Shrub covering his footprints w/ this article?

[kuozzman]

This isn't news! And since when does the AP cover the Amish country?
I know Kerry won PA, but maybe there is actually some proof of fraud, even though it was unsucessful?

Yesterday's article about an Amish dude refusing to take down his picture of Shrub at his farmers market stand. Democratic city councilman is demanding that a baker remove photos of President Bush from his stand in Lancaster's farmers market, saying the city needs a "healing period" following the bitterly contested election.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&nci...

Now look at this article about the Amish supposedly "tippin the scales" for shrub. "Buggies at polls!" They normally don't vote b/c they work in the fields all day, but apparently not this year. The quotes by the Bush camp seem a little fishy too.

http://www.vindy.com/basic/news/284804494218860.php

.....but those heavily populated by Amish appear to have higher-than-average numbers.

Lawrence County Bush-Cheney campaign supporters say the Amish helped tip the scales — along with many Democrats voting Republican

It is apparently the first time a Republican presidential candidate has garnered a majority of votes in the county since Richard Nixon was elected president in 1972.

Lawrence County has about 10,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans, county elections officials say.

Bush-Cheney won the county by 410 votes, just about the number of new registered Amish voters that campaign workers say they signed up in both Lawrence and Mercer counties.

I'm callin Bullshit!

[yardwork]

1. Well, bushco did campaign heavily among the Amish

A number of us on DU noticed articles about this earlier. During one meeting with Amish elders chimpy was quoted as saying that God speaks through him.

I don't think that Amish skip voting sometimes because they are "working in the fields." That's sort of an insulting comment made in the article (it's in the article, so I'm not blaming the poster). The Amish often skip voting because many of them think that everybody but the Amish are going to hell in a hand basket and they just aren't very interested in what we're doing unless there is a specific issue that affects them directly.

bushco apparently convinced the Amish that God is on bushco's side so they turned out the Amish vote.

[suziedemocrat]

12. I can't believe the Amish supported Bush

They seem very live and let live - anti war, etc. I can't believe they'd like their privacy taken away. I can understand them not voting because they really have their own culture that seems pretty apolitical. I can't believe they'd vote for Bush.

[aquart]

2. I do NOT believe Democrats voted Bush.

[kuozzman]

6. And what about Iraq, the Amish support the war??

"When we told them about abortion, they were just appalled and shook their heads that this could ever happen in our country," Marcella said. "I felt bad in some ways. They are a very innocent people, and we alerted them to horrible things going on in our country."

Abortion=apalling
Bombing over 100,000 civilians=??????

"I do think they gave us the edge. There are also many Democrats who are very strong on the moral issues " Marcella said.

Valerie Measel, chairwoman of the Lawrence County Bush-Cheney campaign, agreed.

"We lost Lawrence County to Gore by 2,500 votes in 2000. Honestly, I truly do believe it's the values that made a difference this year. People are conservative in Lawrence County," she said.

[aquart]

15. Is this why Dateline and 20/20 just did Amish stories?

The same story, actually: Incest. Rape.

[electropop]

16. I did phone banking

And from what I heard, there were many Republicans voting for Kerry. They were very saddened by Bush's dishonoring their party.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

3. DAMN AMISH!!!!

I have no respect for them.

Maybe they are going back to their German roots (Das Fuhrer Adolf)?

:eyes:

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. "since when does the AP cover the Amish country?"

Umm, ever since there has been an Associated Press?

As near as I can tell, the way it works is that writers for local papers that are members of AP write article for their local papers. The story then goes out over the AP wire for any other member of AP to carry as it so chooses.

Big papers, like the Washington Post, have a big staff of writers and source most of their own materials. Small papers don't have an office in Chicago, Denver, Beijing, Cairo, or Paris, and have to get their national and international news off the AP wire.

And that's how come the AP coves the Amish.

[kuozzman]

7. Yeah, I knew that, I think I was just surprised to see an article this

pointless. I mean really, Amish guy refuses to take down his Chimp picture? OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

[rumpel]

5. Maybe AP is doing us a favor for telling us where to scrutinize

the numbers?

[kuozzman]

8. I don't think their doing us a favor, if anything, I think they are trying

to lessen the chance of scrutiny. People who read about this Amish guy being a die-hard Chimp supporter will brush aside any questions raised about fraud.....

