With only days to go before the Iowa caucuses, one Republican candidate is showing his stripes, Mike Huckabee. Yes, this former Baptist minister, and Arkansas governor, boy next door, Huckleberry Finn, who looks like a cross between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Stewart, as innocuous as a barfly, waited in his campaign bus across the street while three demonstrators, all in their 50's, were arrested for "criminal trespass" at his Iowa headquarters.
According to a press release from the Catholic Peace Ministry, the protesters bore signs reading "Who Would Jesus Bomb?" called for an end to the war in Iraq, any other planned military adventure, as well as read from the Bible to bolster their argument for peace while they were carted off.
As they were transported to Polk County Jail, where they were charged, and later released, cheers rippled through the crowd of onlookers. Those apprehended by Des Moines finest were members of a group called SODaPOP (Seasons of Discontent: A Presidential Campaign) who, a few months ago, reportedly delivered a letter to Mr. Huckabee in which they requested his pledge to withdraw all troops from Iraq within three months of his presidency, as well as halt any plans for military action against Iran. Addditionally, they called for tax dollars currently being spent on combat to instead bolster the "infrastructure of the United States."
The three SODaPOP members gathered in the Huckabee campaign office, in Des Moines, merely to await a response to their letter to the presidential candidate, two months ago, which went unanswered. If it all sounds surreal, or like something out of Saturday Night Live, guaranteed you won't feel that way in November, 2008, if Huckabee wins the election. And, while that's not likely to happen, the fact that his campaign has made it as far as it has is something that would scare the hell out of anyone who considers themselves rational, let alone progressive.
What a sad day it is, in America, when a presidential candidate has a tiny group of middle-aged protestors arrested, and charged, with criminally trespassing on his property. One wonders, too, if, upon election, Mr. Huckabee would also consider the White House his "property." While the First Amendment guarantees "freedom of assembly," one hardly thinks that the framers conceived of things like You Tube, campaign headquarters, or the Grey Panthers, either, for that matter.
More than thirty members of the press witnessed the protest which was only the first stop scheduled as SODaPOP has reportedly made the same demands of eight other candidates. Curiously, the candidate who has surged to the head of the polls with his rugged Ronnie Reagan, boy next door, good looks increasingly proves himself to be a formidable shill for neo-Conservative revivalists.
One whose motto is "Faith, Family, and Freedom," and boasts that: "My faith is my life--it defines me. My faith doesn't influence my decisions, it drives them" sat patiently waiting, in his campaign bus, across the street, as the three SODaPOP boomers were handcuffed, and driven out of his Iowa headquarters. One can think of no better way to illustrate what a quintessential farce the former minister's call to protect the "sanctity of life" is.
The pundits, political commentators, and all those who like to lump things in a neat little box that answers only to gravity score a huge victory when referring to platforms like "conservative," or "neo-conservative," without deviating from jargon to take a candid look at what those terms mean. With Huckabee, specifically, conservative means a declared intention to overturn Roe v. Wade, a new constitutional amendment stating that marriage can only be between a man and a woman, blurring the lines between church and state, more jihads at the taxpayers expense, and jihads against the First and Fourth Amendments, too, building a fence with "interlocking surveillance cameras," as well as preventing immigrant amnesty.
With Huckabee, too, "illegal" immigrant families will be broken apart by agents of the Immigration and Custom Enforcement Agency, and mothers deported while children stand helplessly by. And, with former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, dissenters will be rounded up, or tasered, even those who read from scriptures, for daring to demand accountability from a future president. This is what Mike Huckabee means when he talks about "Faith, Family, and Freedom;" make no mistake, it runs counter to everything this country represents, and has represented for more than two centuries.
John Edwards is right to suggest that if we go to the polls in November, 2008, and vote for a Republican, we will be voting for George W. Bush on steroids. According to the last exit poll, in Iowa, taken 5 hours ago, Mike Huckabee is ahead of the pack of other Republicans. While the war in Iraq, as well as the military industrial complex created by the current regime, loom as the signature issue of the 2008 presidential race, national security, in the long run, depends upon an informed, and mindful, electorate.
Conservatives are backing Huckabee who is, without question, the most conservative of the group. And, if we are ever to see regime change, in Washington, then there has to be an information blitz, and a campaign to make voters aware of every position Huckabee, and other gentleman snakes, take on important issues.
