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It's funny. Laugh. Government Politics

Political Yard Sign Wars Wage as Election Nears 248

Posted by michael from the signs-of-the-times dept.
gollum123 writes "Yahoo has a story on how tension among bitterly divided voters is translating into a barrage of attacks on political targets that can't talk back - yard signs. Campaign signs depicting support for either President Bush (news - web sites) or Democratic challenger John Kerry (news - web sites) are being burned, chopped down, spray-painted and commonly, stolen away in the dark of night. Though sign shenanigans are common in election years, some Republican leaders are calling this year's activity unprecedented. Democratic leaders say attacks are so rampant that supporters should take their yard signs inside at night to protect them. Has anyone on /. had such an experience."
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Political Yard Sign Wars Wage as Election Nears More

Political Yard Sign Wars Wage as Election Nears

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  • I hear that! (Score:5, Funny)

    by fiftyLou ( 472705 ) on Thursday October 21, 2004 @07:58AM (#10585218)
    ...are being burned, chopped down, spray-painted and commonly, stolen away in the dark of night

    I can sympathize. This sounds like what happened to my pot crop this summer.... well, minus the spraypaint. I never thought to bring 'em inside though - those democrats are so pratical.

  • Seen such?... (Score:5, Funny)

    by rusty0101 ( 565565 ) on Thursday October 21, 2004 @07:59AM (#10585225) Homepage Journal
    Yes. However without a lawn of my own, (appartment dweller, not basement dweller) I don't worry too much about bringing in signs. Perhaps I should pick up some of those bushes that have been sprouting up in the neighborhood. Then again, perhaps it is just too much to kerry.

    -Rusty

    p.s. Sorry about the puns, they just seemed to appropriate.

  • It's fine with me. (Score:5, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Thursday October 21, 2004 @08:02AM (#10585264)
    As long as they are advertising by yard signs, and not spam, it's pretty good. No having to face emails every morning with titles like: EN:LARGE::TAXX:CUTS:VOTEBUSH and IN:CREASE:NATIONAL:PRESTEEJ:VOTEK3RRY

  • My car (Score:5, Funny)

    by mpost4 ( 115369 ) * on Thursday October 21, 2004 @08:07AM (#10585315) Homepage Journal
    I have Bush stickers on my car, and my car has been vandalized when ever I take it out.
    • Do you have an proof of this, like digital pics?
      • Try putting a Bush bumper sticker on your car.
        • No, I want proof. I see posts on Freerepublic and DemocratUnderground all the time claiming that their property was damaged because of the stickers/signs they had on it yet they NEVER have any pictures or copies of insurance records/police reports.

          IOW, I think people are lying.
          • Last time I called the police about my car being vandalized back in 2001, my car was spared panted. I had to nearly force the police officer to take the report, he said and I quote "Why are you upset you were making a political message and they were just making theirs" (how do we know that the 2001 spray painting was political motivated, well since it was only over the bumper stickers it is a very good assumption) so to this day when my car is vandalized I don't bother to call the police here, they don't c
            • What an idiot officer. You don't get to make a "political message" by defacing others' property. How the heck did he get to be an enforcer of laws he doesn't even understand?
          • This is a strange stance, Darren. The point is that it is happening on both sides. Are only the Dems lying?
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re:My car (Score:3, Insightful)

        by 4of12 ( 97621 )

        Amazes me how polarized things have become.

        I can believe it.

        Vehement uninformed opinion rules the AM radio these days.

        Plus, marketing tests have shown that mud-slinging attack ads work. So we get more of them.

        Anger and fear drive many voters. That's why there's so much of it around.

  • So far, my sign has survived (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jvmatthe ( 116058 ) on Thursday October 21, 2004 @08:11AM (#10585356) Homepage
    To demonstrate my support for my preferred presidential candidate, I went by the local headquarters and made a donation and picked up a yard sign. I put it out with some trepidation, since I knew that mine was the only sign of its type in my neighborhood: there were about a dozen signs for the opposition in yards I pass on the last two miles of my trip from work to home, and not one like mine for at least five miles that I had spotted.

    Happily, my sign has stood proudly in the yard, untouched by anyone else, as far as I can tell. During that time, more signs for the opposition have sprung up, and only one for the same candidate as mine.