[kuozzman]

9. Results for Lawrence County

Votes Cast for Presidential Candidates - total (percentage)
Dem Rep Other
1980 19,506 18,404 2,303 ___40,213
1984 23,981 19,277 128 ___43,386
1988 21,884 15,829 191 ___37,904
1992 20,830 12,359 8,014 ___41,203
1996 18,993 13,088 4,178 ___36,259
2000 20,593 18,060 987 ___39,640

2004 21,131 21,542 111 ___42,774

Totals:
Kerry: 2,885,773
Shrub: 2,756,904
Badnarik: 20,833
Peroutka: 6,466
Cobb: 6,236

[Quakerfriend]

10. Quite frankly, I think

this article was orchestrated by BushCO. They are just so desperate to appear to have won. What's amazing is that people somehow believe them!!!! Yeah, just like they "swept" the Hispanic vote...

Have you all read about the AP being a strong supporter of Bush?? I was shocked to learn this. Apparently, the Vice Pres. at AP has a Dallas connection to Bush Co. and is a real right-winger.

[rumpel]

13. That's sad

[Destroy_All_Monsters]

11. The Amish should sue for slander.

As a Mennonite, I was appalled by the pre-election coverage of the wooing of the Amish by **. And even more appalled that some Amish seemed to be falling for it.

There’s a time-honored tradition of abstention from voting in Anabaptist communities, from the radically conservative Old Order Amish to urban Mennonite churches that support many liberal causes. Many reasons have been put forward for abstaining from voting. One reason is that the first allegiance of Anabaptists is always to God rather than country (you’ll rarely see an American flag in a Mennonite meetinghouse). Also, it’s often argued that the pacifist principles of Anabaptists should prevent them from casting a vote for the Commander-in-Chief or for legislators who fund the military. Many other reasons have also been advanced, but NEVER this one:

"In the spring, if it's a good day, not too many come out to vote because they are busy in the fields and can't leave their work. The fall, most of their work is finished, and some do come out to vote," said Norman DeGidio, chairman of the Lawrence County Republican Party.

Unfortunately, it does sound as if some token Amish and Mennonites did drink the Kool-Aid this time. However, there’s no way that they voted in sufficient force to seriously influence the election. Notice how in this article it was reported that 410 Amish were registered out of TWO Pennsylvania counties. That’s 205 per county, a number that’s hardly statistically significant, and it should be obvious that Pennsylvania remained solidly blue even despite that heavy registration effort.

I wish the media would just leave the Amish alone (which is precisely what most of the Amish wish for, too).

[newyawker99]

14. Hi Destroy_All_Monsters!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[NewYorkerfromMass]

17. Bush found 28,000 new voters in Lancaster County

My analysis of PA shows this, although Kerry still did better there than Gore did in 2000.


Lancaster County
2000 ............................................... 2004
GORE, AL (DEM) 54,968 (32.2% of total) KERRY, JOHN F. 73,395 (33.7%) +18,427 (25.11% more voters than 2000)
BUSH, GEORGE W. 115,900 ................. BUSH.......... 144,291 +28,391 (19.68% more voters than 2000)




http://home.earthlink.net/~nashionale/id4.html

[ClintCooper2003]

19. Actually, he did not do "better" than Al Gore, because his overall...

percentage in Pennsylvania went down among registered voters. I think some counties in Pennsylvania have DRE but I'm not sure.

[fasttense]

18. I do not believe the Amish voted

It is a cover story like the Dixiecrat story to hide padded/ghost votes.

The Amish believe in non-violence, though they are not pacifist because that means they would have to get involved with the Peace movement. They would never support a man who started a war and is killing people.

This is nothing but BS by B*sh. Over thirty years ago, when I lived in Lancaster County there was big anti-Amish sentiment because they were not drafted and yet they enjoyed the protection of the United States. They didn't come out to reelect Nixon (who promised to end the war) why would they come out to vote for a man who likes war?

I seriously doubt the Amish even came out to vote because they don't want to be bothered by the English (outside world). These people don't even hook up to electricity because they would be too dependent on the English. Do you really think they came out to vote for a man who they consider a murderer? To vote would draw pollsters and registration assistance to their doors. I don't for one minute believe they voted for B*sh.

BTW Amish do not believe in photographs they think it is a graven image and they certainly don't keep photo's of a murderers.

If the Amish knew the Repugs were using their name to hide illegal votes they would...well they probably wouldn't care.