Reason #2 Not to Vote for Ray Meier: Ray Meier is Soft on War Criminals
I want to talk about a basic test of moral values in this campaign. It shouldn't even be an issue, but there are some very radical ideas being tossed around in the offices of the Republican power elites in Washington D.C. these days.
I'm a Democrat, but I'm not so partisan as to deny that there are plenty Republican politicians who are basically decent human beings, and try to do the right thing, even if they are misguided in their ideology. This week, Republican Senators John Warner, Lindsey Graham, John McCain and Susan Collins showed good moral character when they joined the Democrats in the Senate to support a bill that opposes a plan proposed by George W. Bush.
Bush's plan proposes an end the right to a fair trial in America and would make torture a legally sanctioned part of law enforcement in the United States. No kidding. On Friday, Bush actually threw a tantrum before television cameras and said that if he couldn't torture prisoners in secret prisons, he wouldn't be able to do his job any more. That's a claim that no President has made before - not Roosevelt during World War II, and not Lincoln during the Civil War.
I wish I could say that's as far as President Bush's proposal goes. However, it gets even worse. Part of Bush's proposal is to coddle war criminals. Bush says that Congress should pass a law giving permanent amnesty to people who break the laws of war to abuse prisoners of war.
We Americans ought to take a moment to step back and remember why the laws of war were created. They were put in place because regimes like that of Nazi Germany were using war to do terrible things to human beings. Americans were among the victims.
Now, George W. Bush is saying that America ought to let its standards slip. Bush is saying that if people behave like Nazis during war time, that's just the way things go, and nobody should make a big deal about it.
This is a simple moral issue that George W. Bush has presented all Republicans with. I don't mean that to say that all Republicans are responsible for Bush's effort to go soft on war crime. Rather, I'm saying Republicans around the country are now being challenged to show what kind of Republicans they are. Will they stand with John McCain or will they stand with George W. Bush?
Here in New York's 24th congressional district, we have the right to ask this question of Ray Meier. What kind of Republican is Ray Meier? Is he a Bush Republican or a McCain Republican? Does he support Bush's proposal, or does he support McCain's proposal?
Does Ray Meier support George W. Bush's plan to coddle war criminals?
The people of the 24th congressional district have spoken. They don't agree with this vision of going easy on war criminals. A huge majority of people in our district reject the Bush agenda's plan to allow standards of basic moral decency fall apart.
However, on this matter, Ray Meier is silent. Can you believe that? Ray Meier wants to be elected to the United States House of Representatives, but he refuses to say whether he thinks that the Geneva Conventions ought to be abandoned or not - even though Congress is working on the issue right now!
If a Republican candidate for Congress disagrees with the positions put out by the leader of his political party, in this case the President of the United States, it is the responsibility of the candidate to speak up and say so.
Ray Meier's silence is its own answer.
While the government is working on a plan to offer unconditional and permanent amnesty to criminals, Ray Meier does nothing. He says nothing. He doesn't even ask any hard questions. He just stands on the sidelines, letting other people take responsibility.
Ray Meier fails this moral test. Ray Meier is soft on war criminals.
That's just reason #2 out of 30 not to vote for Ray Meier.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
A) No formally organized news media has asked Meier about this issue. He's not dodged nor refused to answer any question regarding this topic.
and
B) Claiming that Meier is Soft on War Criminals is like saying that this poll (http://www.arcuriforcongress.com/breaking_news/index.php#news140) actually means Arcuri is up 15 points. Simply put: it's ludicrous.
Wait a minute. You're saying that a congressional candidate shouldn't speak out on the important issues of the day until someone asks them about it?
Bull.
Ray Meier is cozying up to George W. Bush, using the Bush name to raise money by getting his wife to attend his little party, at the very same time that President Bush is pushing Congress to pass a bill that would give amnesty to war criminals.
Yeah, I think that it's a fair cop to say that Ray Meier stands with Bush unless he says otherwise.
Ray Meier want to contradict me? Let him issue a public statement.
When the President of the United States is trying to dismantle the basic freedoms of America, and someone from the President's own party is running for Congress, they need to speak out if they don't want to be tarred with the President's vile agenda.
Consitutent Dynamics does independent polls for all the states.
http://constituentdynamics.com/mw/2006/index2.php
You could write to them and tell them to shape up and come up with results you Republicans like or else, like that guy at DataUSA who pled guilty to fudging poll results for Republicans. If you work fast you can hire him before he goes to prison to come up with a poll you don't think is ridiculous.
http://news.aol.com/elections/story/_a/pollster-pleads-guilty-to-making-up/20060907093409990001?ncid=NWS00010000
Anonymous 10:11--
A) which only goes to show how lame most "formally organized" media are
and
B) Meier is stuck on Bush until he weasels his way out. And it's pretty clear that he's more interested in the money than he is in distancing himself from the sinking ship.
Next time you see Ray Meier, why not ask him directly? Questions can come from the People, you know. We don't have to wait around for the media to get their act together.
Regarding, Curious' last post, thats what the benefit of blogs are. They are there to generate the questions that the old or establishment media won't. So, no, I'm not saying that a congressional candidate shouldn't speak out on the important issues of the day.
What I am saying, aside from the fact that Arcuri himself hasn't said anything, is that the people of the 24th aren't worried too much about secret prisons which have always, and will always, be in existence when their manufacturing plant has closed/is closing or their sales tax is the highest in the nation, or their crops suffered from this year's lsat frost or there might be power lines built through their backyard. Furthermore, all we know about Arcuri is that he is "against Bush" - well what does that mean exactly? The MoveOn.org crowd and Deaniacs are against Bush and the majority of those people aren't anything like the Tioga County farmer, Northern Herkimer Adirondackan, or Cooperstown small business owner. What say Arcuri about that then?
The issues for the people need to be salient because, unlike you and I and anyone else ideologically motivated, the majority don't vote based on what happens millions of miles away when they've got a backyard to be worried about.
As for that poll, I looked at their website last night and there wasn't one other race where neither party's candidate was mentioned. So great, they just reinforced that most people are unhappy with Row A and want a change which doesn't necessarily translate to support for Row B's ideology. I don't need them to come up with "the results [I] like" because both campaigns polls, clearly show that Meier is ahead by a minimum of 4 points (Arcuri's is a statistical dead heat and subtract Meier's margin of error to get 4-5 points still ahead). Believe it or not, this is still a Republican/Conservative district with no where's near the number of Searchlight supporters needed to claim otherwise.
I will concede the blog points - that there is no blog dedicated to Meier solely to support him or that he hasn't inspired any one, thus far to be proactive on that front. Pay close attention though, I know a guy who is inspired by Ray and gearing up to start A Blog for the Right Reasons...and I'll put it this way - it's not going to be the candidate.
3:45 - it's not a Republican?Conservative district. You right wingers couldn't knock Boehlert out.
It's an upstate district that's been poorly served by both the Republican Federal and State leadership. Bush and Pataki are not even liked here.
Manufacturing plants, sales tax and power line are principally State and local issues. Many of us have very costly Republican led local governments along with a distant Republican led State government with a pork barrel driven legislature. Meier comes from that pork driven legislature so his only attribute is a desire to get as much federal pork as he could which, again, isn't small government.
You're full of baloney and you know it in your heart of hearts.
Post a Comment