    On the other hand, the local news apparently carried a story about a local whose signs had been repeatedly stolen. So she put one up and hung a sign underneat it that said "Every time you steal my sign, I make a bigger donation to my candidate." That apparently stopped the rascals from stealing any more signs.

    Finally, I have watched with interest the signs people put up in the median of the road, on what is clearly public land. It appears to me that people find it acceptable to put their own signs on that land, and also that others find it acceptable to take down a sign and put up their own opposing sign. I've never seen anyone taking one down, however, so perhaps it is the state authorities coming along and cleaning up their land.

  • I Never Saw... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by GypC ( 7592 ) on Thursday October 21, 2004 @08:13AM (#10585388) Homepage Journal
    ... the point of yard signs, anyway. I mean, who is that going to influence?

    Man, there is going to be some wailing and gnashing of teeth this year if Bush wins again. No president has been hated more since Lincoln, it would seem.

    • Re:I Never Saw... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by hey! ( 33014 ) on Thursday October 21, 2004 @08:33AM (#10585674) Homepage Journal
      I asked this question of a campaign organizer for a local election. She said that weird as it sounds. studies have shown that these signs have a large impact.

      I'd guess it has something to do with the way people take their cues from others around them in weighing how safe a decision is. When the weakly committed voters go into the booth, they are less likely to falter if they feel others are with them. When the undecideds vote, that same sense of confidence is going to make it easier to jump to a candidate that has wide apparent support.

      • It's also just a name recognition thing. It's been shown people are more likely to vote for someone when they are innundated with their name. I remember in the 2000 election, it was like a contest to see who could occupy the most space on the medians. You've seen that Family Guy when Lois and Peter run against each other and have red/blue signs covering their front yard? That's what half the medians looked like.

        --trb
      • I head over to the polling place thinking about the presidential candidates, gubanatorial candidates, senators and congressment and legislatures. I even think about the propositions and initiatives. But every time I get there, there's these selections I have to make for school boards and hospital districts and old judges and coroners.

        So I think to myself, "Jones for Dog Catcher"? Who the hell is Jones? Old man Smith down the street had a Jones sign in his yard, and Smith ain't a bad sort, so maybe I should

    • Re: I Never Saw... (Score:3, Informative)

      by Black Parrot ( 19622 )


      > No president has been hated more since Lincoln, it would seem.

      Johnson? Nixon? Reagan? Clinton?

      • Clinton?

        Clinton was easily re-elected and enjoyed high approval ratings until the end (the last was 65%). Though there was (and still is) a small group of people with an inexplicable hatred of both Clintons, there's no comparison between Bush and Clinton.
        I mean, check out the latest Gallup report [gallup.com].

    • Man, there is going to be some wailing and gnashing of teeth this year if Bush wins again. No president has been hated more since Lincoln, it would seem.

      The nation hasn't been this divided since the 60's. No matter who wins, the result will be 49% of the population telling the other 51% of those who bothered to vote how things are going to be (taking into account third-party voters, of course).

  • Wife heard a good one on Al Franken's show... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dpilot ( 134227 ) on Thursday October 21, 2004 @08:14AM (#10585400) Homepage Journal
    A homeowner looked out and saw a man lying face down on his driveway. Going out to check, he found that the man was unconscious, so he went back in and called 911. When the rescue crew moved the man, they found him clutching Kerry (and other Democratic) signs under his body. His car was parked nearby, and they found more stolen Democratic signs in it. He was removing them, not placing them.

    Apparently he'd been removing signs in this neighborhood, and was going to cross the driveway when he tripped over a chain the homeowner had there for some unknown, but presumably logical reason. Since he was clutching the signs, he couldn't quickly get his arms out front to break his fall, so he hit his head and knocked himself out.

    The police charged him with numerous petty crimes. His wife said, "He's never done anything like this, before."

    Given that this is the good old US of A, I'm surprised he hasn't sued the homeowner for having that chain there.

    • > A homeowner looked out and saw a man lying face down on his driveway. Going out to check, he found that the man was unconscious, so he went back in and called 911. When the rescue crew moved the man, they found him clutching Kerry (and other Democratic) signs under his body. His car was parked nearby, and they found more stolen Democratic signs in it. He was removing them, not placing them.

      I vaguely recall hearing on the news a couple of years ago that some local candidate got caught personally remo

      • > I vaguely recall hearing on the news a couple of years ago that
        > some local candidate got caught personally removing his
        > opponent's signs.