When the focus of the Democratic Party becomes more on raising cash than on raising consciousness, and picking each other apart like a pack of hungry tomcats on some fallen birds, we can only witness yet another conservative presidential victory.
Those who argue that the contender who is better prepared to tackle a future terror attack is the candidate to back are right, but the threat, this time, will not be about bin Laden, or Al Qaeda, any more than it was back in 2001, but will come instead from those we elect to lead us who sabotage the Bill of Rights, break the law, and pervert our trust for their own monetary gain.
Oscar Wilde once said "Only the superficial don't judge by appearances." If the actions of his Iowa staff, as well as what may, at best, be seen as his passive acquiescence to these unnecessary and absurd arrests are any indication of a Huckabee presidency, then his campaign must end in Iowa.
http://ladyjaynestahl.blogspot.com
Widely published, poet, playwright, essayist, and screenwriter; member of PEN American Center, and PEN USA. Jayne Lyn Stahl is a Huffington Post blogger.
What a startling story. It feels like Mississippi of the sixties all over again. I am amazed the conservatives tout "Freedom" so loudly for the military complex of corporations, yet deny the basic Bill of Rights to anyone who wants to protest their corporatism.
I want the "True Believer" in my church, but when he or she is in politics they scare me to death. It is the True Believers that will stalk and kill doctors in front of Planned Parenthood, who demand the death penalty for the suspicioned, and walk into a market with bombs strapped on them and their children.
Thank you for the article.
OBHG,
Phil.
by
pratliff94 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 962 comments)
on Wednesday, January 2, 2008 at 12:10:47 AM
This is nothing new and is the Patriot Act at work:
Hello folks
The ACLU's website is full of similar statistics of protestors being corralled into areas far away from the media.
Why?
Because the Patriot Act creates a "free speech zone" with FLEXIBLE BOUNDARIES just to protect politicians from protestors.
If you think this violates the bill of rights, you are darned right.
And it gets much, much worse than that.
National Security Letters (FBI subpoeanas for private medical records under the Patriot Act) carry gag orders with five years in jail as punishment for anyone who squeals even to their Significant Other that YOUR records were requested of him/her by the Feds. Your doctor, telephone or internet provider, etc are the most common ones to receive an NSL.
PLEASE GO TO THE ACLU'S WEBSITE AND READ MORE EXAMPLES OF THIS ALL ACROSS THE BOARD. THIS IS NOTHING NEW AND IS ONLY THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG. (I will confess to being exasperated because I know it has gotten so much worse than just this. I think every citizen has the responsibility to know what is going on, what is written into the law, etc and I wish EVERYBODY on this form would take the time to read teh ACLU's website, which is the best education on the web---really! So let me tout it here).
For more examples of protestors whisked away, read here (if the links below don't work, it's because of censorship: Try google or else go to the ACLU's website and enter them into the search box and they will work):
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/16960prs20031123.html News of the classified (FBI) bulletin (about FBI crack-downs on dissent) also comes on the heels of an ACLU lawsuit against the Secret Service for the continuing practice of allowing pro-Bush protesters to remain visible to cameras during presidential appearances, and corralling anti-Bush protesters into pens or designated areas far from the media.
http://www.rightsmatter.org/multimedia/ The ACLU of Massachusetts posts specific examples not of groups, but of individuals who are affected by the Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act. Imagine...bird watchers and do-good-ers being queried as "terrorists" by the FBI, on a repeated basis? Imagine...being shackled and jailed for purely racial reasons?
Please read this, pass it on and please ask journalists to cover the issues: Note who is affected and how. So important: THIS IS ABOUT CITIZENS LIKE YOU AND ME, NOT CROOKS OR TERRORISTS AT ALL. PEOPLE REALLY NEED TO KNOW THAT THIS IS WHAT IS HAPPENING. Thank you!!
"My National Security Gag Order" is a true story written in the Washington Post by a receipient of a National Security Letter (NSL) carrying a gag order with a penalty of five years in jail for telling. The country: Post-11 USA.
