|
|
||
|
|
Do
Ex-Felons Have a Place in the Political Process? Editor, The
Review: The Associated Press reviewed federal campaign finance and state criminal records which revealed that dozens of their employees have been convicted of burglary, forgery, drug dealing, assault and sex offenses, though ACT continues to assert they do not hire violent criminals. This use of felons by the left-wing organization ACT is an illustration of the disgusting and desperate lengths being taken by individuals trying to defeat President Bush. ACT is sending out people with violent criminal records to the homes of decent, hard working Americans, homes where children are alone during the summer break. Moreover, ACT is paying these felons to conduct door-to-door campaigning, asking for personal information. ACT is putting American children and families at risk by pedophiles, rapists, drug dealers, and putting your personal information in the hands of those who have committed fraudulent practices. The Kerry campaign has attempted to distance themselves, saying that they are not affiliated with the door to door canvassing, yet have no reservation in using the names collected for political advantage. ACT
is an anti-Bush 527, so-called due to the IRS code that allows
such organizations to accept donations of any size, operating under the radar of
the Campaign Finance Reform bill once revered, now reviled, by the Democrats. Alert Americans see through the veil of lies that are being poured out by the Kerry campaign and realize the pathetic attempt by the Democrats to win by any means necessary. This includes the use of felons in their campaign. If
ACT knocks on your door, you'd be wise to let them keep knocking. American Coming Together (ACT) is an independent political action committee committed to the defeat of George W. Bush that resulted from gaps created in Democratic Party finances that opened after restrictions in the 2002 McCain-Feingold law took effect. In the past, political parties paid a large share of television and get-out-the-vote costs with unregulated 'soft money' contributions from corporations, unions and rich individuals. The parties are now barred from accepting such money, but non-party groups in both camps are stepping in, accepting soft money and taking over voter mobilization. Rather than 'revile' these new reforms, Democrats have no other choice but to operate within them. The Chief Executive Officer of ACT is Steve Rosenthal, who from 1996-2002 was political director of the AFL-CIO, where he developed voter mobilization programs that increased union turnout. In essence, ACT is no different than Republicans employing similar tactics and information from 'independent' political organizations in order to comply with these new laws, so it is difficult to blame Democrats for an organization that Republicans helped create. According to an ABC News report, hiring felons is not uncommon and both Democratic & Republican organizations have former felons on their payrolls because canvassing and voter registration work is transient, often labor intensive, and recently released prisoners looking for a good wage would be remiss NOT to apply to a job-giver like ACT. The real story here seems to be the way Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie has tried to politicize commonplace hiring practices for both the governmental & business sectors by pointing the finger at ACT and trying to implicate the Kerry Campaign. In anticipation of the AP story, Gillespie sent out notices to Republican headquarters in swing states across the country in a desperate attempt to discredit ACT. Anticipating the AP article last week, ACT sent an emergency directive to its state affiliates asking them to scrub the backgrounds of all their employees. The
organization says is will now run background checks on all its employees.
Previously, they ran checks only on those who said on applications they'd
committed felonies. Those who've committed violent felonies will be fired. Nonetheless, ACT officials say the group's human resource department sent e-mails specifically advising them not to hire felons with violent offenses on their records. And they say ACT's field staffers have been inundated with a surplus of available labor - including many retired or laid off union and industrial workers -- so there was no need to recruit from the pool of felons. Therefore, readers need not be alarmed by the assertions contained in your letter, except for now that ACT has removed them from the list of canvassers, this entire affair has 'demonized' another unfortunate segment of our society. President Bush himself is quoted as saying the following: "I know that many a good soul makes a mistake in their life and ends up in prison. And it seems to make sense to me to spend taxpayers' money to help these prisoners realize a better tomorrow when they get out of prison by giving them a second chance." In the past, Republicans have used much shadier characters that former convicted felons to handle their dirty work, such as Donald Segretti from Watergate fame, who passed around false letters about then vice-Presidential candidate Ed Muskie being an ibogaine addict. Moreover, prior to 9/11 TWA employed ex-convicts and actual felons serving time in jail to work phones and handle flight bookings. Eddie Bauer uses prison labor to make their products in the United States. The list goes on and on. Ironically, in researching your letter, I came across an interesting use of felons that Republicans used in the 2000 election to get George Bush elected president the first time around. Due to a "computer glitch", approximately 12,000 voters across the state of Florida were mistakenly identified as having out-of-state felony convictions, thereby making them ineligible to vote. The
source of this so-called 'glitch' was Database Technologies, a division
of ChoicePoint that was hired by Florida Secretary of State Katherine
Harris. In 1999 the FBI suspended their contract with DBT Online
because of suspected ties of the company founder to drug smugglers. In
the final analysis, this is really a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
But look at it this way, after Dick Cheney is indicted for collusion and
corruption in the Halliburton case, maybe the Republicans can give him a
job. I'm glad to see you are so well informed of a variety of political issues facing the electorate today, but your prideful and liberal response has only served to bury my point in your political muck, and that is that on July 17, people would be wise to avoid representatives of this group. Recall that their stated goal is to defeat President Bush. They carelessly put people at risk in the past, and continue to exploit the politically naive by passing out Bush-bashing literature as they register them to vote. If they were truly concerned about bringing more people in to the democratic process, they would be registering voters in all states, rather than solely in the 17 identified "swing states." Engage in your own Bush-bashing if you must, but not at the expense of the intent of my letter to you.
Frankly, I must confess that I'm a bit confused about what you mean by 'playing the game this way'. It is my professional duty to point out flaws in information that can be easily misconstrued by the voting public - and also, when possible, give them a look at the 'bigger picture' so they walk away with a better understanding of the issues - in this case, the question of whether employing former felons by legitimate political organizations and private business serves a positive purpose in the electoral process, or society as a whole. I'm not throwing any 'mud' but simply holding up an attack shield to the pie you threw with the erroneous information contained in your letter. It may have been true when you first wrote it, but after researching it and discovering the way ACT was scrubbing their roster of former felons, combined with the way Republicans also employ similar practices, at that point it becomes my duty to inform the voting public. ACT has a right to operate within the legal parameters set up in this country. You may not like their message, but arguing for others to not listen to it is a disconcerting notion. Sure their aim is to defeat Bush, just as yours is to see him re-elected. The issue of access is what makes this country different from those you deplore in other parts of the world. So
there we have it.....you are entitled to your opinion, I am entitled to mine,
the Republicans are entitled to theirs, the Democrats their own, the
Constitutional Party their own, etc., etc. |
|
|
|
Enable frames | |
|
home | out/about | events | personal | store | classified | real estate | forums | archives | contact |
||
