October 13, 2004

This Frosts My Ass. (Updated)

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jim @ 8:47 pm

I read over at Spoons that the Guardian, a “liberal,” British left-wing rag newspaper is providing the name and address of an American voter in Clark County Ohio to anyone who submits his or her e-mail address to the Guardian on this page. The purpose of this scheme is to have a British citizen write to the American voter to express his or her views on which candidate the American should vote for in our upcoming presidential election.

Why Clark County? The Guardian makes that clear.

By typing your email address into the box on this page, you will receive the name and address of a voter in Clark County, Ohio. You may not have heard of it, but it’s one of the most marginal areas in one of the most marginal states: at the last election, just 324 votes separated Democrats from Republicans. It’s a place where a change of mind among just a few voters could make a real difference.

Writing to a Clark County voter is a chance to explain how US policies effect [sic] you personally, and the rest of the world more generally, and who you hope they will send to the White House.

The Guardian pays lip service to impartiality when it says, “Of course, who you urge your voter to support is entirely up to you.” This is, without doubt, pure horseshit. The page offers sample letters from “three prominent Britons.” Here is a sample of each:

From John LeCarre
Probably no American president in all history has been so universally hated abroad as George W Bush: for his bullying unilateralism, his dismissal of international treaties, his reckless indifference to the aspirations of other nations and cultures, his contempt for institutions of world government, and above all for misusing the cause of anti-terrorism in order to unleash an illegal war – and now anarchy – upon a country that like too many others around the world was suffering under a hideous dictatorship, but had no hand in 9/11, no weapons of mass destruction, and no record of terrorism except as an ally of the US in a dirty war against Iran.

From Antonia Fraser
First of all, if you back Kerry, you will be voting against a savage militaristic foreign policy of pre-emptive killing which has stained the great name of the US so hideously in recent times. A policy that Bush and his gang are set to continue – if they get the opportunity. I say “the great name” of the US because I believe that to be profoundly true. Although resolutely against the Iraq war, I remain equally resolutely philamerican, almost every movement towards liberty in the past having its roots or its refuge in the US.

From Richard Dawkins
Don’t be so ashamed of your president: the majority of you didn’t vote for him. If Bush is finally elected properly, that will be the time for Americans travelling abroad to simulate a Canadian accent. Please don’t let it come to that. Vote against Bin Laden’s dream candidate. Vote to send Bush packing.

Like Spoons, I wonder how happy the citizens of Clark County will be when they learn that: (a) their names and addresses are being handed out by a foreign newspaper to foreigners as well as to any other person (including wackos) who submits an e-mail address, and (b) the purpose of this exercise is to permit non-Americans to exert direct influence on this country’s presidential election, and in a hotly contested area of the country at that?

Silly me. I still like to think that, for most of us, we are Americans before we are democrats or republicans, and that we sorted out our independence from Great Britain a couple hundred years ago.

Just to be clear, I have the utmost admiration for Tony Blair, undying gratitude to those wonderful British troops who are spilling blood with us in the Middle East and to those in Britain who support our joint effort. I also appreciate that there are those in Britain who may not agree with the course their country has chosen. I would urge those people to become active in their own elections and butt the FUCK out of ours.

Update: Tim Blair has more here, and so does The Shape of Days.

9 Comments »

  1. Programming Note

    I will be live blogging the debate tonight. Tune in for the fun or just to mock me. I might…

    Trackback by resurrectionsong — October 13, 2004 @ 8:57 pm

  2. Very well said, Jim. And exactly my reaction. Well, with a few more curse words, actually.

    Comment by Margi — October 13, 2004 @ 10:50 pm

  3. According to an article over on Slashdot (http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/13/2149233&tid=158&tid=17), the Brits may not have to. Seems the U.S. Senate wants to hook up all the government AND commercial databases for the purpose of ‘national security’.

    Be scared. Be very scared.

    Comment by DMerriman — October 13, 2004 @ 10:51 pm

  4. at first i thought it was a joke. i put in an old email address &to my surprise… I got the name & address of a clark county voter. I intend to write to him and let him know how I got his address and that he’s lucky i’m not a terrorist, only a politically enthusiastic citizen. let’s see how he responds.

    Comment by michele — October 13, 2004 @ 11:11 pm

  5. I sent the Guardian a copy of the Declaration of Independence using their feedback address:

    unlimited@guardianunlimited.co.uk

    What the hell were those colonists thinking when they decided that the folks living in America could make a more informed decision regarding their own government than could someone living in England?

    Comment by Dan — October 14, 2004 @ 12:00 am

  6. I did the same thing as Michele and sure enough, I received my very own Clark County voter name. Just to be sure it was an actual living person, I entered the name and address into the white pages directory. I now have the guy’s phone number too.

    This really pisses me off. Just when I thought it was safe… Now I’m going to have to buy additional razor wire and claymores just to protect the kids. Oh, and I’ll have to make a new map to give the kids and their friends so they don’t step on any of the additional land mines.

    Comment by Dan — October 14, 2004 @ 1:58 am

  7. Dan,

    You ought to give the guy a call to let him know how you got his name and to tell him that he’s luck you’re not a terrorist/burglar/con man, or an jerkoff reader of the Guardian.

    Comment by Jim - Parkway Rest Stop — October 14, 2004 @ 2:03 am

  8. I agree 100% w/you Jim. I actually got an email from someone alerting me to this, and then saw your piece.

    If we attempted to sway an election in that country in this manner there would be all sorts of hell raised. Talk about arrogance.

    It’s right up there with Kerry’s sister in Austrailia and all other shit that this campaign has brought to the surface. But this, this is the lowest. This is the last straw.

    Please God – let this election be over and me not to have to hear from or about J F’n Kerry ever again. From ANYONE!

    Comment by Tammi — October 14, 2004 @ 11:42 am

  9. arrogance? attempting to influence the governments of sovereign countries? who would think of doing that in the good old us of a?

    Comment by brit1 — October 15, 2004 @ 11:20 am

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

Powered by WordPress