This summarizes the ACLU's attempts (most of them stonewalled) to get information about the spying of the FBI on peaceful activist groups and religious groups. It also lists who they are, what the ACLU has done, evidence they managed to get in spite of stonewalling, etc.
by
Kathryn Smith (93 articles, 2 quicklinks, 38 diaries, 361 comments)
on Wednesday, January 2, 2008 at 4:09:21 AM
A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing....Oscar Wilde
I do not know the particulars of this incident, nor does the article shed much light on them. If these three, regardless of motive, where asked to leave and did not they violated the law of trespass. Ive done it and been incarcerated, its the reason one actually does this sort of thing, to gain the publicity, put someone ( Huckabee) in a bad light ,and publicize a cause ( the ending of a horrid war). I would venture, given todays political climate, that a similar protest in the camp of a democratic candidate would elicit similar results. We live in troubling times.
Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them. Another gem by old Oscar.....
If one substitutes candidate for parent the quote is still pretty good. We look for candidates who rise above the stink of our political system, we aint gonna find 'em. Nowhere. So most simply vote for the least execrable choice...what a way to run a nation.
(If I may cite other than Mr. Wilde for a moment)
And there is a Lust in Man no Charm can tame,
of Loudly publishing our Neighbors shame;
On Eagles wings immortal scandals fly,
While Virtuous Actions are but born and die.
Juvenal
Maybe its because I just returned from my annual New Years celebration; floating down the Chetco and Smith Rivers,two almost pristine untamed and undammed rivers. fishing for wild Steelhead, but I cannot seem to accept the poisoned way we look, not for character, but for character assassinations.
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Wednesday, January 2, 2008 at 11:48:53 AM
...Jayne's discription of the group -- this huge group that could meet in a phone booth if there were still such a thing -- makes them seem to be pretty savvy, and they probably would not have blocked the sidewalk or doorway or come close to trespassing.
Pretty damn hard for three people to do unless they were very large or the pathway to the office very narrow.
It also sounds like it's time for Huckabee to go back to divinity school for a refresher course on Christian kindness and tolerance. Maybe he lost it all with all of his former girth from eating too much divinity. All that sugar rotted his brain instead of his teeth.
Once again Huckabee proves the louder they scream "keep the faith my way," the less they have.
by
Sandy Sand (143 articles, 0 quicklinks, 198 diaries, 1386 comments)
on Wednesday, January 2, 2008 at 12:53:21 PM
One small person can trespass, and I am certain this was a planned action, good for them. The real point is that this is another in a long line of sketchy hit pieces. I certainly do not support Mike Huckabee or his ilk, but I also refuse to support this sort of Rovian political hit piece.
Short on fact and logic long on the usual.....a shame really because there are many valid reasons to criticise the likes of that candidate.
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Wednesday, January 2, 2008 at 4:31:56 PM
The Huckster is a cross between Nixon looks and Charles manson brain pattern
The evangelicals like him though because he knows how to play them like fools like the Zionist Neocons did
It is Ironic that America the idol of the world concerning democracy is one of the least democratic countries in the world
E voting allowed , every dirty trick in the book allowed , Big monied campaigns to bar the average American from running allowed. Court appoints the leader allowed. Lying to the people allowed only approved by Israel need apply
all allowed without consequences or riots
any one of them in a country like France for example would fill the streets with protesters.
Are Americans lard arses ,do they not have the energy to defend their freedoms
YEs 50% don't even go to vote
the 50% that do vote are so mis informed they can not defend their country's freedom
no matter who wins the election they will only have approximately 26% of the nations votes so where does their mandate come from certainly not the American people
by
dave stanley (5 articles, 1 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 286 comments)
on Wednesday, January 2, 2008 at 5:57:44 PM
Well done, and very perceptive....what a shocker if Huckabee upsets the Repubican apple cart in Iowa! I am still pulling for my Governor and friend, Bill Richardson in the Democratic Primary, but it is looking more and more like his best chance is to be Vice President, not Secretary of State, and he would be great in that job.....especially when you consider how bad it is for the USA internationally, and how much good an internationalist and former diplomat like Richardson could do to heal the wounds, even if you don't perceive the same Hegelian/Marxian mess and morass that I do for the USA. Having a fundamentalist former Baptist Preacher for the Republican nominee will just prove to most of the world how out of touch Americans have become with anything resembling truth or reality.
by
Stephen Fox (64 articles, 2 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 282 comments)
on Wednesday, January 2, 2008 at 7:45:29 PM
10 comments
How would you rate this?
You must be logged in (if signed up) to do ratings.
It's free to signup! And easy. And takes just a minute or two....
Must Read (
Well Said (
News (
Touching (
Funny (
Supported (
Interesting (
Inspiring (
Valuable (
