dancing could take a major hit should seats on the Supreme Court open up in the next four years under Bush.

"A lot of people in the industry realize that if George Bush gets three appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court, the industry is going to be dead," Tigue said.

Wisconsin Republican Party spokesman Chris Lato said party leaders had not heard of the effort, but the clubs need not worry.

"I'm not sure the president is deeply concerned about strip clubs, necessarily," he said. "The effort to register voters, that's welcomed. That's a good thing. That's certainly an audience or constituency that's not necessarily been targeted in the past. But I would question the motives here. This is a group with a political agenda. These folks are getting propaganda from the left."

[bleedingheart]

19. so true

that is why I posted that Ashcroft would like to see these places shut down...so it makes sense for them to register their patrons to vote in their favor.

[NewJeffCT]

22. didn't they use the Patriot Act on one Strip Club?

In New Orleans or Vegas or some other place?

[blm]

20. Heh..."these folks" know that John Ashcroft is Attorney General.

The spin from the GOP is TOO funny.

[G_j]

23. LOL

"These folks are getting propaganda from the left"

the truth is Ashcroft loves breasts and will fight to keep the Fundies from outlawing them.