        Here in Dallas, Tom DeLay, the Republican Speaker of the House, forced redistricting in Texas in order to shore up more seats for Republicans. This blatant gerrymandering resulted in two incumbents being in the same district: Democrat Martin Frost and Republican Pete Sessions.

        Earlier this year, a bunch of Frost's signs were found all over Pete Sessions' son
    • If it is the kind of chain I think it is then it is like those security barries of rope. The chain accross the driveway as a very cheap fence.

      If it is done properly you can't stumble accross it unless your trying to climb over it. If you didn't see it you would simply be stopped by it around your waste.

      So if he claimed he hadn't seen it he would simply have walked into it the same as any rope barrier. If he had seen it and was climbing over it then he is trespassing on purpose and this is like a burglar c

      • If you didn't see it you would simply be stopped by it around your waste.

        Serves ya right for crapping on the guy's chain.
    • link to news story: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/cda/article _ print/0,1983,DRMN_36_3264139_ARTICLE-DETAIL-PRINT, 00.html [rockymountainnews.com]

      the guy seems pretty embarrased about the whole thing (as he should be).

      republican or dem, this kind of behavior is stupid. (un)fortunately, neither side seems to have any shortage of asshats.
    • The police charged him with numerous petty crimes He's damn lucky. In 2002, most of the republican candidates for the our city council ended up with multiple felony convictions (destruction of property, voter intimidation, conspiracy to commit election fraud, tresspassing, and so on) and were rendered ineligible for their offices over stuff like this.
    • Ah my 7 weeks of law school training now come in handy. To have a negligence tort action you need to show duty, breach, causation (aka unreasonableness), and damages. In Texas at least, you owe no duty to a trespasser. Therefore no tort action is possible. 2L's and 3L's feel free to correct.

  • Quite the opposite (Score:3, Interesting)

    by secondsun ( 195377 ) <secondsun@gmail.com> on Thursday October 21, 2004 @08:23AM (#10585511) Journal
    I have the opposite problem, people keep putting signs UP in my yard. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact the candidate they are pushing I really don't like on a personal level. So far II have a stack of 3 in my garage and a new one pops up every 2 - 3 days.

    • Have you called the local party office for whichever party keeps popping up? I pass them out here and if the person on the list isn't home we just throw them up in the yard. Its possible that your name somehow got on their list and they aren't bothering to check if its ok with you. Unlikely, but still possible

  • Identity Crisis (Score:3, Insightful)

    by (SM) Spacemonkey ( 812689 ) on Thursday October 21, 2004 @08:23AM (#10585518)
    The relationship between a political party and its supporters is at time a troublesome one. I firmly believe that you should support a party only so long as you share idealogies with them. However some people support parties so wildly, and believe so strongly that the political party starts becoming part of their identity. As such an attack on that party, is viewed as a personal attack. We see this in soccer hooliganism in europe. Think about yourself, do you think of yourself as a "republican" or a "democrate" or do you merely support certain ideas of the that party. Of course, political parties encourage this sort of behaviour. It allows them to change their views and still remain supported.

    Also in this election has been billed as of the highest importance. The very course of human existence depends on the result in November. I am very concerned about the election result this year, but not at the extent of destroying private property, or otherwise resorting to violence. I may be underestimating the importance of this election, but if Bush wins, its only for four years.... This is a truism, regardless of whether you are the furtherest right conservative or the left enough to make Ghandi blush.

    • Its worse in some places, where sports teams and political parties are very much affiliated. I don't think its generally true in the USA that Team X's supporters are democrats and team Y's are republicans. Here in Israel it very much is, or at least used to be. The Hapoel teams are very much affiliated with the labor party and the Beitar teams with the Likud and so on. This is true for much of Europe, and was much more true at least in Israel back in the 50's. I remember an article about it saying that the

      • I don't think its generally true in the USA that Team X's supporters are democrats and team Y's are republicans.

        If the Astros beat the Cards tonight, you are going to see a "Boston vs. Houston = Kerry vs. Bush" onslaught. Since Massachusetts can be expected to go Democrat and Texas can likewise be expected to go Republican, it can be claimed that many Red Sox fans will be Kerry supporters, and Astros fans will be Bush supporters.
        Expect to get mighty tired of lame political comparisons by horrible F

    • Also in this election has been billed as of the highest importance.

