[B5JMS] ATTN JMS: Are you a millionaire ?

[b5jms-admin at cs.columbia.edu]

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From: Reed Snellenberger <rsnellenberger at houston.rr.com>
Date: Sat, 20 Jul 2002 04:45:52 GMT
Lines: 38

Jms at B5 wrote:

> 
> For instance...I know somebody who ran for office as a Republican last year
> (jms looks around the audience with doe-like eyes of innocence, letting folks
> figure out the rest for themselves)...who told me that as part of running, the
> Party gave him a box full of notebooks that contained what was to be his stance
> on any number of issues.  He was not to diverge from them.
> 
> But most troubling...he was given what was essentially a loyalty oath,
> stipulating that he would support George W. Bush in the forthcoming primaries
> *exclusively*, and not McCain, and if he didn't agree, the Party would withhold
> its financing from his election bid.
> 
> So much for the marketplace of free ideas.
> 

So... in return for receiving financing and support from an 
organization, he had to agree to act as a member of that organization by 
supporting its goals & accepting the decisions of those who were in 
charge of the organization.

Those evil Republicans -- to think that they'd act like...

<wait for it>

any other damn organization on the entire planet or elsewhere, including 
the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks, Emily's List, the John 
Birch Society, the Rangers, the Shadows, the Vorlons, (obligatory B5 
references), and even the Democratic Party...

Okay, Joe, this is easy to demonstrate ;-)  -- according to this 
standard, the next time the Writer's Guild walks out you should just 
keep working in the marketplace of free ideas...

Reed
(who realizes he's just blowing into the wind... but has to try, anyway)


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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 22 Jul 2002 05:39:30 GMT
Lines: 50

>So... in return for receiving financing and support from an 
>organization, he had to agree to act as a member of that organization by 
>supporting its goals & accepting the decisions of those who were in 
>charge of the organization.
>
>Those evil Republicans -- to think that they'd act like...
>
><wait for it>
>
>any other damn organization on the entire planet or elsewhere, including 
>the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks, Emily's List, the John 
>Birch Society, the Rangers, the Shadows, the Vorlons, (obligatory B5 
>references), and even the Democratic Party...

But they were not acting like republicans.  The primaries were still in effect.
 Both individuals, McCain and Bush, were republicans, both running for the
nomination of their party.  But the party hierarchy decided *in advance of
hearing the will of the people* that they would ONLY support Bush, and used
economic blackmail to force the issue.

Is that what Republicans stand for?  I somehow doubt the rank and file
civilians out there would cotten to it.  

And the comparison to the Elks and the other groups is specious, one is a
political party, the others are not.  We are talking about the acts of one of
the two parties that control the electoral fate of the country; let's keep this
an apples-and-apples discussion, not apples and oranges.

>Okay, Joe, this is easy to demonstrate ;-)  -- according to this 
>standard, the next time the Writer's Guild walks out you should just 
>keep working in the marketplace of free ideas...

And here you just shoot yourself in the foot, because the WGA is about the
least organized organization in the world.  Further, a walkout has to do with
economic issues and contracts up for renewal; the Republican issue has to do
with elections and the fate of a nation that at least nominally is about fair
play between two candidates.

See the part above about apples and oranges.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
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permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine 
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