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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: unclewest who wrote (15968)	11/12/2003 7:30:27 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793717

Those attitudes still have to be changed I lived in Port Arthur and Woodville, Texas, next to the La border during WWII, and I still have a mental picture of white and colored drinking fountains and toilets. The last mississippi poll results I posted showed that the black/white split is still dem/rep. Long way to go.

To: unclewest who wrote (15968)	11/12/2003 10:25:51 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793717

I hope they raise a ruckus. The more violent the protest, the better for the Republicans. Lets hope for plenty of ANSWER placards. ________________________________ G.O.P. Convention Has Police Alert and Protesters Planning By MICHAEL SLACKMAN - NEW YORK TIMES Police in New York City have been at work since June preparing for the Republican National Convention next summer, an event that could draw hundreds of thousands of protesters to the congested streets of Midtown while President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are in town. At the same time, groups are busy planning protests, using the Internet and holding meetings to reach out to antiwar, anti-Bush and anti-Republican forces for the convention, scheduled Aug. 30 to Sept. 2. One group has even formed a committee to discuss details as specific as providing day care for protesters' children and pets. The Republicans' decision to hold their nominating convention at Madison Square Garden presents the city with such a volatile mix of elements — an incumbent president, troops in Iraq, fear of terrorism, the existence of well-organized and active global protest groups — that the Police Department began preparations further in advance than it has for any event in a quarter-century, officials said. Against this backdrop, the police are searching for a balance between the public's constitutional right to demonstrate and the need to keep the streets open, the trains running and the convention operating without interruption. "We have the sense that there will be a lot of people coming in, not only from just in the United States but from outside the country, to voice their opinion," the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, said in an interview. "So we want to be prepared." An Internet search reveals that demonstrators are making plans for the convention, some with the goal of delivering a peaceful political statement, others hoping to have their say by disrupting events. Web sites have been formed (with names like R.N.C. Not Welcome and Counter Convention) and e-mail lists are being circulated so that people can exchange ideas about such strategies as how to tie up city traffic. One group, United for Peace and Justice, has already filed two permit requests, one for 250,000 protesters to march past the Garden the weekend before the convention begins. United for Peace and Justice organized the antiwar rally in February that attracted hundreds of thousands of protesters, erupting at points into clashes between protesters and the police. The group is planning a peaceful march, but says that the convention could attract others intent on disrupting events. "The resistance that the Bush administration attracts takes many forms, from people who might call or write an elected official to those who might sit down in the street and those who might want to resist" in more aggressive ways, said the group's spokesman, Bill Dobbs. Mr. Kelly, like others preparing for the event, said he could not provide a hard estimate of how many protesters are expected. But the police are monitoring the Internet and the organizing groups, the commissioner said. They want to know what groups are coming to New York, who their leaders are and what their plans are, long before anyone ever raises a billboard or turns on a bullhorn. The police have created 30 committees within the department to address the myriad security concerns, including transportation around the city, safeguarding the 49 hotels that will house officials, delegates and news media, safeguarding the restaurants, theaters and other entertainment sites and making sure that officers are adequately trained to handle it all. REST AT nytimes.com

To: unclewest who wrote (15968)	11/13/2003 5:25:53 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793717

Good Line The strategy will involve the dismissal of Democrats as the party of "protests, pessimism and political hate speech," GOP will trumpet preemption doctrine By Anne E. Kornblut, Globe Staff, 11/12/2003 WASHINGTON -- Faced with growing public uneasiness over Iraq, Republican Party officials intend to change the terms of the political debate heading into next year's election by focusing on the "doctrine of preemption," portraying President Bush as a visionary acting to prevent future terrorist attacks on US soil despite the costs and casualties involved overseas. The strategy will involve the dismissal of Democrats as the party of "protests, pessimism and political hate speech," Ed Gillespie, Republican National Committee chairman, wrote in a recent memo to party officials -- a move designed to shift attention toward Bush's broader foreign policy objectives rather than the accounts of bloodshed. Republicans hope to convince voters that Democrats are too indecisive and faint-hearted -- and perhaps unpatriotic -- to protect US interests, arguing that inaction during the Clinton years led to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "The president's critics are adopting a policy that will make us more vulnerable in a dangerous world," Gillespie wrote. "Specifically, they now reject the policy of pre-emptive self-defense and would return us to a policy of reacting to terrorism in its aftermath." Inviting a fierce foreign policy debate in the months to come, Gillespie continued: "The bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993, Khobar Towers, our embassies in East Africa, and the USS Cole were treated as criminal matters instead of the terrorist acts they were. After Sept. 11, President Bush made clear that we will no longer simply respond to terrorist acts, but will confront gathering threats before they become certain tragedies." Republican strategists maintain that this tack is consistent with Bush's style: direct, sweeping, and bold to the point of brazenness. REST AT boston.com