      This happens every time. Each election becomes "the most important/critical of our lifetime!" This way the parties whip us into an incoherent frenzy, creating a bitter partisan rivalry (between two sides that are really not all that much different) so that they can entrench their power that much more. Drive home that identity, so that it becomes more important than actually thinking about issues. "Damn the issues, my team must win no m

  • I'm a candidate for State Representative -- pretty low on the food chain in NH, there are 400 of them -- and even some of my signs are vandalized or stolen.

    A couple of big 4x8 BC04 signs have been spray-painted with "LIARS" and "1000 DEAD" and they're now covering them with plastic wrap hoping the spray painters will be foiled (sorry) and the signs protected.

    More commonly, Kerry signs are seen to metamorphose into BC signs overnight.
    --
    Tom Barringer
    Candidate for State Representative in Derry, NH
    www.

  • bumper stickers (Score:4, Funny)

    by taxman_10m ( 41083 ) on Thursday October 21, 2004 @08:33AM (#10585682)
    Any of my friends that put a Bush bumper sticker on their car has had the car keyed multiple times.
    • My car got keyed right after my wife put a Kerry sticker on the bumper.

      • Re:bumper stickers (Score:3, Insightful)

        by jlanthripp ( 244362 )
        So, as you and the parent poster have observed, there's certainly no shortage of vitriol on either side this time around.

        It's a shame when both sides of a political contest are incapable of constructive debate, or even of keeping it to the level of name-calling. When did my fellow Americans lose their ability to support their political candidates without resorting to sophomoric attacs on their opponents?

        • When did my fellow Americans lose their ability to support their political candidates without resorting to sophomoric attacs on their opponents?

          That would be when George Washington chose not to run for a third term.

          At least noone is threatening to secede from the Union if this election goes the wrong way.

  • Teenagers on the loose (Score:3, Insightful)

    by cyranoVR ( 518628 ) * <cyranoVR.gmail@com> on Thursday October 21, 2004 @08:36AM (#10585721) Homepage Journal
    When I was in middle school, I used to hear kids bragging to each other all the time about how many signs they had trashed/stolen (I lived in Texas at the time, so they happened to be trashing Clinton/Gore or Dukakis/Benson signs).

    Now we have SMS, IM and email to make things more organized, so it's happening more frequently. Big whoop. I really doubt that some local party boss is ordering his foot soldiers to go out and round up opposition signs. I'm sure they've got better things to do.
    • Since you mentioned Texas, let me mention this:

      I've signed up to be a Kerry campaign volunteer and they've called a few times to take me up on it. Once a lady called (with the sexiest accent evar!) from Texas asking me to help. She explained that I live in Ohio and we are a swing state and they needed me to canvas, etc, etc...

      She went on to say that they (the volunteers) have written off Texas because they not only get their signs stolen but bricks in the windows and so on.

      Then I felt bad about all the t


  • I wonder if you could get rich by printing up a bunch of "Neener, neener!" or <Nelson>Ha, ha!</Nelson> signs for one side or the other to put up the day after the election.

  • RAH had it right (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wowbagger ( 69688 ) on Thursday October 21, 2004 @09:19AM (#10586295) Homepage Journal
    Robert Heinlein had it right - you can tell a society is on the skids when basic politeness is viewed as weakness, and rudeness is viewed as strength. /me looks around pointedly at the /trolls

    It never ceases to dismay me how people can scream about how *their* right of "free speach!" is being infringed, and then turn right around and infringe upon the free speech of others.

    Supporting the speech of those with whom you agree is NOT supporting free speech. Supporting the right of speech of those with whom you vehemetly disagree IS supporting free speech.

    You may feel that Candidate Epsilon-1 is perfection incarnate, and that Candidate Epsilon-2 is distilled evil - if you go around taking down signs for Epsilon-2 you are NOT supporting democracy.

  • I have a "Bush, Kerry, HULK" lightboard out as part of the halloween webcam [komar.org] that so far has been unscathed (famous last words). Maybe have The Incredible HULK [komar.org] looming over the display has discouraged would be vandels (?)

    And oh yeah, since I allow you to "vote" for a candidate at the above web site, the current vote tally's are
    HULK: 6,380 BUSH: 6,214 KERRY: 6,049

    So looks like our next president might be Green!

  • In my neighborhood, a wealthy neighborhood of Austin TX, the Kerry signs such as the one in my yard are the targets. It's been knocked over twice, but I just put it back up. The Bush signs aren't touched here.

    Apparently in other parts of Austin, it's not as safe to have a Bush sign in your yard.

    Come on people, fucking grow up. Kicking over a sign is just fucking stupid.

  • Few Bush signs in Portland. Read the books. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Futurepower(R) ( 558542 ) on Thursday October 21, 2004 @10:09AM (#10587121) Homepage

    In Portland, Oregon, a friend mentioned that, before the last election, there were no signs in the yards in the wealthy area where he lives. Now there are seven Kerry/Edwards signs in the yards around his. There are no Bush signs.

    I began looking for Bush signs as I drive around my area. I've seen none. There is at least one Kerry sign on each block, usually more.

    I've heard that there are plenty of Bush signs in the rural areas of the state.

    Many people in the U.S. know very, very little about the activities in their government. There are many very angry people. The ignorant and the angry are easily manipulated. To them, for example, bombing for democracy makes sense.

    During the Clinton years, I read the books that were published about him. They said he was having sex with slutty women. They tried to find something wrong with his small losing investment called Whitewater. They said he may have, at some time during his being governor of Arkansas, associated with people who later turned out to be involved in questionable activities. I found the books interesting, but a little lame.

    Now I've read the books [futurepower.org] about Bush. It's amazing. The information about Bush is about severe corruption of government.

    The negative information about George W. Bush seems endless. Just when I think I know 10% of the corruption, I find more detail that shows I know less than 1% of it. For example, George W. Bush's brother was shown in a lawsuit deposition on 20/20 [go.com] casually talking about his prostitutes and his use of government influence to make money. This is Neil Bush talking about himself.

    George H.W. Bush was involved in the weapons business with a brother of Osama bin Laden. See House of Bush, House of Saud: The secret relationship between the world's two most powerful dynasties by Craig Unger, 2004, Scribner, New York, New York, USA. Reviews: Powell's [powells.com] Barnes & Noble [barnesandnoble.com] Amazon [amazon.com]

    Most media exists to make money. Advertisers are understandably careful not to alienate anyone. It is not possible to develop an accurate opinion of government activities only by listening to the carefully crafted phrases from media employees who would lose their jobs if they seemed to indicate a preference for one policy over another. It's necessary to read books.

    George Soros says, "President Bush is endangering our safety, hurting our vital interests, and undermining American values." [georgesoros.com] If Dole had been elected instead of Clinton, the U.S. would have had sensible leadership. This election is different. It is not a matter of which candidate you like. If you vote for Bush, you are poorly informed. This is not a claim that Kerry and Edwards are perfect. They represent, at minimum, a needed change.

    --
    Government data compares Democrat and Republican economics. [futurepower.org]

    • Most media exists to make money. Advertisers are understandably careful not to alienate anyone. It is not possible to develop an accurate opinion of government activities only by listening to the carefully crafted phrases from media employees who would lose their jobs if they seemed to indicate a preference for one policy over another. It's necessary to read books.

      I'm sorry, but have you even been watching TV lately? It's just as polarized--if not exaggeratedly so--than the public. In fact, watching TV

      • Re:Few Bush signs in Portland. Read the books. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by flyingsquid ( 813711 ) on Thursday October 21, 2004 @01:00PM (#10589922)
        A great number of people, including myself, believe that George W. Bush (whether you like him or not--I don't) is doing a good job with regard to the war on terror, and consider it the main issue of the day.

        That's a pretty good example of uninformed. What Bush's policies do not seem to get is that there are not a finite number of terrorists. Bombing a weapons cache in Iraq kills insurgents, but if you kill women, children, and innocents in the process, you can create as many insurgents as you kill. Furthermore, you'll turn the population against you. Mao said, the guerilla is a fish and the people are the sea: a successful guerilla war depends on popular support for the rebels; and that's what the tactics we are using so far are creating. Besides turning Iraq against us, the war has made the United States extremely unpopular throughout the Middle East. That's going to (a) encourage more people to join al Qaeda and related groups, (b) increase sympathy for these causes, creating the supportive population they need, and (c) make the United States so politically radioactive that no Islamic country can possibly cooperate with us against terror. Not to mention that we need to cooperate with other nations in Europe and elsewhere to prosecute the war on these terrorist organizations, however we've alienated our allies.

        How else has he screwed up? Okay, first, 9/11. The outgoing Clinton administration practically screamed at the Bush administration to pay attention to al Qaeda. What did the Bush administration do? They pursued the fantasy of National Missile Defense, a.k.a. Star Wars. Bush did nothing on terror when it would have counted: before 9/11. The Afghanistan invasion is (pretty much everyone will agree) a good move, but we've screwed things up quite a bit since and the warlords control most of the country, and bin Laden is still out there (remember him? Guy who blew up the World Trade Center?). Well, then Iraq. Brilliant invasion. Problem is, it was totally unjustified. So the U.S. has pretty much zero credibility these days. The other problem- no strategy to win the postwar environment. The first major screwup was not putting in enough troops- we needed about 300,000 and they put in 100,000. The second was not stopping the looting (except of the oil ministry). That made the Iraqis extremely distrustful of our motives (and it should). Another major mistake was disbanding the military. Yeah, it was corrupt and criminal, but there were thousands of people trained to use weapons who we could have had shooting insurgents, instead of becoming insurgents. Other screwups? Well, shutting down Sadr's newspaper was dumb. Having him print nasty stuff about us was bad, but preferable to having his army shoot at us with rocket propelled grenades. And of course, Fallujah. The US was provoked into a response, against the advice of the officers on the ground. Once the assault got underway, the Bush administration got cold feet and flip-flopped because of the civilian casualties: again, against the advice of the officers who were there. So that just made the situation worse. Damn, there are so many it's hard to remember them all. Oh yeah, torturing people in Abu Ghraib. That's like an al Qaeda recruiter's wet dream. You couldn't invent propaganda that effective.

        It's simple: the world is more dangerous under Bush. Arguably, he's a heck of a lot more dangerous than Osama bin Laden.

        • That's a pretty good example of uninformed. What Bush's policies do not seem to get is that there are not a finite number of terrorists...

          You're seriously underestimating the administration's strategy if you think it's simply about killing as many terrorists as possible.

          By being in Iraq, we are forcing the terrorists to attack us amongst their own people. Even if they care, terrorists, due to the relatively lower technology they have, are forced to kill their own people to accomplish their goals. In

      • Re:Few Bush signs in Portland. Read the books. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by jrifkin ( 100192 ) on Thursday October 21, 2004 @01:00PM (#10589929)
        A great number of people, including myself, believe that George W. Bush (whether you like him or not--I don't) is doing a good job with regard to the war on terror, and consider it the main issue of the day

        I don't understand why people think GW is doing a good job on terror. While we can agree he is doing *a* job on terrorism, I find it at best noisy and attention getting (don't forget, he was a college cheer leader), at worst brutal, uninformed and ineffective. If you've read the accounts of Richard Clarke, Woodward, Ron Susskind, etc and still think GW is doing fine, then I'm totally confused.

        Kerry at least appears reasonable, hardworking and open minded, in a word normal, unlike the Bush who lacks experience (10 years ago he was an unsuccessful busisness man with no administrative experience), doesn't read and seems unwilling to learn or take advice outside his small insular circle. Even if Kerry's policy stands aren't exactly to your taste, his views are moderate and he seems much more willing to listen and compromise.

        I you want to read a good account of Bush's presidency, try this article Without a Doubt [nytimes.com] by Ron Suskind in the New York Times.

    • Not just rural. I live in one of the most conservative counties in the country. Used to be you could use Democratic signs as landmarks ("turn left at the Gore sign, then right at the next light"). Fortunately, now there are a significant number of Democratic signs - and a few 3rd party signs, too. GOP signs are still in the majority, though.

  • My experiences slightly different (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Second_Infinity ( 810308 ) on Thursday October 21, 2004 @10:10AM (#10587158) Homepage
    During the 2000 election, I had something a bit different occur.

    My parents house (was living with them at the time) is on a farm, with a pretty heavily traveled road through it. We had the problem of the other side putting signs up on our property. We would take them down, to find more in their place a couple of days later. I lost count of how many signs we removed, as they kept on replacing them.

    It was not public land, they had no right to put them there, and we had every right to remove them.

    They were Gore/Lieberman signs.

  • Both Signs get Destroyed (Score:4, Interesting)

    by cfoster611 ( 219409 ) on Thursday October 21, 2004 @10:17AM (#10587298) Homepage
    In front of my house, my roommates and I have both Bush/Cheney and Kerry/Edwards signs on our lawn, as well as signs from local and state campaigns. (A house divided, so to speak)

    All of them get trashed. the Bush/Cheney more often (4 signs down so far). But we live in a college town so such things are expected on Friday nights. Luckily, the Republicans here don't charge for signs, while the Democratic's charged $3 for the Kerry/Edwards signs, which get stolen/trampled/set on fire much less often.

    I figure if I call up the local RNC/DNC offices and tell them of my tails of woe, they'll hook me up with some really huge, gaudy signs. With huge defense lasers and remote-controlled carpet bombing capabilities. That'll stop'm.

  • Bush signs trashed in WA (Score:5, Insightful)

    by flyingsquid ( 813711 ) on Thursday October 21, 2004 @10:49AM (#10587789)
    I saw some Bush signs pretty severely trashed this summer in rural Washington state. It put a smile on my face and a warm feeling in my heart.

    I think there are a couple of reasons this is happening. One is that people feel denied their right to dissent. This is what happens when you create "free speech zones" miles out of the way, suppress dissenting opinions and information as unpatriotic, and kick people out of Presidential events for wearing T-shirts you don't agree with. Another is that George W. Bush has polarized the nation to a degree that has rarely been seen before. He claims to do God's work, but it seems to me that all he's managed to do is spread hate: the Democrats hate the Republicans, the Republicans hate the Democrats, the Sunnis, Shiites, and Al Qaeda members in Iraq hate the American occupiers, America hates France, the whole world hates America... listen, I'm not religious in the least, but if I understand things right, Jesus and God are supposed to be about love. All this fear and hatred that Bush incites- if he's getting his directions from somebody, it ain't the guy upstairs, that's for sure. There's a line in the Bible that sums this up pretty well: "and ye shall know them by the fruit they bear". Seems to me Bush has given us a bitter harvest.

  • It's worth reading about Karl Rove's tactics [theatlantic.com].

    My favorite:

    A typical instance occurred in the hard-fought 1996 race for a seat on the Alabama Supreme Court between Rove's client, Harold See, then a University of Alabama law professor, and the Democratic incumbent, Kenneth Ingram. According to someone who worked for him, Rove, dissatisfied with the campaign's progress, had flyers printed up--absent any trace of who was behind them--viciously attacking See and his family.

    Yup, anonymously attack his own client, so that people assume the opponents are doing it, making them look bad. This actually happens.

  • yeah (Score:2, Funny)

    by JimFromJersey ( 155779 )
    someone keeps putting an elder sign around my 'vote Cthulhu' yardsign.

  • WWF (Score:2, Funny)

    by germaniumdiode ( 823214 )
    How about we get a bunch of bush fans and kerry fans with yard signs and have them duke it out to decide who should take office. Can you imagine the 50 year old women going tactical on each other with bush or kerry signs? THAT would be entertaining...

  • Yeap (Score:2)

    by Fished ( 574624 )
    Has anyone on /. had such an experience.
    hell yes. I knocked down four or five in the last hour alone. (Reverse: .gniddiK tsuJ)

  • rabid pro-lifers (Score:4, Informative)

    by mabu ( 178417 ) on Thursday October 21, 2004 @04:57PM (#10592776)
    My girlfriend had a Kerry sign in her front yard. It kept disappearing and she kept putting it up. One evening when she was driving home she saw a van plastered with pro-life bumper stickers driving around the neighborhood. The van would stop in front of some house with a democratic yard sign, out would pop a little girl from the passenger seat, she'd pull the sign up and toss it in the back of the van. My girlfriend watched in horror as the driver of this van, presumably the child's mother, had her kid go through the neighborhood picking up these signs. She started to follow them and they got wise they were being followed and sped off. My GF went to the police to report it and they said it wasn't worth reporting because probably no action would be taken even though she got the license number of the van.

    It's pretty despicable when people engage their kids in such activities. Unfortunately, you see a lot of this activity among the rabid pro-life crowd: they bring their kids out front of abortion clinics holding up signs with pictures of dead fetuses. There seems to a recurring theme of partisians using children as political tools [bsalert.com].

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